Huo Kong looked at his next opponent, the youth was staring at him, just standing there. He had to agree that he had miscalculated slightly and that these cultivators weren’t pushovers. Still, he didn’t feel like he would lose even if each one fought him one after another.
“Oh, the friend of the previous contender wants to avenge him! Let’s give him a round of applause!”
Zhang Liu’s eyebrows twitched as everyone looked in his direction, he could feel people’s eyes on him. This wasn’t anything new as he was used to getting watched by his own clan members, still, he didn’t like the feeling of getting gawked at.
“What a handsome young man…”
“Think he has a partner? He looks to be quite young too… probably some young master…”
“What beautiful snow-white hair!”
You could hear the women talking, Zhang Liu was quite the handsome young lad. Alas he wasn’t concerned with things like that, finding cultivation far more important than a relationship. He tried to ignore the swarm of drooling groupies that he had just earned and looked at Huo Kong.
“Why don’t you recover some of your stamina before we fight, you will need it…”
Zhang Liu spoke out while looking at the red-haired youth, who in response scoffed at him.
“What? Do you think I need to recover to fight someone like you? You’re being overconfident for a little Zhang Clan whelp!”
Liu wasn’t trying to be patronizing, he just wanted a fair fight and was trying to even the odds. On the other hand, Huo Kong thought that he would lose face if he were to take a recovery pill. He only fought a meager opponent and thought that he didn’t require any outside help.
“I’ll show you your place!”
Zhang Liu’s face twitched, finally getting slightly angry. He didn’t know why this man was so condescending towards his Zhang Clan, but he would show his opponent that they shouldn’t be trifled with.
“Fine… show me my place then…”
He squinted and jumped into the ring while leaving an afterimage behind, the display of speed making Huo Kong back off slightly, startled by the display.
‘He’s fast…’
He instantly realized that this new opponent was far stronger than the ones he faced in the previous bouts. He wasn’t discouraged though, he just gathered his energies. His whole body glowed in a bright red hue as the same runes appeared all over it.
“Oh what’s this, the opponent seems to be very fast! Oh, is that lightning? Does the challenger cultivate in the Dao of the storms?”
This was an honest mistake, the Dao of the storms was an actual cultivation method in this world. It was a lesser Dao, lightning was just a side product of it though and not the main component.
Zhang Liu was already in the foundation establishment realm and in its middle stage. While being in the Qi condensation realm he couldn’t really utilize the more complex techniques that Zhang Dong was using. Now though, he had quite the repertoire of them, they mostly being the same ones that his Master used. They were just versions that required less spiritual energy to use and were weaker in response to that.
Huo Kong didn’t wait for his opponent to make the first move like he did with the previous ones. Instead he jumped in, his fists ready to deliver cultivation shattering blows. At least that’s what he was attempting to do, but found himself dodging to the side as some sort of spear of concentrated spiritual energy flew towards him. The attack exploded against the arena floor and delivered a residual static shock to the fire cultivator.
This was a weaker version of Zhang Dong’s Lightning Javelin, the skills specs got lowered to accommodate a lower cultivation realm. It packed less of a punch but was still a good earth graded technique. Huo Kong didn’t have much time to rest as he felt a shiver run down his spine, he quickly did a 180-degree turn and put up a cross shape guard with his forearms. He made sure to push his fire Qi into this block, soon he received a palm strike that sent him flying backward for about ten meters.
Zhang Liu’s hand was crackling with blue lightning energy, his opponent managed to push the invading energies away while a drop of sweat run down his forehead.
“Nice block, wonder if you can block the next one as well…”
The crowd exploded in cheers, the combat prowess of this new challenger was over the charts. They thought that no one could beat this fire youth, but this white-haired one was managing to push him back.
“Oh no, the Challenger’s strikes are fast and swift like thunder, is this the end for the master of inferno?”
The commentator started coming up with more silly names while the audience shouted out and cheered on some more.
Zhang Liu wasn’t underestimating his opponent, after the first clash he felt the massive amount of spiritual energy that his opponent possessed. It was still this high even after he went through six bouts without much rest, if he made a mistake and got too confident the momentum could quickly shift. That’s why he was planning to go all-in and end it fast.
He moved his palm forward and tilted it slightly to the side while pointing it against his opponent. His feet were giving off sparks as he was ready to activate his movement technique. Huo Kong was looking at this display in distress as he knew that this opponent would be a tough cookie to crack.
In response to his opponent’s fighting stance and forward movement, Huo Kong put his fists up. His body started glowing red and his muscles bulged, steam coming out of his pores which made him look quite peculiar. His hair started catching on fire and his eyes glowed red, he was apparently charging up some secret skill or ability to try and win this next exchange as he noticed that his opponent was going for the kill.
The two jumped forward, the ground under them cracking slightly as they took off. Both fighters were going for an equal exchange, power against power as they charged towards one another. Before they could do that though, something interrupted them.
“That’s enough!”
Both of them felt immense pressure pushing them down to the ground and it also immediately canceled out their own spiritual energy. The two stopped in place a couple of meters from each other and looked to the side, to where the voice came from. There they saw an elder looking gentleman that had a characteristic mutton chop beard and was wearing a standard Huo Clan elder’s robe.
“E-elder Qiao, t-this is…”
“Quiet! By your father’s orders you were not to start trouble… and here you are offending the juniors from the Zhang Clan that we are allied with!”
The man jumped into the ring and moved while talking, he looked at Zhang Liu and recognized his fighting style to be quite similar to the one Zhang Dong had.
“Oh, what is this? Someone from the senior generation got involved? I must remind you that if you interrupt the fight all the winnings that the young lord battled for will be taken back by the arena staff. Also, there will be a fine for breaking the rules!”
Elder Qiao snorted at the announcer and moved closer to the red-haired youth, giving him a1 good smack on the head. He didn’t care about those things, this brat would be paying out of his pocket anyway. He turned to the white-haired youth that looked quite confused, but he somehow remembered this man from the time at the secret ground.
“Ah… junior greets senior.”
He did a polite bow towards him, making Huo Qiao nod in response as he didn’t feel like he had to explain himself to someone of the junior generation.
“Let’s go… your father will decide on your punishment.”
“F-father?… wait, why don’t we discuss this over some spirit wine…”
The youth rubbed his head while looking distressed, he sounded quite meek now. His bravado was thrown out of the window the moment his father’s name was mentioned.
“I just wanted to show the clan’s superiority…f-father always talks about the Zhang Patriarch so favorably…”
He trailed off with the last part of his sentence before getting dragged away, Zhang Liu and his companions just looked at the strange display while scratching their heads.
“Due to the unforeseen interruption we will be holding a small break, this bout will be seen as a draw and all the bets will be annulled.”
They woke up from their stupor after the announcer’s voice was heard. Zhang Liu then left the ring not really wanting to continue with the fighting as he didn’t want to make a bigger scene than it already was. Though as he was trying to leave the arena he was surrounded by some ladies. They were all cute young girls that saw his fight and he made a big impact on them.
“Hey big brother you were so cool, why don’t you invite us to some tea~”
“No, why don’t we go visit some stalls at the market instead!”
“Where are you from, are you from some powerful clan, big brother?”
The girls assaulted him with various questions, they even moved closer and started yanking on his sleeves. They knew that this man was quite strong for his age, probably some kind of rich master as he even had a whole squad of similar-looking cultivators to guard him. The other boys grimaced as this Zhang Liu was stealing all the thunder, they also wanted a piece of that action.
While Zhang Liu was feeling distressed a certain person approached from the back.
‘This is the perfect chance!’
The person in question was the girl that Liu bumped into a couple of hours ago. She had followed their group all the way here while hatching her devious plan. This was the best opportunity to pounce on her prey, her pink twintails bounced about in the sea of people as she got closer and closer.
Liu moved his hands upwards as he backed away, the girls looked like predators that saw a tasty snack. They were already seeing themselves rolling in spirit stones if they married a young master of this caliber. He looked to be strong, noble and good looking and by how expensive his robes looked, loaded as well. He was also quite young, below the age of twenty. They all were crafty vixens and knew that at this age it was easy to lure the boys in.
Suddenly Liu felt someone grasp his hand, it was quite the soft and small hand but there was quite the amount of power behind it. He soon felt himself getting yanked behind, the pulling power the person used was quite astonishing. He found himself getting captured by someone with light pink hair, the female was quite small not much over 150 cm. You wouldn’t think that a small frame like that could produce so much power, but he found himself flying as he got tugged backward like a ragdoll.
“Follow me if you want to live!”
He wasn’t sure what the small girl was talking about, but he wasn’t in the position of replying as he got pulled out of the arena. He soon started running with the strange twin-tail girl, he recalled that he bumped into her previously, maybe she lost something during the exchange and wanted to talk to him about it?
The girls that they left behind shouted out something, so did the Zhang Clan members that were together with Zhang Liu but they soon got lost in the crowd of people. The small girl was surprisingly agile, managing to find the best route through the sea of people. So the two youths found themselves outside, Zhang Liu looked down at the woman.
The youth had a growth spurt in the past two years and was now of a similar height as his master and was quite well built as well. This made the short girl look even smaller. Though from what he could see, even though she was quite short she was plump in places that mattered. He wasn’t sure what the girl wanted, but she had a strange smirk on her face.
“Um… can I help you with something?”
“Why yes, you can guide this big sister through the city but first… wait here for a second…”
She suddenly run away leaving the bewildered youth with a question mark above his head. He looked around and wondered if he should just leave, but after a minute the pink-haired girl was back.
“S-sorry did you wait long for me~?”
“Um… but you just…”
“No, you just arrived? Well, no use standing then, let’s go!”
She grabbed his hand once more and dashed into the city, going for the more area where all the shops with clothes were. Zhang Liu just sighing inwardly as he remembered that his master told him that the Feng clan women were quite peculiar. He had since realized that this girl was one of them, so he didn’t want to be rude towards an allied clan. So continued his first day at the new city, the rest would be filled with shopping and eating sweets.