บท 46: The Tournament's Conclusion (II)
The guard was walking through what looked like a deserted city. There were no tumbleweeds visible, so it wasn't a deserted city.
"Where the heck is that princess?! How troublesome."
As he spoke, the middle-aged man took off his helmet, revealing a face truly fitting for middle-aged men. Thick eyebrows and a prickly chin accentuated his middle-agedness. The only feature of his that stood out was his spiky blonde hair which resembled that of a teenager instead of his otherwise middle-aged look.
Wu Tai was a royal knight at the Second Level Godly Mark realm assigned to look after the second princess of the Zhao Empire, all the while looking for the only cure to her innate constitution.
This cure was a rare plant called the Sacred Cotton which contained abundant amounts of Light energy to counter the excessive Dark energy within the princess.
Even though she looked healthy at the beginning, this princess would not live until twenty as the Dark energy devoured every other energy within her body.
This, in turn, boosted her cultivation, resulting in the public leading her as a prodigy. The Zhao royal family hid the fact that this was due to her constitution - Pure Dark Body.
Alas, she was already about to be nineteen, and symptoms of the Pure Dark Body were already showing. The Dark energy was extremely menacing as well, who knew what might happen should the public know that the second princess of their beloved empire specialized in absorbing Dark energy.
This made royal family send Zhao Mei off, for their reputation was at risk. At the same time, they sent their best warrior, Wu Tai, along with a few others, to accompany her in finding the Sacred Cotton.
Once the herb was found, however, it would still be an arduous task to cure the princess, needing the help of at least a Fourth Level Heavenly Physician.
Thus, this Wu Tai was panicking as he was frantically looking in every nook and cranny of Backwater City. Luckily for him, this city was quite small, only a few thousand li wide. Compared to the whole Zhou empire, this city was but a grain of sand on the beach.
Another knight in full body armor arrived and came to report to their temporary leader the results of their search for the troublesome princess.
"What do you mean you can't find her?! Ask the locals!"
Screaming angrily at his subordinate, Wu Tai was running out of patience. When I get my hands on that princess...
The knight dared not call out Wu Tai for his hypocrisy, as he was too frightened to do so. He could only mutter a few words.
"B-but... sir, there are no locals!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well... what I mean... is that there is no one around these parts!"
.....
Inside the huge arena, Li Bai was sitting leisurely on his chair, looking indifferent. In truth, he was panicking inside. No matter what, even though he had the highest level techniques and artifacts, unless he used a talisman, there was no way a measly Mortal Mark realm cultivator like him could beat a Godly Mark realm cultivator like Zhao Mei!
Besides, there was also the fact that due to his enormous pride, due to him being at the top too many times, he could not back down from this fight or cheat with the legendary items he had in his storage ring. He could only accept it as if he was apathetic about the whole situation.
While Li Bai was looking at Zhao Mei like she was his hardest challenge, the crowd looked at Zhao Mei in dismay. They had acknowledged this girl as "just lucky" after witnessing her previous fights. As such, they subconsciously put her on the same level as Li Bai.
Because of this, they were disappointed as they wanted a strong cultivator to beat Li Bai into the ground, someone like Shi He or Xiao Yu, or even Liu Yang! But Zhao Mei... she was, in the eyes of the crowd, too weak.
If these people knew that Zhao Mei was actually a princess from the Zhao Empire, they would surely puke blood. Surely, she could have informed them first so that they wouldn't disparage her.
Unfortunately, they did not know this fact, so the depreciation continued.
Nonetheless, they could do nothing about it, as both Shi He and Xiao Yu were unconscious, and Liu Yang was taken by an unknown man to who knew where. There was also that fellow who conceded due to some kind of sickness related to flatulence. These four were the only ones who made it to the finals, other than Li Bai and Zhao Mei.
Even though everyone's thoughts were in sync, disappointed, that is, they did not let it show on their faces. Instead, they displayed an indifferent expression.
Of course, this was because although they regarded Zhao Mei as weak, they could not forget her attack in the very first round—only a few of her punches already threw the opponent off stage. So, when they remembered this, their disappointment cleared a little. Their emotions were now conflicted.
Zhao Mei, however, was not disappointed. She had been observing this Li Bai kid from the start, and she could tell that Li Bai did not fake his emotions, especially when he was disappointed that his opponent was incompatible to fight.
As a cultivator from the Godly Mark realm, she could tell the level of a cultivator two realms below her, the Mortal Mark realm. Because of this, even though she didn't have sufficient soul strength, she could tell Li Bai's cultivation, albeit barely.
Li Bai's Earth energy was simply too pure for Zhao Mei to accurately gauge his strength. Thus, she measured him to be at least at the Fourth Level Mark realm.
"Hmm, interesting!"
This Zhao Mei was curious about everything and had a cheerful personality, with a touch of scheming. She was very interested in this little ten-year-old child Li Bai since he was already at least a Fourth Level Mark realm cultivator despite being so young. She wanted to further investigate this little child that was about nine years younger than him.
Li Bai hesitatingly went up the stage as the crowd went silent. Zhao Mei looked at Li Bai with desire, like a scientist planning to dissect an animal. This made Li Bai feel like he should have felt a chill through his spine but didn't. So it was her that caused Liu Yang's sickness to act up...
Some techniques were used for intimidation, and this was definitely one of them. It was a technique that used one's eyes instead of their legs or hands like normal.
A technique that uses one's eyes allowed a cultivator to use them in long-distances, something that most cultivators desired. As such, a technique like this was more valuable than some cities, like this measly Backwater City.
This confirmed Li Bai's theory that Zhao Mei was indeed from a place with an extremely high standing as compared to his right now.
As he stepped on the stage, Li Bai noticed abnormal fluctuations in the energy flow in the air around him. Furthermore, this was not the fluctuation that was caused by Earth energy, which one used to light up their gems to cultivate.
Instead, this energy fluctuation was caused by an overflow of a different energy. From the looks of it, the source was... Zhao Mei! No wonder he was unable to feel it observing from the chair previously. Now that he was closer to the nineteen-year-old, he could sense the fluctuation very clearly.
Li Bai tried to determine the energy that was causing the fluctuation. He eventually succeeded, faster than he thought he would. It was the sinister Dark energy.
Even though every cultivator absorbed a small amount of Dark energy, there was a group who specialized in absorbing this type. This came along with the risk of imbalance of the energies of their body, thus this group was only small.
However, this small group was extremely powerful, strength exceeding that of their peers. There was also the fact that these people were all famous criminals, with people not necessarily evil but had a constitution suitable for Dark energy cultivation being a minority.
This made the king announce a royal decree: capture all Dark energy cultivators. Even the normal ones weren't exempted to this rule, making this one of the causes of Li Bai's death.
As such, this made Li Bai wonder: Does this girl absorb the Dark energy intentionally, or unintentionally, not knowing the implications of such energy?
Lost in his thoughts, Li Bai stood still on the stage, with his hand on his chin, giving off the impression that he was thinking about deep thoughts. The crowd sneered at him as they saw Li Bai's obviously fake expression, while Zhao Mei was dumbfounded by the sight before her.
"What is this child doing?"
While analyzing the actions of the child before her, she subconsciously let out some of her aura. The aura was not her Dark energy, which she was trying so hard to suppress, but rather the Earth energy, the amount of which already surpassed everyone present.
A cultivator could control the aura they released any time so that the people surrounding them could sense this aura, just like how Li Bai showed off his high cultivation level while the Li clan elders' meeting was taking place.
As such, as this aura made its way to the crowd, they couldn't help but rub their ears, eyes, even nose, and mouth! Some even started scrubbing their whole skin, just too see if they were sensing it wrong.
"This... this lass is at least higher level than me!"
Although the crowd knew that her cultivation level far surpassed their own, they could not accurately gauge her strength based on the aura she emitted. They turned to see the reactions of those stronger than them, only to see them shocked as well.
Finally, all of them turned to the assumed strongest man in the arena, Zhou Gang. He was just as shocked as them, confirming that she did indeed possess prowess even more than they thought she did.
Even Master Jin, who was the actual strongest person in the arena, being at Third Heavenly Mark realm pinnacle, couldn't help but be astonished at this teen's strength.
"If I bring this lass back to my sect, my master will surely be delighted! Compared to her... this city is trash!"
Master Jin couldn't help but think of all the possibilities that would open for him if he brought back this overpowered teen back to his sect.
Zhao Mei noticed that her aura was leaking and quickly fixed that. Similarly, Li Bai finally recovered from his daze and pointed to Zhao Mei, saying a few words in the process of doing so. The crowd felt confused as they saw the scene unfold.
"Is he trying to concede?"
"I think so."
"You think so? I know so! Hmph."
"What did you say?!"
Bam!
"Why the heck did you punch me?!"
Boom!
These people are easily provoked.
The crowd all thought that Li Bai decided to concede. Since he was in front of the source of that overbearing aura, surely he decided to concede, right?
They all felt disappointed when they thought of Li Bai suddenly conceding. His image had further worsened in their hearts. What a coward!
What they didn't sense was that they were all being hypocritical. Clearly, if they were the one who was competing with this monster, they would surrender on the spot.
However, they could not hear Li Bai's words, so they could not confirm their various theories on what Li Bai said to Zhao Mei. They were just holding on to the single thin thread that this child didn't concede, but rather, provoked the young lady, given his arrogant attitude.
An elder from the Yang clan still couldn't let go of the matter concerning their young talent. He needed to vent his frustrations somewhere, and he found the perfect opportunity for it.
Completely assuming that Li Bai conceded, the elder stood up and put on an innocent face. His voice resounded through the whole area.
"Li Bai... you know, these last few fights have been a bit... under expectations. So, won't you provide some entertainment for us this time? Don't concede and fight with the lass!"
Even though his voice sounded accommodating, a scheming tone was buried deep underneath. Soon after, the crowd knew what the elder was trying to do, and played along.
"He's right, we're disappointed."
"You won't deny us this little bit of entertainment, right?"
"Just give us some satisfaction..."
The Jin clan also had a grudge towards the Li clan.
Once, the Li clan head, Li Fu, was invited by Master Jin to join the Jin clan, but Li Fu became angered at this prospect. Soon, many other minor clans were offered, others refused, others accepted.
As soon as all of the minor clans were offered a chance, the cleaning began. One by one, the minor clans that refused the offer were wiped off the surface of the planet. This scared most of the clans that refused, and so left them with no choice but to join the soon-to-be Jin clan.
The last clan to be wiped out was the Li clan, but they struggled to do so, as the strength of this number one ranked minor clan was far superior to the ones below it.
As such, they resorted to using a major clan to clean off the Li clan, but even then, the Li clan quickly rose to power. Unexpectedly, they rose to even more power than they were in before!
The existence of the Li clan was a pest to the Jin clan, specifically, a cockroach. No matter what they did, it would still be alive!
As Li Bai was obviously part of the Li clan, they planned to take their frustration out on him. Even the former allies of the Li clan could do nothing about it as they were part of the Jin clan now.
Li Bai heard these voices and was interrupted from his talking. He abruptly stopped explaining to Zhao Mei, who became increasingly more concerned as time passed.
As Zhao Mei knew what was troubling Li Bai, causing him to stop his talking, she frowned.
This expression of hers has been misinterpreted by the crowd as dissatisfaction that rooted from Li Bai's decision to concede. Earlier, they would have doubted this, but now, they were one-hundred percent sure that Li Bai conceded.
As Zhao Mei was opening her mouth, the crowd got more excited.
This is what you get for your arrogance! You didn't do anything but still ended up in the finals... Now, this is divine retribution.
When they heard Zhao Mei's voice, however, their mouths all opened wide, without the intention of closing any time soon.
"Did the lass Zhao Mei..."
"Yeah, yeah... I think she just did..."
The various elders of the major clans also watched in shock as the scene unfolded right before their very eyes.
Some of the allies of the Li clan felt confused inside, while the enemies, which far outnumbered the friends, all felt their hearts breaking as if their wife just left them for another man.
The Zhou clan was neither of those two, so the elders' reactions were much more varied than those of the other clans.
Zhao Mei screamed out loud, "I concede!"
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