Coming back to Tian Tian, she approached the others with slow and steady footsteps.
Her expression was even and collected, making it look as if she thought nothing of such a victory.
However, only she herself knew what sort of emotions were mixing in her heart. Anxiety, expectation, fear, hope… it was extremely hard to describe everything going through her mind and heart at that moment.
Then, abruptly, she smiled, and all those emotions vanished into thin air. She had been like that for nothing, she concluded.
Seeing the extended arm and the palm facing toward her in the air, she slapped it just like Xuehua had done before. An ah! How good it felt to do a high-five!
Then, she felt someone jumping at her and hugging her by the neck through her back.
She faltered slightly and, before she could say anything, a piercing but pleasant voice reached her ears.
"Big Sister Tian Tian is really, really amazing! Haha~" The youthful voice and laughter, and above all the praise, made a sweet feeling sprout in her heart.
It did not matter if it was Yueshi's callused but warm hand, or Yuyi's tender hug and praise, they both brought her a strange type of joy.
There was also Yueli's encouraging smile, Baiyun's claps, and compliments, and Xuehua's tender and gentle gaze… they all brought her such comfort that she could not even find the right words to say.
Even Yuan Yue's eyes seemed a bit softer than before.
Ah, once more she found out she was right.
She was right when she decided to join the Soaring Dragon Association, instead of the stronger, more famous, and richer associations.
Yes. It had been the wisest choice of her life.
Meanwhile, while Tian Tian was being complimented and praised by her teammates, the crowd around was bustling with murmurs.
At first, everyone had thought the Heavens' Will would destroy their opponent, but as of right now, they had lost the greatest amount of members.
If the bets had not been closed while the battles were going on, a lot of people would have gone there to bet on the overall winner once more.
They all knew that the Heavens' Will still had their two strongest members, and many thought Yueshi and the others couldn't win this battle.
However, they had thought they would absolutely lose all battles at the start, too.
Their mistaken judgment at the start made them doubt their own logic, so quite a few people were not that sure anymore if the Heavens' Will would win.
Things only quieted down when the next participants walked on stage.
From the Heavens Will side, it was their second strongest member – and it was not Gao Xiongli, as he was the fourth.
Instead, it was another member of the upper echelon, and someone most of the disciples from the outer court recognized.
Wu Qiangyan was amongst the top beauties of the outer court. Her rank had decreased with the arrival of Tian Tian, which now ranked second, and was placed as the fourth most beautiful lady.
On a side note, the first place belonged to no other than Yu Fenghuang, as she was not only the most beautiful but also the friendliest one.
From Yueshi's group, the one to walk on stage was obviously Yuan Yue.
Being at the late phase of the fourth stage, and in the first realm of martial arts, plus her natural endowments for combat, her strength was slightly above Tian Tian's right now.
Like Xuehua, she lacked in quantity of cultivation techniques that she had practiced. However, one could say she was born to battle and it was no wonder why she was called a battle-maniac.
Many outer court disciples knew of her already, as she had frequently challenged people all around.
And, finally, and on a completely random note, she was also a top-grade beauty.
Tian Tian completely overshadowed Long Wan'er when it came to looks, so people did not pay attention to that back them.
But, seeing two beauties standing on stage to fight really brought a different feeling to one's heart.
It wasn't even lust, just admiration.
It was like watching two war goddesses ducking it out!
— - -
The judge looked at the two young women.
As an older, experienced man, his taste was a bit different from those youngsters around, and a more mature lady was more charming in his eyes.
That aside, he was expectant to see what kind of performance Yuan Yue would put on display, not even noticing that, without any logical proof, he had concluded that she also was a mind-boggling genus.
"If you are ready you can start now!" By the way, he was already getting tired of repeating similar words.
Hearing him, Yuan Yue immediately made the first movement.
She had always been the sort to confront her opponents head-on, clashing strength against strength. So it was not strange she would make the first move, directly rushing at her opponent.
Seeing her approach with great speed, Qiangyan prepared herself. She was not too concerned with the result of the fight, as this was Gao Xiongli's problem, however, that did not mean she would just give up.
Without saying a single word, she just cycled the qi inside of her meridians and continued to analyze Yuan Yue's every move.
Then, she used one of the techniques she had the most accomplishments in, her qi spilling out of her body like a fountain.
Yuan Yue narrowed her eyes, she could feel the qi gushing out of her opponent's meridians and permeating the atmosphere while taking the shape of razor-sharp blades made of pure energy.
Even as they only hovered motionlessly, she could feel their sharpness from a single look.
However, she was not afraid and she would not stay still and wait for her opponent to make a move.
'Golden Vajra Palm!' The illusory image of a Buddha appeared behind her back as the humongous, golden, and ethereal hand took shape and covered her own.
However, she could instinctively feel that this was not enough.
Breathing in deeply, she prepared herself. Fusing martial arts with cultivation techniques was not easy, however, after achieving the first realm of martial arts she had been trying to do so.
Just before, Ling Tian Tian had increased her attack power exponentially by multi-tasking, using both a cultivation technique and a sword arts move together.
What if, instead, she had fused the two? Would her attack not have reached yet another level?
Yuan Yue was aiming for such power.
'Then, let's see if it works.' She was reassured thinking that, even if she lost, Yueshi would have no problems dealing with the rest.
However, it was not as if she was planning to lose – trying this move also meant she was putting her all in the fight.
'Body and self as one! One palm breaks apart space and time!'
She had felt it when she made her way inside the whirlwind… back then she had used both technique and art together in the crudest of the ways.
Almost a month later, her understanding of it was still shallow, lacking in many areas. However, right now, it was enough.
The golden palm glowed with an even more intense light, seeming to overshadow the sun itself on that split second.
As Yuan Yue pushed forward, the entire world around shook - qi was throw in disarray and expunged from her immediate surroundings, as this piece of land was sealed away from the world!
Qiangyan immediately choked, her chest also constricting as she experienced the symptoms of qi starvation.
Breathless, she opened her eyes wide as she tried to make the blades of qi slash at Yuan Yue, and she successfully did so; however, that massive golden palm crushed them all with no qualms.
Still, Qiangyan would not be brought down so easily.
Her feet tapped on the ground as she jumped backward, despite her body suffering from the sudden lack of qi in the atmosphere.
Suddenly, she felt she could breathe once more as the golden hand disappeared, showing a frowning Yuan Yue behind it.
Nonetheless, Wu Qiangyan would not forget how scary that attack had been.
For comparison sake, Yueshi's spear could also create an area without qi through its array, however, it could not be used in battle because of its size and because it could be easily broken if one released their qi outside their body in a burst.
However, Yuan Yue's move seemed to lock down space, not only pushing the qi in the world away but, also, suppressing the qi her enemy tried to release.
Anyone with a cultivation base lower or close to hers would find it extremely hard to break free from her move.
Unfortunately, the technique had many restrictions and required a lot of focus, qi, and mental energy to be maintained, that being said, it was still not good enough to be of use.
"Then, let's go with the usual method." She shook her head, grinning. As for what was the usual method? Obviously, it was to use her fists to push onward!
Jumping toward her opponent, she paid attention to each movement of the other side's body, from her breath to the slight changes in her muscles.
Ling Tian Tian was a training maniac, and she was a battle one; as so, she knew there was much more in a fight than just making your own moves.
From the position of someone's feet to the rhythm of their breath and the gentle quiver of their muscles… all those were important.
Even when one tried to not alert the enemy of their next move, they still had to prepare their bodies for the following actions.
Therefore, there were many things that, if noticed, could be used to understand the enemy's following set of moves.
Like right now.
Qiangyan arched her body slightly to the right while exerting a lit bit more force on her left leg. Chances were that she planned to move to the right before making her next attack.
And Yuan Yue was right.
Just as Yuan Yue's palm came striking toward her head, Qiangyan dodged to the right side, before slashing out with her sword.
However, having known about it in advance, Yuan Yue immediately reacted – after all, knowing something in advance made it far easier to react than depending only on pure reflex.
Yuan Yue's right palm hit the side of the blade, knocking it out of the intended trajectory, and her left palm struck toward her opponent's belly.
A muffled boom echoed as qi exploded out of her outstretched palm, knocking Qiangyan away while tearing at her robe.
The guys in the audience immediately whistled seeing the soft, tender, and white skin of the goddess's belly.
However, there was no way Wu Qiangyan would pay any attention to that right now.
"Urgh…" A small groan escaped her lips as she stared at Yuan Yue, while a hand pressed against the spot where she had been hit.
She had a few moves in her sleeve, however, some of them were dangerous to use. After all, this was not a life and death conflict, and she was not willing to use a killing move.
Then, after filtering through her combat techniques once more she jumped toward Yuan Yue.
With her blade flashing with a soft glow, she slashed out, blades of wind being released forward.
Following that, every slash of her blade would release another jet of razor-sharp wind blades, each of them following different paths.
Just like Xuehua, Yuan Yue lacked in accumulation. She had too few techniques to use right now and did not know any defensive technique to speak about.
What she had was merely the Golden Vajra Palm and her martial arts.
Despite being the only disciple of the head instructor of the Flying Snow Dojo, she had never found any suitable technique to train in before.
First, fist techniques were not that common, as fighting with one's fists was not that popular for many motives; second, even if she didn't try to specifically learn fist techniques, she had never found one suitable for her combat style.
It also had a lot to do with her background.