Unfortunately, the Gin family sisters got away, thanks to people rushing in due to the noise. But mainly because amidst the chaos, Lin Hua lost consciousness and fell to the ground rather abruptly, for no clear reason, and Zhihao did too, as his injuries acted up.
They placed Lin Hua on one of the beds. Zhihao also had to lie down on the adjacent bed, as he pushed himself too much with the seer.
"Huh?" Lin Hua woke up with a jerk, with Neon staring gravely at the floor.
"Couldn't wait, could you, you miserable fucks?" The seer was furious, but not in the way that she usually saw him. Chills ran down her spine.
"Not a fucking word!" the seer ordered in a low, whispering tone.
"About what?" Lin Hua asked, slightly afraid. And then she realized that the seer knew.
"About that." The seer pointed one of his fingers toward Lin Hua's belly.
Lin Hua clenched the bed, clenching onto her blankets, pressing on her lips.
"That bastard's in for a beating later. I would do the same to you, but..." The seer clenched his hands and bit his lips until they bled.
"Not his fault..." Lin Hua trailed off.
"Still have the gall to defend yourselves. Do you have any idea what kind of situation you two have put yourselves in?" the seer continued in his low, furious tone. Both understood the gravity of the situation. There was nothing the seer could say or yell about that she didn't already blame herself for.
The seer pounced and grabbed her lower jaw, pulling it closer to his, where his furious, gleaming red eyes were all that could be seen.
"Not a fucking word to anybody!" the seer commanded.
"Whoa, what an interesting preliminary we had so far," the announcer's voice echoed.
The seer threw himself back in the chair and made a huge exhale to try and calm himself and regain his rationality. Lin Hua, however, still looked grave.
"Let's confirm a few things. Does Liu know?" Neon asked, now in a perfectly calm, non-furious tone.
Lin Hua shook her head no.
"Does anyone except the two of us know? And don't worry, the doctors don't," the seer followed up.
Lin Hua once again nodded no.
"Great, now the two of us will go back topside and act like that does not exist, okay?" the seer said, putting on a cheery and bright face.
And so, the two returned and went back to their seats. Cao Tang was now at one of the seats that the seer had reserved in the front row. He swung his hand as he saw Lin Hua and Neon approaching.
"Now moving on to the brackets. There will now only be one fight at a time, for now, we have reached the brackets. All participants have been thinned down to the strongest. And so, ladies and gentlemen, the best fights are yet to come," the announcer's voice echoed.
"Did you, like, not qualify or something?" the seer asked as he sat next to Cao Tang.
"Hah, I am so strong they put me directly in the finals," he bragged with a pompous and happy tone.
"Then why is Liu also not here?" Lin Hua questioned.
"I won the little battle royale they put up to speed up the preliminaries for the people whose matches were still left," Cao Tang replied.
"Ah, so the one who wins goes directly to the finals due to odd numbers," Lin Hua confirmed.
"First up, we have the White Snake from the Wanghu Province going up against the Black Tiger of Huxia," the announcer declared.
As soon as the announcement was done, the arena began to vibrate, and just as announced, the arenas combined into one large arena, covering the entire area. Even the sections that were ground and dust cropped up some tiles.
From one side, a thin-looking man wearing all white walked in, while on the other hand, a well-built man who only wore black tattoos on his upper body walked up.
The seer would be enjoying himself in this fight, but a discomforting feeling kept creeping up on him. And it seemed Cao Tang was feeling the same for some reason.
"And there he goes with his one-strike, multi-hit combo! Truly the stuff of the stories. The White Snake's reputation does not disappoint, folks. But guess what? Neither does the Black Tiger. Look at him go! He is perfectly blocking all of the attacks," the announcer exclaimed.
"Damn," the seer said.
"Dam," Cao Tang said right after.
"His technique has flaws; the Tiger will win," the seer gave his insight.
"The Tiger guy is too muscle-brained to know and use those flaws; the Snake will win," Cao Tang gave his perspective as well.
The seer and Cao Tang kept exchanging their remarks until the match ended. It was a draw, and that left a very horrible aftertaste for both of them. It was a draw due to a timeout, the most disgusting end to a match possible.
"And they were getting to the good stuff," Cao Tang complained.
"Now coming up for the next match of the brackets, An Liuuuuu, and he is going up against Sun... Ai zuuuuuu."
"I hear some strings getting pulled," Cao Tang jumped to the edge of his seat.
"Of course, this happened. They were bound to do something like this. Guess this is how they decide who the artifact goes to," the seer started rambling. Both Neon and Cao Tang were extremely agitated by the new development.
The two entered the stage. Ki already clashing with each other. Both knew what was at stake and more at stake for Liu as the winner gets a wish granted by the emperor.
To Liu, it was not just about artifact control. If he won he would have won his family soo much that they would have no choice but to let him get away with what he wanted. And the Ai family would be then persuaded to hand over lin hua or accept the marriage by giving the artifact as a gift.
The problem with this however was that both lin hua and Liu trusted and loved their parents too much. Way too much for people who were born in Murim.