The choice was between that or stumbling across another group who came seeking the gate, or worse, a group with no token simply seeking an opportunity to steal from those who had secured one and found the gate as well. In that map, this wasn't the only portal gate, but the number of these was still few. An ambush near the gate, that wasn't impusible at all and having spent a peaceful night on the other hand felt more like a fantasy to her. Wei Zhiruo didn't think that st night's peace would continue seamlessly anymore, particurly with the deadline approaching so close and so fast, she had a tingling doubt growing with the surging winds that many were already over the fences.
Watching the desperate situation as they'd walked the gullies, ravines and cliffsides to get to their position right here, she became more assured of her belief that this 'Sect Disciple taking Ceremony' was likely a very professional 'thinning out of weed to pick up the sturdiest of pnts' in the batches. Justifiably, by now, many minds would have readily let go of all inhibitions and fear of the beginning, any bottom lines too would've shrunken, loosened and forcefully squeezed within narrowed stretches, shrinking even further down in size to fit in methods to allow maneuvers justifying a dying attempt. She feared for the sake of achieving one's purposes many would fuel ongoing carnage —the youngest, of course, will become the fodder and bear the brunt of it all. Even for grown up adults and teenagers, however, such a 'st attempt' will be nothing but catastrophe coming across such desperados.
In two days, Wei Zhiruo had been sufficiently informed of what kind of jungle— how wild and reckless, with blood and gore, and corpses piling up on top of one another— she was going to enter soon.
[You've still got time, enough too, I say. Choose carefully, Ama.] Marr timely interjected. He still felt she was being too hurried.
"I know. I've thought long enough. And soon we'll see whether my choices are going to be worthwhile, which I hope they are. More importantly because we found a clue that
Marr was back from his wandering. [Seal them up before you are tested again. We might be prepared to be discovered but not doing anything is not a solution as well.]
"Let's just take it step by step. I'll seal the three other attributes and leave only the wood and fire. If the testing still shows the other roots...then we can try and see what we can do."
Wei Zhiruo watched her dantian which held a few more strands of light, now forming a formidable and deeply mystical pattern. Silver, gold and white, she counted the wisp shades and immediately assorted the difference to the time period of inhaling starlight. She narrowed her eyes and immediately took action without informing Marr; she first used a wisp and Vitality to write down a Rune [Close] over the dantian mouth, then kept using two other strands to further incorporate [Seal], forming a complicated Rune Array.
"It's done."
[Tsk. Don't think I didn't find out what you did behind my back. I'm not going to warn you again as you never listen.] Marr frowned and seethed. He sounded deeply offended.
"Come on, give me some space! You know this is the highest protection I can enforce—"
[At the expense of your lifespan!]
"But I'm betting here, right? Betting that these Cultivators will have a method to reinforce vitality or why would people call them 'immortals'?"
[What happens if you're just mistaken?]
Wei Zhiruo didn't reply as she'd hardly thought of that. "I feel I am not."
[...I just don't know what to do with you! You will never listen. Alright.]
"You're not angry anymore?" Wei Zhiruo picked him up, scratching his fur with her fingers. She found his red worried eyes that did look furious but within them she also peered that he understood her intentions.
[I am not.] Marr looked away at the group a little distance away as he said this. To further expin his own feelings he added, [I know if we encountered another Ying Yueru we will be chased and killed or...worse. Desperate times need different rules, and I will forgive this slight of yours towards your own life.]
Marr had stolen back to Wei Zhiruo in depth of the night from his quite long absence and visibly invited a few inquiring gnces from her group members but she didn't take the trouble to expin. He climbed down and sat grooming himself, licking his paws and twisting his head to observe everyone’s state anew. Wei Zhiruo followed his inquisitive gaze and observed the four group members and the other two who had joined in halfway. Lin Junjie and his male servant Huang. They hardly talked but had decided to join in the group, forming a small alliance to fight others in exchange for...medicines and other amenities they cked.
She spotted that many wounds on people's faces had healed, leaving behind unconceable gring marks. She looked at her own hands and found the calluses disappearing and knew that even those marks would fade one day.
"There are...so many possibilities waiting for us."
Even the medicine given to mortal contenders could've such great effect, how much more magical would the real, precious treasure in the Sect nd be? Wei Zhiruo could only imagine. Increasingly, she became aware of how the madness she saw unfolding around her might have sense in it after all. People die seeking higher pces, power and influence —maybe these precocious children of this world also know of its importance and readily fight to death? There would be such children, she thought, clear-headed and independent, but she didn't believe everyone understood what they had entered into.
She observed others once more. Everyone was silent as if preparing to face a seven headed monstrous beast —the upcoming event might really put an end to their life and this thought seemed to be clearly recognized by these children, she found.
"It's not a safe pce—this world."
[Good enough response, though. I'd have made you rethink your choices had they shown any signs of leeching off of you. But their backs are straighter than I thought previously.] Marr licked his face and said, his red eyes becoming soberer. She nodded.
Song Hua and his sister Song Meiling stood in much better spirits than the previous night. With all the arrows spent in their yesterday’s battle and previous small scuffles with wild animals, Song Hua was now picking any stray arrow he could find and putting them together in the quiver he pced on his waist. His other hand held his bow and his sister chased behind him like a wagging tail.
Wei Zhiruo recalled how he had gotten those weapons in the first pce and frowned. Such encounters too had been quite fateful...or rather, it was proof of the degree of wlessness people had fallen into for the sake of so-called 'Sects Disciple Selection', Wei Zhiruo thought. Fifty dead people, her group alone, had encountered such a huge number on their way up here. Three groups, half of which were children of her age group were found besieged, trampled and dead. The mortality rate was mortifying to say the least.
"If this isn't the general affair of this world—ebb-less chaos everywhere, war and strife wherever one ys one's eyes; then what do you think these cultivators want to achieve through this initiation ceremony, Marr? Take a guess." She herself had certain thoughts she refrained to voice out first but keenly waited for Marr to reinforce her understanding.
[Humm...not too difficult to imagine if we take into account those stray snippets we've heard till now. It's establishing awe, it's forcing someone to become a part of the whole. If you start to think along the lines of cultivators —survival is for the fittest and weakness is sin— many more things will become natural on their own. The thing is the idea itself is quite alluring. Letting go of all awe of past mortal ws and coming out of a river of 'order' is an immediate rising above the conventional system of thought and belief and watching a structure for what it is, and from above too! Definitely this would immediately arouse one's sense of independence from nature, society and conventions. If someone successfully separates themselves from their immediate surroundings, understands the frailty of ws, or position of conventions itself, that will be a direct act of rising above a whole structure itself, and finally grasping the thin line of truth —many things will be fleshed away to just retain the core. Whatever that core might be must depend on those who can see things clearly, but for the majority, even if they don't understand the subtleties of this act, they will be forcefully transformed to accept newer, contradictory views and practices. It's an exhirating escape, and the beginning will definitely be chaotic and bloody.]
This expnation, she agreed with wholeheartedly. "I know —but that too is expecting oneself to rise above the appearance and see things for what it is, right? How many of these children can even grasp this fine aspect of this massacre? Wouldn't they grow up malformed, with instincts to achieve the best for themselves regardless of the world? What I don't understand is —what can a five-year-old achieve in this process?"
[...That too made me hesitate whether I'm putting too much credit on these cultivators and their intentions at first. Maybe they just want everyone to immediately get into an endless chase for power? Right now, children are just colteral damages, the weeds of the garden...what might've been the intention to include such tender minds is beyond me. The process does make sense, however. I can give them that!]
Wei Zhiruo recalled how she felt when she first found a mound of recently dead piles of bodies. Twenty children, all dead and in the most horrible ways too. Jun Mingdao had found this group of corpses —and she had seen deep mortification dawn on everyone's faces.
Recently dead as those corpses were, they still wore some of their accessories and weapons. Traces of fighting were visible but maybe the murderer didn’t think much of weapons, they hadn’t looted anything from the body. That left her group a chance to reequip themselves with arms – Jun Mingdao however didn’t take anything from the pile, nor did Wei Zhiruo.
Their group had spent several hours collecting firewood to give a sembnce of closure to the nameless, faceless corpses – some of them were so young that when she lit fire, she couldn’t help but feel revulsion. Those corpses reminded her of too many bad things in the past and she couldn’t help but reevaluate the ws of this new world. The Middle world was much better, she thought at first, but then Wei Zhiruo recalled the things she'd read of its long blood-curdling history of injustice and suffering —she'd read of 'First Great War of Humanity', 'Pact of Condolence between Mages and Mortals', 'Pact of Wilder Tress' brought by Queen Sommera the Light Witch which had finally settled the disputes between all races and mortal, but at the cost of sinking a whole continent in the Abyss. Many Mages had thrown away their lives in several wars to give mortals that safer heaven they enjoyed when she'd found that affluent nd of magic. Who could discount the process that the world had undergone to achieve that peace?
A world that wouldn’t even leave children out of intrigues and chase for strength was hardly a ‘safe and civilized’ world; Cuiping, despite its ter chaos, hadn't been such a world in her childhood. This was a new, more dangerous world.
Wei Zhiruo looked down at her tender arms that had grown some flesh and those children’s faces that looked heavily malnourished, filthy dresses and soiled features, cuts and wounds and matted hair that was stuck with twigs and dirt – she wasn't much better but watching the burning eyes of such children she settled down her discomfort.
“I will be ready in a minute. We can leave, but let's talk about what to do next. We don't know what we'll see after we enter this portal.” Jun Mingdao, who'd been meditating, sought her out and asked loudly. Others came closer together, even Lin Junjie and his servant came up. No one seemed to find it strange that they were asking a seven-year-old to make decisions on which everyone's life rested. But Wei Zhiruo had already shown them enough ability to undermine any outward appearance. There was some blushing shame on Lin Junjie's face, a real grown-up but he hardly put another word contradicting others. He agreed with everything others decided.
"We will go through the portal and might even enter the Arena in one go." Wei Zhiruo assessed from the scent information she'd gathered from them. "I suggest we stick closer together, and some of you can try holding hands before you go through the portal."
"Okay, agreed." Jun Mingdao nodded.
"How about this formation? If you all manage to keep within this order, I think the immediate attacks can be countered at first and easily reduce risks." Wei Zhiruo bent down and picked up a twig to draw a few shapes quickly on the ground.
Lin Junjie seemed to understand the formation immediately as he agreed the quickest. Others took some more expnation from her side and then everyone sat down to imprint the shape of formation and on her suggestion started pondering how to remain together while also managing to attack and defend against others. That was asking too much of them, she knew, but she couldn't spoon-feed them all the time, could she? What if she got separated from them? The best thing she could do was assist them in thinking out a method to restrain loss.
“Are they going with us?” Finding Jun Mingdao alone, Wei Zhiruo asked without voicing out the name.
“…They are much older than us. It would be better if our group had one or two adults. They said there is going to be a fight inside the arena, and many will take the first few minutes of chaos to kill. I guess they are better informed on certain facts than us too.” There must be a better deterring effect with them present.
Wei Zhiruo understood this well. This was one of the reason’s she'd hardly voiced any refusal to include them in the group. She was clueless about peoples agreed bottom lines – whatever she had watched till now had just simply informed her that such a bottom line was really too low. There was strength in number, that was a truth wherever one went. Wei Zhiruo nodded and then turned away to find a pce for herself.
She meditated for one whole hour and only roused her mind up when she heard a voice calling her.
“Little Sister Wei, we are ready. Are you prepared?” Tan Juxian came to her dragging his long sword which he could hardly carry without holding it in his two hands. He looked battered as the rest supported a big cut on his cheek that showed flesh.
“We are ready too.” Song Hua came, bringing along his sister in tow.
"Little young miss, my master and I are ready as well." Huang'er came closer with a cloth bundled in his back. He seemed to have picked up a ying sword from one of the assassins but the way he held it clearly showed her was an amateur.
When everyone felt ready, despite nervousness and fear palpitating in their hearts, with throbbing and nauseated mind's, all gathered within the enclosure. The seven of them entered the bluestone enclosure easily. Suddenly the tokens in their hands warmed up.
Wei Zhiruo watched, surprised, as the jade melted away in her palms leaving a mark swirling like a slithering snake. She felt the changes instantly. She sniffed a slight energy wafting from the sudden shift, a trace of it stole along with the penetrating sunlight, mixed with the starlight particles and entered one of her meridian acupoints that was clogged. Then havoc raged, power surged and that bit of energy trace seemingly trapped at first, kept hitting the clogged points repeatedly!
Wei Zhiruo muffled a slight groan, then felt that dot travel through her hand meridian's, cross clogged points and then escape within her body till it entered her dantian!
Shock seized her. Feverish and heated up she was shivering but didn't let any of her symptoms show too obviously. She fisted her hands then instantly pried into the faces of others around her. No one seemed to show anything on their faces – but this couldn’t rule out that the energy that had entered inside her meridians hasn’t affected others. Maybe they were not sensitive to this new energy now.
[It is Spiritual Energy! Is this the Qi they talked of? The trace is too little. Prepare and don't get too swayed. We cannot show any difference in front of others. There might be spectators around.] Marr warned.
"Should I seal my apertures for now?"
[What Rune?] Marr asked.
"I thought of [Carapace]."
[Do it!] Marr didn't dissuade her this time.
Wei Zhiruo took small steps towards the towering Gate, behind everyone else and stopped as she watched everyone disappear. She used another wisp, leaving only five behind in the dantian, as she wrote the Rune on her skin. Two more decades of life. She felt drained for the first time, and understood that the lifespan was hanging by threads. Now, she couldn't use Runes, couldn't use Spiritual Consciousness —indifferent to her helplessness, Wei Zhiruo looked up at the huge gate and an inscrutable inscription. A memory told her the gate was called Pailou; the signboard and the wooden arch looked majestic. Early morning mist rolled underneath her feet, clouds rushed over her head and she swayed like a leaf, felt the freshness rustle in the woods and steal closer to herself. Once this step was taken, she will enter the sect nd.
[You’re hesitating?] Marr climbed up on her shoulder and nudged her.
“I feel like I may not be able to come outside easily once I get inside this gate. That is choosing to cut my link with Wei house and its intrigues and letting go of...certain duty.”
[That sounds probable. The Magic Academy usually imposed heavy restrictions on their students, remember? It's no big loss for us, is it?]
“Just that investigation—”
[Then let it be! We chose to let things rest sometimes. Stick to your words, Ama. Something’s will straighten out on their own, let the road take its bends and turns.]
“I feel indecisive. But I won’t turn back, you see.” She sighed.
Wei Zhiruo took the step walking straight into the film barrier.
She penetrated an invisible shield and felt the space fold. She smelled a very familiar breath of space, the void and then, with the sensation simir to falling down the cloud from a great height, she fell down like a meteor. She didn’t allow her instincts to pull her against gravity but instead kept falling. She didn't scream however, but she did hear several screams coming from around her.
“Thud!” She crashed down.
“Someone! Help!”
“Someone, please help! I don’t want to die-!”
“Mother-!”
Wei Zhiruo fell down with a resounding thud, felt her bones crack. She groaned a little, letting herself remain in the same position for a long time till she gathered enough courage to stand up without showing any outward reaction, but in the meantime she heard the cacophony, the nervousness smelt like coal smoke which suffocated her lungs!
She grumbled and kneeled down first, collected her bearing enough and then gathered strength in her hands to push herself up. Looking around herself, she didn't find anyone she knew among the crowd of the children and men, women and teenagers running heedlessly.
Red floated up in her vision, and she immediately skidded backwards, retreating away from the headless corpse of someone. A cruel looking glint shone in the murderers eyes as he rushed towards his next target, but Wei Zhiruo ran away with others clearing the space around that man.
When she found a pretty inconspicuous pce nearer to the tightly grouped children, she heard a familiar call, rushed past several people and found the others there. They looked fine so she joined the formation and started looking around.
Tall towers and balconies, archways and corridors opened in the skyway, pavilion's touching the sky and mountains that could be viewed from afar. Three storied colosseum-like structures surrounded the Arena, a ptform of bluestone raised above the ground with ropes and four pilrs at each corner of the square.
She raised her head and felt several piercing gazes coming from all around her, studying her, analyzing, digressing, disparaging and finally cold scrutiny – she couldn’t watch the faces of those who sat in the viewing area without her spiritual consciousness right now, but she knew she wasn't the only one being scrutinized.
There were too many people and the scenery was too bizarre. She watched strange looking beasts, fantastical winged creatures diving above in the sky and a roar resounded in the sky with dragons formed of Qi dancing in the sky! Cranes cried out, dragons roared, people cheered and finally, the bitter tears of shocked, terrified children surrounding her. The sound was too frenzied, brimming out with no restraint.
With rounded eyes, she looked up and watched someone flying on a sword and taking a seat on the balcony. Another person descended in the spectator tower using a round disc. She watched such a thing happen a number of times, and then watched many people fall down from the sky. A huge pattern hung in the sky, a purple aura surged within its lines and runes which were completely unfamiliar to her seemed to form a rhythmic synthesis with rules and… Wei Zhiruo wonderstruck, kept staring at the pattern.
Her eyes dited from soft blue to a silvery shade and then kept diting till they were becoming an opaque white, but then, she was suddenly aroused back to wakefulness by Jun Mingdao who said something.
“…I heard it right. They are going to observe the complete ceremony. But there are too many…people." She heard a few words which Jun Mingdao expined in a whisper. He was looking at two other people coming together to reach them. Lin Junjie looked ashen and his servant had lost one of his arms. When asked he said someone took action against them immediately as they fell down, but someone came to give them a hand so they escaped. Falling in the formation as predetermined, the seven of them became small drops in the wave of crowd which was yelling, shouting and screaming loudly. Some whispered like them, some arranged things in between themselves but the people hardly showed any intention to get out of the close knit crowd.
“Are the spectators on the towers students?” Wei Zhiruo whispered back. She looked up to meet the sweating face of Jun Mingdao. His eyes were twitching, his mouth pursed into a thin line. Tan Juxian didn't look any better. Song Meiling was in the center and Song Hua held her hands tightly as he guarded her.
“And masters who will teach us ter are there too.” Lin Junjie replied briskly. "Some Great elders and Sect's Peak Lord's will also choose their disciples this time. They might be watching from somewhere."
But who could tell where those master teachers sat? The crowd was cheering and shouting as if the sound of falling people and crying voices in the arena were things that could be enjoyed.
‘Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre!’
Wei Zhiruo furiously stood tall and then called out. “Gather together quickly! Draw closer!” She ordered.
Marr stood on her tiny shoulders, all prepared to attack.
Someone approached. A group of grown-up men, some five tall muscled giants with red ruddy faces and sweaty bodies which were almost shirtless, came towards them as if they had sniffed out their group's weakness, parting the crowd into two parts. Unfortunately, her group came under attack due to proximity. Some of those men took them to be easy prey, but Wei Zhiruo didn’t let them come closer and directed everyone to maintain order and retreat further into the crowd's bubble on one side. She smelled blood and used her knife to steal up closer to one of them, swing the bde and pierced through his neck!
"Brother! Who dares?! Come out you coward!" One of those ferocious looking men came to catch the body. Finding no one around the range, he started attacking indiscriminately, but people started countering too. A few of them grouped together to bring down the man and succeeded.
Fight broke out, the melee forced everyone to keep a strung-up nerves, and kept retreating in a confused manner among the throngs of frightened crowds. Such aimless attacks as those five men had inadvertently acted, became frequent scuffles breaking and directing the crowd from one side to another.
More and more cries echoed.
She watched Song Hua aiming at one of the cruel looking men, piercing through his eyes. Jun Mingdao protected the group from others who tried to sneak up closer. Tan Juxian supported Jun Mingdao, and tightly protected Song Meiling. Maneuvering inside the crowd was hard but Wei Zhiruo didn't let any chance slip, wherever she could she used her hands and feet, her knife to take a hit.
Lin Junjie had a sword bare in his arms, its bde dripped with fresh blood and which he now outstretched in a warning stance. He looked pretty cold; his eyes had turned bck with aggressiveness. Huang'er stood beside him shielding the five others behind, supporting a long sword in his intact hand.
“Take care not to break away!” Wei Zhiruo warned one more time.
And then the scouting and assessing began. As they retreated in a decided fashion, a few people did give chase but in the middle of the chaos that was the arena at this time, Wei Zhiruo took great pain in scouting the best possible way out for them to merge seamlessly in the wave of distressed people in its center. Finally ensuring herself of their safety, she left Lin Junjie to oversee and joined the crowd at front. A group of well equipped men were fighting orderly, reigning in those people who were causing havoc.
"Rong Shen! You coward! You take up your arms and come fight me! Don't hide behind children. Let me see how your Rong family will save you this time! Aren't you proud that you did such heinous things to my sister and escaped? Look! Here coward, look here! I came just to take your worthless head and set it on fire in front of my sister's grave!"
"You dare- my father will kill you!"
"Haaaha! Is that all that you can think of? Surely you know neither of us are going back today!"
A man in white robes chased and killed another man wearing brocade clothes. The suspense of the chase didn't st long as the person called Rong Shen was easily captured and beheaded. Another bloody spectacle unfolded in front of her eyes, but this time, Wei Zhiruo didn't wait for the aftermath and scooted around the fringes picking and choosing her targets who carried the worst bck aura on their bodies and killed them.
She watched a child coming under fire from a grown up adult, stealthily melted in the waves of people and took aim. Another burst of bloodied mist erupted but she bent down to regain her knife and slipped away.
“Aagh! Murder!” Another gruesome scene unfolded somewhere as a person bent down clutching his open stomach. Someone had pierced through his stomach, spttering the nearby people in red. “Master immortal saves me!”
"Master immortal!" The cries became more frequent.
“Silence!”
A booming voice echoed.
The balcony, spectators tower, the corridors and archways, bridges in the sky and ground became silent first. Then the pressure dawned, piercing through the head like insects gnawing at flesh!
Finally, everyone shut up. Even groaning couldn't be heard anymore.
Wei Zhiruo looked up to watch a man floating in the sky near the formation. White billowing sleeves, a silver mane and beard that flowed in the air like weeping willow tresses, too long eyebrow hairs that reached to his chins and his imposing air that sucked away all courage from those who stood in front of him, made that man a formidable character. He held something like a whip in his hand, which he waved and swept from left to right and Wei Zhiruo felt a strong gust of wind dispcing everyone suddenly.
No more attempts were made to stick out. The crowd was numb, silent.
“Anyone who takes another life in the Arena henceforth will be immediately thrown out. Anyone who dares to gang upon the weak and bully people younger than themselves will be thrown away from the mountain as well! Beware, you, who seek the immortal path —anyone of you who even dare’s to not maintain an order will be thrown out immediately! We, the Liming sect, are not people who accommodate indiscipline, mutinous hearts! Anyone who has a traitorous heart – step back and recede or obey!”
The voice resounded in the air, surging like a falling waterfall.
With a sweeping gaze over the more than a thousand faces in the big arena, the old man began again in the same penetratingly chilling voice that felt like it pierced through the flesh into the bones, as he said, “Next, the rounds of two assessments will be expined to you. Listen closely! If anyone is found breaking rules, he will be immediately dealt with! Anyone refusing to obey will be killed."
Silence.
"Round two of the trial will be a showcase of strength. We know many of you come from mortal nds with no training, the points will be given on the basis of wins. Three wins and you are eligible for the next Trial. Courage, bravery shown in front of enemy, control and manner of winning will be accorded required points which if any elder found amounting enough will be converted into a win. No Talisman, spiritual weapon, no manner of pills is allowed to be used. Killing is forbidden—if found disobeying these rules, immediate actions will be taken. The third round will be testing of mind in the "Soul Testing Stairway", anyone who climbs up four hundred steps is qualified for the Spiritual Root testing! Now, the pilr will show you the portion of the arena and those who find their name should climb up. Rest will wait their turns. Now, begin!"
The old man said, then he raised his hands and waved. Suddenly a huge panel formed of spiritual energy emerged, there were no names on it, just numbers. Wei Zhiruo looked down at her palms where the tokens had melted away and found the number visible on it. She looked worriedly at Song Meiling and others but this...she couldn't help here.
[Don't think too much. Get ready. You don't have any safe methods to come out unscathed yourself, let alone worrying about others. You should prepare to face opponents that might be trained martial artists.] Marr said this and showed her the strange scene from the western side of the Arena.
There, in ordered lines ten banners were raised; children, men and women dressed finely fell in ordered positions behind the banners and each carried weapons that looked sophisticated. Wei Zhiruo narrowed her eyes and clutched her shoulder bones to push down her cracked bones in pce.
She didn't wait to be told again and said to others, " Good luck. Try to come out intact."
"You too Junior sister Wei."
Jun Mingdao nodded at her, Tan Juxian clutched his sword and Song Hua looked desperately at his sister. The air was really depressing.
"Don't worry, you can try surrendering Meiling." Wei Zhiruo rubbed Song Meiling's head, then looked up to meet Song Hua's eyes, who nodded at her.
She turned to look up the list of contenders next, found her position and started running to the specific Arena position. Other's dispersed simirly.
Things had changed. The Arena had started rumbling as pilrs marking demarcation between thirty something sections appeared. Each pilr had a penal with listed opponents and numbers. She found herself in the tenth Arena and found she would be called for the fifth fight. Maybe those who came ter will be simirly arranged in order, but Wei Zhiruo was clear of one thing. Her group had definitely caught the beginning of the second trial. Coming in early had definitely saved them from being clueless at least.
'Tests, test of luck, test of mind, test of heart...it's an all round test.' She thought and waited by the Tenth Arena's side watching the first fight.
Two eighteen year old girls from two separate banner camps stood facing one another. She knew this as she recalled their faces from before.
"Cng!" Swords rang as they met in the air.
With gentle steps that seemed to draw up a mysterious rhythm, one of the girl in pink dress rose up in the air using her internal force, made a beautiful circle with her steps and came behind the girl wearing yellow robes.
"Yu Xintian!" Someone cried out.
The girl in yellow heard the cry, immediately bent herself down to an unimaginable angle, drew her sword from front to back and blocked the attack.
"Li Xinhe, you bitch! You dared to sneak up and attack me?! Shame on you!" The girl in the yellow robe spoke furiously. She chased the pink shadow and then another scuffle unfolded. Like two petals they kept using their proficient steps to entangle one another. One of them threw away the sword and took out a hand fan. The girl in pink, Li Xinhe, hurriedly used her own sword to meet the attack.
"You dared to sneak up behind my back and steal my fiancé! Shame? What do you think that word means?" Li Xinhe mocked, drew her sword backward and flew back dodging an attack. She didn't give her opponent time to reply as she rushed again, this time with desperate force, using several blunt moves to push the girl out of the Arena.
"That was because you bitch, couldn't take care of your man! You come to me with your sword, did you chop your childhood sweetheart like this too? Or is this attack reserved for me alone? Don't you think your fiancé was the one who came running out to me begging to be taken into my Li house because your small abode cannot entertain his huge ambition?" Li Xinhe mocked as she smiled like a flower, receding on her feet effortlessly.
"You lie! He will never do such a thing! You are just a vixen. Like your vixen mother, you cannot just restrain yourself from following the inheritance of your blood that flows from your courtesan mother! Seducing betrothed men - others can even say that that has changed into your maternal line's tradition, right?"
Wei Zhiruo watched the girl called Li Xinhe become red. She grit her teeth, then chased Yu Xintian madly. Ten minutes and the girl Li Xinhe was thrown out of the Arena.
Second fight began.
Wei Zhiruo closed her eyes and started meditating. Number One hundred thirty flickered on her palms and there was still time.
Her turn came soon. She watched the Arena clearing, a sturdy mountain of a towering man jumped inside. He too had walked out from one of the red banners supporting the symbol of some kind of flower she couldn't make out what it was. It had five petals, five leaves and such a shape was also drawn on the silver crown which that man wore on his forehead. Eighteen years old, Wei Zhiruo read through his bone-age.
Wei Zhiruo walked inside the demarcation line, watched the barrier flickering and felt the thrum of energy wading in surges from the opposite side. She knew she had met a tough nail on the first battle itself. This wasn't going to be a clean fight at all, but she didn't take much time dwelling on useless things as she skidded closer to face her giant-like opponent.
He supported a spear in his hands. The lower end of it dragged on the bluestone scratching its surface, but he didn't open his eyes when he faced her. He seemed to not take her presence as worth his time at all, but as soon as she was in front of him, some ten feet away, his booming voice raged.
"Leave. Surrender. Walk out." He offered Wei Zhiruo choices, but she heeded to none of them. She just observed him silently, trying to gauge his internal strength, then observed the arena. It was empty with nothing that could allow her to use it as support to fly up, or to conceal her innate abilities. Not that it greatly helped, but it would've been a good technique to use.
After a minute when the man watched that she didn't walk away, he didn't look offended at her but simply gave a name. It seemed like nothing could move him or was worthy to move him at least. But since name exchange seemed to be a ceremonious exchange he had begrudgingly lowered his head to mutter his name. She didn't glean any interest in his face.
"Yu Sishin." He picked up his spear. He spped his spear-end downwards, the force rippled within the stone penetrating deep and even reached Wei Zhiruo's feet. An attempt to warn, she thought.
"Wei Zhiruo." Wei Zhiruo replied, jumping up in the air, seamlessly deflecting the force. Yu Sishin stood tall with no intent to start the fight, but this put Wei Zhiruo into pressure. She had to sweep in instead, closing the distance as if she were the insane bird lunging down the mouth of the tiger.
Several gazes suddenly swiped inside the Arena, like the ones she'd felt sweeping in the first fight. Many people were whispering strange words that couldn't reach her, didn't matter to her, and didn't leave a trace within her existence. She just ran, closer and closer till she was a few steps away from the giant; she refused to become the thing that this man felt she was —a senseless, fearless child—and drew up her knife closer. In the blink of an eye, she skipped, changed the pace of her steps and used every trace of energy thrumming in her body sending it all in her feet. She swept her knife, pulled her body freefalling down, swung her legs and in front of the surprised eyes of everyone she watched Yu Sushin take a hit which pierced through his armor, making him retreat and then stumble across till he regained his foot.
He finally opened his eyes, looking seriously at her. "A Jianghu person. Which cn?"
"None that matters to you." Wei Zhiruo chewed her words.
"You—! Okay." Yu Sishin clenched his teeth then swept away the traces of anger. He became serious and Wei Zhiruo grew serious and weary as well.
Yu Sishin used his spear, swung it across the field creating tornado like eruptions, swirls of the wind. She was forced to keep changing her steps continuously bending her body to merge with the air, then she looked. She felt the giant coming closer, swooping in to gut her but she dodged deftly, like a wind spirit she followed the surging flow of air and kept turning, twisting to escape the reach of the man and when she found his back, she immediately nded down the towering mass fearlessly, using another bout of strength to shift the vortex into the knife, shared across the armor creating fshes of sparks —then she felt the blow coming at her face.
She felt the punch breaking a few bones of her shoulder as she barely dodged one that was aiming to hit and deform her face. She was thrown backwards just before she could nd a hit, but she didn't get enough time to feel frustrated as she threw off every concern to just evade the swinging, swooping end of the spear! Yu Sishin looked as if he was waiting for her to concede his win. Even the first attack appeared to become a lucky throw which had taken him by surprise. Many spectators seemed to be expecting an end soon but the exchange didn't end as Wei Zhiruo kept running away.
"Crash!" Another hit was taken by the floor, making the stone break and debris rise up in the wind.
"You see, child. This isn't something you should be doing right now. Surrender and you can go intact to your next fight. Don't say ter that I wasn't kind to a child." Yu Sishin said as he swung his spear in an arch ready to fully end the battle, no matter the end damage that it would cause to the child.
Wei Zhiruo didn't reply.
She couldn't fight a protracted battle. That wasn't going to be beneficial to her who couldn't wield a good weapon nor counter the spear with her knife. That only left her with surprise attacks. The best time should've been the first attack, when she could've tried to take down this man in one move but she knew that too would have been hard. Wei Zhiruo breathed hard, taking in gulps of air as she felt the tearing pain of overexerting her muscles but she didn't stop. She used her lithe body to evade countless attacks, so many times that the man seemed to have become increasingly irritated, colder as he swept his spear. While running at full speed, overextending her abilities she once again decided to take a reckless stance.
She counted the seconds it took for the man to pick up his spear with his huge build or to sweep it around. He was quite adept, one could say, quite flexible and fast despite his huge build. But he wasn't as fast as her. She needed to just sweep in closer to his...neck.
Wei Zhiruo felt tired but she gathered all strength to achieve this st attack. She knew if the man reached her he would immediately throw her away from the Arena, and maybe badly injure her too in that process. The spear fshed quickly, however. Despite the muscles and body's slight inflexibility, it didn't show up in the attacks of the spear at all!
"Crash!" Another crack appeared in the bluestone as the man nded a hit. She escaped barely saving her hair.
'Take the chance!' Wei Zhiruo observed the time, counted the appropriate paces and swooped into the rhythm guiding each muscle, each tendon of her body, flew up and ran at full speed swiftly leaving fshes in her wake, took in the gap as the man hit the ground with his spear creating rubbles flying in the air, stole closer and then climbed his body like a tree, clutched his neck hard and pced the knife's tip against his Jugur Veins.
The surrounding seemed to have become silent, then furious voices raged. Many gazes fell over this part of the Arena and many from the Red banner came to watch too.
"Impossible! Brother Yu cannot be defeated! Did this girl cheat? Did she use a hidden treasure?" A boy shouted loudly. He looked at the referee but was disappointed when the Referee didn't show any intention to stop the fight.
The noise was loud and irritating but she only observed the taut muscles of the man she was pointing her knife at.
"Surrender." She repeated.
The man seemed to not take her words seriously at all, but that was hardly a surprise but she didn't wait for him to throw her off from his shoulder, instead, she precisely located the area around the neck, used the knife end to bluntly bit an acupoint rendering the man incapable of movement. He finally looked shocked at her. If he could talk, he would have furiously thrown her down, but he remained frozen like a statue.
She jumped down. A referee who had always stood on the side came up to observe Yu Sushin, then in an appraising gaze he looked down at her, with such a penetrating gaze that she felt if she had anything odd on herself it would have been revealed this instant! But the monk instead decred the results of her first fight.
"Number One hundred and thirty wins! Go out of the Arena. Next contender, come in!"
Wei Zhiruo watched the referee easily unfreeze Yu Sushin who immediately gred at her as if she a pesky little fly had spoiled his desert. Here, however, she felt nothing at being so derisively treated.
Turning away, she walked with tired steps and started meditating outside the Tenth Arena. The next fight was scheduled for the next shift, that would be around two o'clock in the afternoon. She had time to restore her breath but...hopefully the next fight shouldn't be such an impossible match as this one. She took out a pill she had been given by Jun Mingdao and decided to give him something once she got her hands on something valuable enough.
As she felt the pill melt into her body, joining tendons and broken bones, she reviewed her steps and faltering moves. The years she spent in Cuiping had really worn away the edge she had cultivated in the Abyss. But she had time to grow up again.
[I don't want to say it but...your luck has never been good enough you remember? Just prepare for the worst.]
"Tsk. Then let's try our best." That was the least she could do.