The next day, as I had promised, I was already in Hong Kong, waiting for the old man in one of his parks. It wasn't that I was interested in participating in this tournament, but I didn't mind helping the old man who had given me such strength, and at the same time, I could learn about my magical energy. Soon, he appeared, dressed as always in a black linen shirt and pants.
"You came, well done," he began calmly, as if it were natural, though perhaps it was indeed natural. "How are your successes?"
"Approximately equal in strength to a mid-level servant," I shrugged, standing up from the bench. "Teacher, I have one question. When I first used magic after awakening my inner energy, my magical energy from the inner world began to flow out through my body into the surrounding space, simultaneously destroying my body. Fortunately, my inner energy restored all the damage, so I didn't feel any particular discomfort, except for the energy leakage."
"Hmm..." The old man, hearing my story, thought deeply and answered after a pause. "I've never heard of this. There's almost nothing written about it in ancient records. And those who now practice body tempering and magic from our family don't have such problems. I don't know what to advise you, except to try to control the energy and not let it out of your body, but you should have already figured that out yourself."
"Naturally, teacher," I said, bowing slightly. "But you said that there's almost nothing written in the ancient texts, so does something exist?" I asked, latching onto his words.
"Yes, there's a little, but I don't think it will help you," he shook his head. "As far as I remember, it says that magical energy from the inner world can flow into the body, due to inner energy, only if the soul was previously separated from the body. Or if a soul was placed into the body. But the methods of how to do this have not survived, and it's unlikely that this is your case."
"I see, and what should a person do if this is their case? Maybe it will help me too?" I asked, sweat trickling down my back. This was exactly what had happened to me! This body is not mine! My soul came here from a completely different world and somehow possessed this body!
"I don't know, only the cause was described there, not the solution," he said, thinking even harder, but soon waved his hand and added, "In any case, you should focus on the tournament now, not on this problem; we'll figure out how to solve it or turn it to your advantage."
"Yes, teacher," I said, bowing slightly again. "Teacher, do you know who the favorite of this tournament is and how many participants there will be in total?"
"With you, there are exactly sixteen, so there will be four fights," the old man said, turning away and walking out of the park. "There is only one favorite, the son of the family head. He is only nineteen, but he has already reached the stage of inner energy concentration. Moreover, his physical strength is approaching the level of a high-level servant, and he recently became a mid-level mage, so he is a dangerous opponent."
"I see, what is his main element?" I asked, if he's the strongest, it shouldn't be too difficult.
"Lightning, as far as I know, he awakened ice, so be careful," the old man said, with a hint of anxiety.
"Don't worry, he's no match for me," I replied calmly. If he had one of the three speed magics, such as wind, earth, or shadow, it would be dangerous, but otherwise, it's not difficult.
"Don't be so overconfident; he is also an experienced fighter, just like you," the old man added dryly. "Let's go; the tournament starts in six days with a banquet, so we still have time to train."
As a result, we left the safe zone and found a small clearing where we stopped. After that, the old man told me to attack him. Despite spending a lot of time with him, I wasn't entirely sure of his power level, but I assumed it was at the level of a true or high-level leader. Now, I could handle them quite well.
I didn't take out my artifact, as it would be too easy, plus it's my trump card for emergencies; I don't want anyone to know about it. Taking out just two daggers, I used wind step and rushed at the old man. He stood calmly, as if he wasn't afraid of me at all, but as soon as I moved, surprise flashed across his face.
I made a direct lunge straight at his heart; with my speed, it was difficult for him to dodge, but he managed. A step back, a twist of the body, and he moved to my right. At that moment, I was five meters away from him; there was no time to change anything, but that doesn't mean I couldn't try. Pushing off the ground and pretending not to change my plans, I directed my leg at the old man's back, turning in mid-air right in front of him.
With a skillful movement, the old man grabbed my leg, but I was prepared for this. The wind gust was ready, and I, continuing to move towards the ground with my body's inertia, braced myself with my hands. Using the same inertia, I lifted the leg the old man was holding, along with him, and then, almost immediately, activated the wind gust, throwing the old man back. His grip couldn't withstand such a gust of wind, and he soared about thirty meters into the air.
Doing a somersault, the old man landed on the vertical trunk of a tree, then pushed off and, doing another somersault, landed behind me. I started moving immediately after his jump, anticipating his landing spot. And when he landed, my dagger was already flying at his head. He seemed to sense it, tilted his head slightly to dodge, grabbed my hand, and tossed me up, then jumped himself.
In the air, he caught up with me and struck me directly in the chest with his hand, while I crossed my arms to block. From the blow, I flew back a dozen meters, but managed to stay on my feet upon landing, suffering only minor pain in my arms. The fight continued for about another half hour until I collapsed, exhausted and beaten. The old man won, however. But this victory was not easy for him; he also stood slightly beaten and breathing heavily. I was quite satisfied with the result.
"Not bad. But you need to work on your attacks; they should be even faster, and most importantly, planned a couple of moves ahead. That's important in battles," the old man said, straightening up. "We'll continue tomorrow."
As the old man said, the next day our fight was repeated, with the same result. And the day after, and again; as a result, I never won against him. During this time, my inner energy advanced considerably; I felt I had become stronger. But my cultivation had practically stalled. After this fight, I'll have to return to the forests and finally achieve the second stage of space.
A week later, we finally went to the home of the old man's relatives. It turned out to be enormous! It somewhat resembled the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, but it was smaller. Ancient houses, courtyards – everything spoke of the antiquity and grandeur of this place! Before going, the old man and I agreed that I would wear a mask in the tournament and asked him to call me by my nickname, Asura. The guards led us into a large and richly decorated hall, where there were already a lot of people; from all of them, I felt strength, both magical and inner energy.
Soon, an old man approached us. He was dressed in a traditional Chinese robe with a green dragon depicted on it. He had a thin, gray goatee and gray hair tied in a ponytail. On the old man's face was a smug smile, as if everything here belonged to him, and everyone else was nobody. My teacher's face contorted into a grimace of displeasure.
"Greetings, respected head Gong Gui," the teacher said, bowing.
"Greetings, respected head Gong Gui," I followed my teacher's example; apparently, these were the heads of his family.
"Stand up, Gong Wei," the head said, smirking smugly. "And next to you..."
"This is my disciple," the teacher replied calmly. "He is not even nineteen yet, so he intends to participate in the tournament."
"Excellent, we'll put him against Gong Han if you don't mind," the head said, as if cutting it off. "If you hadn't brought him, Gong Han would have had to go straight to the second round," the head said calmly, pointing at me. "By the way, what is his name, and why is he wearing this terrible mask?"
"His name is Asura; he wears the mask because his face is disfigured by monsters," the old man replied calmly. I stood silently, looking at their argument and then at the surrounding people.
"I see, I hope he has enough strength for Gong Han to warm up before the main fights," the head replied with a slight contempt and left.
"Teacher, who is Gong Han?" I asked when the head had gone far enough not to hear me.
"That's who I told you about, the son of the head, the strongest of the young generation of our Gong family," the old man replied calmly. "If you defeat him, all the others will lose easily."
"I see," I replied dryly, scanning the crowd for this Gong Han. Meanwhile, two more old men approached us, dressed in ancient Chinese clothes.
"Hello, Gong Wei, I heard you finally took on a disciple. I hope you trained him well, as this is a chance to return to the main family," said one of the old men.
"Don't remind me; I left the main family because no one understood my training methods. And as far as I can tell, I'm still one of the strongest in the family," the old man replied calmly.
"Yes, undoubtedly you would be the strongest if the family hadn't blocked your cultivation," replied the second old man. I became more interested in this, so I decided to intervene.
"Ah, what happened that your cultivation was blocked, teacher?" I asked, burning with curiosity.
"Didn't you tell him?" the first old man was surprised.
"It wasn't related to training," the teacher shrugged.
"Then shall I tell him?" the second old man asked, looking at the teacher with a smile.
"Yes, go ahead," the teacher waved his hand and moved slightly away.
"Alright," the second old man said and turned his gaze to me. "A long time ago, Gong Wei, your teacher, and the current head of the family fell in love with the same girl. It happened that they learned about her feelings and went to the then head of the family to resolve their problem. Gong Wei was the eldest son of the head, and Gong Gui was the younger one, so it was logical to favor the elder. But Gong Wei had a bad reputation as a renegade from ancient canons; he preferred his own training methods over the generally accepted ones in the family, claiming they were more effective." The second old man spoke, and meanwhile, I remembered that something about this was mentioned in the records the old man had given me. "As a result of the dispute, the clan head decreed that the dispute would be settled in a duel. Gong Wei lost, and when Gong Gui began to smirk that he would have won by training according to the ancestors' precepts, Gong Wei flared up and attacked him from behind, after the fight had ended. After such an act, he was deprived of the right to the position of head. When Gong Gui became the head, another dispute arose between them, which almost led to a new duel, but Gong Gui ordered Gong Wei's cultivation to be sealed and exiled him from the main territory of the family."
"He was afraid to argue with me then!" the teacher snorted. "He knew that my training method needed a little more time to reveal its full glory, so he didn't dare to fight the second time!"
"That's a very unfair decision," I remarked, seeing a lot of absurdity in this situation.
"Yes, perhaps it's a bit unfair, but no one has the right to go against the head of the family. And if someone dares to go against him, the head has the right to impose any punishment on them," said the first elder.
"Gong Wei's punishment was to raise a disciple using his own method, so that he would defeat the heir of the head. He was only forbidden to marry, as the secret could not be revealed, and no one from the family dared to become his disciple.