Win and Losses (3)

Three days later, above the arena, Long Ming looked for a while at the young man he had just defeated.

In the meantime, he had had no trouble beating his opponents and, to his dissatisfaction, none of his opponents were as skilled as Yong Gan. Of course, this didn't mean that he hadn't learned anything from these fights, but he was still dissatisfied with the performance of his opponents.

Shortly after the presenter announced his victory, Long Ming left the arena and walked into the audience.

"Congratulations on another win, Long Ming," the man sitting next to Long Ming congratulated him on his victory. After all those days, he ended up making friends with some of the other spectators at that event, mainly by talking about his fights.

"Thank you," he thanked them briefly, before starting to meditate on the techniques he had seen so far and the new perspective he had just discovered. In this case, the mysticism behind these techniques, which allow their user to perform actions beyond their previous capabilities.

After all these days, Long Ming could understand that his Heaven and Earth Resonance manual was only so beneficial because of this mysticism. And the same could (possibly) be applied to all the techniques and manuals he had ever read and seen.

Understanding this new perspective, Long Ming focused on his footwork manual, the Mad Dog Steps, and thought of a hypothesis: "could this manual of mine also possess this mystical enhancement?"

In short, he came to the conclusion that it depends. Long Ming had never thought of applying anything mystical to this manual, but that didn't mean that it didn't have the potential to do so. After all, many creations turn out to be even more complex than their creators had previously thought, especially when it comes to manuals and techniques.

So Long Ming began to think about how to discover the mysticism of his manual. Reflecting on all these things, he became so immersed that he didn't notice the day was drawing to a close, and that the last fight of that day was finally over.

So he returned to the Wu residence and continued to reflect in his room.

Before he knew it, dawn was breaking, so he got up and prepared to return to the arena.

Soon, after a few minutes' walk, he arrived at the championship venue and continued to reflect while waiting for his name to be called.

"The next fight will be Long Ming against Fei Lu!!!" at some point, the announcer's voice broke Long Ming's concentration.

'Oh? My next fight will be with Fei Lu?" he thought with surprise. Of course, this wasn't really shocking, after all, the further he went, the greater his chance of fighting someone in particular (as long as that someone kept winning, of course).

But they were still in the quarter-finals, so their chances of fighting Fei Lu were 1 to 7. Which wasn't much, but it wasn't little either.

Long Ming didn't think much of it and climbed into the arena, in front of him was Fei Lu who was staring at him fiercely.

Fei Lu was wearing an ordinary black suit, her hair was tied up in a ponytail and at her waist was a sheathed jian sword.

"It looks like we're finally going to face each other again, Long Ming. But this time you won't be so lucky," Fei Lu said with eyes as sharp as blades.

"Maybe so, maybe not. Fate is uncertain," Long Ming said with a carefree smile on his face, but his expression showed how serious he was.

Throughout these days, Long Ming had naturally observed Fei Lu's fights and, to his (slight) surprise, he seemed to be getting even stronger.

Long Ming wasn't sure whether Fei Lu could have reached the initial stage of the Qi Collection realm, but he decided to take that as a fact rather than underestimate him and lose as a result.

"Why don't we make a trade, huh, Long Ming?" Fei Lu then suddenly asked, surprising Long Ming and even puzzling his host.

Long Ming's surprise didn't last long, after he theorized what Fei Lu's intention was.

"Exchange what, exactly?" He asked, but already anticipating what his answer would be.

"I give up this championship, allowing you to go through to the semi-finals, in exchange for you giving me back the iron ring. What do you think?" His proposal shocked the presenter, and even the spectators, who were listening, were also shocked.

Everyone began to discuss how absurd it sounded, and some of them even felt offended, as if Fei Lu was snubbing them by giving up the championship for a simple iron ring.

Long Ming, however, wasn't surprised, as he could already imagine why he had said that. In his opinion, based almost exclusively on his intuition, that iron ring must be the reason for Fei Lu's strength. His hypothesis was further strengthened when he realized that it wasn't just an iron ring.

It would therefore stand to reason that Fei Lu could easily give up this championship if it allowed him to recover the iron ring.

"Nah, I'm not interested," Long Ming then replied, after contemplating for a few seconds, with a mocking smile on his face.

His answer shocked all the spectators even more, and many began to believe that the two of them were belittling that championship, as they seemed to think that a simple iron ring was more valuable than the prizes in that championship.

Long Ming didn't care about the reaction of the spectators and continued to look at Fei Lu, waiting for his answer.

Long Ming's reason for rejecting this offer was quite simple: when he discovered that the ring had a secret, he was almost certain that Fei Lu might be someone "special", so to speak. But it remained to be seen how "special" Fei Lu would be.

Long Ming was quite a witty person, a research type and a great believer in mystical concepts such as fate, the six elements and even the Laws of Heaven and other metaphysical concepts.

And because of his interest in such concepts, Long Ming had read many books about them, including the history of legendary characters who, for some reason, were destined for great things. These characters seemed blessed by the heavens, as if the principle of tribulation didn't apply to them, or at least on a lower scale than normal cultivators.

And Fei Lu seemed to be this kind of person. The reason Long Ming believed this was simple, Fei Lu had suffered a tragedy in his life, becoming unable to cultivate, but had suddenly healed and was now among the strongest of his peers. In addition, he possessed (or possessed) a mysterious ring that seemed ordinary at first glance. These were common characteristics of these legendary characters.

"What?! Long Ming, are you really going to reject the possibility of winning this match so easily just to keep a simple iron ring? Are you doing this just to annoy me?" Fei Lu said the next moment, completely shocked by Long Ming's rejection. Long Ming's rejection seemed completely unthinkable to him, after all, getting the rewards for getting past the quarter-finals should be immensely more generous than that iron ring. From an ordinary person's perspective, of course.

"Piss you off? Not exactly. You happen to be a very strange person. Years ago you suffered an accident that made you a cripple, but then suddenly, a few months ago, you recover and even reach the half-step stage of the Qi Gathering realm! That's not something simple, and I'd say it must even be unheard of in this world. Besides, you say it's strange that I should reject your offer, but I can counter by saying that it's even stranger that you should make such an offer.

As you said, it's a simple iron ring! So why would you give up this championship so easily for just an iron ring?"

Noticing the nervous expression on Fei Lu's face, Long Ming turned his gaze to the spectators, especially to the top of the building, where the cultivator families stood, including the Lin family and the Xie family.

'It's not possible that they didn't have the same thought as me. So if they haven't acted against Fei Lu so far, it's because they really know something... Hmm, although the Fei family may be powerful, it's no match for the Lin, who have a connection to the Lin clan, and the Xie who have some secret...' Long Ming thought about Fei Lu's life again, but after a few minutes he shook his head and decided to ignore it.

"In any case, his life and death are none of my business," with this resolution he turned his gaze to Fei Lu and, after some thought, said:

"But I can make a little bet with you, what do you think?"

"Bet what exactly?" Fei Lu asked with a frown.

"Since I got this ring after defeating you, there's nothing more natural than you needing to defeat me to get it back. What do you think?" Long Ming said with a smile on his face, he was clearly interested in Fei Lu's answer.

After reflecting for a short moment, Fei Lu nodded in agreement. With that, the presenter asked if the two of them were ready.

Long Ming didn't answer his question straight away, but closed his eyes with the intention of resonating. About twenty seconds later, he opened his eyes and nodded in agreement.

"Then begin!" the announcer said in the next second.

The moment they heard his words, Long Ming and Fei Lu rushed towards each other, causing them to approach each other in the center of the arena and deliver the first blows of the fight.

Long Ming planned to finish this fight as soon as possible, so without delay, he gathered all his nature energy, as well as mobilizing his Qi, to perform a series of powerful slashes.

The moment the two approached each other, Long Ming performed a sequence of slashes, coming from different directions thanks to the mobility of his twinblade. However, to Long Ming's surprise, Fei Lu managed to parry most of his blows without showing any great difficulty.

Long Ming then decided to be even more aggressive, and used his footwork to try to attack Fei Lu's gaps.

Through his resonance, allowing him to use nature's energy to propel him, as well as his own Qi, Long Ming reached a speed unthinkable for him, to the point that he too was unable to react properly. But he didn't care about that, and focused almost exclusively on the task of attacking Fei Lu's blind spots.

Fei Lu was forced to focus completely on defending himself, also using his Qi and footwork to avoid Long Ming's blows. Even so, Fei Lu wasn't able to fend off all of Long Ming's blows and a few cuts appeared all over his body, unfortunately, they were superficial cuts that didn't give Long Ming much of an advantage.

Soon, at some point, Long Ming began to tire and momentarily reduced his speed. Fei Lu realized this and, with a smile on his face, propelled himself with his Qi towards Long Ming.

'?!' Long Ming was barely able to react, before Fei Lu reduced the distance between the two and tried to cut him down. Long Ming pulled his body back, but wasn't quick enough to avoid his opponent's blow, which cut slightly into his belly.

Quickly, Fei Lu took another step forward, approached again and tried to cut him again. However, this time Long Ming was already prepared and used the energy of nature to propel him away, then put his hand inside his clothes and took out one of his runes.

Fei Lu didn't care, and propelled himself towards him again.

'Crack', a small sound of stone breaking sounded, before a bubble of Qi suddenly materialized in front of Long Ming and headed towards Fei Lu.

Fei Lu was surprised by this, and quickly tried to dodge the Qi bubble. But Long Ming, already anticipating this, mobilized the energy of nature towards that Qi bubble, throwing it towards Fei Lu.

'Boom!' Soon, an explosion sounded as the bubble exploded. A mist of dust rose from the ground, obstructing almost everyone's view and making it difficult to know Fei Lu's whereabouts.

Long Ming watched the dust settle attentively, holding a rune in his hands in anticipation of any counter-attack. Then, moments later, he saw a powerful Qi emerge from that mist and, in the next moment, could only make out a blade flying towards him.