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'The Divine Spirit Harp. I never imagined that I would meet such a powerful martial spirit in this low-leveled world,' Arthur was a bit shocked.

A few images worth of memories surfaced in his mind as he recalled how powerful the Divine Spirit Harp was.

He raised his head and saw that the aurora of the martial spirit indicated it was only at Tier 5 of the Profound Grade.

'That's impossible. The martial spirit I know should be above the heavenly rank, but what is different...'

'This girl's background must not be ordinary. Maybe that explains her arrogance. But unfortunately, she met me.'

Arthur was not afraid of the abilities of her martial spirit, which is able to put people into a very deep illusion.

But anyone with a strong will or a soul more powerful than the user will be able to resist the illusion cast by the music easily.

Still, very few people in the Gold Core Realm are able to resist.

This was probably why she was the second most powerful disciple.

'I will pretend to play along for now,' Arthur's expression displayed a bit of struggle.

He made it look like he was fighting against the illusion.

Julie noticed this and smirked, thinking, 'It's only a matter of time. You can't resist.'

Julie abruptly increased the intensity of the music and Arthur began to 'struggle' more fiercely.

"Finally, his winning streak will be coming to an end!"

Among the inner court disciple, one of them smiled victoriously as though they were the one fighting Arthur.

"This is to be expected. He was too arrogant and this will show him not to flaunt his meager strength."

"That's right, and even if he managed to win by a stroke of luck, we still have 'him'."

"Everyone, from what we have seen of this Invincible's character, he still will not submit to us with just this," one of them said thoughtfully.

"That is not a problem, this is only like a game for us. We haven't even started playing for real, hehe."

The inner court disciples of the Blood Sword Faction discussed as though Arthur had already lost.

'What is Master doing?' Luke was confused because he knows that Arthur can not be that weak.

'He is just toying with her,' Luke realized after thinking about it a bit.

But he still didn't understand why Arthur won't just defeat her and get it over with.

The melody on the stage continued and soon Arthur's gaze 'lost' focus and he stood there listless and unguarded.

Julie noticed this and smiled, "Checkmate."

Julie stopped the music and then she unsummoned her martial spirit and an actual Harp appeared in her hands from her storage ring.

She held the harp and raised her other hand and struck down.

"Piercing Melody!"

*Zhang!*

At the sound of the instrument, three lights shot at Arthur, toward his shoulders and abdomen.

*Swoosh!*

But Arthur who was supposed to be caught in an illusion suddenly disappeared much to Julie's shock.

"Checkmate...Nine Layered Waves..."

A wave of essence energy dropped down at her from above, sent by Arthur who appeared right above her.

But Julie's reaction was very fast and she swung her fingers at her harp and a shield covered her entirely.

*Shingh!*

But she panicked when she heard Arthur complete his words.

"... Eighth Layer!"

Eight waves of essence energy stacked together made contact with her shield and it shattered in an instant before she could reinforce it.

*Boom!*

The waves struck her and the place where she was standing got destroyed as pieces of the stage flew all over.

The destruction was massive and cause a small crater in the wide stage and large cracks that extended all the way to the edge of the stage.

The spectating elders were shocked when they saw the technique Arthur used.

"He had mastered up to the eighth layer?"

"Such power! He is indeed a Seven Star Battle genius!"

The destruction surprised many and those who still doubted Arthur's battle power were fully convinced after witnessing the destruction he caused.

And this was even more so when they recalled he had not used his martial spirit even at this point.

This meant that he had not gone all out yet.

"How did he break through? I thought he was done for this time!" The members of the Blood Sword Faction were not happy with this.

"Don't worry, he won't be victorious for long..." Even the lead disciple did not sound confident.

They had believed that Arthur won't even make it to the top ten but here they were and Arthur had always proved to be stronger than they thought.historical

"Invincible is so ruthless. How can he use such a powerful attack on a beauty like that?" An outer court disciple complained.

"Hands and feet have no eyes in battle. Haven't you heard such a saying before you meathead?" Another disciple mocked.

"Hey, look! She is still standing!"

At the edge of the stage, Julie's figure was revealed.

Some parts of her clothes were torn and her arm was bleeding.

She was breathing heavily and was almost out of essence energy due to using all the energy she had to defend herself.

'That attack, there was much more power to it than what should be possible. What did he do to it?' She stared deeply at Arthur.

"I...I admit...." Julie wanted to admit defeat but the words got stuck in her throat.

"Can't even admit defeat? Where is your honor?" Arthur sneered.

Julie gritted her teeth and literally forced out the words, "I admit defeat!"

*Swoosh!*

She left the stage in an instant and Arthur saw that she was quite fast.

'If she wasn't so arrogant, then she would have put up more of a fight,' Arthur shook his head.

He looked at the destruction he caused and wondered, 'Did I hit too hard?'

Arthur had used his strength intent and enhanced his overall power, and at the same time, he fused wind intent into the Nine Layered Waves attack for the first time.

He made such a decision in the heat of the moment to do a little experiment and see if he can use different elemental intents on his attacks.

And its destructive power did not disappoint him.

'After this, I will have to do some practicing as I might be able to evolve the techniques entirely!' Arthur felt excited and couldn't wait for the ranking battles to end.

"Invincible wins!"

His win was announced and he left the stage and waited for the final round where he would face the strongest disciple.

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------------End of Chapter------------

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Author's Note: I'mma try and do a little writing marathon...and see how much I can write and publish.

Wish me luck!