When Vin made that oath he wasn't just thinking literally, he was really going to make sure Victor Stoneworth actually died on stage.
These recent assassinations had really pissed him off, he had decided not to say anything as he was concealing his anger.
The casual expression he reflected was just the calm before the storm, if one didn't observe clearly, they wouldn't notice the deep killing intent concealed behind his eyes.
But although he had the desire to kill he still didn't place Victor in his eyes at all, that could be seen from how he didn't even prepare for the battle tomorrow, when he got to his residence, he was met with an unexpected guest.
"I see you're doing well, Vin." a voice said at his return. "Elder Ling, I didn't expect see you here, is something wrong?" Vin replied with a smile. "What!, can't I just, come say hi" Elder Ling chuckled "Well you wouldn't have had to wait till the competition was over right?" Vin asked, he was sure Elder Ling had a purpose in mind for coming over.
"Alright fine, let's get to serious talk" Elder ling said finally becoming serious "I noticed something earlier, your eyes. They held the desire to kill. Who is it?" he asked.
"Victor Stoneworth"
"Huh, it's him, are you sure you want to do that?"
"I am very certain"
"Is there a way you can avoid doing that?"
"What, do you want to stop me?"
"Sigh*, if I can avoid it. Yes"
"I'm afraid there's nothing you can do, no one can save the one I want to kill. Unless they can kill me of course"
"Do you mind telling me what he did, to warrant such verdict from you?"
"Since the beginning of the Round-Robbin, he's sent assassins every night to eliminate me. So Tell me, so you think I should spare his dog life"
"What?!, is that true?, why didn't you report this to the sect?"
"If I did that, how else would I draw out the real mastermind behind him. And besides I wanted to kill him myself "
"Well, since you seem to know whi the culprit is, then you should know that that he has a brother in the inner court who's even more ruthless than him, you're not the only one who has prejudice against the Cadmus brothers"
"I am well aware that there would be risks in offending them, but that doesn't mean, I'll take lying down the fact that they made attempts on my life"
"Sigh*, it seems you've made up your mind, there's nothing I can say anymore, Goodluck."
Vin watched Elder Ling leave with an expressionless face, no matter what happens after, no matter who he offended later, anyone who dares to portray even the slightes bit of killing intent toward him, would die.
He wasn't going to let anyone threaten his life anymore, never again.
With that thought lingering, he retired for the night. There were only a few pages remaining on the ancient Aramaic language booklet, so he decided not to read it tonight, instead he started replaying all the things he had experienced for the past few weeks.
Although it had only been a short time, he had really come a long way, compared to his pathetic life a few weeks ago.
He kept on reminiscing until daybreak, surprisingly there were no assassination attempt that night but he didn't think much of it.
Meanwhile....
"It seems the kid wasn't kidding" Elder Ling stated to himself as he held a few people on the air with his spiritual energy.
He had decided to stick around to confirm what Vin, not that he didn't want to believe him but, the case just seemed inconceivable, but now he had proof.
Looking at the black shadows who were struggling under his suppression, he signed and vanished. Tomorrow was going to be quite eventful.
****
Today was the second to the last day of the competition, or so it seemed, depending on how much they could intimidate the other contestants, after all today was the day all the top twenty rankers start their battle.
Well asides from Victor Stoneworth of course, he had started his battle yesterday and so he was rounding up today, if he could live past it.
"Heaven sun finger"
"Inferno blast"
"BOOOOOOOM!!!!!"
"Heaven sun palm"
"Flame combustion"
"BOOOOOOOM!!!!!"
"Heaven sun fist"
"Golden flame tribulation"
"BANG!!!!!"
Torrents of skills and techniques were being effectively executed by the combatants on the stage as Victor was literally dominating each and every one of his opponents.
Loud cheering sounds could be heard by the spectators of the ongoing events, even though it wasn't the Mortal lords fighting.
It was still a battle to determine the top hundred, there were sure to be some unexpected surprises, which was why today's battle had attracted more spectators, even those from the inner court decided to pay a visit.
They wanted to search for those who had potential so they could recruit them.
It could be said that the inner and core courts of the Flaming sun sect functioned differently from the outer court.
Those in the outer court were just like preliminaries, asides from those in the top hundred, the sect didn't really pay attention to the rest of them.
That was why no one noticed when Vin was actually being targeted by assassinations.
Out of the thousands of deciples in the outer court, only when you could get into the top hundred and make the sect notice your worth would you be worth their time.
But things became different in the inner court, there, there were lots of resources to use for your cultivation as the sect was keen on taking care of their Spirit sea realm experts.
Unlike the outer court were everyone was free to do whatever you wanted and none would border you, well unless you offended someone. You could just accept a mission and gain the necessary points.
The inner court used a completely different system, there the competition was quite intense as people tend to exert dominance.
Those in upper ranks decided to form factions, but that was a topic of the future. Right now there were various scouts of the different factions assessing the the combatants ready to recruit anyone that caught their eye.
Right now a conversation was going on between two of such scouts.
"Thus far, this Victor Stoneworth is quite talented, we should recruit him."
"Hmm, I think so too, there are others we should also pick up, although they might not be ranked higher in the ranks, but the seem promising"
"Indeed they are, they're sure to break through the Spirit sea realm and enter the inner court."
"Hmm,I heard there was an underdog in this group who has yet to fight, looking at how they put him to fight last, they must believe he's stronger than Victor"
"True though but how strong can an underdog be?, can he really best the ranked 20th?"
"Well won't we know when we see him, I just hope he doesn't disappoint me though"
***
"Heaven sun finger"
"Booooooom!!!"
A loud booming sound rang out as heavy exchange of blows were traded on the stage, but surely victory became Victor's as usual.
And that brought an almost end of his opponents except one of course.
"Alright your last opponent for the day is. Eremiel Vin Celestra" Elder Ling announced, this caused a huge commotion among the spectators, it would be surprising if they hadn't noticed that thus was done on purpose.
They wanted to know who was the new contestant whom some of them hadn't heard about, even the ones who knew him weren't sure what to think.
Even though they hadn't really seen much of his prowess, the fact that they made the top 20th ranker fight before him was testament to his strength.
Not even Victor would dare claim he could turn someone in the fourth stage of the Body refining realm to a puddle of blood just by snapping his fingers.
People even suspected that a trick was used, just they weren't aware of what it was yet. But today was when they could confirm that suspicion.
"Is it time?, I was getting tired of waiting!!" Vin said as he closed his book and stood up, he cracked a few bones before walking out, the sun shone heavyly on his face.
"Finally, I was just wondering when your worthless performance would be over" Vin said as looked towards the other side of the stage.
But he soon noticed that something was wrong, he was the only one talking and his voice was reverberating throughout the arena, he looked around and soon found out why.
Silence, the whole arena around his stage was dead silent, it seems they've been anticipating something rather earth shattering so no one wanted to break the tension.
"Well what do we know, it seems everyone is given a silent goodbye for your imminent demise" Vin said as he looked towards the prey he had marked "Now then, tell me, how exactly do you want to die Victor Stoneworth?!?"
"Wait what?"
"Did I just hear right?"
"Is he planning to do what I think he is"
"What the hell is going on with this guy and death matches."
"Come to think of it, this guy only appears on stage to fight a death match"
"But that's the ranked 20th on the list, Victor Stoneworth, he's unlike that Suzanne or something"
"Yeah, does he think he can actually kill him?"
"What a freak"
*****