The people in the audience couldn't help but cover up their ears as the loud noise assaulted their ears and made them shudder in their seats. They were also shocked at what had happened. One moment Lin Mu was dodging the greenish wind orbs from Qing Yuan Tiu and in the next, he suddenly punched the floor.
The power of that punch was completely on a different level, such that the floor was shattered and thick stone dust blew up in the air, clouding their vision. The ring was made of a black stone that was common and could be easily carved.
It was sturdy enough to handle a majority of attacks of the cultivators below Core condensation realm and most Qi refining realm cultivators would not be able to even crack it with their strength unless they had some unique qi skills.
Qing Yuan Tiu herself was knocked back and fell to the ground as the floor beneath her broke. She was in a daze from the force of the shock wave that punch had caused. It took her a moment to realize what had just happened when the terror got to her.
'He's hiding in the dust!' Qing Yuan Tiu thought.
She extended her spirit sense and scanned the area, trying to find Lin Mu. Qing Yuan Tiu couldn't say that she was that talented in refining spirit sense as her's was barely at the minimum level that the core condensation realm cultivators had. But even then, its range was large enough to check the entire area.
"Huh? Where did he go?" Qing Yuan Tiu said, feeling surprised.
'Did he leave the ring by any chance? But that would mean he lost the fight.' Qing Yuan Tiu thought and extended her spirit sense beyond the ring. But when she couldn't see him even there, she was utterly confused.
"NO! He must have a technique to mask his presence!" Qing Yuan Tiu realized and braced herself to defend.
But unlike what she was thinking, Lin Mu really wasn't on the ring. Rather, he had used the Fourth skill Fade and entered the parallel space. Just before he punched the floor with the Boulder collapsing fist, Lin Mu had shot out his spirit sense and made a guide towards the location of the junior elder Fa Shiu.
In the parallel space, Lin Mu rushed along with his spirit sense as a guide. His eyes were bloodshot as he pushed his body to the next level. Spirit qi was thrumming in his meridians as his muscles filled with power.
"It's now or never," Lin Mu muttered to himself before deactivating the fourth skill fade and appearing in the real world.
His short sword was already in his hand and packed with spirit qi. This was the most he had amplified it with till now, and he had used liquid spirit qi this time. As soon as he appeared there, he was just behind the Junior Elder Fa Shiu.
~Slick~
The short sword effortlessly pierced the base of Fa Shi's head, and Lin Mu touched the back of the man like lightning before storing it in the ring. His spirit sense shot back to the ring, and he faded away into the parallel space.
The audience was fully focused on the commotion happening on the ring and thus did not see the murder that had append just beside them. Even the Peak master Yi Deng was looking towards the ring, not paying attention to his surroundings.
Who would have thought that a nascent soul realm cultivators' lack of alertness would lead them to miss out on such an act. By now Lin Mu was already in the parallel space, moving towards the ring. In less than 2 seconds, he reached the ring and deactivated the skill.
But as soon as he did, he was hit with an orb that knocked him back and destroyed the robes that he was wearing.
Qing Yuan Tiu had suddenly sensed that Lin Mu had appeared to her right side and immediately acted. The time period for which Lin Mu had disappeared was less than seven seconds, and thus she had not dispelled that dust cloud right away.
But now that the greenish wind sphere struck Lin Mu, it also blew away all the dust that was there.
"Look! He's still there." Someone from the audience shouted.
Lin Mu was currently at the very edge of the ring and had stooped his fall by stabbing his hands through the stone ring. Although it had already been shattered into large pieces, it was still in its place. Lin Mu took a look at his shoulder that had been hit with the orb and saw that it was bruised.
But even then there was no external bleeding, and neither was there anything broken for him. The force of the orb had mostly been focused on knocking him back.
The audience didn't know what had happened and that Lin Mu had been hit with one of Qing Yuan Tiu's attacks. But the woman herself did and was shocked for the third time during the battle.
'How did he defend against it again? The first time was the barrier… but now?' Qing Yuan Tiu wondered.
Lin Mu gritted his teeth and knew that he had to be quick and end the fight. He didn't know whether the disappearance of junior elder Fa Shiu had been detected or not, but he wanted to be free from this fight before anything happened.
His lips lightly moved as chants started to come out of them. Qing Yuan Tiu who was looking at Lin Mu suddenly felt her mind getting dull, then in the next second, Lin Mu was right in front of her. She wanted to react, but it was as if her mind had been stuck in a bog, unable to move.
"Time to end it!" Lin Mu uttered as he grasped the hand of Qing Yuan Tiu like a clamp and threw her out of the ring.