The Portal of Wonderland
Chapter 532: Evenly Matched

A pair of bloodshot golden dragon eyes glared coldly at Zhao Ji.

An unseen murderous vibe spread across the field after the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon emerged and Zhanye's mid-level Xiantian cultivation exploded within the ring. The audience below gasped.

Of the top ten disciples in the rankings, only Ling Feng was able to maintain a certain degree of calm. The others could not keep the shock and surprise from their faces.

Shi Mu turned his gaze from the golden dragon to Zhao Ji. He looked as if he was deep in thought, but no one could decipher what was on his mind.

Zhao Yan's brows furrowed slightly, but his expression did not change much. He moved the giant purple axe in his hand to the front and got into an offensive stance.

The golden dragon snorted. As it spewed rays of qi from its nose, it opened its mouth wide and a golden flame surged out from it. The fire turned into a thick, spiral-like burning column, heading straight toward Zhao Ji.

It was incredibly fast and reached Zhao Ji in an instant!

Zhao Ji held the purple ax with one in front of his body like a shield to block the attack.

The raging flames poured down onto the purple ax, surrounding it. Such intense heat caused the temperature around the entire platform to rise dramatically.

In the blink of an eye, the surface of the giant ax became reddish and the center of the ax appeared to be turning transparent. It was most likely that a hole had been burned into it, apparently rendering it useless for both attack and defense.

Zhao Ji's right arm suddenly glowed brightly. The radiance swiftly spread from his arm and wrapped around the entire ax.

Everyone saw that the reddish hue on the ax had quickly faded. Even the golden flame that was blasting it had weakened a great deal, and the temperature around the ring had decreased a little as well.

Hovering in the air, the golden dragon saw what was happening. With a roar, the golden dragon slammed its giant tail down.

Zhao Ji was unable to dodge it and was caught in the air by the golden dragon's tail.

His hands were trapped by the tail, and the giant purple ax fell from his grip.

The dragon roared and gripped even tighter as the giant tail wrapped around Zhao Ji.

Zhao Ji could hear the sound of the golden scales on the tail grinding together, and he felt pressure like the weight of a mountain.

As he was being squeezed, there was a cracking sound from his body. His pale face had become red as if it was bleeding from the inside of his skull.

In midair, the red-browed youth who acted as the referee frowned, trying to decide if he should end the fight. Suddenly, the low-pitched growling sound of a beast could be heard in the ring.

Swoosh!

Zhao Ji, still being gripped and crushed by the golden dragon's tail, suddenly screamed toward the sky. The blood-red color on his face was brighter than ever but two golden lights lit up in his eyes.

Shi Mu was shocked when he saw what was happening.

He watched the robe Zhao Ji was wearing tear to shreds as his powerful muscles bulged rapidly. Thick, silver hair grew out of his skin, including his face.

Two long fangs extended from his jaws, coming out of his mouth. Even his fingers grew out long claws. He had transformed into a ten-feet-tall giant white-azure ape with blue eyes.

"Shi Mu, what's with that giant white-azure ape? Why does it seem to be similar to yours?" Cai asked.

Shi Mu was silent for a moment before eventually answering Cai's question, "This Zhao Ji most likely also consumed the blood essence of the white-azure ape."

After transforming into the giant ape, Zhao Ji's qi and strength had increased immensely, and he immediately broke through the clutches of the golden dragon. With one sweep of his hand, he immediately grabbed hold of the dragon's tail.

The golden dragon quickly pulled its tail back and charged toward the giant white-azure ape.

Its claw ripped into the chest of the giant ape, and fresh blood spurted out of the wound.

Woosh!

The ape screamed in pain. Enraged, he leaped into the air as he thrust out his arm that was bursting with lightning. He grabbed on to the tail of the golden dragon and yanked it, pulling it from the air down on to the ground with all its might.

Boom!

As soon as the dragon landed on to the floor, the giant white-azure ape leaped into the air once again. In midair, he clenched his fist that was wrapped in white light and bashed it into the dragon's skull.

Boom!

The ring was already damaged from the previous battles, and this crash left it in even worse condition.

However, when the smoke around the ring had cleared slightly, the golden dragon could not be seen anywhere. Such an occurrence left the audience in a state of disbelief.

"Hmph!"

There was a strange laugh on the other side of the ring.

Everyone immediately shifted their gaze to Zhanye, who had gone back to his human form. He stood there drenched in fresh blood. He had a smirk on his face which gave off a sinister feeling as he looked at the giant white-azure ape.

There was fresh blood dripping down from his left hand. It must have belonged to Zhao Ji.

Zhanye spit the blood out from his mouth and said, "Not bad! The Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art is pretty good. However, it all ends here now!"

With his fingers stained with Zhao Ji's blood, he quickly drew a complex runic pattern on his chest. He began chanting a spell and clawed right into his chest.

"Chi!"

All five of his fingers penetrated his chest, reaching his heart, and blood began to spill out.

"Ugh!"

In an instant, a blood-curdling scream rang through the air. Shockingly, it was not Zhanye who was screaming but the giant white-azure ape.

From mid-air, the ape fell to the ground, struggling painfully as he clutched at his heart.

Doom...

Doom… doom… doom…

Everyone could hear a sound like a drum.

"This is... Could that be Zhao Ji's heartbeat?" Shi Mu's brows arched slightly and he was shocked by what he was seeing.

The hearts of all the spectators seemed to be throbbing in accordance with the rhythm of the drum-like sound. The feeling made them extremely uncomfortable.

Shi Mu's brows wrinkled as he quickly unleashed his inner qi to guard his heart.

The sound of the beating did not stop at all. In fact, it became stronger by the minute, until it was like thunder and explosions in their ears.

In the ring, the giant white-azure ape struggled to get to its feet. He could barely walk two steps before falling down on his knees again. Looking at Zhanye, blood began to flow out of the wounds on his chest.

The weaker disciples standing around the ring hurriedly stepped back. Slowly, blood began to ooze out of their eyes, ears, and noses.

On the cyan block, the middle-aged man in the blue robe, one of the three defenders, suddenly appeared in the ring.

He had his hands crossed in front of his chest. The blue light in his eyes surged and he shot out a huge twin-fish rune at the ring.

The blue light enveloped the entire ring in an instant.

The hearts of the disciples who stood near the ring were no longer in pain. The pain had faded away as if it had never been there.

The same could not be said of the giant white-azure ape in the ring. It felt like his heart was throbbing right out from his chest and both of his eyes had gone bloodshot. Even his spirit sense point had distorted.

Suddenly, he clenched his teeth and slammed his fist down on the ground to raise his body up a few feet. He let out a scream as he once again charged at Zhanye.

"Urg!"

Along with the raging fury boiling within him, a circle of visible fluctuations in the air suddenly rushed toward Zhanye.

Seeing this, Zhanye dug into his chest again, even deeper than the first time. His face was as white as a sheet. It was obvious he was very uncomfortable with this kind of control.

The strength of the giant white-azure ape was unbearable. After being struck by the powerful wind, his body collapsed to the floor.

The giant ape also fell to the ground, weak and frail once again, not far away from where Zhanye lay.

As soon as the giant white-azure ape hit the floor, its body flashed, and its figure quickly shrank. In just a blink of an eye, it had changed back into Zhao Ji.

Before the red-browed youth could act, the middle-aged man in the blue robe had already flown down to the ring.

With a wave of his palm, a faint blue light appeared like a wave and covered both Zhao Ji and Zhanye.

"For this round, both Zhao Ji and Long Zhanye have exhausted all their energy. This is regarded as a draw and both of them will maintain their original rankings."

After the man in the blue robe had stated this, he did not wait for the reaction of the audience. He waved his sleeves and summoned a blue whirlpool that drew in the two fallen fighters. In an instant, both Zhanye, Zhao Ji, and the man in blue had disappeared.

With the three men gone, all the spectators began to discuss the outcome. It was obvious that no one expected this would be the result of the match.

Not only the audience but also many of the hundred and eight disciples were whispering among themselves.

Seeing what an intense battle had just happened in front of him, his eyes flashed and he seemed to be drowning in his own thoughts.

As the referee, the red-browed youth was also taken aback for a while before regaining his senses. His eyes swept across the crowd who were just as stunned as he was.

"Silence!"

With his command, the disciples around the ring instantly felt an invisible pressure.

The crowd's chatter quickly quieted down.

"The previous match has ended. Is someone still willing to take the initiative to issue another challenge?" the red-browed youth asked once more.

The remaining disciples stayed quiet in the ring. Some of them glanced at Shi Mu from time to time as if they wanted to challenge him, but they did not dare to speak up.

After a while, the red-browed youth said, "If no one wants to make a challenge, I am going to announce that the third round has officially ended."

His words were met with silence from the lineup.

The red-browed youth did not say anything further. He floated in midair and waited quietly.

A moment passed by. Suddenly, a person strode out of the queue and walked into the ring.

Shi Mu emerged from the lineup and announced, "I am disciple Shi Mu, ranked thirty-seventh. I would like to challenge brother Ling Feng who ranked second of all the disciples."

As soon as his challenge was made, the crowd went from being quiet a few minutes earlier to chattering once again. Numerous voices came one after another.

"Are the new disciples mad? One has singled out the top of the Qinglan list and one has challenged a disciple who ranked second place?" someone shouted from within the crowd.

"Is this little brat Shi Mu crazy? Does he think so highly of himself because of the previous victory?"

"Maybe he still has some hidden technique up his sleeve? This kid is good at looking innocent at first glance!"