Hair was moving towards the arena.

Surprised were Sun and Seph! But then they noticed a pair of little feet under the hair. They were standing on the right side of the vast room, and the woman with the excessive hair was on their left.

Her hair went down her back to just above her heels, and in the front there was a long bang covering half her face that went down to her hip.

She almost felt like she was floating off the ground, because not much appeared of her. She wore a white plain dress, an extremely clean dress compared to most contestants except the flowery woman.

Unlike the flowery woman, the men appeared to be fearful of her, even though she was of decent beauty, but her style, how she carried herself, her excessively long hair, made them wary of her, and she didn’t give two fucks about that or them.

Once on the stage, both women held up number 5 balls to show everyone. The black-haired girl just raised it up and turned it around without looking at the contestants.

While the flowery woman was showing it to them while watching them and distributing free smiles, everyone was grinning like an idiot, except Seph, who was worried about getting smacked again by Sun, who was now standing on his shoulder.

“Hello darling, my name is Dahlia. I want you to fight hard now, you hear? It won’t look good if I beat a younger girl that doesn’t fight back with all her power.”

The flower woman said to her opponent.

“Tsk, old woman, do you really think you stand a chance? Maybe if this was a beauty contest you would have a chance, but not in a fight to the death. I will kill you. My name is Esme, make certain to remember this name. When I leave your stiff body sprawled on the ground, it’s the last thing you will remember. Your pretty flowers won’t save you.”

The younger girl lashed back at her aggressively, but in an almost whispery tone that made the onlookers unable to hear what she said.

“Oh, did I touch a naked nerve? Very sorry, I didn’t mean to antagonize you. I like to kill my opponents softly.” Dahlia said in a sultry tone.

Esme became really agitated. Maybe that was her true personality and attacked her instantly.

While everyone was wary of her before, now they were fearful of her, because her hair came alive and extended across the arena, seeking to catch Dahlia.

Dahlia sprinkled some flowers from a pouch on her belt, and she fanned them with her fan. The flowers became erect and sharp and flew towards the oncoming hair, which they cut clear through.

Esme screamed and came running towards Dahlia. Once she was at a closer distance, she waved with her hand to the pieces of her hair that were cut; they rose from the ground, and started circling around an invisible center, till they became a black horrifying whirlwind.

Dahlia got more flower petals from her pouch and waved above them in a circular motion with her fan, till they became a whirlwind of flowers as well, that was heading to clash with the hair whirlwind, and once the two forces clashed they both lost their force, having depleted their power crashing into one another.

Esme was panting while Dahlia had sweat drops on her forehead, but she still had her confident smile on her face.

They looked at each other with anticipation when Dahlia said, “Pretty good for such a young girl. I am so proud of you, darling.”

Esme screamed at her, “DO NOT PATRONIZE ME!” and launched her hair back at Dahlia.

Dahlia sprinkled a little more flowers, but this time on top of her head, and she fanned herself. The flowers started circling around her, not one petal touched her.

Dahlia started running after summoning her defensive flower wall, and she twirled around the hair once it was about to hit her, dodging it, the hair didn’t give up and attacked her from the back, but she headed for her target already, headed for Esme!

Once she closed in on Esme, she unfolded her fan, and attacked the girl with it, and while that surprised Esme, she could get her defense up in time, when more hair gathered in front of the attack, and stopped it in its tracks.

Dahlia knew at this point they were equal and had to resort to desperate measures. What she was going to do was ruthless, but she won’t lose this fight even if she was going to kill again in this trial. It wasn’t her first time.

Dahlia got out a prize. She got in a past trial, a green flask that was filled with some liquid. She looked at it with trepidation and threw it at Esme while she was jumping backwards.

Esme noticed the flask very late and attempted to catch it with her hair, but it slipped at the last second and dropped on the ground.

Fire-Breathing bottle, Fire spread at an alarming rate, catching Esme who was more vulnerable because of all her hair, that immediately caught on fire.

Scorn appeared immediately, and with a wave of his hand, the fire died. Esme was a little hurt, but nothing major. The fire didn’t get the chance to really do its work. Esme stood there, smoke coming out of her hair and clothes, her long white dress had a shade of black on it now, and it looked ugly.

Stolen novel; please report.

Esme was silent for a while, looking at herself in disbelief, before she nodded slightly to herself, and walked off the stage.

Dahlia didn’t look cheerful at all as well. She hated using such a deadly weapon against her opponent, who was vulnerable to it, but this was the game they were playing…

The entire room was deadly silent. Usually someone celebrated and someone sulked. Usually, the loser would thank their opponent, ending it on apparently better terms, but not this time.

Still, the tournament had to go on.

Number 6 was up. An androgynous looking individual began walking towards the arena.

They had high cheekbones and a strong jawline, and no facial hair at all. Their body was strong but thin, with lean, corded muscles underneath their skin. Their eyebrows were graceful.

Their eyes were green. They looked at the distance with a dreamy look on their face.

They had a really calm disposition, and their hair was long and braided, with beads decorating its entire length.

Their robes made them even more confusing. It was a long kimono that had different shades of pink all over a white base.

The contestants didn’t have to be confused for long though, because another contestant walked in.

An old woman, with quite a few wrinkles on her face, her lips were a bright red color, and her eyes were closed in a semi smiling eye. They weren’t really sure if she was seeing anything with her eyes closed like that.

The woman had her hair done in a bun, and was walking while holding a walking stick with both hands in front of her.

She wore an old, very light green kimono, with a pair of wooden shoes that kept clogging as she moved forward.

Standing in the arena facing each other, both contestants held up their number 6 balls for everyone to see.

The androgynous contestant talked with an equally androgynous voice.

“Our name is Huan Chun. We are sorry to fight you Grandma, please do your best in this fight.”

Sun started screaming at the androgynous contestant. He understood what they said, and was confused, because he was waiting for them to reveal a male or female gender, which didn’t happen!

“Calm down, Sun, Gender doesn’t really matter. What matters is us as humans, and how we carry ourselves in this life.”

Sun nodded his head in understanding after pondering Seph’s words a little.

Seph followed, “Maybe I am not the best guy to talk about understanding and acceptance between humans, though. I ate quite a few people since we entered this place!”

Sun laughed at Seph till he almost dropped from his shoulders.

While this sequence went between Sun and Seph, the older woman had answered.

“You’re so kind, Huan Chun, my dear. My name is Glenda. You need to fight hard as well. Don’t make this old woman win so easily now!”

The fight started when the old woman took an ornate hairpin out of her hair, and she pricked herself with it in the back of her hand.

Blood trickled out, but then it started coming out at a terrifying speed, forming a ball in front of the old woman that kept on getting bigger and bigger.

Huan Chun clasped their hands in front of them and recited a mantra. When a most uncanny thing happened, they became two people, a male and a female, that formed when Huan’s body split into two!

After the two bodies split fully, they appeared at the same stance, hands clasped in front of them, and they both took out two daggers each, and started running toward Glenda.

The Male twin had yellow eyes, while the female twin had blue eyes.

The air around the male version of Huan had the air distorting around him.

While the female version of Huan was running gracefully, with a visible shadow of herself running behind her, which was uncanny because the arena didn’t have an actual sun or an artificial one either.

The daggers of male Huan started overheating, becoming bright red. Once he was closer to Glenda, he attacked her with one of them; she created a shield out of the ball of blood in front of her; the dagger made the blood sizzle around it, but it lost its heat fast.

Female Huan stopped a little distance away from Glenda, but her shadow didn’t!

Her shadow continued running towards Glenda, materializing out of the ground behind her, and attempted to hit her with a shadowy pair of daggers.

Again, Glenda made two daggers out of blood and blocked the two daggers attacking her back.

Glenda then made a third dagger from the ball of blood and pointed with her hand toward female Huan.

The dagger flew towards her, but before it hit her, the shadowy version of female Huan appeared in her place, and she came up behind Glenda, attacking her again with her daggers.

Glenda didn’t have physical capabilities, it seemed, but her mastery of blood manipulation was something to behold.

Male Huan was still overheating his daggers, and attacking with them simultaneously over and over, making the blood sizzle and evaporate little by little. The ball of blood in front of Glenda was becoming smaller. Her constant attacks were not doing her any good.

She had one last trick up her sleeves, though. Raising her hand to the sky, the smaller ball of blood ascended, and once it was at a suitable distance above her, she hit the ground with her walking cane, and the ball exploded.

Sharp shrapnel of blood flew everywhere. They halted when they came close to Glenda, but they didn’t when they went for the twins.

The twins saw that and clasped their hands in front of their chests again, and they became one. The process made them invulnerable to all forms of attack for a few seconds.

Once they were safe, they went back on the attack again, this time as one, and they ended the fight with their dagger on Glenda’s throat, but they didn’t cut her.

“Aren’t you a dear? Thank you for sparing this old woman. I admit my defeat.”

Glenda said sagely, while smiling warmly at Huan.

Huan bowed to her. “Thanks for the fight, Mrs. Glenda. You gave us a tough fight we weren’t expecting.”

Scorn was watching all the fights, and Seph noticed him. He felt that Scorn had a proud smile on his face. Maybe he was proud that most of the new generation that are getting substantial advantages from his trials, are all capable of showing compassion to one another.

Yin Immortals had the toughest time in the past against the Yang immortals, because they were all individuals who couldn’t come together to fight the bigger threat to their sects, but this generation showed a lot of hope. Good things were going to come.

Maybe his dream was going to become a reality after decades since its inception…