"You are obviously a swordsman, body cultivator, and purity of the sword, I assume? Right path is the best path kind of guy?" Li Huang spoke as she looked at Min Ying.
Then Li Huang turned to Gong Jian, "Body cultivator, that much is obvious. Yang also? Probably the reason you can't keep it in your pants and most girls look at you that way."
The Li Huang turned to the man wearing all black and the mask in the back.
"Lowkey, body cultivation entry, assassin perhaps? daggers, poisons, throwing knives? one of them, or all of them." The man in the back showed no reaction, but Min Ying and Gang Jian showed strong reactions alongside the two other strange women.
Li Huang turned to the woman, smiling while surrounded by men.
"You are the odd one out: soul cultivation. It's not the body, 'cause I know the feeling; neither is it qi, so that leaves the soul. Seduction and illusion, I'd say."
The woman's smile cracked as she looked at Li Huang.
"And finally, you," Li Huang spoke as she looked at the average woman with black hair.
"You are an interesting little character, aren't you?" Li Huang spoke with a smile as she flicked her finger, hitting a small insect in the air away from her.
"Honestly, the holes in your skin gave away most of what I needed to know, but to cultivate insects inside the body, that's very interesting."
Li Huang caressed her chin as if thinking for a bit.
"Yeah, definitely creepy but interesting."
Li Huang giggled a bit seeing their looks on her
"Don't worry, don't worry, I will tell my own little secret."
"Body cultivation entry"
They waited a bit for more, but she looked at them confused.
"What? I don't have some special training or some secret technique that I've been training since my youth."
Everyone was a bit skeptical about Li Huang's claim.
nothing special? You are using a guy as a footstool!
"Well, maybe I do have an inheritance, but I have to ask my aunt; my mother left the day I was born, and I don't even know who my father is." Li Huang appeared pensive for a bit before shaking her head.
"Anyway, I do know a lot about the human body; when I say a lot, I mean it, enough to know the general location of every single pressure point and meridian in your body." She then looked down at the guy beneath her feet.
"Enough to know when to press on the back to lock someone's back for a long time."
"Don't worry, though; one more press and you will be all good for the tournament."
Li Huang smiled at the guy.
Just as Min Ying was about to open his mouth, two officials stepped inside the room.
and Li Huang gave her stool a quick kick with the heels of her foot on his back, causing him to unlock his back, and he quickly ran away from her.
"Alright, we will be calling names now; after your name, we will say a number. Remember it."
"Min Ying, one; Gang Jiao, two; Yi Yan, three; Li Huang, four; Guo Juan, five; Gong Shen, six; Jun Lan, seven; Yang Chang, eight"
The officer continued calling names, and everyone was nodding along with their names.
Everyone received a number from one to eight.
Li Huang watched to know who was who.
Yi Yan was the insect girl.
Guo Juan, the girl that cultivated her soul
Gong Shen was the boy in all black in the back.
Jun Lan was who she used as a stool.
and Yang Chang was a boy Li Huang previously missed in her first evaluation.
He looked normal enough at first sight, but Li Haung felt a weird vibe from him.
not a bad weird vibe but a weird vibe in general
"Alright, come along, follow the path on the right, and enter the door that corresponds to your number."
The officials left the room, and everyone followed them.
The first door was right at the entrance, and Min Ying and a few others entered right away.
Then came the second and the third doors and the fourth one where Li Huang entered.
She looked around; there were some people there.
none that she cared about, but still.
The room was big, strangely big.
so big, in fact, Li Huang already had in mind what was going to happen.
like clockwork, the roof of the room opened up
all of the rooms opened
All around there were people in stands already cheering.
"Alright, people! We are here today, all as one, to watch as our youth fight to show off their strengths! the ones that will one day hold up the heavens once we are the elders!"
"Yesterday we had the thirty-year-old! those youth with their path written in stone! Today we look at our twenty-year-old youth, filled with potential and paths written in clay, showing off their potential! some in hopes of catching the attention of a powerful sect! some in hopes of showing off to their own groups! But one thing is undeniable! They will give their all for themselves and for our entertainment!"
"I am your announcer for today, directly from the Glamour River sect, Shao Meifeng!"
One beautiful woman spoke from the top of a massive watchtower in the middle of the arena.
She wore a red silk dress and had immaculate, jade-like skin and red hair.
eight small arenas were all around the watchtower
There was probably going to be a battle royale in each of the arena rooms and then some battles in the small arenas in the middle of the place.
eight arenas in the middle and eight groups, maybe elimination right after?
As Li Huang was lost in thought, chaos erupted around her as everyone began fighting.
Someone was about to hit Li Huang from the back, but she dodged to the side and hit the man with more than a half ton of force.
He didn't die, but he was far from alive.
As the fight began, officers wearing white clothing began rushing in, taking everyone in need to medical assistance.
There were people using swords and other weapons and some using poisons, so the medics were ready for anything.
They were even ready for the man that almost crashed the wall with a sunken hole in his solar plexus as a bonus.
As the numbers began dwindling, Li Huang began acting.
throwing someone a punch or two
but nothing extreme like the first guy
She was just a bit taken by surprise and acted on instinct.
but life moves on
Li Huang's moves were a bit stiff as she had never had formal martial arts training.
She knew how to throw a punch.
but that was about it
There was no one very strong at her section, so she quickly finished things up.
After dusting her hands, she waited a bit.
Shao Meifeng finally finished announcing the fights.
"Alright! We have our top eight! the cream of the crop! participants, please make your way towards the platform with your number!"
"Let me give you all a brief introduction to our participants!"
"Number one, we have Min Ying, son to Min Min, the current head of the Misty Sword Sect and a true prodigy at the sword!"
"Number two, we have Gang Jiao, hailing from the true northern mountains and the true Yang body sect, a promising youth practicing his sect signature technique as the son of the sect master, Gang Ming!"
"Number three, we have Yi Yan, from the famous Queens Nest Palace, practicing the broodmother cultivation technique!"
"Number four, we have Li Huang, a bit of a curveball, born in Raging River City to a whore and unknown man, a true underdog story if she wins this tournament!"
"Number five, we have Guo Juan, from the same Glamour River sect as me, cultivating our illusion and pleasure techniques!"
"Number six, we have Gong Shen, from the Hidden Shadow Pavilion and the top-ranked assassin in his age group!"
"Number seven, we have Jun Lan, from the Myriad Flowers sect! a true green thumb, as he is a practitioner of their special cultivation technique!"
"And finally, last but not least, we have number eight, Yang Chang, the youngest son of the Black Winter Empire emperor, the benefactor that patrons this amazing tournament every ten years!"
"If all participants could please get in together for the spectators before we begin the rounds."
no one of the eight questioned that as they walked towards the base of the watchtower and stood shoulder to shoulder near each other
Everyone was confused why they all moved together to one spot, all to stand next to one another.
That was when shit hit the fan.
Before anyone could do anything, the air cracked.
more accurately space cracker
"I feel sorry for you, girl, being the daughter of a whore and an unknown man, but you must believe me when I say I never wished you any harm; for the other seven, on the other hand..." Shao Meifeng's voice changed inside the mind of the eight, from her usual voice to a gravely and rough voice.
Then the voice spoke to all.
"I and my blood demon cult first thought of kidnapping this here batch of younglings, but it's too much of a hassle to retrain them all and to indoctrinate them, so we came up with a better plan! neither ours nor yours! Good luck finding them later! we won't even know!" A wicked, crackling laughter rang all around as people in the crowd suddenly got red eyes and began attacking everyone.
Li Huang could only see Xie Ning one last time as she was sucked into the cracked space.
her face full of worry and rage
Li Huang smiled at it.
Even if it killed her, she would give Xie Ning peace of mind eventually.
In the tournament arena, suddenly more than twenty strong auras flared.
Even if the sects and groups had their disagreements, they could come together on a few things.
one being the good of their youth, the second being killing the blood demon sect
and when two things they agreed on came together, it was another thing entirely
Just as the innocents in the arena were about to die by the cultist's sword slashes, fire, water, punches, earth, spear strikes, metal, wood, wind, lightning, kicks, and a myriad of powerful attacks dealt with the small fries quickly.
the crackling of the wicked old lady never stopped
"It's too late now; even I don't know where your precious youths are! They could be a mile from here, or even underwater! who knows! They might be alive, but who's to say for how long!"
"old hag! I swear to the heavens I will cut off your head myself!" A man wearing black armor spoke as he swung his halberd at the air.
He had short white hair and a long white beard, his eyes filled with rage.
He was the Black Winter Emperor.
blood flowed out of the air, but the crackling laugh never stopped
"Good luck doing that, you washed-up emperor!"
The figure of an old woman appeared in the air; she swung her arm around, causing the cut on her body to gush blood out, trying to hit everyone there before she quickly disappeared in a puff of red smoke.
Everyone had to grit their teeth and help the afflicted by the blood.
That might be normal blood for the powerful cultivators but a powerful parasite to normal mortals.
Meanwhile, a group of eight teens appeared in the middle of a forest.
They only looked around for a few seconds before their faces began changing into rage, indignation, helplessness, and fear.
Even Gong Shen had his face change into wide eyes as he looked around before quickly subduing his emotions back into a serious look.