The supervisor stood in the middle of the stage and the four contestants both stood at one corner of the stage. He announced the rules and the procedure for the last stage of the competition.
" The last stage is as follows, one contestant would issue a challenge to another. After the battle, the winner and loser would stand aside. The second batch would also fight to determine the winner and loser. The losers would fight to determine the third and fourth places. "
He paused briefly and continued, " The contestants for the first position are;
Mai Lin Lin from the White Lotus country,
Zhao Lu Ma from the Lions BeakCountryy
Li Bai Tin from the Po Chi Lam Country and
Zi Long Xie from the Imperial City. "
There were loud cheers from each country's supporters as they mentioned each participant that comes from that country. The cheer was Louder for Zhao Lu Ma as he is from the Lions Beak country but is a student of the Po Chi Lam's Heaven's Sage Academy. There he can be considered as being from both countries and therefore they had joined forces to support him, each as if he were their own.
But when the Fourth Prince's name was mentioned, the whole arena shook as he had become everyone's favourite contestant in this Black Dragon Tournament. His cheer was without any doubt the loudest as a few million people marched for him unanimously.
He slightly bowed to show his appreciation for their support once again. He is just too humble for his own good.
The supervisor paused to let the spectator's loud cheer settle down before continuing," The winners would now fight to determine the second place and the ultimate winner would be in the first place."
He flew into the air on his treasured sword and commanded. "Let the combat begin!!!"
With that, he rose into the air to supervise the following combats as the spectators broke into a brief loud cheer. All the countries that made it into the final combat were anxiously praying for a miracle to happen so that their contestant might become the winner of the tournament to bring glory to their country.
"Li Bai Tin from the Po Chi Lam Country challenges Mai Lin Lin from the White Lotus country to combat, do you dare accept ?! Li Bai Tin issued a challenge to one of the contestants before anyone could speak first.
Everyone was amazed at his craftiness. " Aishhh what a sly fellow, he quickly chose an opponent he can contend against to prevent having to fight the Fourth Prince ". one cultivator pointed out to his friend.
"Hahahahaha, he is a wise fellow, if everything goes to plan he is guaranteed a second place. " The friend replied.
One lady was furious, " How can such a handsome young man be this shameless, he is strong too. Couldn't he have just picked a man of his size?"
One man who heard her scoffed and replied, " As if you would have made a different choice in the same situation. Lady this is a cultivation world and for her to be among the top four contestants she must have the means to defend herself. Don't look down on her."
The woman looked at him and after some analysis realised what the man said could be the case. The fact that he chose her doesn't mean his winning is assured. She then calmed down and watched the Arena with undivided attention.
Throughout the Arena discussions such as this were taking place. Some portion thought it was unfair that Li Bai Tin picked someone supposed to be weaker than him. Were he a real man he could have picked the Fourth Prince as his opponent.
Others also thought it was a wise decision as it's only a fool would have an advantageous opportunity to prove he was a real man. They would have done the same thing.
In the Sect observers pavilion, similar discussions were going on. " Sly kid, I like his crafting alright, a cultivator must monopolise opportunities and seize advantages". Elder Li from the Dragon Spirit Sword Sect proclaimed.
Elder Ma from the Rising Dragon Sword Sect seconded him, " He is indeed a cunning fellow. He spoke up before anyone could speak. My sect wants him ". He had been quiet all this while and the others almost forgot he was even there.
The Rising Dragon Sword Sect was the holy land for top-class assassins. For him to have remained inconspicuous all this while among Sword Sovereigns with high spiritual sense and they have forgotten about him until he spoke is a testament to how good his sect is at training assassins.
Everyone felt cold sweat dampen their backs as they eyed Elder Ma from the corner of their eyes."Damn assassins" this was the thought on all their minds.
Elder Mu Yun from the Fire Spirit Sword Sect also supported their claim. " Who knows he might even beat the Royal kid and win first place. That Royal kid is lucky to have broken through in the middle of the battle and caught his opponent into sharing his tribulation with him; which might have weakened them considerably "
At this point, Elder Mai Ting scoffed and rebutted them," A bunch of old and blind fogeys. He would be lucky to even make the third place. He had chosen wrongly this time."
The other vehemently disagreed with her conjunction and disputed her claims. She just sat there with a smile on her face not bothering with those inept old and fog-headed Elders anymore. The mysterious Elder from the Heavens Sword Holy Land didn't participate as usual since he considered it below his status to join such a petty squabble.
On the fighting stage, both opponents were standing as they prepared to battle each other. All their flying swords were out in mid-air as they boosted their sword intent and sword qi.
The other two Combatants at this point had left the stage. Li Bai Tin rushed towards his opponent at lightning speed as he boosted himself with Yunqi. He attacked with a mid-grade sword technique called the wind blade demolisher. As the name implied it carried with it a powerful tornado that threatened to destroy everything in its path.
Within a twinkle of an eye, he was already in front of his opponent and swung his sword with such ferocity that all the spectators there had stood on edge. in fact that swing could have hacked Mai Lin Lin into two.
She seems to have been frozen in place as the blade of the sword cut her into two halves. Everybody was shocked at first but then the expected blood geyser that sprays out in such circumstances didn't follow the hacking of the lady into two.
Only then did they see Mai Lin Lin's body reassemble itself a few metres to the right of the position she was in a moment ago. She had dodged the onslaught earlier so fast that she left a body clone behind. She had to use a movement technique known as the ghostly phantom shift technique.
The surprised Li Bai Tin quickly recovered and twirled around to block his opponent's sword thrust that was powered by sword qi and sword intent. There was a series of explosions as both sword qi and intent clashed. One party defended and the other attacked, and then the tables would change with the defending party now attacking.
Excellent movement techniques and the speed of the fight made it quite the dangerous and yet beautiful dance of death that mesmerised everybody who was watching.
Li Bai Tin used his academy's top sword technique, the Immortal Dragons dance, which was made up of thirty-six months established in total. it was quite wonderful in both defence and offence. it was a power-packed explosive technique. Every strike is more dangerous than the last.
Meanwhile, Mai Lin Lin employed her clan's top sword technique called the cry of the death butterfly, thus was a sword technique suited to women as it capitalises on the yin energy within their bodies to deliver swift and deadly blows to the opponent. It was so deadly yet so beautiful that one would wonder how something so beautiful could be so terrifying.
They both danced this dance of death for a while. the flying swords clashing and trying to cancel each other out. One would be attacking the opponent with ear fifteen swords and the other would turn their fly sword into a shield to prevent being hit.
Their treasured swords were imbued with sword intent and sword qi as they clashed with their deadly sword techniques. After thirty minutes of this perfect display of skills and technique. They both separated in different directions about a hundred metres out.
Those among the Spectators who thought Mai Lin Lin was a pusher who would easily be crushed by Li Bai Tin were shocked with some leaving their mouths open wide enough to fit an egg in there. Who knew this frail-looking girl would have such stamina and wits? She managed to survive a few scrapes with death with the expert control of her flying sword and it was amazing.
Those who were already on her side could also not help but be shocked. They believe she had to be good to be in this final, but not even in their wildest dreams could they have thought she would be this much better than their wildest imaginations
Both participants recalled their flying swords to themselves as they prepared to continue fighting. This round would be fought with both flying swords and treasured. Which means they would be fighting with both flying swords and treasured swords together.