"You made a bet with Zhong Yilan?" Qi Lian stared at me wide-eyed after I signed up for the tournament and made it to their hall later in the day. "You're challenging her at the tournament?"
I sighed. "It probably wasn't the smartest idea … But I couldn't just take her insults meekly."
"Are the two of you within the same rank? Would it be considered a fair fight?"
I nodded. "Zhong Yilan has been at Mount Hua for six years. Not much longer than me."
The tournament allowed disciples of all levels to compete against each other. To make up for the gap in experience, junior disciples were given certain advantages when facing senior opponents: they could move first, or use talismans and artifacts that typically wouldn't be allowed, or be declared the winner if the result was a draw, and so on. None of those could apply in my case against Zhong Yilan though, since we were only a year apart in experience.
