Stepping forth, she slashed with her sword in a gentle motion; it was not a fast or strong attack, but the sword slash flowed like water and could change trajectory at any moment.
Her opponent had seen it before… she had seen that sword move like a whip, pursuing its aim no matter where that person went.
In front of Xuehua, any maneuver seemed useless; she seemed to be able to see through one's intentions and see where they were planning to move to.
Moreover, her sword moved slowly, but, was hard to predict or parry – like the endless sea, no matter if you slashed or thrust at it, the result would be meaningless.
Just like that, above the stage, Xuehua moved like flowing water – unstoppable!
The girl was eventually defeated in front of Xuahua's ceaseless and ever-flowing strikes, like the ones before had been and like the ones coming next would also be.
At first, they all thought she was a pretty face with talent, but, Xuehua proved them wrong – and even Yueshi would be surprised to see her combat power.
Seeing she had challenged ten straight, and won, Xuehua stopped. She did not want to be in the top three and only wanted to be qualified for the next test.
Thinking about it, she decided to wait and see; when everyone fought the rest of their battles, she would know how many she would have to win to get a passing grade.
Looking at the fat bird, she softly spoke. "I will rest now, senior." After returning her weapon to the strange bird, she stepped down from the circular arena she was standing on.
Because of the difference in background between the people participating, the Star Sea Sect was the one responsible for lending people weapons.
After all, no one wanted to lose because the other person had paid thousands or tens of thousands of gold coins for a heavenly sword.
On a side note, that fat bird was truly strange.
After Xuehua gave it the sword, the blade floated there, hovering above the air for an instant. A moment later, the bird opened its beak and the sword flew inside its mouth, completely disappearing.
All over the place battles continued to take place and, eventually, everyone had fought around nineteen times. Some had given up, some had avoided certain people, and some had been knocked unconscious, incapable of continuing. Yueshi easily took first place on his stage, advancing to the following battles.
Xuehua ended in fourth while the remaining disciples of the Flying Snow Dojo were disqualified – almost all of them. Yueshi frowned hard seeing such a result; not even sister Yuan Yue, that once had a hundred percent chance of joining, managed to succeed.
When he met them, he could see the dejection on their faces.
"Why the long face?" Seeing him approach, Yuan Yue spoke up. Despite her situation, her voice was sunny and bright. "A frown does not combine with your handsome, ladies' man face." She laughed a bit.
"Sister Yuan Yue, there is no need to fake it..." Yueshi commented. He could see that her eyes were red and that she had been crying. From the side, Xuehua nodded, also worried.
"Bah! Look at this, this boy, that hasn't even lost his baby fat yet, is talking as if he knows something." Still, Yuan Yue didn't seem keen on admitting it… and even if she admitted, what use would it have?
"The second round is going to start, those that are participating, please approach." Suddenly a voice echoed, interrupting them.
Yueshi's eyes hovered over Yuan Yue and the others with worry, wondering if there was something he could do. As he stepped away to go to his next assigned stage, he exchanged glances with Xuehua.
'Take care and leave this to me', was what her eyes seemed to say. 'Hm, I will do my best. Take care of them.' His eyes answered back.
After arriving next to the main stage, he waited in the middle of the crowd of participants. Looking around, he could see a few familiar faces - most of them were people whose talent had been of a very high-grade.
A few people spared him a glance as he got closer, but they were all confident enough in themselves to not overly worry themselves with his presence.
"This round will have fifty people participating at each time." Yueshi immediately frowned, forty-nine battles would tire anyone out. "However, this time, whoever loses cannot challenge anymore. The one with the most wins, in the end, will be placed first."
Hearing that, Yueshi sighed in relief. Looking at things that way, it was pretty simple. Just thinking about going through forty-nine battles tired the hell out of him.
The only other difference was that, during this round, only the winner could follow to the third and last fight.
A lot of people avoided Yueshi, or just left him for later. They were all expecting other people to challenge him and tire him out. They were also afraid that, if they put too much effort into fighting him, they would have their fighting styles analyzed.
Thanks to that Yueshi was granted a period of tranquillity.
It did not take long, though, for things to become heated. Everyone here was a prideful genius and no one wanted to be looked down upon. Moreover, since they would be accepted in the sect even if they lost, a lot of people decided to go all out and recklessly challenge their enemies.
Finally, Yueshi saw some action. However, even though he wanted to fight against strong people to test his strength, the second round was still under-leveled for him.
His confidence wasn't based on pride alone. Among those on his stage, the two strongest were the Qing twins - Yueli and Yuyi. Taking their talents into account, the elders had put them into the overall top ten. The older twin, Yueli, had been ranked seventh, and the younger twin, Yuyi, eight.
The two girls pursued extreme speed, but had different fighting styles. Their moves were deadly and sharp, and it was as if they were dancing on stage.
There were also a few others that distinguished themselves, and Yueshi made sure to remember their names and faces.
Lin Dong, that looked like a firm mountain; Fu Chen, whose sword moved like a snake; Yi Yuyan, whose saber was fierce and overbearing. And a few others with unique fighting styles.
However, no matter who it was, in font o Yueshi's spear they were all forced to give up or had been thrown out of the stage.
In the end, they were all forced to admit that they were not on par with him!
The number of people that dared to challenge him vastly dwindled when the geniuses fell down, and because of that, things became calm on the stage. Knowing they could not win, they were not as tense or worried anymore.
Only the first place would advance, and without a choice, they decided to take it easier.
Just like this, time passed by slowly, until everyone had fought.
The first and second rounds had ended, and the third took place soon after Now, it was finally time to face the strongest people here as the top ten were matched against each other.
Because there were only ten people, the last round would be conducted in a tournament-like fashion. First, there would be five one-on-one fights amongst the ten participants – the pairings would be chosen based on a draw.
Then, the top five would fight it out to see who was the champion.
Watching the grand stage that had been prepared for this last fight, Yueshi smiled a bit. It was finally time to test his limits – not only his raw strength or speed or whatever, nor how profound was his control and understanding of the spear arts.
What he had to do, now, was put those two together and see how far they would bring him.
As he was lost in thoughts, he felt someone slap his back with great force. Caught unprepared, his face distorted in pain as the aching pain made him groan.
Turning around, he saw Yuan Yue grinning, Xuehua shaking her head and We Feng and the others laughing at his reaction.
Yuan Yue seemed to have calmed down, and her eyes were less red; the others also seemed to have come to terms with it, despite their unwillingness.
"When you go there, I hope you do not shame our dojo." Her ever-joking tone was the same of always, despite having a tinge of sadness overflowing from every word she spoke.
"As amazing and handsome as I am, do you think I will lose?" Maybe because he did not want to see her sad, or because her playfulness was contagious, Yueshi also joked.
"Bah, how can you be so arrogant?" She then looked at Xuehua. "Look at your brother; acting all high and mighty… how can he be so shameless?"
Yueshi rolled his eyes at her with a grin. Xuehua, meanwhile, softly giggled at the other girl's disgusted face.
"Okay, okay… Then just look as this big brother here weeps the floor with those guys!" Saying so, Yueshi turned his back and climbed on stage.
By now, the other participants were already waiting for him.
Yuan Yue, Xuehua, and the other watched as he made his way there.
Despite not being the ones fighting, one could see their intense desire for victory, for Yueshi's victory. For many, it had been just a few days since they met Yueshi; yet, they felt extremely close to him.
Yuan Yue and Wu Feng, the two people that had exchanged pointers with him in the days before the examination, felt even closer to him. As for Xuehua, it didn't even need to be said.
Having climbed on stage, Yueshi observed the other participants, noticing they were all well-known faces to all examinees.
Amongst the last ten, none had talent below the red-grade, although only two had dark-red talent. One had tested for dark-purple, and the last was him - which a black-grade talent.
That girl from Flying Snow City, Ling Tian Tian, was also amongst the finalists, making their city the only one with two examinees on the last round. However, despite coming from the same place, she didn't seem to have a good impression of him, only sending a cold glance his way.
Following that, an elder walked to the middle of the stage with a box in hand. 'Really? Such an archaic method?' Yueshi wanted to complain when the man asked him – since he was the most talented – to step forth and take a paper from inside the box.
After the pairs were made, though the method was disappointing, Yueshi looked at his own paper, where a big '6' had been written.
Ten people were participating; number one would fight against number ten, number two against number nine... and number five would fight against number six.
The pairs did not take long to be announced. Yueshi sighed, thinking it had to be the work of fate. His 'dance partner' was no other than Ling Tian Tian, the proud-looking miss of the Ling Family.
Then, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the first battle of the top ten took place.
On one side, there was a well-built, tall, and ordinary-looking young man holding an ax – which was a rare choice of weapon. His enemy was a cute-looking girl that did not look any older than Yueshi, and her weapon of choice was a sword.
Yueshi had to admit that the top ten were on a completely different level.
That Feng guy he had dealt with in the battle at the dojo, and those that he had fought against in the prior rounds, could not compare themselves to the ones standing here now.
The ax-wielding young man that had registered under the name 'Fang' was ferocious and unrelenting; his ax racked with furious power in strange trajectories, and he was clearly not aiming for a win, but a kill.
Compared to others, he clearly had greater experience in killing people.
However, his opponent was not bad too. Her sword moves were precise and although she lacked the ferocity of a wild animal that her opponent had, her attacks were elegant and well-thought-out.
On stage, she seemed to dance around, her blade slashing and piercing at her opponent with every step, not wasting a single move.
Eventually, the winner of the fight was decided – the young man had barely won.
The following fights were also a sight to behold.
The second fight was between two swordsmen, and as their blades clashed, the soft metallic sound of iron against iron echoed across the entire hall like a symphony.
Their skills seemed to be around the same level, however, eventually, one exploited a gap on the other's defense and came out victorious.
The third and fourth fights were, respectively, between a whip user and a swordsman, and between a spear user and another sword wielder. Apparently, the sword was the most common weapon and a lot of people opted for it.
And with that settled, it was finally time for Yueshi's battle.