It was the day of the life and death battle, Hartley  sat cross legged on his bed, surrounded by a sea of swirling blue lights.

 Eyes closed, he sensed that 80 meters away someone was headed towards him, after opening his eyes, a burst of blue light illuminated the entire room, gradually fading away.

He got up and leisurely strolled outside,  seeing Lou Chingham making his way up the mountain.

When Lou Chingham arrived, they casually exchanged greetings, Lou Chingham then started intimating to Hartley that Lou Lee was the grandchild of a very respected elder, stressing the seriousness of the situation.

"If Lou Lee were to be killed by you, the ramifications might be very serious, the winner of a life and death battle has the right to let the loser keep his life, for the right compensation ofcourse."

Lou Chingham said all this with a pleasant and caring smile on his face, and was about to say more when Hartley interjected.

"And if he wins, he will let me keep my life?"

Hartley looked Lou Chingham in his eyes with a pleasant smile plastered across his own face.

Even though Hartley had chosen to return to the Lou Clan with Lou Chingham, there was no trust.

Hartley knew that if he wanted to ensure his life in the short term, he had to be as strong as the elders of the Clan.

Knowing that it would be highly unlikely for an elder to intervene and save his life if he was in a life threatening situation on the battle stage

The only thing he could rely on was his own strength, the opposite to that scenario was true as well. 

Hartley knew that if he was winning, an elder would certainly step in to preserve Lou Lee's life, or even try and kill him outright.

He wasn't worried about the likes of Lou Chingham, Hartley knew he could defeat the pot belly man with relative ease now. It was the others that he didn't know about which slightly worried him.

Lou Chingham's smile turned to a gloomy frown as he replied.

"I know you have done things all on your own to this point, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor."

Again Hartely interjected with the same smile on his face.

"So if someone wants to kill me, I can't kill him? what logic does that make in a clan where strength is treasured?"

Lou Chingham replied with a bit of irritation seeping into his voice this time.

"You are important to the Lou clan, but if you make enemies of certain elders your path will be ten times as difficult as anyone else's, the price of your medicine dans will be tripled, you might not be able to get any high rank martial scriptures or spirit weapons, that is if they didn't try to kill you outright.

The rocky road and the smooth road leads to the same destination, why not choose the smooth road and save yourself the hassle?"

 Hartley cupped his fist, bowed from the waist and said "thanks for you advice," in a somewhat rude and dismissive manner.

Lou Chingham swallowed down the words he was about to say and left the mountain with a gloomy, depressing look on his face, he made his way towards another mountain.

Trekking all the way to the top, where there was a person sitting cross legged on a prayer mat with his back facing Lou Chingham.

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It was a calming atmosphere, greenery was spread far and wide, the person was out in the open, with a wooden cabin a few hundred meters away.

Before Lou Chingham had any chance to make any greeting, the person asked sternly.

 "What did he say?" without turning to face his guest.

Lou Chingham looked at the floor nervously and replied.

"He didn't say yes and he didn't say no either, but he is a stubborn youth, no telling where his limits are."

The mysterious person balled up his right hand into a fist and spoke to no one in particular.

"We lost 3 core disciples in that stunt at the restaurant, now if we lose another one, what will we tell the Patriarch when he comes out of closed practice? arggg." 

He gritted his teeth and shouted "LEAVE!"  

Lou Chingham immediately scrambled away...

The mysterious elder then muttered under his breath, "he killed three of the strongest disciples on Violent mountain in minutes, that stupid grand-son of mine stands no chance."

Hartley didn't even put Lou Chingham's speech in his eyes, as far as he was concerned that was the blabberings of a lackey, right now to Hartley, Lou Chingham was just a glorified message boy.

The first three layers of the xiantian realm is known as the early phase, the next three realms is known as the middle phase and the last three is known as the late phase. 

Hartley wanted to break through to the middle phase as soon as possible, it would be even better, if he could conveniently break through if his life was in serious danger during the battle.

That was wasn't how the cultivation world worked, even though Hartley's path was a lot easier than others tethered to the system of the clan.

Meaning they had to take missions, earn clan points, get medicinal dans or high ranked beast cores, cultivate diligently, and still find time to gain enlightenment.

In comparison, all Hartley needed was enlightenment, but he had to be patient, it was a process that couldn't be rushed.

Hartley headed for the main battle stage, he hadn't been there before but when Lou Chingham was showing him around when he first entered, he had pointed it out to Hartley. 

As Hartley came round a bend he saw the battle stage.

A huge circular elevated stage stood in the middle of a flat piece of land, the stage itself was hundreds of meters in size, it was designed so battles could be fought between close combat specialist and long rage specialist at the same time.

What surprised Hartley was the crowd that had turned out, and the noise and excitement generated, it was as if Lou Lee had made this battle known to the world.

There were thousands of people milling about, there were some in blue robes, yellow robes and even some in red robes, there was an abundance of brown robe servant disciples preparing refreshments, and the white robed people were making sure everything was under control.

Hartley never expected this, he casually made his way to the stage, holding his head high, back straight and his chest out. There wasn't any commotion, people hardly knew him, he blended into the raucous crowd and made his way towards the stage.

Soon after, Lou Lee made his way towards the stage with a solemn look, he greeted some people and waved at others, red robe fluttering in the gentle wind.

It took him the best part of fifteen minutes to navigate through the lively crowd. When he finally made his way  to the stage, he saw Hartley calmly waiting, the hate in his eyes boiled over.

"Good, you showed up, me and you sharing the same sky for even one more day is absolutely intolerable, today you shall be my stepping stone, you should be proud."

An elder of short stature, donning a fluttering black robe jumped onto the stage, this was an elder that Hartley had yet to meet.

 Then man's name was Lou Pangie, he stood in the center of the stage with his black messy hair flowing down pass his shoulders, his dark beady eyes he stared at Hartley and then Lou Lee, then he spoke aloud.

"These two have irreconcilable differences and are to partake in a battle of life and death on this very stage, the winner shall be the one left standing at the end, the winner has the right take the loser's life or he can demand suitable COMPENSATION!"

He enhanced his voice while saying the word compensation giving a slight glance at Hartley, Hartley was unconcerned..."Now take the stage" he instructed.

Hartley not only had an advantage in speed and ease of cultivation, he also has one more advantage that no one else has.

 He does not succumb to the theory of gaining something with the right hand but losing something in the left hand.

Which means, when most people cultivate a powerful technique, they are only able to use it a limited amount of times in a battle, or when used, they are left vulnerable. Such a technique can only be used as a trump card or to save one's live in their most desperate circumstance.

From the battle logs that Hartley had read in the library, most battles consisted of experts fighting a tactical battle, then using their trump card at the end, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Hartley could use all his moves at his leisure, there was no time limit on state of focus, he didn't need to save any mana.

 The blue star fragment power rushing through his heart was infinite.

The crowd roared with anticipation and excitement, Elder Pangie looked at both fighters and said.

 "FIGHT!" before jumping down from the stage and disappearing into the crowd.