The words of the persons who had just spoken spread in the audience. But the very next moment another sound was heard.
~Slap~
"How dare you say that! Watch your tongue or I'll cut it off myself!" Spoke an old man who was actually accompanying the accuser.
"Bu-but Elder! That…" before the person could continue though, another slap was given and he flew from his seat, falling to the ground.
~Thud~
"Not! One! Word! More!" The elder stressed.
The person could not hold on more and directly fainted due to the impact. Some teeth could also be seen fallen to the side of him and blood was leaking out of his mouth. But the elder paid no attention to his junior and simply looked at Qing Yuan Tiu with a wry expression.
"Please forgive my junior, senior Qing Yuan Tiu. He is naïve and does not know the way of the world." The old man apologized.
"It is fine…" Qing Yuan Tiu said while shaking her head.
None of the others dared to speak after seeing that exchange and knew better to talk. Qing Yuan Tiu stood right there on the stage as it was obvious she was the finalist along with Lin Mu. It wouldn't make sense for her to leave it.
But while the audience was confused about the whole fight and how Enlai Lan had acted, Qing Yuan Tiu was even more confused about it. She wondered if Qing Yuan Tiu had given up the fight on his own or something. By now, the healers had come to check up on Enlai Lan and found him to be normal.
Though he was still not speaking and seemed to be reeling in from the shock.
"Lord Enlai Lan! Can you hear us?" The healers tried asking.
"…Yes, I can…" Enlai Lan spoke after a delay.
His face was rather fallen and he was wondering what had gone wrong. He had a big plan that he was supposed to be doing after he won the competition, but now that he had lost in such a manner there was no way he would be able to do it.
Another thing that scared him was that he seemed to have lost memories of those two seconds between the start of the fight and the moment he was sent flying. He thought for a bit and come to a few conclusions.
One, either he was mistaken and lost the memories due to the shock, or something had caused this. Which could be a poison or some kind of technique. But from all the techniques that Enlai Lan knew of that could cause something like this, they needed to make direct contact with him, or that he needed to see them execute the technique to take effect.
Such techniques could be executed through two modes, either visually or through sound. But Enlai Lan was sure that neither had he heard anything nor seen someone use a technique like that. At first, he doubted Qing Yuan Tiu but then passed over that thought as it was quite unlikely.
A technique like that was not easy to learn, and one would have to specialize in them to become good enough to affect a core condensation realm cultivator like him. This only left him with one choice,
"Poison… I've been drugged…" Enlai Lan muttered to himself.
As soon as he came to this conclusion, his eyes darted around. Suspicion rose in his mind, and the first part he thought of was the Wu Family. He had come here to demonstrate his ability and represent his clan's power. He knew that there were some dealings in the secret between the clans, and him winning against Wu Hei would benefit them.
So the first person he thought of was Wu Hei. But after a minute he realized that he wouldn't do something like that in a high profile event like this. It would be too problematic and the political mess it would open up would be counterproductive to Wu Hei instead.
From what Enlai Lan knew, Wu Hei was a rather reclusive person and did not like to get involved in external matters such as this. The man wasn't even at the core condensation realm and was more interested in his research and scholarly work rather than increasing his cultivation and gaining power.
'I need to be careful with this… throwing words wouldn't necessarily benefit me and would instead cause problems.' Enlai Lan thought to himself.
He simply stood up and went along with the healers to get checked properly. Enlai Lan wanted to see if he truly was drugged or not.
With Enlai Lana's departure, the referee decided to begin the next round.
"The final round will be starting now. Will the two fighters please take their places on the stage!" The referee ordered.
"Good luck brother Mu Lin." Wu Hei said in a calm tone.
Wu Hei wasn't really worried about Lin Mu not winning, rather he was worried about him doing something overwhelming which would cause more problems. Wu Hei had realized by this point that bringing Lin Mu was perhaps a bit too much.
"HA HA! Finally, it is brother Mu Lin's turn! Go and show them who's a true man!" Wu Teng said in his loud voice.
He would have patted or rather slapped Lin Mu on his back had it not been for the distance between them and his mother giving him a glare.
"We look forward to Lord Mu Lin's performance." The disciples of the Tri cauldron peony sect said.
"I thank everyone for their blessings…" Lin Mu said before heading down.
He walked up to the stage and cupped his hands in ceremony.
"Senior Qing Yuan Tiu, please give me guidance." Lin Mu said in a respectful tone.
"I ask the same of Lord Mu Lin." Qing Yuan Tiu replied with a calm expression.
Lin Mu nodded and look towards the referee to announce the start when he saw someone that shocked him.
"Peak Master Yi Deng has arrived!"
"Junior Elder Fa Shiu has arrived!"