"Lin Lei, come out!"
Olivia's furious shout still echoed throughout the martial arena, but Lin Lei paid no heed. He remained kneeling beside his younger brother, speaking to him as though he hadn't heard Olivia's voice at all.
High in the air, Olivia's brow furrowed.
"What is Master Lin Lei doing? Didn't he hear?"
"He couldn't have failed to hear—is he afraid of Olivia?"
The confusion spread through everyone in the arena. After that single shout, Olivia fell silent, coldly staring down at Lin Lei from midair.
It was only after finishing his conversation with his brother that Lin Lei straightened up and turned to face Olivia overhead. In that instant—one stood on the ground, the other hovered in the sky, their gazes locking across the open space.
Their eyes seemed to collide in midair.
"Olivia," Lin Lei said with a faint smile, his tone calm. "Ever since I entered the O'Brien Empire, I've constantly heard people mention your name—the genius Sword Saint. To be honest, reaching the Saint Realm at forty doesn't strike me as all that remarkable."
Olivia's brow tightened slightly.
That provocative remark sent a surge of excitement through the eighty thousand spectators. Good heavens—these two geniuses were clearly going head-to-head!
Now *this* was a battle between true geniuses.
Wotton's fight against Brunner and Lin Lei's battle with Olivia were clearly on two entirely different levels. Their confrontation would be the clash between the two most outstanding talents on the entire Yulan Continent.
The great battle was about to begin!
Lin Lei blurred, and in an instant he appeared on the arena platform. By the time he landed, the afterimage below was only just fading away.
Terrifying speed.
"Chi chi~~" Black dragon scales rapidly spread across Lin Lei's entire body. Bony spikes jutted out from his back, elbows, and forehead, while a dragon tail covered in dark, lustrous scales reflected a cold gleam.
Lin Lei rose into the air, his dark-golden pupils fixed on his opponent.
Even someone as composed as Olivia couldn't suppress a flicker of surprise at the sight of such a fearsome transformation, though it vanished almost at once.
"A Saint Realm Dragon Blood Warrior?" Olivia gazed at Lin Lei as a terrifying battle aura erupted from his body. "Without transforming, you aren't in the Saint Realm. So this state still isn't the Dragon Blood Warrior's peak. What a pity, what a pity…"
Olivia genuinely longed to face the legendary Dragon Blood Warrior at the height of his power.
"Olivia, a man should know his own limits," Lin Lei's cold voice rang across the arena. "How can an ultimate warrior possibly be compared to the likes of you?"
The two Saint Realm prodigies faced each other in the sky above the arena. Every spectator held their breath, watching this unprecedented battle with rapt attention.
"Lin Lei!"
Olivia reached behind his back. He carried two long swords there. The hilt of one was translucent, resembling ice, while the other was pitch-black.
"To deal with you, the Light and Shadow Sword alone will suffice." Olivia drew the translucent blade from his back. It was identical to Brunner's sword—the Ice Dream Sword.
Lin Lei flipped his hand, and the eerie Purple Blood flexible sword appeared.
"Enough talk. Strength is proven in battle, not in words," Lin Lei said, utterly unbothered by Olivia's arrogance.
Confidence gleamed in Olivia's eyes as he gazed at the Ice Dream Sword in his hand and murmured, "When I first entered the Saint Realm, I traveled the world after defeating Di Long. I encountered a total of eighteen Saint Realm powerhouses and defeated every single one. Unfortunately, not one of them could match my speed."
A hushed gasp rippled through the eighty thousand spectators.
No one had known that Olivia had fought eighteen more Saint Realm experts.
Olivia looked at Lin Lei, a glint of confidence in his eyes. "Those who can't keep up with my speed are guaranteed to lose." As he spoke, the surface of the Ice Dream Sword began to glow. A bright, pure white radiance flowed across the blade.
Lin Lei's guard went up immediately.
He remembered clearly that when Brunner had used the "Light and Shadow Sword," only a golden light had flowed across the Ice Dream Sword. Later, Brunner had apparently employed some forbidden technique, and a trace of white had appeared along with the gold. That thin sliver of white had increased the sword's power by dozens of times. It had been unable to so much as scratch Wotton before, yet after that white light appeared, it pierced straight through Wotton's palm and then through the scales on his chest. And all Brunner had gained was a mere sliver of white.
But this was Olivia—pure, blazing white light.
"The power of this will likely be far more terrifying than Brunner's desperate strike," Lin Lei thought, steeling himself.
"Lin Lei, you genius—today may well be the day you fall," Olivia said in a low, calm voice. Then the white light blazed to life again and again.
Each time a white flash appeared, another afterimage of Olivia materialized above the arena. The frequency far exceeded Brunner's when he had used the same technique. In the blink of an eye, one hundred and eight Olivias filled the sky above the platform.
The crowd was stunned into silence.
"Third Brother." Yeru and Rein were so tense that beads of sweat formed on their foreheads. Wotton, the Bak brothers, Jenny, Rebecca, and many others watched anxiously.
By contrast, the wounded Brunner looked on with a confident smile.
"Brunner, your brother's Light and Shadow Sword has already reached the state of Perfection," said the Bedrock Sword Saint Hadeson, seated on the judges' platform, with a smile directed at Brunner.
Brunner's face, too, was filled with confidence.
Demon-like Lin Lei hovered in the sky, surrounded by one hundred and eight Olivias. Even Lin Lei had to admit the speed was truly terrifying.
"Lin Lei, are you ready?" Olivia actually warned him.
It was clear—Olivia was supremely confident.