11 - The arena

As Xu Xin saw the boy admit defeat, everyone around the arena was shocked at how fast the fight had ended.

Xia Yue instantly got quite a bit of money, and although it was barely any because the grade of the fight was too low, she was surprised because this was the easiest money she had ever earned.

She then sat down in the stands, waiting to see Xu Xin's limits.

As the boy got taken away, a girl, who was stronger than that boy by quite a bit, came out, but Xia Yue still betted money against her winning, as did quite a few people.

Some of the more attentive people had realized that Xu Xin could've won the fight in a single strike, but chose to end it in two, meaning that he was familiarizing himself with his power, and that meant that he would only get stronger as the fights went on.

As the fight started, instead of charging straight at Xu Xin like the boy before her did, the girl went in slowly, watching for any moves Xu Xin made. She was much more precautious.

She also didn't go for the first attack, clearly showing that she was going to wait for Xu Xin to attack.

This earned her his respect, but it wasn't enough to change the inevitable result.

He went in for the first attack, but instead of directly attacking her like she expected, his first move was a feint, and he pretended to hit with his right hand while he actually used the momentum to spin his body around and kick at her with his left leg, shifting from one leg to the other to spin all the way around.

She got hit with his sneak attack because she blocked his fist, but wasn't expecting that to not even be his real attack.

His leg swung around and slammed directly into her shoulder, knocking her back and leaving a layer of aquamarine ice around her shoulder.

But Xu Xin gave her no chance to retaliate as he went in for a second hit, but she wisely backed off, unlike what most people would have done.

A red glow also appeared around her shoulder, quickly melting the ice and getting rid of any effects of the damage dealt.

That same red glow then appeared on her fists and arms, and the temperature around her body increased as well.

It was obvious that this girl cultivated the element of fire, and she countered Xu Xin. She also had more experience fighting than the boy from before, and though it was nowhere near enough to deal with Xu Xin, he admired her for at least knowing how to fight.

She had more experience in close combat than people much stronger than her, which meant she trained a lot and heavily, which earned her Xu Xin's respect.

He then once again lunged at her, and as he punched out, she blocked once again. It was clear that she was going on the defensive and trying to figure out how he fought.

When his fist and her arm met, the power of their two inner energies of opposite elements canceled each other out, and there was no reaction from either side. However, the girl was pushed back just due to the sheer strength behind Xu Xin's punch.

After his initial punch, he also sent out a second one with his other arm, only mere moments after the first, and the girl only barely managed to block it, while also getting pushed back even further, even stumbling.

However, she realized that Xu Xin wasn't trying to defeat her at this moment, and she realized that he had actually backed off and seemed to be thinking a bit.

Seeing that he was distracted, she moved in for a hit, but she quickly realized it was a mistake as Xu Xin grabbed her fist, pulled it to his side, and dragged her body into his other fist as he swung it forward, and this time, it hit dead center in her chest, throwing her several feet back with a large chunk of aquamarine ice visible on her chest.

She fell to the ground from this hit, but quickly got back up, a bit of blood leaking from her mouth. She obviously refused to admit defeat despite taking such a heavy hit and being badly injured.

She then realized that Xu Xin still had that same pensive look on his face, as if he was figuring something out.

But this only lasted a moment before he once again charged at her, like a raging bull, and she didn't even know how to react as his body slammed into hers, knocking her back and onto the ground.

Then, without even giving her the chance to react, he stabbed his finger onto a certain spot in her neck, and she instantly felt herself lose control over her entire body.

She slightly panicked and tried to yell out, but she realized she couldn't even do that.

Her entire body had been paralyzed, and part of her neck was frozen in thick frost.

He would have preferred not to take her out this way, but as she had been on the defensive the entire time, it would be quite troublesome to defeat her any other way.

After all, he wasn't used to his icy inner energy, and he had to use it in battle to get better with it, hence why he wasn't directly as strong as the girl.

The only reason their inner energies were on par with each other was because Xu Xin's was of higher quality, thanks to the ancient ice and water technique.

After all, he had just broken through, while it was clear that this girl was quite experienced among those at the first stage of the martial path, and she was likely close to the peak of the first stage as well.

Then, after she got taken off the stage, another person came up, this time truly at the peak of the first stage of the martial arts path.

It was another girl, and she had a knife in her hand. People often used weapons because they allowed a person to dramatically increase their damage, but they weren't for everyone, and a lot of people went without any weapons, trusting only their own body.

Xu Xin was one of these people, or at least he used to be. He didn't know if he would chose to pick a weapon on his path of cultivation this time, but he was certain that he would do things differently this time around.

As he faced this girl, he realized that she was actually younger than he was, meaning that she was considered slightly talented.

He wasted no time as he instantly attacked first, going straight for the kill.

As the girl saw him charge in, she noticed that he had a perfectly calm look on his face, as if this fight meant nothing to him.

However, it was one of the girl's first fights against someone skilled, and her teacher had actually sent her here to challenge him since her teacher had seen that Xu Xin was skilled.

By now, everyone was actually paying attention to him. After all, some of the stronger people here were able to tell that he was extremely skilled, and the weaker people had noticed the stronger people paying attention to him, hence they were curious about what had caught their attention.

One such person was Xia Yue, and, being the winner of the match earlier, there was a very large amount of attention on her, and seeing that the moment she saw Xu Xin, she betted for him and stayed despite being about to leave, people were instantly curious about Xu Xin.

As he charged towards the girl, she suddenly swung out her knife at a crafty angle, looking to force Xu Xin to back off.

However, Xu Xin wouldn't let her get what she wanted as he instantly jumped up, not only going over the knife, but over her head with his entire body.

Then, he swung his leg down in and extremely violet manner, hitting the girl's back before she had the chance to react. Even he was surprised by his own agility and athleticism, but he hadn't had the time to direct the inner energy to his leg, making the hit slightly weaker.

He was surprised at just how hard he had kicked her, but she didn't even really move that much, just staying in place like a rock. Instead, Xu Xin was thrown off balance from the solidity of her back, and although being off balance did nothing to him, he was still surprised, and he quickly backed off behind her.

She had been knocked around a little bit by the kick, but her feet never left the ground and she quickly regained stability. She had the disadvantage in this exchange, but it wasn't that much of a disadvantage, and it was circumstantial.

However, she quickly spun back around, and she had a gloating expression on. It was a very strong kick, but it had done next to no damage because she had instantly reacted and covered her back with inner energy to reduce the damage.

In fact, Xu Xin's foot felt a bit numb from the impact, and he realized that she cultivated the element of earth, which meant that she specialized in defense, hence the dagger to increase her attack.

Facing this, however, Xu Xin just smiled. "Finally, things are getting interesting," He said with a bright smile. "Ice versus earth, what a matchup!"

He said this loud enough that the stands could hear, but they were all confused. Ice was usually at most on par with earth, so what was he thinking by saying this? After all, his inner energy was still weaker than hers since he had just broken through, while she was at the peak of the first stage.

She was stronger than the girl from before by quite a bit, and although she wasn't nearly as experienced, her ability to defend more than made up for it.

Xu Xin was looking at her with a smile on his face, but it was an apathetic smile, as if this fight meant nothing to him, as if this girl was nothing. It was a mocking smile, and the girl got angry when seeing it, because she was supposed to be the one mocking him, not the other way around.

Seeing that Xu Xin wasn't going to attack next, the girl charged at him, swinging the knife in a way that he couldn't jump over her body again, and she thought that she had got him.

However, just mere moments before it hit Xu Xin, he suddenly kicked out, just ignoring the knife entirely.

She was expecting him to try to defend against the knife, not attack, so she was hit dead in the center of her chest, and she took a step back, pulling the knife out of its effective range, therefore stopping the attack against Xu Xin.

On her chest was a giant boot print of pure aquamarine ice, and it was completely solid, showing that Xu Xin had put a very large portion of his inner energy into it, and it was quite effective, even somewhat nullifying the defense of the earth inner energy that the girl had.

However, the girl just laughed arrogantly. "Is that all you've got? I came here to fight, not to play."

But Xu Xin just completely ignored her. If there was one thing he could do, it was ignore an insult. But there was one other thing he could do: retort. "If you're so ready for a fight, then come here and fight me instead of standing back and trying to make me mad!"

The girl instantly got angry and charged at him, taking another knife from a holster on her side and swinging it at him. But just as it was about to reach him, she pulled it back and swung the other one, trying to pull off a feint.

However, Xu Xin was far too experienced and far too fast to let it work, and he simply slammed his arm into her wrist, not caring about the dense earth inner energy there, and he pushed it out of the way, making room for his own hit.

She tried to swing the other knife again, but it was too late as Xu Xin managed to get a solid hit on her chest. However, this time, instead of being cold and icy, the inner energy was smooth and watery, and it flowed all around his fist as he hit her chest.

She was instantly dazed as all the ice on her chest instantly converted to watery inner energy, and it started to sink into her body, and it slowed her as she felt the flow of inner energy in her body get messed up, causing her defense to lower.

Then, Xu Xin sent a wave of freezing inner energy back into her body while she was still dazed, and all the watery inner energy that was now in her body instantly froze, stopping the circulation of her inner energy and slowing down her movement dramatically, making it hard for her to even breathe properly.

At the same time, Xu Xin grabbed the arm with the knife he had just blocked, gripping a pressure point, making her drop the knife, and pulled her towards him.

She couldn't even understand what had happened in this exchange, but she knew that she was about to lose.

Then, while she was struggling to do anything at all, Xu Xin sent out another punch while pulling him towards her, knocking her to the ground with a heavy *thunk*, where she promptly admitted defeat.