Chapter 37: Group Two
Before noticing, already three weeks had gone by in the blink of an eye, and even now Gao Yan, Rong Ming, Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long were still participating. Today was the day, where the final eight were going to be decided, and although Hui Yue was curious about his own fight, it was nothing compared to the group eight final.
Wang Ju Long was going up against Rong Ming. This was a fight which caused great discomfort for Hui Yue, as Rong Ming had been his friends for so many years, but on the other hand, Wang Ju Long was someone whom he yearned to fight with in this tournament.
Hui Yue sighed deeply as he calmed his conflicted self and looked at the stage in front of him. Now was not the time for him to worry about a fight scheduled in the afternoon, instead he should look at the opponent standing in front of him.
Today was the day to determine the strongest eight for the tournament, and it was obvious that, although Hui Yue’s group was not as strong as some of the others, it would be impossible for him to not go up against a strong opponent at least once.
The opponent Hui Yue had to face that day was a year older than the bunch he usually hangs around with, and his rank was that of an eight-star Disciple.
This particular man was vicious-looking as he looked at Hui Yue, his opponent. So far, within the group, Hui Yue had been floating on a breeze, picking off the easy opponents and leaving the higher ranked to this guy, making him feel more and more enmity after each draw of the numbers to decide their fights.
Today, he no longer had to keep his rage bottled; today, he had the chance to face off against a so-called genius. Looking at his opponent, Hui Yue felt the malice that was aimed at him, and his sky-blue eyes flashed with an ice-cold killing intent in return.
Although Hui Yue was of a lower rank, he had no intention of letting such a weak student best him. Hui Yue would not let anyone stand in his way to enter the finals and gripped his hands tightly as he gave the customary bow towards his opponent. A flash of decisiveness appeared within the sky-blue eyes and a snicker appeared on his lips.
“The final battle of group two begins NOW!” the judge yelled, allowing his voice to sound out through the multiple mountain tops. So far the battles were still held in the minor arenas, however, now only one match was held at a time, causing everyone to intently keep an eye on the two youths on this particular stage.
As soon as the voice had sounded, the older boy instantly scuttled towards Hui Yue; he was silent like the wind and his Qi had draped itself nicely around his fist. The previously quiet air crackled with energy as the fist was moving, inching closer to Hui Yue with an impressive speed.
A sudden attack such as this did shock Hui Yue, but he had already activated Velocity Flow and while wielding his ability to perfection he barely managed to escape by a hair’s width, rushing backwards.
Seeing Hui Yue escape such a swift attack caused everyone within the arena to fall silent. Not one moved a muscle as they saw a small child using high ranked martial art skills.
Although Hui Yue had fought against stronger opponents before, none of them had ever been as strong as this one, and Hui Yue had to admit that he had underestimated him. Relief flooded his senses as he made a successful retreat.
After feeling the raw power from the older boy’s fist in the brief exchange, Hui Yue knew that he could only withstand one attack at most while relying solely on the fortification of his body. His brain swiftly calculating the various options that were available for him, including Qi Guard.
Hui Yue swore silently as he created a copy of himself by using his perfected Velocity Flow, and, suddenly, there were two white-haired boys standing on the stage, both seemingly as strong as the originator.
Using the Velocity Flow Copy was an obvious attempt to buy some time while considering his options, but in using this copy he knew that his opponent would be on the defence for some time.
Although the aura and the feeling was the exact same, Hui Yue was perfectly aware of how his double was nothing more than a clone without combat ability, nor did it have any defense against destruction. What it could do was to confuse the opponent to stall for enough time in order to use his next skill.
Hui Yue sighed. There was really only one option that was available to him. Hui Yue was currently fighting against a much stronger opponent and his only chance to win was to stay alive until he was able to plant perfect attacks of his own.
Within Hui Yue’s dantian, the Qi cyclone erupted with force. It sped up with immense velocity, making it impossible to see the individual Qi threads. After having swirled rapidly for a few seconds, Qi started to leave the swirl and it traveled through the meridians before it slowly exited through the pores of his skin, coating it in a translucent pearl-white glistening protective layer of Qi.
This was an ability that belonged to the experts of the middle dantian. This was a protective spell that every cultivator would learn, but even so, it was an ability which no one had ever seen performed by relying on Qi.
This ability was not written into the leaflet, as it had only been seen by a few people during the first fight against Wang Ju Long, and clearly surprise was evident within the entire audience with the spreading gasps. Even Wang Ju Long had to narrow his eyes in displeasure, as he noticed how much better his rival’s Qi Guard had become. An itch appeared within him, as he wished he was the one currently fighting Hui Yue. He wished to know whether or not his Qi Lightning could break through such a seemingly impervious defence.
As soon as the Qi Guard appeared, the older boy quickly threw himself at Hui Yue who was running around without a protective ability, in hopes of lowering his damage intake. What he found was that as soon as his fist made contact with the clone, the clone vanished into thin air.
Growling in displeasure, the older boy dropped onto the floor as he felt an incoming attack, and less than a second after, a leg had appeared where his head had been moments before.
Attack after attack rained down on Hui Yue, however, he was as agile as a cat and managed to dodge most of the them, allowing only two of them to slowly graze his protected body. Even though Hui Yue had an immense defence, he could still feel even the slightest touch, and he could not help but swearing slightly as he spread out his palm.
White strands of light gathered within Hui Yue’s palm before they merged together into one knife. To defeat this boy, Hui Yue was aware that he needed to use some of his hidden cards, and using one knife should be enough.
As the knife came to life within Hui Yue’s hand an overwhelming pressure was applied to the boy in front of him. The air was stifling and the knife was vibrating with an overbearing force that seemed to thirst for blood.
This reaction was unlike anything Hui Yue had felt before while training the skill, yet strands of power shot through his body. This was no longer a practice fight but a real battle and the Qi from within him was beckoning Hui Yue to move forward. To attack. To slaughter.
This baleful aura was spreading towards the audience and while the students got scared, the experts were astonished as to how the Qi of such a young boy contained such dense killing intent.
Hui Yue skilfull use of Velocity Flow increased and he easily managed to evade a barrage of incoming punches. As he escaped the punches he did not retreat, instead, he was advancing with each step, getting closer and closer to the opponent in front of him.
Looking at Hui Yue, one could see a sinister smile on his face together with a glint of killing intent within his eyes, the boy was filled with overbearing energy, so overbearing that even the judge was left shocked on the sideline.
The knife within his left hand was swirling around, being played with within Hui Yue’s grasp. Hui Yue quickly sliced the opponent’s left arm, leaving behind a straight line out of which blood started to flow. The slash had been so quick that the older boy had had no chance to react, and a feeling of dread was left behind. The place where the weapon had touched was tingling with a pain as if it had been sat on fire.
Hui Yue had ensured that the knife did not leave any lasting damage, as he used his speed and agility to dance around the opponent before he allowed the Qi knife to make a long slash on his opponents back.
Right as the second slash had connected with the skin, the older boy managed to twist himself and launch an attack which landed on Hui Yue’s stomach, causing him to stagger one step backwards.
Fortunately for Hui Yue, this second slash was much like the first, and once again the older boy was drowning within pain as though his entire back was being burned.
Hui Yue suddenly was brought back to reality. Although this was a real battle it was by no means a battle of life and death. The killing intent within Hui Yue’s eyes slowly withdrew and instead it was replaced by a thoughtfulness which was analysing the current situation.
Hui Yue understood that his tempo had been broken and he quickly backed away, creating a large distance between the two. During this entire time, the knife had not stood still, constantly swirling in Hui Yue’s hand making him seem like a rogue waiting for the opportune moment to strike.
The entire audience was quiet. No one had expected to see the genius child who already possessed some high ranked martial art skills suddenly reveal another unknown skill which definitely had been of the higher rank.
Everyone present felt how they shuddered in wake of the revelation of talent which clearly proved much more promising than what they had first expected, yet astonishment was quickly replaced by shock and fear. How could such a young child possess such a wide array of high ranked martial art skills?
While the audience had their eyes glued to the battle in front of them, Hui Yue’s opponent was gritting his teeth. It was obvious that he had not expected Hui Yue to actually back up his title as a genius and sweat was soaking his back as he stubbornly hung on to the possibility of winning due to having a larger Qi pool.
The enmity between Hui Yue and the opponent was one which had been slowly built up for the last three weeks, and Hui Yue somewhat understood the reason as to why he was disliked.
Nevertheless, it was not Hui Yue’s fault that he had been gifted with great luck – or perhaps misfortune across lifetimes – nor was it his fault that he was now proving to be stronger than this young man in front of him.
Soon, the battle turned into chaos. Every time the opponent let out a barrage of attacks, Hui Yue would dance closer and make a few more slashes only to run away as soon as he had completed his attack.
Each attack caused an uneasy feeling within Hui Yue to grow, but he forcefully suppressed it as he focused on the match in front of him. The uneasiness was a feeling of thrill and excitement. A feeling of wanting to kill the opponent.
These feelings were some which Hui Yue did not know that he had previously, yet now they were threatening to break free from their bonds, annoying Hui Yue to no end.
Forcefully suppressing it once more, Hui Yue focused his entire attention to the match he was currently fighting.
Having taken one attack, Hui Yue understood perfectly well just how big a difference there was between the two of them in power. Fortunately, this older boy had a fairly average quality of Qi and his way of using it was far inferior to Hui Yue.
The two once again stood with a large distance between them. Hate was shining out of the opponent’s eyes and the stage was covered in his blood. This sight was similar to that of Rong Xing and her opponent all those days back.
Unfortunately for this person, Hui Yue had no intention of backing off or admiring the perseverance. Not to mention, Hui Yue was the one who was definitely at a disadvantage according to theory. He was, after all, only a nine-star Student ranked cultivator.
Looking at the boy with shoulder-long white hair moving around with his pearl white Qi dagger brought fear into the heart of some family leaders who had come to watch the emerging geniuses.
All these family leaders quickly agreed that the boy on the stage was not a genius, he was a monster.
A silver monster who stood there with a cold expression on his face as he observed his opponent with slight disdain. It could have been an easy win if he had seriously injured him.
Hui Yue was not dumb. He had seen the hate and killing intent within his opponent’s eyes from the very start and now he paid back. Anyone who showed such contempt for Hui Yue, he would repay with the same contempt.
A smile appeared on Hui Yue’s face, but this was no longer the smile of an innocent ten-year-old with clean hands, instead it was a sinister grin of an adult in preparation of something terrible. Turning his head from left to right he allowed popping sounds to be heard before he shrugged his shoulders.
“Are you going to forfeit?” Hui Yue asked, his voice as cold as ice, “or would you rather that I become serious?” suddenly another set of light appeared within the left palm, and after a second Hui Yue was now dual wielding his knives, able to create the double amount of pain.
The two daggers within Hui Yue’s hands were emitting a baleful aura, causing the other boy to feel nauseous. Hui Yue had turned into an overwhelming presence.
Upon seeing the additional dagger within Hui Yue’s hand, a cold shiver ran down the spine of the older boy and anyone close enough could see the sinister look within the younger boy’s eyes. It was obvious that this child was not as simple as they expected. He gritted his teeth and hate roiled undisguised within his eyes.
This older boy was not the only one who was shocked to see the second knife to appear, the entire audience was seated, completely quiet and with baited breath observing everything which was happening in front of them.
Scanning the child caused all the high ranked specialists within Riluo City to frown slightly. It was obvious the aura released from this child belonged to a nine-star Student ranked cultivator.
This cultivation base also relied on human cultivation, something which made it clear to anyone who watched that this was no magical beast in human shape which they had expected at first.
Nevertheless, no matter how much they looked at the child, there was something odd about the dantian cave. It felt as if they were missing something important every time they searched and a feeling of worry overwhelmed them.
The only way to hide something from an expert was to have a higher cultivation level, but this child held some secrets that even they were unable to look through.
“I forfeit,” the opponent said between clenched teeth as his gaze filled with anger and despair. Hui Yue would not be shocked if this guy would do anything in the world for revenge, however, right now he just wished to get away.
Hui Yue let out a relieved breath.
‘Was it really that terrible?’ Lan Feng asked curiously, as he understood Hui Yue much better than anyone else.
‘What exactly did you expect?’ Hui Yue answered with a grumpy voice, ‘it’s the first time I cut flesh and even if it wasn’t deadly it was still quite a nauseating feeling.’
‘Get used to it.’ Was the only answer he got from the phoenix as the results of the match was shown. Hui Yue quickly removed both the Qi Guard and the Transforming weapons before he slowly turned towards his friends and left the arena mountain top behind.
