"Good lad, you've got a sharp mind!"
Watching Qin Xuan retreat, Su Qing Tan's lips curved slightly.
She had heard from Ni Chang how much of a genius this kid was, and seeing him today, he truly lived up to his reputation.
But this alone wasn't enough!
If he couldn't even defeat this old woman like her, how could he possibly marry her granddaughter?
Impossible!
Without giving Qin Xuan any chance to breathe, Su Qing Tan immediately unleashed her ability.
A storm, laced with wind blades, surged towards Qin Xuan.
Qin Xuan couldn't see the attack, but he felt an invisible wind rush towards him.
He flicked a spiritual talisman, and a series of fireballs formed a flaming barrier once more.
Using the momentum of the wind, he ducked low and shot out from beneath the barrier of flames.
Then, he heard Su Qing Tan's soft, playful laugh from above.
"You sly little thing, trying to use the flames as cover for a sneak attack?"
"Too bad the entire venue is already filled with my wind. Every move you make within the wind will be detected by me."
Hearing her teasing, Qin Xuan didn't get angry.
He continued to advance according to his own plan.
Su Qing Tan shook her head slightly, and several wind blades shot towards Qin Xuan.
"Useless!"
Facing the sharp wind blades, Qin Xuan softly grunted, then combined his techniques with the spiritual talisman to instantly condense a fire wall.
It blocked the wind blades before they could reach his body.
With the experience of defending with "fire eggs" before, Qin Xuan no longer needed to expend a large number of spiritual talismans to form such cumbersome defenses.
As long as he set up fire walls in advance based on his perception, he would basically no longer be hit by wind-elemental attacks.
However, it wasn't over yet.
Defense, after all, was passive.
So, even though his advance was constantly interrupted by wind blades, forcing him to erect fire walls for defense, his forward momentum never stopped.
"You want to get close to me?"
"It's not that easy!"
As Qin Xuan's figure reached Su Qing Tan's side, she immediately let out a cold snort.
She extended both hands, her palms slightly open.
Whoosh—!
Two intense hurricanes instantly erupted from her palms.
The powerful wind force could be felt even by Shi Chuan Gong and the others standing far away.
The fire wall Qin Xuan had just condensed was also pushed back by this gust of wind.
The firelight flickered, and it wouldn't be long before it was extinguished by the wind.
"What a shame..."
"You should have used this wind to distance yourself from me."
As the hurricanes continued to blow out, a playful voice suddenly appeared by Su Qing Tan's ear.
Su Qing Tan was startled, and the hurricanes in her hands suddenly grew much larger.
"Hiss! When did Qin Xuan get behind Su Qing Tan?!"
Under the astonished gazes of everyone, the firelight extinguished.
The spiritual talismans fell to the ground. Behind the fire wall, there was no one.
"You, how did you do that?!"
Like the other spectators, Su Qing Tan knew Qin Xuan must have used some method to get behind her.
But what she couldn't understand was how he could have sneaked over so silently, despite her having maximized her senses.
Qin Xuan returned to the front of Su Qing Tan and bowed slightly, saying, "Just as you unleashed the hurricanes, the airflow in the entire venue was disrupted by those two gusts."
"It was at that moment that your senses had a brief gap."
"I used that time to leave the fire wall and perform a spatial shift."
"But how did you do it so quickly?" Su Qing Tan was still puzzled.
Qin Xuan's lips curled, and he smiled confidently, "A secret Daoist technique, 'Shrinking the Ground to an Inch'!"
"You know Daoist arts too?!"
Looking at the confident young man before her, Su Qing Tan finally understood why her granddaughter's eyes would show such admiration when talking about Qin Xuan.
Physical combat, mystical arts, Daoist arts – for ordinary people, mastering any one of these three to the level of a grandmaster was already difficult.
Yet, Qin Xuan, at the mere age of twenty-six, had already mastered and integrated all three, achieving the level of an intermediate grandmaster!
Such a heaven-blessed prodigy, let alone Su Ni Chang, even Su Qing Tan, with her vast experience, found him incredibly impressive!
No.
This Qin Xuan was far more outstanding than she had imagined.
No matter what, she had to help him and Ni Chang get together!
After her expression changed three times, Su Qing Tan finally slowly regained her composure.
She bowed slightly to Qin Xuan and said with a smile, "Good, you truly are a hero emerging from youth."
"This old woman concedes defeat!"
"A promise is a promise. I will go back and set a propitious date."
"When you return from the United States, my Su family will hold a grand ceremony and marry Ni Chang into your Qin family!"
Qin Xuan: ???
What was she talking about?
Looking at her expression and her eyes, was this old lady serious!
As he walked off the stage, Qin Xuan couldn't help but probe Su Qing Tan's intentions.
Upon learning that she was genuinely intending to marry Su Ni Chang to him, he quickly waved his hands, explaining that he couldn't marry Su Ni Chang.
"Senior, you've misunderstood!"
"General Su and I are friends. There's no romantic relationship between us."
Su Qing Tan heard this and said dismissively, "That's easily settled. Marriage first, then love. You can still live together."
"In the past, didn't everyone get engaged before falling in love?"
"And didn't they live together for a lifetime?"
"It lasted much longer than the marriages of young couples today!"
Qin Xuan was taken aback. "But I have a girlfriend."
Su Qing Tan waved her hand, "Then break up..."
"Uh..."
"Breaking up is definitely not realistic."
"However, you are the eldest grandson of the Qin family. Having three wives and four concubines is perfectly normal."
Qin Xuan was speechless. "Grandma, this is modern society. These things are not fashionable anymore."
Su Qing Tan tilted her head up. "So what if they're not fashionable? Our Ni Chang is willing to be a secondary wife."
Qin Xuan put his hand to his forehead. "It's not a matter of willingness, it's that the law doesn't allow it!"
"So what if it's not allowed? Didn't your father marry two?"
"I..."
After arguing for a long time, Qin Xuan couldn't win against this spirited old lady no matter what.
Helpless, he could only agree to appease her for the time being, and wait until he met his three masters to have them refuse Su Qing Tan's marriage proposal.
The subsequent matches were all quite close.
After all, everyone's levels were roughly the same.
And there were no opponents who were extremely restrictive and impossible to contend with.
Therefore, the first round of the winners' bracket took a full five hours.
Out of the 12 participants, 6 winners were once again decided.
The six winners would continue with a new round of winner's duels the next day, January 2nd.
"Next, we will proceed with the losers' bracket matches."
"All Grandmasters, please step forward to draw lots."
Hu San Qiang's voice echoed through the venue again.
The six intermediate grandmasters, including Granny Feng Su Qing Tan, stepped onto the martial arts stage once more.
To ensure the number of participants and relative fairness, a losers' bracket competition was specifically set up for this martial arts event.
They would also draw lots and compete against each other in pairs.
This would continue until two strongest contenders were determined from the six individuals, entering the top eight.