The crowd erupted in cheers, though it was mostly the women squealing.
"Brother Zhan Feiyu!"
"Ahhh it's Brother Zhan Feiyu!"
"Our Nan Shen has descended!"
Wang Yoyo rolled her eyes, "That's the clown of the Shining Moon Sect, Zhan Feiyu."
The two mages nodded in understanding. They were both shocked by the sudden screams of the girls when the man appeared. Some of the girls overheard what she said and turned around to glare at whoever dared to insult their Nan Shen so loudly only to lock eyes with Wang Yoyo and spun right back around. They were instantly deaf, blind and mute. No one dared to reproach Senior Sister Wang Yoyo!
All of the girls were calling him Nan Shen. Who's god? Please he isn't half as sexy as my Bai. These little girls need to calm down, Liang Hui huffed. The man was dressed in green and white silk and satin robes looking as if a noble young master had mistakenly stumbled onto the battlefield he fiddled with a silver fan. After the thought flashed through his mind Wu Liang Hui's face flushed beet red. He couldn't believe it, he had just thought of Bai Huya as his, was he insane? Had he truly deluded himself into thinking that there was more between them than sex. He chuckled mockingly, he was just as delusional as those girls. Huya barely even talked to him and spent most of his time secretly laughing at him, Liang Hui caught him many times smirking in his direction. Not to say that he was even interested in having a relationship, because he's not. He had more important things to worry about like...studying. He was a busy man.
"We'll step aside and let you all win"
"Let us win?" the warriors of the Shining Moon Sect smirked. They couldn't believe how highly the members of the Heavy Sword Clan thought of themselves.
Zhan Feiyu spread the fan that he was fiddling with in his hand. He casually flicked his wrist with an upwards swish creating a chaotic torrent of wind. The area before was instantly plunged into chaos, everything was thrown into the air. The large-scale assault even blew the riders and their steeds into the air.
Grabbing the handle of his sword that was strapped to his back, as he was flung into the air the leader of the group in blue flipped onto his feet. In one smooth motion he drew his heavy broad sword and used the momentum as he spun in the air to slash down, slicing through the wide range assault. Cutting open the torrent instantly causing his team mates, their steeds and everything else to plunge to the ground. The forest stilled. The Autumn forest that was instantly plunged into chaos was instantly silenced just as swiftly.
The audience cried in awe. Wu Liang Hui and Lin Sha included. "Wah, so that's a trained warrior!" Liang Hui couldn't believe his eyes; it was like something straight out of an action movie. It all happened so quickly and deftly that it was quite baffling to believe someone was actually capable of something like that.
"He's Li Tong Hua, a warrior from the Heavy Sword Clan," Lin Sha nodded in equal awe. "He participated in the last competition as well!" Lin Sha said excited to see the match. "Li Tong Hua is known to be very straightforward and honest, like a true warrior!"
On the stage it could be seen that the group of cultivators managed to land on their feet and quickly assumed their combat formation to their merit. Their beasts however chose to scamper away in fright into the thick surrounding forest. The four men and three women of the Heavy Sword Clan formed themselves into an upside down 'V'. Li Tong Hua taking point, two buff looking warriors flanking him on each side each holding heavy swords as well. Behind them were two women each with lean figures holding dual short swords. The last two in the formation were the twin mages. Though one was male it was obvious with just one look that they were mirror images of each other, both a flower in their own right.
Opposite them the five members of the Shining Moon Sect quickly alined themselves into a star formation. Surprisingly Zhan Feiyu was to the front right and not the center like Liang Hui expected. A fiery red head to the right, he was holding a long sword with a black blade. At the center was a girl with the most clear tranquil eyes he had ever seen. It was as if she was on her way to tea and not in fact in the middle of a battle. Behind them were two mysterious warriors wearing veiled strawhats.
Liang Hui used his God's Eye to analyze the two groups fighting. Li Tong Hua was the strongest member of the team at purple level, the four behind him were blue level and the last two were green level. The last two were also the only mages on the field, all of the others were warriors. The Shining Moon Sect team were all at blue level. After seeing the match up Liang Hui creased his brows in confusion. He couldn't understand why the team with more people and stronger cultivation seemed to be intimidated by the latter. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
"Why does it seem that the Moon Sect disciples are the most favored to win even though they're weaker?" he asked after a while when he could no longer hold his curiosity.
"That's because it's a poor match up," Lin Sha also listened carefully, some of the mages sitting nearby also perked up their ears to hear as well, it wasn't everyday they could hear a high level warrior analyze a battle.
"It really comes down to the types of the warriors on each side. Like mages who have different types like healers, poison masters, creation mages and agri-masters, warriors also can specialize in different fields. " At the mention of 'poison masters' Wu Liang Hui felt eyes on him, cutting him with their judgment.
"Tanks, Agility, Control and Defense. It's a common mistake to assume Tanks are the strongest type of warriors but actually the Control masters reign as king and could stand on equal footing with warriors two levels higher than themselves!
If you look at the Heavy Sword clan, they have three Tanks and two Agility class warriors. All blue level and above. This kind of team would usually sweep the Nianqiu Competition easily hence why they were confident enough to bring mages as support. However even though the members of the Shining Moon Sect are blue level and the two teams should logically be on equal footing that's not the case. That's because all of the members of the Shining Moon Sect are Control class warriors!."
Everyone sucked in a deep breath. That would mean that only a team of orange level warriors could threaten their chances to win. What was an orange level warrior if not a rare extraordinary existence.
"Aiya, so sister Wang you mean their only opponents would be a group of orange level warriors?"
"A team of orange level warriors? Are they cabbages?" the disciple clicked her tongue, "besides, orange level warriors could only enter with a team of three or less members."
"Ahhh That's true!"
"As expected the team Nan Shen is in!" The group then refocused on the most important fact.
"Nan Shen is as unstoppable as a dragon dashing through the skies!"
"He's not Zhan Feiyu but Long Feiyu!"
Praises rang out for Zhan Feiyu and his team much to Wang Yoyo's disdain, she had no proclivity to boost that two-faced playboy's reputation. Wu Liang Hui rolled his eyes, he really couldn't understand what was so great about that lanky looking man.
"If control masters are as powerful as you say, what's stopping everyone from becoming one?" he turned to ask sister Yoyo curiously. Everyone peeked up their ears to hear Wang Yoyo's answer.
"It's a matter of what's up here," she tapped her temple with a boastful smile on her face, "one needs great mental capacity to become a control master. It requires more focus as you are not just covering a weapon with your mana like a regular warrior does to project something like sword aura but manipulating your mana in a way that turns the natural elements around you into your weapon. "
"I see, so it's like how mages use their mana to process ingredients!" Lin Sha interjected in understanding. "Wow sister Wang, you really understand control masters!"
"Hehe, that's because I am a control master," she grinned, cheekily patting her chest.
"Wah, an orange level control master!" someone shrieked in the crowd.
"Sister Wang is so powerful!"
Suddenly the Heavy Sword group charged forward brandishing their weapons with the intention of clashing swords with their opponents. Unfortunately there was technically only one swordsman on the Shining Moon side. The man with the black sword quickly spun his sword over his wrist releasing a torrent of fire which swiftly blew towards his opponents with a lazy flick of Zhan Feiyu's fan. Li Tong Hua and his team jumped back in panic as he instinctively blocked the attack with his sword, it was glowing a bright yellow from his sword aura. The two agility warriors tried to break away from the sides, under the cover of the fire, to attack but were caught by chains that sprouted from the ground beneath their feet. They managed to escape before the chains started to emit blue sparks.
"We don't have to do this," Li Tong Hua still tried to reason
"Of course we do," Zhan Feiyu smiled warmly, "there's grass that needs watering."
Tong Hua gave the order to fall back as he slashed at the chains that kept spawning. He and the two tanks behind him gathered all of their mana into their swords and in unison striked diagonally down from their upper right. The yellow of Li Tong Hua's aura combined with the green and blue auras of his companions to create a powerful blinding white blast. The energy blast was so profound that it melted on coming chains and burned them to ash. The blast of their combined aura continued to propel forward until it was stopped by the force of another torrent of fire.
As the fire wall and the white blast clashed Li Tong Hua clenched his teeth and gave the order for his remaining team mates to head to the bell at the center of the field. When the bell is rung the person who rang it and their teammates would automatically be transported out of the pocket dimension. He was basically telling them to throw away their pride as cultivators and run. This competition was aired throughout the continent, even if they made it out they would have completely lost face of their clan and themselves. Their victory in the previous Nianqiu competition would mean nothing as the general masses would not understand why they were so overwhelmed by cultivators lower in both level and experience than themselves.
Suddenly a bright blue light exploded in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. It dug a line through the grass and soil in front of them effectively cutting off their line of retreat to the bell that laid a mare hundred feet ahead. The agility warriors grabbed hold of the two mages and threw them to the center of their formation. They themselves rushed forward to meet the new attackers. The Heavy Sword team were now also being attacked from the left by some very familiar faces. Wu Liang Hui nauseated at the sight of Choi Hua Jia's smug face.
"You don't mind if we join the fun do you?" He asked as if he was the action hero in a movie and not a slimy rat. Both Liang Hui and Sister Wang gagged.
"You despicable snake!"
One of the female agility warriors broke away from the formation to clash with Choi Hua Jia. The smug Hua Jia pulled out two small daggers much to Liang Hui's surprise. Apparently Choi Hua Jia was just an agility warrior, the weakest type of warrior. It was really true what they say, the smallest dog barks the loudest, heh!
Their blades collided against each other, quick and forceful stabs. Blue sparks crashing into green light; striking against one another. It was as if they were dancing across the open field, their boots stepping firmly on the ground. They were both moving so quickly it was hard for regular people to follow with their eyes. Though one could make out that the sparks of their clashing blades were slowly getting closer to the bell.
"Not so fast!" The girl with the big clear eyes at the center of the Shining Moon formation snorted. On her signal the two mysterious warriors in the strawhats started to rain arrows down on the pair of clashing agility warriors. The two jumped apart to quickly defend themselves from the onslaught before turning as if on cue and racing to the direction of the bell.
Choi Hua Jia and the woman pushed and shoved at each other as they raced to the bell, behind them the forest was littered with wounded fighters, destruction and carnage. Red, blue and yellow are the new colors of what was once a beautiful, autumn forest, which has now become the stage of a large-scale assault. Any signs of the peaceful forest long gone.
A smile spread across the female warrior's lips as she sprinted ahead of Hua Jia only to dissolve into a silent scream as she was yanked back by her ankles. Those pesky metal chains were back and she was the first to be ensnared. Looking back at the poor girl Choi Hua Jia couldn't help but laugh at her misfortune.
"Hah! See you on the outsi-" Choi Hua Jia stumbled over a rock, tumbled thrice before landing face first into the large bell.
Dong!!!!!...
The loud dong of the bell echoed through the crowd gathered at the Shenyuan arena as the heavy metal bell vibrated. Their team, the Lightning Sword Sect team had won but this victory was met with heavy silence.
Wu Liang Hui clenched his lips, he felt as if he would explode if he even made a peep. On the inside however, he was howling in laughter, rolling on the dirty arena floor without a care in the world. That f--ing dumbass really made a spectacular debut! He just fell flat in front of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands of people watching the Nianqiu competition.
"Is there...." he suddenly reached out to grab the hand of his companions sitting on his left and right. They both turned to him, Wang Yoyo with shaking shoulders and a red face, her lips clenched just as tightly as Liang Hui, and Lin Sha who was gazing at the two with big doe eyes full of concern for their respective well being. "....a way t-to record…"
"Wait for me in the lobby, I'll be right back!" The girl shut up in enlightenment, a sly smile sprawled on her face.