Chapter 152: Open Cards and Hidden Hands

A single chime of a bronze gong echoed from afar, drawing closer until it completely enveloped the entire martial arts arena.

Caught within the reverberations of the gong, whether it was formidable experts like Kaima Yuhito, the veteran lion Tang Miaoxing, and Zhang Wang, or the ordinary disciples standing all around, they all looked as if their three souls and seven mortal spirits had been instantly ripped away. They stood frozen in place with rigid expressions, completely dazed.

The only person remaining who could move was Ye Yan.

He slowly rose from his chair, lazily stretched, and strolled casually past Kaima Yuhito, Tang Miaoxing, and the others. Stepping down from the supervising platform, he made his way directly over to Miyamoto Isshin.

"Little fellow, you shouldn't play with such dangerous weapons... Wielding swords and guns gets people killed."

With these words, right under Miyamoto Isshin's glaring, bloodshot eyes, Ye Yan snatched away the short blade adorned with an ivory hilt and blue jade inlaid patterns.

"A fine blade, quite ornate."

He twirled the white dagger in his hand for a moment, casually spun it into a blade flower, and then with a flick of his wrist, tossed it right back into the scabbard at Miyamoto Isshin's waist.

Although Ye Yan was an outsider who knew nothing about swords, he was not blind. Just from the exquisite ornamentation of this pair of long and short blades, he could tell they were exceedingly valuable.

This scene scared Kaima Yuhito, who was frozen on the platform, out of his wits. He was terrified that Ye Yan might make a sudden twitch and perform a ritual disembowelment on this sole surviving sprout of the Miyamoto family... That would truly be a disaster.

Fortunately, that did not happen.

Though caught within the coverage zone of the combined Soul-镇魂 Gong, as a top-tier expert, Kaima Yuhito possessed the highest resistance among everyone present and was the first to regain consciousness. Even so, though his awareness had returned, he still could not control his body.

After advancing to the Sovereign rank, all of Ye Yan's numerical attributes had been enhanced, including the combined Soul-鎮魂 Gong, whose power had nearly multiplied severalfold.

Previously, when Old Man Ma wielded the Soul Gong alongside Ye Yan to execute the combined technique, he would suffer minor injuries, but nothing too disruptive.

Now, however, collaborating with Ye Yan to use the combined Soul Gong once would not only injure Old Man Ma, but likely leave his legs so weak he wouldn't be able to get out of bed for three days.

The aftershocks were terrifyingly immense.

Having dealt with Miyamoto Isshin, Ye Yan lowered himself and incidentally checked on Tang Qingshu, who lay in a pool of blood.

Tang Qingshu's condition was not as abysmal as one might imagine. Lying there in the gore, he looked terrifyingly like a bloody gourd.

In reality, however, the slash delivered by the old thief Miyamoto had been executed with utmost precision, missing all vital organs. For a transcendent with a robust physique, such injuries would heal without issue after a period of recuperation.

After inspecting the wounds, Ye Yan hoisted the unconscious Tang Qingshu and tossed him toward Li Lianxing and the others in the safe zone, before leisurely walking back to the supervising platform to sit down.

By this time, Kaima Yuhito on the stage had finally recovered from the bombardment of the Soul Gong.

Though he had regained consciousness, Kaima Yuhito still felt his limbs were exceptionally stiff, as if his body no longer belonged to him. He felt like a marionette on strings, awkward and ill at ease in every way.

"You woke up quite fast..."

Looking at Kaima Yuhito, who was gingerly moving his limbs, Ye Yan, who was leaning back in his chair smoking a cigarette, remarked casually. The latter awkwardly gripped his hilt and looked at Ye Yan with a gaze full of extreme apprehension. "Just what kind of person are you?"

Kaima Yuhito had always known Ye Yan was not weak, but after being impacted by the Soul Gong, he was now truly able to comprehend Ye Yan's terrifying nature.

How long had a single chime of the gong frozen him? Ten seconds? Half a minute? Even now, he had not fully recovered...

If the two of them were enemies, the brief period of trance he had just experienced would have been enough for Kaima Yuhito to die a hundred times over.

Thinking of this, a lingering fear gripped him, and he looked at Ye Yan with a terror akin to facing a tiger.

When he had previously sensed the Grand Sovereign-level pressure emanating from Ye Yan, Kaima Yuhito had thought he was just overthinking things.

After all, at Ye Yan's age, becoming a Spiritual Master was already an utterly exaggerated feat.

Yet now, he felt it was entirely possible that Ye Yan was a Grand Sovereign whom the Dragon Country had kept hidden away from the public eye as a trump card.

Moreover, a Grand Sovereign in his early twenties—wasn't that simply too terrifying?

Could he be the next Zhang Zhiwei?

Although the actual combat prowess of this Grand Sovereign Ye Yan remained unknown for the time being, the mere fact that he had crossed that threshold placed him at the absolute pinnacle of the world.

No other metrics were needed.

The deeper he thought about it, the more Kaima Yuhito felt his hair stand on end, as if he had uncovered a startling conspiracy.

Perhaps it was because Celestial Master Zhang Zhiwei had occupied the number one spot on the rankings for years while rarely descending the mountain or making any overly obvious moves, combined with the Dragon Country's massive native population base—yet with no one else even able to make it onto the Spiritual Master rankings—that it gave everyone the illusion that the only formidable fighter in the Dragon Country was the old celestial master, causing people to unconsciously overlook everyone else.

"Damn it, I underestimated the Dragon Country."

Kaima Yuhito's expression grew complex; the emotions hidden in his eyes resembled a statistical chart, reflecting both deep apprehension and profound bewilderment.

Naturally, Ye Yan could not possibly guess the elaborate mental gymnastics Kaima Yuhito was going through.

Seeing the man standing there in silence for so long, Ye Yan could only shrug helplessly, as he fundamentally could not understand what his opponent was muttering about.

Just as Ye Yan and Kaima Yuhito were looking at each other in mutual confusion, Tang Miaoxing, Zhang Wang, Liu Han, and the others successively snapped out of their dazed states. They felt their vision spinning wildly, completely unaware of what had happened.

"Big Brother Yan... what just happened?"

Trembling like he had been drained of all strength, Liu Han tried to steady himself by grabbing his chair to stand up, but his hands went limp, and he collapsed right back down.

The chime of the Soul Gong had come abruptly, showing no distinction between friend and foe. Those standing farther away had it slightly better, but those in close proximity like them suffered miserably.

Especially Liu Han, who had been right beside Ye Yan, infinitely close to the epicenter of the burst. He had suffered the most brutal devastation, which explained his current limp-noodle state—leaving him utterly bewildered.

"Nothing much, just used a little trick to make the people below calm down."

Ye Yan awkwardly scratched his head, trying to use euphemistic words to gloss over the consequences brought about by his abrupt actions.

"Is that so..."

Lumped in his chair, Liu Han nodded with difficulty. Feeling as though his head was about to explode, he naturally had no heart left to dwell on Ye Yan's reaction.

Since Liu Han had recovered from the aftershocks of the combined Soul Gong, the others were much the same. The Ba brothers and the Tang Sect disciples below woke up one after another.

Upon waking, almost everyone wore a look of utter confusion and bewilderment. They stared at each other, practically ready to turn to their neighbors and demand answers to life's ultimate questions.

Of course, the most bewildered person of all had to be Miyamoto Isshin on the ring. Upon waking, he found that the short blade he had intended to use to end Tang Qingshu's life had been cleanly sheathed, and Tang Qingshu, who had previously been lying unconscious on the stage, had vanished, reappearing safely amidst the crowd of Tang Sect disciples.

Miyamoto Isshin wore a face of absolute disbelief.

His entire mind was numb.

With the assistance of Ye Yan's combined Soul-鎮魂 Gong, both sides were forced back into a period of calm.

Mainly because Tang Qingshu had been rescued, continuing the standoff was pointless. Coupled with the lingering aftershocks of the Soul Gong, which would take at least half a day to fully subside, the crowd simply decided to pack up and return to their respective corners.

On the ring, Ba Shan rubbed his periodically ringing ears and declared the Fusang delegation the victor.

The score became 2 to 2.

A tie!

What remained was the match between Song Yuzhe and Yamamaru Jiro.

Much like the rookie Gohei Hyo, Yamamaru Jiro was merely making up numbers, considered a lower-tier horse within the Fusang delegation.

A lower-tier horse against an upper-tier horse yielded an obvious outcome. The match lacked any real spectacle, and Ye Yan spent almost the entire time chatting idly with Xia He on his phone.

Ultimately, the two-day tournament drew to a close amidst the joyful laughter of the Tang Sect.

...

...

The Cathedral Hotel.

Two hours before the banquet commenced.

In the dressing room.

Spearheaded by Kaima Yuhito, and joined by Abe Island Fragrance, Miyamoto Isshin, and Yagyu Aiko, the members of the Fusang delegation gathered together with solemn expressions.

"Senior Brother Kaima, are you saying that what happened on the ring earlier was actually caused by that fellow named Ye Yan, who stepped in and rescued the one called Liao Tong?"

"Correct."

Kaima Yuhito nodded. "Though I don't know how he pulled it off, I believe that across the entire arena, the only person capable of doing so is him."

When speaking of Ye Yan, Kaima Yuhito's expression no longer held contempt, replaced instead by a profound apprehension.

"Senior Brother, even you fell victim to it?"

Looking at Kaima Yuhito's solemn visage, Miyamoto Isshin drew a sharp breath, examining the man with utter disbelief.

He found it truly difficult to fathom that Kaima Yuhito—whose strength was second only to his uncle's and ranked thirty-ninth on the Spiritual Master leaderboard—could actually fall prey to it.

"Indeed..."

Kaima Yuhito made no attempt to conceal that he had been caught off guard, maintaining a grave expression.

Rather than hiding behind flimsy excuses to absolve himself, Kaima Yuhito considered himself the type to face setbacks and difficulties head-on, which was precisely why he was able to continuously climb higher in the martial path.

"Speaking of which, the opponent actually showed restraint; otherwise, given the period during which we were unable to control our bodies, we probably would have died a hundred times over. After all, the only one who could move at that moment was him."

"Hiss—"

Hearing his words, the others in the room could not help but draw sharp breaths, their expressions varying wildly.

This was the first time they had ever witnessed Kaima Yuhito admitting inferiority to someone else.

Yagyu Aiko hesitated before speaking slowly, "To make Lord Kaima admit that he was entirely powerless... such a feat is something even my grandmother might not be able to achieve. This person named Ye Yan is at least a powerhouse of the top-five caliber on the Spiritual Master leaderboard..."

"Top five? That's too low."

Kaima Yuhito chuckled softly, then continued, "I have reason to judge that this Ye Yan is a Grand Sovereign whom the Dragon Country has hidden away as a trump card."

"A Grand Sovereign?!"

If they had merely gasped before, the uttering of those words by Kaima Yuhito left the surrounding group utterly and thoroughly astounded—the kind of shock that happens once a century.

"Senior Brother Kaima, you must be joking. Ye Yan is a Grand Sovereign? How is that possible... Just how old is he? Barely twenty-some years old... Someone as powerful as my uncle was still just a greenhorn in his twenties..."

"He... it's impossible..."

No matter what, Miyamoto Isshin refused to believe that the flag he had casually planted earlier was actually coming true.

Seeing Miyamoto Isshin looking as though he had just tried to swallow a whole whale, Kaima Yuhito remained unusually calm.

"After coming to the Dragon Country, I finally came to deeply understand an ancient local saying of theirs: judging a book by its cover is a grave taboo..."

"We were all deceived by Ye Yan's harmless age and appearance."

"Does not a person who seemingly has nothing to do with a Grand Sovereign actually possess the exact traits required of a hidden trump card?"

"Celestial Master Zhang Zhiwei stands in the light, while this person named Ye Yan operates in the dark. The two echo each other, one overt and one covert. In this way, people neither underestimate the Dragon Country's might nor perceive them as overwhelmingly threatening."

"This brilliant feat of pulling the wool over everyone's eyes has fooled the entire world. The mastermind behind this Whatto Corp is truly a formidable strategist."

"And exceedingly ambitious."

"..."

Following Kaima Yuhito's remarks, the people present fell into successive silence.

Though they still found this news hard to accept, Kaima Yuhito evidently possessed far greater insight than they did as juniors.

Since Kaima Yuhito had concluded that Ye Yan was a hidden Grand Sovereign of the Dragon Country, it was likely eight or nine parts true, leaving little room for dispute.

Compared to this, Abe Island Fragrance was far more concerned with another issue.

"If this Ye Yan truly is a Grand Sovereign, doesn't that mean our mission this time might be aborted?"

During this period, Abe Island Fragrance had utilized numerous shikigami and evil spirits to scout the path leading to the Tang Tomb within the Tang Sect, as well as the traps and mechanisms along the way, managing to figure out the terrain with great difficulty.

Yet now, because of Ye Yan's abrupt emergence, were they expected to abandon the mission? If so, coming to the Tang Sect this time would have been completely meaningless.

The reason he had come to the Dragon Country, even bringing along the Abe family's ultimate treasure, was precisely to retrieve Hirumaru and return it to the soil of Fusang.

Furthermore, the native official faction of Fusang, "Hachifusai," had already agreed with the Abe family that as long as the mission was accomplished, they wouldn't mind giving the Abe family a chance at a comeback... That was what Abe Island Fragrance desired most and needed most urgently.

To give up simply because of this was something Abe Island Fragrance was clearly unwilling to accept.

"The best course of action right now is naturally to abandon the mission. After all, the deterrent power of a Grand Sovereign is difficult to measure by conventional means..."

"Besides, you are all the future pillars of the nation; you cannot afford to fall here so easily."

Kaima Yuhito remained hesitant.

On one hand was the deterrence posed by Ye Yan; on the other was the vital importance of Abe Island Fragrance and the others.

To risk the generational gap of Fusang's geniuses all for the sake of a single blade like Hirumaru was simply not worth it.

Seeing that Kaima Yuhito was still hesitating, Abe Island Fragrance decided to push his case further.

"I understand Lord Kaima's intentions, but this situation is not entirely without a turning point."

Abe Island Fragrance paused briefly before continuing, "Although Ye Yan is a Grand Sovereign, I recall that he does not seem to be a member of the Tang Sect. His appearance this time was on behalf of Whatto Corp to maintain the balance between us and the Tang Sect, and more importantly, to protect us."

"In that case, the matter of seeking Hirumaru is, at the end of the day, strictly between us and the Tang Sect. He shouldn't be so idle as to meddle in it."

"All we need to do is find a way to stall him and distract his attention."

"For instance... a honey trap."