Chapter 36: A friendly competition

The pairings had already been decided and the first fights began. The first-years were fair play and let the juniors demonstrate their abilities before getting serious and beat them. And they did beat them. All the new disciples lost their fight.

Around the platform, the first-years who did not fight and the second-years took good care to record everything they saw. All the strengths and weaknesses of the new recruits were exposed for them to see.

Finally, it was the turn of the top ten. All of a sudden, the audience got more invested.

Li Gui got on the platform and showcased his swordsmanship. Being last in the top ten, he did not want to lose face before the others. He put up a good performance as his opponent was not too aggressive. Seeing that none of his attacks even touched the other party, he used his ultimate move.

'Infinite World of Blades'.

Being a 5th-grade Mortal, Li Gui could not manifest his Qi outside yet. However, he could control its flow in his meridians. By doing so, a cultivator could still use some of the mysteries within a martial art. The people close to the platform felt as if they were surrounded by blades.

When Li Gui's attack got close to his opponent, he blocked with his saber. A shock wave erupted from the collision but only one of the fighters was sent back, Li Gui.

"I admit my defeat. Thank you for your leniency, Senior Brother."

-

In the next fight, Ren Chao was pitted against a woman fighting with a whip. On her uniform was the number one and in the background two strips of silk intertwined. One was red and the other silver.

"Junior Brother, I'm Wang Mei."

"Senior Sister, I'm Ren Chao. Please give me some pointers."

Wang Mei took out her whip and immediately a boom echoed in the square, as if thunder was coming down. Wang Mei's outfit was a lot looser than the others. In order to fight, she took an arm out of her uniform and exposed her naked shoulder. Added with her provocative posture, she had an adult charm that was hard to resist for young men.

Ren Chao was somewhat embarrassed to fight with a woman and even more so by the way she revealed her body. He had no experience whatsoever with the fair sex. On the other hand, Wang Mei had, and she was amused by the flustered man before her. Even though he was almost twenty and looked like a giant bull, he was blushing before this woman.

"So, are you coming to get me?" An amused voice entered his ear and Ren Chao got even more flustered.

Taking a huge breath, he tightened the grip on his mace. "Here I come!" Running like mad, he soon was near Wang Mei. With all of his strength, he hit with the mace. Wang Mei easily dodged as the mace collided with the platform, leaving a dent in it. Despite her dodge, she felt a gust of wind pushing her further.

Using her evasive movement, Wang Mei's whip wrapped around Ren Chao's leg. She took two steps backwards due to the shock wave from his mace and pulled on the whip. Ren Chao sensed the whip trying to trip him over and used all his weight as well as his mace to keep his balance.

As he tried to hit the whip with his mace, Wang Mei took back her weapon and lashed several times. Her whip looked like it obeyed her mind given the mastery with which she was able to wield it. Its impressive speed was enough to cut the flesh. As speed was not his strong suit, Ren Chao stayed deeply rooted where he was and used his mace as a shield. Not a single lash went past the head of his mace. Each time there was a gap in the attacks, he tried to move forward.

Wang Mei's whip coiled around the shaft of his mace to try and take it away from him. His grip tightened even more and this time, he used his weight to try and pull her over instead. Wang Mei was lifted up into the air and went straight for Ren Chao who was ready with his mace.

'Dancing Goddess'. In the air, Wang Mei was able to retract her whip and lashed in another direction to change her course. It seemed as if lightning went out as she lacerated the air with her weapon.

"You're even stronger than you look." Ren Chao was a middle 4th-grade Mortal but his physical strength alone was similar to a 7th-grade Mortal or even higher. Despite her higher cultivation, Wang Mei was not a match for him. If she could not move him at all, the fight would be difficult. At first, she only wanted to push him off the platform. But this would be too difficult from the look of things.

"Ain't I?!" Ren Chao started to laugh out loud. He even lifted up his mace and contracted his arms. "No metal can resist my hammer."

On the ground, everyone had the same thought. "You're not in a forge! And this is not even a hammer!"

Wang Mei burst out laughing. "I really like you."

"What?!" Ren Chao had no idea how to answer that. "I... I... I won't fall for your trap! You won't disturb me!" Despite his words, Ren Chao really was disturbed, and red.

Just after he finished talking, Ren Chao ran with his mace up in the air. As Wang Mei was expecting a vertical strike and was ready to dodge, she got surprised when Ren Chao used the shaft of the mace to stab straight. When she dodged the stab, Ren Chao changed his grip and swept horizontally. The sudden change put Wang Mei in a difficult position.

When she was close to the mace, she felt as though she was only a piece of metal on the verge of being demolished by a hammer.

'Goddess's Embrace'. She got as close as possible to Ren Chao and wrapped her whip around his entire body in an intricate way. By using her whole body pressed against his back, she tightened her bindings as much as she could. Both of Ren Chao's arms were now bound to his chest. The way the whip was coiled around him used his own strength against him. The more he fought against the whip, the tightener it became.

Ren Chao was blunt but he was not stupid. Understanding that, he stopped fighting and tried to use his legs. Wang Mei was just behind him and they were both very close to the edge of the platform. In order to win this duel, he just had to trip her over.

When he was about to execute his plan, Wang Mei rotated with him and inclined her body. At the same time, the whip loosened and Ren Chao got disoriented. Wang Mei easily tripped him over the edge.

As Ren Chao hit the ground, he lost the duel. Watching him from the platform, Wang Mei whispered a sweet message for him. "If you're lonely, come and see. I'd love to have a chat with you."

Leaving Ren Chao in a very strange state, Wang Mei slowly walked off into the distance.

When she got back to the disciples she knew, a very young woman stopped her. "Don't you feel any shame? We're in public!" She wore an emblem with the number one and some kind of swallow in the background.

"Oh? Sorry, was I too bold for you, Sister? Maybe I should find you a man to relax."

"You! If I ever want one, I wouldn't need you!"

"Oh? So you do want one?"

"That's..." The young woman got as flustered as Ren Chao was. "That's not what I said!"

Another woman, a little older, went to her rescue. On her chest was the exact same emblem, the number one and a swallow in the back. "Sister Wang, do not tease my sister please." Wang Mei laughed a little and walked away. "And you Ling Hui, you should know that you can never win an argument with Wang Mei. And what did she do that was so improper?"

"I'm sorry, Sister Zhi." Ling Hui looked down but then got thinking and tried to retort. "But she flirted during her duel. You know she's with the Coiling Silk Faction, these women are all..."

"Ling Hui!" The woman had a stern look. "You should know better than to spread rumors about your sisters."

"Sorry..."

-

When he walked back to the new disciples, Ren Chao got really quiet. Elder Tang almost laughed out loud when he saw his face, but he had to keep his composure in public. Maybe he would tease him a little in private.

"Brother Ren, this senior sister seems to really like you. Good for you!"

"Ah... Ah..." Not knowing how to answer, his nature quickly took over. "Ha, ha, ha! Who wouldn't like me after all?! Ha, ha, ha!"

-

Wang Mei got back to a group wearing the same emblem as her, two strips of silk intertwined.

"Do you really fancy him?"

"Yes. He's interesting." Wang Mei took a quick look back to watch the young man and saw him laughing with his friends. "And he seems very honest."

"Isn't he a little too weak?"

"Not at all... I almost used all my Qi in my attacks, but he took everything on with sheer strength. I thought I could restrain him but even by going full out he almost broke free. If we had been in a life-or-death battle, I probably would have been crushed under his mace. He's a bit lacking in experience, but that can always be rectified. And his character is very good."

-

While the other disciples all went dueling on the platform, the older disciples looking from the ground kept on discussing about them.

Cao Yun was watching them and he noticed that they were gathered according to the emblem they wore on their chest. The number was their year and the background was most likely some kind of group affiliation.

They were eying the new disciples as if they were about to go buy some meat, comparing them to their tastes. In total, he noticed eight emblems. The emblem he saw the most was just a red cliff, then there was a purple cloud, a flower of some kind, difficult to make out, maybe an orchid, the door of a temple, an horizontal flame, a lake with a shell in it, the two strips of silk intertwined and finally the swallow emblem.

The swallow emblem was worn by only four people, including the two women who spoke with Wang Mei. And they were all first-years.

During his examination of the square, the fights had gone on.

-

Mei Hua also lost her fight. Her rope was controlled with more dexterity and she was almost able to tie up her opponent. Unfortunately, he escaped the encirclement at the last minute and using the gap in her attacks got close. Once a blade was on her throat, she admitted defeat.

"Thank you for letting me win, Junior Sister." The guy visibly tried to subtly flirt with her but in this fight, he had no hope.

Then came the fight of Sun Liao. Still with a bow, he also took up a sword.

In the first part of the fight, he tried to keep his opponent at a distance. In a single shot, he could fire five arrows, all going in different directions. He even was able to produce small array formations with his arrows. On the platform, his arrows formed a kind of circle and began to move on their own. They flew around and trapped his opponent within the circle. He had to dodge at least ten arrows each time he tried to make a move.

"I thought that Mortals could not use Qi outside of their body, how can he control those arrows?"

A first-year with the lake emblem asked out loud and he got an answer from a second-year wearing the temple emblem.

"This is not Qi manipulation, this is an array formation. For low-level array formations, you don't have to infuse any Qi in it, the Qi of nature itself can be used. If you align your array formation with nature, it can absorb a small quantity of Qi from the environment and sustain itself for some time. Of course, if you can emit Qi, the formation will be stronger and will last as long as you do."

"Wait, he was able to set up these arrows in a formation aligned with nature during the fight?! But he should not have been here before, right?"

"Yes, he probably used the other duels to analyze this place and deduce the right way to set up his formation..."

"Awesome!"

"But it won't save him..."

Alas, the area of the platform was not that big, so Sun Liao soon found himself too close to his enemy who kept on advancing. The arrows only slowed him down but they could not beat him.

Sun Liao was forced to switch to his sword. It was obvious he had only trained a little with a sword, just in case he could not use a bow. Still, he was able to put a small fight before being thrown off the platform by a powerful strike he blocked head-on. Sun Liao was expecting to lose, but he was so down when he thought about Cao Yun and their bet, that he looked really dejected by this defeat.

"Junior Brother, no need to feel so bad. Your archery and your array formations were excellent. If we had been on an open field, I'm not sure I could have even come near you."

"Thank you, Senior Brother. Your swordsmanship was great as well." Sun Liao really did not need more enemies now, so he controlled himself to shave off some arrogance and be polite.

On the platform of the chief elders, Chief Elder Luoming got surprised.

"It seems like your candidate is different from you, Brother Suxian."

"What do you mean?!" Chief Elder Suxian instinctively asked but then inquired further. "Are you going to tease me again?"

"No, no. If you say that, Miss Xiao will think that I'm just a bully. I only meant that your candidate can learn from his mistakes and control his mouth. That's a good thing, right?"

"You!" Chief Elder Suxian understood the subtext that he was incapable to do so himself.

"Brother Suxian?! You disagree with me?"

Chief Elder Suxian decided to stop trying to argue with his friend. The bet he had a few days earlier was lost for sure now and he just didn't have the will to play with his friend for the time being.

-

Finally, Cao Yun was going to fight. His opponent was a woman wielding a sword. He immediately recognized the woman because she was one of the only disciples to wear the swallow emblem.

She was extremely elegant and stood perfectly straight. In her eyes, there was a great determination but she seemed friendly enough.

"Junior Brother, I'm Zhi Yin. Let's exchange some pointers."

"Senior Sister Zhi, I'm Chen Guo. Please give me some pointers."