Chu Zhongtian tried to calm his irate wife. “Don’t be too harsh on Zu An. I’m sure he’s just inexperienced in battle. His performance so far has already been an unexpected surprise for us.”

Qin Wanru would not back down. “It’s true that I had no hopes for him at the start, and him possessing such a formidable movement skill was totally unexpected. Such a surprising level of capability could have been used to secure victory. Instead, he merely used it to humiliate Yuan Wendong. He even managed to spare the effort to play that bee gee em or something. His antics only gave Yuan Wendong the space and time to get serious about the fight. Of course I’m angry at him!”

In her view, the duel would have already been over if Zu An had used his movement skill to catch Yuan Wendong off guard and strike at his vitals. Yet, all he did was slap the latter twice. While it had indeed undermined the Yuan clan’s prestige, his actions had also riled Yuan Wendong up. Once a fifth rank cultivator got serious, it was impossible to bridge the difference in cultivation with only a movement skill.

This tournament was of great significance to the Chu clan. If Zu An had admitted defeat right from the start, she wouldn’t have felt so frustrated. However, she had been shown a ray of hope, and was now being forced to watch as it slipped by them. The feeling of being so close and yet so far away was more than enough to send her into a frenzy.

Chu Zhongtian sighed deeply and said, “He’s still young. He’ll learn after this incident. Right now, we should be prepared to step in. If not, he might just die under Yuan Wendong’s blade.”

Chu Huanzhao couldn’t help but speak up, “Father, mother, why do the two of you lack confidence in brother-in-law? I believe that he’ll be able to do it.”

Hong Xingying finally found the perfect opportunity to say his piece. “Second miss, every rank of difference represents a huge gap between cultivators. If a fifth rank cultivator could be defeated that easily, Yuan Wendong wouldn’t have been considered as a prodigy and an expert in Brightmoon City.”

He had always considered himself a loyal servant of the Chu clan. However, he would rather see the Chu clan lose the tournament than see Zu An earn the winning point for them. He couldn’t stand the idea of Zu An making a name for himself in this tournament, especially since he had lost the first match. On top of that, he had also mercilessly mocked Zu An earlier, putting him down as useless.

If Zu An were to win… No one in the entire world could stand such a grave slap in the face.

Chu Huanzhao’s smile stiffened. She might not be fond of cultivating, but she at least had such basic knowledge! “Hmph! My brother-in-law will definitely be able to do it! Isn’t that right, big sister?”

However, her voice lost some of her earlier confidence, and she had to turn to her older sister for support.

“Maybe,” Chu Chuyan answered casually as she stared intently at the figure on the dueling ring, her mind lost in thought.

Yuan Wendong stood in the dueling ring, surrounded by swords and sabers. His acquisition of so many deadly weapons had greatly boosted his confidence. “Zu An, I have to admit that I was surprised by your movement skill. If you had struck me with all you had right from the start, you might just have stood a chance. However, you failed to seize your opportunity well, and this is where it all falls apart for you.”

Now that he had additional insurance, Yuan Wendong had no need to end the duel quickly. He resolved to toy with Zu An. He would play cat-and-mouse with him until his enemy fell into despair and remorse.

Zu An looked at him with a strangely sinister smile. “I would be going easy on you if I defeat you right away. If I don’t pay you back for what you did to Huanzhao earlier, how could she ever feel avenged?”

Just outside the dueling ring, Chu Huanzhao couldn’t hide her joy. She tugged on her parents’ clothes and said, “See, see! I knew brother-in-law had his own reasons for doing what he did.”

Both Chu Zhongtian and Qin Wanru frowned. It seemed to them that Zu An was taking everything too lightly. However, they weren’t about to chastise the person who was standing up for their daughter either.

“Who does he think he is?” It was clear to Hong Xingying that Zu An was going after the second miss despite having already married the first miss, and his envy grew out of control. “If he can defeat a fifth rank cultivator, I’ll eat this table over here!”

Chu Huanzhao didn’t even bother acknowledging Hong Xingying.

Back in the dueling ring, Yuan Wendong was enraged by what he had just heard. “Hahaha! So, you were going easy on me because you want to exact vengeance for your sister-in-law? Hahaha! This is the funniest joke I have heard in all my years!”

You have successfully trolled Yuan Wendong for 666 Rage points!

“A joke of this level is already considered the funniest to you?” Zu An remarked in surprise. “It looks like young master Yuan’s worldly experience is truly shallow.”

Yuan Wendong’s laughter was abruptly cut short.

You have successfully trolled Yuan Wendong for 250 Rage points!

He really couldn’t understand what was running through Zu An’s mind. How was he able to joke at a time like this? If he heard any more out of Zu An, he might just be angered to the point of spurting out blood. He dropped any further retort and got straight to the point. “I can’t be bothered to talk nonsense with you anymore. I’ll show you the prowess of a fifth rank cultivator, and the difference between the both of us!”

With a wave of his hands, the floating swords and sabers flew up high and rained down toward Zu An. Yuan Wendong’s eyes were clouded with frenzy and hatred, and he yelled manically, “It hurts, doesn’t it? Cry all you want now, because in the next moment, you’re going to die!”

It was true that Zu An’s movement skill was unexpectedly powerful, and had been able to catch him off guard. However, the entire dueling ring was filled with swords and sabers right now, which allowed Yuan Wendong to attack Zu An from all directions. No matter how Zu An tried to dodge, he would still be struck in the end.

“Brother-in-law, be careful!” Shocked, Chu Huanzhao’s body sprung upright, but the pain made her slowly lower herself back down onto the stretcher, wincing all the way.

Chu Zhongtian and Chu Chuyan also had grave looks on their faces. They were ready to leap in and save Zu An at any time.

Shi Kun, however, frowned at the sight. Isn’t Yuan Wendong hurrying things too much? It was obvious that Chu Zhongtian would leap in and save Zu An if Yuan Wendong went this far. If that occurred, their initial plan to cripple Zu An would fail. 

In the dueling ring, Zu An called out leisurely, “Little Pingping~”

Cheng Shouping had been waiting by the side of the dueling ring all this time. At Zu An’s call, he threw him a weirdly shaped shield.

Yuan Wendong sneered as Zu An planted the shield in front of himself. I was wondering what trump cards you still had up your sleeves, but all you can conjure up is a shield in front of you? What about your flanks and your rear?

My ability is to control all metal! I can easily make these swords fly around your shield and strike you!

Despite his incredulity, He was more than happy to observe this new development. With this, the members of the Chu clan would be less inclined to make a move to defend Zu An.

With a cold sneer, he separated the swords he controlled into several waves—two to strike from each side, one to strike from the back, and one to strike from above.

As he did so, he noticed Zu An remove a large piece of metal from the middle of the shield, hollowing it out into a horseshoe shape.

What the hell is with that shield?! You’re just making fun of me!

It was clear that Zu An was either fooling around, or was signaling the Chu clan to intervene and save him. To prevent the latter from happening, he quickly hastened the speed of his swords.

Ah? What’s going on? Why are my swords not heeding my commands anymore?

Yuan Wendong was shocked. He tried to will the swords and sabers to move, but all of them shuddered in midair as another force attempted to wrestle control of his weapons from him.

All of a sudden, as if released from a tightly-drawn bow, the swords and sabers flew in a common direction—toward Zu An’s shield. They struck the shield and stuck to it tightly, refusing to budge no matter how Yuan Wendong tried to control them.

T-this… How could this be possible?

The crowd was shocked by the turn of events.

Yuan Wendong was horrified. He stared at Zu An, whose head was finally peeking out from behind the shield, and asked in disbelief, “H-how did you manage to do it?”

Zu An shook his head and sighed deeply. “Milord, we have entered a new era.”

Ever since he’d seen Yuan Wendong’s ability to control swords back at the academy, he had been thinking of a way to deal with this move. After all, it wasn’t easy to dodge multiple swords at once, and he didn’t have Pei Mianman’s destructive black flames either.

Besides, he would never stoop to dodging them even if he could. The sight of Yuan Wendong coolly maneuvering the swords against him while he frantically ran around like a rat… There was no way he would stand for that! 

I don’t need my skills to work. I just need them to be cool!

Zu An’s first thought was to use magnets, but the magnetism of natural magnets was surely too weak to overpower the control of a metal element cultivator. If that weren’t so, all metal element cultivators would have been rendered irrelevant by now.

Fortunately, Zu An was standing on the shoulders of giants. He had inherited mankind’s thousands of years of knowledge, which also encompassed the idea of electromagnets. Electromagnets had the potential to become incredibly powerful, since they could be used to lift up cars and perform other similarly-demanding tasks in all sorts of industries.

The principles behind them were also quite simple, and easy to put it into practice. All Zu An had to do was to contact one of the runemasters in the Chu clan, and he would be able to easily make one.

The greater problem was ensuring a proper flow of electricity, since this world didn’t have generators. However, this world had something just as useful—lightning element cultivators. Using a special formation, it was quite possible to store electrical energy into an object for a short period of time.

With the small fortune that Zu An had amassed, he was easily able to get all of this done. The work was quite simple and required very little skill, so the runemaster was able to complete it easily. In fact, he had thought it so trivial, he didn’t even bother reporting the matter to Chu Zhongtian.

He had thought that Zu An was simply making a toy to fiddle with. He had no idea what an electromagnet was, nor did he comprehend the incredible magnetic force field it could create when activated.

It took a while before the spectators recovered from their daze. They stared closely at the bizarrely-shaped shield in front of Zu An, struggling to figure out what it was.

“Is that a secret weapon that the Chu clan came up with?”

“Well, that’s to be expected. The Chu clan has hundreds of years of history in smithing. There is no way the Yuan clan could possibly compete with them.”

“Chu Zhongtian sure is a wily old fox. He acted as though the destruction of the spirit creek would cause the quality of his weapons to fall below those of the Yuan clan. Now, it’s clear that he was planning to prove their superiority over the Yuan clan during the Clans Tournament!”

… 

Seeing the considering looks that Sang Hong and the others directed toward him, Chu Zhongtian was dumbstruck. What’s that in Zu An’s hands? I’ve no idea either!

In the dueling ring, Yuan Wendong was close to fainting. Everything that had happened today had surpassed his understanding. Faced with Zu An’s cocky smile, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

Just how many more trump cards has that fellow prepared in order to deal with me?!

Sensing Yuan Wendong’s courage withering, the patriarchs of the Wu clan and Yuan clan quickly dispensed their advice to him via ki.

“You fool! That weapon created by the Chu clan might be able to deal with your flying swords, but its bulky size makes it impossible to use it in close-quarters combat!”

“Just stop controlling your flying swords and fight him head-on. Protect yourself with your sword ki. No matter how powerful Zu An’s movement skill is, there’s still a huge disparity between the two of you in terms of strength. He can’t possibly hurt you!”

Bolstered by the sound advice of his elders, Yuan Wendong’s fighting spirit swiftly returned. Indeed! Zu An might have prepared all sorts of toys here, but the disparity between our cultivation is not something he can easily bridge. Even if I don’t use my elemental ability, my cultivation itself would be enough to crush him!

With that, a calm settled over Yuan Wendong. He looked at Zu An and said coldly, “Zu An, your mysterious weapon truly did catch me off guard. However, that’s built on the foundation of the Chu clan, and did not come out of your own strength. Just as I told you the last time, there’s a limit to how far you can go by tapping into the strength of others. In the end, what that matters the most is your own strength!”

Having been outdone time and time again in this dueling ring, he was desperate to restore his crumbling reputation.

He drew a sword from his waist and swung it casually. Its surface was swiftly imbued with a semi-transparent layer of sword ki. The sight drew excited gasps from the crowd. As expected of a fifth rank cultivator. His control over sword ki is incredible!

It seemed that Yuan Wendong’s words would be proven true. While the toy Zu An had brought out was eye-catching, it wasn’t enough to win the battle. Once Yuan Wendong had recovered from the initial shock, the battle was still his to fight.