None of the participants went home. Instead, they were all stirred by the announcement and followed me closely, lending their support and encouragement. Now this was a cultivator community I could get behind, instead of the toxic crowd of peanut gallery and arrogant young masters always insulting the protagonist.
And so, we all returned to the gigantic courtyard in the Long family manor as a united group, gathering around their own private arena. It wasn't a stadium like the one in Divine Path University, but it was still pretty impressive for a coliseum in a private estate. The four sacred statues stared down fiercely at the stage, standing sentinel as if they were overseeing whatever matches that took place on it. I had to admit that the sight of them towering at each corner of the huge stage was impressive.
"You can do this, chief!" Xu Hui said, having recovered from his injuries when taking the Chaotic Heart Forest trial earlier.
"Show them who's boss!" Wang Di said, slapping my back. Damn, the muscular dude almost sent me toppling over. He forgot that the body cultivators from the Iron Wolf Sect were a lot stronger than us esoteric types.
"Thanks. I'll do my best, but no guarantees. My opponent is the guardian of the Long family, after all."
It wasn't just Long Shou Shi. Apparently, several elders of the Long family had shown up, the archetypical old masters with long white hair, flowing beards. They were even dressed in traditional costumes instead of the modern day suits or casual attires that we of the younger generation liked to wear. I wasn't sure how to feel about it. In this day and age, it almost looked like they were cosplaying. Kind of hard to take them seriously, eh?
"Long Shou Shi, are you sure about this?" One of the elders asked sternly.
"Yes, father." Long Shou Shi cupped his hands and lowered his head respectfully. "I promise I will win."
"You had better not embarrass the Long family further. You know the consequences if you were to throw our face again."
"I will not!" He vowed. Inwardly, I buried my face in my palm. If they were so concerned about their face or whatever, then why did they bother holding the trial? It was almost as if they didn't want anyone to succeed in the trials. Why go through so much trouble to organize it, only to fail all the participants? That made no sense.
Or was I misunderstanding something?
"They are looking down on you because you don't have a noble bloodline or come from a major sect," Xu Hui growled angrily, clenching his fists. "They think you're an inferior candidate because you don't have the pedigree or bloodline. Your father might be an Earth ranked cultivator, but he's not the head of any sect. So they are unwilling to marry their princess to you."
"Marry? I'm not going to marry anybody. Other than my fiancée, I mean. And she's not from the Long family."
"Huh? You already have a fiancée?" Wang Di asked.
"Yeah."
"If you're not here to marry the princess of the Long family, Long Fan Xue, why are you even participating in the trials?" Another of the participants asked, astonished.
"She asked me to. I didn't know about the marriage, she only informed me that there will be rewards and prizes."
The participants exchanged glances, looking puzzled. Inwardly, I knew that I wasn't telling the whole truth. I had a niggling suspicion that this was what the whole trial was about, which was why I didn't want to participate in the first place. But the system had never let me down before, and Myria had her own schemes to…well, plunder the Long family of the resources they had on offer as prizes before refusing the marriage.
They couldn't force me to marry anyone if I didn't want to.
Well, assuming I survived the combat trial. Long Shou Shi didn't seem like a pushover. As the guardian of the Long family, he had some skills. I heard that he was at the peak of Mystic rank. Compared to him, I was intermediate…
-Actually, the user has attained advanced Mystic rank after the battle against the Tree Revenants and Phantom Stumps, and after overcoming their illusions in Cursed Heart Forest. Congratulations. –
Oh, that was convenient. No wonder we did a year and a half time skip. Otherwise people would be complaining that I didn't show any improvement or progress if I were to drag out what happened within that time period. Still, despite having closed the gap between us, I still couldn't afford to underestimate him.
Taking my position opposite him on the stage, I watched his movements. Long Shou Shi was doing some warmups, cocking his head from side to side and rotating his shoulders.
"It's been a while since I last fought a punk like you," he sneered.
"I don't get it." I shook my head, bewildered. "If you hate me so much, why did you stop Kai Fang from attacking me?"
"Because he broke the rules of the Long family manor, and I hate rule breakers more than unworthy commoners."
"Oh…right."
"Anyway, take out your weapon and let's begin!" Long Shou Shi drew a dragon saber and swung it down, sending the air rippling away in slight shockwaves from the casual stroke alone. I nodded and drew Azure Dragon, eying his stance warily.
"Begin!" Long Shou Shi's father shouted, chopping his hand down. Long Shou Shi immediately sprang forward. I scraped my foot back and raised Azure Dragon for a parry, only for Long Shou Shi to disappear from sight. instead, he used a footwork technique to reappear behind me, swinging his dragon saber down to split my skull apart.
Whirling around, I deflected the dragon saber with a desperate swing, and then spun away to avoid a follow up slash. Long Shou Shi twirled his saber about and pursued me, striking from above. This time, I couldn't avoid his strike, so I blocked it directly. The fierce blow pulverized the concrete beneath my feet, turning a section of the stage into rubble.
"Ugh!"
Grunting, I skidded away after a second blow knocked me off my feet and hurled me a few paces back. I stumbled and swung my sword to parry a third cleaving blow that made my right arm numb from the impact. With a curse, I retreated, but Long Shou Shi continued bearing down on me.
"You're weak!" He sneered. I could hear voices from beyond the fourth dimension agreeing with him, ridiculing me just because I couldn't one-shot my opponent or crush him convincingly. Apparently, if I had trouble fighting against a stronger opponent, it was seen as weak. I really didn't understand their logic. They only wanted to see protagonists steamroll every enemy in their path, I guess.
Twirling my sword, I parried his saber once more, only to be sent hurtling backward again. I dug my feet in with a cough and skidded to a stop, then stepped to the side to avoid a crushing blow from the dragon saber that obliterated the ground. As debris showered me, I retreated with a jump. Bursting through the shrapnel of concrete he had just caused, Long Shou Shi continued to close in on me, his dragon saber thirsty for my blood.
"It's too bad I don't have the Heavenly Sword, otherwise I'll meet you head-on," I remarked jokingly. Long Shou Shi snarled and swung his dragon saber at my neck, but I blocked it with Azure Dragon. Even though I avoided getting beheaded, the vicious blow sent me hurtling to the side. Hitting the ground, I flipped myself up and cartwheeled back to my feet.
Just in time to parry a descending blow from Long Shou Shi. Making use of the combined weight of both him and his dragon saber, he pulverized the ground beneath my feet. I grunted, my knees buckling, and almost fell to my knees.
As if I would let him dominate the fight like this…!
There was a malevolent hiss and the jaws of an Abyssal Serpent clamped down on Long Shou Shi. The dude spun away, deflecting Hei Ba's fangs with his dragon saber. He skidded a few meters back and continued to attack, but his treasure weapon only glanced off Hei Ba's armored onyx scales.
Even so, the blows were powerful enough to send my summoned spirit beast reeling. As expected of a peak Mystic ranked cultivator. His strength was on par with Hei Ba's, and the both of them were trading even blows. It was fortunate that Hei Ba deemed Long Shou Shi a worthy opponent, otherwise he wouldn't have obeyed my commands and fought him properly.
Fortunately, Hei Ba wasn't the only spirit beast in my arsenal.
A torrent of water splashed against Long Shou Shi, and even though he cleaved the highly pressurized jet of water apart with his dragon saber, he was still pushed several steps back. huffing, he unleashed a golden shockwave of qi that splashed the water upward before droplets descended like rain all over the stage.
"What the?!"
He almost didn't notice the shadow in time, with the Guardian Golem's fist slamming into him. He spat out a burst of blood, but unlike Kai Fan, he didn't just fold over and lose consciousness. Spinning around, he countered with a fearsome cleave that almost severed the Guardian Golem's hand at the wrist. Fortunately, my summoned spirit beast pulled his arm back to avoid a grievous injury.
While Long Shou Shi was temporarily preoccupied with the Guardian Golem, Hei Ba crashed into him from behind, trying to swallow him whole. The Mystic ranked cultivator bellowed defiantly and cut his way out of Hei Ba's jaws, sending the Abyssal Serpent falling to the ground, blood pooling around his head as he twitched. Before he could finish the great spirit beast off, though, another punch from the Guardian Golem sent him flying.
"Bastard!" Long Shou Shi shrieked as he hit the ground and bounced several times. He managed to flip himself over and stab the floor with his dragon saber, halting his momentum. Unsteadily rising to his feet, he glared at me hatefully. "You're a coward! Relying on spirit beasts to fight me? Why can't you fight me fair and square, like a real man?!"
"Because I'm a spirit beast tamer?" I shrugged. To be more precise, I was a spirit beast summoner, but I wasn't going to let the whole world know about my unique system. Best to pretend that I was Rein Shroud. "Of course I'm going to fight with the skills I specialize in. Or would you fight without a dragon saber? Would you agree to competing in taming spirit beasts or an archery contest?"
"Shut up! Fight me like a man! Without your spirit beasts!"
I narrowed my eyes. There was no reason for me to listen to him, but I dismissed both Hei Ba and my Guardian Golem. He grinned and lunged at me, swinging his dragon saber and unleashing dragon-shaped blasts of qi. I simply shot them all down with a volley of azure arrows.
"What?"
Long Shou Shi widened his eyes before Azure Frost caught him in the chest and exploded. He coughed out a frozen geyser of blood before he fell, his body slowly entombed by ice. Gripping his dragon saber, he flexed his qi to shatter the ice and leaned on his treasure weapon to support himself.
"Coward! Ditch your arrows and fight me at close range…like a man!"
"I can't use my spirit beasts, and I can't use my bow. Don't you think you're being ridiculous? Then am I supposed to use a sword like you?"
"YES! Get closer and fight me like a real man, you coward!"
This guy…I shook my head, but I decided to indulge him. Drawing Azure Dragon, I approached him. With a grin, he gleefully pounced on me, using the last burst of his energy to behead me. I stepped to the side, avoiding his dragon saber, then slammed the hilt of my sword against his chest, causing him to spit out another mouthful of blood.
Deflecting his desperate retaliation with his dragon saber by sliding the blade my Azure Dragon along the jagged edge, I then swept under his blow and kicked him in the midriff. He folded over and crashed several meters away before groaning.
"It's over!" Long Shou Shi's father yelled. I nodded and sheathed my sword, turning away to exit the stage. To my surprise, the elder smirked instead of announcing the outcome of the battle. Even before I could demand an answer, I already sensed movement behind me.
With a snarl, Long Shou Shi retrieved his dragon saber and pounced on me from behind, eager to kill me with a single stroke.
"What?! You're the real coward!"
"Launching a sneak attack after declaring the match is over?! Despicable!"
"You cowards! Cheating bastards!"
"That's killing intent?! He really plans to kill Song Jun Wen?!"
The spectators were outraged. In fact, several of them were already rushing forward to intervene, but they knew they wouldn't make it in time before Long Shou Shi reached me. The stage was too huge, and he was too close for me to dodge.
Not that I needed to.
Whirling around, I did a quick draw with Azure Dragon before the dragon saber could reach my head. There was a spray of blood and the dragon saber tumbled out of Long Shou Shi's grip before stabbing deep into the floor.
Not just the dragon saber. Long Shou Shi's hands went with his treasure weapon, amputated at the wrists. Blood spurted out and Long Shou Shi howled in agony, dropping to his knees in front of me and wailing.
The wail was cut short when a red line opened across his throat and blood sprayed out of his ruptured carotid artery. Long Shou Shi stared at me with glassy eyes, mouthing something silently as he clawed at his throat with bleeding stumps, and then he keeled over, choking and gagging. Blood slowly expanded in a pool beneath his corpse.
"Um…" I turned to the astonished spectators as I rested my right hand on the hilt of Azure Dragon, which was now safely sheathed back in my black scabbard. "That counts as self-defense, right?"
"Yeah, it does!"
"Don't worry about it! We are all witnesses! The guy visibly tried to murder you from behind!"
"We have your back!"
"Shame on the Long family!"
Despite the support I received from the spectators, there was one person who didn't agree.
Long Shou Shi's father.
With a furious roar, qi exploded out of his body and he launched a blazing streak of energy at me, a technique potent enough to annihilate my existence when it hit its mark.