"Very well, if the participants have agreed and so did the elders, with no rules set to stop these kinds of acts during the competition, what can I do? Let's begin."
Zing Ghe was an overwatcher, having the ability to interfere with the competition, but only if the rules were set. But, there was no rule here making him act, so he allowed this as well. It was worth noting that nobody messed with an Overwatcher, not even a clan.
He knew about the recent affair of Cu Gil and the Bai clan leader's wife and announced it openly even though implicitly, it was still equal to prying into Tai Qi's life, but Tai Qi did not say anything to him. As for the inheritance, both the Ma clan and the Bai clan did a good job hiding it from Zing Ghe.
"Okay, if you two are ready, begin!" Zing Ghe shouted and jumped off the stage.
Jun Haru's hands turned gray and he attacked with wind blades.
Yang Zhai, on the other hand, dodged and used two of his right fingers, and a pit was dug below Jun Haru. Earth Burial Ka could only dig sand, not the hard rocks, but sand still existed below these hard stage tiles, so, the tiles fell into the pit, taking Jun Haru along.
However, he hurriedly tried to jump up, but Yang Zhai had already reached him. So, he grabbed Jun and threw red poison of rank 2 on his eyes, blinding Jun Haru.
"Aaahhhhhhhh!!!!! " Jun Haru shrieked in agony.
Yang Zhai grabbed him from the back of his head and bashed his face to the ground. He did this to end the effects of the red poison or at least lessen them. After that, he began to punch Jun Haru in the face.
As Jun was caught off guard and Yang Zhai had increased speed, Jun Haru was easy to catch. Yang Zhai began his fierce beating and didn't give Jun Haru enough time to do anything. Jun Haru also could not do anything as the Ires were already forbidden. And on top of that, Yang Zhai did not even give him much time to think, let alone do something.
Everyone watched as Jun was getting the beating of his life, and Yang Zhai was releasing fierce punches one after another. Even though Jun Haru was rank 2 peak stage and Yang Zhai rank 2 mid-stage to the others, nobody suspected anything. After all, the way Yang Zhai caught Jun Haru off guard was enough to overpower the power of the sub-rank, and Yang Zhai was displaying body cultivation, so in close range, he would clearly have an advantage over Jun Haru, who was a range cultivator.
Everyone did not feel much as this was just a disciples' fight. So, in the beginning, nothing happened, but only a little while had passed when the surroundings became silent.
Even though Jun Haru was seriously injured, and was bleeding from all over, Yang Zhai didn't stop. He kept on going as if he was going to kill Jun Haru.
"He is not going to stop?!!"
"Nobody is stopping him!"
"This is serious, someone needs to interfere, otherwise, Jun Haru is going to die."
Zihao De had a slight smile on his face and was thinking: He is really going for the kill.
However, the Ma clan elders were gloomy.
A commotion had broken on their side. So, after a while, Jun Nie tried to jump on the stage and save Jun Haru, but,
"Stop… "
A man stopped him. It was none other than Zing Ghe.
"What are you doing, brother Zing?" said Jun Nie.
"What do you think?" replied Zing Ghe.
"I know, we set you up for it, but I am also the one asking you to get aside."
"I can't, it doesn't matter, I cannot allow you to interfere even if both sides try to stop me. I would have considered stopping the fight if both of the clans tried to change the rules now, and that too if I saw a valid reason. After the rules are set, this stage belongs only to the rules and the competitors. So…" Zing Ghe looked at Ma Wan Liu with narrowed eyes.
"Step back, Jun Nie," said the Ma clan leader.
Jun Nie stepped back hesitantly.
Sacrificing his son to start a war did not mean that he didn't love Jun Haru. Right now, there was only losing his son in the competition and nothing, so, this time around, Jun Nie had stepped in as a real father.
"Bro..t..r, ang…," Jun Haru could not even speak straight now.
Yang Zhai punched his face and three of Jun Haru's teeth fell out of his mouth. Yang Zhai punched him in the stomach and Jun Haru fell to the ground, close to the edge of the stage.
"Wh…y," said Jun Haru, whimpering.
"Well," said Yang Zhai.
The battle began, and Jun Haru was left completely to Yang Zhai's mercy, shocking everyone.
From the first round, Yang Zhai had been ending every battle too quickly. Was he strong, or was it a battle instinct? It was fine to defeat a rank 2 peak stage cultivator with rank 2 mid-stage cultivation, but, not even letting a higher rank cultivator do anything, completely overpowering him?
"This kid, what's with him?" thought Tai Qi.
"Jun Haru is a rank 2 peak stage cultivator, I understand that he was rendered useless as soon as the battle started, but still, he is a higher rank cultivator than Yang Zhai, he should at least be able to do something," said someone from the crowd.
"Does that Yang Zhai kid have something against Jun Haru? I understand that killing is allowed, but it's not necessary."
"Is the Ma clan not going to do anything? I could understand if it were other kids, but Jun Haru is the second elder of the Ma clan's son."
"What can they do? The one standing there is an Overwatcher."
The crowd broke in commotion. Everyone watched as Yang Zhai slammed Jun Haru's face to the ground again and again.
Even the stage ground was beginning to have cracks where Yang Zhai was thrashing Jun Haru's face again and again. It could be seen just from this what kind of condition Jun Haru was in.
Jun Haru lay on the stage and was bleeding all over, Yang Zhai had even broken Jun Haru's left arm. Yang Zhai pulled his arm back and placed force behind his fist to forcefully strike Jun Haru's neck. He struck with heavy force, so much so that there was no way Jun Haru could survive this. Jun Haru saw this and fear arrived in his eyes, however, just as Yang Zhai's fist was about to strike Jun Haru, he used all of his strength to jump out of the stage.
As Jun Haru and Yang Zhai were at the edge of the stage, so Jun Haru somehow managed to save himself from Yang Zhai's last strike. Yang Zhai's fist struck the ground and shattered the floor tile, displaying the strength behind Yang Zhai's fist.
Yang Zhai stood straight and swept the dust off his fist. Saying,
"Brother Jun, congrats on surviving."
With this announced Zing Ghe,
"The winner is Yang Zhai, and with this, wins the Bai clan."
Yang Zhai walked off the stage.
There was silence for a second everywhere, nobody understood what happened. The crowd knew that killing was allowed in this competition, but almost everyone thought that no competitor would go for the kill. No matter how much, these kids had not even become cultivators for a whole year yet, so how could they even go for a kill? But Yang Zhai's last fist showed the exact opposite.
He was definitely going to kill Jun Haru.
The crowd broke in commotion after a while.
"Wow, it was impressive, even though ruthless, it was a good fight."
"What was so good about that, we only say Yang kid beat Jun kid. What so impressive about that."
"What do you know, old man, the real fun is hidden in seeing a real beating, it doesn't matter if it was one-sided."
"Forget about that, look at Jun Haru, he is close to dying. If he hadn't jumped off the stage, he would be dead for sure."
Many healing cultivators were healing Jun Haru and doing their best to stabilize him. Even his vitals were injured from the final round.
"Shit, he survived. I thought for sure that he was going to die. Whatever, Yang Zhai is just a kid, I did not expect much from him. But, he did give us a valuable victory. Only if we had caught assassins from the Ma clan, our plan would have been a huge success. Whatever, we can still deal with the Ma clan somehow." muttered Zihao De with mixed emotions.
He did not know whether to be happy for their win or to be sad for his plans of dealing with the Ma clan and Jun Haru could not come to fruition.
His plan of totality failed in its totality. In fact, they lost Cu Gil, Yua Emi, Mah Qi, and many more. Many even died just because of Zihao De's totality revenge plan. They did manage to earn 80 percent of the share rights of the inheritance though. However, Tai Qi stood up and looked at Zihao De before walking away.
Ma Wan Liu, on the other hand, had an annoyed expression. He looked at Yang Zhai with narrowed eyes.
Yang Zhai noticed this as well. He did not say anything and smiled. Whereas, Jun Nie brought Jun Haru to the Ma clan camp.
Ma clan's side of the competition became nearly empty. Almost all of them had left for the Ma clan camp.
Zing Ghe, then began to speak.
"As everyone knows, this competition has been going on for a while, almost taking a year even if not completely. The stakes were high, the awards…, even I don't know. There might be some agreement dispute or something of value placed on it, I am sure, whatever."
"However, let me tell you, the price paid by the Ma clan and especially by the Bai clan was not small. As you all know, as an overwatcher, I have to keep an eye on everything related to or surrounding the competition. So, believe me when I say that the stakes were really high."
"I congratulate the Bai clan on their win. And would hope they get for what they bet. Anyway, I have my job done here and would like to leave."
After saying this, Zing Ghe jumped into the forest and disappeared. A token was left where Zing Ghe had stood before leaving. Everyone looked at it and nobody touched it.
Zihao De went to it and picked it up. It was made of sandalwood and looked quite old. This token had an eye symbol on it. This eye looked like an ordinary eagle eye. It was a token left by an Overwatcher to the winner of the competition, showing that the Bai clan had won.
Nobody else would dare to touch it except for the winner as Zing Ghe would not leave unless the winner had this token. If someone else even touched it besides anyone from the first three elders of the winning clan, Zing Ghe would strike that person right away even if the winner themselves touched it, such as Yang Zhai.
This token could allow someone from the winning clan to enter the Overwatcher tower in the Overwatcher clan
"This Overwatcher clan always leaves the token to keep their dominance in two things. First is to instill fear in others' eyes, such as nobody dares to touch their token even after Zing Ghe left. The second is to motivate others into hiring them for they are impartial and also give a gift to the winning clan." Yang Zhai thought.
He was familiar with these traditions from his previous life. Even if the Overwatchers did not leave these tokens to the winning competitors, people would still hire them for their impartiality.
…..
Meanwhile,
"Father, please forgive me, I beg of you, please forgive me."
Jun Haru pleaded forgiveness from Jun Nie. He was resting on his bed and his left arm had also been healed by the cultivators. But since Yang Zhai had severely beaten him, he still needed to rest.
"No need to beg. I know you tried your best, but Yang Zhai was too clever."
Jun Nie comforted his son.
"No, not for this, but I hid something from you and I am feeling extreme guilt."
Jun Haru had tears in his eyes when he said this.
"What are you talking about?"
"Father, brother Keal, and brother Xin did not leave with any servant back at the Bai clan leader's residence, but they died at Yang Zhai's hands."
/*****!*****\