For Dugu Shanhe, the answer that he received was simply incomprehensible.
Hearing the name that was spoken, he also saw a being that took up the entirety of his field of vision. What was surprising to him was the fact that the worlds next to this being seemed like tiny marble.
That combined with all that he had seen, only made his mind shatter.
Xukong's name was the last thing Dugu Shanhe ever heard before his soul was dispersed.
In the real world, his body collapsed into a mess.
His seven orifices were all bleeding profusely while his complexion was deathly pale.
Of course, this also meant that the effects of the skill that Dugu Shanhe was using were gone and Lin Mu was now free.
"Huh?" Lin Mu regained control of his body and blinked several times.
He then looked around and touched himself, finding that he was indeed in control of his body again.
"I'm fine?" Lin Mu was relieved. 'It actually worked!' the plan that he had gambled upon had worked.
The soul squeezing pain that he had been feeling all this time had vanished, but he was still feeling tired right now. Lin Mu finally got to take a look at his foe and saw his concerning conditioning.
'Is he…' Lin Mu was about to check on him but was interrupted.
~SHUA~ SHUA~
The teleportation array activated in the next moment and threw both of them out of the Spatial plane.
~THUD~
Unlike Lin Mu, Dugu Shanhe's body landed on the ground with a loud thud.
There were thousands of pairs of eyes watching at that moment and absolute silence was spread in the area. There was no cheering, no shouting, and no whispering either.
It almost felt eerie if not for the fact that the members of the temple overseeing the match were quickly moving toward Lin Mu.
"Don't Move!" the elder warned right away.
As soon as Lin Mu heard the tone of the elder, he knew things were not going to be simple.
He simply stood as told and waited for the elder to approach.
~WHOOSH~ WHOOSH~ WHOOSH~
The healers also arrived a couple of seconds later and surrounded Dugu Shanhe's body.
"He's alive!" the healers stated.
Hearing that, the Elder seemed a bit relieved, but it was soon washed away by the next bit of information.
"But Dugu Shanhe's soul has been wiped out!" the healers said in a serious tone.
"What?" The Elder said, a grave expression appearing on his face.
He looked at Lin Mu for a second before walking over to the body of Dugu Shanhe.
"Let me take a look myself." He said before holding Dugu Shanhe's hand.
The man's hand was cold, like that of a corpse, and yet a faint vitality could be felt within his body. The elder directly used his immortal sense and entered the body going directly to the man's Dantian. There he looked for the Nascent soul that was floating aimlessly in the Dantian.
The elder probed the Nascent soul and got no response from it, which was alarming to him.
'It should have resisted, but there is no response…' The Elder realized that this situation was severe.
"His soul is indeed gone." The Elder confirmed.
As soon as his words were heard, the audience gasped out loud.
"Daoist Mu Lin killed his opponent."
"Isn't killing forbidden?"
"Yes, but only for lethal techniques."
"But what did Daoist Mu Lin do?" someone asked. "Dugu Shanhe died a horrible death."
"Did he used some forbidden technique?"
"Who knows, he might have used an unorthodox technique." More people joined in on the gossip.
"Will he be charged for this?" this became the common thing that most people were now wondering about.
Lin Mu's companions who were watching from the Spring Valley Restaurant were also concerned and felt their hearts drop after seeing all this.
"What do we do, Elder?" The healers asked. "The cause of death is questionable. The soul was wiped out."
The elder frowned and looked at Lin Mu.
"You… Did you do anything?" he asked first.
"No… it was Dugu Shanhe that used a mental technique." Lin Mu replied seeing that he was being questioned.
"Hmm… we'll have to check that." The elder didn't deny Lin Mu right away either.
Many people had seen Dugu Shanhe defeat his opponents like this before, but they didn't expect for him to end up in this condition.
His body was 'Alive' but his soul was gone.
It was hard to say what kind of a condition he was in right now.
The audience kept talking about it in hushed tones while the Elder took out a communication jade slip. He sent a message through it, and waited for a few seconds.
Lin Mu felt a person appear in the range of his Immortal sense, alerting him to a strong cultivator.
'It's him…' Lin Mu quickly recognized the man.
"Greetings, High Elder!" The healers and the overseeing elder all cupped their hands upon seeing the man.
"High Elder Juxue," Lin Mu looked at the man before cupping his hands as well.
"Mmm… so this is the contestant?" High Elder Juxue gave a slight nod to Lin Mu before asking.
"Yes. Can you please confirm his cause of 'death'?" the overseeing elder requested.
"Mm," High Elder Juxue said before extending his own immortal sense.
It covered the entire area of the tournament grounds, while also focusing on Dugu Shanhe.
Lin Mu could feel the pressure increasing in the area, which was drawn away after a minute or so.
~Sigh~
Much to everyone's surprise, High Elder Juxue showed a rare sign and shook his head.
"I can confirm that this is not Daoist Mu Lin's fault." High Elder Juxue said out loud. "Dugu Shanhe has died due to the backlash of using a forbidden Mental skill. He has used an unorthodox technique that wiped away his soul upon failure." He declared.
"This also means… Daoist Mu Lin is the winner!" he announced.