The day of the challenges had finally come. The first challenges to be fought were those involving first-years. They were performed in the order of perceived importance of the fights, so that the best ones were all near the end.
Several first-years challenged better ranked other first-years. And only a handful of them chose to challenge second-years. No one dared to challenge a fourth-year or a fifth-year.
As the sun was rising in the sky, Elder Tang appeared on the platform. It was the same place where the entrance examination had taken place. Gradually, several elders appeared on different platforms around the central duel platform. Among them were all the elders who took part in the entrance exam and some others Cao Yun did not know.
But Cao Yun was not there yet. He was still practicing. To avoid getting tired during the fight, he had not trained his body the day before. But he had trained like never before the previous days. Right now, he was still using his 'Shen Visualization'. After reading the 'Bloody Cavalry' manual, he was now imagining exactly how he would counter every move of Luduo Bu. Of course, this was not perfect as he really needed to spar in order to test his understanding. Sadly, he found no sparring partner who used this martial art and learning it in a few days was not feasible.
Chief Elder Baishen had nonetheless found him opponents who were wielding halberds to get used to the timing and the distance. Since his last encounter with Luduo Bu, he knew that his opponent had certainly advanced even more. He also used all the time he had in the Howling Crane Gorge and was extremely close to piercing the mysteries shrouding the Neck Star. He knew there was a variation of 'The Moon Grounds the Sun' involving 'stillness within movement', but he lacked a bit of understanding.
Using his day of rest, he had more or less understood the concept and could not wait to apply it in this duel. His mind cultivation had progressed again and his senses were even sharper than before. The Po character also allowed him to circulate his Qi more efficiently. He could rapidly change the flow of Qi which allowed him to adapt faster during a fight.
Finally, the chief elders appeared. They were not all here, but Chief Elder Bian from the disciplinary pavilion was. Making sure that all the rules were followed during these duels was his prerogative and he took great pride in his work. He scanned the place and noted that Cao Yun and Luduo Bu were the only fighters of this first part who were not here yet. After the matter with Luduo Bu beating a servant and the testimony of Cao Yun, Chief Elder Bian had a terrible image of both of them. He particularly did not like Cao Yun as he thought his testimony was just him playing with words.
Besides him, Chief Elders Luoming, Suxian and Baishen were arriving. Other chief elders came, but someone important was missing, Xiao Xuefeng.
Apparently, she had left the Wubei Sect a few days ago on an important mission.
Chief Elder Luoming greeted Chief Elder Bian cordially, so did Chief Elder Suxian. On the other hand, Chief Elder Baishen was terribly cold to him. His face was dark, but he could say nothing. In Chief Elder Bian's mind, this insult was due to Cao Yun and no one else. Strangely, he did not seem to find Luduo Bu responsible as he had already paid his due. For him, as long as his pavilion had pronounced a verdict, the matter was over. On the other hand, Cao Yun had twisted the facts during his testimony to suit him. However, he had not lied outright and it infuriated Chief Elder Bian. Despite his feelings, he tried not to let it show, as he valued his impartiality over everything else.
The only other high ranking member of the sect who was not present was the Sect Leader himself. Recently, he was getting more and more discreet within his own sect. In a few years, he would reach the old age of 2000. Even for a 9th-grade Spirit Master, this was the limit of one's lifespan. Unless he finally broke through to the legendary fourth realm, the Sage realm, he would die in less than a hundred years. In truth, he would probably not last longer than a couple of decades. By consuming rare medicines and with the help of the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute, he could hope to reach fifty years, but he would get weaker and weaker near the end.
-
Elder Tang declared the first part of the challenges officially open. Several fights happened between first-years. Some of them had really progressed since the entrance examination. But in the end, the ranking did not change that much. Little by little, the onlookers were gathering around the ring. No one was really interested in the very first fights, but some had heard of Cao Yun's fight against Luduo Bu and got curious. Luduo Bu was ranked 195th overall, and 6th among the second-years alone.
Cao Yun had beaten Zhi Yin during the entrance examination, but it was only a friendly competition to welcome them in. Everyone knew that Zhi Yin had not used all her strength. She was ranked 167th overall and 1st among the second-years. And this year, they all expected her to become even more powerful as she had access to more resources. What was funny was that this was due to Cao Yun in huge part, thanks to his agreement with the Dragon's Fire Faction.
As the fights kept on going, the faction leaders began to arrive. The first one was Wen Zhu from the Dragon's Fire Faction. He was accompanied by several 5-star Earth alchemists and one 1-star Human alchemist who was a fourth-year. Then came Chan Weifeng, the leader of the Red Cliff Faction. He was only accompanied by Jiang Yifan. Everyone knew that Jiang Yifan would take over the Red Cliff Faction after Chan Weifeng's graduation at the end of the year. They arrived sooner than people thought. Some were even surprised to see Chan Weifeng himself.
In truth, he had begun to fear Cao Yun a little. Not that he was exceptionally strong right now, but his future was certainly prosperous. His faction had crossed him several times over trivial matters. Even Luduo Bu was a former member. Today, he wanted to make sure that all the bad blood between his faction and Cao Yun was settled. Chan Weifeng did not intend to become an inner disciple but if Cao Yun became one, he still needed to have a good relationship with him. And worse, if he left the sect after the five years, he really needed to have him on his side, just in case. He deeply felt that this boy's future would be prodigious. In fact, he did not understand himself, but he trusted his instincts.
Jiang Yifan was a bit less convinced. After all, he would still be within the sect next year, so he would rather have Cao Yun suppressed. Still, he listened to his faction leader and decided to wait for today's duel before making a decision on how he would treat Cao Yun.
From the Purple Northern Cloud Faction, Long Jian came. He was extremely tall, almost two heads taller than everyone else. His face was pure seriousness and he had several swords at his waist. Chan Weifeng was first within the ranking scroll and Long Jian second. In fact, they had switched places several times during the years, but they clearly dominated all the other disciples now.
He went to Chan Weifeng. "Brother Chan. I heard that you were interested in the new boy. Is he really that great?"
Chan Weifeng quickly turned around. As Jiang Yifan bowed and cupped his fists, the faction leader directly spoke. "Brother Long, you'll have to see for yourself. Even though he's not at our level yet, I feel like he will surpass us both in a matter of years."
Long Jian's face twitched a little. "I trust your intuition, Brother. But I'm still not convinced. I was told about his fight against Zhi Yin. He seems good but not that good. I guess we'll see."
Other factions were represented but no other faction leader came.
-
As the fights were unfolding, it was Ren Chao's turn. He went on the platform with a new mace which absolutely looked like a huge hammer. While he was walking, Wang Mei was by his side. She even held on his arm and he did not seem flustered at all. Just when he was about to walk up the stairs, she let go.
"Ren Chao, show them all! I know you can beat him."
Ren Chao only nodded and went on the platform. He was faced with a second-year who wasn't very high in the rankings.
"Senior Lü, give me some pointers." The second-year named Lü Qian took out a saber and stood in a high stance.
Ren Chao looked through the crowd one last time. He saw Sun Liao but not Cao Yun and got a little disappointed. His friend had really helped him in his blacksmith training and he wanted to show him that he did not slack off in his fighting training neither. Just as he was about to move forward, Ren Chao heard a small commotion.
Finally, Cao Yun had arrived. As he was the star of this first part of the duels, everyone got excited. Rapidly, the calm came back as Elder Tang did not want anyone to disturb the fight. Accompanied by Mei Hua and Mei Ying, Cao Yun went to Sun Liao's side and they both looked at Ren Chao. Seeing his friend nodding toward him, Ren Chao got hyped. Wang Mei, Sun Liao and Cao Yun were the three persons Ren Chao did not want to let down.
He charged with his mace. He was not very agile but he blocked most of the attacks from the saber. His opponent felt as if his hands were being cut open each time his weapon hit against this mace. It was like hitting a giant iron wall at full speed. The fight lasted a bit as Ren Chao was only focusing on defense, deflecting the attacks over and over again. Some cuts went through but they were superficial.
Finally, as his opponent got tired, he swung his huge mace around. Each strike was powerful enough to break every bone in his opponent's body, so the roles reversed. His opponent was now focusing on retreat and did not even dare block the mace with his saber. As he got dangerously close to the border of the platform, he tried a last assault.
Lü Qian used his martial art with all the strength he had left. A light pierced toward Ren Chao. And a hammer went crashing down on this wisp of light. Then, Ren Chao angled his mace and thrust it straight toward his opponent. Putting his saber on the way, the impact made him let go and he was ejected from the platform.
Ren Chao had won. "Everyone, look at that! That's my hammer! I made it myself! 'Crushing Mountains Mace'!" Everyone, even his close friends, had the same thought. "Why did you name it a mace? Didn't you just call it a hammer?"
Anyway, he got a huge cheer from the onlookers, especially Wang Mei. Sun Liao stayed calm but he still nodded his head with a smile.
When he went down, he returned to his friends and kept on shouting. "Did you see me?! Did you see this hammer?! Thank you, Brother Chen, it's thanks to your advice!"
Sun Liao got a bit annoyed. "Your fight lacked all class. You could have been handling a brick, it would have been the same."
"Oh? Really?! I can't wait to see how you're going to lose!"
The fights kept going. Mei Hua did not challenge anyone. Since the entrance exam, she had been focused on her alchemy and did not train her fighting abilities that much. In fact, she did not care about it very much.
Sun Liao, on the other hand, was ready to advance in the ranks. During the entrance examination, he had been unable to showcase his mastery of array formations. But today, he was deeply intent on proving his worth to everyone here, especially Cao Yun who had a small interest in array formations.
"Brother Chen, look carefully. You may learn some things about array formations and their real application during a fight."
He walked on stage. Just before the fight began, he looked toward Ren Chao. "Look how it's really done."
A bow in hand, he immediately fired several arrows in the sky. When they came down, they formed a strange formation on the platform. Up in the air other arrows gathered and formed a temporary formation. Both array formations aligned for a few instants and Sun Liao's opponent got completely immobile.
Chanting a mantra, Sun Liao shot another arrow straight for his opponent. "One Sun from Tang valley". It was the first layer of his martial art 'Houyi's Nine suns'. Contrary to what the name suggested, there were ten layers to this martial art. It was the one Sun Liao had picked during the entrance examination, but he took quite a liking to it.
Unfortunately, he could not manifest his Qi yet. However, he had found a workaround by using an array formation engraved in his arrows. In exchange, it took him a bit more time to use his technique. As such, he created a very temporary array formation by superposing two arrays of arrows in the air and on the ground. His opponent would be disturbed long enough for him to activate his arrow.
As the arrow flew in the air, it caught on fire. Its light was blinding and the opponent got unable to watch it directly. He tried to block but the arrow exploded and he got thrown off stage.
The fight was decided as soon as the disciple got taken in Sun Liao's array formation. Cao Yun was watching intently as he was trying to decipher these array formations. They were only 2-star array formations, but by using them together, he confused his opponent quite easily. Then, he also used array formations on his arrows to amplify the effect of his martial art. Even though Sun Liao could not yet manifest Qi, he had a high level of mastery of his martial art. And with the help of this small array formation, it almost had the same effect.
The day he could manifest his Qi, this arrow would literally be a small sun. Each layer of 'Houyi's Nine suns' was a different sun. And if one was talented enough, they could even use several of them together and enhance their power.
Sun Liao smiled valiantly and got off the stage while looking at Ren Chao.
"Show off!" Ren Chao was really lacking in his retort to Sun Liao.
Before they could really start to bicker, an ominous presence appeared behind them.
Luduo Bu had just arrived. All around him was the smell of fresh blood. And his halberd was still covered in many kinds of blood. Luduo Bu had been careful to clean any human blood but there was still plenty of demonic beast blood.