"I don't think I need to explain the rules of the competition. So, without further ado, let us begin the final round of this competition." Zing Ghe announced the start of the final round and continued,
"The first battle will be between Ke Xin and Ai Hao." Even though Zing Ghe knew that Ai Hao had died, he still called her name. The reason was that he was an over-watcher and had to follow the rules so that nobody could blame their loss on him, he did this only in the final round though. After all, the Bai clan could say that they lost because Zing Ghe did not call for Ai Hao and gave one victory to the Ma clan for no reason.
Ke Xin walked up the stage and stood proudly as if he had conquered the competition by himself.
"Look at his proud face. He should be thankful that there is no one facing him; otherwise, he would have already been thrown off the stage."
"Right, he lost his first two battles in only two fists. Two fists were all it took to defeat him in two rounds. And look at him, standing as if he has won because of his own hard work."
"Forget about that, I am even amazed that he had the courage to show his face."
"Forget about that, I am even more surprised at the Ma clan for choosing someone like him."
"Forget about that as well, I am even more shocked to see that he is going to win this battle."
"Forget about that, I am even flabbergasted to see that I am here."
"Forget about that as well, I am impressed that I am still alive after seeing him standing proudly."
The whole crowd began to clamor. However, there were few people in the crowd speaking as if they had some kind of revenge to take from Ke Xin or as if Ke Xin had taken their toys when they were young.
However, Ke Xin still stood there proudly, saying,
"Don't be so impatient to praise me, I know I was defeated in the first two rounds, but it was not my mistake. You did see how they cheated, right? Otherwise, I could have defeated them easily. Of course, they had to cheat, or I would have defeated them easily."
Everyone:"..."
Elders:"..."
Participants:"..."
Crowd:"..."
"Look at his shamelessness!!! How is he even alive after saying this?!!!" Someone from the crowd said with great surprise.
However, Ke Xin didn't stop and continued,
"Brothers and sisters, you should know this, today, I was bound to win. Do you think that Ai Hao died? Hahahahaha, you are mistaken, she did not die, but is hiding so that she does not face a terrifying defeat by me. Also.....,"
After a long speech,
"As Ai Hao did not arrive even after Ke Xin's long speech, the winner is Ke Xin." Zing Ghe announced Ke Xin as the victor and said,
"Next, Yen Hu vs Si Kim, please come to the stage."
Si Kim and Yen Hu walked up the stage and stood on opposite sides of the stage.
"Begin!!!"
Zing Ghe shouted, and the battle commenced.
Yen Hu, without any delay activated a rank 2 Ka and a bear appeared. Si Kim also did not wait and activated a defensive treasure, and a red light appeared around him. This light was released from a treasure, which could protect him from Yen Hu's attacks.
After that, Si Kim took out a dagger with his right hand. Thereafter, he activated a technique and summoned a one-fist-long dust stone with his left hand and ran toward Yen Hu.
"Go!!" Yen Hu ordered his bear to attack Si Kim.
At the same time, he summoned twenty bees and also ordered them to fly at Si Kim. Yen Hu was wearing a garland made of bones. This was a treasure given to him by the Ma clan for protection. Yen Hu activated it and his clothes began to develop a layer of bones on them, even his head was covered by the bones, except for his eyes.
The bees attacked Si Kim, but could not do anything. They were just normal mortal bees being controlled by a rank 1 Ka and were nothing in front of Si Kim's rank 2 defensive treasure.
Yen Hu had only released these bees to distract Si Kim as he also knew that these bees were not enough to damage Si Kim.
When Si Kim was close enough, the bear lunged at Si Kim and slapped him, throwing, sending him flying. However, before the bear could slap him, Si Kim had thrown the dust stone at the bear.
As there was not much distance between Si Kim and the bear when they had faced each other, the round dust stone managed to hit the bear.
However, the dust stone turned into dust right at the moment it was close to the bear's eyes. The dust particles entered the bear's eyes.
Subsequently, Yen Hu stood up and balanced himself. Yen Hu noticed that the bear was rubbing its eyes, meaning it was unable to see for a while. Yen Hu mostly had physical attacks, such as a sword, bees, bear, and other methods like this. When Yen Hu saw that the bear was unable to see, he tried to give it directions himself.
Si Kim began to throw dust stones at the bear and Yen Hu. He also ran and stopped when he was around six meters away from the bear. He pulled out a bottle that hung around his waist and threw it at the bear.
Yen Hu ordered the bear to jump toward the right.
However, the bottle broke and a little of the flammable oil fell on the bear.
When Yen Hu saw that the situation was favoring Si Kim, he decided to enter the battle himself. He unsheathed his sword and ran toward Si Kim.
Si Kim did not have a lot of experience in close-range battles, and he tried to keep his distance from Yen Hu, even though his treasure was activated.
Yen Hu ran after Si Kim and tried to keep him away from the bear, at least until the bear could see.
"Do you think I am that easy to deal with?" Yen Hu shouted at Si Kim, in hope of slowing his running speed.
However, Si Kim kept on running while staying on the stage. He was running round and round.
Si Kim tried many times to hit Yen Hu with his techniques, but Yen Hu would always dodge.
What should I do? He has an advantage over me. I need to deal with his bear first before dealing with him. However, whenever I throw fireballs at the bear, Yen Hu would always come before the fireballs and face them himself. Huh, face them himself… why didn't I think about that?: Si Kim smiled and suddenly had a thought.
He activated a rank 2 technique and summoned fire and threw it at the bear.
ZZZZZZ!!!
But Yen Hu came in front of the fire and faced it himself. However, nothing happened to him as he was protected by his treasure.
He was about to run toward Si Kim again but noticed another fire coming toward him. If he dodged, the fire would manage to hit the bear, so he faced it again.
He was keeping his focus on Si Kim, so he could also not give directions to the bear. He could only hope for the bear to get fine until he handled Si Kim.
He also shot ice spears at Si Kim, but Si Kim would always dodge and he himself was protecting the bear, so he could not dodge Si Kim's attacks. He also could not call the bear back, if he did, he would not be able to summon it for one whole day; thus, he was stuck in a bad situation.
Si Kim did not waste this opportunity and kept on attacking Yen Hu. Yen Hu's treasure was wearing off, and it was broken from many places. His bone armor had many cracks in it now and after another attack, his armor broke. But fortunately, the bear could already see and did not need Yen Hu's protection anymore.
It ran toward Si Kim and began to attack him. Yen Hu moved away from them and wanted to take a breather. He only had one defensive treasure. He did not have another, not because the Ma clan did not give him or anything like that, but because he could not activate two treasures one after another. The reason was that when the second treasure was activated right after the first one was deactivated, a conflict would occur because of the first treasure's remnants, and it might result in heavy injury or even death. Mostly it would even be difficult to activate the second treasure, but if someone could activate the second treasure —like Jun Haru— the consumption of the essence water would increase tremendously.
Si Kim, on the other hand, was running low on essence water because of attacking Yen Hu continuously with his techniques. Thus, he was careful when using techniques and did not attack the bear blindly. He only focused on dodging and was waiting for a good opportunity to strike the bear with a fire technique that would be difficult for the bear to dodge.
After breathing for a while, Yen Hu also ran toward Si Kim and began to attack him with his sword.
"Not good, I can't hold on for very long. My essence water is about to end, and the defensive treasure would slowly deactivate or would wear off. I need to deal with one of them hurriedly." Si Kim muttered slowly.
He would occasionally get struck by Yen Hu's sword, as he was more focused on dodging the bear than Yen Hu. Yen Hu did not have as much strength as the bear. If he got struck by the bear, then he would get imbalanced and get attacked by both the bear and Si Kim, which would be a worse situation.
Si Kim saw a good opportunity and shot fire at both Yen Hu and the bear.
Yen Hu managed to dodge the attack, but the bear could not. It was furry, to begin with, and with the flammable oil on it, it caught the fire as cotton does.
After that, Si Kim ignored the bear and jumped at Yen Hu.
Yen Hu was caught off guard and was struck in the stomach by the knife that Si Kim was holding.
When this happened, the result was almost certain.
As expected, the battle turned one-sided, and Yen Hu was getting injured continuously. After a while, Yen Hu was covered in injuries and blood and was panting. He fell on the floor, unconscious.
Si Kim dragged him and threw him off the stage.
"The winner of this battle is Si Kim. The battles are tied now. The first round of this competition was won by the Ma clan, the second round was won by the Bai clan, and now, the final round is also tied by one battle each. Now, the fate of this competition has fallen onto the final fight, which would be between Jun Haru and Yang Zhai." Zing Ghe announced loudly.
"Sigh, what foolishness. He should have ignored the bear and focused on himself."
"You are right, he wasted his defense while protecting a bear that was covered in flammable oil. In the end, he paid for it."
"He could have easily won the battle if he had used his methods correctly. He wasted them. Not just wasted, he dug his own grave."
"If I was in his place, I would not have summoned the bear in the very start, but would have waited until both my opponent and I were tired. Until then, I would have saved enough energy and essence water to summon the bear."
"He could still win if he had abandoned the bear the moment it was covered in oil and focused on his other methods, especially bees. He did not even use them properly."
"Yeah, bears are very slow and wide in size as well. It was like he had released a wide target for Si Kim to target."
"Not just that, why did they even use the treasure in the very beginning? Did the elders not teach them to wait until they really needed the treasure's defense?"
"Forget it, this is what happens when you don't have enough experience. Yen Hu had all the methods up his sleeves that he could use to ensure his victory but could not use them properly. When the two cultivators with the same rank and same strength fight, everything falls down to who has more experience, meaning who can use their methods properly."
The whole crowd was disappointed by the performances of Si Kim and especially Yen Hu. Not just that, but these two revealed all of the methods at the very start instead of waiting for the right moment to use these methods.
Even though Si Kim had won, he did not feel happy after listening to the crowd. At first, he was feeling proud, but his pride turned into gloominess when he heard the audience.
This was what the audience was good at. They did not see the pressure these two participants were facing, but still taunted them. To them, this was just a show, a performance. They do what they do best, and that is to criticize. Not even a single person motivated Si Kim, resulting in Si Kim's negative emotions, and demotivation even after winning. Not even a single motivating sentence was said by them.
This is how the experience accumulates and makes new emotions develop in a person's mind. He learned something, but also a spark of hate or sadness might have taken place in his mind. This slow accumulation would slowly keep on building his opinion. Which could make him a villain or a hero, or a common man with or without any hope. However, if he is motivated and his built point of view is positive, he might grow to be good, arrogant, or even a killer. If he doesn't experience negative emotions and keeps on experiencing positive emotions, and his mindset is built like this, and then he suddenly faces some harsh negative opinions, he might break and become a monster: Yang Zhai was seeing the whole situation and was contemplating.
He had seen all these, and knew the mindset development that the environment builds. Controlling a person's mind was too easy. In fact, everyone was controlled by their surroundings while growing up. This was how a society and culture were developed.
!*****!*****!