Chương 89: Familiar Faces - Repeating Conflict.
Shu He entered the tent and looked around to see who was already here, other than Tai Hui who had returned to his seat, he saw Bai Lian sitting peacefully off the side, she stood out due to her hair colour and posture that was more refined than those around her.
There were two other boys he recognised, they were from the same entrance exam as him, but he didn't ever interact with them nor did he remember their names, they expressions weren't as relaxed as the other two's.
'I wonder if they've been struggling in the sect' Shu He wondered, but he didn't go over and talk to them since they were strangers to him, and he had no interest in either of them.
There were a lot of figures in the large tent that he didn't recognise, they were clearly older disciples that hadn't been able to break past Balance Attainment or even Meridian Awakening, all of them expressions ranging from stone like to dire like they were on their last breaths.
However as he glanced towards the other end of them tent, he surprisingly recognised a face, he had only seen it once, but it was a… memorable experience for him.
The man's small nose and disproportionately large lips composed a face that was unfortunately hard to forget, however compared to the time he had seen him before his eyes had black rings underneath them and his brown hair was merely tied to the back, dishevelled and clearly unwashed.
It was Jin Bao, the scion of the Jin clan and son of a concubine; He had heard many rumours being spread about him since that time Mei Ling had dealt him a 'crushing' blow, apparently he had lost support from the clan and had been driven into a frenzy to earn his place back, along with get himself healed down 'there'.
'Looks like he's had a rough time, seems like he lost some weight as well. He did deserve it though.' Shu He had no sympathy for the guy after what he said.
'However… him being here is probably why Mei Ling is waiting outside' Shu He could see sparks flying the moment the two met so it was definitely best to stay away until the tournament started.
He searched the crowd for a certain face, but he couldn't find it causing him to frown.
'Gang Bo isn't here? Is he going to come or not?' Shu He was unsure, because of his status as the sect leaders disciple he may be excluded from the tournament, he hadn't spoken to him since the entrance exam since he seemed to be getting whipped in to shape by his new teacher so he would have enjoyed a bit of a chat with one of his only friends for the first time in a while.
'Old Yun Jiang won't be here either since he joined the sect 3 years before us, I wonder if he will come and watch though…' He pictured the forging obsessed man and shook his head 'Not likely' he chuckled slightly.
He walked on over to a seat and spoke "Mind if I take this seat?".
Bai Lian looked up to him as her ice blue eyes gleamed "Shu He? Go ahead, it's pretty boring sitting here alone" she replied with a sigh.
Shu He took his seat and placed his bow to the side, so it wasn't in a way before he got comfortable.
"Alone? Did you not speak to Tai Hui?" Shu He glanced to the long-haired man now trying to engage his reluctant seniors in a discussion about weapons.
Bai Lian seemed to puff her cheeks slightly in annoyance "That one is a bit too obsessed… he reminds me of my older brother" she closed her eyes, refusing to look at him.
"So you have a brother huh… any other siblings?" Shu He asked out of curiosity.
"Huh?" She stared at him with slightly wide eyes before hesitating "I… have many cousins, one of them is a core disciple here in the sect…" Her hands slightly tightened on the sect robes she was wearing "… and an Elder Sister".
"That's quite a lot… I've never had a sibling, so I've never known what It felt like, are you close?" Shu He never had a sibling whether it be this life or last, so he couldn't really understand how it felt.
Bai Lian turned away and murmured "Not really…" but Shu He saw the grip on her clothes tighten and panicked a little.
'Oh no, did I say something I shouldn't have?!' He realised as he thought of a way to change topic.
"Oh right! I saw Mei Ling with Wei Yu outside; I didn't know those two were so close!" He blurted out.
"What?" She returned a stare with a blank face before blinking "Oh yeah! It was quite surprising to me as well; I hadn't seen her for a few days and all of a sudden he was trailing along with her!" Her expression immediately brightened as she dived into the new topic.
'Phew' Shu He internally sighed with relief.
"Did you hear why? Last time I met with Wei Yu he had lost his token and wasn't doing too good alone, so I had to help him pay for a new one".
"Something like that happened?" She chuckled "My impression of him was that he was rather airheaded so I thought he wouldn't match with such a hard worker like Mei Ling, but they seem to get along well" She explained "I heard from her that he heard the exaggerated rumours about her fight with a certain young master and asked her to help him train, she ended up putting him through some silly trials and he somehow passed them". She recounted the trials like meditating still for 24 hours, drinking an incredibly disgusting concoction, running multiple laps around the sect among other things.
"Wasn't she just bullying him?" Shu He replied with a flabbergasted expression.
"Maybe" She shrugged "But in the end she did accept him, and they've been training together regularly since, so much so that she's been spending less time with me" She said with a slight huff, but it was clear she wasn't actually sour about it.
"Is that so…" Shu He looked over towards the entrance gate "Why didn't he come to me? I'd already helped him before…" He couldn't help but ask himself.
"Maybe he felt bad about relying on you once before, so he didn't want to burden you again?" Bai Lian chimed in on his thoughts.
"Right…" Shu He's shoulder's dipped, in the end he can't help everyone and not everyone would want to rely on him all the time.
He then picked up his bow and began inspecting it for a final time, checking the state of the wood for any nicks or cracks, how well it drew and the string and its tie.
"So you use a bow? You don't look the type for one" Bai Lian said, watching him peacefully.
He turned to look at her with a frown "Really? I thought I would look great with one… well that doesn't matter anyway, I use it because I like it" He shrugged.
"Where did you learn to use one? You form looks quite refined for your age" She said as if she had plenty of experience.
"…My father taught me" He said, not wanting to expand on the subject.
"Father? Oh…" She remembered she had once been in a similar discussion before with him "… was he a good father?" She still asked.
"The best" Shu He replied without any hesitation like it was ingrained into his mind "My mother also… I couldn't have asked anything else" he added on as he felt the need to, despite how much his heart was aching.
"That's good" A slight smile rose on her snow-white face, yet there was an undetectable sense of yearning in those words that went unnoticed.
""…"" The two fell into silence, the chatter of the surrounding members flooded the area along with cheering of the crowd as the preliminaries were approaching the end.
There were only a couple more matches occurring on the stages, it seems that the selection process was almost complete and the number of participants for the main event was almost confirmed, Shu He sat down as he looked around slightly restless.
"Hurry up we'll be late!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
"Well go faster!"
Shu He heard the banter of two familiar voices as Mei Ling and Wei Yu came running in to the tent.
"Wei Yu? I thought you weren't entering?" Shu He asked, confused.
"I-I-I'm not!" He said, huffing as he had been forced to sprint all the way here.
"He's allowed to watch here as a new disciple" Mei Ling explained, apparently new disciples didn't have to pay to watch this tournament as it let them see how their fellow new disciples perform if they didn't enter themselves to motivate them.
"I said I was fine in the stands, it's awkward being here when I'm not entering!" he complained to Mei Ling.
"Oh stop complaining, you'll get a much better view down here!" She dragged him along to the seat next to Shu He.
"You two really are close" Bai Lian let out a light laugh as she covered her face with her sleeve.
"What are you talking about? I'm just helping him because he needs to see it for his training" Mei Ling denied her claim with a stone like expression.
"Sure~" Bai Lian replied.
'I wonder how close those two really are' Even Shu He was a bit curious.
But just as they were about to begin chatting-
"There you are Mei Ling! I thought you were going to run!" A voice began screeching across the tent catching everyone's attention.
Mei Ling's expression became filled with pure annoyance.
"What's that? Did I just hear a rat screeching?" She said while exaggeratingly cupping her ears.
"I'm not a fucking rat you spiteful bitch! Because of you my clan cut me off!" He began turning red in the face.
"Isn't that because you were a useless dung fly that just puttered around women that he could pay off all day long? I think I did you a favour fixing your faulty body".
"Y-y-you dare?! I'll have your head on a platter soon enough but not before I have my way with you!" His eyes glared with deep red as his anger clouded his vision.
Yet at that moment he felt a chill down his spine, and it wasn't a figurative one, the temperature in the tent dropped many degrees with the centre point focused on him.
Everyone looked towards one young girl, her white hair steadily flittering in the chilly wind.
"Might you shut your mouth, swine? I'd rather not hear much more of the filth that comes out of it" Bai Lian spoke in a much deeper voice than usual, her eyes seemed to be crystalising and her glare itself felt like it could freeze hell over.
"B-Bai clans-!" Jin Bao seemed like he had swallowed a fly for a moment, but then the anger that had clouded his senses continued to do so "So what! If you side with her you'll regret it! It doesn't matter if you're a Bai scion you'll suffer all the same!" He screamed, causing everyone watching to frown.
They had thought he would give up after Bai Lian's intervention, so they found it odd he continued.
"Will you shut that incessant screeching up?" Another voice came out, this time from behind Jin Bao and outside the tent.
The moment the voice sounded, the chill from Bai Lian dispersed and the eyes of everyone that saw the person speaking opened widely.
Except the person himself.
"Who the hell are you ordering me around?!" He yelled, turning to the voice.
And then his face well and truly turned as while as a sheet, all of the anger that was clouding his mind turned in to deep fear and regret.
Standing there was the one and only sect master!
Rong Jia!
She glared at Jin Bao who began shivering before falling on his behind.
"Jin scion, I sure hope you do well in this tournament" She spoke with a voice like a drawn blade.
'Or else' was the implication behind that line, causing Jin Bao to swallow and immediately shut himself away in his mind out of fear.
"What? Did something happen Master?" A man's voice came from behind her as a larger figure with a bold head entered the tent.
"Just a fool, you don't need to worry; Go on and meet with your friends I'll be watching".
"Yes!"
"You know what happens if you don't get 1st right?" She asked with a smile.
"…Yes!" The man's expression turned solid; he didn't want to think about that result.
"Good" And with that the Sect Master disappeared from their eyes.
"Gang Bo!" Shu He yelled out as he jogged over to the tall figure.
"Shu He! Did you get smaller?" Gang Bo asked with a laugh.
"No!" Shu He immediately felt the urge to punch him before he got a better look at him.
"Wait… did you actually get taller? No, you definitely got taller! What the hell, you should've stopped growing already!" Shu He exclaimed with unfairness; with his keen eyesight he could tell Gang Bo had grown by at least 5 centimetres!
"Huh, really? I didn't notice" Gang Bo rubbed his smooth head as he tried to get a look at himself, he personally couldn't tell the difference though.
Shu He sighed "Well at least you're here, I thought you might be skipping out on this".
"No way, there's no way Master would let me".
Shu He looked at his older friend with a slightly weird expression.
"What?" Gang Bo frowned, unsure as to why he was being stared at.
"It just feels weird hearing you say 'master' so naturally".
"Now that you say it… I just got used to it" He shrugged in reply.
Suddenly there was a lot of cheering, rocking the arena and catching the participants attention, Shu He looked around and saw that the stages were no longer in use.
"The preliminaries have been completed! The 32 participants have been decided! After a short break we will move on to drawing the lots for the main stage" An announcer spoke, their voice echoing through the arena.
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực