บท 11: Competition
Zhang Wuji completed his cultivation for the day and hurried to the lecture hall. Since his friends bought him the new pots he shifted his cultivation back to morning hours when it is said to yield best results. It's been four months since his transmigration. His cultivation efficiency increased a little when compared to when he first came here. There have been some bumps, sometimes he skipped cultivation for days, but overall his performance was better than old Zhang Wuji. Mainly his Eagle Claw Art which reached completion. He was real satisfied with it. He believed it was the reason for the slight improvement in his cultivation efficiency. Especially when he thought of how old Zhang Wuji was only in initiation for the past four years and he had successfully achieve completion in only four months, his itchiness in medicinal baths and pain in tempering seem to lessen significantly. 'Nothing succeeds like success. So true' he thought. This increased his daydreaming tendencies and messed with the third cycle of body tempering. He still gained more than he lost.
Since he had reached completion, he changed his training grounds to the puppet caves. It was located on a large cliff wall on the west side of the sect. The wall was filled with caves five meters wide and three tall. There were nine rows corresponding to the nine levels of body refinement and five columns of caves. There were no steps leading to the caves. One had to jump to reach higher rows. The highest cave was around thirty meters high and disciples had to wall jump to reach those levels. There were some small rock protrusions here and there that one could take use.
The columns from left to right had one, two, three, five and ten puppets each. The puppets had great defence, speed and attack which make up for their lack of martial arts. These are the grounds disciples usually used as a substitute for sparring. The puppets could regenerate themselves after a fight and continue fighting with others. They stop before a chance of serious injury and were therefore much safer than sparring. Might not be as good for combat experience but good enough to train your martial arts.
Zhang Wuji loved such fighting opportunities where there is no danger. He visited the Puppet Caves and Battle Tower whenever he could. He always wanted to fight in his previous life but chickened out at the thought of some serious injury. Broken teeth, brain damage and even death were ever present in fights. He loved to fight when he was a kid and watched boxing matches on the television. One day on the net he saw a video where a boxer died and from then on stayed far away from fights. Now he could finally feel the rush again. It was awesome. He could fight to his heart's content without a worry. He felt that this was the only thing good about the cultivation world.
But that's where the good things ended. He turned the whole library upside down but he still couldn't find the answer to his question. He wanted to just go ahead but couldn't get over his fears. He thought ok just a hand wouldn't hurt. But then immediately turned it down because he knew he wouldn't be able to stop at that. Because of this he was really eager to learn alchemy. But he was so old and had to start from scratch and thus was afraid that he wouldn't be allowed to learn and will be laughed at. So he kept postponing it.
Thinking of this Zhang Wuji couldn't help sighing 'Maybe I'm just overthinking. Isn't Lin Yingjie just fine. Also no mention of it could mean that STDs do not exist in this world. This is exactly what brother Pan was saying. If I can't follow my heart why cultivate. But seriously better frustration than sorry. Maybe those evil cultivation techniques will shed some light on it. Aargh I haven't even touched a normal cultivation method. Evil ones are so far away.
Sigh this world sucks. Just like I thought. Arrogant young masters in the restaurants, tempting fruits laced with hidden poison all around, relatives with heads up their asses, it's only cause I'm smart that I've survived so long. But seriously it was fun seeing Zhang Chen getting beaten black and blue by Wan Lin.' He laughed and continued walking.
A month ago he started going to the Puppet Caves. That's where he met Zhang Chen. This cousin of his was fifteen years old and was in the sixth level. He had once beaten old Zhang Wuji till he had to rest for two weeks and said that he would beat him every time he saw him. One of the reasons why he didn't go out too much.
Zhang Wuji had already digested two body nourishing pills and was in the fifth level himself. Along with his completion level of Eagle Claw Art holding his own against his cousin in a fight wouldn't be much of a problem. But he now had the seniors' support and if he were to fight and hurt him or hurt his superiority by not getting beaten bad, then they would come and beat the crap out of him. He did not want that. But he didn't want to get beaten up either.
Luckily for him he had brought his whole gang for his first time visit. Wan Lin beat him up and Pan Mu used his token to repel all future senior attacks. It was awesome.
Since then he had no problems from his family's side. There were some restaurant and similar scenes but Lin Yingjie seemed to know everyone. So it was all smooth. It had nothing to with his smarts at all.
...
After class he and Pan Mu went straight to the Battle Tower. His week of prohibition was just over and the other two were busy. He wanted to try fighting a group with a team. There's only two of them but he was still determined. On the way they saw people running in a direction. He stopped one and asked for the reason.
"Senior sister Mu challenged senior brother Na. The fight is scheduled to happen in half an hour at the third outer arena." the girl was clearly pissed at being stopped but still replied before leaving.
'Ai what a cultured lady' He thought staring at her swaying butt.
*cough cough* Pan Mu looked at him and coughed.
Zhang Wuji came back to his senses "Aiya brother Pan are you ill? You should not neglect these things. Let's go to the doctor later to get things checked up. But for now let's go see the battle." 'Xuanxuan, look at what you have done. If this keeps happening I'll definitely have my eyes gouged out. I seriously need to do something about this.'
Pan Mu rolled his eyes and followed the crowd. The two of them reached a 10m×10m arena where a 17 to 18 years old girl could be seen standing. She was wearing a green outer disciple robe and looked ordinary in every way.
"Brother Pan why are there so many challenges these days?"
"It's almost the end of the year. The outer sect disciple competition will be held soon. Only the top 50 are allowed to participate. Around this time a lot of people show their skills and try to worm into the competition."
"Right I forgot." Old Zhang Wuji never watched the competition. He thought it would be fun.
"When exactly is it?"
"In a month."
"What are the rules?"
"The top 10 are selected as seeded. The rest of the forty challenge them for their spot. The final ten will fight each other to decide the rankings according to which they would be rewarded."
"Where are they held?"
"The outer sect main arena."
"Why not do it in the battle tower? It is safe and they can completely let loose and use all kinds of killing moved."
"In real life battles, there is always injury, even death. There is no fear of injury and death in the battle tower which doesn't allow a comprehensive test of one's battle prowess. Besides it's just an illusion. There are some limitations within and doesn't compare to the original."
"One can kill in the competition?"
"Intentionally killing or seriously injuring is prohibited. Continuously challenging a seed and wearing them down is prohibited. The rewards are decided right before the competition. Aside from the normal rewards, the first ranker is taken in as a first class disciple. Whether he remains as one is not guaranteed. If you want the exact details, ask brother Lin. The top ten usually remains unchanged. So the seeds may be senior brothers Wan Fulin, Lei Feng, He Jifeng, Wang Chong, Ma Jun, Han Dongfang and senior sisters Ma Jin, Xiao Zhimei, Xie Jingwen and Song Jia. All of them are at the ninth level except senior brother Wan who is at the eight level. Anymore doubts brother Zhang?"
"None for now."
"That's good cause that's all I know." Pan Mu let out a breath. "Brother Zhang this fight is a very rare one. Be careful not to miss a single move."
"Oh? What's so special about them?"
"Both of them use nonmainstream weapons. The Mu clan is famous for their ribbon swords and senior brother Na Chen trains a unique martial art that requires a pair of hook swords."
"Who do you think is gonna win?"
"I can't say. Senior sister Mu Peipei has her whole family supporting her. They have tool refiners that excel in making the ribbon sword. Senior brother Na on the other hand cannot afford to order non mainstream weapons."
"Um that's not what I asked. In This battle who do you think is gonna win? Grade one tools cannot be used by body refinement realm cultivators anyway."
"Right. I just couldn't help but wonder why he would choose that. As for the battle I think senior sister Mu has no chance."
As they were talking a young man with a determined face stepped into the arena. He had two hook swords hanging from his waist. It looked like a sword with a hook at its point. It had a sharp crescent guard and the end of the hilt was sharpened.
He held his swords and looked at his opponent who similarly took out her two ribbon swords. These looked like pinkish red two meter long ribbons with a sword handle at the end. Their edges were sharp and thin.
The staring contest continued for a while before Na Chen moved intending to shorten the distance between the two. Mu Peipei spun her body and attacked with the sword in her right.
Na Chen dodged the sword by lowering his body a little but before he could recover another sword came right at him. He used the guard to block it and twisted his torso a little towards the sword and back and flung the sword away.
The ribbon like blade folded on itself and in the next spin was sent right back at him with a greater speed. He eventually got entangled and his momentum was stopped. No injuries were made yet but he looked to be on the losing side.
She continued to attack him relentlessly. Any sword not properly deflected came back at him with greater speeds. The battle was now following her tempo.
'That's some kind of sword dance I guess. Not beautiful at all. All I see are red flashes and sparks.' Zhang Wuji sighed. He thought there would be a magnificent show when he saw the ribbon swords.
The situation changed all of a sudden. Na Chen held a ribbon sword down with the hooks on his sword and ran towards her, letting the other sword strike him at his neck. He managed to defend his neck but the sword curved and lacerated his back. She pulled on the sword worsening the wound. She tried to pull the other sword free but failed. If she were to let go, he will fling it away and may capture the second sword. So she held onto it and stopped spinning and continued to attack.
"Unless it hit a vital point the ribbon sword cannot deal much damage. It is only useful in a fight of attrition where the wielder could keep their distance." Pan Mu said while stroking his chin.
"Couldn't she just pull him with the captured sword, make him lose balance and deal the finishing blow?"
"If only it were that easy. He could leverage on the pull, roll forward and attack while she is still handling the change in momentum. Or he could just let it go and hook his swords together to increase length and attack or defend before shortening the distance while she tames the first sword."
"Ribbon swords suck."
"Nope. She was too busy making sure he stays away and missed the opportunity to do the pull when he was sufficiently far away. Also have you noticed that all this time she didn't move at all from her initial position? She clearly needs more training."
There no more surprises in the fight. He slowly inched closer and closer till he was close enough to place his blades on her neck after which she admitted defeat.
The crowd dispersed. Zhang Wuji was no longer in the mood to train and took Pan Mu along to search for Lin Yingjie to get the details for the top contenders. This fight was fun to watch and he was gonna watch the whole competition too.
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