Wen Dai was rather annoyed. He had been one of the first to claim a stage for himself only for some Liang family brat two years his junior to come along and challenge him for it. Of course, he hadn’t tried to fight him. While he was confident that he could have won because of the age difference, despite the fact that the kid was most certainly better trained than him, but messing with the pillar families was never a good idea.

While they couldn’t possibly punish every single disciple that dared fighting one of their own in the competition, his current and future position as an inner disciple at the Formation Hall made him entirely dependent on the Liang family’s goodwill. He wouldn’t risk that this easily.

Although, looking back, he might have, had he known what would follow. Twice he had found a rather easy target for a challenge and twice someone had challenged and beaten them before him.

When he had finally managed to secure himself a challenge and beaten his opponent, he had remained unchallenged nearly fifty minutes until another inner disciple had come along and challenged him. He had narrowly won only to instantly be challenged by another inner disciple who had been able to use his exhaustion to defeat him.

The two-hour wait after this had been agonizing as he had to watch as one easy target after the other had disappeared. Now he only had one chance left at securing himself a spot in the second round and most of the spots were already claimed. He needed a stage with an easy opponent and he needed it fast. It was already afternoon and he had no desire of inviting the disgrace of not even making it to the second round upon his family.

The Dai family was a martial family from Moonlake, the largest city in the territory subordinate to the Lunar Peaks Sect. While they were obviously worlds away from the power of the pillar families, they enjoyed quite an amount of influence themselves, at least locally.

As the family heir who had been accepted in the Lunar Peaks Sect, a lot of expectations laid upon Wen. He couldn’t disappoint his mother, the family’s matriarch, by failing to distinguish himself even to such a basic level. He had to gather achievements within the sect in order to gain political capital for his family that he would one day lead.

This competition was the perfect place for that. Wen Dai even hoped to be amongst the ten to be sent to the tournament. That way, he would truly be noticed, officially acknowledged by the sect to be amongst the worthiest disciples. That was the kind of title that a family in the cities could ride on for decades to come.

Walking around between the stages, Wen’s attention was drawn to a stage around which quite a few people were gathered. Upon it stood a boy with brown, disheveled hair and a slim but muscular build who seemed to be around his age. More importantly, the boy’s robes were those of an outer disciple – an easy target!

Wen Dai didn’t know why none of the people surrounding the stage had challenged him yet – perhaps they had already lost too many fights – but he certainly wasn’t going to waste this prime opportunity.

Running up to the examiner, he shouted from a distance:

“I want to challenge this disciple!”

“Alright, alright, please calm yourself. Your challenge is acknowledged. May I know your age?”

“I am seventeen.”

“Very well. Your name?”

“Wen Dai, heir of the Dai family.”

“Okay, let me just check with the list of participants… Ah yeah, I found you. Let me just… Okay, your challenge has been recorded.”

The man seemed not the slightest bit impressed upon learning that Wen was the heir of a family. Not that surprising, there were plenty of young heirs in the sect, every family that could would try to get an heir accepted. Most of them would eventually leave when it was their time to take over the family, but the bonds to the sect remained.

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Still, Wen would make sure, that in the future, everyone would gasp in awe at when a member of his family mentioned their name.

“Now, that the formalities are dealt with, what is your weapon of choice?”

“I fight with the sword.”

It was the standard weapon for cultivators and that for good reason. It was an honorable weapon, easy to transport and excellently suitable for enchantments. Generally, most cultivators used bladed weapons, since blunt ones were usually not readily available at for higher stages of cultivation.

“In that case, you can pick one that fits you from the stash over there. Your opponent will also be using a sword.”

Wen Dai headed over to the stash of weapons and began searching through the swords that were available. They were all rather well made, balanced and sturdy, though a cut below his personal weapon. Nobody would waste a master smith to create sparring weapons after all.

Picking a sword of middling length and thickness, Wen returned to the examiner, presenting it to the man.

“I have picked a weapon.”

“Very well then. You may step up on the stage.”

“Thank you, examiner”

Wen Dai let out a breath of relief. Everything had worked out in the end. He just had to beat some outer disciple and he was basically guaranteed to have secured a place in the next round. Most of the stronger people were already qualified or had at least secured their own stage. To be challenged by another disciple of his caliber again, Wen would need to be exceptionally unlucky.

Stepping onto the stage, Wen finally took the time to take a better look at his opponent. The spot in the next round was something that he would now deprive the boy of, so the least he could do was make some note of him.

The boy had an athletic build and was of average height, making him quite a bit smaller than Wen Dai who was rather tall. He looked rather handsome, considering his dirty face and unwashed hair. He was visibly nervous, biting his lip.

Understandable. Considering that Wen was an inner disciple and easy to identify as a strong fighter by his rather broad build and sharp eyes, the boy probably knew he was out of his depth but couldn’t bring himself to give up yet. Not that it mattered – this fight would hardly cause Wen enough struggle to gnaw at his stamina.

Bravery was something that Wen, as a cultivator, had to acknowledge. Even if it was pointless.

“Inner Disciple Wen Dai, heir of the Dai family has issued a challenge to Outer Disciple Zixin! Please bow to each other.”

Zixin – Wen would remember that name, at least for a while. It was an act of generosity that he would gladly extend to the boy. Finishing his bow, Wen locked eyes with his opponent who had begun to tremble slightly. The announcer’s voice rang out again:

“The duel has officially started!”

For a moment, none of them moved. Wen gripped his sword more tightly and held it out in a challenging pose.

“I will give you the first strike.”

Without answering, the boy – Zixin – rushed forward, delivering an obvious vertical slash that Wen easily sidestepped. He countered with a quick horizontal slash that his opponent barely managed to block, losing his balance and stumbling backwards. Or at least that was how it should have gone.

Instead, the boy dropped to the ground, landing on all fours and ducking below his attack. Before Wen could even ponder what had just happened, the boy launched himself up with another attack, this one much harder to defend against. It seemed that he had deliberately played weak in an attempt at surprising Wen.

While the surprise had worked, Wen wasn’t going to lose this easily. Blocking the attack and retaliating with one of his own, he prepared himself for a more difficult fight than he had originally assumed.

The following exchange was a hard one. While the boy wasn’t quite on Wen’s level and was thus continuously being pushed back, the way he weaved between his attacks and delivered his own quick and light stabs was certainly impressive, especially for an outer disciple.

Nonetheless, fatigue was building up in his movements, he wouldn’t be able to sustain this kind of combat for long. Wen, on the other hand, was barely warming up.

One or two minutes later, he had forced his opponent to the edge of the stage. Grinning triumphantly, he prepared himself to land a finishing blow. Only to be completely taken aback when the boy suddenly dodged several of his strikes in a row while moving around him in an almost dance-like matter. Suddenly, it was Wen whose back was turned towards the edge.

Before he could properly process what was happening to him, a sly grin appeared on the boy's face. Wen felt the foot in his stomach before he saw it coming. Thrown backwards, he suddenly landed on the floor – the floor off the stage.

Befuddled, his brain refusing to acknowledge what had just happened, he could only stare blankly to the boy who he had just been fighting as the announcer spoke words that he couldn’t comprehend.

“Outer Disciple Zixin has won the duel! He has hereby defeated three challengers in a row through fair combat and thereby advances to the next round of the tournament.”

As a crowd of outer disciples stormed on the stage, enthusiastically embracing the boy, congratulating him to his victory, Wen Dai, heir of the Dai family could only remain seated where he had fallen down as he shook his head over and over.