After Fen Juechen destroyed Xiao Kuanglei few more battles happened, and tournament moved towards top 16 now.
Only Heavenly Sword Villa and my own group still had a full teams left.
The shakiest of them all being Xiao Sect, as they only have one member remaining...
I could sense the anxiety Xiao Sect master was feeling right now, he may try to hide it, but his Profound energy is a different matter.
It's probably the first time in the history of his sect that only one member is left even before Top 8...
Not only that but his strongest fighter is out, thanks to my minion...
Still, the rest of the people cared about a different thing, like... Chu Yuechan revealing to everyone about her engagement, and that moron Ling Yuefeng spending most of the time mumbling to himself how it's a trick, and it's impossible, in front of the whole audience...
So... yeah another grand day is over...
Next day we all were back to the stadium and knowing that it's top 16 now everyone is tense and ready to go all-out...
First fight being Burning Heaven Clan's Fen Jin versus Heavenly Sword Villa's Ling Feiyu...
The fight was one-sided once Ling Feiyu passed those average flames...
Next was Frozen Cloud Immortal palace's Wu Xuexin vs Heavenly Sword Villa's Ling Yun...
The poor girl was destroyed...
On a better note, my dear Qingyue beaten some lucky bastard who made this far on luck alone...
I mean she blew him away from arena with her cold air...
But what next followed made me smirk...
"Blue Wind Imperial Family's Fen Juechen Versus Burning Heaven Clan's Fen Juebi..." My minion instantly jumped from his char and appeared in the Arena...
It was completely different for his dear elder brother who was walking towards the arena as if it's his funeral...
"Well elder brother, it finally time to clear up our little differences..."Fen Juechen pulled out his Sword based on Blazing Fire Eagle, and showed to his elder brother one feral smirk...
Fen Juebi gulped down and pulled out his own Sky Profound Sword, Since he is last remaining participant from his clan, he has the best weapon right now... as the other one had quite bad luck, as he had to fight Ling Yun...
So it seems The Burning Heaven clan is on the fast track leaving this tournament...
Ling Wugou motioned to them to take their positions.
" Battle Begin!"
"Well then elder brother show me your flames...I will show you personally the gap between us..." Fen Juechen motion with his hand to come at him.
It seems Fen Juechen taunts finally got to him as Fen Juebi snapped and roared with anger...
He used one of his long-named attacks with a lots average flames around him...
My minion didn't even bother dodging the attack he simply waited for the fire to smash into him...
*BOOM*
"HAHA! you fool! you took my attack head-on! You know full well..." Fen Juebi didn't finish saying anything as his eyes widened to massive proportions...
"Impossible! the difference between us is only two small realms! this attack alone could have harmed a late Earth Profound expert!" Many observing people nodded to Fen Juebi as they agreed to what he said...
"You right, elder brother... but who said that I was not defending myself?" Fen Juechen waived his sword little bit as the air around them started to grow hotter.
"You were standing right there!!!" Fen Juebi said with pissed-off expression.
"My affinity with fire is on a completely different scale than your elder brother, all I did was coating myself in my own flames..." My minion shrugged his shoulders in a casual manner which only infuriated his elder brother further.
"Enough! time for me to put you in your place, little brother!" Fen Juebi rushed at Fen Juechen who smirked seeing that...
"That's wrong move elder brother, this young master was trained in the art of sword as well..." Fen Juechen assumed quite familiar sword style developed by me...
Moments later two brothers started exchanging sword attacks, Only me and Cang Yue saw what in reality was happening, my minion was setting up the battlefield to release a pseudo domain like attack.
He is planning to combust the whole arena... burning Fen Juebi to kingdom come...
Moments later Fen Juechen Spartan kicked his brother away from him...
"Let me show you true Fire Manipulation Elder Brother!" Fen Juechen raised his sword above him, it started to glow in dark red fire colour, sparks of red thunder started to dance around his blade.
Fen Juebi eyes grew big he started to look around he notices the air in the arena was almost suffocating hot...
My minion smirk only bigger seeing fear in his elder brother face...
"Blazing Fire Arts! Great Purgatory!" Fen Juechen released a shockwave of flames.
*BOOM*
The whole arena turned into a pyre of Flames, A Echo of Burning Eagle screeched through the whole arena.
Ling Wugou quickly jumped out of the arena, moments later, scorched Fen Juebi fell out from the same arena, by now he looked like a lobster...
The hosting elder quickly noticed Fen Juebi out of bounds, he raised his hand...
"Blue Wind Imperial family's Fen Juechen wins this round!" Moments later flames in arena quickly settle down...
And Fen Juechen walked down from arena, he tsk' ed for a moment seeing that Fen Juebi only suffered a little bit.
"Junior Juechen! how could you do this to..." Before that annoying elder could finish his sentence I catapulted him outside again.
"Oh shut up... you irrelevant..." I waived my hand.
This time there was several snickering, seeing oh Great Half-Throne was reduced to some irrelevant character like that...
"My thanks Master Jian, Elder Moli can be annoying..." Fen Juechen thanked me before he took his seat back...
I simply shrugged back...
Once everyone settled down next battles were declared, me fighting some unknown dude, The guy simply surrendered before I even arrived at the Arena, same with Cang Yue...
Nothing else interesting happened after that, and the tournament moved to top 8...
~~~~~~Xia Qingyue~~~~~~
Xia Qingyue looked at a small pond in their temporary villa, she saw her own image staring back at her, she could feel the tension in her Master, she is only remaining fighter, and her cultivation is one of smallest among competitors...
Few more moments they all left quite early towards the arena, thanks to that she had a chance to look who she will face and might prepare some sort of tactics... a chance to actually win.
Once she saw who is her opponent she stiffed.
From an outsiders perspective, it looked like she turned into stone...
...
...
...
Jian Feng Versus Xia Qingyue
Cang Yue Versus Ling Jie
Fen Juechen Versus Xiao Zhen
Ling Yun Versus Ling Feiyu
Xia Qingyue felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked and saw her Senior Master looking at her.
"Don't worry Qingyue, just give your best..." She nodded at her master.
"Go all out from the very beginning, knowing Jian Feng he will allow you free three moves, and if you impress him he might actually show portion of his real strength..." Chu Yuechan looked at the board with his name on this.
"So far no one even made him reveal even few glimpses of his true strength Qingyue..." Xia Qingyue looked down towards the ground.
"...Is he really that... strong Senior Master?" To Xia Qingyue question Chu Yuechan actually chuckled.
"His strength lies not in cultivation, but in his abilities Qingyue, I saw him multiple times kill Earth Profound beast with nothing but snap of his finger..." Xia Qingyue lifted her head and looked at her Senior Master with utter horror.
"Senior Master...why did you never said that to Senior Sister Shui!" Chu Yuechan shook her head.
"If I did she would have surrendered in the very beginning of the match..." Xia Qingyue could not believe her Senior Master hid such information about Jian Feng...
'Well, not that he will use such techniques on me...right?' The Young Misstress of Frozen Cloud Immortal palace shook her head quickly.
Their group approached Arena and Xia Qingyue stiffed seeing him already standing in the middle of the arena waiting for her.
Less then ten minutes later, the host elder landed on arena.
"First match of today! Blue Wind Imperial Family's Jian Feng! Versus Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace Xia Qingyue!"
Xia Qingyue took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, she knows that she will lose this... how? well it's her intuition, as well as...her owner? or is it her... husband-to-be? their current relationship is extremely weird...
But anyway... what she heard about him from Senior Master that he has means to take down Half-Throne in with mere hand wave, and that was half a year ago...
And according to Senior Master, he is multiple times stronger now...
Of course, at first she thought it was nothing more than exaggeration...
It's hard to believe that Earth Profound expert can take Half Step Throne Powerhouse with a wave of the hand, even when her own Senior Master tells that it's the truth.
But the more time she spends around him the more that mysterious aura surrounding him grows bigger and bigger...
She took the final step and now she was facing him
The Host elder looked at both at them for one more time then he lowered his hand.
"Battle begin!"
Xia Qingyue took out her Sky Profound ribbon, She looked at him, he looked back at her with crossed arms.
"Same rule Qingyue dear, you have three moves..." Xia Qingyue narrowed her eyes at him, Senior Master words were mark on!
"...Then I won't be holding back!" after saying those words her eyes turned blue, and her skin colour turned whiter, her raven black hair turned into the colour of ice.
"...This is Frozen Cloud Ultimate skill! Ode of Crescent Moon!" Jian Feng eyes widened from shock.
Seeing his reaction Xia Qingyue felt that her stomach was flipping in happiness, She was internally happy that she was able to pull out such emotion from a man who actually stole the heart from her Senior Master who is one of hers greatest role models since she started cultivating.
"Impressive... a Transformation...huh..." Xia Qingyue saw he had a look which he was holding something back really hard.
'He is having an internal battle about something...'
The Transformed Young Misstress used Sky Profound ribbon and called upon her powers... in a mere instant, she froze her opponent.
That attack alone drainer her Profound Energy by half...
Using her Ultimate skill at her current cultivation level is unheard of! that's why she hid this technique as triumph card!
She took a deep breath... she was about to cancel her technique...
But she felt the air around the arena change...
Next moment she felt Massive increase in Cultivation coming from frozen statue of Jian Feng
Xia Qingyue took a few steps backs her eyes widened in utter disbelieve, everyone in the stadium got on her feet from disbelieve.
"I-Impossible Sixteen-year-old Peak Earth Profound!" Even Elder From Sacred Grounds looked with disbelieve at ice Statue...
*BOOM*
Massive pyre of flames erupted from Frozen statue, shattering it in the process...
"Most impressive Qingyue dear!" The Young Mistress of Frozen Cloud Immortal Palace could barely hold herself not to blush when he praised her like that.
"You showed me something that I thought I won't see any time soon, for that you have my thanks... and so I shall pay you back with my own most powerful technique!" He raised his hand and Xia Qingyue saw several formation we're activated...
She felt some weird profound energy washed her up...
She looked around she was every single person in the arena except her group and the Blue Wind Imperial family's group have glazed eyes.
'What's going on!?' She started to look at everyone, even Elder from Heavenly Mighty Sword region looked glazed...
As if he is under hypnosis of sorts...
Then like thunderbolt from clear skies it hit her...
He is about to use Technique which he doesn't want to reveal to regular people!
That thought alone terrified and actually made her feel even... warm, like he finds her worthy to see this...
"What about to show to you Qingyue dear! is someone only possible to a person who achieved apex in Profound energy sensing and control..." Xia Qingyue felt Profound energy around the whole arena got sucked into Jian Feng...
Then She felt increase in his cultivation...
'I-Impossible!!! Sect Mistress even Grand Sect Mistress said such thing is impossible!!!' She took a few steps back...
'Four of Sky Profound!' Xia Qingyue dry chuckled... She even though that might win seconds ago...
Moments later she saw a golden tornado of Sword intent accompanied by Silver lightning consuming Jian Feng...
Then Crimson explosion from inside destroyed this golden tornado...
When Xia Qingyue saw what happened to Jian Feng she gulped down...
"This is...my transformation...Qingyue dear..."