บท 74: "You Forced My Hand!"
The technique Shin Sumi was waiting for was finally coming. Having mastered it herself she knew exactly what to expect and how to defend herself while appearing hurt.
The Cloud Arts Canon, much like the Star-Sword Canon, only possessed seven forms. One could say to have fully mastered the Cloud Arts by only knowing how to perform seven magical techniques.
What made them so special and a source of great pride for the Dark Sky Starry Sect was their ambivalence. Each technique was very different from the previous one, even as their difficulty and level of execution improved.
As such, the first form, Cold Smoke, was a spirit formation capable of debilitating the opponent by paralyzing their flow of Shinsoo.
The second form however, was completely focused on damage and hurting the target.
"King's Tomb!" growled the Hao clansman facing Yan Yan.
As soon as the technique was executed, a large fog sprung up from the young man's feet. Instantly it was as if the two of them were standing inside a cloud.
Because she also knew the technique, Shin Sumi knew that the fog had the property of perturbing the divine sense of whoever tried to look into it besides the caster.
However she wasn't certain it would affect the Inner Sect disciple, whose divine sense was much higher than theirs. Hence why as soon as the fog appeared, Shin Sumi cracked a jade slip she had just taken out.
On the jade slip was a Shinsoo imbued pattern, the one for a hiding formation.
After her little experiment with the spirit formation when she had visited the lower valley for the last time, Shin Sumi had been experimenting some more, at last coming up with a great solution on her own. She had made many such formations, all of them on a different piece of magical jade.
Now shielding herself from the perception of another cultivator was made as simple as using one of these jades.
Without taking any time to confirm the hiding formation had worked, Shin Sumi condensed her Shinsoo in a peculiar way.
"Shinsoo Fist of Thunder" she muttered.
With perfect timing, as soon as her energy was crackling like bolts of energy in her fist, the King's Tomb potent ability was unleashed.
It all takes some time to describe but from the moment the fog sprung up to the first deadly attack, only the blink of an eye had passed.
Two, five, then ten spikes of condensed energy rose up from all around, piercing through the air like the horns of a devil. Because of the fog reducing her vision to nothing, it was impossible for Shin Sumi to spot the deadly spikes.
But thankfully the hiding formation had disrupted the Hao clansman's divine sense as well, sending the spikes into disarray instead of coming at her at different angles which would be unavoidable.
Shin Sumi's idea was risky. She counted on the fact that only one or two cloud thorns would successfully aim at her, or rather randomly piercing the general area where she was.
One invisible spike indeed came at her, which she felt at the very last moment. With the speed of her reflexes though, her Shinsoo imbued fist connected with the cloud column before her shoulder was pierced.
A deafening boom completely imprisoned by the hiding formation resounded. The Shinsoo Fist of Thunder completely obliterated the spike, sending tiny purple lightning bolts along the inside of the mist.
A large portion of her energy spent on the Shinsoo Fist of Thunder, Shin Sumi felt the wave of fatigue overtake her but it didn't matter. She had defeated the King's Tomb.
Right before when she knew the mist would disperse, Shin Sumi deactivated her hiding formation with her divine sense and launched herself out of the platform.
Bracing herself internally, Yan Yan's body landed right out of the arena, followed by her spitting a mouthful of blood.
"The oldest trick in the book. A bit of blood and everybody is convinced," she thought.
"It's my win" confirmed her opponent, a bit surprised by the outcome, "have I used too much Shinsoo with the Icicle Ring?"
From his point of view, the man had suddenly lost control over his own technique, unable to focus his attacks on the target. Not wishing to toss aside his victory though, he was simply glad some of his cloud spikes had connected.
Under the eyes of the twenty disciples present around this one arena, the Inner Sect disciple in charge of supervision had no choice but to announce the young man's victory. Looking to the side at Yan Yan who was just getting up, her face pale and holding various parts of her body, he seemed to mutter something unintelligible to himself.
"She was completely caught by it. I sensed the disarray of the guy which means he lost control over his technique. That's lucky for her, but she should have been able to end the fight before that, or even use the technique herself, right?"
How could the Inner Sect disciple admit that he too had lost the focus of the fight due to Shin Sumi's hiding formation, even to himself? No techniques of this caliber should have been able to impact his higher level cultivation.
"Let's move on to the next fight" he ultimately decided, "this is nothing but a facade anyway."
While the next fights took place, Yan Yan was slowly recuperating by consuming spirit plants and a few pills she had bought from the market. In truth Shin Sumi didn't need such thing at all but the more details, the more convincing her appearance was.
"With this Hao guy obviously stronger than Yan Yan, there's no way she'll move on to the qualification phases, right?"
She was completely intent on losing every fight until she could get out of the Cloud Formation Pavilion main building and the ranking tournament for this branch of the sect.
Instead she simply wanted to go back to her home and cultivate with the Moon Stone some more until she reached the Liquid Realm second step.
The second fight that was asked of her took place a bit more than an hour after the first one, about the time needed for recuperation.
Due to the large number of participants, only two fights per person were scheduled. Then the choice of the two people moving on would rest on the Inner Sect disciple's hands. It was the same for each of the thirty two arenas which were all booming with fighting and from which shouts like 'Cold Smoke' and 'King's Tomb' were constantly overheard.
Unsurprisingly, Yan Yan lost her second fight in what could only be described as a pitiful manner.
The Inner Sect referee was silently gnashing at his teeth, dreading what he was about to announce.
By the time each contestant had fought twice, almost all of the thirty two arenas were done with their activities.
Shin Sumi was looking at all the fierce fighters around her, wondering which one would be chosen in her stead. Surely, after failing to win twice out of two attempts, there was no way Yan Yan would move on, right?
The first selected disciple was, without surprise, the other disciple that the arena had chosen like Yan Yan, a young man whose talent was undeniable.
Around Yan Yan, everybody was nodding, as if to show they had never intended to take his place, instead all fighting for the remaining spot.
"And the second one of you that will join the top fighters in the next selection process is... Yan Yan."
By the time every participant's jaw had left the ground from shock, they all turned towards the young girl in lilac robes. Yan Yan had dropped her head and was sighing quietly.
"Really? You won't let me abandon the fight at all, Master Cloud?"
Even she couldn't believe it.
"All my efforts to lose were for naught and now I have angered about twenty people."
"What is going on, Senior Brother," the man from the Hao clan was first to react and ask for explanation from the referee, "I beat her fair and square, why should she advance?"
"Yeah, that's right, even I can easily beat that kid! I've won all my fights, why have you chosen her?!"
Normally low level disciples such as them would never dare talk to an Inner Sect disciple in this tone, but this time the anger was too strong. Even the referee looked apologetic as he shook his head, denying any further discussion.
"Fine I guess I don't have a choice now" said Shin Sumi quietly, realizing she had spoken out loud only after the facts.
It was only a few words but for the angry disciples that rightfully deserved a chance it was the straw that broke the camel's back.
"Yan Yan! Fight me!"
One of the guys that won both his fights jumped on the platform, motioning Shin Sumi to join him for a fight. Suddenly they all didn't care how cute she looked, she had been turned into an enemy.
"I-I don't think it's necessary, fellow daoist, I don't-" she started to ask herself how to resolve the situation when her words were interrupted by a white glow coming from the disciple's hand.
The man in the middle of the platform was attacking her. She had witnessed his magical technique before and how the white glow turned into a devastating ethereal Shinsoo blade.
Attacking a fellow disciple by surprise was not something that was completely unseen but it was still considered a move with no honor judged badly amongst the peers.
Even the Inner Sect disciple frowned, ready to intervene, even if he was a bit late.
But he didn't have to. Quarrels were unavoidable due to the circumstances and Shin Sumi was deeply aware of that. Now that the man had attacked, though, she was genuinely angered herself. After all it was only for a slim chance of placing higher in the ranking, nothing life changing.
"Since you're attacking me and I have no choice but to participate in this shitty tournament, I don't see any reason to force myself to lose anymore."
Shin Sumi jumped from the ground onto the platform, her arm extended behind her. The energy inside her passageways connected at the same time as the Shinsoo blade was released towards her.
"Shinsoo Fist of Thunder!"
Without any remorse, Yan Yan punched the air in front of her. The crackling of lightning overtook the whistle from the blade fending the air.
Talking only about the two techniques involved, the magical blade was leagues above the Shinsoo Fist of Thunder. In terms of the casters powers though, how could the angered disciple compare to Shin Sumi?
Yan Yan's punch disintegrated the glowing white blade with almost no energy spent. She had been standing more than a meter away from her opponent when she released her own attack but the fist had still displaced enough air that the disciple was pushed backwards forcefully.
The man had no time to deal with the backlash of having his technique broken and his flow of Shinsoo in disarray at all, Yan Yan had advanced swiftly like the wind and was now right next to him.
Not bothering to use any technique, simply venting her anger, Yan Yan grabbed the man's head in her small hand. The next instant he lost consciousness as his skull was brought to the ground with incredible brute force.
From the moment the disciple had provoked her to a fight to now, only two or three breaths of time had passed and there she was, standing on top of his unconscious body.
"I didn't want to participate, I wanted to be left alone but you forced my hand and now I don't have a choice. Anybody else that is not pleased by Senior Brother's decision?" she even had the gall to announce.
Shin Sumi had always taken pride in remaining calm in almost every situation. She even had trouble believing how her sister Xiao Yue had become the tyrannic Black Devil Maiden. Now she understood why it would be easy to choose that path if you had the ability to.
In the Immortal World, strength was law. It was all that was needed to gain others respect.
Anyone should have been elated at the prospect of being in the top sixty-four contenders for best disciple of the Cloud-Formation Pavilion, only Shin Sumi stormed off with still some anger within her.
The other chosen disciple quickly followed her with an amused expression. He had heard of her before and had been surprised at her losses but he now understood that she had absolutely not wanted to win.
Another person was a bit amused but mostly relieved, the Inner Sect disciple in charge of their arena who promptly disappeared from the small crowd of bewildered disciples. Nobody was contesting his decision anymore, the disciples who had hesitated to provoke her now having cold sweats at the look of the unconscious fighter who had his head bashed in without even having the time to realize his mistake.
Following the first part of the selection process, the grand hall was quickly emptied while the expected sixty-four fighters were resting and refilling their energy level.
For all of them the real tournament was only starting now. As soon as they had realized they couldn't go to any arena as they pleased, Master Cloud's plan had been revealed.
Fu Xue was happily pacing around, having not broken a sweat throughout her fights as per the looks of her. She found Yan Yan in a corner but didn't disturb her considering her furrowed brows, crossed arms and flushed cheeks.
As much as Shin Sumi recognized Fu Xue as a great fighter and a terrifying enemy to have, the same went the other way around.
In the Cloud-Formation Pavilion Shin Sumi had not made much waves but she was still respected by everybody who knew her. There was even a strange rumor that Chu Erlong and even Jun Qian himself were avoiding her.
Whenever they crossed paths, a dead-cold stare from Chu Erlong would be the only reply to Yan Yan's lovely smile.
After all she was the only person who knew of Shin Sumi's real identity, also knowing that despite her hatred she should not meddle with her.
Why Shin Sumi or Bai Fulong were not commonly known as the true first place of the Rising Star Tournament, Chu Erlong had no idea but she was intelligent enough to understand that she shouldn't try to find out.
Because the latter and Jun Qian were public daoist partners, naturally Master Cloud's direct disciple had also avoided Yan Yan despite not fully knowing why.
As the rumors of a strange love triangle involving the couple and Yan Yan made its way around the disciples, the two top cultivators currently sitting down and cultivating with each other didn't bother themselves with it.
In the face of true power, no random disciple's words would impact them.
"Why is Jun Qian there?! As Master Cloud's direct disciple, shouldn't he be exempted from fighting today?"
"It's not fair to go against him, why doesn't he just have a place in the team for the Cross Branch Arena already?"
"If Master Cloud has deemed necessary to have him participate... Does that mean there is somebody else that could rival him?"
"As long as I avoid him I don't care if he's here or not."
Of all the disciples present, most already had a clear idea about what the lineup for the top six would be and didn't hold any expectations.
Only a few had been hiding their true strength just for this occasion and to rise up in the rankings. Much like Shin Sumi, some cultivators who were quite good but not at the very top felt like being in the top sixty-four was already enough of an achievement.
That general drop of morale was only due to the presence of Jun Qian there. Had Master Cloud predicted that when he instructed his direct disciple to appear?
The questioning was quite short as Master Cloud himself appeared soon after the hundreds of other disciples had left the building. His changing robes undulated like the wind, half of him obscured by shadows despite standing right below the huge glowing cloud orb that adorned the hall's ceiling.
Even more pressuring than having the Pavilion Master appear out of thin air in front of the disciples, Master Cloud was accompanied by twelve men in single-colored robes.
"The Cloud Elders...!"
Without having ever seen them before, even Shin Sumi knew who they were the first instant the twelve colored rainbow of people fell into her sight.
"We will be the referees for the upcoming tournaments. The arena will be set promptly."
Master Cloud's words resonated in the giant empty hall. His voice was soft and low, forcing the few who weren't bowing yet to lower their head, as if by simply speaking the hidden figure had unleashed some mystical property.
Jointly, the twelve Cloud Elders extended both hands down, palms turned to the ground who immediately started glowing.
Spirit formations performed by an array of cultivators had the power of each human node multiplied, but with the appropriate increased difficulty. Given that this array was formed by the twelve most powerful people in the sect when it came to magical techniques, it was a given that the ground started shaking immediately.
The thirty two platforms which served as arenas for the previous fights rose up from the ground, joining together into a humongous single platform with a height of more than five meters.
"A-Amazing", Shin Sumi thought. The feat of completely remodeling the grand hall in just a few seconds was astonishing. In comparison, launching a few cloud spikes was utterly laughable.
"For the rules of the fights, Elder Azure Cloud, if you will" stated Master Cloud, as calmly and plain as a winter sky.
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