"Li Feng, I know you have been practicing in the Beast Mountain Range of some backwater city, do you think such methods can guarantee you victory against me, surrender and spare me the trouble."
Kang Mu spoke to Li Feng, who stood opposite him on the marked bricks, and Li Feng was from the Li family, which was not weak compared to the Kang even if they did not have the same density of elders or the same quality of techniques, still ranked among the top ten in the Ju Empire, which in this continent was a way of saying they could bleed and still afford to be proud. He knew Kang Mu was stronger, but he was also from an aristocratic house, and aristocratic houses taught honor the way they taught table manners, as something you performed so the neighbors would not smell fear.
"Hahaha, Kang Mu, you may be stronger than me, but that does not mean I will be defeated without a fight."
He had cultivated the Stone Fist technique of his family and had won many fights with it, even against stronger opponents, converting skin to stone and body to shield, which was a fine answer until the question was Kang Mu. Kang Mu had an annoyed face as he did not even move, only unleashing qi of the Spirit Awakening realm to suppress Li Feng, wanting this fight over quickly so he could reach Patrick, whom he had decided was a worthy opponent in the way a boy decides a storm is a sparring partner.
Li Feng countered with his own qi but could not balance the pressure, thrown back across the stage as if the bricks had chosen a side. Kang Mu spoke again, still annoyed, deciding to end it at once, raising an arm as qi gathered around it and slashing, while Li Feng flipped to his feet, crossed his arms over his head, and used Stone Fist until his skin was as hard as the name promised.
The attack reached him anyway. Kang Mu was stronger in every way that counted on a stage, the stone shield destroying, Li Feng sent off the platform coughing blood, internal injuries blooming where pride had been standing. Ten seconds, if the stands were being generous, and the gossip started before the blood had decided which brick to like.
"What, I knew Kang Mu was strong, but to knock out Li Feng, who practices the Li family stone cultivation, in ten seconds, no wonder he is called the number one genius."
"Do not forget Li Feng is only Mind Accumulation, eighth stage, while Kang Mu is Spirit Awakening, it would have been a surprise if Li Feng lasted a minute."
The fight was normal because of the gap, cultivated skills on Kang Mu's side far better, and the Li family guards helped their young master down and fed him pills to relieve the pain, Li Feng standing after to look at Kang Mu with hatred because the boy had not gone easy even when he did not need to, which felt like utter bullying, and was. Kang Mu stood on the stage and looked for Patrick, but Patrick was not in the place he had been, and when Kang Mu found him he was sitting with the two beautiful women, one feeding him a drink and the other stroking his long silver hair, a picture that ignited anger in Kang Mu until he was already thinking of crippling the stranger for life.
Patrick, after smiling at him, had gone back to his wives to drink while Anna's fingers moved through his hair, watching a ten-second fight the way one watches rain that will not reach the house, his wooden slate rotating in his hands, floating, a number that had not yet been asked to mean anything. On the high stands a black shadow appeared behind the black-robed man, Feng Ku returned from the stone, information like damp earth still on him.
"Elder, there is no information about these people, according to our source the woman with golden hair seems familiar with the daughter of the Shi family, Shi Long's girl, not a granddaughter as some of the older files still say."
"So they are from the Shi family?"
"No, Elder, just the girl with golden hair, there is news of the Shi family becoming stronger than the other families and that there might be a possibility they have Immortal cultivators, but it is only a probability."
"So the little girl is from the Shi, then how about the boy and the silver-haired one?"
"There are no records about them, Elder."
Elder Mo held his hands to his chin as if contemplating, having also found that an envoy had been sent to a lesser city to handle matters and that the family had retaliated, causing the Emperor to lose face, the interesting thing being that Ju Han had done nothing and simply accepted the loss. According to that emperor's arrogance and wild nature it should have been impossible for him not to react to such disrespect unless he had consulted the guardians of the Ju Empire, and if even after consultation nothing was done, then it only supported the rumor that the Shi family might indeed have an Immortal, two of them if the older whispers were being greedy.
"Interesting."
He had an evil smirk as he spoke, smart enough to have been sent here for more than scouting talent, the first reason being potential cultivators, the second potential threats that might affect the Devil Sect in the future, and a golden-haired girl with no records beside a Shi daughter, plus a boy who ate a Spirit Emperor stone with a pinky, was the kind of threat that made dark qi swirl happier.
"Next, Yang Chu and Lou Yan."
They went to the stage after the host spoke, Yang Chu a boy from another of the top families, his house cultivating a shadow method that allowed them to attack with shadows, to escape, to travel, the kind of art that made alleys into weapons. On the stage he slanted his head to the right with a disappointed face, all children from aristocratic families being arrogant and holding no restraint on their behaviors, knowing Lou Yan was younger and weaker than him and disappointed he had not met a strong opponent like Kang Mu or Alex, the new dark horse.
"Lou Yan, why don't we end this pointless fight, we both know you are weaker than me."
"Yang Chu, why don't we fight and see who is weaker?"
"Hahaha, do you think you can win against me, then let's find out."
The Lou family cultivated a technique from the Immortal Realm called the Heavenly Eyes, allowing them to predict an enemy's moves and attacks, and also increasing soul strength by multiple folds over ordinary cultivators, which was why, although they were not the big three after the imperial family, they were respected like the big three, even the Emperor not messing with them, their ability to see a strike before it was thrown making them the most dangerous after the Kang. Yang Chu attacked, disappearing from his position, appearing behind Lou Yan instantly, but before the blow could land her eyes were already glowing and she had vanished, replacing her position with his, Yang Chu missing, standing to watch his arm as if something were wrong with it, fumbling the limb in doubt.
"It looks like the elder from the Moonflower Sect did see something in you for you to dodge my attacks, that's impressive, but maybe I should not start easy on you."
His legs turned dark as his shadow connected and multiplied into two more, the extras attacking Lou Yan from both sides while he stood there controlling them, and she used her ability, seeing and dodging most, but not all, some hits landing because she was a little slower, her mother's warning sitting in her thoughts like a hand on a wrist.
Mother said that using the third level of the Heavenly Eyes when not yet Spirit Awakening would strain the body, but if I do not use it I will lose.
She was a stubborn girl and would rather draw than lose, blocking some of the attacks as she decided to go all out, the cheering crowd feeling the atmosphere change the next moment as everyone knew what that meant.
"Wait, what, Lou Yan is going all out, but if she does she will not be able to fight the rest of the competition at her full strength."
"Lou Yan may be proud, but she is stubborn, and she would rather suffer pain than lose this match, especially after Yang Chu mocked her, and do not forget she is already a disciple of the Moonflower Sect."
"You are right, she does not have to win the whole thing, as long as she enters the top five that is all that matters."
The next moment clouds gathered as an immortal spirit came from Lou Yan's body, female, glowing eyes, energy forming in its hands into an arrow pointed at Yang Chu, and on the high stands where the powerful families sat below the Emperor, five seats were occupied by the Ju Empire's most powerful houses, Kang, Dong, Yang, Lou, and Li, all serious faces except one, Lou Min, matriarch of the Lou, power equal to the other families, a Chinese fan already thinking about being opened.
"Yang Cho, are you sure you do not want me to stop my daughter from hurting your son?"
She asked it in a mocking tone of the Yang patriarch, everyone knowing what she was doing, because if Yang Cho acted it would mean he did not trust his son to win, and it would also prevent her daughter from using the strenuous move. Yang Cho, known as the most cunning man in the Ju Empire, laughed the laugh of a man changing the subject before the subject changed him.
"Haha, Lou Min, do not worry about my son, he is a man, to be defeated by a woman would be a great shame to his reputation, and I do not think your daughter will be free of her pain after using this move either, you might give her a pill, but she will not be in her full strength for the coming fights."
Lou Min did not react except to open her fan and cool herself, having the pill, knowing the difficulty coming, and letting both truths sit. Yang Chu saw the arrow pointing at him and unleashed fifty percent of his strength as more shadows came, Lou Yan's spirit attack releasing, sprinting, the shadows slowing its momentum until it caused no injury except knocking him from the stage, and he countered by sending two shadows to attach Lou Yan, causing her to fall as well. The referee saw both parties off the bricks and declared a draw, which was the kind of fairness that still hurt.
Matches continued, more winners emerging, Patrick watching while chilling with his wives, Athena and Anastasia seeing the fights and not enjoying them much, because these were not the battles they wanted, they wanted Immortals and Sages, not children arguing with shadows. His slate turned in the air like a lazy moon.
"Next match, Dong Pao and Alex King."
"Finally, the dark horse is fighting," a person from the crowd said, and that was everyone's thought, Dong Pao first to jump on the stage with an arrogant face, receiving a qi message from Kang Mu telling him to hurt Patrick enough before the Kang heir reached him, nodding as he watched Patrick kiss his wives, leave them, and hop onto the bricks as if the stage were a courtesy.
"So you are the dark horse everyone wants to see fight, huh, well this is your chance to give up before I embarrass you in front of your women, after they will....be....m—"
Before Dong Pao could even finish his words he was on the ground, breathless, the sentence dying where his air had been, and Patrick looked down at him the way a man looks at a cup that would not stop talking.
"You talk too much."