Hayden, from his seat in the audience, smiled sinisterly. In exchange for killing Rocky, he gave the
disciple in yellow a magical pill made by the Summer Palace. This pill was meant to increase his
strength and speed, which was why the disciple took it without hesitation. What he didn't know was that
its potential side effects were to make the taker go berserk and lose control like a beast.
Of course, when Hayden had given him the pill, he didn't tell the disciple about its side effects.
Just as Hayden had planned, the disciple in yellow began to show symptoms of the side effects.
If Rocky was killed by this out-of-control disciple, it would be attributed to his bad luck. No one would
look into it. Hayden would get away with murdering Rocky easily.
Rocky, who could see the craziness in the disciple's eyes, dared not let his guard down. The disciple
tried to pounce on him like a mad dog, carelessly and clumsily. Rocky narrowed his eyes at him. He
could tell something was wrong. However, in the eyes of the onlookers, the disciple in yellow was just
attacking with all his might; they didn't notice how he was out of control.
'He must have taken some sort of pill to strengthen his body,' Rocky figured. 'Little did he know that his
clever trick would backfire on him like this...' However, Rocky knew that if he didn't end the battle
immediately and get this disciple some help, he would be lost forever. Time was of the essence.
Expression grim, Rocky suddenly stopped moving and faced the coming opponent head-on. When the
disciple in yellow saw this golden opportunity, his hands turned into massive claws. In the blink of an
eye, two huge claws appeared by Rocky's sides, poised to rip him apart.
However, Rocky didn't even attempt to dodge. Instead, he took a step forward. All of a sudden, a
strong spiritual power rushed out from his body and collided with the two huge claw shadows. A strong
wave of spiritual power swept over the arena under the impact of their collision.
But soon, the power of the massive claws grew stronger. Just as it was about to slash Rocky into
shreds, something remarkable happened. A sword shadow suddenly appeared behind the disciple and
knocked him on the back of his neck. Eyes rolling to the back of his head, the disciple then fainted on
the spot.
All the people in the audience were in a daze. In their eyes, the disciple in yellow just collapsed out of
nowhere since they didn't see how Rocky had attacked his opponent.
With the disciple in yellow lying on the ground, he began to twitch violently and foam at the mouth.
A tutor of their school immediately flew into the field and checked the situation of the disciple. He soon
found that the spiritual power in the disciple's body had completely lost control and that he was
spiraling into madness.
"Fortunately, you defeated him in time," the tutor told Rocky seriously. "A moment longer, his meridians
would've been torn apart!"
"Sir, please heal him as soon as possible; he might've taken some sort of pill or elixir," Rocky
cautioned.
The tutor nodded and took the disciple in yellow off the arena to begin the healing process.
All the while, the crowd had been watching in silence, totally stunned by what had just happened. It
was only when Rocky had walked out of the arena did the crowd burst into an uproar of confusion and
awe.
"Damn it! The secret pill didn't work!" Hayden cursed. Frustrated with the outcome, he left hurriedly.
Once Rocky had left the battlefield, Eunice approached him.
"You're amazing," she said sarcastically. "You managed to defeat a disciple who's stronger than you. In
such a short time, your strength has improved by leaps and bounds." Her tone was laced with shock
and confusion. She eyed him suspiciously, wondering how he had grown to be so strong in so short a
time.
"Isn't this why you asked me to enter the Sky-suppressing School with you?" Rocky cocked his
eyebrow at her. "So that if the both of us make it to the final battle, I'd let you win and you would be the
champion. And if you didn't make it, I would complete the task on your behalf. Isn't it good to hit two
birds with one stone?"
"Even so, I feel like you're keeping me in the dark here..." Just then, it dawned on Eunice that she
wasn't in control of Rocky. He kept doing things that were beyond her expectations.
"Don't worry," Rocky said mischievously. "I'm not hiding anything. Plus, you saved my life!"
His words sent a shiver down Eunice's spine. She couldn't help but feel a bit worried. After all, it was
her mission to enter the Sky-Suppressing School; she wanted everything to go according to plan.
"Anyway, don't be too reckless. If your opponent in the next round is stronger, just quit right away. Got
it?" Eunice ordered coldly.
"What?" Rocky frowned. "Are you sure you want me to quit?" Of course, Rocky didn't want to quit.
However, if Eunice insisted, he would give in. After all, he still needed her to inquire about the news of
Marcia and the other warriors from the Wild Spirit Land for him.
"Just do as I say," Eunice said seriously.
"Fine." Rocky crossed his arms over his chest.
Eyeing him warily, Eunice then turned around and left.
Rocky didn't loiter any longer and soon left as well.
The other three matches ended just after noon. The two other winners aside from Carla had Spiritual
Infant at the primary stage, so they weren't too strong.
Soon, matches for the second round were announced. Rocky and Carla would fight against the other
two disciples with primary stage Spiritual Infant.
Two hours later, the second round began.
"I can't just quit," Rocky muttered to himself when he saw how much weak his opponent was compared
to him. Winning would be too easy. Thus, he decided not to quit until he faced Carla.
It wasn't hard to imagine the result of the second round.
Because he easily won two rounds of the competition in a row, Rocky garnered a lot of attention. It was
unsurprising he was now regarded the dark horse among the newcomers.
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