“Shouldn’t there be a first-come, first-served rule? You…” The man frowned again.
“You’re thirty-five or thirty-six years old and only at the third-rank Holy Realm. If I were you, I wouldn’t even have the face to participate in this selection!” The woman interrupted him.
Without waiting for the man to respond, she added, “And you still have the nerve to whine here. Aren’t you ashamed?”
The two staff members standing by the light pillar showed no reaction to their quarrel, as if it had nothing to do with them.
“Don’t think that just because you’re a woman, I will…” The man was infuriated by her words.
“What will you do?” The woman interrupted him again.
“If you’re not convinced, you can make a move. If you can take one of my attacks, I’ll let you go first and even apologize to you. How about that?”
“You asked for it!” The man said in a deep voice. “There are so many people here as witnesses. Don’t blame me if you get hurt!”
“Ignorant!” The woman sneered. “If you want to fight, hurry up. I’m in a rush!”
“Aren’t you going to intervene?” Ivy asked the two staff members.
“This is their own business. It has nothing to do with us. Why should we intervene?” one of them replied.
Ivy was slightly taken aback.
“There is competition everywhere in this world, including in the Institute you’ll enter later. There will be competition among students too,” the staff member continued.
“You can’t expect someone to come out and uphold justice for you every time you encounter trouble. That’s unrealistic!”
“But it’s clear that she was wrong first…” Ivy frowned.
“Only children keep talking about ‘right and wrong’ all the time!” The man interrupted her again.
Ivy opened her mouth, wanting to say more, but Harleen tugged at her sleeve.
“Ivy, let it go. Let’s see their duel first.”
“Alright.” Ivy took a deep breath and nodded.
Meanwhile, the woman and the man had already moved to an open area nearby.
“Make your move!” the woman said.
“Alright!” The man responded deeply, unleashing his full aura.
He swung his hands in wide arcs, creating several afterimages in the air before forming a large scimitar that attacked the woman with a gust of wind.
“With such little strength, you still dare to show off!”
As the man’s full-force attack approached, the woman showed a disdainful expression.
As she spoke, she took two steps forward and waved her hand. A sword formed from Chi power shot forward at high speed.
As the woman made her move, Harleen and Ivy sensed her martial aura.
Her cultivation was not weak-sixth-rank Holy Realm!
At her age, having such cultivation was quite impressive!
The man’s attack was easily shattered by the sword’s strike, leaving him no chance to resist as it continued towards him with unstoppable force.
The man didn’t expect the woman’s skills to be so formidable. His pupils contracted sharply as he felt a suffocating sense of death envelop him.
He wanted to dodge, but the sword’s speed left him no time to react. He could only watch as the cold gleam rapidly enlarged in his pupils.
Just as the sword was about to reach him, it was blocked by a burst of sword energy and exploded with a roar.
The powerful shockwave sent the man flying three or four hundred meters away, spitting out blood but saving his life.
“Hmm?”
Seeing this, the woman turned to Harleen and said coldly, “Are you standing up for him?”
As she spoke, she released her spiritual power to probe Harleen’s cultivation but found nothing.
This was something Aubree had instructed Harleen and Ivy not to reveal easily.
“Show mercy when possible. Why push things to the extreme?” Harleen responded calmly. “Besides, you were wrong first, weren’t you?”
“Heh, preaching to me?” The woman sneered. “Do you know who I am?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know,” Harleen shook her head. “You’ve already won. You can go ahead and take the test now. Let’s end this here.”
“What if I insist on crippling him?” The woman responded coldly.
“You better not go too far!” Ivy said, looking at her.
“Really?” The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly as her tone darkened. “Then I’ll show you what ‘too far’ means!”
She charged at the man again, her aura rapidly rising as she formed a violent seal with her hand and smashed it towards him.
Judging by her stance, she wasn’t holding back at all. If she hit him with this move, he would be crippled if not dead.
“That’s too much!” Harleen frowned and stepped forward, sweeping out a gust of wind with her hand to block the attack.
Both attacks exploded simultaneously, sending the woman retreating a hundred meters with blood trickling from her mouth.
This was clearly Harleen showing mercy; otherwise, with her strength, the woman would have been down already.
“You dare hurt me?” The woman steadied herself and looked at Harleen with a twisted expression. “I swear I’ll cripple you today!”
As she spoke, her aura surged again to its peak.
She then drew out a sharp sword from her side.
As soon as the sword was unsheathed, a dense killing intent filled the air, causing many around to shiver involuntarily.
It was obvious that this sword was no ordinary weapon!
The woman charged at Harleen again with a fierce shout, wielding the sharp sword.
“Harleen, that sword is a ninth-rank divine artifact. It can boost her power by at least one and a half levels. Don’t underestimate her!” Aubree’s voice reached Harleen’s ears as she quickly approached.
Originally, Aubree wasn’t allowed into the candidate area as a family member, but seeing the situation unfold, she naturally came over to check.
“Got it!” Harleen nodded.
The opponent was at the sixth-rank late-stage of Holy Realm. Even with an additional one and a half levels of power boost, she would only reach eighth-rank Holy Realm strength.
So Harleen didn’t take her too seriously.
After all, with her current strength, she could easily kill an ordinary ninth-rank Holy Realm warrior with one strike.
As she spoke, she didn’t even draw her sword. Just like before, she swept out a gust of wind with her hand to meet the attack.
“Stop!”
At that moment, an elder named Matthew Lawrence suddenly appeared between them.
A powerful aura erupted from him.
Harleen and the woman had no power to resist this aura and were both pushed back a hundred meters each, feeling their blood churn within them.