The Azure Water Sect staff took some time to repair the devastated stage, and I waited patiently for a few moments. I couldn't help but be anxious because the next match would be between me and the semifinalist.
More importantly, I was more concerned about my friend. Without even waiting for a second, I jumped out of my seat and rushed toward Chi Yan. He Shan Jie, Lan Bei Er and a few people wearing the Elemental Mountain Sect uniforms accompanied me. In fact, I wasn't the first to reach him – a few of his juniors were already by his side when I got there, including He Shan Jie.
"Senior Chi Yan! Are you all right?"
"He's still alive, right?"
"Damn that Divine Spirit Body! Did she have to go this far!?"
"Allow me!" Lan Bei Er gently pushed her way to the front. Recognizing her robes as those belonging to the White Herb Sect, the Elemental Mountain Sect disciples immediately parted to allow her through. She knelt beside the unconscious Chi Yan and began to heal him. White qi suffused her hands before flowing over Chi Yan and enveloping his body in a warm, refreshing aura.
I watched, impressed, as his wounds mended and healed almost immediately. The healing techniques of White Herb Sect bordered on miraculous. Chi Yan remained semiconscious, but his injuries were almost gone now. Even now, he stirred, opening his eyes blearily.
"You…you're Hei Ye's woman," he said when he saw Lan Bei Er.
"Yes," she replied with a nod. "You should rest. I've healed your injuries, but your qi is exhausted, so you need to rest to recover your energy."
The White Herb Sect's healing techniques worked by using the patient's qi to help them heal faster. I was aware of the principle – the more qi you had, the faster your recovery rate. That was why I could heal very quickly after suffering injuries, because of the immense quantity of qi I obtained through learning Heaven and Earth Formula. The White Herb Sect's healing techniques made use of that to restore the patient's qi and increase the rate of recovery by encouraging cell multiplication and physical invigoration. Of course, this consumed a vast amount of qi, so the patients would end up being exhausted after the treatment, having expended all of their qi to heal their body. That was why they needed to rest, to recover the qi that they had spent to repair their bodies. I wasn't sure of the theoretical concepts, but at least that was how my wife explained it to me.
"Thanks," Chi Yan said gruffly and rose to his feet shakily. He Shan Jie and a few of the other Elemental Mountain Sect disciples hastily moved forward to help him up, and despite his stubbornness, Chi Yan wasn't able to shake them off. "I owe you and your man again."
"Make sure he rests well," Lan Bei Er told the Elemental Mountain Sect disciples, who nodded.
"Sure, sister-in-law," He Shan Jie said with a salute. Then he grimaced, looking over her shoulder. "And be careful."
"Huh?" Lan Bei Er was confused for a moment, and then she caught sight of Bai Ning Shuang glaring at her from the other side of the technical area. She swallowed and hurried over. I bowed to Chi Yan, He Shan Jie and the others before following my wife.
I wasn't going to allow anyone to bully her.
"You were supposed to be my friend, junior Bei Er," Bai Ning Shuang said coldly. "Why did you go and heal someone else first?"
Whoa…she already had another disciple from White Herb Sect tending to her injuries, yet she was still complaining? Talk about entitled.
"Senior Chi Yan is also a friend," Lan Bei Er replied. Bai Ning Shuang snorted.
"More like a friend of your worthless husband." she then turned to me with an icy glare. "Figures. Trash will always hang around trash."
"Who are you calling trash?" Chi Yan yelled from the other side. "You couldn't even beat me without using that stupid forbidden technique to artificially boost your cultivation realm."
He then smirked, still leaning on his juniors for support.
"You may do a good job of hiding it, but I can tell that it has a great cost on you. You'll suffer in the long term because of this technique."
"The consequences are mine to bear," Bai Ning Shuang replied icily. "Besides, it doesn't alter the fact that I won and you lost. Therefore you are trash."
Chi Yan didn't argue. Instead, he turned to me.
"Bro Hei, you had best kick her ass in the finals. By her logic, if she loses to you, she is trash."
Bai Ning Shuang burst out laughing at that. "Me? Lose to that trash? Impossible. Keep your sleeptalking for when you're dreaming."
"Why do you insist on calling my husband trash?" Lan Bei Er sighed in exasperation. "Are you really that deluded, senior Bai?"
"I'm just stating facts…"
"It's also a fact that my husband has advanced all the way to the semifinals…and it's possible that he may face you in the finals."
"He has to beat the other semifinalist first, which he will never be able to." Bai Ning Shuang's usually indifferent face was curled in a condescending sneer. "He's no match for Jin Lei of the Golden Thunder Sect."
Oh, apparently my next opponent was Jin Lei from Golden Thunder Sect. Good to know. I hadn't been catching up on that because I didn't think I would get this far. But Bai Ning Shuang's insults were really annoying the hell out of me.
However, there was no point squabbling with her. I wasn't some immature juvenile with a short fuse. In my opinion, there was no better way to prove her wrong than with actual actions. Anyone could argue with words and exchange verbal tirades, but it proved nothing. I could claim that I was a champion, but if I didn't win the tournament, they would just end up as words. That wasn't to say words didn't have power – they could spur me on and give me confidence, or they could end up empowering other people. If I made a fool of myself with my own words, it would influence the way other people perceived me, and they would look down on me or would not take me seriously in future.
That was why I was careful with my words. They had a lot more effect on reality than people gave them credit for. People claimed words couldn't hurt…they were just deluded and underestimated the power of words. Words could move people, motivate them and it went in both ways. Either motivated them to do better…or turn them toward a depressing path of self-destruction. In short, words could be used as weapons…and in this case, they were a double-edged sword. If I could do what I said I woud do, then it would vindicate me. But if I failed…then I would end up cutting myself with my own words and forever damaging my reputation in the eyes of others.
So yeah, people beyond the fourth wall, stop underestimating the power of words. It might seem funny or it might not even occur to you when you insulted authors and other people, but your words had real damaging effects on actual people, and could drive them to suicide or encourage them to work harder.
"And you wonder why I helped senior Chi Yan ahead of you." Lan Bei Er's expression was furious. "You are always insulting my husband, behaving like an arrogant lady who thinks everybody is beneath you, and take things for granted. Senior Chi Yan is more of a friend than you are."
Bai Ning Shuang's expression was thunderous in turn. "That's only natural. As the Divine Sprit Body, I exist on a different world from everybody else. Why would I not look down on people beneath me? It's the natural order of things. The strong will always look down on the weak. The weak will always be trampled upon by the strong."
I snorted. "That's just an oversimplified rhetoric used by bullies to justify their abuse of other people. It doesn't take into regard the complexity of reality and diverse environments. What is strength? How do you define strength? A shark is the ultimate predator in the ocean, but put it on land and it can only flop about helplessly, suffocating to death without water to breathe in. A tiger rules the jungle, but drop it into the sea and it'll drown. Never mind the sea, stick a tiger in the desert and it'll die from dehydration, only to be picked apart by the scorpions and other desert animals who have adapted to the sand. A cobra might not be as physically massive or strong as an elephant, but it can kill one with potent venom. And in turn it'll get overwhelmed by the speed of a mongoose. And even a lion wouldn't provoke a honey badger needlessly despite the difference in size. So…what do you mean by strength?"
Seriously, cultivation stories loved to simplify their concept of strength as…I don't know, amount of qi. But then, you had alchemists who were widely praised and treasured despite not having the same combat strength. Isn't alchemical knowledge a form of power then? Or formations that could resist god-like cultivators, and so formation users being highly revered even though individually they weren't that physically or spiritually mighty. These cultivation stories loved to contradict themselves.
Anyway, I saw the referee gesturing toward me. So I hopped onto the newly restored stage and watched my friends return to their seats. Thankfully, because I was closest to the arena when I followed my wife to treat Chi Yan's injuries, I reached there before Jin Lei.
Bai Ning Shuang was still bristling from the lecture I had just given her, but apparently the spectators weren't done. Xing Ling shouted from her seat.
"If you call senior Hei trash, then what does that make all of us who lost to him in the tournament?"
"YOU ARE ALL TRASH!" Bai Ning Shuang yelled. "Compared to me, ALL OF YOU ARE TRASH! Get that through your thick skulls!"
"That is quite the amazing disciple you've trained, Cheng Kun," Wu Xing remarked. Cheng Kun swallowed and shrugged.
"Ning Shuang has the right to be arrogant because of her strength and talent."
Everyone stared at him as if he had gone insane. Cheng Kun sneered.
"What? She's saying the truth. That's how the cultivation world works. Strong eats the weak. Even if you don't like what she says, what can you do about it? Kill her? She'll kill you instead."
"By that logic, if she ends up killed, then it's her fault for being weak and nobody can be blamed," Wu Xing pointed out.
"I agree with Xiao Ye's logic," Bai Yao Cai said, nodding in approval. "What he says makes sense. There are different kinds of strength, but you and Bai Ning Shuang's view of strength is so limited." He grinned. "Imagine if my White Herb Sect is not here to heal her wounds. It'll be so easy to attack and kill her when she's vulnerable."
"You dare!? Is that a threat!?"
"No, not at all. I'm merely pointing out facts and explaining to you that there is more than one type of strength…and that it's not wise to offend everyone and act arrogantly just because you think you're super strong."
"There will come a day when your Bai Ning Shuang will lose to someone," the patriarch of the Astral Star Sect, Xing Chen, said. "And then you'll start regretting your might is right rhetoric."
"Hah!" Cheng Kun burst out laughing. "There's no way Ning Shuang will lose to anyone!"
"I wonder about that," Long Feng Meng, the matriarch of the Dragon Phoenix Sect, murmured. She placed a finger on her lips and smiled. "There's always a mountain taller. If there exists in this world something as outrageous as the Divine Spirit Body, who's to say there aren't any more talented constitutions on par with it or stronger?"
"Speaking of which…" Jin Shan Dian, the patriarch of the Golden Thunder Sect, chortled. He leaned forward and rubbed his hands gleefully. "The next match is my Jin Lei's to take. You all talk about the Divine Spirit Body, but Lei Er has the Divine Thunder Body. He is the most powerful lightning practitioner in the Tian Xuan Continent. I wonder how he'll fare against your Divine Spirit Body?"
"He'll have to get through my sect's Xiao Ye first," Bai Yao Cai said with a smile. Jin Shan Dian snorted.
"It's a given that Lei Er will win. I won't go as far as that Divine Spirit Body girl and claim that your disciple is trash, but there's no way he'll be able to defeat our Lei Er."
"We shall see about that," Bai Yao Cai replied with a shrug. "We shall see."