After the axe-wielding youth and the finger-sword elderly, five more people remained on Xiao Wu's list of targets for the night: three more Low Level Basic Stage cultivators, one Middle Level Basic Stage, and even a High Level Basic Stage disciple. Had it been anyone else, fighting such a gap in cultivation as an Inferior Stage eight-year-old, they probably would have had no chance of victory.
And yet, despite the disparity in stages, in the end victory still fell in the hands of the enigmatic Night Challenger wearing a blue training garb, black Sect robes, and an azure mask.
Those who wielded weapons were outsmarted by Xiao Wu's impeccable use of the powerful Black Dragon Blade and the Vengeful Talons, while those that fought without one were defeated by her through her domineering hand-to-hand combat techniques and with the aid of the Purple Moon's heaven-defying scripture.
Of course, all the while she had made sure to restrain the output and aura of the two Martial Ways as much as she could, so that the people she fought would mainly think that they were some random treasures, or the fruit of some strange cultivation techniques. Although this might still incur the greed of some, it was nowhere near the chaos that would ensue were they to be discovered to be 'the' Martial Ways.
Under her meticulous control, the emerald-eyed girl's opponents mainly lost because of her superior skills, which would be further and further sharpened with each bout and clash. However, the last opponent had actually forced her hand, making her attack with her Pseudo-Advanced Stage cultivation more than a dozen times before she could break past his astonishing defense… And this had been with her Vengeful Talons at her current maximum of six blades at once.
This had brought her to realize one thing… which was that, in spite of her said superior techniques, she would still need the aid of a powerful cultivation base to back her up. Otherwise, breaking through the defenses powered by much more Spiritual Energy than her own would be simply way too hard.
Nonetheless, it was an undeniable truth that after just three days of activity, the eccentric Night Challenger had already defeated more than twenty people of varying cultivation without suffering a single loss. Each time, the ones she fought would have a cultivation bases even higher than that of those she had challenged the previous day. By the time the third night of activities came to an end, many people were discussing this Night Challenger and 'his' mysterious endeavors…
That's right, not 'their', nor 'her'… but 'HIS'; that's because it was discovered that the night challenger was actually a 'he'!
The last person to have fought the masked cultivator, the one with High Level Basic Stage cultivation, was barely able to catch a glimpse of the unknown cultivator's face after he had managed to break their mask during the final clash. Although said Basic Stage cultivator was defeated in the end, he still became somewhat famous in that area of the sixth ring thanks to the lucky occurrence. When the thousands of people interested in the identity of this Night Challenger came to know of this fact, his popularity soared: every day there would be rivers people who wanted to hear what this eccentric masked expert truly looked like!
To them, he would then answer like this:
"He's very young, far from his teens. In fact, he's just a child! However, even at such a young age, he is also so good looking that I could swear to have never seen any grown man as handsome as him, or any woman with traits as elegant and perfect as his! He has piercing green eyes, dark-purple lips and a small nose, so perfect in all his proportions that at first I thought a sculpture of some divine being had come to life. His purple and blue hair is also a first for me; it was the first time in my life that I had seen someone with hair like that! Although he probably isn't even ten years old right now, in the coming years royal princesses and female cultivator from all over the world might actually come flocking all over him just because of his looks alone… add that onto his monstrous talent that could defeat even me with a Low Level Inferior Stage -and I can proudly declare to have the confidence to face weaker Advanced Stage experts head on- and the sole reason any woman wouldn't want him would be because their brains had turned to mush from all that perfection!"
Hearing those words, some thought that he exaggerated. However he, who had seen 'him' personally, was certain of his predictions and didn't bother caring about the thought of others. Instead, he had already decided to aid this new idol of his on spreading their fame as the Night Challenger far and wide in the Vacant Sect!
Although he, Fa Ningsan, was already twenty-five years old and had been defeated by someone who was still so young, he actually was somewhat proud of being challenged by and losing to such a genius: he firmly believed that in the future he would be able to tell his children and grandchildren that he had been defeated by THE Prince of the Mysterious Light-Shadow Sect!
…
Xiao Wu got home early in the morning, just before the fourth bell. She took off her training clothes and sect robes, dirtied by the night of battle, and washed them all in the water basin by the rear garden. She changed the water and then doused within it herself, enjoying the sensation of freshness encasing her tired, burning body. When she eventually got out, she wore a fresh pair of black robes -with a single white stripe starting from her right shoulder and ending at her left ankle, fading into black somewhere around the middle- and undergarments comfortable enough to move around below it.
The slight chill of a summer night breeze battered against her paramount-perfect face as she dried her hair with a towel, yawning and struggling to keep her eyes open.
She hung her wet laundry with the rest and then took the garb from the night before, which had been cleaned and then hung, and by now had dried. Just like she had done those past few days, she planned to place that one underneath the pillow for her nightly excursions later on: this had become a routine ever since she had kept challenging disciples as the masked challenger.
After all this, as per routine, she took out the mask from her Heaven&Earth Pouch, and her expression soured.
"Aoo, to think it'd be reduced to this state…"
Running all throughout the length of the pale, featureless mask were deep cracks, with a gash on the upper-left where her opponent had desperately struck back in a vain attempt to regain back momentum. With that, her opponent had managed to steal away a single glance at her beautiful face, barely hardened at all even after all that makeup, and the tale of the purple-haired prince was spun.
When she saw the large crack, Xiao Wu couldn't help but frown, as she did not have a spare on her. Normally, she could have simply bought another one, but that would waste time and effort, especially seeing how half the Vacant Sect was looking for 'her': even if she covered herself up in her hood, her small frame, uncommon in a Sect of cultivators, was bound to give her away and land her in some difficult situations. She had thought of searching amidst Liu Biao's belongings, but Cheng Hao had taken the dimensional pouch with him in his cultivation behind closed doors…
"So no chance of that idea getting anywhere, either… How bothersome."
Xiao Wu shook her head. Then, she applied pressure with her fingers, crushing the azure mask into bone powder.
"In the end, it all leads to getting brother Yin to buy this without suspecting anything…" The emerald-eyed girl's green orbs lit up intelligently, her purple lips arranging into a knowing, victorious smirk "And I might just know how to do that…"
Like so, time passed, and it was only just as the sun was beginning to set that she accomplished her goal: after many trials and tribulations, and close calls way too numerous to count, Xiao Wu finally managed to get her hands onto another bone mask from the bazaar.
Up until they eventually bought the mask and handed it to her, Fuyin and Wang Lu tried their hardest not to let on that they had known since long ago that she was the much-famed Night Challenger. Despite countless close calls on their part as well, they still tried their best and eventually managed to make it through.
Like so, with a new mask and renewed vigor, the Night Challenger took off once again in the dark! Departing just shy of the second twelfth hour, her first clash of the night was accompanied by the ringing of blades and bells.
And she would do so night after night, after night, the stars and moon bearing witness to her victorious harvest time and time again!
Amusingly enough, by the end of her first week of donning the azure garbs and wearing the mantle of the masked genius, Xiao Wu had unknowingly already become the ideal husband material in most of the Vacant Sect female cultivators' hearts…
Of course, as she took down experts left and right and rose to fame, her increasingly brighter figure began tickling the pride of those geniuses that considered themselves peerless in the snake kingdom of the Vacant Sect: it was their belief that even a strong dragon can't suppress the local snake king, let alone a dragon cub, and as such how could they possibly let this random kid, this 'masked prince', steal away their limelight?
Did he not know of the meaning behind the phrase crouching tiger, hidden dragon, and that strength was not for boasting? Did he not fear retribution from rousing the hidden experts in the Vacant Sect with his impulsive and arrogant actions? Did he not know that I had been wooing that cute junior sister over there for years, and just as I had the chance to take her out to dinner and had the courage to confess, you came around and stole her heart without even knowing she existed?
"…"
…It looked like this feisty and brash youth was in need of a thorough lesson!
Like so, countless Vacant Disciples wishing to 'test their honed skills against those of the newcomer' came forward one after another. And amusingly enough, in the days to come, before even Xiao Wu would come to know anything of it, the whole Vacant Sect would eventually come to view Fa Ningsan as the middle-man between the 'Night Challenger' and those who wished to challenge him!
Hundreds of requests for battle would flood in in his mail post every time the sixth bell of the morning rang, and more often than not they would be accompanied by some sort of monetary gift to him, Fa Ningsan. Without any need for an explanation, it was clear that they were hoping to sway him to put them in the 'list' of those challenged that night. And those prices would rise and rise again each night, with people trying their hand at bribing him from left and right, hoping to bid more than the competition.
Money flowed in for those 'spots' he had no way of interfering with as if he were auctioning away fine treasures!
And like so, after the happenings of that sole, single night, the High Level Basic Stage cultivator grew from a slightly prominent nobody with a good cultivation in the Vacant Sect, to the top of the social ladder.
There was only one reason why Xiao Wu didn't leash out on the guy for being the catalyst that turned the 'Challenger' into the 'Challenged', ruining the persona that she had been steadily building up these past few days, the very moment she heard of this…
That being, it actually turned out that this saved her quite some time.
Initially, she would have had to spare some of her free time in the morning, afternoon, or even at night to look for suitable opponents to face. Now, with many renowned experts coming to look for her on their own, it saved her that time and let her invest it in more training during the day and more duels at night. Having a 'secretary' turned out mildly useful as well, in particular seeing how he would voluntarily hand her most, if not all of his earnings from the bribes, just so she didn't expose him and those people realized that the money they had spent had been all for naught.
Finding this system of patrons making donations just for a chance to fight her amusing enough, she eventually chose to endorse it, and with somebody organizing her battles for the night, her efficiency rose, allowing her to battle many times the number of opponents than she would have been able to put together alone. It even came to the point where they invested the newly earned capital in a small abandoned building, turning it into an actual arena that every night would attract many curious spectators. The Night Challenger was only lacking merchandise before it would turn into an actual brand, and even that might not be for too long.
And all this was merely because her appearance had been mistakenly revealed to that one person, Fa Ningshan, who later helped feed countess pieces of information to those rumors, spinning them into full-fledged tales of an aloof, talented and handsome masked youth! Just that one event had lead up to all this!
Somehow, even after all this while, neither her actual identity nor true gender were ever disclosed. Of course, there were quite a few close calls, both in the Spirit Beast forest and just outside the arena. However, the powerful Advanced Stage Wang Fuyin, unmatched in the Vacant Sect, would tidy up after her each time from the shadows. Overall, it could only be considered a massive success, and the best cow they could get their hands on right now to milk for resources.
If Cheng Hao could see all this, he would only be asking why she had yet to set up a betting system of some sorts and scammed anyone yet, forgetting for a brief moment that the promising purple-haired young girl before his eyes was not the other purple-haired rogue misfit he used to hang out with.
At times, a rebellious apple might not want to fall too near to the tree, but ultimately would end up rolling back just shy of the trunk nevertheless…