Southriver Regional Martial Arts Tournament, Full-Scale War

Serena Yan couldn't help but let out a soft gasp, her voice trembling, "Don't!"

"Don't? Look at you, all worked up!" Ryan Ling teased, his hand sliding to Serena's sensitive spot. She nearly collapsed from pleasure—clearly, just that touch had her totally melting.

"I—I..." Serena stammered, her face flushing red. Her hips squirmed unconsciously as she broke free from Ryan's grip.

"Trying to run? No way you're escaping my grasp tonight!" Seeing Serena looking so tempting, Ryan yanked her back into his arms, going straight for her hips.

Last time, stuck in that Dragon-Trap Golden Bowl, they didn't get to finish what they started. This time, no matter what, he was going to see it through.

Plus, after absorbing all that thunder, Ryan's body was burning up. If he didn't vent this fire soon, he'd be seriously uncomfortable.

"Wait! Hold on, don't be so impatient—answer me one thing first!" Serena blocked him with a hand.

"Quit stalling. Spit it out!" Ryan swallowed hard, a little exasperated.

"Just one question: am I prettier, or is Lily?" Serena stared at him, eyes sparkling.

"Easy—of course Lily's prettier!" Ryan grinned cheekily.

"You? I—I’m not doing this with you anymore!" Serena pouted, turning away and giving Ryan a little punch.

"You seriously get jealous of your own daughter? Damn, you’re something else!" Ryan just let Serena punch away, but his hands were busy squeezing her hips.

"Yep, jealous. Totally jealous!" Serena acted like a spoiled kid, even though she was thirty-something. At that moment, her cute little tantrum was honestly kind of adorable.

"Lily might be pretty, but I like you more. Forget one Lily—even ten of her couldn’t compare to you. Haven’t you heard that saying?" Ryan grinned.

"What saying?" Serena looked at him, puzzled.

"Older women cure inner fire!" Ryan said, and with that, he pinned Serena down beneath him.

"You’re such a perv!" Serena yelped, unable to hold back a cry.

Outside, the wind and rain mixed with her cries, echoing through all of Purple Gold Mountain.

It was a wild night—passionate, crazy, and unforgettable.

With the power of Thunder Essence, Ryan’s strength skyrocketed. He’d finally mastered his first lightning-element Immortal-dao technique, which he named Thunder Slash. The destructive force of this move was no weaker than any beginner Dao Artifact.

His Foundation-Building power rose again, his Ghost-King Robe grew even more suppressive, and, to his surprise, the Hell Furnace’s hellfire seemed to level up as well. Originally, he could just summon flames, but now the quality of those flames had clearly improved—probably thanks to all the Void Realm bodies he’d fed it lately.

"Ryan, thunder and fire are basically two sides of the same coin. Now that you’ve got Thunder Slash, you should also start cultivating a fire-element technique. The Hell Furnace has a brutal art—Asura Wildflame Art. It’s not quite Immortal-dao level yet, but its power is nothing to sneeze at. Once you master it, you can summon four giant Asura Fire Demons—Chi, Mei, Wang, Liang. Their sky-piercing wildflames are second only to Thunder Slash!" The Ghost Elder piped up as soon as the Hell Furnace reacted.

"Hell yeah, Asura Wildflame Art sounds badass! Paired with Thunder Slash, it’s like a tiger growing wings. I’ll start training right now!" Ryan didn’t hesitate; he was obsessed with leveling up every aspect of his power—defense, offense, Immortal arts, ghost-dao, you name it.

Of course, with the Southriver Regional Martial Arts Tournament right around the corner, it wasn’t just about his own training. After coming back from Purple Gold Mountain, Ryan quickly picked the official eight-person lineup for East River State: Jason Lin, Warren Yuan, Harvey “Million” Jin, and Frank Qin—his four iron brothers, obviously. Plus War God Gabriel Xue, Medicine King Simon Sun, and Angie Chen as the female powerhouse, plus Ryan himself—eight in total.

That’s the standard for every team: eight fighters, knockout format, lose and you’re out. It’s like the Wuzhou City tournaments, only way more intense—and with way more contestants.

It’s not just Jinling and East River State—Su, Min, Yue, E, Xiang, and tons of other provinces all send their own teams. Tibet sends a Living Buddha squad, and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan send observer delegations.

So yeah, the tournament is huge—practically a national event. Warriors from all over Jiangnan and even all of China flock to it. Audience numbers hit the millions. Each tournament lasts at least a week, and rich fans even charter private jets to watch. The hype almost rivals the World Cup.

With such a massive battle ahead, Ryan wasn’t about to slack off. He boosted himself and every other teammate in every way possible: five Void Realm pills each to push their cultivation, three refined Void Realm corpses from the Hell Furnace for defense training, and ten Revival Pills per person—each one brewed from Heavenwood liquid. That meant every fighter could hit peak Yellow-Tier Void Realm, maybe even Profound-Tier, and had ten extra lives on top. As long as you weren’t totally annihilated—body and soul—you could pop a Revival Pill and come back. That’s some serious cheat mode!

Of course, Ryan knew the bigshots would want revenge. This time, he wasn’t taking any chances. He turned the entire Yan Family estate into his main fortress, laying down a massive Heavenwood formation inside and out, then topping it off with a wood-element Sky-Sealing Divine Seal. That way, he could go all-out in battle without worrying about his friends and family.

This time, it’s a war of the weak versus the strong—a direct challenge to all of Jinling’s authority. Ryan’s Ling Clan Grand Ceremony, the destruction of the Shadow-Soul Cult, the execution of Zelin Wang… all of it pissed off Jinling’s top dogs. He knew retaliation was coming.

So, with all his escape routes ready for his friends and family, Ryan could finally let loose and go all in.

This battle is basically life or death. No rules. Only winning or losing. Hell, maybe only survival.

The last three days flew by. Finally, the colossal Southriver Regional Martial Arts Tournament kicked off in Jinling, with tens of thousands of people hyped and waiting!

Originally, the opening ceremony was set for 9 a.m., but by the night before, the stadium was already packed—people were scared they wouldn’t get seats, so they camped out early.

Each province’s banners were raised high, and promo videos for every team played in rotation. Whenever locals saw their own province’s video, they’d cheer like crazy—especially Jinling’s segment, which was just pure chaos.

But here’s the catch: East River State used to be the hottest team, even favored to upset Jinling. But ever since Quentin Qin broke through to Earth-Tier Void Realm, East River’s momentum tanked. Their promo video got pelted with rotten eggs and veggie leaves by the Jinling crowd—the whole scene was a mess.

By 9 a.m., most teams had arrived—except for Jinling and East River State. Jinling, as host city, always enters last, but East River’s delay had everyone talking.

Rumors buzzed: supposedly, that ‘legendary East River prodigy’ Ryan Ling had vanished. Word was, after hearing about Young Master Qin’s Earth-Tier breakthrough, Ryan got cold feet and bailed.

"Doesn’t matter if he’s scared—drag him out anyway! We need to beat that punk to death in front of everyone. He’s caused way too much trouble in Jinling; time to wipe him out!"

"Damn right—he needs to die. Let him know that a broke loser from East River State can’t possibly stand up to Jinling. He’s got a death wish!"

...

Just then, a shout rang out from outside: "They’re here—the East River State team has arrived!"

In an instant, every eye turned to the entrance...

(To be continued in the next chapter. Click next page for more awesome content!)