Clan Tournament Begins! Round 1! (2)

"This is..." Yu Tian's right pupil flashed red briefly, unnoticed by the spectators.

...

"I'll gift you my eyes." Another lost memory came flooding back into his mind.

Yu Tian could hear that feminine voice again, whispering ancient knowledge in an unknown language into his ears, and yet he understood.

He remembered her soft hands covering his eyes, changing them. It started with his right eye gaining this ability.

"Now, you can see the truth of this world. Its name is..."

...

"[Eyes of Eternity]!" He whispered.

With the ember's bear's attack, Yu Tian could now see its intended path! Right as Li Gang's martial spirit was about to smash downwards again, the former god had already moved a full second before it even finished winding up its arms.

"Boom!" The ember bear missed Yu Tian, continuing to damage the stage. Both Li Gang and his martial spirit were confused as to what happened.

"Heh." Yu Tian rubbed his nose confidently, his left hand supporting Qiu Xue on his shoulder.

Although activating the eye felt like second nature to him, the strength of the ability seemed to have diminished greatly. Right now, Yu Tian could only see 1 second into the future, but that 1 second was more than enough for him to extract all the information he needs.

Yu Tian's right eye flashed again as he saw both Li Gang and his martial spirit charge him this time.

His opponent would try to sweep kick him to make him lose balance, and his ember bear will strike from the air onto his fallen body. Analyzing the factors present, Yu Tian saw an opening and also ran towards them.

"What?" Li Gang was completely stunned as his kick missed, sliding right past his opponent.

His ember bear's pounce also only hit the air as both parties landed on opposite sides. Yu Tian had spun in-between the tiny space between Li Gang and his martial spirit at the last second, easily dodging their coordinated attack.

...

"Good! Good!" Li You Zi clapped in glee.

He's now truly believing Long Qing Yuan's words. When Yu Tian was seemingly helpless and being chased around by Li Gang and his ember bear, he summoned out his own martial spirit.

This somehow made his movements much faster, evening out the playing field.

The Divine War Physique was truly amazing. Not only was Yu Tian able to hold his own against an opponent with higher cultivation, but he could also even match them with a martial spirit difference of 2 entire grades.

Shan Dong Hai also nodded slowly in appreciation. The Li clan had some good seedlings in this young generation, but he wondered if any one of them could come close with the small monster in his clan.

The reason that he and some representatives of the other families were here was not only just to observe, but also to scope out potential threats. After each clan had their own respective annual tournaments, there was another competition between the 4 major families every 5 years.

The inter-clan competition was to determine who becomes the leader in governing the city, rather than using a voting system. As the older teens were sent to different academies, the clans had a consensus on the competitors being from the younger generation.

Winning the competition meant staying in power for half a decade, and be pardoned out of taxes for the entire duration. The other 3 families would split the winner's tax costs between them.

Currently, the Sima clan acted as the leader family, and had already stayed in power for 3 consecutive terms. It has already passed half of their third term, meaning that this competition was about to occur again soon.

This time, Shan Dong Hai was very confident in his granddaughter being able to sweep the children of the other families. The battles of the Yun and Sima clan were very anti-climatic, with their chosen children seemingly already determined beforehand as a way to hide their strength.

Compared to the Li and Shan clan, who were more honourable, they would rather have their tournaments out in the open.

Shan Dong Hai wasn't too worried about them though. He was, however, very interested in this Li Yu Tian, but still felt that the boy would also be no match for his granddaughter.

Meanwhile, Li Chang and Li Cheung also breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe Yu Tian still had a chance to win after all.

...

Performing a backflip while holding onto Qiu Xue, Yu Tian dodged another strike from Li Gang and his ember bear. Seeing his opponent's exposed back, Yu Tian used the momentum to kick Li Gang from behind, sending him sprawling onto the stage again.

"Yu Tian!" Li Gang howled as he picked himself up, spitting out some dirt and debris from his mouth. "You trash!"

"How does the floor taste?" Yu Tian taunted.

Seeing Yu Tian laugh at him, Li Gang became outraged. He continued to blindly charge with his ember bear, but it was fruitless for him to land a single hit because Yu Tian continued to dodge easily.

[Eyes of Eternity]

Yu Tian frowned. Although Li Gang was dirty and battered, he wasn't able to push the stocky boy off the stage or incapacitate him. Every time the former god knocked him down, it barely seemed to faze Li Gang as he got back up just as fast.

His opponent was truly like his martial spirit, as tenacious as a bear.

Since this was also a clan tournament and not a fight to the death, Yu Tian wasn't able to use any killing moves or techniques that might cripple his opponent. Not only that, weapons were prohibited, further limiting his capabilities.

As much as he wanted to make Li Gang suffer for his words against his mother, Yu Tian also didn't want to cause any big trouble for her either.

Even Yu Tian's eyes weren't able to determine a suitable opening for striking, unless he blocked at least one of their strikes with his body. That was far too risky for him, and as dumb as Li Gang looked and acted, his ember bear was always close by, protecting his blind spots.

"How am I going to deal with the bear..." Yu Tian muttered. He took a step back and was met with uneven footing, followed by a sharp crunch.

Looking down, Yu Tian's eyes flickered with inspiration. He Immediately scooped up a handful of the debris, collecting the larger pieces.

"Hold on tight, Qie Xue." Yu Tian told his martial spirit as he prepared to fight back.

"Meow." The kitten nodded obediently.

Slamming both fists together, Li Gang coated them with fire Qi. Yu Tian calmly watched as Li Gang charged at him yet again with his ember bear, swinging his arms wildly.

This time though, Yu Tian jumped on the back of the bear and launched himself into the air.

"Huh?" Li Gang was confused at what Yu Tian was doing, looking upwards briefly.

However, this was a perfect chance for him to land a devastating strike! Li Gang willed his martial spirit to slam Yu Tian down when his opponent landed. "Go!"

Smirking, Yu Tian dodged and launched the small pieces of stone tile with a wave of his arm, kiting backwards. The ember bear scrambled back to block the projectiles for the panicked Li Gang, but his martial spirit was unable to block all of them.

"Ahh!" Li Gang cried out in pain when some of the rocks hit him directly in the face.

These were the debris his ember bear created when rampaging around the stage. Li Gang tried to put his hands out to block further projectiles, using his Qi coated hands as a shield.

However, Yu Tian's eyes helped him easily maneuver his throws around them. The former god took advantage of the confusion and continued to pelt Li Gang with the debris.

After taking a few more hits, his opponent immediately began to take steps back in order to avoid the furious stings.

"This is for talking bad about my mother." Yu Tian sneered, picking up and launching more broken pieces of the stage at his opponent. "You're only the first on my list."

"Wuu..." Li Gang eventually became a snivelling, snotty mess. He finally tripped backwards at the edge of the stage, falling off.

Yu Tian grinned darkly at his victory, ignoring the boos and jeers coming from the spectators. It was rather embarrassing for a former god to bully a child, and much more illogical for him to be enjoying it.

However, Yu Tian didn't care. In this life, he was a child too, so all's fair in love and war. Qiu Xue gave him an amused look and returned into his body. "Meow."

"Gang'er!" His opponent's mother rushed to the stage to care for her son.

Seeing the bruises and small welts that were already forming on his face, she gave Yu Tian a dirty look and rushed off with Li Gang to find some medicine. Yu Tian merely looked back coolly.

"Yu Tian is a cheater! There's no using tools or weapons in the clan tournament!" A voice suddenly shouted.

"Disqualify him! Yu Tian used weapons!" Another voice clamoured, supporting the first person that spoke out.

Soon, many other voices joined in on calling for Yu Tian's disqualification. Li You Zi finally had enough and stood up with a roar.

"Shut up! Shut up! All of you, shut up!" The Li clan's patriarch growled, causing Yu Tian's haters to become silent.

"There were no tools or weapons used in their fight, you imbeciles." Li You Zi slowly gave a death glare to every single member that complained. "Yu Tian picked up some rocks from the ground that Li Gang made and used it to his advantage, nothing more."

Some of them who still felt unfair looked to the two elders beside Li You Zi for help. They both stood up, and Li Cheung coughed to clear his throat before speaking for himself and his brother.

"The grand elders also see nothing wrong with Yu Tian's match." To their shock, they agreed and supported Li You Zi.

The Li patriarch gave them another look of extreme suspicion, as they typically would be against whatever he decided. Did they wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?

Li Cheung turned to the elder that was refereeing the match. "Please announce the winner."

Nodding, the elder stepped onto the stage and pointed his arm toward Yu Tian. "Winner of Round 1 first match, Li Yu Tian!"

"Round 1! Second match! Li Ning versus Li Bing Wen!" He announced.

However, after observing the current state of the stage after the first match, the elder was put in an awkward position.

"Erm. Patriarch Shan, do you mind helping us fix the stage with your earth manipulation?" He reluctantly turned to Shan Dong Hai embarrassingly.

...

Paying no attention to the other matches, Yu Tian went to wash away the dust and blood from his face during the off time. He couldn't help but smile when he heard familiar footsteps approaching from behind, trying to sneak up on him.

Li Mei Ling hugged her son, softly stroking his head. She was extremely moved to hear the words Yu Tian said while fighting, knowing that he was in a way, getting revenge for her sake.

"Mother." Yu Tian smiled brightly at her.

"Good son, I know that you're trying your best for mother." Li Mei Ling missed the look of guilt on Yu Tian's face as it was hidden in her embrace.

"I don't want you to push yourself too hard though." She reminded him. "Your safety is more important."

"I understand." Yu Tian nodded, making her satisfied with his response.

His eyes narrowed dangerously. Regardless of the cultivation difference, Yu Tian was still confident in dealing with all the children that talked bad about Li Mei Ling.

The former god finally decided towards getting first in the clan tournament. It'll be the first important step in gaining back the respect that he and his mother deserved.