Our team left the central arena and went to a specialized room to wait for our turn. Screens were placed within the room that allowed us to see the events unfolding in the arena.

I looked to the screen in time to see various acts of gravity defying acrobatics from people that were brought out into the arena. One man was making an ice sculpture of himself while another was making an enormous sand mansion to impress the crowd. It looked like they let various people come out to show off as part of the competition.

Once our entire group was in the waiting room and settled, Jia spoke up.

“Everyone, we have a problem.” She said then motioned to me. I was a little taken aback by the abrupt way Jia had segued into what I wanted to tell everyone.

I started telling the story of our encounter with the Mertalians in Azortia and an abridged version of what happened with Azoreth of Flames and I pointed out who Azoreth was to the others.

“In the end I’m worried he’s going to try something during the competition.” I said. The sect leader had a pensive look on his face after I stopped speaking.

“We should all take caution when fighting anyone from the Inferno Scorpion sect. We can’t be sure if those Mertalians are related to the Mertalians from your story, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were. The Inferno Scorpion sect is a different story. With Azoreth at their helm, they’ll probably be trying to take any opportunity they can to kill or maim you, Astra and Jia.

We shouldn’t have to worry about Azoreth himself making a move. There’s more than one Domain creation realm powerhouse in the city. They won’t let him start wreaking havoc himself within Zisan city, not when this competition is so important to the sects of the continents.” He said.

Everyone took the sect leaders' words to heart. It would be convenient if we didn’t have to deal with any of Azoreth’s schemes or worry about him targeting us, but that was probably wishful thinking.

We waited for a time before an administrator called us all out to the stadium stands where sections were cordoned off for each sect to sit. Luckily the Inferno Scorpion sect was situated next to the Coiling Sea Dragon sect and the Righteous Fury sect while we were on the other side of the stands. I could feel someone looking at me and looked over to where I got the feeling from but saw no one there. I was puzzled but put it out of my mind. I didn’t have much more time to ruminate anyway as the announcer’s voice boomed out over the entire arena.

“Welcome again ladies and gentleman! Now it’s time to start this year’s festivities!” He called out to the cheers of the crowd.

“For those of you who are here for the first time, I’ll explain the rules of the competition.

There will be seven rounds, or games as we call them, where the participants from the various gathered sects will vie for victory! Of course the team with the most points at the end of the competition will be declared the winner of this year’s inter-continental sect competition!” When he finished, another set of cheers resounded out through the arena.

I wondered what the games for the competition would be and decided to ask the sect leader what the last games were like. He looked a little sheepish when I asked but coughed and explained.

“Last competition was a little… special. All of the games were modeled after children’s games. It was quite the competition. One round was an elaborate game of tag, while another had the contestants hiding from each other while being searched out by the enemy teams.” He said. I thought about what those games would be like but just shrugged. I was sure that whatever the games would be would be fun!

“Now for this competition’s theme! Last time it was children’s games, but this year we’ll be focusing on the six elements! Now the astute among you may notice that there will be seven games but there are only six elements. Well worry not, the last ‘game’ of our competition will be a team knockout competition! We’ll pit members of the top four sects after our first six rounds against each other to determine who will win this competition!” The announcer boomed over the arena. Applause resounded out before the announcer spoke up again.

“For the first round we’ll be focusing on the element of water!” The announcer said before pointing over to a squat elderly man who was now standing in the center of the arena. I hadn’t seen him enter. We watched as he wrote out a large diagram on the ground faster than I could keep up with. I had never seen a formation master work before so I was in awe. Once the diagram was drawn he activated it and, faster than I expected, a hundred meter diameter sphere of turbulent water sprang up in the air above the formation. My eyes sprang open wide and my mouth hung open.

The sphere was writhing like a beast restrained within a cage, eddies and currents weaved within the sphere, maneuvering within it would be difficult for those lacking a water affinity of some kind.

“I didn’t know you could do something like this with a formation!” I said to no one in particular. I felt Jia move next to me and she looked just as surprised as I was.

“Even the formation masters we have in Cheng Lian city would take much longer to set up this kind of formation. Whoever that man was, he must be a high level expert in formations.” Jia said.

“You’ll see in the center of the arena that we have erected a large sphere of water. Each sect will send a group of five disciples into the sphere. These forty disciples with vie for the starlight fish we will be releasing into the sphere. We’ve prepared special containers to hold the starlight fish within during the game. The team with the most starlight fish collected by the end of the thirty minute time limit will be awarded eight points, the team in second will be given seven points and so on until the last team is given only one point. Oh yes, if at any point you leave the sphere of water, you’re out and cannot return back to the game.” The announcer explained.

“We will give the teams a few minutes to select their disciples, then we’ll ask all of the chosen to meet down on the arena floor to be given their starlight fish containers.”

I looked to the sect leader who looked pointedly at me and then over to Jia.

“Based on the element alone, we should send our water or wind cultivators. I think we should send Astra, Jia, Cassandra, Wu Lin, and Tian Bao.” The sect leader ordered. I looked around for the last two that would be joining our group but was unable to pick them out from the gathered crowd. Jia, Cassandra, and I grouped up on the side closest to the arena. I watched as two disciples I didn’t recognize walked up to us and bowed to Jia.

“Lady Lian.” They both said in unison. I looked askance at Jia, but she looked just as uncomfortable as I felt at the behavior of the two.

“You two, stop fawning over me, we need to focus on winning this game.” She scolded the two who looked chagrined and unwilling to follow her orders, but they relented. They looked at Cassandra and nodded respectfully to her and then looked at me. To my surprise they bowed to me as well.

“Lady Astra.” They said and I got shivers that ran up my spine.

I did not like that at all. Now I know how Jia felt.

“You two don’t need to act like that with me either, just call me Astra! I hope we can be friends!” I told them. They both looked a little stunned but then smiled and nodded at me.

As a group we walked down to the floor of the arena and gathered nearby where the other sects had already grouped up.

I noticed the Sword Dao Palace disciples and was surprised to see the red haired youth who had saved me. I got excited and skipped over to them.

They all gave me the side-eye as I approached. I didn’t recognize them, but the red haired young man looked like he recognized me.

“Hi! My name is Astra, I wanted to thank you again for saving me back in that hidden realm!” I told him, giving him my most winningest smile. The red haired young man looked at me and nodded.

“You’re welcome, Astra. My name is Wei Lin. Now if you would excuse us, we’re about to start strategizing for the game.

I wilted slightly at his words but accepted his reasoning.

“I understand. Good luck!” I told them. As I walked away I heard one of the other disciples speak up.

“Senior brother Wei, how do you know that girl? Did you see that weird star following her around?” He asked. I smiled, but didn’t turn around again. I walked back to my own group, content with learning the young man’s name.

“Ah Astra, you’re back. We were just going over our strategy.” Cassandra said. She naturally took a leadership position as the strongest water cultivator we had brought with us to the competition.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Astra, as the most versatile of all of us, I want you to be in charge of catching the most starlight fish. You have good movement abilities and can hamper their movements with your restriction ability. The rest of us will do our best to protect you while we try and catch some fish ourselves.” Cassandra explained. I nodded. I didn’t mind being the center of the strategy, and I was confident in being able to collect plenty of fish!

“Alright kiddos! It’s time for the explanation of the most specific parts of this game.” The announcer spoke up again.

“You all will be given an esterwal root if you cannot breathe underwater. This root will allow you to breathe underwater for a time. We will also give you these spatial bags. They are suitable for storing the fish you will be capturing. No reason to capture the fish alive, the bag will keep track of how many fish you’ve captured, dead or alive.

If you are forced out of the sphere or leave the sphere of your own volition you will be considered out, though the fish you’ve collected will still count for your team.” He explained. We were all given a small bag and the esterwal root, I ate the root and then pushed my qi into the bag and it felt just like my ring. I was able to feel that the bag was empty and I could will any items in my possession into the bag. Taking the root made me remember my time in Azortia, but that just brought back the bad memories of Azoreth and I frowned. Before I could dwell too long on my own emotions, we were all ushered underneath the giant sphere of swirling, turbulent water.

The announcer pointed to the sky and shouted out.

“What’s that!?”

We all looked up and watched in awe as someone standing above the sphere held out their hand and then a flood of starry projectiles fell into the sphere. When they entered the sphere they began swimming around in small groups making it seem like little nebulae or galaxies were moving within the sphere. I was mesmerized by the movements of the fish and barely noticed when we were all lifted into the sphere and it was time for the game to begin.

We waited for the indication from the announcer that the game was to begin and I looked around to the other teams.

The Mertalians looked like fish in the water which, I guess, they technically were. They stretched and moved about freely while the remaining teams were having their own unique issues. The sword dao palace disciples didn’t seem used to swimming yet. It was the same situation with all of the disciples from the four western continent sects. Surprisingly the Qiulong sect disciples seemed comfortable in the water as well. The Inferno Scorpion sect disciples looked uncomfortable, most likely because they were almost all fire cultivators.

“Ladies and gentlemen! It’s time for the first game of this inter-continental sect competition! Disciples! Begin!” He shouted and we all shot off into the water. I immediately took off in one direction, leading our group, but shadowed figures passed us at a rapid pace, that must have been the Mertalians. No one was targeting each other yet, but it probably wouldn’t be long before the first person was eliminated.

We swam up to one lazily swimming nebulae within the sphere and I struck out immediately.

I used Halcyonic Maelstrom to slow the fish down. Despite it having the consistency of water, the qi wasn’t something the fish could easily swim through due to their size and qi density.

I cut through the small nebulae swimming next to our group and the others in my group used their own techniques or weapons to do the same. We collected the small group of fish and looked around for our next quarry. I could see the other teams from where I was but the Mertalian’s group was nowhere to be found.

Just as I was about to go back to finding more starlight fish, I noticed a turbulent set of movements from the Golden Buddha sect members group. One shadowy figure was darting in and out of the group and before my eyes, one of the Golden Buddha sect disciples was sent flying through the water and forced out of the sphere.

The shadowy figure stopped moving and I realized it was one of the Mertalians. The other four Mertalians grouped up behind the one in front and as a group they renewed their attacks on the Golden Buddha sect. Within a half minute, the remaining disciples from the Golden Buddha sect had been jettisoned from within the sphere of water, ending their participation in the game.

I grit my teeth but we could only focus on capturing the starlight fish. I heard more fighting in the distance but turned a blind eye to it.

We continued killing and capturing the fish, everyone had a little trick or two they could do with their techniques to help catch the fish, and we were doing a good job keeping up with the other teams from what I estimated. We were over halfway through the time limit for the game and we had collected a fair number of fish. The fast moving nebulae and galaxies partially obscured my vision, but I was able to see that both Serene Soul Palace and the Inferno Scorpion sect were nowhere to be seen within the large water sphere.

I saw the barest of movements out of the corner of my eye and my whole body tensed up.

“Ambush!” I called out in time to warn everyone in my group of the rapidly approaching group of Mertalians. Blood soaked water and a dead Mertalian flooded my thoughts, and I forcibly pushed them away. The first Mertalian targeted me and I could tell he had a murderous gleam in his eye.

“Time to leave the sphere, Blooming Violet sect.” He said. I threw a rude gesture at him instead. Then, getting an idea I pulled out a piece of spirit coral from within my ring. When the Mertalians saw the spirit coral bud their eyes widened considerably.

I popped the bud into my mouth and swallowed it. I smiled at them and before they could say anything I launched into my attack, launching a halcyonic abyssal cutter at the group aiming to reduce their reserves of qi. They were all forced to block and the main Mertalian barely managed an aggrieved expression before shouting out.

“So it’s you! We heard that some of the prisoners in Azortia had escaped, who would have thought we’d be able to avenge our brethren so quickly!” He shouted before launching into a full scale attack aimed to kill, not maim.

I dodged out of the way, remembering back to my time in Azortia to inform my actions for fighting underwater. I felt a chill as Jia jumped into action and I could tell Cassandra and the other two had made their moves as well.

I coalesced my third sword to assist me in fighting and sent it flying at the nearest of the Mertalians. He was forced to dodge the swift slash and put himself in an awkward position against Wu Lin who took the opportunity to strike out with his sword. As I moved the sword, I felt this strange pulsing energy coming from the locus floating behind me. It made moving the sword much easier and I felt the sword consumed less qi than normal. This was the first time the locus actually seemed to be helping me, why hadn’t it done anything during any of my spars?

I put thoughts of the locus out of my mind for the moment and launched another halcyonic abyssal cutter at the group of Mertalians, then launched myself at the leader of the group who was still giving me a death glare.

“You won’t get away from us, girl. We’ll follow you to the ends of the earth to repay the losses from Azortia!” He snarled at me.

“I wasn’t even the one who killed most of your brethren in Azortia!” I called back to him.

He rushed at me as I spoke and I dodged his attacks while I finished what I was saying and then re-engaged him using my swords. I attacked him with a flurry of blows, never giving him an opening to escape, nor fight back. Just as we were getting into a fighting rhythm, I would change my style of sword fighting and put him on the defensive again. We were similarly ranked in terms of cultivation level, and my body cultivation would easily let me beat him in a fight. Though he had a slight advantage in the water over me, it wouldn’t be enough for him to defeat me. We were definitely going to beat the Mertalians.

Perhaps understanding that he wasn’t going to be able to beat me in a short amount of time, the Mertalian backed off and ordered his other members to retreat. I grouped back up with my team, Tian Bao looked a little worse for wear, but everyone else seemed to be uninjured. We spent the remainder of the match catching the starlight fish and with a resounding gong that rang out through the arena the first game was over.

The sphere unceremoniously disappeared and the remaining starlight fish were all collected faster than I could track by the same man who had released them.

“Ladies and gentlemen! It’s time for us to tally up the collected starlight fish by the various teams. Please give us a few minutes to collect the bags and count up the fish!” The announcer said before motioning for the administrators located around the arena to come forth. They approached each team and collected the bags before bringing them to a single administrator who was tasked with counting up the fish each team collected.

I looked over to the Mertalians and saw they were staring daggers at our group. Looks like my stunt had made us some fairly strong enemies, though based on the fight we had in the water sphere, I doubt they could beat our team in a straight up fight. It’s possible their team didn’t send their strongest disciples though, so I should stay cautious.

After a few minutes of waiting, the announcer was handed a piece of paper and began speaking again.

“Thank you for waiting, my wonderful ladies and gentlemen! We now have the scores for the teams after the first round!

Starting in last place with 1 point is the Golden Buddha sect!” He said. I looked over to the sect in question and they were staring daggers at the Mertalian group, guess I wasn’t the only one who made enemies today.

“Next up is Serene Soul Garden with two points! Then the Inferno Scorpion sect with three points! Give up a cheer for the Inferno Scorpion sect’s first appearance in the games!” The crowd gave a half-hearted applause and I looked over at the mentioned sects. Serene Soul Garden followed suit with the Golden Buddha sect in staring down the Mertalian team. The Inferno Scorpion sect however was staring at our group, most of them staring at me it felt like. It gave me the shivers, but I had no doubt that Azoreth put a target on my and Jia’s backs.

“Coming next are some fan favorites! With four points, the Righteous Fury sect! Then with five points is Sword Dao Palace!” The two mainstays in the high ranks of the competition both gave fanservice to the crowd when they were announced, though I could tell they were chagrined by coming in so low in the first round of the competition.

“In an unexpected upset we have The Blooming Violet sect in third place with six points, and the Qiulong sect in second place with seven points! Give up a round of applause for the two teams from the eastern continent!” He said and the crowd gave us a much larger amount of applause than the previous teams.

“Last but not least, it’s their first time appearing in the inter-continental sect competition, they’re a sea-born civilization stepping into the affairs of the sects on land for the first time in centuries! Give it up for the Coiling Sea Dragon sect with eight points!”

The crowd exploded with applause at the hyped up announcement of the winners of the first game. We did pretty well for having to engage in a fight with the Mertalians, but I felt that we were only behind the Qiulong sect because of the delay the fighting with the Mertalians caused in our fish collecting. It left a bad taste in my mouth and it renewed my anger with the Mertalians.

“Now that we’ve tallied the points, there’s only one thing left to do ladies and gentlemen! It’s time for the second game of this year’s inter-continental sect competition!”