章 54: "Hey it's you again!"
It wasn't that Shin Sumi wanted to break through to the Liquid Realm right away but she was certainly worried that some people might have already. But as it turned out it was only possible closer to the top of the mountain, at least.
Shin Sumi advanced quickly, the path snaking around the base of the mountain peacefully, not hard at all. Shin Sumi expected a rising pressure of Shinsoo but the ambient energy remained calm like water from a lake.
In fact the energy was even calmer than usual. Due to all living things in a given place, each sharing the energy of nature, it was almost impossible to see no fluctuations.
In between two barriers though, along the path, the Shinsoo was perfectly still, and albeit in a low concentration it was of really good quality and pureness.
Shin Sumi reached the first 'step' of the path in under thirty minutes.
She was expecting something grand and impressive, like an arena of some sort.
But instead of something worthy of a tournament, she only stepped in a circular plaza with a single grey monolith in the middle.
She was a bit puzzled. Only Xiao Yue and the people who gave her the nickname Black Devil Maiden would have gasped upon seeing the rectangular piece of stone.
It was exactly the same as the one containing the trial for the Black Devil Spear, although this one was not black.
Before getting close to it, Shin Sumi explored rapidly the other side of the plaza.
Pushing her hand forward, the invisible barrier of energy rippled, blocking her from advancing.
"Hmm, there is really no way to cheat this, I see... I guess I will have to see what this grey rock is about."
Shin Sumi extended her divine sense towards the peculiar monument. The light of teleportation vibrated around her and before she knew it, she was gone from the plaza.
No message appeared, no additional rules, only the scenery changed.
"Have I become really big or is this city really tiny?" was the first thought that popped into her mind after she opened her eyes.
Shin Sumi was standing on what looked like a rice field, only that it was no bigger than a house rug.
Small farms the size of a large fist were in ruins all around. In some places, craters were visible, as if a massive meteorite had crushed whatever tiny civilization had lived there.
"Meteorites or the remnants of a human sized fight..." she commented before turning her attention towards the distance.
The small world was enclosed by a mountain range, just like the one where Xiao Yue had fought for her new weapon.
A small red sun was declining behind the mountains, obscuring slightly half of the arena.
"Ah, finally!" a masculine voice called out from behind a hill.
A yellow robed youth had been laying down on the ground, seemingly waiting for some action.
"Now I just have to beat you like a dog in order to advance. I've been waiting for a while for you."
The yellow robed man jumped to his feet, a large grin appearing on his face upon seeing the orange of Shin Sumi's robes.
"Small fry" was his first impression.
Shin Sumi sneered. She couldn't see clearly the guy's face from where she was with the small sun shining brightly behind him.
The young man roared and jumped into the air. His leap was massive, already proving that he had earned his yellow talent.
His hands were shaped like claws, aimed directly towards Shin Sumi's neck.
Shin Sumi took out her Gold Tyrant Flying Sword, ready to parry.
"Is he really attacking with his hand? Doesn't he have a weapon or something? That's strange..." she thought right as the young man reached his apex.
"Hey, haven't I seen you before?" she suddenly asked while lowering her stance.
Back in the Dark Sky Starry Sect, Patriarch Sen didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Elder Peng was clutching the arms of his chair so hard that it was about to break into dust.
From the spiritual screen displaying the map of the floating continent, the Elders couldn't see into the sub-dimensions within the stone monoliths. But Elder Peng had just seen the only green dot on the whole map enter the same sub-dimension as his disciple.
"From all the different paths on the lower half of the mountain, these two had to pick the same..." sighed the Patriarch of the sect.
Tai Bu was already really close to Shin Sumi when he saw her male features clearly.
"Oh, it's you again! It's been a long time, fellow disciple!" Shin Sumi laughed.
"YOUUUUUU!!" erupted Tai Bu in madness.
His first attack had been kind of lazy. After all, why attack at full force when he was only confronting an orange robed disciple. But upon seeing who that particular disciple was, Tai Bu was enraged, immediately conjuring up more power into his claw slash.
Because of the sudden burst of power from him, Shin Sumi had to move at the last moment to evade the slash, her sword suddenly in the wrong position for a parry.
"I was wondering why you were not using a weapon, could it be that you're missing yours?"
"SHUT UP! I'm going to tear you to shreds!"
Tai Bu's frenzied attacks seemed to grow faster and faster and at first it looked like Shin Sumi was being pushed back.
Tai Bu thought to himself "I can beat him. If I keep up this rhythm he won't be able to last for long. All it takes is one good strike to the neck and after that I will just have to loot his corpse."
From an outside point of view, it was easy to assume that Shin Sumi was being slightly overpowered, each strike evading almost late.
But from her perspective it was completely different. At first she had thought that the yellow robed man was just attacking her with deadly intent but after she realized that it was Tai Bu, Shin Sumi thought differently.
"I stole his weapon at the beginning of the tournament but this guy had still managed to get this far... He deserves far more praise than me. I would have been dead a few times if the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword had been stolen from me."
Because of that, Shin Sumi was only evading the attacks, not parrying them with her sharp sword or even attacking back. Instead about half of her divine sense was focused on something else.
"I really do like his whip though. It looks like a really strong weapon that might come in handy when I can become it's master. I can't really just give it back to him. Come on, there has to be something useful in there."
Her divine sense had spread to her bag of holding and was currently scanning the bag she had picked up from the unknown disciple in the belly of the Silver Desert Swordfish.
Tai Bu was certain he was overpowering her, finally getting his revenge, but really Shin Sumi was just a bit absent-minded and evaded all the attacks by sheer instinct.
She had made so much progress with her cultivation that this sort of situation was something she could deal with blindfolded.
"Please find something. I don't want to have to cut his legs or something. I kind of pity him, he is right to be mad at me... Uh?"
Shin Sumi's divine sense had finally picked up what she was looking for. It was a simple piece of paper that looked a bit old and moldy. On its two faces was the same symmetric character. According to her knowledge of magical talismans, there was only one possibility of what the talisman could do.
In between two of Tai Bu's attacks, Shin Sumi felt her bag of holding, retrieved the talisman and slapped it on his arm.
The entire process happened in the blink of an eye. How could a Shinsoo Gathering cultivator be so fast as to attach something to a yellow robed disciple's arm right as it was going at full speed right toward their throats?!
Tai Bu didn't have the answer. As soon as Shin Sumi's divine sense touched the talisman now on his arm, Tai Bu froze.
"Immobilisation" was the word inscribed on it. The talisman was low level binding magic. An artefact of this grade could only freeze him for a second or two, considering his talent, but that was more than enough for Shin Sumi.
Using the pommel of the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword, carved out of the spine of a Stone Leaf Tortoise, Shin Sumi struck Tai Bu's head with force.
"M...Monster" thought Tai Bu right as he lost consciousness in exactly the same way he had a few months prior, against the same opponent.
Not even five minutes after the green dot had disappeared from the map in the Grand Hall of the sect, it reappeared. From this it was evident what had transpired in the sub-dimension.
"Not a second time… I won't allow it, this is cheating ! I'm going to skin that bastard alive !"
Patriarch Sen furrowed his brows : "Elder Peng…"
"Yes I know, I know, it's a figure of speech, I won't attack a junior…"
Despite saying that, the Core Developpment Elder was fuming with rage. Twice had his disciple met defeat at the hands of the same disciple. At least it was a relief to know that this mysterious kid was a green robes.
"Wait… Has he changed his robes ?!"
Focusing his divine sense on the green dot, all the Elders present realized that Shin Sumi had gone from orange to yellow robes. Only a trained eye like Elder Peng's was able to notice a special set of embroideries on the sleeve of the material.
"He has robbed my Tai Bu AGAIN ??!"
***
Tai Bu woke up to an empty arena. Remembering quite clearly his last instants before lapsing into unconsciousness, the first thing he checked was his bag of holding.
As it turned out, before leaving, Shin Sumi had thoroughly inspected his inventory, cleaning out all she could find besides his weapons. This time at least she had left him the few swords and spears he had amassed during his trial.
In the place of his impressive stock of talismans and artefacts was a single high-grade spirit stone, worth at least half of what she had stolen.
At least Tai Bu had something to comfort himself over.
That did not do the trick as he jumped to his feet and shouted with rage.
"YOU SON OF A DOG SHIT, I WILL GRIND YOU TO DUST WHEN I FIND YOU AGAIN !!"
But for now he was stuck in this sub-dimension, unable to leave before the next person came in and he could defeat them. He was about to slump back behind the small hill where he was resting before when a blur appeared in front of him.
In the middle of the road to the second arena, Shin Sumi was looking at the yellow robes floating from her body.
"Wow, these garments are definitely not bad ! Really light and well designed. That's to be expected for high potential disciples, I guess."
Shin Sumi had donned one of the sets of robes of Tai Bu's, feeling that a yellow robed disciple was less strange around the mountain of the central ring.
She didn't know that from all the people that had reached the fifth section of the floating dimension, only a handful were wearing orange while a hundred or so were in yellow.
Shin Sumi felt fancy in her new robes, and even quite confident. She now knew how strong she was in comparison to other disciples below the Liquid Realm, and by wearing yellow robes she didn't feel like she was cheating as much.
Preciously hidden in her bag of holding were her green robes, still folded and unused since more than a year ago. She had never worn them.
"At first I was afraid that it would attract too much attention while I didn't have the strength to back it up. Now I could probably wear them but where is the fun in that? Yellow level disciples would become a bit afraid of going up against me, wouldn't they?"
Shin Sumi realized how impertinent and full of herself she sounded but it was still true.
Ever since she had arrived in the Dark Sky Starry Sect, she had seen low level disciples cower in fear so many times in front of higher graded individuals.
Like a ray of sunshine in her bright robes, she arrived at the second stop along the mountain path.
Not bothering to check the energy barriers, trusting her divine sense, she directly headed towards the grey monolith.
This time she was prepared for the teleportation. Just because she felt strong didn't mean that somebody wouldn't try to sneak on her just as she appeared.
The second sub-dimension seemed to have come from the same small world as the first. Tiny houses and road paved the arena enclosed by another small mountain range.
This time there were already two disciples battling in the arena.
The two of them were yellow robed, emitting powerful Shinsoo fluctuations as they attacked each other with longswords and metal pole.
They had probably been evenly matched because as soon as Shin Sumi appeared they decided to call off their battle and rush towards her.
"If I can't beat you, Dafun Ghu, then I'll have to take my win from him!"
"Not if I beat him first, Ke Muhan!"
The two disciples surnamed Dafun and Ke charged straight towards Shin Sumi, although they still tried to sneakily attack the other to no avail.
One glance had been enough for them to realize that they didn't know the features of Bai Fulong.
If they didn't recognize the new fighter, then it meant that he surely placed below them in the Shinsoo Gathering ranking.
"Rejoice Brother, for you will be able to tell the world that you have been defeated by the mighty Dafun Ghu!"
"No way, come taste my blade first!"
Shin Sumi felt both of their pressure mount up on her. But compared to the pressure given off by a giant Silver Desert Swordfish, or a Sand Hawk, how could Shin Sumi be too affected by two human cultivators?
Steadying her breathing in a split second, Shin Sumi focused. The one named Ke Muhan was a bit faster than his compatriot and thus she concentrated her first movement on him.
With a perfectly timed leap, Shin Sumi took off of a roof that looked like a small temple. In the air, her foot turned, her toes pointed directly as Ke Muhan's attacking arm.
At the same time as she evaded the metal pole, she kicked him out of balance. Her jump pushed the assailant to the ground and propelled her towards the second man.
Because she had been fighting bigger adversaries, spirit creatures quite a lot, Shin Sumi had grown adept at mid-air battles. That was especially useful when her sword had the power to instantly return to her hand, allowing her to attack not once but twice in a leap.
A golden arc split the air as she passed above Dafun Ghu. The longsword he was holding with both hands didn't even shake or vibrate, the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword's thin blade simply cutting through with almost no resistance.
Shin Sumi landed behind the two disciples who immediately turned with gobsmacked expressions on their faces.
The shock, however, didn't last more than the blink of an eye.
Ke Muhan stood from the ground and Dafun Ghu slapped his bag of holding to produce another longsword.
Their eyes locked onto Shin Sumi, not bothering to look to the other as they both said in unison:
"Whoever finishes him first gets the win."
Even though they had been locked in combat when she arrived, Shin Sumi immediately sensed the complicity between them.
As it turned out, both men had been friends for a really long time, they had even gone through the Rising Star Tournament together so far.
The atmosphere of the arena completely changed, prompting Shin Sumi to take a fighting stance. The same trick wouldn't work twice.
"I haven't fought more than one opponent ever since the stone golems of the first ring" she thought, conscious of her lack of experience in the matter.
The three pairs of eyes shone with battle intent, the two versus one fight ready to begin, for real this time.
***
"Eh...Eh..."
Shin Sumi didn't emerge from the monolith's sub-dimension for another hour. She was panting and covered in small cuts and bruises, but at least she was victorious.
"These two really are dangerous together... They gave me more trouble than any other fight so far."
She had used all the tricks she could, but there was a limit to what she could do against two opponents with good skills and perfect coordination.
As soon as she was out of the arena, she sat down to meditate and restore her energy levels.
The pure and gentle flow of Shinsoo around assured that she could have a good rest in a short time.
She wished there was a body of water nearby so that she could use the little nut's powers to mend her cuts and repair her body quickly. For the time being she would have to hold her wounds tight with her own Shinsoo until they repaired themselves with time.
For a cultivator, a large quantity of energy could be used to almost instantly regenerate, but being only in the Shinsoo Gathering Realm, she didn't have that ability quite yet.
Shin Sumi was meditating for a few hours with the help of spirit beasts cores when the grey monolith shone with a blue glow. A yellow figure appeared.
Ke Muhan didn't say anything, not even looking at her for more than a quick glance.
Judging from her appearance, winning against Dafun Ghu had been a really tough fight. He clearly wasn't willing to provoque Shin Sumi right now. Or Ever.
Shin Sumi finally stood up, having recuperated enough to get going to the next challenge.
Ke Muhan simply looked at her, the features of Bai Fulong forever etched into his memory as someone that was not to be trifled with.
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