“Understood,” Jayson said, nodding. Nevertheless, his shoulders remained arrogantly loose. In the matches that followed, Jayson plowed through two more Earthly Immortal Realm Level Four opponents. His Sky Havoc Sword Art split the air like a lightning cleaver, earning a seat among the final eight.

Across the brackets, Hendrix of the Seven-Star Sword Sect dazzled the crowd as well. His Seven Shooting Stars Sword Art blossomed into seven overlapping blades that turned overhead like the constellation itself, snaring every rival in a net of starlight and steel.

The quarter-final drew Jared against a disciple from the Glacial Sect, an Earthly Immortal Realm Level Five fighter whose Glacial Sword Art could freeze an opponent’s spiritual energy with a single breath.

At the opening gong, the disciple swept his sword and unfurled a curtain of frost mist that swallowed the platform whole. Inside that shivering cloud, needle-thin icicles rained down on Jared in relentless sheets, each shard alive with killing chill.

To the watchers below, Jared’s form slipped In and out of view like a man strolling through a garden.

Wherever the Dragonslayer Sword flashed, ice spears splintered, and the frost mist recoiled as though ashamed to touch him, leaving a widening circle of clear air around the cairn figure at its heart.

“T-This… This is that the legendary sword domain?” the opponent blurted, voice cracking like old wood.