Slightly dejected because he had just needlessly wasted a possible life-saving treasure, Zhang made the gray cloud underneath his feet descend toward the colosseum floor.
Moments later, while caught up in a storm of thoughts which caused him to zone out all everything that was happening around him, Zhang made the gray cloud beneath his feet fade away.
“Team number five is no longer able to compete! Team sixty-four has been disqualified for touching the ground!” A voice reverberated into Zhang’s ears, bringing back to reality.
“You dumbass! What are you doing!” Xue Shi’s voice could be heard as Zhang felt someone grabbing onto his shoulders and shaking him.
“Brother Zhang! Snap out or it!” Yu Hong could be heard, while Cai Cao could be seen with a worried look on his face.
“Wha-what happen?” Zhang said in a confused voice as he was surrounded by his teammates.
“You got us all disqualified!” Xue Shi yelled as he continued to shake Zhang back and forth angrily.
“Disqualified? Disqualified!? What?!” Zhang yelled in response as he brain was processing the current situation.
“^{^}*#*%{^\*~%{%.” Zhang cursed as he realized his blunder.
“Oh father, please forgive me for teaming up with an idiot.” Yu Hong said as he pretended to wipe away tears from the corners of his eyes with a handkerchief.
“I won't hear the end of this when I return to the sect… All of the people I have to silence...” Xue Shi grumbled as he glanced at where his father the other disciples of the Blood Lion Sect were currently seated while facing his face with his hand and shaking his head.
“I am so sorry.” Zhang said to his teammates as he prostrated himself on the ground. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours as Zhang’s teammates gazed down upon him in utter silence.
Luckily the final match had begun and the audience spectating the tournament had focused their attention elsewhere or else Zhang would have made a spectacle of himself once again.
“We probably wouldn't have won anyway if Brother Zhang had not acted, and to top things off, the last match is a free for all, meaning only one of us if any could have won. So let's not be too hard on him.” Cai Cao said as he tried to persuade Yu Hong and Xue Shi to forgive Zhang.
“Fine, since we would have been disqualified anyway. We can't blame him for what happened. Also looting those four was a very good idea.” Yu Hong said after a long silence with a sigh.
“I guess it can't all be blamed on him…” Xue Shi admitted as Yu Hong and Cai Cao stared at him intently.
“Thank you, you guys. One day I'll make it up to you there somehow.” Zhang said in an apologetic tone with his hands clasped together while performing a half bow after he got up from the ground.
Soon after Zhang’s apology was accepted, the team of four split up and headed toward different sections of the stands where their respective sects were currently seated.
The tournament continues on as the final twelve contestants met atop a massive platform and went toe to toe in a free for all match.
Magical treasures with all sorts of mystical abilities were used while dozens of different fighting styles were put on display.
As breathtaking as the final match was, it was still quite lacking when compared to the midgrade Lightning talismans that Cai Cao had used. Hence it was rather lackluster for Zhang and he quickly zoned himself out his surroundings until a thought ran through his head.
“I should transfer everything in that interspatial ring into mine just in case they come demanding it back.” Zhang thought.
“Brother Cai, come with me and try to not attract too much attention.” Zhang whispered into Cai Cao’s ear in a low tone while grasping hold of his hand.
“Wha-wha are you doing?” Cai Cao asked with a perplexed expression on his face, however, Zhang did not reply and simply continued tugging on his hand and moving through the countless rows of seats.
“Hold onto your questions for a bit.” Zhang said as he led Cai Cao away from the crowd of people who were intently watching the tournament’s finale and toward a fairly empty area.
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“Where are we going?” Cai Cao asked, as he tried to figure out where Zhang was taking him.
“If I remember right, it should be over here.” Zhang mumbled to himself while ignoring Cai Cao’s questions.
“What should be over here?” Cai Cao continued to ask but to no avail.
“Found it!” Zhang yelled in a cheerful tone as a somewhat broken down shack came into view in front of him.
“Outhouses?” Cai Cao asked with an even more perplexed look on his face.
“Let’s go.” Zhang said as he pulled on Cai Cao’s hand once more only to find himself unable to move forward.
Looking back Zhang could see Cai Cao with a somewhat frantic expression on his face while grasping onto a sword that he had stabbed into the ground.
“What are you doing?” Zhang asked as Cai Cao held onto his sword for dear life.
“You you scoundrel! Why are you taking me to such a place!?” Cai Cao roared frantically as he pulled his sword from the ground and began to wave it about.
“Calm down man! Calm down!” Zhang cried as he tried to distance himself from Cai Cao who was swinging around a dangerously sharp sword.
“Don’t you tell me to calm down! Not after what you tried to do to me!” Cai Cao said as he was caught up in a sea of delusions.
“Do what to you? I just wanted you to go in there with me.” Zhang spoke in a confused tone that only served to put Cai Cao more on edge.
“I’ll kill you before you can get me in there!” Cai Cao roared as he continued to madly swing his sword about.
“Fine, if you don’t want to do it in there then since there aren’t too many people here we can do it out here.” Zhang said as he reached his hand into his robes.
With shaky hands, Cai Cao dropped his sword and began to run away at top speed, catching Zhang entirely off guard.
“Since you don’t want to go into the dirty outhouse, we can inspect the contents of the interspatial rings out here. Why are you running?” Zhang yelled, prompting Cai Cao to stop in his tracks and look back with at him with a confused look.
“Interspatial ring?” Cai Cao asked in a perplexed tone.
“Yea, the ones we took from that one fella who was wearing fancy looking armor.” Zhang replied.
“What do you think we were going to do in an outhouse together?” Zhang asked before a sudden thought came to his mind.
“$%$#$@$#... You can’t possibly think I swing that way…” He said after an awkward silence.
“No, of course not… I just didn’t want to go into the dirty outhouse stall…” Cai Cao said in an extremely low tone with an obviously ashamed expression on his face as he slowly walked back to where Zhang was after putting his sword back into its sheath.
“Let’s finish this quickly before anyone comes by, before that guy comes demanding his belongings back.” Zhang said as he observed how slowly Cai Cao was moving.
“Okay… Okay… I’m coming…” Cai Cao said as he quickened his pace and arrived beside Zhang before the two of them walked to the side of the outhouse where they began to examine the things within the interspatial rings that had taken earlier.
Before long a small mound of things was gathered in front of Zhang and Cai Cao as they emptied out the contents of the interspatial rings, and after a bit of examining roughly sixty percent of everything was stored away into different interspatial rings while the remainder was stored back into the interspatial rings that originally belonged to Fei Chang. This way if anyone were to try to retake Fei Chang’s interspatial rings, Zhang and Cai Cao could simply hand over forty percent of the things they had taken and escape while the enemy examines the contents of the rings.
Thus an end to an entirely unexpected and awkward situation ended and our two young heroes began to head back to where their seats were.
As they were on their merry way, Zhang suddenly felt a piercing gaze focus upon him, causing a shiver to run down his spine and prompting him to scan his surroundings.
“What wrong?” Cai Cao asked as he noticed that Zhang had stopped walking.
“No-nothing…” Zhang mumbled before catching up to Cai Cao, shrugging off the feeling he had gotten earlier.
Little did he know, as he and Cai Ca departed, a pair of men could be seen watching them from the roof of one of the buildings nearby.
“Do you think that one noticed us?” One of the men said with his eyes locked onto Zhang.
“I doubt it; how can a fragment realm cultivator notice the presence of core realm cultivators such as ourselves. However, tell the others to keep a close eye on him just in case.” The other man said before the two of them disappeared out of sight.
Soon after Zhang and Cai Cao returned to the stands just in time to witness the finale of the tournament.
After a grueling free for all, only three contestants remained and the platform that had been their battlefield was littered with craters, cracks, and cuts serving to help immortalize their fierce struggle into the minds of all who were present. Unlike before when Zhang and Cai Cao had departed to organize their new belongings, the current battle now was no longer lacking in comparison to their battle. Although the imagine of two mid-tier lightning talismans going off would be engraved into the minds of those present, the current fight was now on an entirely different level.
Regardless of who became the sole victor, all three of the people remaining on stage would make a name for themselves in the world of cultivators. After displaying their skills and hard work, the final three contestants were now like shining stars.
“One day, perhaps if I’m lucky enough and work hard enough, just maybe I’ll be able to stay up there too.” Zhang thought with a smile as he saw countless others just like him who were sitting at the very edge of their seats. Countless individuals who were only making their first steps into the path of cultivations, countless individuals who would all one day carve out a name for themselves, countless individuals who would all surely make ripples what could only be called a sea of cultivators.
With the audience mesmerized, the final three contests, Fang Yu, Wang Fu and Shu Hao who happened to the same people who Zhang had beaten in the pelt collecting part of the contest, continued to fight each other for a hundred rounds before a victor was decided.
In the end, Fang Yu, who happened to be Sect Master Yu Yang’s foster daughter was crowned the victor of the Red Cloud Sect’s tournament and a large banquet was held in her honor before the various sects and clans attending the tournament began to depart, with the Cai Clan being the first to do so while on the other hand, the Misty Mountain Sect was one of the last sects to depart.
“Brother Yu Hong are you sure you don’t want us to ask the sect elder to give you a lift?” Zhang asked Yu Hong who was standing beside a tiny raft of an airship that looked like it would capsize if more than one person was to board it.
“No need, I’m actually not returning home. Who knows what my old man will do once he finds out that I lost in such a way. I heard that there are many places to see in the north, so I think I’m going to go sightseeing for a bit.” Yu Hong said with a laugh while scratching his head.
“Well, then I wish you safe travels.” Cai Cao with a chuckle.
“Too bad I can’t take these little guys with me.” Yu Hong said with a laugh as he petted Zhang and Cai Cao’s two furry friends, Little Red and Little Blue.
“You can't take them with you but next time we run into each other you can pet them as much as you'd like.” Zhang said with a chuckle.
“Alright, I should be on my way now. I wish the two of you the best of luck in your love lives.” Yu Hong said with a chuckle while glancing at Zhang and Cai Cao before boarding his tiny airship and flying away, before Cai Cao could even utter a response.
“I’ll never get that guy… I guess it’s time for us to board our airship also.” Zhang said while shaking his head and heading toward where the Misty Mountain Sect’s airship was parked before noticing a familiar figure gazing down at him.
“Brother Xue Shi, until the day we meet again!” Zhang yelled up at Xue Shi who was aboard the Blood Lion Sect’s massive airship.
“Safe travels.” Xue Shi muttered before disappearing from sight.
“That guy definitely isn't a talker.” Zhang chuckled as he, Cai Cao, Little Blue, Little Red continued to walk toward where their sect’s members were congregating.
Although a number of the Misty Mountain Sect’s disciples had perished in the tournament, no one seemed depressed or saddened at all, rather the current atmosphere was very uplifted as everyone talked about the final match of the tournament.
Before long the chosen of the Misty Mountain Sect boarded their sect’s airship and began their long journey home.
Retreating to their respective rooms with their respective pups in tow, Zhang and Cai Cao hopped onto what would be their beds for their journey home.