When the dust was about to dissipate, the crowd heard another loud noise.

Bang!

The dust cloud rose into the air. This time, the noise didn’t stop. It went on without any signs of stopping.

Something kept making loud bangs in the arena, and the noise came in waves. The crowd could tell how fierce the battle was from the commotion alone.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t see anything. They would be content if they could watch the battle with their own eyes. A battle between Virtualization-stage cultivators would benefit them a great deal.

Meanwhile, on the stage, Firey was studying her surroundings. Soochin had been flickering in and out of sight, which annoyed her.

She was still looking around when she suddenly grabbed at the thin air behind her back and caught Soochin’s leg.

“Gotcha!” Firey smirked.

“Are you sure about that?” Soochin asked indifferently.

She didn’t seem nervous about being caught. Firey sensed something was wrong, so she immediately threw “Soochin” over her shoulder.

Hardly a second had passed before “Soochin” popped like a balloon.

“You’re so sneaky!” Firey was frustrated.

“I’m only teaching you a lesson in advance!” Soochin chuckled.

She could tell Firey didn’t have much experience in combat, if any at all. She believed she could easily defeat Firey.

However, she didn’t want the battle to end so soon because she wanted to test Firey’s abilities. So far, she still hadn’t noticed anything special about the essence of nature.

She slowly sat down, and the look on her face became serious. Taking a zither out of her storage ring, she slowly set it down.

Ding…

When she plucked the strings, the dust in the air fell to the ground as if there had been no fight here.

“I think that’s Exqui, one of Emperor Baih’s favorite zithers! I didn’t know he had given it to Soochin!”

“Does that mean she’s getting serious now?”

“Really? So she was only playing before this? The energy she gave off was so intimidating!”

“I’m a junior Nascent cultivator, but I can in no way withstand that power. I’ve watched battles between Virtualization cultivators before, and they weren’t like this. I can’t believe it’s just a warmup for Virtualization cultivators.”

“If that was only the warmup, how terrifying would the actual battle be?!”

“Those rumbling sounds were only their warm-up moves. I can’t believe it!”

Once the air cleared up, everybody saw the two women on the stage. Neither of them seemed injured. They didn’t look tired either, as if nothing had happened.

The crowd just realized that things were kicking off when Soochin took out her zither. They remembered zithers were the Baih family’s expertise. They used zithers as their weapon and attacked with the sound.

Their opponents never saw it coming.

“Kiddo, watch this. I’m going to show you a real battle.” Soochin closed her eyes and put her hands on the zither.

She casually plucked the strings as though playing for fun. Music flowed from the zither like the smoke rising from an incense stick.

The melody was beautiful. It almost felt like something from another world. If Emperor Baih were the person playing the zither, the music would resonate in heaven and earth.

Soochin hadn’t reached that level yet and couldn’t create such an effect. Nevertheless, she was getting there. If she were given an opportunity and made a breakthrough, she would become the new Emperor Baih.

“Ding!”

“Ding!”

Whenever she plucked the strings, the spiritual essence in the air would stir.

Firey frowned. Although she didn’t know what the zither was and couldn’t comprehend the music, she could still sense the change in the spiritual essence.

Danger!

She had a sense of crisis.

Dodge!

She jumped away from the spot without hesitation. Yet, she was a little bit too late. An invisible blade brushed past her face and cut open her cheek.

But there was no blood. Instead, flames burst out—they were Firey’s blood.

Firey frowned and touched the wound. It immediately closed up as if it was never there.

“You…” Before she could say anything, she sensed danger again and dodged one more time.

Needless to say, the invisible attacks came from Soochin and her zither.

Firey didn’t have time to think. She couldn’t see the strikes and could only dodge them by instinct. The attacks became faster and faster. Before long, Firey was covered with cuts.

At first, she had time to heal them. But soon, she wasn’t given the opportunity.

She slowly landed on the ground after the attacks seemed to have stopped.

She looked at Soochin, who was staring at her with a faint smile.

Firey was frustrated. She had planned to teach Soochin a lesson, but she had been turned into a monkey in the circus!