Song Fai's secret

The crowd was not particularly surprised by Li Zhu's victory over Yin Jing, since from their standpoint both were about the same strength.

The experts had a different reaction, though, since Li Zhu had proven that he was skilled with a sword, which was quite uncommon for a summoner. Although most elders had just learned about this disciple, the fact that he knew how to use swords simply proved that there was more to him than what met the eye, and that he was definitely worthy of being in the top ten outer sect disciples.

After his fight, the second round continued on, but Li Zhu did not watch it, as he simply recovered his energy once again, as well as heal his wound. The long gash on his chest was quite a serious injury, and if he did not treat it immediately, it would form a scar, which would be tough to remove.

Furthermore, he needed to prepare for the final round, which would without a doubt be the most challenging. Since there were only ten fights in the current round, it was close to finishing, giving Li Zhu a sense of urgency for his recovery.

Fortunately, as the round ended, the elders gave the participants one more hour to recover, mostly to be fair towards the disciples who fought last. In this time Li Zhu recovered nicely, and his gash had at least partially closed up, with part being coagulated blood.

The judge elder arrived for the final time after the hour had ended, announcing, "The final round of today's competition will begin now. The top ten disciples will be ranked by us elders according to our perception of their strengths. If they wish to challenge this ranking, they can fight someone placed higher than them, but not lower. If they lose the fight than that is it, and they can only defend against people placed lower to hold onto their rank. If they win the fight, they take the rank of the disciple they defeated, who goes down one rank, as well as everyone lower than them."

'Interesting... this means that choosing your enemy correctly is part of the challenge!' thought Li Zhu, realizing that this round was more than simple fighting. If one overestimated their own abilities and fought someone much too strong for them, they had no more chances to raise their ranking. At the same time, if one aimed too low they would lose the chance to go any further, regardless of whether they won or lost.

This was as much a test of strategy as it was one of strength, which intrigued Li Zhu, who started to think about who to challenge.

Meanwhile, the elder continued, "The current rankings, created by us elders, are as such: Xiao Heng, Song Fai, Ti'en Hu, Wu Chen, Liao Jing, Kang Li, Ren Qiang, Li Zhu, Zhou Xing, and Zhang Quon. May the participants step into the arena in the according order, and begin challenging the rankings."

'I guess my ranking is to be expected, but it seems as though these elders really value Ti'en Hu!' thought Li Zhu, hearing the elder's rankings. He had been placed eighth, yet Ti'en Hu was placed third, even though they were both stronger than Wang Da.

All this did not really matter, though, since Li Zhu could challenge the rankings if needed. Now what he needed to decide was who to go against. With his current cultivation at the eighth stage qi gathering, Li Zhu was still slightly weaker than Xiao Heng, especially since he only had two skills, neither of which were useful for attacking.

As he formed contracts with more spirit beasts, and they learned more skills, Li Zhu would gradually gain strength, which would give him the ability to jump stages even when fighting other talents. Currently, though, he was only at the start of his journey as a summoner, so his fighting prowess was not as high.

'I should first see the other fights, and decide after that!' decided Li Zhu, who did not have a complete grasp over the strength of his opponents.

As he thought this, Ti'en Hu spoke up, "I challenge Song Fai for second place!" proving that Li Zhu's decision to wait was a wise one, since he could now witness a fight between two of the strongest enemies.

Song Fai seemed angered at the fact that someone challenged him, but he still moved to the center of the arena, placing his hand on his summoner ring.

All other participants moved away, as the elder announced, "The first fight is Ti'en Hu against Song Fai, winner gets second place!"

"You won against Wang Da, and now you think you can defeat me? Well, dream on!" said Song Fai, angered that Ti'en Hu had chosen to fight him, rather than Xiao Heng. This meant that Ti'en Hu saw Xiao Heng as a threat, but not him.

"Let's not talk too much... If you think I am arrogant to challenge you, prove it." calmly replied Ti'en Hu, not worried about this fight.

"Humph!"

Song Fai, no longer in the mood to speak with Ti'en Hu, touched his summoner ring, making a large, Golden-White lion appear in front of him. This was his Brilliance Lion, the only spirit beast he had used as of now in this tournament.

Ti'en Hu slammed his fists into his chest, causing a fierce aura to form around him, his eyes turning bloodshot. He immediately charged towards the lion, not caring about details such as openings.

The lion would not fall behind a human in fierceness, so it also charged towards Ti'en Hu, causing a brilliant light to form around it.

None of the spectators could even see what was happening, since they needed to close their eyes to avoid being blinded by the light. Against weak cultivators, the ability of the Brilliant Lion was very effective, since it forced them to lose their sense of sight, voluntarily or not.

Ti'en Hu, though, seemed completely unaffected, as he simply closed his eyes, still charging at full speed. It was clear that he had been trained on how to fight without seeing his enemy, a skill that could often be useful.

The lion was much faster than Ti'en Hu, since speed was one of its advantages. The legend was that if a Brilliance Lion's bloodline was strengthened to the maximum, it could travel at the speed of light, making it the fastest creature in this world. Of course, this was just a theory, since no summoner had ever managed to strengthen their lion to such a level, due to not finding the necessary treasures.

Ti'en Hu soon met the Brilliance Lion, as his fist was extended forwards, towards the massive jaw of the spirit beast.

Li Zhu, to spectate, sat down on the sidelines of the arena, moving his heavenly energy around the arena to simulate sight. Every place that his energy bounced off of or stopped was an object, while everywhere the energy continued on unstopped was an empty space. With this information, Li Zhu could spectate the fight, even though the light was far too much for him to watch with his eyes.

The elders did not have this issue, since their cultivation was much higher than him, and they could see past the light, directly at the fight.

The Brilliance Lion jumped onto Ti'en Hu, but his fist suddenly opened up, as he grabbed the spirit beast's head. His grip was incredibly strong, and panic could be seen in the eyes of the lion, that had been caught in his grasp.

Ti'en Hu's other hand quickly reached the lion's face, this time an actual fist. The Brilliance Lion tried to retreat with all its power, but Ti'en Hu's grip would not allow it, and the beast was hit by the full brunt of his punch.

Just as his left hand completed the punch, Ti'en Hu released his grip on the lion, in order to allow his strike to send the beast flying, as it did.

The lion was flung past Song Fai, towards the stands. Fortunately, there was a barrier at the end of the arena, so the large spirit beast did not land onto any spectators, and just fell back into the arena, after hitting the invisible barrier hard.

The light immediately dissipated, and everyone could see the haggardly lion lying unconscious on the side of the arena, no longer emitting an imposing aura.

"You will have to use your other spirit beast, if you plan on beating me!" said Ti'en Hu, smiling.

Song Fai looked furious, but he did something that surprised everyone in the arena: turning towards the elder, he said, "I admit defeat… Ti'en Hu can have the second place"

Hearing this, the whole crowd was in uproar, feeling as though an exciting fight had been stolen from them. Many angry disciples began slandering Song Fai, saying, "I bet after Ti'en Hu defeated his lion, Song Fai is scared sick, and couldn't wait to end this fight!"

"Yeah, its not like his other beast would have been any different than the stupid lion, who was defeated in the span of ten seconds! I'm starting to think he doesn't even deserve third place!"

Hearing the insults, Song Fai gritted his teeth, but continued towards the sidelines of the arena, leaving a stupefied Ti'en Hu, confused at why the fight had stopped.

Only Li Zhu was not surprised by this turn of events, as he thought, "The beast he has must be pretty rare for him to want to keep it hidden. I guess his family really values him!"

Li Zhu understood that having too many treasures would instill jealousy in people, and sometimes hiding your wealth could prevent death. Although the Song family was powerful in Crouching Tiger Kingdom, if someone from another empire came, they could do nothing to protect their descendants. If Song Fai actually had a rare spirit beast, he would not want people to know about it, at least until he reached a suitable strength to fight back.