30 minutes earlier.

"Let's start the second round!"

Xian Bu Yu was currently in good mood.

Thanks to her spoiled cousin, he finally got an opportunity to mess with Feng Xue, the object of his loathing.

Although today was the first time he met with Snowy, just because she had a seemingly quite close relationship with Snowy made Xian Buyun hate her.

He hated the proud and ambitious daughters of heaven like Feng Xue and Snowy the most, their presence made him remember her mother who abandoned him by dying not long after he was born.

People who still remembered his mother once told him that her mother was one of the most talented and devoted swordswomen in her generation.

She had already reached the middle-level Qi Transformation stage and comprehended the sword qi before she reach 20 years old.

It was predicted that if nothing happened to her, she might be able to condense a sword intent and became the esteem Sword Grandmaster under 50 years old.

Unfortunately, she was just a woman. Despite her high talent and potential, she couldn't escape the fate to be married as a sacrifice for her family to be a social climber and hugged the tight of the famous Qian clan.

Unable to forego her dream, his mother was unable to endure the backlash from her dao heart and eventually pass away after birthing Qian Bu Yu.

This made Xian Bu Yu view of women became twisted.

He always looked at women with disdain and rarely put a girl in his eyes. He always believes that no matter talented or powerful the girl was, she will always end up as her family's tool.

This made him always felt superior even if he was facing prominent geniuses like Zi Ling or Feng Xue.

He never considered that he might lose to a woman so he easily made a bet with an outrageous stake as he did with Snowy.

His results in the first round further solidified his confidence.

Though there were other geniuses like Meng Qi, The Qi Twins, and other 4-star talents, he still shone the brightest.

Xian Bu Yu began to move. He stomped his feet, dashing through several stairs in the blink of an eye.

The pressure on the first three stair sets couldn't weigh him down and the sword intent on the first and second gate could only left some superficial wound on his skin.

Other examinees who saw how smooth his progress was looked at him with awe and fear.

This kind of admiration was enough to boost his ego and made him advanced with even faster speed.

In only 10 minutes, Xian Bu Yun already reached the third gate.

In fact, he was the first among the examinees that had successfully climbed until the third gate.

However, the situation began to change for him.

The wound on his body increased significantly. His skin felt like scalped by knives again and again. He could no longer ignore the pain.

Even a genius like him had already felt slightly threatened by the sword intents in the third gate how strong will it be in the fourth gate and above?

When turned around and saw that many examinees' condition was even more wretched than him, his mood was quickly improving.

He looked around to find that he didn't see the girl he had a bet with.

He silently sneered in his heart, 'She didn't even put up a fight. I don't know why I felt uneasy before, it turns out that I just overthinking it. This round will be easy win again.'

He didn't think about it anymore and quickly summon his sword, intending to temper his Sword Qi with the help of sword intents here.

Xian Bu Yu swiftly performed several sword techniques fluently.

Many of his swords techniques were swift, precise, and unpredictable.

Almost all of them had been cultivated to great perfection.

No wonder that his talent in swordsmanship was said to be the best among Qian Family's current generation.

After several moves, Xian Bu Yu felt that he had gained some enlightenment and quickly sat down, assuming a lotus position to comprehend it further.

He ignored the scorching pain in his skin and began to meditate.

He quickly entered zen state, unaware that several minutes later his nightmare will soon begin.

***

Snowy arrived at the third gate and there she saw the three girls that start the climb with her and a person that Snowy wanted to see the most.

Xian Bu Yu sat in the lotus position seemingly focused on comprehending the sword intent unaware that Snowy looked at him with a glint in her eyes.

She also immediately sensed that the intensity of the sword intents here was ten times stronger than the second gate.

It didn't matter though because her sword intents quickly countered it and start to assimilate the sword intents here to strengthen itself.

Snowy practically treated the sword intents in every gate as a grinding stone.

"Wowwie, you look super fine~! I can't find any wound on your body either! I know it, you're really strong!" exclaimed Qi Ying'er who immediately came to Snowy as she arrived.

"How can you do it? It looks like the sword intents didn't do anything to you?" asked Qi Ning'er curiously.

Their words made many examinees put their attention on Snowy. They were shocked that, just as Qi Ying'er said, Snowy was untouched.

Xian Bu Yu also woke up from his zen state due to the arrival of Snowy. He scrutinized Snowy from head to toe and once again felt uneasiness surge from the deep of his heart.

There were many strangenesses about Snowy that made her felt unfathomable.

He felt a sense of danger rose inside his heart as he saw Snowy arrived unscathed.

There was a nagging feeling that told him that he wasn't the one who set a trap for Snowy to jump in, instead, he was the one who had been baited to dig some hole to be buried alive inside.

He suddenly felt chilled scrawling down his spine. Cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

'How can it be... No, no, I must be wrong. I'm still stronger than her, everything will be fine!' Xian Bu Yu tried his best to calm his loudly thumping heartbeat down.

He had a sudden urge to continue advancing to the next gate as he had a hunch that he will be in deep shit if he didn't do it now.

But, a chilling gaze that locked unto him made him difficult to move.

Many people also found it very shocking as they remembered that Snowy pass the qualification to enter the second round with the same 3-stars talent as them.

How can their condition differ greatly from her? Did she know a secret method to deal with the sword intents?

They remembered that she got a close relationship with Feng Xue and assumed that it was her who told the secret to Snowy.

They scowled and looked at snowy with envy and contempt.

How good it was to have a genius of high status in the sect as a friend?

Even someone with ordinary talent could be invincible with a bigshot friend.

Other examinees who also had some families or acquaintances as higher up in the Heaven Sword Sect like Meng Qi and Qian Bu Yu thought differently.

If even Snowy, who was only a close friend of Feng Xue—a mere inner disciple—, could know the secret. How could they not know about it?

Or she might be using some kind of treasure? Was she cheating?

This kind of reasoning was very appealing but lack common ground.

Snowy wasn't aware of what they thought, she looked at Qi Ying'er, Qi Ning'er, and Meng Qi and said, "You also not look so bad."

The three of them also didn't get injured that badly. They even fared better than Xian Bu Yu.

Although their clothes were tattered and some wounds appeared on their body. Their face was still rosy and exuded vitality. It seems that this level of sword intents were still within their limit.

'If their target is the fifth gate. they need at least this capable,' thought Snowy, nodded in approval.

"You three should try to comprehend the sword intents here, it could improve your Sword technique," suggested Snowy.

The three girls nodded and quickly tried to taking advantage of the swords intent here to assist their cultivation.

Snowy then shifted her attention to Xian Bu Yu whose face turned pale.

A faint smile appeared on her lips.

P.S. The Golden Ticket Counter had been reaching the 100 counts so tomorrow will be one bonus chapter for you all. And I also want to say my thanks for Curtiss1122, Resolute_bay, RackofLife, and other fans who still support me still today! Cheers!