Town Competition (1)

Khoru woke up the next day, after being doused in freezing cold water and eating dinner in wet clothes, he went back to sleep. Now today was the day that the town competition starts, and he was a bit anxious.

"The neighboring families are participating in this competition, I can't afford to lose!" Khoru didn't know the strength of anyone from the neighboring families, so he had to be cautious at the competition.

As he was getting dressed the sound of a loud bell chimed throughout the entire town, alerting everyone.

"What was that bell?" Just as Khoru wondered about the bell's origin, another sound rang out.

"Everyone, the day that the official town tournament will open has come! Bring your best disciples, students, and prodigies! Not only are we competing against each other, but were competing against the neighboring families of neighboring towns, as well as for a spot in the Purple Haze Sect!"

The disembodied voice's words shocked a ton of people. Not too many people knew about a spot for the Purple Haze Sect being open, nor did they even know that one of the inner disciples of the Sect came to watch over the competition!

'I thought the inner disciple just came to observe. Now it looks like I can't hold anything back!' Unfortunately, Khoru didn't have any cultivation pills left to try and reach the 5th stage of the foundation building realm.

Either way, he'd still have to try his hardest.

He went out to town and saw many people talking with each other and the elusive masters teaching their disciples. Khoru walked towards the direction of the Water Lily Pavilion and soon discovered something.

Somehow a giant structure had been built near the Water Lily Pavilion, in the form of a giant stadium! It was way bigger than the stadium that the Ghostly Blade Family owned, allowing much more space to maneuver.

Khoru wanted to get an up-close look at the stadium but before he could, a mysterious man came from around the side of the stadium. Much to his surprise, it was actually one of the supreme elders of the Ghostly Blade Family.

"Supreme elder, what are you doing here? Are you the host for the competition? But I thought the inner disciple would be the host." Khoru looked at the old man suspiciously. The old man had a small grin on his face.

"No, I'm not the host, I'm only observing the stadium like you. I don't believe one on one fights will be the only matches taking place in such a large stadium." The old man said.

Now that he said that, Khoru truly looked around and observed his surroundings. The entire radius around the stadium, which was previously occupied by a bit of the marketplace, had been completely transformed. There were bleacher seats on each side of the stadium except for the side that Khoru and the supreme elder were on.

Plus, the stadium itself was like a gigantic boxing ring but without flexible ropes and the ground was made of chiseled stone. It was also slightly elevated above the ground.

Khoru felt intimidated by the sheer size of the stadium and couldn't imagine what type of fights would take place. He also wondered how such a large structure was built in such a short amount of time.

"Oh if you're wondering how this stadium was built so quickly, it was thanks to someone from the Water Lily Pavilion, a higher-tier member. Make sure you give her thanks, her name is Jin Xiang." The supreme elder's words made Khoru's body slightly jolt.

He nodded his head and bowed respectfully before turning around and leaving with a curious expression on his face.

...

"Master, I've witnessed something truly ground-shaking today regarding Xin Khoru." A woman's voice resounded inside the small room, quickly leaping into the darkness and into the ears of the man sitting at the other side of the table.

"What have you seen?" He said. His deep voice was neither intimidating nor pressuring unlike most of the time.

"Xin Khoru somehow caused his Martial Spirits to...merge. They merged into a katana that was over three times the original power of his Martial Spirits!" The woman exclaimed. It wasn't everyday that she'd lose her composure.

It wasn't any day that such a thing happened actually.

"They merged? How? Did some type of ritual take place?" The man inquired.

"No, it all happened so suddenly. Based on Xin Khoru's reaction, I can assume that even he didn't know what was happening at first. Also, I'm assuming that such a transformation absorbed all of his Spirit Qi, causing him to faint."

"Hm, alright. He has a trump-card up his sleeve for the tournament and hopefully he knows how to play the rest of his cards right." The man judged the woman's report before sending her off.

"It's only been two weeks since he started cultivating so how did he reach the 4th stage of the foundation building realm already? Has he engaged in countless life or death battles?" The man asked himself as his presence slowly faded into the shadows.

...

Khoru decided to grab a quick meal from the Moonberry Inn and come back to the stadium after finishing. When he finally came back, he was shocked to see that nearly two and a half bleacher seats were already full, not to mention multiple people were entering the town in carriages!

The bleacher seats could hold up to 10,000 people each, and the fact that nearly 25,000 people had attended the competition just confirmed how undoubtedly important it was. Khoru took a deep gulp and became even more anxious. He hoped there was no one over the 5th stage of the foundation building realm or else he'd have an extremely hard time.

As he looked around, Khoru's gaze locked onto a few people sitting down. Qiu Wei, his mother, Qiu Wei's mother, supreme elder Huanfeng, and one more person...

Hao Jianyu?!