Both opponent and adversary were so fast that the start was a blur. I could heard loud clanging of the weapons in rapid succession as the figures sped up their attacks. Both were sizing up each other's weaknesses. Then broke off for a retreat. All eyes were on them.
Xiaohua lunged quickly, thrusting his sword towards Panhong once more. He missed. Leaping away, Panhong swung his staff up to block. A resounding, metallic clang echoed as the weapons slammed against each other. A reddish aura emitted from the staff as Panhong twirled it rapidly until a hypnotic reddish rotating shield formed. Xiaohua paused for a second.
Bad move. Never hesitate in a fight.
The shield faded. Staff in hand, Panhong did a tremendous leap forward. With a quick midair spin, he slammed his staff forcefully on Xiaohua's back. *WHACK* Xiaohua nearly stumbled. He spat out blood. Furious, he swung around with a powerful slash. Panhong deftly jumped out of the way. His staff swung sideways and landed loudly on Xiaohua's back. *TWACK*
"OOOOOOooooofFhhh," went all of us. The audience and I cringed. That would really hurt like f**k. How many bones could get fractured in that hit?
A quick slide to the front. Panhong came in for the money-shot. He landed his staff right into Xiaohua's abdomen with upward force, sending him flying out of the arena, forcefully into a half dead blackened tree a few meters away. Xiaohua slid down to the ground with a thud. The audience gasped. Defeat was astounding - no one had ever been thrown out of the arena during previous recruitment. In this fashion.
"Panhong was playing with him," one disciple commented to his friend.
His friend nodded wisely. "Panhong didn't give him an opening to initiate any sword magic. Let's get our gold."
Barely any magic was used. Mostly stock standard, plain old martial arts. Panhong must have really thought poorly of him to initiate such a humiliating move. To make matters worse, Panhong's ling qi cultivation was actually at a budding level seven, compared to a level nine, like Xiaohua. A disparity known to most, if not all. Through sheer cunning, he had thrashed a more powerful opponent.
"Panhong wins," Tianjin declared loudly.
By then, all the suck-ups surrounded the victorious Panhong. Hearty slaps on his sweaty back and loud congratulations could be heard. He was the superstar of the moment. With probable bruises on his back by those sounds of heavy slapping.
Not to fear. Adrenaline was probably still pumping through his veins and numbing any pain.
"So who is the sissy girl now?" Panhong roared victoriously. Much to the delight of his worshipping arse kissers. Not to mention that Chen Xiu was following him like a lovesick puppy.
One would expect Xiaohua to stay silent and graciously pick himself up from such a humiliating defeat.
Nope. The face palming moment was about to come.
"I AM GOING TO BEAT ALL OF YOU!" Xiaohua shouted at the top of his lungs as he scrambled painfully to stand.
Very much like the good old heroes of old Chinese revenge movies.
I loathed those movies on earth with passion - mostly the same old trope. The hero gets beaten up and instantly gains superpowers to take revenge single handedly. The revenge on the menu of cold dishes ranged from destroying offending clans to ruling kingdoms.
Unluckily for him, this isn't a Chinese film production. No script. No set ending.
Just plenty of grave digging if he enters the sect.
He was going to be the star villain if they took him seriously.
Big 'if'.
Or the jester for all to laugh at. That was the most likely scenario.
Better him than me.
EeEEEEEEEEeee. That noise distracted me from my thoughts. The long suffering tree, which he was supporting against, started to slowly lean backwards. A huge yawning crack was heard. The few disciples who were nearby on the neighbouring trees jumped off quickly and fled. A large splitting crack and the tree fell heavily on the others. In front of us, stunned onlookers, a whole domino rally of trees begun of what's left. Goodbye shade for the arena.
Xiaohua immediately jumped up to swear, "STUPID @#$** TREES".
With that, he turned back and waved his fist angrily at the now very smug Panhong. The older disciples shook their heads while the younger ones started laughing at his ridiculous posturing. Cangtian and his lackeys didn't even give him a second look.
"Alright, that's enough." Tianjin ran over and caught hold of Xiaohua's collar, dragging the flailing teenager across the arena towards the quietly amused elders.
Some will never learn their lesson.
***
(Meanwhile…elsewhere in the universe)
Some Yin celestial deities wafted in their formless auras through the vacuum of the universe.
For their true forms, was not to be in any physical forms.
Guided by a silent call to duty within their existence towards a dying star about to go supernova, they flowed smoothly through iridescent multicolour glimmers of the galaxies surrounding them.
The said supernova event will destroy everything through a cascading effect on that affected galaxy as the new blackhole forms over time. Like a slow poison. In the galaxy, there were eighteen planets with mortals of every species.
Weaving through the colorful yet violent, highly charged nebula clouds against the interstellar winds and dusts, a blinding purplish lighting struck through their auras as they passed by.
Far ahead in the vast expanse of was a known abyss of a blackhole, sitting placidly, greedily gobbling anything, including light, which passed by.
They innately knew that it was connecting the Great Void, the endless nothingness of Primordial Chaos, to the universe.
Primordial Chaos was the ground which deities and every creature stood on metaphorically. The first being of existence before the universe and deities. Unfeeling, unknowing, and unseeing. The infinite source of all celestial powers.
Zaixing's aura was visibly present. Together with Zaixing, was Kanghui.
There are other rare primordial deities under Primordial Chaos who were not present. Each had their own duty. Known in some of their mortal names as Amatsumikaboshi, Ahriman, the five Protogenoi, Anu, and Tiamat. Zaixing's core duty was to balance the yin and yang energies in the universe via destruction.
"Do not turn to your physical forms, material do not survive," Kanghui's warning echoed through the other Yin Celestial auras.
So what if one of the Yin celestials made the mistake of a physical form - there were plenty more to select from the countless planet while the former regenerated for a thousand years or so. Or maybe five thousand. Not a problem for Calamity.
Wholesale planet busting? Mass extinction? Galactic implosion into a black hole? Been there, seen that, done that. It was just so routine after hundreds of worlds. All the fuss for nothing.
Jobs were jobs. To Zaixing, it was interesting to screw around with mortals, especially the favorite choice - the human species. A primordial deity's life was long-drawn out and boring. The ends justified the means. Results mattered. Anything in between the start and scheduled finish was game.
Humans were extremely destructive and territorial - the only species, so far, that invented bigger and better ways with the deliberate intention of killing each other. Zaixing could be lazy one day and watch their world burn with no effort, the next.
The species started only with a spark of fire, then mundane metal armoury and within a brief span, they now have a thermonuclear atomic bomb on earth. In other planets where humans were, it was the plasma ionic splitter which could destroy the core of any planet. Who needs Calamity there when they were calamity themselves?
The other species were too docile, too altruistic and monotonous. Too much effort to create strife and conflict. The rest can have them.
Despite being called clumsy, Zaixing had a purpose for the trait. There had to be balance, and his trick was to throw everything in a mess. Stir the pot of humans, celestials or even space.
Most of Zaixing's chosen tools, be it a hun or even his own power, would set off a whole cascade of cause and effect which lead to the desired output. Much to the satisfactory balancing of Primordial Chaos. That was until five thousand years ago on earth. That special hun.
That unforgettable hun…was fortunately not in this galaxy.
Within Zaixing's aura, an interstellar quantum spark of xuan qi flew out and shot towards towards the dying star. The gatherers watched in silence at the great deity. A massive blue flare ignited on impact . The process has begun. The very last of the six galaxies due to return to Primordial Chaos on the schedule.
"Oh…Xiangliu spotted a problem," Kanghui said.
"What is it?"
A hesitation on Kanghui's part. "Imbalanced high profile transmigration by one of our kind."