Her expression was serious, but the moment Bai Feng approached, she seemed to sense something. She shifted her body slightly toward his position, and her nervousness began to ease.

Once she finished drawing the last formation pattern, she let out a sigh of relief and turned to face Bai Feng.

"How was that?" She quietly lifted her head to look at him and asked in a soft voice.

"Yeah, it was great," Bai Feng said, giving her a thumbs-up without holding back his praise. "But Su Shijie, you should be more confident, just like during the last competition."

"Mm..."

Su Lanqian nodded, but she still stood beside Bai Feng with her head down, just like before.

Bai Feng glanced at her silently, choosing not to say more. After all, Su Lanqian had just taken her first step; she still needed time to change gradually.

He then asked her, "Su Shijie, now that the formation is complete, do you have any other plans?"

"I've already made arrangements," Su Lanqian replied quickly, her gaze shifting slightly. "The formation for Feng Ling Sect isn't finished yet, and I don't need to help pinpoint the formation nodes. Plus, I'm not really good at fighting, so I won't go over there myself."

Bai Feng nodded. "Then let's just wait here for good news."

Su Lanqian felt a bit relieved as she stood beside Bai Feng, waiting for the competition to end.

They didn't have to wait long; soon, the disciples of Tian Jian Sect returned, cheering.

Although they were a group of formation masters, they were still from Tian Jian Sect. Their formations might not be as strong as those of Feng Ling Sect, but their combat power was definitely far superior to that of Feng Ling's disciples.

Under the assault of Tian Jian Sect's disciples, the Feng Ling disciples, who had yet to complete their formation, couldn't hold them back at all and were almost instantly scattered.

Some Feng Ling disciples fought desperately, while others broke out of their formation's territory, charging straight toward Tian Jian Sect, hoping to turn the tide.

They thought Tian Jian Sect was progressing slowly, so they planned to breach their formation early to buy time. But when they arrived at Tian Jian Sect's territory and saw the complete formation before them, everyone was stunned. They couldn't comprehend how Tian Jian Sect's disciples managed to construct the formation in such a short time.

"Tian Jian Sect must have cheated!"

"The competition is over. Tian Jian Sect wins this round."

The disciples of Feng Ling Sect wanted to voice their objections, but when they saw the elders on the stage, they silently swallowed their words and left in defeat.

Below the stage, Yu Ping'an looked at the disgruntled disciples of Feng Ling Sect and said softly, "Don't feel too upset. I saw it clearly; Bai Feng didn't personally intervene to help them. He was just directing the disciples of Tian Jian Sect in building the formation."

"But that was way too fast!" one of the Feng Ling disciples muttered under his breath. "Even if our senior brother helped us, it wouldn't be possible to do it this quickly, right?"

"Because I'm not as good as he is."

Yu Ping'an replied calmly, ignoring the astonished expressions of the Feng Ling disciples as he turned to look at Bai Feng on the stage.

'So that's what you meant...'

He finally understood that Bai Feng's absence from the individual competition wasn't an attempt to avoid him; it was simply unnecessary.

In the team competition, just by directing, he had managed to keep the talented disciples of Feng Ling Sect on the ground, showing that Bai Feng's level had surpassed his by leaps and bounds.

While Bai Feng was constantly learning and improving himself, he had been lost in meaningless conflicts, researching portable formation plates, and pondering how to defeat Bai Feng to claim that hollow fame.

The one truly wasting his talent was himself...

'Thank you, Bai Feng. Even if you didn't intend to help me, I appreciate this favor.'

Yu Ping'an let out a slow breath, admitting that in this one-sided competition, he had lost—thoroughly.

At this point, the obsession in his heart finally dissipated completely.

...

[Beep, detected that the host has won without fighting, even without personally taking action, Yu Ping'an has realized the gap between him and the host. Thus, Yu Ping'an has completely conceded, losing the will to compete with the host. Reward: Luck Value +3378, Early Stage Yuanying cultivation (can be extracted), Yin Yang Pattern Fragment *1]

Bai Feng: "?"

What’s going on? What happened to Yu Ping'an?

I didn’t do anything! Is it not enough that I defeated the disciples of Feng Ling Sect?

Why is this happening? Why did Yu Ping'an just give up? You're the child of destiny; how can you concede so easily?!

Bai Feng was baffled. His plan seemed flawless, so why was it falling apart one after another?

He fell into deep self-doubt.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

Bai Yu Mo asked softly, her face showing confusion—didn't they win? Why did Bai Feng still look so down?

"Nothing, just a bit tired," Bai Feng shook his head, getting up from his seat. "The competition should be over now; let’s head back."

Since the Northern Domain sects and the Central State Sacred Land only brought core disciples, they finished the competition in just one morning. By the afternoon, after completing the formations, it was basically over.

He heard there would be competitions for pills and weapon forging tomorrow, but that had nothing to do with him. He just wanted to go back and rest, away from the bad vibes of Feng Ling Sect and Yu Ping'an.

Bai Yu Mo hurried to catch up, secretly observing Bai Feng. She could sense that his mood seemed quite low, but she couldn't guess the reason.

Once they returned to their residence, Bai Yu Mo, who had been pondering all the way, didn't ask about it. Instead, she walked up to Bai Feng and suggested, "Brother, you look really tired. Do you want me to give you a massage?"

"You fought for a long time today too, right? You should rest early."

"It's fine! I have celestial bones; I'm in great shape!" Bai Yu Mo waved her hand. "I'll go cook first, and after dinner, I'll give you a massage!"

With that, she tied on an apron and walked into the makeshift kitchen.

---

Chapter 174: Is Your Massage Serious or Not?

While Bai Yu Mo was cooking, Bai Feng opened the system to check the third Yin Yang Pattern fragment he had obtained.

'I wonder if this fusion will grant me any new abilities.'

He extracted the Yin Yang Pattern fragment and began the fusion.

In the next moment, he felt his consciousness sinking, as if plunging into the dark depths of the sea, his body being pressed by the water.

He sensed something below, like a figure entangled by something. Suddenly, he felt a rope wrap around his waist, and he was pulled out of the 'water.'

Bai Feng opened his eyes. He first glanced at Bai Yu Mo, who was still cooking in the kitchen, then rubbed his throbbing head—this time, the experience was quite brief.

And what was that figure below? Was it a trapped demon? Or a fallen immortal?

It couldn't be something like the Dao of Heaven, could it?

No, this was just an illusion created during the fusion of the Yin Yang Pattern, just like the last two times. It didn't necessarily have any connection to reality.

Once he obtained a new Yin Yang Pattern, he would know if this was merely an illusion or if it truly hinted at something...

Ugh! Who needs the Yin Yang Pattern? He didn't want the system to stuff him with a ton of luck value again!

Bai Feng shook his head, stopping his wandering thoughts, and began to check the gains from the fusion of the Yin Yang Pattern.

His cultivation level hadn't increased, but his spiritual consciousness had strengthened significantly.

In addition, he gained a new ability, or rather, a fusion of the previous two abilities—thanks to the almost perverse 'copying' ability of the Yin Yang Pattern, he could observe battles and 'copy' the techniques and skills of the combatants, storing them in his segmented spiritual consciousness.

There were many ways to use this spiritual consciousness. For instance, he could directly use it to quickly acquire the combat skills of the copied individual, or he could use it for observation and learning.

He could even create puppets, inserting the recorded combat experiences into them, effectively gaining a powerful fighter.

'I feel like my style is becoming more and more like a villain.'

Bai Feng internally complained, but this new ability wasn't as great as he had hoped; it had many flaws.

First, he could only copy combat techniques; he couldn't replicate things like spiritual weapons, and even special abilities like Zuo Qiu's divine body were off-limits.

Moreover, the Yin Yang Pattern wasn't omnipotent; techniques like sword energy and fist momentum, which required long-term comprehension to master, couldn't be copied.

Secondly, the Yin Yang Pattern could only copy techniques; it couldn't replicate the 'awareness' of the opponent. So even if he copied their combat skills, it didn't guarantee victory.

'This is a bit of a letdown!'

Bai Feng felt that this new ability wasn't very helpful to him at the moment.

Wait!