A few matches took place immediately after my match against Mu Rong Qiu. I paid not much attention to them because I didn't recognize most of my cousin-in-laws. So it didn't matter to me who won. Besides, I didn't really intend to participate and take first place. I preferred to keep a low profile. There wasn't much benefit to me winning the tournament, anyway. The rewards were geared toward high-level assassination techniques, which meant there was absolutely no point in winning them.
Yeah, crazy, I know. A cultivation story where the protagonist didn't win a tournament. Mind blowing, apparently. It was as if the protagonist was not allowed to lose or that there was an unspoken rule that the protagonists must win whatever tournament he participated in.
Why? So that readers could wank off to a self-insert power fantasy God mode Mary Sue protagonist? You didn't need a story for that, you could just daydream if all you wanted was to fantasize about being invincible.
The matches I did pay attention to was my wife's. Mu Rong Shu was pitted against a female cousin whose name I didn't know and I couldn't be bothered to know. Well, actually, I faintly heard the referee say her name was Mu Rong Hua or something. Not that I was going to remember. Most likely I would never meet her again after this.
"I feel sorry for you," Mu Rong Hua said as she studied Mu Rong Shu from the opposite side of the ring, her hands on her daggers. "Married to a trash. I'm surprised you haven't divorced him already."
Then she stopped and burst out laughing.
"No, wait. I guess it's fitting that trash goes with trash. Of course trash like you will marry trash! Both of you belong to the same garbage bin!"
Was it me or did Chinese characters had an obsession with calling main characters trash? Like, seriously? It was almost as if they couldn't think of any alternative insults. Or that they were too lazy and ripped off the antagonists from other Chinese stories. They were basically clones of each other at this point.
To her credit, Mu Rong Shu didn't rise to Mu Rong Hua's provocation. Instead, she prepared her stance, stretching one hand out and putting one foot forward, a defensive posture that prepared for whatever her opponent planned to throw at her. She clearly intended to answer with actions and not words.
I smiled approvingly. That's my girl. Admittedly I was childish, always rising to the bait and getting into arguments on social media and the forums, as well as the comments section, but Mu Rong Shu wasn't immature like me. She knew that it was far more effective to silence her opponent through actions than words. Anyone could quarrel and trade insults. But if she won the fight, nobody would be in any position to say anything.
That said, people were still insisting that I was trash even though I defeated Mu Rong Qiu. I guess most people were delusional and had selective memory or comprehension. They only saw what they wanted to see.
"Why even bother?" Mu Rong Hua laughed as she spun her daggers about in her hands and slashed the air in front of her, weaving an intricate pattern that was more showy than practical. Probably so she could demonstrate her sublime skill with a knife. Not that she was impressing anybody. Mu Rong Shu simply watched her quietly, waiting for her to attack. "You're going to lose anyway. You haven't been an assassin for three years now. You turned soft after getting married, losing your edge. Even if you weren't trash before you would have turned trash after spending so much time with your trash husband."
Just how many times must she say the word trash? How many times must all of them say the word trash? Why were they so…so obsessed with calling me trash? Because I was the main character?
Mu Rong Shu glanced at the referee. As usual, Mu Rong Lao had the honor of presiding over the matches. He nodded, and she turned back to keep an eye on her opponent. Still seated, the patriarch of the Mu Rong clan raised a hand and swung it down.
"Match…begin!"
Mu Rong Hua immediately sprang forward, her daggers descending upon Mu Rong Shu from opposite sides. The gleaming blades arced downward, resembling deadly crescents. One went for the neck, coming from the right, while the other slashed toward the belly in an eviscerating manner from the left.
Mu Rong Shu did not panic. Instead, she shifted her center of gravity and took a step back, allowing the two daggers to brush past in front of her. While Mu Rong Hua stumbled and struggled to bring her daggers back up again for a follow-up attack, Mu Rong Shu quickly counterattacked, slamming her palm against Mu Rong Hua's chest.
Stepping inside of Mu Rong Hua's guard, Mu Rong Shu swiftly deflected the former's daggers by striking her arms and preventing them from closing down on her. She then rammed a knee into Mu Rong Hua's abdomen before spinning around and chopping her neck. Whirling away to evade Mu Rong Hua's desperate swing with one of her daggers, she then placed a hand on her spine and guided her to a stumble.
Fortunately, Mu Rong Hua managed to regain her balance quickly and countered with a rear kick. Mu Rong Shu stepped back, tilting her torso backward to avoid the leg, and then she swept Mu Rong Hua's feet out from under her.
"Ugh!"
Mu Rong Hua hit the ground with a grunt, but she managed to rotate herself about and jumped to her feet quickly, her daggers scything the air mercilessly in case Mu Rong Shu had the idea to capitalize on her current advantage.
Gritting her teeth, she lunged forward and thrust one of her daggers forward, spiritual qi flowing around it. Mu Rong Shu ducked it and then spun around, the eight trigrams materializing behind her. The Xun stroke activated and wind currents guided her movements and made her swifter, allowing her to stay one step ahead of her opponent. Wind blades sliced through the air, forcing Mu Rong Hua to parry and cleave them apart.
While Mu Rong Hua was distracted, Mu Rong Shu made use of the opportunity to ride on the wind currents and swiftly sneak behind her. She suddenly changed her technique from Xun to Zhen, calling upon the power of thunder. With lightning wreathing her figure, Mu Rong Shu slammed a palm into Mu Rong Hua's back, unleashing the devastating power of a thunderbolt at pointblank range.
Mu Rong Hua screamed and fell, her body scorched and going into spasms as electricity shorted out her nervous system. Her daggers fell from her hands and clattered on the ground, only for Mu Rong Shu to kick them away.
Not that it was necessary. Mu Rong Hua was clearly out of the fight.
"Battle over!" Mu Rong Lao wasted no time in announcing the results. "Winner, Mu Rong Shu!"
There was polite but lukewarm applause. Not many people in the Mu Rong family regarded Mu Rong Shu very highly, which was weird. She used to be one of their top experts and most skilled assassin, as well as one of the most beautiful girl in the Mu Rong family. But somehow, after she married me, her stock plunged and now she was regarded as trash. I didn't understand why. I wasn't sure why the sudden 180 degree in attitude, but I was sure it had something to do with cliché plot and face-slapping.
"This…this is impossible!"
Finally, Mu Rong Hua managed to expel the electricity from her body. She lay on the ground, still incapacitated, but was stubborn. Gritting her teeth, she pointed her finger accusingly at Mu Rong Shu.
"Cousin Shu cheated! That's the only explanation! Otherwise there's no way she will be able to defeat me! She's so much weaker than me, this can't be possible!"
"Reality says otherwise," Mu Rong Shu finally spoke up for what seemed for the first time. "I don't mind fighting you again if you can't accept your defeat."
"Like hell I'll fight a cheating slut like you again!" Mu Rong Hua screamed.
That was the last straw. Mu Rong Shu snapped. Striding over, she slapped Mu Rong Hua so hard that she was sent flying out of the ring, her neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Mu Rong Hua's father quickly grabbed hold of her before she landed, but the damage had been done. Her spine seemed to have bent out of shape and her cheek was as swollen as a tomato.
"Y…you…!" Mu Rong Hua's father growled. "So young and yet so ruthless! If your parents won't educate you, then I will…!"
"ENOUGH!" Mu Rong Lao bellowed, silencing everyone in the amphitheater. He glowered at a quaking Mu Rong Hua's father. "Before you talk about your brother and sister-in-law, you should take care of your own affairs first! How did you teach your daughter, huh?! I specifically told everyone to display good sportsmanship, but she went around tarnishing the tournament with accusations of cheating, being a sore loser who refused to accept her defeat after arrogantly and rudely insulting her cousin. If Xiao Shu hadn't slapped her, I would have done so myself! As it is, Xiao Shu saved your daughter from death! Because if I was the one punishing her, I would have killed her!"
"You can't do that, father!" Mu Rong Hua's father stammered, horrified. Mu Rong Lao simply shook his head.
"If you won't teach your daughter properly, I will take charge of her education myself."
"N…no! Please show mercy! Xiao Hua has always been spoilt by me and her mother. If there's any fault, it lies with me as a father! I failed to teach her! So don't punish her!"
Mu Rong Hua's father desperately prostrated himself on the ground, pleading for his daughter's life. I couldn't help but sigh at how over the top and overly dramatic these people were. Death over the most trivial things…really?
"All right, all right." Mu Rong Lao sighed impatiently and then gestured toward the spectators. "Next match. Hurry up, we haven't got all day. Any specific challenges? Let's move on to the next match as soon as possible. If no one wants to challenge, we'll start drawing lots."
"Wait." To everyone's surprise, Mu Rong Feng raised a hand. He stepped up to the stage and cupped his hands. "I challenge Zhao Huan Shi to a Pokémon…ahem, I mean cultivation battle."
What the fuck was a cultivation battle?! Were the both of us going to sit in the ring side by side and cultivate, and the winner was the one who successfully cultivate to a higher level?
Mu Rong Feng must have seen my confusion, for he quickly amended his remarks.
"No, no. I mean a normal duel, of course."
"Oh, that's fine." I nodded, relieved. For a moment, I thought we were speaking a different language from each other. There was no reason for me to reject the challenge. Even though I wasn't interested in the prize or prestige, I could still glean valuable combat experience from the duels. Sometimes it wasn't about pride or money.
It was about learning.
While I climbed the stage, Mu Rong Feng looked at me with a scornful sneer.
"Your victory against Mu Rong Qiu was just a fluke. You took him entirely by surprise…"
"Wasn't it the other way around?" I interrupted, annoyed. Talk about twisting the truth. If I recalled correctly, Mu Rong Qiu was the one who launched the first attack, and before Mu Rong Lao could even begin the match.
"Trash will be trash. I will expose your true waste nature in front of everybody! Miracles might happen once, but they will never happen twice!"
Pushing my glasses up my nose, I shook my head and sighed. Yeah, like I suspected, everyone was obsessed with calling me trash for no bloody fucking reason.
I glanced at Mu Rong Lao for the signal to start, but before he could swing his hand down, Mu Rong Feng already exploded forward, wind currents propelling him toward me. Invisible blades swirling around his hands, he slashed at me before I could prepare myself for the duel.
Unfortunately for him, I had already anticipated that. Watching him approach in a calm manner, I shook my head and sighed in exasperation.
"Ah shit, here we go again."