Suddenly feeling cramped by the corner he had backed Ye into, John initiated a slow retreat to the center of the arena. The pressure on his defense was much higher with the effect of the talismans. Each swing was much faster, whipping through the air dangerously. John kept his claws up in a boxer's stance, tanking the hits where possible and moving his claws to intercept strikes when needed. With his enhanced bones, John could afford a lot of abuse as long as his muscles didn't get too bruised in the process. He took several slashes in the process, but freed himself up for make an effective counter attack.

Finally back toward the center of the arena, John readied half a dozen qi claws in the air, waiting to strike. Jabs at Ye's defensive artifact had proven it quite durable. Ye was covered in a faint shimmer hovering several inches above his person. It almost looked like a ghostly fire enveloped him. Unlike fire, it was extremely tough and difficult to pierce with only his testing jabs. Luckily it only took Ye overextending by a slight amount--lunging in a stab that John was able to sidestep and swipe at the sword, yanking him out of balance. In that split second, John attacked with all his qi claws at once, guided by the hungry madness of the Sparrasso technique they were like the deep cuts of a rampaging bear.

Ye's defensive talisman quickly began to waver and wane under such assault, and John didn't let up, adding his own metal claw attacks to the mix and forcing Ye to defend himself with his sword, leaving his flanks open as much as possible. Ye was clearly getting more and more frustrated which John was happy to see. His earlier angry outburst and his frustration now meant he was more likely to make mistakes, and John was more likely to win easily.

Despite his emotional state, he couldn't let this situation continue. Ye took a wide slash at John and dashed out of the encirclement before John got in an effective counterattack. John frowned when that happened. Unknowingly, John had developed some combat habits from his usual targets: demons. Demons didn't bother to retreat voluntarily or break away to reset their mindsets, it was do or die right from the beginning. John tried to stick close to Ye but he made enough space to break yet another artifact, this time a blue glass ball.

Animate water took the form of several tendrils floating in the air, protecting Ye's flanks from any more harassment. One tentacle directly exploded into a fine mist filling the arena faintly. Ye was suddenly able to deflect John's qi blades, either with his sword or water tendrils, which meant he could feel their passing through the mist enough to detect the otherwise invisible attacks.

John had no doubt now that the Song family had prepared a large number of artifacts to win the fight.

"Is this the source of your confidence? Relying on external power wont work forever."

"Maybe not, but it's enough to win this fight!"

They clashed several more times, John was struggling to get through the improved defenses, and Ye's shimmering shield was regaining strength; Ye was having difficulty coping with the sheer number of attacks coming in and could make few real threats with his offense.

John was not above trying to anger Ye further until he lost the fight, but he was also curious about certain details.

"I saw Sarah with you earlier, how did you manage to win her over? You very nearly killed her, she wanted nothing to do with you months ago, some kind of mind control?"

John did not expect that to trigger as much of a reaction as it did, Ye was furious once again and began attacking recklessly. It was enough that John could being tearing down the defensive shield again and disrupting the water artifact.

"You did use mind control?! Is that how you won over Lady Song?"

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Ye doubled down which slightly shocked John. Disciple Ye was just the right kind of arrogant and charming that could woo young women. He wouldn't have been shocked to hear that he had really saved Song in a moment of desperation, and they became genuine friends after that. It was clear that Lady Song didn't like Kai from the outset anyway, so pitting her against Kai as Ye's ally wouldn't have been difficult. Also it would have been easy for him to go apologize to Sarah and explain he had legitimately been trying to help, playing up a sad story about how he was wrongfully imprisoned but he didn't blame her.

"It's not mind control!" Ye shouted rather petulantly.

"You don't deny you are influencing them though, so what is it, some kind of charm technique?"

"Not everyone gets all the resources they need just for being born, I had to use everything I've got just to get here!"

That surprised John, is that what Ye thought about him? On some level he knew that Ye thought he was part of Kai's group, but it was just a coincidental meeting that led to their friendship, it had nothing to do with being rich. Not to mention, was Ye all that different after using so many of Clan Song's resources? For Kai's part, he actually was a hard worker in addition to his rich status, he liked to live it up but he put in the work to earn his play time.

"You clearly do not understand what's going on in the sect." They clashed again.

Disciple Ye was either uninformed or willfully ignorant of the abuses of Sect Leadership. It was extremely obvious that something unusual was going on if you paid even a little bit of attention to the incidents involving Weird cultivators. John naturally paid attention because it directly affected his interests, but even normal cultivators should have noticed something. That first fight with Peter, the sect had been deserted, either leadership called a curfew or they otherwise manipulated people to leave the area. The fight with Lambert took place in the Weird compound but the influence of the Gu was undeniable.

So many had died while the so-called leaders did nothing to protect the innocent. Even before then, so many had suffered visibly under the influence of Lambert's Gu that you would need to be a fool to miss it. It seems that Ye was one such fool.

"You think I don't know what's going on? You just dont like that I've got the resource advantage this time!"

Ye pulled out yet another item, a pill this time that he quickly swallowed in clear view of the judge. Outside items like this weren't allowed, the Song family probabaly bribed the judge to look the other way for Ye--John had no doubt he would get disqualified if he tried the same.

Unfortunately for Ye, there were legitimately much bigger problems than resource inequality. Demons were regularly eating disciples and the leaders were trying to make weapons to hold them off. John didn't really care any more, if Disciple Ye wanted to be blind to the realities at hand, he could enjoy his ignorant bliss. John was taking the Elder position from them either way because he could use the political influence to get stronger faster, not to mention help the other Weird disciples out.

"Time to end this." John whispered.

He leaned into the madness that drove the Sparrasso technique. He would ordinarily try to maintain his sanity in these situations, but he'd been stuck in a stalemate with Ye for minutes now. John needed a boost in power to end the fight quickly, before Ye pulled more artifacts out of nowhere.

John felt a familiar slowing-down of the world around him. Animalistic fervor took control of his body and qi as he went into a rage, swinging and stabbing with reckless abandon. His qi blades attacked like so many crazed spiders, leaping at Ye and chewing through his shield. John felt detached from it all, watching as something puppeted his body in his stead.

John was struck by an intense wave of vertigo in his already out-of-body experience. His vision twisted in a different direction, and he was suddenly looking at a crack in reality. The Great Wheel spun madly, twisting and obliterating worlds unending. A great Eye stood at it's center, and it hungered for John's world most of all. It glanced in his direction-----

John was standing over Ye's crumpled body. It was ravaged and bleeding from dozens of stab and slash wounds. He wasn't sure if he was still alive. John discovered his hands were clenched painfully over the handles of his claws, blood dripping from his palms. Next John heard the cheering from his friends, Kai and the other Weird cultivators celebrating his victory. Some of Ye's friends were hurrying over to him, John stepped away to give them some privacy. Lady Song looked clear-headed, probably for the first time in more than a year. Sarah also looked confused. They found their own way out.

Finally, John let himself smile, heading over to his friends and allies. It was time to begin a new chapter in his cultivation Journey.