He grins at me once more as he stabilizes himself before patting the saber over his shoulder a few more times..
"Heh, maybe you're not as bad as I thought. But still, you have a long way to go.
Don't get too cocky simply because I was caught a little off guard. I'll take you a little more seriously from now on."
He rushed forward in a quick burst and closed half the distance in half a second. In response I ran forward too as I couldn't simply give him all the momentum.
Our weapons reached out in wide arcs before flying towards each other. I tried my best at keeping a hybrid between offense and defense, but that would quickly crumble as the speed and power of his strikes were slowlying, but steadily increasing.
The chances of returning an attack became slimmer and slimmer as the windows for each shrunk as well.
I was starting to lose ground too now as for every 3 or 4 times he swung I would take a step back.
'No, no! A-am I going to lose?! NOO! I can't let Big Brother be disappointed in me!!! This is supposed to be my first fight! Where's my beginner's luck!?!'
As the edge of the arena was coming near I used my movement technique once more to escape the impending knock out. I circled around and tried to move a little closer to the middle, but he must have seen through my plan as I circled with me.
Luckily I was still faster than him and made it to the center, but my situation still hasn't changed and in fact it was starting to get even worse. I could probably only use that movement technique once more before I would have to exhaust myself to do it once more.
I may have bought myself some more time, but he was still swinging, it was as if he wouldn't tire out. Instead I was the one starting to tire out as my reflexes were slowing down.
His attacks I had been managing to successfully block for a while were starting to get past a little. Those small hits were starting to accumulate and sap my strength away.
I was once again nearing the edges of the arena, only this time I was on the side that Big Brother was viewing from. The shame from losing this would only increase since I was directly in front of him, but it wasn't only him either. There were others here watching me too and if they were going to be here every morning I might die of shame!
'Shit, I'm running out of room! It's all or nothing then! I'll force his weapon away and use that final time of my movement technique to quickly end this for all!'
I was quickly losing ground and the more I delayed to find a perfect moment the less options I had.
Taking the very next opportunity that came up I acted. I used a chunk of my remaining energy and forced his saber to the side.
His eyes slightly widened at my sudden breakthrough, but I couldn't think about that right now. I activated the final little bit of energy I had on my movement technique as I quickly closed the gap between both me and this man.
My sword was positioned perfectly to thrust onto the center of his chest and I could practically envision the moment I hit him with such a strength that he would concede!
At least that was the little fantasy I had envisioned.
What truly happened was that he was able to simply sidestep my attack like many of my others. He stepped to my right and with my gaze following him I felt like everything was in slow motion.
As he was still side stepping he had swung his saber right underneath my sword as it approached my stomach, and there was simply nothing I could do to defend against it.
The next moment a sharp pain radiated from my stomach as I could no longer even feel the ground I was standing on. Somehow I still managed to hold onto my weapon, but that was all I could do as I fell off the arena.
I felt my back hit the ground quite hard as a thud sounded out. In a moment I sat up, but didn't make any more efforts to move after that. It was both a combination between the pain I was feeling and the bitter defeat I just had.
'I-It hurts, but what's worse is that I…I…lost…What am I going to do? Big Brother please, don't leave me! I'm not incompetent! I can do better!'
As I was frozen in my thoughts and the most horrible scenario a warm hand was placed upon my head.
"Come on, get up Jinzi. The day has just started, you can't be sulking so early in the morning now can you?"
I nervously looked up at the voice, but only saw his warm and gentle smile as he looked down at me.
The dark and horrible future of being abandoned was nothing, but a figment of my imagination.
*Thump*
The nearby sound caught my attention only to be met by the man who just beat me jumping off the stage.
He took a step toward us and smiled, but this time there was a little difference between the grin he had on the arena to the one he had now. It was less arrogant, more friendly and welcoming instead.
"We might see each other a little more often if you come frequently. Our match wasn't so bad, well at least you did better than my last opponent and he was supposed to be a 2nd layer Median Opening Realm Cultivator. I think as long as you start fighting a bit more you'll probably be able to compete with me at my full strength.
My name's Shao Huang."
When his introduction finished I looked up at Big Brother and he nodded as he removed the hand on my head. I felt a little sad at the warth of his hand leaving me, but I had to introduce myself first.
"Hello my name is Xue Jinzi, please take care of me, Senior Brother Shao."
"It's nice to meet you too, Junior Sister Xue. Please excuse me though as I believe a lecture I'm interested in is about to start."
I then watched as he left the area. While distracted the warm hand fell upon my head once again.
"Look at that, you just befriended another disciple like yourself! Looks like you aren't too shy after all. Well, it's time for me to go though to make sure you make the most of the day!"
"Ah, Big Brother let me walk you back first!"
I sped up my steps to catch up to him and walked him to the entrance of the arena, but we bumped into a trio as they wanted to walk in.
The group consisted of 3 women who we were just going to let pass by first, but after she took a glance at both me and Big Brother their supposed leader stepped up and spoke to us.
"Hello there Senior Brother! What might bring someone like you down here?"
"I was simply dropping off this new disciple here to go sparring or perhaps go to a lecture or two."
She extended her hand toward me as she spoke.
"Ah, is that so? Hello there Junior Sister! What's your name, mine's Xun Chun."
I accepted her handshake thinking that this was progressing a little quickly.
"It's Xue Jinzi."
"Say, Senior Brother, what might your name be?"
"You can call me Senior Brother Ip, now please excuse me as I have to be somewhere right now."
She signaled the girls behind her to move to the side as she did.
"Oh, we're sorry for delaying you! Go right ahead!"
"Thank you. Jinzi you don't have to accompany me from here on, I'll go on my own so go back to sparring would you?"
"En"
I poked my head out through the doorway as I watched him walk away back up the mountain.
An arm wrapped around my shoulder as I was still watching Big Brother go.
"Say Junior Sister Xue, how did you manage to get acquainted with someone from the Inner Court? You got to tell us Sisters here!"
"Ah?"
'Oh so that's what they were after: my connection methods? Well I don't actually have any.'
"Come on! Don't play dumb Junior Sister Xue! That Senior Brother was so handsome, in fact the best I've seen. Tell us your secret! Could it simply be that you used your face and body to woo him over?"
"No, it was actually luck that I managed to get in touch with him. Maybe I was some kind of saint in a past life which led me here."
"Tsk! You're simply keeping those secrets aren't you?"
"Huh? No, I'm not!"
"Is it really luck that you could come in contact with someone from the Inner Court? What did they happen to take pity on you or something?!
You know what? Maybe we'll try our luck with him too!"
"Hehehe~"
"Fufu~"
The two girls who hadn't even spoken yet giggled in the back.
I spun around shoving her arm off my shoulder.
"What do you just say?! He's mine! Don't even try it!"
Their expressions changed the moment I yelled.
"What's wrong? You tried your luck with him didn't you? Why can't we? Aren't you quite a selfish woman?"
"H-he's my Big Brother! You can't have him!"
"Oh? And who's going to stop us? You? Hehe, you're simply still a Body Tempering Realm cultivator. You think you could match us? Oh that's right you can't tell what realm we are in! Here let me tell you on your behalf.
I'm a 3rd Layer Essence Gathering Cultivator and those two are 4th and 7th Layer Meridian Opening. Do you understand what you're up against now?
Say, didn't that handsome Senior Brother of YOURS say that you're here to spar? Why don't you have a little spar with one of my girls here? We could even spice it up a little bit with a bet, how about it?"
"No! Why would I deal with any of you? Now leave me alone!"
Without another word to them I walked away back towards the few near the arenas.
"Tsk! That bitch thinks she's better than us doesn't she? We'll show her."
I felt my left eyelid twitch in response to hearing her words, but I really couldn't deal with them right now so I could only ignore it.
'Better? What? What brought her to that conclusion?'
***
(Li Daji POV)
'What did I just witness? Was Master Really accompanying some girl throughout the sect?'
It was early morning and I originally decided to simply see the changes to the sect since I've left. Master had never walked through the sect during the morning before so I wasn't really scanning every direction I went, but suddenly I saw a girl with Outer Disciple robes down the street within the Inner Court.
I was about to go and escort the girl out, but suddenly a man appeared from behind a building. For but a second I didn't realize the man and simply thought that another Inner Disciple got to her before I could. But upon closer inspection I froze and once I saw him looking around I head in a little alley away from his sight.
I looked back a few moments later to see he was talking to the girl and even grabbed her wrist.
I tried to listen into the conversation, but Master must have put up a sound barrier.
Once they began to move I started trailing behind them. Even knowing Master's mortal habits I still made sure to hide my presence and footstep sounds as I followed behind.
He entered the Outer Court and took her to spar and watched as she was defeated against her very first opponent of the day.
They ran into another group of girls who spoke to Master before he left. I didn't immediately leave to follow Master as I wanted to know a little more about that Jinzi woman. I watched and listened to her conversation with the 3 woman before deciding that I could research a bit more about her latter and instead I had to make contact with Master.