A bet

Hao Ran walked into the house with Cheng Li and his older brother, Hao Qun.

Hao Qun turned around and faced him directly and asked, "What do you want from me, Hao Ran? Are you thinking of doing something stupid?"

Hao Ran laughed awkwardly while scratching his head, "You see, we wanted to go on a mission but all the ones we can do for our cultivation base are to easy. So we wanted you to pick one and that you can do and take us with you..." Hao Ran asked looking away with sweat going down his face.

"Hmmm. So what you're saying is you want to do something the sect says you can't because you'll most likely die, and you want me to help you in doing it?" Hao Qun asked Hao Ran.

"Pretty much." Hao Ran answered.

"Alright, I'll agree under a few conditions. One, you face me in a battle and have to at least be as half as good as me. Two, you have to tell me who she is, because I remember you being a lonely, can't get a girlfriend, no social skills, type of guy." Hao Qun agreed to their request under a few conditions.

"Alright fine." Hao Ran agreed and started to explain about Cheng Li.

"Her town was attacked by Underworld sect. We saved them. She wanted to avenge her fallen family members and I wanted to join Heavens mountain sect. We started talking and found out we liked each other so we started going out." Hao Ran explained but kept it short, leaving out details.

"Hmmm. When was this?" Hao Qun said as he looked at them both with cat eyes. He looked Hao Ran up and down and did the same with Cheng Li.

"This was about 7-8 years ago. Remember? I remember seeing you there." Cheng Li chined in and said as she sweated a little from being super nervous. She was facing Hao Ran's real brother.

"Hmmm. I see, I see. I don't remember at all." Hao Qun said and continued looking at them and sighed. "You guys really aren't lying, huh? Anyways, Cheng Li, right? You aren't allowed to touch my younger brother, yet. Got it?" Hao Qun said to Cheng Li which she agreed to by shaking her head.

"Okay, I don't care about your relationship anymore. Let's go to the fighting arena and see if your at least half as good as me." Hao Qun said and opened the door, he grabbed both their hands and appeared on an arena.

"Hey, Senior brother Qun! What're you doing?! I'm in the middle of a battle!" A guy holding an axe said.

"Sorry, sorry. My little brother wants to fight me to prove himself..." Hao Qun said while smiling. In an instant his eyes turned cold and he glared at his junior brother. "Will junior brother Gui move for me?"

Junior brother Gui started sweating and unknowingly dropped the axe from his hands which startled him. He picked the axe back up and said sorry to Hao Qun. He then left the stage. Junior brother Gui's opponent witnessed all of this. She didn't say nothing and slowly walked off the stage as she caught Hao Qun staring at her with the same eyes.

"Alright, now you can got to the seats and watch the whole thing. Don't worry, I'll also fight you." Hao Qun pointed at Cheng Li and used his energy to fly her up to the stands.

The arena was shaped like a football arena but was a little smaller and the field could only fit a 100 feet stage where the field is supposed to be. It also had a barrier around the arena in case any techniques ricochet or the user loses control.

"Elder brother, I won't be going easy on you. Alright?" Hao Ran said as fire started to be set aflame and going crazy under his feet.

"Hmph, if you hadn't. I would've killed you." Hao Qun said and a second later a whistle could be heard all around the stadium, that was blown by an elder.

Hao Ran launched himself and left a trail of fire behind him. He appeared in front of Hao Qun and threw a punch. Hao Qun dodged it and tapped Hao Ran lightly, throwing him off balance and tripping a few steps forward.

"Try to balance your moves, and make every movement count." Hao Qun said as he continued to dodge Hao Ran's punches.

Hao Ran sent a wave of flames in to directions as he attempted to corner Hao Qun. Hao Qun knew what his brother was thinking and purposefully fell into the trap. Hao Ran had Hao Qun cornered and launched flames on the sides of Hao Qun. The only spot Hao Qun could escape from was straight ahead to Hao Ran.

Hao Ran inhaled deeply and tried to spit fire at Hao Qun to block off his last escape route. Before Hao Ran could fully use his technique he could hear his elder brother say something that confused him.

"Boop." Was what Hao Ran heard from Hao Qun. All of a sudden Hao Ran could feel a finger poking right under his Adam's apple. It was a light tap but caused massive damage to Hao Ran.

Hao Ran could be seen backing up as much as he can as fire left his mouth as if it was vomit. He started coughing as he felt his lungs burning. "Dammit, how did the fire get in my lungs? Is it because i threw it up and some accidentally slipped in my lungs?" Hao Ran though to himself but shook that thought off his mind as he focused on the fight.

"Oh damn." Everyone watching the fight said in unison as they thought of how painful that would be to them.

Hao Ran breathed in slowly and then out with his eyes closed and then opened his eyes slowly. The fire around his feet disappeared and he started walking slowly towards his brother.

"Perceive." Hao Ran though to himself. "Listen, watch, hear, smell." Hao Ran thought to himself as he gave himself commands for his body to follow.

He continued walking slowly to his older brother. His elder brother confused thought he might as well punch him just in case his younger brother became retarded and didn't know what he was doing.

A punch flew to Hao Ran and unexpectedly to Hao Qun, Hao Ran caught it. Blood started to spill from Hao Ran's hand.

"Get him, Hao Ran!! Beat his ass!" The crowd went insane and comments like these were being thrown around.

"Please win." Cheng Li thought to herself and could be seen grabbing to her clothes tightly, as if she was worried.

"Ah, shit. I thought you would dodge it. Not do something retarded." Hao Qun said as he moved his hand away from Hao Ran's hand.

Hao Ran's hand fell down as if it was knocked out. Hao Ran looked at his hand and realized his whole hand was broken. Blood coming out from his hands dying his hand and the floor red. This dazed Hao Ran as he was coming to terms with what just happened. He had thought that he blocked it, but forgot that his brother had a strength surpassing heaven roaming 3rd stage.

Hao Qun stared at Hao Ran's hand and said, "Your not ready yet."

Hao Qun ran up to Hao Ran and kneed him in the stomach, and then kicked him to the side of the arena, causing blood to come out of Hao Ran's mouth.

Everybody in the crowd was silent and was just watching. They had nothing to say. They knew Hao Ran was trying to prove himself for some reason, but they wondered if it was a good reason.

Cheng Li sat on her seat with tears welling up on the corner of her eyes and her hands covering her mouth as she thought, "How did it come to this? We just wanted to go on a mission together." After that thought, the tears started to come down like a river.

The people next to her felt bad for her but couldn't say anything. One girl came to Cheng Li but stopped as she stared at Cheng Li's eyes. A single thought entered that girls mind.

"Is that... Blood?"

Everyone around started to notice that instead of regular tears, Cheng Li was crying blood tears. They started getting nervous and started to yell for them to stop the match. But Hao Ran and Hao Qun couldn't hear them as they continued fighting.