The Power of Qi Cultivation: Soul Tendency
[ - Lián City streets – ]
Old or new world, Pò never was one to believe Life was fair, and as she learned from Xiao, mere Cultivators miraculously born from commoners' families normally were drafted into the military as soon as they reached Bronze 1 level of Qi Cultivation as simple foot soldiers and/or members of the City Police Force, simple cannon fodder never expected to ever get too high in rank.
Should they be truly lucky though, once in a while an Elder would be open to enroll those gifted Commoners in the Medicine/Alchemy guilds or an important family would show enough interest in their talent to nurture them through the ranks of the army to help them grow and then rope them in their personal guards and escorts.
But either freelance alchemists or common soldiers alike, all the ones without a solid backing from great Families/Organizations would never get the chance to get too far in life simply because lacking the necessary resources; so all of them would merely hope to reach the third Level of the Bronze Realm in their entire lifetime and call it a great success once ready to pass-over.
The Nobles and their Heirs instead, they got the money, backing and influence necessary to go further along the path to knowledge and truly shine and reach the peak of the mortal world!
But even if private Tutors and secret techniques could propel them forward a lot, compared to others, the biggest of chances in reaching the top would still come from a single place, the most prestigious and powerful of the organizations in the entire continent: the Imperial Military School endorsed by the Imperial Family itself, something giving it literally unlimited resources! The best of the best the world had to offer!
And today was an important day for those students of the 'Imperial Military School', their first step towards glory eternal!
As a closure for his speech during the opening ceremony of the Spring Festival, the Emperor had proclaimed the start of the annual special 'Tournament' between the boys and girls in the first year, a Tournament where they were all demanded to show their best in a series of fights to evaluate their progresses right under the scrutinizing gaze of the Emperor himself and the school as a whole.
Should the result be satisfactory, the various teachers watching would then decide one or two students to take under their wing as Disciple for the remaining five years so to give them more in-depth and specialized training and lessons to accompany the normal courses.
Not all of them, though! Out of three hundred first year students only twenty of them will actually be accepted as Disciples, an enormous honor both for them and their families; the others instead will just continue as mere 'Normal' students, unless their results were actually abysmal, in that case they would be simply kicked out from the Military School in great dishonor, forever shaming their family and ancestors for centuries to come.
And having used the two days of festivities brought by the Festival to return home, the heirs of the most influential families of the city had gone through last minutes special training and infusions of 'less-than-legal' elixirs to strengthen their Qi and bodies so to squash the opposition, and in case of the top five families, also deploy their best spies to try gather what kind of training the others were using.
All this happening for the hidden amusement of the Emperor that had his own fun in personally stopping said spies and gifting them back to their owners neatly tied-up like salami, that too following the century-old tradition of the Tournament itself; even his oldest daughter was held in the dark about her probable 'enemies' for the sake of fairness!
And now, at dawn, and six hours before the opening of the Tournament, a solitary palanquin was being hastily brought through the almost-empty streets by four burly soldiers paying extra care to not shake it too much and disturb the young master inside.
Richly decorated with spiral patterns, made in pure silver and adorned by emerald-green curtains proudly displaying a majestic silver phoenix, the Fènghuáng palanquin owned by the family heir Jié shined in regal light in the first rays of the sun as the mendicants and commoners already around could not jump away fast enough to let him pass while bowing their heads, scared to their core by the glare and matching growl of the four soldiers carrying him.
[ - inside - ]
The only occupants of the small thing were a young man with waist-long raven locks and ice-blue eyes, wearing the emerald green robes of the Military School uniform, and an ancient-looking old man sitting right in front of him.
The youngster was simply playing with the hem of the wide sleeves of his robes as he waited for the palanquin to arrive to his destination, all in the hope to ignore the anxiety for the upcoming Tournament gnawing at his sub-conscious that was instead a clear form of entertainment for his companion.
"Dear young Master, today is the great day of the Tournament, do you feel ready?" the old man in plain silver robes accompanying Jié asked while passing a hand on his long white beard.
"As ready as I can be, old man Dao." Jié answered with a bored huff of annoyance.
This family eunuch was a level 7 Silver Qi Cultivator, and the Martial Arts Master that had trained even the young man's father when Wáng had been his same age; at hearing those words he simply gave a soft chuckle in answer as unknown to the boy, his father had given the exact same answer when he too took part to the Tournament.
"Just remember to give your best, Young Master. Your father may be pushing for you to become one of the Disciples, but your beloved mother just wants you to give your best. As long as you are not kicked out, all will be fine." Dao offered while looking through the curtains to the world outside.
"Old man Dao? Has my father succeeded in becoming a Disciple when he was a student there?"
"It is not my right to answer to that question, young Master." the old man replied.
"...So he didn't?" Jié asked with a barely restrained smile.
"There are many shadows in the life of your esteemed father, young Master. Many inscrutable mysteries we others cannot divine." he answered with a meaningful light in his eyes.
"I see, I won't pry further then, Old Man Dao." the young man said with a vindicated expression, clearly calmer than before.
Unfortunately his good mood immediately went soured by the appearance of a second palanquin joining his own from a side street, this one was gold in colour with scales-like decorations and with crimson curtains sporting a roaring dragon sewed with pure-gold threads.
"Wei Lóng." Jié hissed in hatred as soon as he saw the face of his 'Nemesis' appear before him.
"Oh! Would you look at that! Miss Jié finally woke-up from her beauty sleep! How are you, princess?" a brash, mocking voice came from the golden palanquin as soon as the two moved next to each other so that both heirs could comfortably exchange hateful glares from inside.
"I may be a princess, but at least I am not a frog like you!" Jié answered bitterly at the umpteenth jab at his manliness.
"Then this frog will teach you manners as soon as we will face each other at the Tournament!" Wei answered growling furious, his short red hair seemed even more similar to fire as they moved madly under the flow of his bronze Qi following his juvenile rage.
"You wish!" Jié countered showing his teeth like a furious beast.
To the side, in the meantime, both eunuchs accompanying the two heirs and the soldiers holding the palanquins could only roll their eyes and patiently wait for the two to stop spitting venom at each other.
* Thump! Thump! Thump! *
Heavy steps then interrupted the two bickering young men soon followed by a very deep laugh.
"Huhuhu! What a sorry sight! Two minor Heirs bickering like children! Why don't you just get down and beat each other? You already are making a scene, may as well go full circle and fight like Commoners! Poor Emperor, luckily my Family is there to help him with proper talent! Now, with your permission, I will leave you behind and reach the School first as I still have a good image to defend, contrary to you two that have long since cast yours away. Ta-ta!" true to her father's legacy, the Heiress of the Niú Family did not wait a mere instant before fomenting the anger of those two Family Heirs as soon as her immense palanquin as well joined the scene.
"You!" both boys bellowed as they saw that her face did not even peak out from the blue drapes covering her as she simply came, left her own comment and then just sped ahead to leave behind the two arguing teens going at each other's throat with even more vigor while also cursing her equally loudly.
[Thank you, Miss Niú.] elderly eunuchs and soldiers thought in despair as now they were sure the two boys would continue to curse and argue until they reached the Military School.
[ - Heavenly Lotus Tea House - ]
Not too far away from the scene, Xiao and Pò were giving the finishing touches to the Lotus so to soon open their doors for the 'early birds' coming to have breakfast with their favorite girls before tackling a new day of work.
"See? This is what I mean, all the money of this world won't cover that childish attitude, no matter what they do to make themselves look more splendid." Xiao said as soon as the three palanquins turned the corner at the end of the road and disappeared.
"I can't honestly tell who is more unpleasant though, Wei or the Niú Heiress." Pò exclaimed curious.
"Zhi, her name is Zhi." Xiao said humming.
"They named her 'Angelica'?" Pò asked in disbelief as the girl's baritone voice was a bit too deep to warrant such a delicate name.
"I know, considering that her neck is even thicker than a man's one, I too find it a bit of a stretch. But remember that in the crib we are all small and cute, so they couldn't know she would have took from of Zhao's side of the family, barely a full woman and she can already snap the neck of a bull with her bare hands...Way too little femininity to be found in there." the Manager of the Lotus answered shrugging.
"Damn spoiled brats." in the meantime one of the girls muttered dejected as she saw the mess the palanquins left behind in front of the entrance she had just finished sweeping clean barely a minute before their arrival.
"How's your 'Meditation' coming along, by the way?" Xiao asked switching topic as soon as the other girls returned inside leaving she and Pò alone to talk freely.
"Not too bad, but without those books you promised things are not as easy as we hoped." the young girl answered scratching the bandages around her eyes she kept hidden thanks to the usual veil accompanying her 'Lotus Girl' uniform.
Of all the three initial steps of Cultivation, the 'Tears of Blood' were the one more annoying to deal with, fortunately Xiao covered that thick stream of blood with bandages, otherwise veil or not covering her identity as Fènghuáng Heiress, everybody would notice something was wrong with Pò.
"Be strong, listening to Xie you will need to wait just a few more hours and then it will stop, the burst of blood is becoming weaker so you have almost done."
"Eight hours of bad breath, then eight hours of me sweating all-corroding acid from every pore and then eight hours of my eyes crying blood non-stop. I hope this will be worth it." Pò said, grumbling.
"It will, it will. It's a pity that the teachers are so paranoid to burn the books themselves when those get too worn-out, all this just to keep their own secrets safe from outsiders, unbelievable." Xiao commented.
"You sure Old Lady Hui can be trusted instead?"
"She already was the owner of the Lotus when she was your age, a brain like hers doesn't get foggy because of her age! Had she had a decent body she would still run around giving orders instead of relying on me. She had a close relationship with a couple Cultivators when she was younger, and they did give her some basic details about what they were doing when using her private garden to meditate, after all, she is a Gemless, it was not like she could Cultivate herself!" Xiao answered with a knowing smirk.
"You mean she was 'Friend with Benefits' with them?" Pò asked amused.
"Oh! I never asked for details myself, but with what she implied, it's clear that they used to come here for more than just 'Cultivation'!" she answered making both laugh uproariously.
In truth Pò didn't need those books about Cultivation since Rén was teaching her a completely different method created with the single purpose of facing and defeat the 'Common Technique' normally used by the possessors of a Soul Gem; Pò's own Qi was in fact being refined through exercises so alien that those books would be useless to her, but still, appearances had to be maintained and feigning ignorance on certain matters was thus a must.
Especially strange was the discovery that she could Cultivate at her best during the night and especially when bathing in moonlight, something even Rén declared unheard of along her 'Soul Tendency' being not only the Shadow (Moon) Element, but also the mysterious Darkness one, an Element only pure-blooded Celestial Beasts could normally possess.
Both Student and Master simply chalked it up as coming from Pò's body housing a soul from another world.
"You are planning something." Xiao said while flashing a knowing smirk.
"Is it so evident?" Pò answered with a chuckle.
"Spit it out! Let Aunt Xiao hear about it!"
"I want to go see the Tournament! I want to see how Cultivation works in actual combat or at least how it makes people stronger! If I want to reach their level and surpass them, I need to see first-hand what I will be dealing with!" she answered.
"Your 'Family' will be there too, are you sure?" Xiao asked with a sad tone.
"Pah! Let them be! They threw me away and even tried to kill me! I am smart enough to understand when I am not wanted, if they do not come bothering me first, they can do whatever they want! I am myself and I have my life, they are no longer my concern so you don't need to worry." the girl answered immediately and without restrain.
"I am impressed, any colder and she would have frozen half continent." Xiao muttered in surprise
while helping the blind girl walk back inside.
[ - Several hours later in the Military School's Arena - ]
The arena was a perfect half sphere built with dull black stone bricks and slightly buried into the ground behind the School main building, the whole arena measured at least five hundred meters in height and at its lowest part resided a chunk of special everlasting ice the size of an elephant that was turning the water submerging it and occupying the construction's lower half so cold that a thin layer of ice covered its surface all year long, even during summer when the sun was at its hottest.
The upper half instead held the seats for the audience, with the highest area being reserved to the seat of honor for the Emperor and the school professors; at the opposite side of the Emperor instead sat the students acting as Fighters, and right next to them stood the retractable bridge connecting their seats to the small 'Island' in the middle of the water: a round platform of rock of fifty meters in diameter suspended barely a foot above the freezing water thanks to four giant chains and acting as battlefield for the Tournament.
In the fights held on that platform only three rules existed:
The one that falls in the water or concede defeat is the loser.
Every technique was accepted no matter if lethal or not, even if killing was discouraged.
No weapons, Armors, Elixirs, Talismans, Familiars or any other form of outside help: They had to fight alone.
[ - Commoners seats – close to the students seats - ]
"So being rich won't help?" Pò, now finally able to use her eyes as the Blood Tears stopped flowing out, asked as soon as Xiao explained the rules to her.
"Exactly! As soon as they join the school, their heritage and background mean nothing! The school wants talent, and no amount of gold will ever come close to Talent when it comes to one's value on the battlefield." Xiao answered.
"Weapons and armors can be broken, talismans and elixirs stolen and Summons denied, but Talent can only be defeated by greater Talent."
"Yes, they teach them that as well,"
"Big Brother, this is a nice place to sit, how did you do it?" Pò asked amazed.
"Close to the students and away from the lowest clique of the Commoners, we are almost seating in the area of the 'Decent People'. Being on the Emperor's secret payroll has its perks, little sister." Xie, sitting opposite from Xiao and at Pò's right, answered shrugging uncaring.
"All my praises, big brother Xie! But then, where is big brother fatty?" Pò asked curious.
"Somewhere down there, next to that old lady that never stopped talking ever since we arrived, it was the only seat free since you are seating on his usual one." Xie answered while ignoring the miserable expression on his little brother's face.
"Oh!"
"Hey! Here comes the main event!" Xiao whispered with mirthful eyes.
"What?"
"The four heirs of the main Families are coming to take their seats, your brother is the first one in front." the woman answered.
"En! He looks pretty feminine." Pò admitted amused.
"Do not let appearances fool you, those four are Prodigies surpassed in talent only by the Emperor's daughter herself, they all are fighting nonstop for the top spot in the school scoreboard."
"And that small girl is Zhi Niú? You said she was a colossus! The voice clearly doesn't match the face!" Pò gasped in shock at seeing a short girl with short silver-blonde hair and brown eyes descending right behind her estranged brother Jié while adjusting her large glasses.
"...No. That would be the heiress of the Láng Family: Feng Mian Láng. Zhi Niú is the one following behind her and stopping the Lóng heir (Wei) from making a scene once again." Xiao answered with a weak smile.
"The Mantis Falling Asleep in the Woods as the Breeze Swishes Through...Miss Feng's father still has a deep love for poetry." Xie muttered sighing.
"That bear is a human?! And a young girl!? I thought she was a boy!"
"Yes."
"And...And the faint mustache mark on her upper lip? and the hairy arms? and the bushy eyebrows!?" Pò asked choking.
"It's a sore spot, don't mention it or she will get mad." Xie answered grimacing himself and signaling to both women to stop gossiping as soon as the four heirs took their seats not too far from them.
[What an interesting bunch! Pò's brother doesn't seem as rotten as I thought, spoiled yes, but not as rotten as I expected.] the young girl thought once scanned young Jié a last time from behind her veil.
"And there is the best part yet! Here comes the Emperor's oldest daughter, the Prodigy of Prodigies and a beauty young and old fawn over every day...A beauty I bet all of them have 'Fantasies' about every night as well." Xiao proclaimed in slight awe as the last seat on the first row was finally occupied by one of the prettiest girls Pò had ever seen in both her past and new life.
"Ying Yue. One of the most precious jewels of his Imperial Majesty and big sister of the man's second daughter Jiang, rumors has it that an outsider once made a less than gentle remark about her, and his wish about having her, and the Emperor answered by personally razing the guy's village to the ground, now in that place no life exist nor plants grow." Xie explained as the fair-skinned girl held a distant look in her blue eyes as she sat down, a faint scent of lavender flowed all around her as soon as the wind blew through her shoulder-long hair.
"I can see why they are attracted by her." Pò admitted mildly impressed.
[- in the students seats -]
"En! Ying, you did it again! Nobody here can take their eyes off of you!" Zhi, sitting at Ying's right, said with a smirk of ridicule as she watched how everybody around them was looking at the Emperor's daughter with unblinking eyes.
"It is not nice to point that out, Zhi." Feng Mian, sitting on the left, answered with a faint voice as if afraid to talk too loud.
"Pah! Who cares?" the colossal girl replied huffing.
"Please behave, Sister Zhi. Leave it to the boys to make a scene." Ying begged with a gentle smile that did NOT help the ones watching her calm down at all.
"It must be a pain to be this sought after." Feng admitted once scanned her surroundings.
"That is why I keep you two close to me at all times, other than you, I can never be sure who to trust about being really honest in being my friend." Ying answered sighing and taking the hands of the two girls sitting at her sides in hers.
"For me it's easy, my father pushes me to spend time with you! So I have every excuse to stick around all I want!" the Niú heiress said with a pleased smile.
"Láng Family too."
"See? We can do whatever we want, after all, we both are doing our best to bring good fortune to our families!"
"You two are just too sly! I am happy to have such shameless friends around." Ying admitted with a joyous smile.
"Just doing my best, thank you."
"Likewise."
"Hey, Jié! That commoner is looking straight at you! Another fan of yours?" it was then that they heard one of their year-mates talk while showing a lecherous expression.
"To be so infatuated with Jié the ugly parrot, it must be that veil, it clearly screws with her sight!" Wei answered laughing.
"Just shut up, Lóng!" Jié roared in answer.
"By her clothes and her sitting beside Lady Xiao, she must be the new girl of her Tea House." another boy said looking hungrily at Pò.
"She looks young and supple, nice! Maybe she is virgin too!" yet another added making the girls present bristle in annoyance.
"Commoner or Noble, treating her like a piece of meat is just wrong." Zhi hissed furious making the boys fall silent in an instant.
"Why a veil though?" Wei muttered curious.
"Maybe she is blind? Deformed? Hey, you! Do that wind trick of yours, even if a pathetic Art, it may be useful this one time! I want to see her face!" Wei ordered to the boy sitting in front of him.
"W-Wha?" the poor guy stuttered taken by surprise.
"Wei!" Zhi growled with narrowed eyes.
"Come on! I want to give a look! I am bored and I want to have some fun for a couple minutes!" the red-haired boy whined petulantly.
"O-Okay." the other student answered unsure as a faint green energy started swirling around his left hand to accompany the dull brown of his Bronze Qi.
"[Wind Knife]." he intoned launching a strong gust of wind towards Pò's head.
*Pa-zwing! Strip!*
"Shit!" the young girl cursed as her veil flew away and the tight knot holding her hair up in a bun came undone, luckily for her both Xiao and Xie were fast enough to recover her concealing garment for her to wear again before the Emperor could see her face from his seat at the opposite side of the arena.
"..."
"..."
"Ah..."
To the students' surprise what they saw was not the face of a deformed or blind girl, but a pair of mesmerizing jade-green eyes to accompany a lovely pale face with porcelain skin, peach-pink full lips and very long black hair flowing like the finest silk, even her voice sounded melodious no matter the crude way she had cursed in.
"Wei! Jié! Close those mouths or even a dragon will get inside!" Zhi, never one to miss an opportunity, chided greatly amused by the two heirs' idiotic expression of surprise.
"Famous diamond in the rough." Feng commented impressed.
"Happy now? That poor girl clearly has her reasons to cover her face and you others undid that, you are just a bunch of bullies!" Ying said unhappy making the boys present feel even worse.
"It was just some harmless fun." Wei answered with a low voice.
"That harmless fun one day will bring you trouble." Feng admonished him with a chilling plain tone.
"Is that a threat?"
"A warning. But why a veil?"
"Feng, she has a thin scar on her face cutting it diagonally in two, maybe she finds it ugly...But I can't see why though, the thing is barely visible even to me that have a damn good eyesight! Really, all this nonsense about beauty is waste of time, only strength lasts forever! Compared to Strength, Beauty is merely a passing thing that will soon wither!" Zhi said with a very passionate tone.
"Unless we are talking about us three, in our case our beauty will last forever indeed." she then added smirking.
"Zhi!" Ying said with a fiery blushing face of shame.
"Ying perhaps, or even Feng. But Ugly Zhi? No beauty to be seen whatsoever!" Wei whispered to the guys sitting next to him, causing both him and them to laugh loudly at the poor joke.
"I heard you."
"Shiiiit!"
"Such eyes..." in the meantime Jié kept stealing glances at Pò even now that her face had once again been covered by her veil.
[With that face nobody would guess her status as a Commoner had she been dressed like a Noble, then why hiding it? Is she afraid of somebody?] the young heir though curious as he too scanned the arena like Pò was doing to see if there was really somebody scaring her that much.
[ - Pò's seat - ]
"Did they see me?" the girl asked in worry.
"It doesn't seem like it, but that was close! What happened?!" Xiao answered apprehensive as she looked towards the Emperor to see the man too engrossed in his talk with the Headmaster to even notice them, even giving his back to them as they talked.
"The seams have been cut through, so I can guess somebody used a weak Wind Art to cut the veil away and remove it since I don't see throwing knives lying around." Xie answered once fixed at the best of his abilities the thin fabric.
"So one of the brats just wanted to see why I wear a veil?" Pò asked sneering.
"It's possible."
"Little shits."
*Twang! Twang! Twang! *
"Shh! it's starting!" Xiao hissed immediately as soon as the Headmaster of the Military School rose from his seat and the deafening chimes of a giant gong silenced every other noise in the Arena.
"People of Lián City! Beloved Guests from every Guild and near lands! Once again we meet here in this sacred Arena to evaluate the Talent and Power of the new Generation of Cultivators the Gods bestowed on us! Here today meeting on the battlefield to entertain you and measure each other without restrains! To the winner, this year his Imperial Majesty will concede a further gift besides choosing freely who will become their Mentor for their remaining time in the Military School! Here...A sword made with the fang of the Legendary Thunder Lion, one of the Lords of Tian-Fa Forest!" the old man said uncovering the cloth hiding under it a long and thin sword with a pure-white blade and the handle crafted from black steel.
Immediately Pò could see the pure Greed filling the eyes of the students present, to the point of almost forming a thick fog around all of them.
"The handle of this unique treasure has been made with Meteoric steel! Light as a feather but so durable even a dragon would not be able to bend it! A sword so sharp to even cut spirits and able to strengthen one's Soul Tendency arts to legendary heights! A weapon worthy of legends only the Cultivator that stands at the top of the world can use!"
"Mine." Wei was heard growl in blind need.
"No. It will be mine." Jié answered equally desperate.
"I can feel your eagerness to climb the heavens, young ones! Then walk forward to the middle of the arena as soon as your name is called! There you will fish one rock from the box held by one of us, on it you will see a number, and Fate itself will decide who will be your foe in this Tournament!" the old man finished saying with a flourish, and soon producing a scroll holding the name of every student.
"Huhuhu! Isn't the Emperor a good player?" Xie whispered, very amused by the needy expressions on the students face as they scampered in great hurry to get their numbers as soon as they heard their name being called.
"What?" Pò asked.
"I took part to the creation of that sword's hilt, guard and pommel! My personal studies on the alternative forging methods for the rare 'Formless Steel' were deemed essential to create those three parts. That sword has another peculiar gift that geezer didn't talk about: it can show its true Power only when held by a Lightning Element Soul Tendency. And lo and behold, the Emperor's Daughter is exactly that! He is so sure dear Ying will win every fight that he has shamelessly already prepared his gift for her victory so that everybody else will look at in envy! Such dirty underhand tactics, I am almost moved to tears!" the young man answered laughing cruelly.
"Soul Tendency...The Power of creating Elements from nothing..." Pò muttered while looking at her own hands in eagerness.
"More than 'From Nothing' is all about converting Qi into that Element. It's a specialized branch of Qi Manipulation very few can accomplish as it is fully linked to one's Bloodline. You, for example, are probably a Fire Tendency since you are part of the Fènghuáng Bloodline, the Lóng Family too is a Fire Tendency Bloodline and that is why the two are rivals: each preaches about being the true 'Heir' of the sacred Flames of the Gods, and of course the other disagree completely." Xie explained simply.
"Probably Fire? You mean that the Fènghuáng bloodline posses other Elements?" the girl asked immediately.
"Other Elements? Well, yes, the Fènghuáng Family is said to also posses the rare Moon Element Tendency, and to my knowledge only your great-grandmother was said to be the second to ever hold it ever since the founding of the Family, but I fear that by now only the Head of the Fènghuáng Family knows what that Element was all about."
"And the Emperor?"
"The Imperial Family instead has the legendary Lightning Tendency, a super rare Tendency legends say they obtained because the Founder of the Family was the lover of a powerful Celestial Beast of said Element that gifted it to their offspring." Xiao answered.
"The Niú Family is an Earth Tendency Bloodline and the Láng Family is a Wind Tendency Bloodline. The purer the bloodline, the stronger their Tendency and the more powerful is the Family as a result. That is why even if similar in Elements, no other Fire Tendency Family can compare to the Fènghuáng or Lóng in influence as they possess the absolute purest Fire Tendency Bloodline humanly possible in their veins. Soul Tendency may be enough to land you a minor rank in nobility, but if it is not pure enough, you will still be at the bottom under everybody else."
"If Bloodline purity is so important, would they…You know, Incest?" Pò asked unnerved.
"Just in case of emergencies, otherwise they simply look for people with a similar Soul Tendency, of course with the purest Bloodline possible so to not dilute theirs." the young man answered.
"It looks like they are ready to start." Xiao interrupted them while pointing at the arena where Zhi Niú was facing a plump boy with a green bandanna to match his school robes.
"That is the heir of the Zhen Family, it means it will be two Earth Tendency Bloodlines facing each other, perfect! Like this I can teach you how Purity influences the overall power of their techniques!" Xie said with an excited tone.
"They can already use it?"
"Soul Tendency becomes 'Usable' as soon as one reaches the second Level of Bronze Qi, and since the most 'Pathetic' student in this School is required to be at least at peak Level 3, you can be certain you will see a nice spectacle thanks to dear 'Level 5 Prodigy' Zhi Niú here."
"Level 5?! Already?!"
"Yes, but there is a trick for that, having a very pure Soul Tendency makes advancing in Levels and breakthrough way easier if you know how to train it, and considering this cheat ability of theirs, it can be considered a further proof of my genius that I could keep up with Soul Tendency Users when I was still in the Alchemy Guild!"
"Yes, Yes. You are a genius, we get it." Xiao answered rolling her eyes.
[ - On the Stage - ]
"So you will be my enemy here. You really are unlucky, Potty Zhen! It means you are destined to lose your fist fight!" Zhi said with a prideful smirk as she took away the top half of her school robe to show that she was wearing only a steel-made bra/armor under it, and with the absurd amount of muscles she had, nobody questioned her renouncing to the slight protection ability of her school uniform to simply remain with that and the bandages on her hands.
"Don't call me 'Potty'!" the poor boy roared in blind fury as Peak Level 3 Qi flashed all around his body in a blinding light moving like translucent bronze-colored fire.
"Uuh! Almost Level 4! I am impressed, Potty Zhen! So shitting yourself during our first day here did bring some benefits!" Zhi complimented him with a mocking applause as her own Bronze Qi aura came to life, only purer in colour and less wild in appearance clearly showing her higher Level and control over it as it merely outlined her body.
"STOP COURTING DEATH!" 'Potty' yelled frothing at the mouth while launching himself on the floor, and rolling at blinding speed towards Zhi, he covered himself into a thick cocoon of rock so to turn into a giant boulder aiming at squashing her.
"Courting death? You really said that, Potty?" the young girl said in distaste as the aura around her right hand gained even more light as soon as she closed it into a fist.
* PANG! *
With a sound similar to a thunderclap, Zhi's fist punched through the speeding boulder stopping its rolling immediately, and turning the whole thing into fine powder, everybody saw her knuckles buried deep into the boy's stomach.
"Aghrbkhulc!" a guttural, incomprehensible grunt escaped his mouth as the chubby boy went launched back away tumbling helpless on the floor.
"Courting Death. How many of those silly 'Fantasy/wish-fulfillment' books do you read to even add that ancient cliché thing to your own speech?" Zhi asked in annoyance while the floating pieces of rock from her foe's boulder condensed around her right hand to form a crudely-made enormous arm of rock shining with bronze brilliance.
"This is my family's [Bronze Knuckle] Art. I am still learning to properly do it, but with you as my target, Potty, it will be still too much, but I hate wasting time in useless things like you." Zhi explained with a cold tone as she cocked back the giant rock fist.
"No! Please no!" the boy begged in tears.
"No can do, Potty! We are not supposed to hold back!" Zhi answered slamming with merciless fury her rock fist on him, squishing his whole body under the massive size of the thing like a bug stepped on by a giant.
* PANG! ZA-CRASH! *
Between weight and power behind it, 'Potty' went shot like a blur out of the arena, against the opposite wall and then down the freezing water to be immediately fished-out by a member of the staff.
"We have a winner!" the referee announced while pointing at Zhi and making the audience go wild.
[ - Pò's seat between the audience- ]
"That was fairly pathetic, and the Emperor must be of the same advice considering how hard he is glaring at the boy's family." Xiao said sighing and shaking her head.
"I honestly expected him to do more considering how much his father paid me for those strengthening elixir he commissioned, but still, he showed you a starting idea of how Soul Tendency change based on purity. Zhi, as one coming from the purest Earth Tendency Family, not only could steal away his control over his earth boulder as soon as she touched it, but the mere fact she was standing on the ground already empowered her without the use of Arts." Xie explained.
"You mean she gets stronger just by the fact she is standing on the ground? She doesn't need to cover herself in rock?!" Pò asked shocked.
"As long as she channels her Qi, yes, she does reap SOME passive benefits just like that, but to reach her full potential she still needs to use Arts, that will never change, even should one have 100% pure Soul Tendency."
"Oh."
"Let's continue watching, more examples will give you a better idea." Xiao added once seen the girl's perplexed expression.
"Yes, but does Qi always produce that aura?"
"Yes. Admittedly it's awful for stealth, but who cares about that when you can ideally turn a mountain into a handful of powder with a single punch or force an ocean to evaporate with a mere thought?" the other answered uncaring.
"In hindsight."
Just as Xiao had promised, the following fights did offer a better understanding about the rare branch of Qi Cultivation known as 'Soul Tendency', and of course about the inner differences about its purity when two students of the same Element faced each other.
It seemed like that just as a higher Qi Level would give to a Practitioner an edge over their enemies, as soon as Soul Tendency was added to the picture the table could still be turned as long as the one with a lower Qi Level had a drastically 'Purer' Soul Tendency, and the discrepancy in Levels was not too vast of course.
Just like when she saw a Level 3 boy defeat the Level 4 girl he was facing thanks to his Water Tendency being purer than hers, with him almost emptying the water basin under them to form a furious torrent to swallow and destroy the girl's own ice javelins she had summoned by the dozens to act as projectiles.
The sheer pressure of water also drilled a faint hole in the wall as it slammed the poor girl against it with enough power to leave her without a single bone not turned to dust inside her body, for added measure.
Then came the fight between Jié and Wei…
[ - Arena - ]
"So! Once again, we face each other on the battlefield!" Wei said sneering as fire covered his arms burning away the sleeves of his school robe in an instant.
"It's the fate of our rival families." Jié answered taking away the top of his uniform and using a strip of cloth to tie his hair into a simple ponytail.
"Then maybe today we will finally determine who's the real 'Heir of Fire'!" Wei yelled as his Qi flared to life to fuse with his Fire Soul Tendency making the tiles under him melt and bubble ominously under his feet.
"That is the difference between us, mine is a flame of righteousness, like that of a phoenix rising from its ashes...You instead represent a wild inferno! Uncouth, unrefined and ready to burn whoever stands beside you! Savages like you and your family can only tarnish the name of the Gods' divine flames!" Jié answered as his own aura of fire surged forth, warping the air around him but leaving the floor undamaged.
"We'll see!" Wei roared as he exploded forward like a blazing meteor and with every movement of his body leaving behind trails of uncontrolled flames.
"Yaaaaaah!" both Heirs yelled as they exchanged blows with demonic brutality.
* Pang! Pang! Zou! Tweng! Toh! *
Fist against fist, elbow against elbow and kick against kick; no quarter was being given as the two Prodigies fought each other without restrain, to the point that their own hatred was outperforming the fire of their attacks in sheer temperature.
Every time an attack was blocked, thick sprays of fire erupted behind the defending party, the air itself around the too was rapidly turning arid and even ablaze as the flurry of punches and kicks moving faster than a normal human eyes could follow created a dome-like 'zone' around the two nobody could enter unless possessing a similar resistance to Fire as them.
That too was something Pò deduced, if a Soul Tendency was pure enough, even the user resistance to that Element would raise accordingly, making her wonder if a Gold Level Qi user with Fire Tendency could even swim in Lava or grab a Sun with their bare hands if they so wished, especially considering that those two Heirs were mere Level 5 Bronze Qi Cultivators and yet were throwing around flames and flares measuring thousands of degrees in heat without suffering too much from it.
"Ah!" twin battle cries finally erupted from the small firestorm covering half the stage as the two Heirs went thrown back from their respective Arts colliding, and that thick blast of hot air not only dispersed the flames around them into a blast of fire, but even engulfed the giant chains holding the stage up turning them faintly red in colour from its absurd heat.
* Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap! *
Following that brief moment of respite, in the absolute silence of the arena, the Emperor himself offered a short round of applause as he got up from his seat, nailing the two boys with a piercing stare as he addressed them with a stern tone of voice.
"Nice! Very, very nice! Had you two been anybody else I would have declared that you both could pass to the next phase, but considering that you two are representing two of the most important Families in my City, I am still not completely pleased by this! Especially since it's clear that you are evenly matched, so, I will give you a last chance to determine the victor: Each of you will use your most powerful Art, whoever stands after this face-off will be declared the winner, it will be a victory by first blood!" the Emperor declared as he sat down.
"We'll do as his Imperial Majesty demands!" both Jié and Wei replied at the same time while giving the deepest bow they could muster towards the Emperor.
"Nice way to resolve this." Xie commented dryly.
"Uh?" Pò asked.
"Those two are almost even in terms of power, yes, but the Emperor is more worried that with their History of rivalry; neither of the two Families would have stopped until the Heir of the other dropped dead and this level of in-fight is not what the Emperor needs. Today he will fix it like this so to not interfere too much in this situation in front of everybody, but I fear that once the Tournament is over he will put his feet down and stop this rivalry with more ruthlessness since things are getting out of control between those two Families."
"Oh, I guess he is not the 'ever-smiling guy' he appears to be like as his public appearances would suggest."
"Far from it, little sister, far from it."
[ - On the stage - ]
"You heard the Emperor, Jié! I will bet my all in this last attack and you better do the same!" Wei said as pure fire covered his body to then condense on his closed fist forming a shining star of flames.
"Indeed! the Fènghuáng Family [Phoenix Wing] Art against the Lóng Family [Heart of the Dragon] Art. The strongest Art we both can muster as of now...Two Arts holding in it the pure Glory of our names...There is no other way." Jié answered as steam started pouring from his every pore, and creating a 'Blade' with his left hand, he covered it in a shining red aura making it look like an ancient sword of pure heat.
"Go!" the Emperor himself ordered with a thundering roar making the two Heirs dash towards each other at high speed.
* Tza-Twang! Pang! *
To the normal people looking the thing happened even too fast, a moment the two teens were glaring at each other, and then, in the time the audience needed to blink, they had met mid-way in the middle of the battleground with Jiè flying back with a perfectly circular indent on his chest that was burning fiercely while Wei fell on his back with a deep gash of burned flesh at his front.
Neither of the two looked to be conscious as their eyes were empty and clouded, nor they were giving even the littlest whimper because of their terrifying wounds as they lay there immobile.
"Both fighters are unconscious, and since the attacks landed at the same time, both shall be declared defeated as their wounds will need too much time to be healed, thus making their taking part to the next phase impossible." the school headmaster declared after a short discussion between school staff and the Emperor himself.
[ - Pò's Seat - ]
"Of course, he is displeased with both Fènghuáng and Lóng, there should have been no doubt he would have declared both losers, wounds or not wounds." Xie muttered shaking his head.
"And what if one of them triumphed instead?"
"Oh, I am sure he had an answer at ready for that as well, that man is way more cunning than what you imagine, and worse still, he has the Devils' Luck behind him too! You saw it, things played out so that he didn't had to force things to go his way, they went there by themselves!"
"And now that only the Niú and Láng Family Heiresses remained, Ying's victory is almost certain! heaven's forbid those two Family Heads will lose the occasion to get closer to the Emperor by not letting the Imperial Princess win!" Xiao added in distaste.
"En! Politicians! The most shameless of human beings!" Pò answered laughing amused as the thing tasted so much like her 'old life' to almost make her feel homesick.
Meanwhile the three were talking calmly though, the rest of the audience broke into loud whispering as soon as the Emperor's daughter got up from her seat.
"The Princess!"
"It's the Princess turn!"
"The daughter of his Imperial Majesty! The sublime Prodigy!"
Many voices were heard talk excited while they watched Ying Yue walk down the retractable bridge to face Feng Miang down on the central stage.
[ - Battleground -]
"Please, sister Feng. Do not hold back! Do this for me!" Ying pleaded with a low voice while both exchanged a customary bow of respect before taking their fighting stances.
"I will be in trouble with my father if I do that." the girl replied unsure.
"Please! At least my sisters, do not kowtow to me, but treat me normally!"
"...I will, sister Ying. Prepare yourself! We will fight to the bitter end!" Feng answered after a short pause of painful self-doubt.
"Thank you! I will shoulder the full blame should your father give you trouble!" the Princess said with an elated smile.
"I will hold you on that, sister Ying!" Feng replied as she opened her arms wide with both palms up, soon summoning a thick whirlwind around her body, all for her father's open horror.
"Father, this is for you! My gift!" Ying said with a loud voice and a proud smile as a blinding halo of lightning erupted all around her forming a thick armour and twenty crude-looking 'tails' behind her back.
"That is the initial stage of the Imperial Family's [Storm Peacock] Battle Art! She has advanced to Level 6 Bronze Qi!" Xie said with bulged-out eyes, expression neatly mirrored by the Emperor himself.
"Is it bad?" Pò asked confused as the blinding lightning aura around Ying's body just finished forming the last peacock-like feather behind her back.
"For whoever will stand in her way? Definitely yes! Being Level 5 at their age is already a miracle for those Heirs, but Ying having a breakthrough to the initial stages of Level 6 and grasp the basics of her family's sacred Art? That is more than unheard off! It's wrong! It's ridiculous! It's preposterous!" the young man answered in absolute disbelief.
[ - Battleground - ]
"You tricked me, sister Ying! I was not aware you had broke through!" Feng said with a wry smile.
"Nobody was! I wanted to make a surprise to my father, please forgive me! I will make up for it once the Tournament is over, I swear!" the Princess answered.
"You better!...If I survive this..." said that the Láng heiress' hands started moving in delicate and yet complicated patterns resembling a dance, and as a result, the whirlwind around her grew in size to cover half the stage like a furious tornado, and even the water under them went absorbed by the furious wind and frozen into hundreds of ice blades shaped like the blades of a giant mantis, each one looking sharp enough to cleave an elephant in two with ease.
"My trump card, an Art of my own creation! [Dance of the Mantis Swarm]!" Feng's voice came out distorted by the howling wind, and yet, the feeling of dread behind her words could not be mistaken.
"You truly are the greatest genius the Láng family ever produced, sister! I applaud your Heavenly talent!" Ying praised wholeheartedly as she grabbed the lightning storm surging around her body like an armor to use two bolts as improvised swords.
[That's it! The Heaven-defying Blade! She even started to grasp that Art! Daughter, you really make this old man feel blessed!] the Emperor thought in boundless pride as he leaned closer to watch, just like his wife and younger daughter next to him were doing.
"I don't like this! There are no safety measures for the audience!" Pò yelled above the howling wind as she clutched to Xiao desperately.
"And how do you plan to create some that can last?! There is a tornado fighting a thunderstorm down there!" Xie shrieked in answer as he too held on his seat to not be blasted away.
[ - Arena - ]
"Here I come, sister Ying! [First Dance: Swarm of the Mantis Soldiers]!" Feng warned as she dashed towards the Princess with the tornado following her.
Engulfing both in its giant body, the towering twister of wind and giant scythes of ice covered both girls from the eyes of the audience that could only guess Ying's movements from the flashes of light produced by her lightning armor.
* Zwang! *
Cutting her way out of the tornado, Ying was seen using the ice-made blades to climb on top of it while using the two lightning-bolts in her hands as swords to fend off the other projectiles.
"[Second Dance: The Mantis Queen Joins the Battle]!" Feng yelled while giving chase using one of those ice scythes as her own weapon to exchange blows with the Princess.
In and out of the thick walls of wind, the two girls crossed blades while climbing higher and higher in the sky, Feng directly summoning the ice blades around her as further layer of protection while Ying spun on herself to use the peacock feathers on her back to turn into a human saw-blade.
* Ziang! *
"Gah!" bellowing in pain, Feng was seen fall victim of a rain of electrified shards of ice as her summoned blades went easily torn to shreds once Ying's lightning feathers broke through them.
"Third! Third!…[T-Third Dance: Royal Grave of Ice and Wind]!" gritting her teeth in pain, the Láng Heiress used her trump card, and as both she and Ying fell back down towards the stage, she started spinning on herself while flaring all the Qi still in her body making the Tornado around both shrink in size.
"YING YUE!" The Emperor was heard scream clearly even above the deafening noise of the battle.
* TZA-WOOOOOO! *
Merciless wind collapsed on the two girls while still dragging along countless blade of ice until it formed a tiny sphere merely big enough to contain a single person.
* GRAOOOOOOOOH! *
But with a metallic roar similar to the call of a mighty beast, the sphere exploded in a blinding flare of lightning that momentarily resembled a giant bird blasting everything away with a godly flap of its enormous wings of light, and even the battle stage shook violently as if the chains holding it up were close at snapping.
Wind and ice completely erased from the scene, as soon as the thin smoke-screen of steam cleared the audience saw Ying Yue sitting on the ground while gently hugging the unconscious Feng in her arms and showing a happy smile.
And excluding their tired expression, both of them were relatively unscathed, albeit with torn, wet and singed clothes.
"Thank you, sister Feng. I knew I could trust you to not show me favouritism and help me show father how far I came, I will be forever in your debt." Ying whispered as she helped the staff bringing the girl to the infirmary.
"We have a winner! The Imperial Princess Ying Yue!" the referee announced making the audience go through a wild run of applause.
[ - Emperor Seat - ]
"My Lord! I-I am so sorry about my daughter! I did not-"
"It's fine, it's fine. My daughter wanted to surprise me with the progresses she made in her studies, so letting her win by forfeit would have saddened her greatly, so I appreciate the honesty your daughter showed by not holding back. You have my gratitude, and so I will personally make sure she will get the best treatment to heal her wounds." the Emperor answered once seen the Láng Head of the Family ready to have a melt-down next to him.
"T-Thank you, your Imperial Highness! This lowly servant is unworthy of such gift!" the man answered with a very deep bow, and secretly enjoying the glares of pure envy the other three Family Heads were sending him.
[ - Pò seat - ]
"Well, seen this, I am going home." Pò declared as she got up.
"Eh?! Why?" Xiao asked.
"I saw what I wanted to see. Qi and Soul Tendency: I will need to grasp both to triumph over everybody else, so wasting time here instead of meditating and Cultivating won't help me catching up to them." she answered rapidly walking away.
"Tell my brother to escort you back to the Lotus, me and Xiao will take further notes and see who wins, even if with Ying being a Level 6 that shouldn't be too hard to guess." Xie answered nodding.
"Notes?"
"You are a Gemless, I need to understand how to make YOU do what THEY do." he explained.
"I trust you, big brother."
"As you should."
[ - That Night – Inside Pò's Sea of Consciousness - ]
"Is your body in the mortal world comfortable?" Rén asked.
"Yes." Pò answered nodding.
"Right under direct moonlight?"
"Yes, no clouds whatsoever, and I took the herbal infusion you suggested right before coming here."
"Good, as of now you are a mere Level 1 Sapphire Qi, far from the Bronze Rank so we can't still use the full scope of our training. But still, what you saw in that Tournament showed that indeed you will need a lot of work to catch-up, luckily you have a Soul Tendency extremely handy for us." Rén explained with a cold chuckle.
"Handy?"
"Your Soul is not of this world, so beside the Moon Tendency of the 'Real' Pò, you posses the 'Darkness Tendency' of Fei-Dao, one only the Celestial Beasts posses, a very sinister branch of the Celestial Beasts."
"Sinister?" Pò asked shivering.
"All in due time, for now let's just rejoice that a normally-impossible double Soul Tendency means you will need a little less time to advance, not much, but we won't lag behind for too long. And if my conjecture is right, the techniques you will start to learn as soon as you reach Bronze Qi Level 2 will make your life way easier. But it will take a lot of funds if we want to truly make you shine like a star."
"Funds? Resources? I will just steal them! There are a lot of filthy rich merchants that are Gemless, I will just turn them into piss-poor beggars." Pò answered, smirking.
"Yes, that is basically the plan. Since you have not the resources of your real family, I will turn you into a Legendary Thief, like that you will have ALL you desired when you accepted my offer: Wealth, Fame (even if not exactly of the good kind) and Power. What do you think? You will be unstoppable as a fighter, but your true Legend will be in the art of Thieving." Rén said.
"A Legendary Thief? I like how it sounds!"
"Glad to hear that, so?"
"So I can only give you a single answer: Teach me, Shīfù!" Pò answered giving a deep bow while showing a very excited smile.
"That is the spirit, my Student. So let's begin your lessons!"
Outside, in the real world, Xiao was secretly peaking inside the girl's room to see her serene face as she sat meditating under the open window to let the moonlight bathe her whole body.
"She is really doing her best with so little, but I have not the courage to stop her, even if I know she is fighting a losing battle. I can't do this to her." the woman muttered with a sad expression before walking away shaking her head.
If only she knew how wrong she was about Pò's chances of success, maybe she too would be scared of her potential.