“JIN!!! IT’S A TR-” The Tiger Clan’s bodyguards knocked her out by blocking a chi point near her neck as she tried to scream again. Yuan Ba was impressed that his daughter seemed to have seen through what he was plotting.
“It’s for the greater good of our clan, my dearest daughter. You might not like it, but one day you should understand that this was my way of taking care of you three.” Yuan Ba thought to himself as he stared down the garden once more. The shout had made everyone in the garden look up to see the angry face of the Tiger Clan Head turn into one long smirk.
Yang Hui who had been the only one in the know similarly did not hide his grin anymore while his brother looked shocked as the realisation hit him that everything must have been part of their father’s plot. He had never liked being played by their father and his schemes, but right now he was fully focused on dealing with the dungeon supplier who finally seemed to take action… by searching his pockets for something?
“You sure about this? There is no going back if you reveal yourselves this way.” Kong Rong warned Jin through the System Channel.
“I’ve done a bit of thinking, and I believe I should be able to handle the pressures of society now. I’m definitely far from being fully prepared, but whatever happens, I have something to fall back on. My minions and family will stay by my side. Not to mention, I have you too. Heh.”
“You make it sound like I am your guardian angel.” Kong Rong chuckled and sighed while he looked at his monitor that was receiving the live feed from a drone. “Very well, do as you like. Let me make some arrangements on my side to ensure that you get some backing for the aftermath.”
“Thank you, my Senior,” Jin said through the System with a quick snicker before looking up towards Yang Rong and Yang Hui, who were still very confident that Jin had no way out of the trap that they created for him.
“Very well, if you so desperately want to bet your territories for a fight with me instead of going against my guards, I shall play along. An eye for an eye.” Jin addressed the Tiger Brothers and pulled out a storage ring. In an instant, he summoned out a platinum looking statue in the shape of a Panda. Like the others, it looked as if it was a chess piece and all of them stared at it.
The cuteness of a Panda yawning while having its paws on a bamboo shoot, crystalised with platinum metal. Unlike the wooden tiger chess pieces, even the fur on the Panda was heavily detailed, and a simple form of shading had been applied to give the Panda that sense of realism. Jin later employed some Maqi onto it, and the Panda Statue chess piece could even move its mouth, closing it for a while before it returned to a wide yawning mouth.
Yuan Ba focused his chi into his eyes to see what Jin was holding. A platinum statue piece? It looked to be made from the same material as his own platinum tiger statue piece, yet that was something only Clan Heads were eligible to use. And when he saw Jin applying some chi to make its mouth move, he could not believe it at all.
“What? Impossible! It has to be fake!” Yuan Ba uttered as he leaned forward and grabbed the railing. However, before he could do anything to stop the duel, he saw his two sons had already used their chi to bring up the wooden tiger statues and call upon the heavens to invoke the challenge.
Immediately, two large tiger silhouettes appeared from the statues and burst wide into the skies as if they were going to oversee the match. Jin did the same, and surprisingly a colossal panda silhouette filled the sky. After which, it started fighting the two tigers upon its emergence. Although it was a two on one, the Panda was three times bigger than the two tigers, and it was already overpowering them with its size alone.
“Preposterous!” Yuan Ba’s mouth was left wide open when he watched the Panda silhouette suppress the two tigers and call upon the Will of the Heavens, the match had been set between the Royal Zodiac Tiger clans and the Royal Zodiac Panda Clan.
This became all the more clear when an actual representative from the Gods Realm came down to oversee the match between the clans as had been officiated since the olden days.
Derek, who had remained at the sidelines, became quite lively when he saw the large celestial being. He recognised him as one of the gods that had taken his world away. “It appears they do intervene in your world too, master.” Derek pointed out, and Jin took extra notice of their judge.
“From what I gather, he might be like a worker ant for the Gods. Then again, this is probably just like an automated clone body. Still, it does have some of the powers of a god, despite it being extremely limited. Probably only to oversee this match.” Moloch reasoned as he was a Demon Lord and had a few clashes with such Gods when he was younger.
“Don’t do anything rash. You’re free to collect data but nothing else. We do not need to complicate things with innocents in the picture.” Jin cautioned, causing Derek and Moloch to continue to monitor from afar.
The God that was standing in the middle of the three animal silhouettes was wearing ancient Chinese armour, resembling the depicted form of Er Lang Hu, the War God with three eyes. His black battle armour was adorned with layers of intricate patterns pertaining to the twelve Royal Zodiac.
This Godly Representative had been depicted in the journals of previous Clan Heads. However, Yuan Ba noticed that unlike in those illustrations or descriptions the representative was now also holding onto a feathered fan with the image of bamboo forest and Pandas hiding within it as if indicating that the rumoured thirteenth Royal Zodiac did exist.
“As per the Will of the Heavens, I have acknowledged the authenticity of both sides’ chess pieces. I shall bear witness and act as judge over this duel. The challenged Panda Clan has agreed to the addition of another challenger, and in case of his victory, he shall be compensated further due to his handicap.” The Godly Representative announced in a booming voice. “All non-participants, move away this moment!”
Jin’s minions jumped out of the way as a rectangular barrier rose from the ground. However, not all the Minor Clan cultivators managed to move out of the way in time, and thus the Godly Representative used his Feather Fan to magically move them out of the field. Granted, they did not have a nice landing, but it did the job.
“You may now proceed.” The Godly Representative was prompt to get the match started.
“What the hell?! Father! This is not what we agreed on!” Yang Hui shouted when he finally realised the situation he was in. His calm demeanour completely gone, replaced by a scowl on his face. Yang Rong decided to not care and rushed forward.
His chi was all focused, and he was ready to blast forth, but Jin had been waiting for his attack.
