Fang Ninying walked into the QR pod cafe with her four friends, and sat down in the lobby.
"It's still amazing that one of us made it this far, Ninying, how did you improve so quickly?", Long Wen asked.
"It was a few things really, but I don't think it would have happened if it wasn't for this island", Ninying replied, "Eating the food here, the cultivation rooms, the evaluation test, and the mirror match function. There are so many way to improve here, I even found a few spiritual techniques for my lesser elements that matched perfectly with my battle style."
Chen Zihao pouted, "Couldn't you've shared with the rest of us?"
"Unfortunately, I didn't have the luck of meeting with you very often after we went our separate ways", Ninying apologized, "I will remember to let everyone know next time. I'm sure everyone else is not hiding anything from us as well."
The other four became embarrassed and Jia Feng spoke up, "No, no, of course not, in fact just this morning I found an interesting restaurant and was about to invite everyone. I hear the spirit wine is excellent."
"Very well, whether I go to grieve my lose or celebrate my victory, let's go there", Ninying smiled, "But for now I need to go get ready for my match."
She walked to the counter, and checked in before going to her assigned pod. Since only twenty-four pods were needed for today, business was open again, and the free pods were being rented again.
As she sat down in the pod and it closed, she logged in like normal and went to the special application meant for the contestants. The whole time she was with her friends, she was composed but now that she was on her own, she smiled and enjoyed the moment as she opened her eyes and found herself in a new room. As she looked around the room, she saw a countdown timer for her next match. It was currently at 1:37:39 and counting down. She spent that time in the mirror match mode solidifying her techniques and learning new ones. A notification appeared thirty minutes before her match to give her time to prepare. She exited the match, replenished her Qi with fruits and tea, and calmed her mind with meditation.
At thirty seconds, a timer began counted down and then she found herself on the plains. She saw her opponent, Fan Chun, a few hundred meters away with his weapon, a halberd, in his hand. She also unsheathed her sword, and filled her empty hand with seeds.
A loud voice spoke, "Fang Ninying of the Chen Fmaily vs Fan Chun of Sun & Moon Island, Ready, Fight!"
Ninying began moving in seemingly random directions, flinging handfuls of seeds infused with Qi around the battlefield. Fan Chun sped towards Ninying and began to attack, narrowly missing each time. He decided that it was better to finish things quickly and started using his wind techniques to increase the speed of his spear and his movements. Ninying knew that time was on her side so she used her Flash Butterfly Dance to move and continued to dodge attacks from Fan Chun. This went on for several minutes until Fan Chun nearly hit a tree that wasn't there before causing him to miss an opportunity to attack. As he looked around he noticed more tall grasses, bushes, and tree growing from the seeds that she had thrown in the beginning. He started to panic because she continued to use a weird movement to avoid his spear and distribute more seeds to the area. Fan Chun swung his spear in several directions firing wind blades to clear the forest that was starting to appear on the battlefield. The next time he caught sight of Ninying he used his fastest speed to catch up to her, and right before he was about to reach her, there was a bright flash and she disappeared. This happened a few more times and Fan Chun knew he was in trouble. He could no longer see anymore but instead of everything going dark, there was a constant brightness in his eyes, even when he closed them. Ninying watched as Fan Chun stumbled into a group of vines and became intangled in them before she stood in front of him.
"Thank you for going easy on me", she said as she pierce his chest and then bowed.
"Fang Ninying Wins", the loud voice announced and she was back in her pod.
A timer appeared again showing nothing which meant that the other battle was still ongoing. So she entered the mirror match again, and set a new alarm for thirty minutes again. Eventually, the alarm sounded and Ninying started the process of recovery again with a smile on her face. She finally understood a new technique that she had been trying to comprehend over the last few days. She finished her preparations, and once again was met with the change in environment as she was transported to the battlefield of the Championship. Her face fell as she looked around and saw that she was in a desert. She took out and wore a veil and a mask, to block and protect her face from the sun and sand. Her opponent unsheathed a saber as her also looked around with a pleasant smile on his face.
'Great', she thought, 'must be an earth type cultivator.'
The voice returned, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the championship round. After many battles, these two contenders have fought multiple battles and used their abilities to the upmost to claim victory after victory. Let me introduce Wen Tu of Sun & Moon island and Fang Ninying of the Chen Family. Like always the battlefield was randomly selected and the contestants are present. So once again, Ready, Fight!"
Wen Tu immediately began to use a technique to increase the size of the sandstorm. Ninying began using a heavy rain technique to weigh down the sand and to create a puddle. Ninying was getting ready to summon seeds in hands when Wen Tu attacked with his saber causing her to draw her sword to defend herself. She immediately began the Flash Butterfly Dance and was able to nimbly dodge Wen Tu slashes. When she looked at Wen Tu, she cursed, because he was wearing something on his eyes to protect himself from his own sandstorm. She didn't have anything she could do right now so she continued to perform the dance while rain poured. Unfortunately, the sand wouldn't hold the water at first and it took a few minutes before a small puddled formed. Ninying took advantage of the chaos of sand and rain to throw Qi enriched seeds. She stopped using the rain technique and focused solely on dodging. Despite her efforts, she still was too slow a few times and a was barely sliced. Her clothes and skin had cuts in several places and Ninying had to grit her teeth as the storm blasted her sand. She continued her Flash Butterfly Dance and as she was starting to get tired of the wind, she lost control for a second and her movement went crazy. Wen Tu was shocked as Ninying moved so quickly he couldn't locate her from a few moments. Ninying thought about it and began to understand, she remembered how a butterfly moved when there were high winds. She let loose and found her speed greatly increased as she moved with the winds. As Wen Tu stopped and hid in the sand to think about how to counter this movement, the flashes stopped and the rain returned. Extending his senses he located where she was and he started swimming through the sand and prepared to ambush her. Seeing that she wasn't moving anymore, he crept up and sprung from the sand and brought his saber into a horizontal arc and went through the silhouette in on clean motion until it hit something. Expecting to hear the victory announcement, he stood their confused as he pulled his saber from trunk of a tree. He looked down and saw that the body he had cut in half was not human but a bundle of plants that was shaped a woman. His eyes bulged as he felt a sword enter his back and the blade came out the front.
"Fang Ninying Wins", the voice announced as the battlefield faded away and the contestants returned to their pods.
Ninying sat in her pod and happily shouted for a few minutes before straightening up and exiting the pod. She made her way to the lobby as everyone exploded in applause, and four friends ran towards her.
"Ninying! I can't believe it, you won, I can't believe you won!", Wen excited exclaimed. Chen Zihao, Jia Feng, and Mao Bao were excitedly talking to each other about the match and how they were going to immediately use the mirror mode as soon as they could.
"Young lady", a voice was heard by everyone that instantly caused everybody to quiet down, "Congratulations on reaching the top, you will be enshrined as the first champion of the solo Qi Gathering stage tournament, as well as other rewards that will be given later."
The employees behind the counter bowed, "Welcome Minister Song and Minister Cai."
Minister Cai smiled, "Please, no need for formalities. Ms Ninying, we will be holding a ceremony once all events are completed, so please rest and enjoy youself for now."
"Thank you ministers", Ninying replied and looked at her friends, "Are you going to stay here and do you want to go with me?"
Wen responded, "Of course I'm going!"
The other three said, "Go ahead and relax, we are going to get a pod and improve ourselves."
Ninying and Wen walked out the door and jumped into a taxi Ninying scheduled, and went to have fun in the town.
Wei Huoran was watching the news on his tablet, "Today's Battle of the Surpreme results were as followed: Solo Qi gathering champion was Fang Ninying, Team Qi Gathering champions was the Sun & Moon island's Sun team, Solo Foundation Establishment champion was White Tiger Sect's Su Peng, and the Team Foundation Establishment champions was the White Tiger Sect team. Congratulations to all the winners, and good luck to everyone for next year. Tomorrow is the final event when the one hundred man Battle Royale for Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment cultivators takes place starting at 11:00 in the morning and finishing when the last man is standing in each category. Have a good night and see you tomorrow. I'm Xiang Shun signing off."