An Unlikely Opponent

‘I know,’ Hui Yue said with a sigh. Hearing the haughty and arrogant phoenix sound so genuinely apologetic caused Hui Yue to feel better about the subject.

It was true that Hui Yue had been fuming with rage. Back when he had first learned about Lan Feng. The phoenix had given him plenty in return in the last ten years; which included paving the way for him to walk the path of being an unrivaled cultivator.

Back in Hui Yue’s old life, he was only a friend of Li Fen. A friend with the same value as a brother. The feelings which Hui Yue had felt for Li Fen were obviously in the way. If he were to confess to her, he could have broken their relationship. He would have troubled and saddened her, which was the last thing he wanted.

Li Fen had had a great life together with her boyfriend. Losing Hui Yue would be a source of pain for her, that was true. It was a pain she would have been able to overcome and then live out her life in peace with the man she loved.

When Hui Yue would eventually manage to reach the rank of a god, Li Fen would have already lived a presumably satisfied, long life and died at an old age. At this juncture, Hui Yue would reincarnate her into a young body and give her back her memories. Then he would invite her to live with him and start all over, return to being reborn, or perhaps wish for him also to reincarnate her husband.

It was true that Hui Yue did not want to carry out the final option; however, whenever he thought of Li Fen’s beaming smile, he knew that he would do it to make her happy. The most important aspect for him was to tell Li Fen that he actually loved her. After that, whatever happened, happened.

‘Just make sure to help me become the strongest human in the world,” Hui Yue sighed as he moved under his favorite tree. ‘Then it really won’t matter that you killed me.’

‘Wait. You knew?’ Lan Feng said, his apologetic intentions quickly switching to feeling insulted. ‘Are you saying that you do not trust me?’ he asked, upset.

Hearing the upset phoenix, Hui Yue laughed lightly. He definitely preferred this type of personality to the previous guilty bird.

‘Look at me,’ Hui Yue said calmly, still laughing a little. ‘Can’t you see that I follow everything you say like a good disciple? It’s just undeniable that something was behind my death, that’s all.’

Lan Feng could do nothing but grumble. The subject was left alone as Hui Yue proceeded to his unceasing training and cultivation.

The morning on the second day of the tournament, Deng Wu was the very first thing that Hui Yue saw when he opened his courtyard gate. The handsome black-haired boy was standing outside, fidgeting slightly.

No apologies were given, nor was anything said about the previous day. The tense atmosphere quickly turned comfortable as the two started to joke about Hui Yue’s expectations of winning the tournament.

As the two of them moved around on the mountaintop where the arenas were located, the other friends eventually joined them. After an hour, they had gone from only Deng Wu and Hui Yue to all six friends gathered together, betting among themselves who would win and at what price.

Today, unlike the planned days before, everyone had to draw a number and fight the person who had drawn the same number within their group.

Hui Yue was up first, but his match was over before it even began. His opponent was one of the students from his year who had witnessed how Hui Yue had dealt with Shan Ping. He had also seen the previous day’s display of power, causing him to forfeit as soon as he drew the number.

Rong Xing and Rong Ming were in a much similar position. Rong Xing’s opponent forfeited as soon as the match started, while Rong Ming’s opponent was a first year who was beaten by the first move.

The final participant of the group was Ma Kong. As he stepped onto the stage, Hui Yue’s eyes widened in surprise when he saw Wang Ju Long standing next to him.

This was a match which Hui Yue had not expected. Wang Ju Long was a nine star Student rank cultivator while Ma Kong was a seven star Disciple ranked cultivator. It was evident that Ma Kong had the upper hand. Hui Yue could not help but wish for Wang Ju Long to win, despite his friendship with Ma Kong.

Although he was a friend of Ma Kong, he was currently giving his very best to reach the final stage just to fight Wang Ju Long. What he had forgotten was that, to do so, Wang Ju Long had to win in his group, which currently included Ma Kong, Rong Xing and Rong Ming.

Hui Yue had the impression that Wang Ju Long was capable of defeating Ma Kong. Unfortunately, it would not be easy for him to win against the Rong twins, as they had broken into the Practitioner rank.

Hui Yue looked at the stage and furrowed his brows. Something was different about Wang Ju Long. He had a tranquillity Hui Yue had not seen before. His eyes were steady, filled with determination.

Ma Kong on the other side showed no sign of being complacent. Although he had been fighting another seven star Disciple ranked student the previous day and only received a wound on his eyebrow, he still showed great alertness while facing off with this young child from the first year.

The audience was split into two groups. Both of these sons originated from significant families within Riluo City. These two families happened to be from opposing factions. One was the leader of a faction while the other was a strong pillar of support for the other faction.

This caused the audience to look selectively at the two youths standing there on the large, square stage, staring at each other and waiting for the fight to begin.

One had the upper hand when it came to the quantity of qi. The other had the upper hand when it came to quality. The high ranked martial arts skill in Wang Ju Long’s repertoire was definitely a cause of worry for Ma Kong.

“Let the forty-seventh fight of group seven begin!” the judge’s voice rang through the air. As soon as it sounded, a crackling sound started to emanate from Wang Ju Long’s hand.

This qi was far superior to how it had been when he and Hui Yue had dueled half a year previously. A big tempest of whirling qi threads created an immense hurricane within his hand, continually growing in size.

Within this hurricane, one bolt of lightning after another appeared. Each of these bolts was at least four time as big as they had been before. Hui Yue could not help but feel his heart pounding as he wished it was him on the stage rather than Ma Kong.

Hui Yue felt a smile spread on his face as the whirling Qi Hurricane grew in such size that it now wrapped around Wang Ju Long’s entire body. It lifted him from the ground and allowed the Qi Lightning Bolts to orbit around him, one steady in each hand.

The Qi Lightning skill had evolved. There were only two ways for a skill to evolve. One was to break into a higher rank while another was to personally spend time and change it to the cultivator’s liking.

It was much like Velocity Flow. The higher his rank, the more copies he could create. In Qi Lightning, being higher ranked resulted in a greater hurricane of qi, releasing more Qi Lightning Bolts.

Wang Ju Long had not spent the time to improve his already high-ranked skill. How could Hui Yue not know that he had been spending all his time cultivating? Even the lessons were used to cultivate!

Wang Ju Long had spent a lot of time cultivating. It was obvious that the effort had paid off as he had managed to break through to the Disciple rank, causing the amount of qi he had to be more than double what it had been.

Excitement shone within Hui Yue’s eyes as his blood was boiling, scalding his veins inside-out, imploring him to fight. Before this, he had feared that their fight would be too simple, as he had gained higher-ranked skills and Wang Ju Long might have faced a wall. Now, the fight was exciting. The fight was the only thing about which Hui Yue could think. His canines felt like they protruded from their gums more than ever before. A hunger surged from deep within as he rasped grittingly.

Deng Wu was standing next to Hui Yue, his eyes darkening. He could feel the killing intent emitting from Hui Yue. He observed how the younger boy stared at Wang Ju Long, almost licking his lips like a beast ready to pounce. Hui Yue’s eyes were focused, following every little move. He had completely blocked out everything happening around him.

The Rong twins and Gao Yan had not noticed anything as their entire attention was focused on the match in front of them, as well. Unlike Hui Yue, they were not excited upon seeing the Qi Hurricane which had started to envelop Wang Ju Long. They were filled with dread and worry as they knew that although Ma Kong had a good latent talent, he usually preferred focusing his attention on how to learn business management. For Ma Kong to win a duel like this would not be easy.

Ma Kong tightened his fists and white shineless qi started to surge out of his body, covering his entire right arm. This qi was very much white; however, it was far from the Wang Ju Long’s pure qi’s white luster. As Ma Kong was aware of this, he had planned ahead.

Suddenly, with an explosive step, Ma Kong shot towards Wang Ju Long from the front, his fist coursing straight for the face with speed and strength that clearly showed his superior rank. Nevertheless, the explosive advance was quickly halted as he got closer to the massive hurricane wrapped around Wang Ju Long, causing the force hidden within the hit to disperse.

Ma Kong did not seem flustered when this occurred. Instead, his right leg swept out from the end and hit the hurricane, only to result in a scream escaping Ma Kong’s lips as his leg became twisted by the strong winds. It was clearly broken after a direct confrontation between the leg and qi.

The intensity within Hui Yue’s eyes grew as the gaze darkened. Although he wished for Wang Ju Long to win, he definitely did not want his good friend to be injured. He promised himself to ensure later that Wang Ju Long felt the same amount of pain.

Even though Ma Kong had broken his leg, he had no intention of ending the fight just yet and instead moved back. He summoned more qi which he placed around his injured leg, working as a crutch ensuring that he could still move.

Hui Yue looked surprised at first, but slowly a smile formed on his lips. Wang Ju Long had no intention of fighting against Ma Kong. He would leave it to Ma Kong himself to forfeit.

The day before, Hui Yue had managed to end a fight solely by dodging and moving out of range as soon as an attack arrived. Wang Ju Long felt like he needed to prove that he could do better. He did not even have to move away from the attacks; he could take them head on!

This arrogance ignited Hui Yue’s raging blood to the point where he had to clench his fists so hard that blood dripped from the palms as his nails cut through the skin.

It seemed that everyone who knew about the past between Hui Yue and Wang Ju Long understood the silent declaration which said ‘I’m better than you’.

Both geniuses looked stubbornly at each other, neither wanting to back down. Ma Kong also noticed the gaze, and his pain-riddled face was brightened by a smile as he understood. If Ma Kong had fought this fight seriously, he might have had a chance. He knew how important it was for Hui Yue, so he had intended to test whether or not Wang Ju Long had been worth Hui Yue’s time.

Unfortunately, such arrogance had caused him to lose miserably and incur severe pain to boot.

“I give up,” Ma Kong said smilingly, as he allowed a wood affinity Master ranked teacher to help him leave the arena and heal his leg.