Three Bottles

"Well, there will be five rounds in this competition. The first round will be a mass elimination round. In this round, both academies would fight in two arenas. The Bai academy disciples will fight each other in one of the two arenas, and the Si academy's disciples will fight each other in the second arena." The referee explained the rules to the disciples. 

"In the end, both academies will be left with ten disciples each. Remember this, as punishment, every disciple eliminated will have to give ten essence stones to the ten winners of their respected academy. So, don't slack off during the fights." 

In this way, the losers would lose their essence stones and the winners would get free essence stones as a reward. This rule was made to motivate the disciples to give their all. This was a strategy set by the Clan. 

It was worth mentioning that the essence stones were not so easily obtained by the disciples. Even ten essence stones were too much for the disciples. Yang Zhai had to fight for the essence stones to get so many. 

The audience was standing around the arena, listening to the referee. Yang Zhai was standing in the crowd wearing a black cloak, listening to all of this. 

"Now, the disciples of the Bai academy go to the arena on the left side and the disciples of the Si academy go to the right arena." 

When the referee said this, the disciples of both academies began to walk onto the two arenas respectively. 

Yang Zhai came out of the crowd and walked towards the right arena where the disciples of the Si academy were gathering. 

However, he was stopped by rank 3 disciples. 

"Wait, who are you? Nobody is allowed to walk near the disciples or the arenas, besides the ones chosen by the Clan leader." 

Yang Zhai removed his mask and the hood of his black cloak from his face. 

"Wait, aren't you Yang Zhai?" The disciple could not clearly recognize Yang Zhai at first: however, after looking carefully he recognized him. 

"Yes, I am." Yang Zhai replied back. 

"Okay, come with me, we would like to ask an elder first." 

The rank 3 disciple took Yang Zhai to elder Ren. 

"Elder, greetings." The rank 3 disciple and Yang Zhai greeted elder Ren respectfully. 

"Hmm, what is it?" Elder Ren nodded.

Elder Ren was looking at the arena and his back was facing them. 

"Elder, Yang Zhai has come back. So, I took him to meet you first." 

"Hmm," Elder Ren looked behind after he heard this. 

He saw Yang Zhai standing with the rank 3 disciple and asked, 

"So, you decided to come back. Are you here to compete in the competition? I thought you would only arrive in the final round of the competition between our clan and the Ma clan." 

"Yes, elder, if you would allow me to compete in this competition, I would like to participate as well." 

"You can, even if I wanted to forbid you, I could not. After all, everyone in the class is required to compete. Anyway, did you go to the Ma clan this time as well?" Elder Ren was more concerned with where Yang Zhai had gone to hide this time around. 

"Yes, I did go to the Ma clan. But it was a little difficult to live there as they had more guards lurking around the streets this time around. It appears to me that someone informed the Ma clan that I had hidden in their clan. I think there is a traitor. After all, only the elders and a few senior disciples knew about this." 

Yang Zhai just casually said this to divert elder Ren's attention. It was obvious that the Ma clan would increase the number of guards after knowing that Yang Zhai had hidden in their clan. And the Bai clan had no deficiency of them. After all, even the third elder, Elder Jil Lu, Elder Cu Gil, and even the Clan leader's wife was a traitor. 

"Very well, you can go and wait with the other disciples. The competition will start in an hour. Until then, you can rest or practice your techniques." 

Both Yang Zhai and the rank 3 disciple left after hearing this. 

Yang Zhai came to the waiting hall, where everyone was meditating or practicing. Ai Hao and Si Kim were also there, and Lie Yi and Hyun Hae too. 

Including Yang Zhai, there were a total of fifty-three disciples in the hall. Yang Zhai looked around and saw Ai Hao. Thereafter, he went to a place in the hall that was near to her. 

There, he sat down and began to meditate.

After a while, Hyun Hae came to him and asked excitedly,

"How are you, brother Yang?!"

Yang Zhai opened his eyes after hearing this.

"I am doing fine. What about you and Lie Yi?"

"We are doing fine as well. Brother Yang, I knew that you would be entering the competition. Anyway, will you be coming back home or going somewhere again?"

"No, I won't go anywhere this time around. Anyway, I went to the Ma clan. You won't believe what I found there!!!" Yang Zhai said excitedly. 

He stood up with a smiling face. His voice also grew a little loud in the end. 

"Oh, is it something interesting?!" Hyun Hae also became happy when she listened to Yang Zhai.

Yang Zhai pulled out a bottle of blue liquid. This bottle was only four inches long. Then, he began to speak loudly again.

"Yep, it's very interesting. Here, see this, it has the ability to increase the healing properties of someone's body. Not just that, it can also improve someone's ability to differentiate poisonous herbs from other herbs. It is very useful. I bought this from the Ma clan. Actually, I saved a little girl and the father of that girl handed me these three bottles as an appreciation." 

"Oh," Hyun Hae was not so excited about the medicine. But, she still smiled.

However, on the other hand, Ai Hao opened her eyes and looked at the bottle of blue liquid. She was a healing cultivator that could not stay aloof from such things. 

Her focus was drawn by Yang Zhai's sentence, and she began to listen to Yang Zhai carefully.

"I had a total of three such bottles. I already drank one and noticed the effects. But I cannot drink another one as only a single bottle can be used by someone, and it will be useless to drink another one. So, I was thinking of giving the remaining ones to someone else." Yang Zhai began to explain carefully with a serious expression.

After saying everything, he handed one bottle to Hyun Hae.

He then glanced to the side and noticed that he had already taken Ai Hao's attention.

After handing one bottle to Hyun Hae, he himself opened one bottle and spoke,

"Well, it will be useless to waste the remaining one, so I should just drink it myself." He was about to drink it when he was stopped by someone.

"Wait a minute, brother Yang."

It was Ai Hao. She hurriedly came to Yang Zhai and said,

"Brother, you said that it is useless to drink another one, right, so I was hoping you could give this one to me." She requested with respect. She also bowed when asking for the bottle.

She didn't want to miss such an opportunity. Not only that, but she was a healing cultivator, to begin with, and had an obsession with it from a young age. Furthermore, she had been studying herbs and plants for years. Not just that, she also didn't change her path even after she was chosen for the competition between the Ma clan and the Bai clan even after many elders asked her.

So, how could she miss a liquid which could improve the perception to differentiate between poisonous herbs and useful herbs? Besides that, this liquid could also improve the healing properties of a body, could she miss this opportunity then?

"I am a healing cultivator, and you have already used one bottle before. And it can be very useful to me. So, I hope you can consider giving it to me." Ai Hao respectfully asked again after seeing Yang Zhai hesitating.

"I am not asking you to give it to me for free though, I can give something in return. But, I don't have anything useful on me for now. However, I promise that after the first round, I will ask my parents for something useful that I can give to you in exchange for this bottle." She insisted again when she saw that Yang Zhai was still hesitating and not responding.

"Well, it's true that it's useless to me now. Okay, you can have it, but don't forget your promise." Yang Zhai was silent for a moment before replying.

"Okay, I will do just that." Ai Hao was happy when Yang Zhai agreed.

"Here,"

Yang Zhai handed the bottle to Ai Hao.

Ai Hao was about to store the bottle in a pouch when she was stopped by Yang Zhai.

"Wait, you can't do that. This liquid starts to lose its effects after five minutes of being opened. If you store it now, it will be useless later on." Yang Zhai explained.

"Uh," When Ai Hao heard this, she stopped and didn't put the bottle in her pouch.

Yang Zhai saw Ai Hao hesitating. It was to be expected, how could she drink a liquid without investigating it properly?

However, he had already thought about it and had expected something like to happen, and had done something about it as well.

Yang Zhai then looked at Hyun Hae and said,

"And Hayu Hae, you too. Drink the liquid: otherwise, your liquid will also become useless. After all, I opened your bottle as well." 

!*****!*****!