21: Chapter 21 Defeat

"Long'er is using his real strength!" an Elder whispered.

Facing this fatal blow, Ye Tian's pupils contracted, but he did not panic.

He took a deep breath, the airflow within his body circulating at an unprecedented speed, the second layer of force of his Overlapping Wave Fist ready to be unleashed!

He was confident that with his current state, he could withstand this finger strike!

However, just as he exerted all his strength to drive his Qi force.

That feeling of stagnation in his Dantian that had appeared last night suddenly erupted!

The originally surging Qi and blood suddenly stagnated and reversed!

"Pfft!"

Ye Tian's face instantly turned deathly pale, and he spat out a mouthful of blood!

The gathered fist force instantly dissipated, his figure staggered, revealing a flaw!

"Good opportunity!" Although Ye Long didn't understand why, how could he let this heaven-sent opportunity slip by?

His sword-finger strike did not lose momentum, fiercely stabbing toward Ye Tian's chest!

"Careful!" someone from below the stage exclaimed.

Ye Tian forced himself to hold his breath and desperately dodged to the side!

Chi!

The sword-finger failed to hit his vital point, but it left a blood hole deep enough to see bone on his left shoulder blade!

The excruciating pain pierced his heart!

Ye Long, pressing his advantage, flew up and kicked heavily into Ye Tian's abdomen!

"Bang!"

Ye Tian flew backward, smashing heavily against the edge of the Martial Arts Arena, spat out another mouthful of blood, and after struggling a few times, he couldn't stand up immediately.

The entire arena fell silent instantly!

Everyone was stunned by this sudden reversal.

Just a moment ago they were evenly matched, so how did Ye Tian end up vomiting blood and severely injured in the blink of an eye?

Ye Long was also stunned for a moment, then his face revealed wild joy and a ferocious expression: "Trash! You are Trash after all! Forcibly raising your Cultivation, your Foundation is unstable, suffering from Qi Deviation, right? Hahaha!"

He strode forward, intending to deliver the final blow.

"Stop!" the referee intervened in time, "The winner has been decided!"

Ye Long snorted coldly, stopped his steps, and stood proudly in the center of the Martial Arts Arena, enjoying the cheers that erupted again from below.

"As expected, Brother Long is still the strongest!"

"I told you, how could Trash possibly win!"

"He must have used some secret technique to overdraw his strength just now, and now he's suffering the backlash!"

On the high platform, the Elders also had different expressions.

The Second Elder frowned, staring at the fallen Ye Tian, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes.

Clan Chief Ye Qingtian pondered for a moment and said slowly: "His aura suddenly dissipated... it seems like something went wrong with his Spiritual Qi circulation, what a pity."

They all saw that Ye Tian's defeat was suspicious, but Ye Tian's Realm was already lower than Ye Long's, so this situation seemed plausible, and they did not investigate further.

After all, the result was what mattered most.

In the corner of the crowd, the old servant Uncle Zhong narrowed his old eyes slightly, his gaze sweeping over Ye Tian's pale face and the wound on his shoulder blade, then glanced seemingly unintentionally at Ye Hao, whose expression was changing in the crowd with a hint of guilt and pride, and a barely audible cold snort escaped his nose.

He leaned on his cane, turned around silently, and left the noisy Martial Arts Arena.

Ye Tian lay on the cold Martial Arts Arena, the cheers and discussions around his ears becoming blurred.

The excruciating pain in his shoulder blade was far less than the coldness and anger in his heart.

He clearly felt that it was not Qi Deviation, it was poison!

Someone had tampered with him!

Who could it be?

His gaze stared fixedly in a certain direction below the stage.

Ye Hao felt that cold gaze and subconsciously shrank his neck, but was immediately drowned out by the surrounding cheers, and a satisfied smile reappeared on his face.

Defeated.

All his expectations and efforts were thus washed away in such a stifling and bizarre manner.

Ye Tian slowly closed his eyes, letting the clansmen's gazes—whether pitying or mocking—fall upon him.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but a cold sensation came from his cheek, mixed with the bitter smell of herbs.

Ye Tian opened his eyes suddenly, a violent cough causing pain in his chest.

He found himself lying on the hard wooden bed in his small cabin, his mother's eyes red as she carefully wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and the dried blood from the corners of his mouth with a damp cloth.

"Tian'er... are you awake?" His mother's voice was choked with sobs, yet she held back, not daring to let her tears fall.

"Mother..." Ye Tian wanted to speak, but his throat was terribly hoarse, and a piercing pain from his left shoulder blade made him gasp.

The humiliating scene on the Martial Arts Arena flooded into his mind instantly—the sudden stagnation of his Qi and blood, Ye Long's ferocious grin, the uproar of the clansmen...

It was not an accident!

It was definitely not Qi Deviation!

He struggled to sit up, but was gently pressed down by his mother: "Don't move... Uncle Zhong just applied medicine for you and said you need to rest quietly."

Uncle Zhong?

Ye Tian only then noticed that the hunched old servant was squatting in the shadow of the corner of the room, leisurely packing up a tattered medicine chest.

"Awake?" Uncle Zhong didn't even look up, "You won't die. You just got hit with a bit of 'Qi-Eroding Powder', plus external injuries; you'll be fine after lying down for a few days."

Qi-Eroding Powder!

Ye Tian's pupils contracted sharply.

This was a sinister poison, colorless and odorless; it wouldn't take effect immediately upon ingestion, but it would violently interfere with the Qi and blood when the cultivator exerted their full Spiritual Qi, causing their aura to instantly become chaotic or even suffer a backlash!

It was expensive and definitely not something an ordinary descendant could acquire!

Who was it?

When was it?

He suddenly remembered the subtle feeling of stagnation after that meal on the eve of the tournament.

It was Ye Hao!

Only he had the opportunity to approach the food his mother prepared!

A cold murderous intent surged from the bottom of Ye Tian's heart.

Uncle Zhong seemed to sense his emotions, packed up the medicine chest, stood up slowly with his cane, walked to the bedside, and glanced at him: "Kid, gnashing your teeth is useless. Even if you find out the truth, so what?"

Ye Tian looked up, meeting those eyes.

"The Family will not hold another direct descendant responsible for a 'suspected' poisoning of a disciple who has already been defeated."

Uncle Zhong's voice was very flat, "Without evidence, it's just you having Qi Deviation while Cultivating. With evidence... it might still be you having Qi Deviation while Cultivating."

His words were like a basin of ice water poured over Ye Tian's head.

That's right, there was no evidence.

Since Ye Hao dared to do it, he must have covered his tracks cleanly.

In the Family, strength and status are the truth.

He was still that "Trash" who could be sacrificed at any time.

"However..." Uncle Zhong changed the subject, tapping the ground lightly with his cane, "Since the snake has come out of its hole, it will always leave traces. It didn't bite you to death this time, but next time might be different."

He gave Ye Tian a meaningful look, said nothing more, turned, and limped out of the cabin.

His mother looked at Ye Tian worriedly, wanting to say something comforting, but it eventually turned into a sigh, and she silently went to the stove to heat up porridge.

Only Ye Tian's heavy breathing remained in the room.

Humiliation, anger, and a trace of lingering fear.

If his Body Refining third-stage Physical Body hadn't far exceeded those of the same rank, allowing him to withstand Ye Long's subsequent attacks, it probably wouldn't have been as simple as lying in bed for a few days.

Strength... still not enough!

He slowly closed his eyes, his consciousness sinking into his body.

The chaos bead was still emitting a steady warmth from his chest, with strands of pure energy slowly flowing out, nourishing his damaged Meridians and wounds, at a speed several times faster than ordinary Medicinal Pill.

The toxicity of that Qi-Eroding Powder seemed to have been gradually neutralized by the power of the chaos bead.

"Ye Long... Ye Hao..." Ye Tian recited these two names in his heart, every word carrying bone-deep coldness.

This failure shattered his fantasy of changing his status through the tournament, but it also completely tore away the warm and gentle veil of the Family, letting him see the coldness and cruelty beneath it.

Relying on the Family for justice?

Better to rely on his own fists being hard enough!

He stopped thinking about those useless grievances, all emotions pressed deep into his heart.

The urgent priority was to recover from his injuries as quickly as possible, and then become stronger!

He attempted to operate the incomplete technique obtained from Master Xuan Gui, guiding the energy of the chaos bead to cooperate with the medicinal power to accelerate healing.

Amidst the excruciating pain, he gritted his teeth, sweat soaking through his clothes.

His mother brought over hot porridge, and looking at his stubborn profile, tears finally couldn't help but fall, and she hurriedly wiped them away.

The night grew deeper.

Outside the small courtyard, the discussions of some clansmen passing by could be vaguely heard.

"What a pity, I originally thought it would be worth watching."

"Hmph, Trash is Trash; he won once by luck and didn't know his own weight."

"Brother Ye Long is the future of our Family!"

"I heard he was injured quite badly, it will probably be even harder for him in the future..."

These voices pierced into his ears like needles.

Ye Tian turned a deaf ear, only focusing more intently on guiding the Spiritual Qi within his body.

Failure is an end, but also a beginning.

The path belonging to him, Ye Tian, was never in the charity and recognition of the Family, but in the life-and-death battles of the Black Cloud Mountains, in his own unyielding will, and in this chaos bead in his arms.

He slowly clenched his right hand, his knuckles making a crisp sound.

This grudge, he would definitely avenge.

And, it wouldn't be long.