Yino lifted the curtain, and found himself face to face with Yino, who was leaning on the railing directly across from him.

Yino’s eyes were sharp. Like a sword that could pierce straight through your soul.

But just as Zhou Qi’s heart lurched with a start, he realized the young man’s gaze wasn’t on him at all, it had slipped through the gap of the lifted curtain and landed on the two silver-haired beauties sitting inside the balcony.

"What are you looking at?! Your opponent is me!"

He snarled with irritation.

Yino snapped back. He propped his cheek on one hand and smiled, the kind of smile that meant nothing good.

"What’s the rush? Do you really want to embarrass yourself in front of your two senior sisters that badly?"

...

This contestant from Frost Palace named Zhou Qi was a classic villain archetype, cut from the same cloth as Gu Wanglan, Ji Zichen, and the Crimson Prince.

Though each of these villains had different personalities, they all served more or less the same function in pushing the plot forward. After all, the original Fallen Immortal had five protagonist storylines, so naturally it needed five similar villain side characters to match.

That said, Zhou Qi was actually a step below the other three. In terms of talent, he couldn’t match Gu Wanglan. In terms of family background, he couldn’t compare to Ji Zichen or the Crimson Prince. At best, he was just an elite lackey orbiting around the heroine, a simp with slightly better stats.

Back in the day, Yino had dared to snatch food from Gu Wanglan’s jaws even at the Foundation Establishment stage. Now that he’d cultivated to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, handling a small fry like Zhou Qi was hardly a challenge.

When it came down to it, the only characters in Frost Palace worth paying attention to were the twin women behind those curtains.

They were fated heroines on the same level as Yuyan or Pei Zhihan, their talent and Opportunities went without saying.

In the game’s annual tournament arc, the Frost Palace Holy Maiden named Nangong Xi would claim the championship, with the runner-up being Wen Ruzhi, the younger sister of Divine Abyss Gate’s prince Wen Ruxiu. Third place would go to Jianlan Sect’s story protagonist, Lin Che.

Now, in this reborn timeline, Yino had chosen to enter the tournament. He was bound to cross swords with both Nangong Xi and Wen Ruzhi sooner or later.

"You little punk, a worthless cripple daring to have designs on my senior sister?!"

Zhou Qi was still running his mouth.

In the standoff, the two leapt into the air at the same time as if by silent agreement, turning into two streaks of light that landed on the Dao Testing Pavilion.

Yino couldn’t be bothered to respond. He simply raised his hand and summoned the cursed sword Wangziu, then let his peripheral vision drift toward the presiding Elder’s lips.

"Are you both ready?"

"Anytime!"

Zhou Qi cracked his knuckles, the earlier taunts having already maxed out his fighting spirit against Yino.

Yino still said nothing. He just stood there with his sword resting behind his back.

He could vaguely sense that during this time, two pairs of eyes behind those seven-layered Frost Palace curtains were each sizing him up.

That had to be Nangong Xi and Nangong Li...

Their strength was worlds apart from Zhou Qi’s, they’d surely already looked into some of the rumors about Yino.

"Begin!"

As the audience buzzed with chatter, the presiding Elder at the center of the Dao Testing Pavilion waved his hand and gave the command.

And the instant the word left his mouth, Yino, already coiled and ready, drew his sword.

SHING!!

He was blindingly fast. His opening move carried the full sword intent of a peak Nascent Soul cultivator. He had zero intention of wasting time playing with Zhou Qi.

The sword light flashed past in an instant. Zhou Qi hadn’t even begun to react before the blood-red sword’s afterimage froze in midair, hovering silently right between Zhou Qi’s eyes.

Seconds ticked by. The entire venue fell dead silent, not just Zhou Qi, but even the cultivators in the audience seats hadn’t been able to follow what happened. It was as if the match had been decided in the blink of an eye.

"Ah..."

"Ah... ahh..."

Zhou Qi’s face went white. His lips turned blue. His bulging eyes stared straight at the black-and-red blade etched with ancient runes, as if he’d only just snapped back from a nightmare.

"Give up. With your 7second reaction time, I could’ve minced you into paste a dozen times over."

Yino maintained his hands-behind-his-back posture, controlling the cursed sword hovering before Zhou Qi’s forehead with nothing but willpower.

Zhou Qi was silent for a long time before he finally swallowed, his throat trembling.

Thud!

"I... I surrender..."

Without a shred of hesitation, Zhou Qi dropped to both knees. For the first time in his life, he looked at Yino and nodded obediently.

In this match, he hadn’t even thrown a single move. He hadn’t even gathered his spiritual energy. And yet his mind had already replayed the life-flashing-before-your-eyes reel countless times.

It wasn’t just a gap in skill between him and Yino. This was a one-sided crushing delivered by a single look of killing intent from the latter.

Just one thread of sword intent aimed at Zhou Qi’s vital point, and his legs had already gone soft, buckling beneath him...

"Wait..."

"It’s over already?"

The absurdly fast surrender left not just the audience but even the presiding Elder who’d just announced the start of the match somewhat dazed.

Many spectators below had still been chatting with their neighbors. They’d zoned out for a few seconds, and when they looked back at the stage, Zhou Qi was already on his knees, trembling and surrendering.

"This round’s victor, He Yino!"

The presiding Elder announced in a deep voice.

The declaration finally snapped the rest of the slack-jawed audience back to reality.

"Sister, what happened?"

"Zhou... Zhou Qi surrendered just like that?"

Inside Frost Palace’s section, a silver-haired girl in a blue-moon dress shot upright from behind the curtain.

She rushed forward and pulled the curtain aside, leaning over the railing. That breathtaking face was furrowed in confusion as she stared, thoroughly lost, at the white-robed young man standing with his hands behind his back on the Dao Testing Pavilion.

Nangong Li really had been spacing out, thinking about something else. She never expected that in barely a few seconds, she’d hear Zhou Qi’s voice surrendering.

"The gap in strength was too wide. Zhou Qi got scared stiff by a single thread of sword intent."

Behind the curtain, another silver-haired woman, this one with a more mature figure, spoke coldly.

Nangong Li sucked in a sharp breath, her mind flashing back to that moment on the seventh floor when Yino had been sneaking glances at her and her sister from across the way, and their eyes had met.

"Is he really that strong?"

"That sword intent just now was at peak Nascent Soul. If he were to fight for real, he’d probably have Divine Transformation stage strength."

Nangong Xi reclined in her chair, her words coming out flat. Beneath her dress, her crossed legs, pale feet marked with crescent-moon patterns, stopped their idle swinging, and on that flawless, cold face bearing the mark of a moon goddess, a flicker of interest finally stirred.

"This Disciple that Yuyan raised is rather interesting. No wonder he had the nerve to set his sights on me when our eyes met."

She said it casually.

Hearing this, Nangong Li glanced across toward the Wuji Sect’s curtained seating area, at that cold and aloof woman whose presence rivaled her own sister’s.