They were sitting right in front of the clearly visible barrier barring the way into the stair, in the lotus position and with their back turned to us. Laid within effortless reach for them was what I first thought was a spear, but as I advanced just a few yards, I saw it was more like an exotic halberd, with a pair of crescent-moon shaped blades to the sides of the spear tip.
"Uh, I don't think you should get any closer," said Du Wuhan, "that's Dong Fangyi. He's the Rank 3 Outer Court Disciple, and heavily favored to become an Inner Disciple in the next Dragon Cup Tournament. Some say the only reason he isn't Rank 1 is because his cultivation base wouldn't quite allow him to overtake the actual Rank 1 in the Tiger and Dragon towers.
And since he reached that point, he's been completely undefeated in the King of the Mountain Cup. This is the worst possible encounter."
