Chapter 144: Duel Appointment

Time slowly passed, and Gu Fan had been sitting by the Blood Pool, continuously recuperating from his injuries.

During this period, Nurse Xia Yan would occasionally come by to check on him. After confirming that Gu Fan was fine, she would then leave.

At the same time, she designated the area around the Blood Pool as a restricted zone, ordering all survivors to take a detour.

In this way, it continued until the night of the third day.

Only then did Gu Fan slowly open his eyes. With a wave of his hand, a storage pouch flew over from an unknown direction.

As soon as it was opened, a large number of Nine-colored Yuan Crystal Stones radiating multicolored light floated in midair.

Sensing this extremely pure energy, the Evil Lotus could no longer restrain itself. It kept touching around Gu Fan, trying to gain his permission.

Gu Fan smiled and then divided half of the Yuan Crystals and tossed them all into the Blood Pool.

"Eat. These are all for you. Give me some Life Essence later so I can restore my body."

The Evil Lotus happily withdrew its vines and slowly absorbed the immense energy wrapped in the Yuan Crystal Stones.

Gu Fan piled the remaining half of the Yuan Crystals beside him and began his own absorption.

"In that battle, my physical body was almost entirely destroyed. All my meridians were shattered, my body cracked, and even my origin was wounded..."

"It’ll take a while before I can recover, but even if I do go back, there doesn’t seem to be any point."

Gu Fan muttered to himself.

He had returned to this world through the rift.

Returning again would only place him back inside the rift. Even if he wished to go back to the outside world, he would have to wait for the next time the rift opened.

This period could be as short as a few years or as long as over a decade, which was completely normal.

Thinking of this, Gu Fan’s eyes turned even colder.

"The Holy Son is indeed worthy of his fame—powerful strength and steady mental state."

"If I want to defeat him, I must reach the True Yang Realm as soon as possible. At the very least, I need to reach the Late Stage of the True Yang Realm. Only then, even if he is a few minor realms above me, I’ll still have the strength to fight!"

Having thought of this, Gu Fan made up his mind. He decided he had to seize every moment for cultivation and first raise his cultivation realm.

The absorption rate of Yuan Crystals was much faster than that of spiritual energy, which was why all the cultivators of Destiny Continent treated Yuan Crystal Stones as important resources.

These things didn’t require any filtering or impurity removal during absorption.

Thus, when cultivators absorbed Yuan Crystal Stones, they could directly channel them into their Qi Sea.

Furthermore, spiritual power was mild and posed no limitations upon absorption. It also didn’t affect one’s foundation.

Meanwhile, in the Brahma God Sect within the cultivation world—

Fang Xue had issued a direct challenge to the Holy Son. The two agreed to battle three days later in a secluded place outside the sect.

This news quickly spread to all disciples of the sect. Everyone looked forward to this battle between the sect’s number one and number two disciples.

Some curious individuals even dug up the reason behind the duel.

For a time, the hot topic of conversation during meals and tea breaks was about how the genius disciple from Overlord Peak had dared to challenge the Holy Son during the rift mission.

The two had even exchanged several moves, but in the end, the Holy Son had suppressed him. However, the disciple unexpectedly burst forth with latent potential and escaped, only to become trapped in the rift and unable to return.

"Do you all know that this disciple from Overlord Peak is one of the legendary Nine Rings of the Dao Bell disciples? His talent is extraordinary!"

At a cultivation ground within the sect, someone began chatting after their practice.

This was a common gathering spot for Outer Sect Disciples, as it contained a faintly abandoned spiritual vein that provided a small amount of spiritual energy. Hence, it became a popular cultivation spot for the Outer Sect Disciples.

"Nine Rings disciple? What does that mean?"

"Heh, clearly someone ignorant. Let me tell you this—when the Holy Son joined the sect, even he only rang the Dao Bell eight times!"

"The Dao Bell is our Brahma God Sect’s Sect-protecting Treasure. It is said that every disciple who enters the Core of the Inner Sect can cause it to ring, and the more rings it produces, the greater the disciple’s talent."

"So you're saying that Gu Fan from Overlord Peak has more talent than the Holy Son?"

"Hehe, not necessarily. His talent is indeed great, but it's said to be limited by the quality of his Root Bone. Otherwise, the prominent families would have lured him away long ago. There’s no way Overlord Peak would have gotten him."

At this moment, someone asked doubtfully:

"Then do you all think that the Holy Son’s attack on him might have been..."

Before the words were finished, everyone’s expressions changed, and they all gestured to stop talking.

"Are you courting death? How dare you say such things? If someone from Holy Son Peak hears this, you might die on the spot!"

"Holy Son Peak is that domineering? Not even allowed to discuss it?"

"Hehe, try it if you don’t believe me. Don’t blame us for not warning you."

Such discussions continued to spread and ferment within the sect.

Some even began to say that the Holy Son was afraid of being surpassed by a younger disciple and thus secretly struck down Gu Fan.

Now, Fang Xue was seeking justice on behalf of her fellow disciple!

Inside Holy Son Peak, Ying Langtian sat at the foremost seat.

Below, a disciple bowed respectfully and reported:

"Holy Son, the origin of the spreading rumors is hard to trace now, but it can be confirmed that it didn’t come from within the Ten Peaks. It most likely came from the side of the family clans."

The Holy Son’s eyes narrowed slightly as he pondered for a moment.

"Family clans within the sect? Our Holy Son Peak has rarely interacted with the clans, let alone offended them. Why would they frame our Holy Son Senior Brother like this?"

At this point, Jiang Tianxin spoke, puzzled.

"I don’t know the reason, but for now, this is the situation. It’s still difficult to determine which specific clan is responsible."

The Holy Son then slowly spoke.

"Has there been any investigation into whether Gu Fan has any connections with the family clans?"

"Reporting to Holy Son Senior Brother, based on current investigation results, there is no intersection between Gu Fan and any family clans. But if we have to mention something..."

Seeing the speaker hesitating, Jiang Tianxin immediately scolded:

"Speak clearly! You must not hide anything before Holy Son Senior Brother!"

"Yes! We discovered that the only possible link between Gu Fan and the family clans is a friend who joined Brahma God Sect at the same time. That friend reportedly had decent talent and a good Root Bone, and was taken in by the Zhu Family."

After that, the place fell into silence once more.

"Zhu Family... I hope you won't oppose me for the sake of a single disciple..."

The Holy Son murmured in a low voice, then dismissed everyone with a wave, sitting alone on the Holy Son’s throne.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day, most disciples who had free time hurried toward the Secluded Place outside the sect.

This was the designated location for duels between cultivators with powerful combat strength. After all, once one's cultivation reached a certain level, any clash would result in leaks of spiritual pressure, which could cause severe casualties among lower-realm disciples.

To avoid damaging the sect’s interior and to provide a space to settle grudges,

The sect’s seniors had opened up a Secluded Place not far from the sect as a designated combat zone.

Neither Fang Xue nor the Holy Son had arrived yet, but the outer area of the Secluded Place was already crowded with disciples.

One was the number one sect disciple, even hailed as the strongest in history. The other was the only contender the Holy Son himself had acknowledged as a worthy rival.

The battle between these two naturally drew the attention of countless disciples.

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