While Zhang Jin was trying to soothe his hangover, the youths and some other clan elders were gathering at the last trial area. There would be close to five hundred participants. The entrance to the last trial was in a large building, the large doors had a phoenix and a dragon pattern on it, the two beasts seemed to be entangled in battle. The large door was still closed as it was an hour before the competition, the people would use this time to make their battle plan.
The three families that would be working together gathered at one spot. Everyone had characteristic robes, the Zhang clan members had blue ones, the Huo clan had red ones and the Feng clan girls were mostly in green. Though the women that looked as if they stayed in the sun for too long, were hard to miss. So the other two clans wouldn’t really have a problem with discerning them from the other practitioners that were participating.
First came the supporting elders that exchanged greetings, the group of Juniors was facing each other in a triangle, curious gazes coming from all directions. The Feng girls started whispering with each other while sneaking in glances at the boys from the two other clans. In response the youths gulped, the young ladies had strange expressions on their faces as if they wanted to gobble them all up. First to speak out was a Huo clan elder, that people weren’t particularly familiar with.
“Listen up, remember each other’s faces, if you find your brothers and sisters in distress help them out.”
“The other sects and clans will be working against our group, so don’t forget to work together and after passing the trial you will be able to test yourselves against each other!”
The elder was an experienced person and knew how youths like these thought. Their competitive spirit would surely soar in a situation like this. He wanted these kids to at least work together in this trial, letting their ambitions dormant for the time being. Some of them might already be antagonistic against each other. Closed of trials like this brought out the beast in some of the cultivators, as it was the perfect chance to let old grudges unfold.
“Don’t be arrogant enough to think that you are strong enough to succeed on your own… just look…”
The man pointed to the other participants in the area. There was one thing that stuck out, just like them they were gathering in groups. Some bigger than the other, one being at least twice the size than their own. This looked like the main enemy camp, the youths there were already giving them the stink eye.
“I guess they are taking us very seriously…”
Zhang Liu chimed in while standing next to his sister, his senior brother that fancied his sister was also there probably being there due to that.
“Well, we probably gave them quite the scare during the other tests.”
Zhang Xue chuckled while smiling at her brother, the Zhang family members not that worried as they took this in a positive way. From their perspective, the other clans and smaller sects saw them as a powerful enemy. Was there anything better than being seen as a power to be feared in this world?
“Do we really need the help from these other clans, think our Zhang Clan can manage on its own!”
Zhang Tai voiced his opinion from the side while looking at the cultivators from the other clans. Not really convinced that he or his clan members that were quite strong needed to team up with other people.
“The more allies we have the better senior Brother Tai. Also, these two families have close ties to our Patriarch, so it would be rude to deny them help.”
Zhang Xue replied while moving, the moment Tai heard the Patriarch get mentioned he quieted down. He recalled that their Patriarch had some dealings with the Feng Matriarch and the man that was next in line for the Patriarch position in the Huo clan. It would be disastrous if the juniors went against plans that their elders had, for various reasons.
“Is that so…”
Tai said while looking at Zhang Xue that was slowly walking towards the Feng Clan side. None of the three factions had yet mingled with each other, even after their elders stopped talking.
“Greetings from the Zhang Clan fellow sisters.”
Zhang Xue smiled at the dark-skinned ladies. The girls looked at each other and moved forward, the girl that approached them looked to be quite the beauty. Some of the gyarus moved forward, they looked friendly enough. Before they could reply though, a tiny blur rapidly squeezed from within the group and arrived right opposite Zhang Xue.
“Who do we have here?”
The person that came out made the other Feng women move to the side, it being their elder sister. Zhang Liu blinked rapidly as he recognized the short girl that took him for a tour of the city. Though he was mostly used as a serving boy that carried her clothes for the whole day.
“Ah, greetings little sister, Zhang Xue sends her greetings!”
Xue tried to be civil in her reply, but she was getting strange vibes from this small girl.
“Little sister?… who you calling little, you pipsqueak!”
The small girl puffed out her cheeks and stood up straight, her voluptuous chest pointing forward as if she was presenting it against Xue’s. The two girls started staring at each other, one was hostile while the other was bewildered not knowing where the animosity was coming from.
“E-excuse me, senior sister?”
The small girl crossed her hands over one another and nodded, she looked satisfied after getting called a senior sister.
“That’s better!”
While this was transpiring the other youths started with curiosity, Zhang Liu moved over to his sister as he tried to pull her away, knowing well that this pink-haired midget was a strange one.
“Xue… I think we should…”
Before he could finish the sentence the small girl pointed her finger at him while shouting out. She then rapidly pointed it at Xue and then back to Liu again.
“You two, what’s your relationship!
The siblings looked at each other before eyeing the strange girl again.
“Liu is my older brother…”
Zhang Xue replies, getting the strange suspicion that this small girl was interested in her brother. The girl in question dropped her pointing finger, it looked like she was thinking about something. But just as soon as the finger was dropped, it was put up once again and pointed at the Zhang clan young lady.
“E-enemy!”
The small girl proclaimed, her eyes moving into tiny slits as she glared at Zhang Xue that took one step back.
“E-excuse me?”
“Younger sisters are always the enemy!”
Feng Nuana glared more as her eyes went up and then down. The smaller girl analyzed the looks of this so-called new enemy, not liking that striking appearance at all.
“Such a ferocious foe… but mark my words, I’ll never surrender! You will be a fitting rival for this senior sister!”
While the small girl was shouting out, the other junior members from the group moved closer. The other Feng clan ladies moved in and bowed in an apologetic fashion as they tried to diffuse the situation.
“Oh ho ho, senior sister is really energetic… don’t mind her…”
“Yes yes, she is just glad that so many handsome brothers and beautiful sisters had gathered together…”
“Yes, you there little brother, do you want to have a chat with this big sister?”
One of the Feng ladies took the chance to move next to one of the Zhang clan men that were to the side and just looking. The man looked at the dark-skinned ‘big sis’, her looks were quite exotic but she had a certain charm to her. Soon, the young women from the wind tribe were mingling with the other clans, even pulling the Huo clan into the mix.
Zhang Xue moved back feeling like it would be better to not get associated with the angry-looking little girl. Her brother moved in front to shield her, Feng Nuana seeming in a better mood after her so-called enemy started backing away.
“Did something happen between you and my sister…”
Liu asked wondering what this was all about, the girl in question just smirked and moved closer. She looked up to him with a smile on her face and before the youth could react, she wrapped her hands around his. The youth jumped slightly as he felt something soft pressing into his arm.
“Hey, what are you doing? Let go!”
“No!”
He was quickly shut down while the small girl rubbed her bosom into his arm, the inexperienced youth going red in the face instantly after getting assaulted by the Feng girl. The girl in question smirked and made sure to eye Zhang Xue that was backing away, her nose moving upwards as if she was looking at a bug.
‘What’s that strange girl doing with big brother… does she really fancy him?’
She thought to herself while backing away, but when she did that she bumped into some.
“Hey, who dares!”
She bumped into this person’s back without realizing as she was preoccupied. The voice was quite manly and the back that she bumped into was quite wide, so the person behind her had to have a large physique. After turning around her eyes met with a set of red hues that looked like small embers. The youth’s face contorted, his frown turned into a gaping mouth as he started.
“Ah, excuse me, I wasn’t paying attention.”
The girl made a little bow in front of the youth, not wanting to seem rude. She was afraid that this could turn to something more as the man in front of her sounded quite annoyed. But instead of that, the man continued to stare for a second or two before snapping back a hand moving to his head as he scratched it.
“Ahhh… don’t mind… everyone makes mistakes…”
The man tossed his head back and started laughing out loud, Xue remembered him from the first test as he had scored the same number of chimes as she did.
This was, of course, Huo Kong that was panicking on the inside. This was the first time he had seen such a beautiful girl in his life, none of the women in his clan or the fiances that his clan tried pushing on him compared to this young maiden.
“N-nice weather we are having today? Haha…”
‘What do I do!’
He thought while panicking, he was a person focused on personal might and had no knowledge or experience in talking to girls. Luckily the response that he got was a cute sounding laugh, followed by the girl’s lovely voice.
“Yes, it’s quite nice. Brother is from the Huo clan?”
Huo Kong nodded quickly replying to the question.
“Yes! I am Huo Kong the fiercest from our clan!”
“Ara? The fiercest? Quite the title you got there.”
The girl laughed some more, thinking that this older brother was quite funny. This was mostly due to how the youth looked, on the outside he seemed to be a seasoned warrior with a large physique. But there he was panicking as if Xue was someone to be feared. The girl kind of knew why he was acting like this, attributing it to him being inexperienced with girls.
Suddenly everyone was mingling with each other. Zhang Tai got surrounded by quite a lot of people, being the person with the best score on the first test. He also scored quite well on the other ones and was well known by now. Quite a few Feng maidens were trying to chat it up with him, but some from the Huo clan were there too.
Zhang Liu was trying to wrestle away from the busty midget but wasn’t having any luck as the girl was surprisingly strong. For some reason, she had it in for him and the youth wasn’t sure why. Time passed and soon the doors from the last trial were opened, a couple of older looking people walked out that belonged to the testing crew.
Everyone was guided inside, the last test would be starting soon it would probably take a couple of days till it finished.