"Rou Ming Yue! Chu Jian! Enter the arena!" the referee called her name along with her challenger, beckoning them.
She looked at the young man opposite of her. Well dressed and holding a fan in his hands, he looked more like a noble than a fighter. In truth, he is a disciple of the Soft Willow Sect, one that specialized in illusions and other mystical attacks.
"Don't blame me for challenging you, there weren't many choices", he spoke elegantly.
"It does not matter, there is bound to be someone to challenge me," she responded.
The both of them stared at each other, cupping their fists and bowing.
"Begin!"
Ming Yue took her stance, gripping the handle of her sword, still sheathed. The moment she made a move, she almost disappeared from her spot, turning into a blur. Chu Jian was not prepared for her swiftness and before he could make a move, she was already behind him.
"Fast!" he thought, quickly dodging her attack.
If he was late by the slightest, he would have lost.
"It looks like this will not be as easy as I thought" he said, opening his fan.
It was not some normal fan but a bladed one and by the looks of it, the sharpness was undeniable.
Ming Yue did not give him much time to recover and attacked once more. However, Chu Jian held hid fan up, deflecting the strike and making an opening. He returned the attack by thrusting his fan forth, aimed at her throat. She backed away from him, evading the attack.
"Seven Stars!"
Chu Jian exclaimed, creating six copies of his bladed fan, circling them around him. With several hand motions, he controlled them, surrounding the her with the seven fans.
"Is this an illusion?" she thought, this was the first time she had encountered something like this.
She did her best to defend against the attack but was struck several times. She could not discern which was real and which was fake. Most of the time, she had attacked the air. This frustrated her as she could not find a way to break out of this onslaught. Anymore of this and she could lose. Meanwhile, Chu Jian seemed slightly unwell, most likely this technique drained him and he could not maintain it for much longer. This could quickly turn into a battle of endurance but Ming Yue did not want to expend any more of her energy.
She needed some destructive power to escape. Knowing this, she chose to try out this technique that had been created from her training over her ever-changing dao of wind. Coating the sword with wind, she enlarged it creating a thick blade of wind that encapsulated her blade. Triple in size, it might not be a silent strike but it was extremely powerful. Wielding the massive blade of wind, she struck down the formation. As if a furious storm had struck the arena, brutal winds erupted from her attack.
The powerful attack had broken Chu Jian's concentration and pushed him out of the arena, leaving her to stand alone.
"Ming Yue wins!" the referee announced, seeing as Chu Jian was no longer fit to fight.
Hearing the results, she left the arena and sat down to recover. This attack expended quite a bit of energy and required a lot of concentration to control. However, using it in actual combat, she found it quite helpful, something she could use to deal with large amounts of enemies. With time, she might be able to execute such a feat at a moment's notice.
"I think I'll call it, Savage Tempest," she thought.
The attack was simple and brutish, yet it created such ferocious gales.
As for Chu Jian, he could only smile with disappointment and challenge another.
The next following matches for her ended in with all victories. Targeting her due to her low rank, they did not believe that they would lose to her. Unfortunately, many ended forfeiting due to her first strike. Such speed had surprised them, not expecting her to have almost disappeared from their sight. As for those who managed to defend against her, they were unable to keep up with her swordsmanship. With such fluid movement along with her unpredictability, it was difficult for many to fight her on equal standing.
The only opponents she had trouble with was a cultivator who was ranked at 92 and another who specialized in the spear. The first was a young woman who used a pipa* and attacked with sound. Formless and unnoticeable, Ming Yue did not know how to defend against her. She had won by trading blow for blow before overpowering her. As for the spear cultivator, he was a shadow element user whose strikes were swift and came from the dark. She could not lower her guard as his attacks come from her own shadow, attacking from below. In the end, she got close to him and dodged a shadow spear, one that was aimed at her back soon found its way to his neck.
On this day, she had gone through eighteen battles and won every one of them, keeping her rank at 87. During her resting time, she would often observe the others, gaining some insights as well as deciding on who she would challenge.
The second day was almost the same. She won fourteen fights, still keeping her rank at 87. At this time, those who occupied the lower ranks changed often while the higher ranked ones had changed maybe once or twice. Including the top three, she was one of the few to have kept her rank, winning all of her challenges. People began to challenge others, seeing as she was immovable. Her sword skills and fighting style was top notch, not to mention each fight seemed to help her improve. She was most definitely a dark horse.
On the third day something changed, she challenged someone else. It was rank 58, Shao Huang. Similarly he had also won all of his fights managing to keep his rank. What he held in advantage was his wealth, having built up a cultivation from an extensive use of pills and rare herbs. Furthermore all of his items were top quality items, one of which was a sage grade sword with everything else mortal grade.
But at this point, she was quite confident in taking him down, not to mention, she still had to pay him back for before. In response, Shao Huang accepted it with the least bit of worry but inside, a part of him was fearful of her. Ever since, he saw her on that tornado, he was afraid. Her expression of silent rage resembled that of an angry deity, one that embodied death and destruction. Knowing that she would come for him, he reassured himself that he would win with his higher rank.
Walking onto one of the arenas, he was overbearing and acted as if she was nothing more than an ant.
"I hope you're ready for your first loss," he said.
Taking out his golden sword, he prepared his stance and waited for the battle to start. As For Ming Yue, she began the fight the same way she began all of the others. Dashing forth, she became a blur, only to reappear behind him. However, just as she has been observing other challengers, he had done so as well. Anticipating this, he did not dodge but attacked her, sending out a wave of golden energy.
MIng Yue backed off, not wanting to face this wave head on, however this had confirmed her guess that he was a fire cultivator. That golden wave was made of bright flames similar to the light of the sun. Getting hit by this would guarantee her defeat.
But she did not falter, what Shao Huang had was a higher cultivation and a number of good equipment but he would definitely lose to her in swordplay. Not to mention, the Parting Sun Blade is a divine weapon, something worth more than all of his equipment combined.