Chapter 842: Ch 592 - Just a Scratch

"..."Zhihan pressed her lips together even tighter.

Honestly, she felt like Yino’s tone was bordering on flirtatious.

But...

The stance he was taking was genuinely one of protecting her.

She couldn’t figure out what Yino was thinking, but his request wasn’t unreasonable, and his impression in her mind was far better than Lin Yuchen’s...

With that thought, Zhihan obediently sat back down as he’d asked.

Seeing the beauty return to his side, Yino couldn’t resist shooting Lin Yuchen a smug look.

Lin Yuchen was speechless. His eyes burned with jealousy and hatred, yet he was also genuinely curious. What kind of miracle plan could Yino possibly have in a situation this hopeless?

But Yino wasn’t telling him, and with Zhihan freezing him out, all Lin Yuchen could do was stand there and stare.

"Lady Pei, you’re sitting so far away. The secrets of heaven are about to leak out. Bring your face a little closer..."

Yino continued in that teasing tone of his.

Zhihan was growing more and more certain he was doing this on purpose. But Yino was far more tactful than Lin Yuchen, always landing precisely in that gray zone that left her caught between advancing and retreating. Never crossing the line enough to make her flip out in anger, yet always subtly enough to set her imagination wandering.

After deliberating, Zhihan still obediently did as he asked. She leaned in, tucked the hair behind her ear, and brought her cool, flawless face right up to Yino’s lips.

Yino smiled with satisfaction, leaned over, brought his mouth close to her ear, raised a hand to shield his lips, and whispered:

"My brilliant plan is this: we sit right here and watch, do absolutely nothing, and wait about thirty seconds for Lin Che to make a comeback from inside that abyssal demonic fog."

"...?!"

Zhihan’s face froze.

She turned to look Yino straight in the eyes, blinking as if she’d heard something ridiculous. But his gaze still held that same confidence of someone with everything under control.

His smile was like radiant, vigorous sunlight, so self-assured it actually made Zhihan question herself for a moment.

At some point, she suddenly remembered a question she’d once thrown back at him: "You think you understand Lin Che better than I do?"

Looking back now, those words filled her with shame.

Her own disciple. She didn’t believe he could turn things around in a desperate situation. And yet Yino, an outsider, had more faith in Lin Che than she did.

Maybe Yino really did understand Lin Che better than she ever had.

BOOM!!!

Mid-thought, another surge of pure yang energy erupted from the Dao Testing Pavilion downstairs, shooting straight into the sky.

Zhihan snapped back to reality and realized the thirty seconds Yino had just mentioned were already up.

At the same time, Lin Yuchen seemed to remember something. He rushed out past the curtain and pressed himself against the railing, staring down at the battle below.

Yino and Zhihan followed right behind.

The three of them stood on the seventh floor and looked down. The buzz-cut youth who’d been battered and bloodied, teetering on the edge of death, had somehow erupted with a second wave of pure yang true energy, even more powerful than the first.

He was like a small sun blazing in the darkness. Endless golden flames illuminated the abyss. The boy bent his knees into a horse stance, charged up, then launched himself skyward, punching through the fog.

Lin Che’s figure became a streak of golden afterglow. Fists clenched in midair, he descended from above and drove his right fist, wrapped in those golden-patterned bandages, straight into the face of the now-corrupted Lin Yu.

The punch warped Lin Yu’s face. Even the redness in his eyes cleared noticeably.

BOOM!!!

The black fog scattered. The black-robed youth from Divine Abyss Gate was slammed hard into the ground, cracking the floor of the Dao Testing Pavilion.

Lin Che pressed his advantage. Before the abyssal Demonic Qi could surge back, he drove an uppercut squarely into Lin Yu’s gut.

Golden pure energy flowed through his fist and coursed through Lin Yu’s entire body.

"Cough, guh!"

Lin Yu spat out a mouthful of blood. The dark forbidden curse on his forehead was dispelled by the pure yang energy, and his cultivation, which had swelled to late Nascent Soul stage, instantly dropped back to its usual early Nascent Soul level.

But this time, Lin Che didn’t throw a follow-up punch. Instead, he raised the arm without bandages and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Panting weakly, he gave a bitter smile.

"Give up. The evil techniques already backlashed against your lifespan. Your body’s weak now. If you take a few more of my punches, you might actually die here..."

"It’s just a tournament. We’ve got no grudge between us. Why go this far and risk your life?"

"..."

Lin Yu knelt on the ground, looking as though he’d just woken from a horrifying nightmare. He raised his head and stared blankly at the buzz-cut boy standing before him.

He drew a deep breath, eyes wide, then coughed up another mouthful of blood. His whole body looked like it had just returned from the gates of death, lips pale purple and trembling. "Thank you... for sparing my life, young hero..."

"I... I surrender."

The crowd erupted.

The presiding elder, seemingly having never witnessed a bout this intense, declared with palpable excitement, "This round goes to Lin Che of Jianlan Sect!!!"

The roar of applause was deafening.

Lin Che stood at the center of the Dao Testing Pavilion while thunderous clapping shook the arena below.

Another drop of blood slid from the corner of his mouth. But even so, the boy broke into the proudest smile he’d ever worn.

He lifted his face and looked up toward Jianlan Sect’s seats on the seventh floor.

"Master... your disciple won..."

The boy’s voice was faint and weak.

By the railing on the seventh floor, the woman in the black dress felt her heart tremble. The blue-green pupils of her eyes contracted slightly. A tangled mess of heartache and gratitude swelled in her chest, making her eyes sting.

And just then, the buzz-cut boy on the Dao Testing Pavilion waved his hand and grinned even brighter.

"Boss, look! I won! The sword dao you taught me really is godlike!!!"

This time, Lin Che was apparently so excited that despite his weakened body, he raised his voice and waved frantically.

Zhihan froze again.

She noticed it once more. When Lin Che waved at Yino, his hand was still wrapped in those fist bandages, the ones Yino had apparently given him.

"You... you taught him sword dao?"

Zhihan turned to the white-robed young man beside her, disbelief written all over her face.

Yino’s lips twitched, but bathed in the triumphant atmosphere, he didn’t want to be a buzzkill. He flashed a mysterious smile. "Lady Pei has cultivated the sword for a hundred years. Surely you can recognize what kind of sword dao that was?"

Pei Zhihan was baffled. She tried to recall the details of Lin Che’s bout, but no matter how she looked at it, the kid had been on stage for less than five minutes before casually tossing aside the sword she’d given him. Then he started throwing punches with whatever miraculous bandages Yino had given him.

And what was even more unbelievable was that at the start, the bandages on Lin Che’s hands had been white. Plain and unremarkable, like random strips of cloth picked up off the ground...

But as the fight intensified and pure yang energy erupted from Lin Che’s body, the bandages on his hands began to glow with golden, sacred patterns.

Zhihan wasn’t stupid. Yino had been willing to casually throw out a Spirit Immortal realm ancient artifact as a bet.

If those bandage wraps really came from Yino, there was no way he’d actually give Lin Che some random strip of cloth.

Those wraps had to be some kind of high-tier artifact. She just couldn’t see through their secrets.

"Winning with fists instead of a sword... does that really count as sword dao?"

As she said this, Zhihan turned to look at Yino, and despite herself, a trace of warmth and amusement softened her features.

The idea sounded absurd, but riding the high of that impossible comeback, she couldn’t help being charmed by him.

"Using fists as swords. How is that not sword dao?"

Yino waved his hand dismissively and chuckled along with her.

Zhihan watched him. Her lips pressed together slightly, and then, as if she couldn’t hold it in anymore, a soft "pfft" of laughter escaped. She quickly raised a hand to cover her mouth before she could lose her composure in front of the young man.

"What are you laughing at? Looking down on the sword dao I taught him? I’m asking you, did Lin Che win or didn’t he?"

Yino raised an eyebrow.

"He won... he really did win. Thank you, young master, for instructing my disciple in the sword on behalf of his incompetent master..."

Zhihan hid her laughter behind her hand, her eyes curving into crescents.

At some point, she’d stopped harboring suspicion toward this young man who’d been rumored to be a spoiled playboy. Instead, she found Yino amusing, with a quiet warmth and kindness beneath the wit.

Honestly, Zhihan was starting to understand why Yuyan would admire a young man like this.

Yino...

Everything he’d done in Zhihan’s room today truly matched what Yuyan had described: a genuine, upright man.

"Good that you know..."

Yino sighed.

But right when Zhihan’s mood was at its best, Yino’s body suddenly shuddered. He raised a hand to his mouth and coughed hard, twice.

"...?!"

Zhihan reacted instantly, rushing forward with concern. But Yino waved her off, pretending nothing had happened.

He swallowed the blood back down, then turned around as if everything was fine.

"Brother Yuchen, looks like my brilliant plan worked after all."

"..."

Lin Yuchen had been staring blankly at the scene below for a long time. He finally snapped out of it, his face dark, his eyes vicious.

"Hmph. He barely scraped through one round of the tournament. There are still at least four more bouts before the top four are decided! If Lin Che can’t place in the top three, you still can’t protect Lady Pei’s Primordial Sacred Land!"

The moment he finished, anxiety and frustration resurfaced on Zhihan’s face.

"Lin Che will win." Yino said it like it didn’t matter.

"Ridiculous. You think he’ll win because you say so?" Lin Yuchen’s hatred deepened.

"Of course not. He’ll win on his own merit."

"Fine. We’ll see. This young master is genuinely curious how Lin Che plans to crack the top three in a tournament packed with the best of the best."

With that parting shot, Lin Yuchen turned and left without looking back.

Yino watched him go, then silently turned, pushed through the curtain, and sank into the main seat in Jianlan Sect’s room.

Zhihan seemed to sense something. She hurried in after him.

"Help me close the curtain. Don’t let my senior sister worry..."

Yino’s voice was weak. He covered his mouth and coughed more.

Zhihan did as she was told immediately.

The moment the curtain fell shut, Yino doubled over and vomited a large mouthful of dark blood.

Zhihan gasped and rushed to hold him up.

"You, what happened..."

"It’s nothing. Just a minor injury from taking Lin Yuchen’s Great Vehicle stage pressure earlier..."

Yino waved his hand, trying to push Zhihan away.

But this time, before he could finish speaking, his body went limp and he nearly collapsed to his knees. Zhihan caught him just in time, pulling him into her arms.

"Don’t talk anymore! Let me channel energy to heal you right now!"

"This is my fault. I forgot you’re only at the Nascent Soul stage. I should’ve shielded you from his pressure when he was right there..."