A tremor of excitement enveloped Su Rong’s spine as he registered the Elder’s words.

The familiar buzz of adrenaline took over his mind and his refined body shook, his muscles tensed in anticipation and his head turned towards his hated foe.

A pair of green eyes met his own gaze. A silent challenge was present in those cold emerald orbs, a challenge Su Rong had no intention of ignoring.

The fiery cultivator shot to his feet with a hungry smile on his face, making his sister and her friend, Su Ai and Bo Hui respectively, flinch back in surprise.

Su Ai glared at him in exasperation as she tugged at her dark frazzled hair which was currently held in a loose braid. Meanwhile, Bo Hui let out a sigh as he pressed one of his scrawny hands at the center of his chest, his clay red hair looking even wilder than usual.

Su Rong could not really fault their jumpiness after the nightmares they had gone through, he would be secretly checking under his bed for any monstrous moles for the next couple of weeks at least.

But despite their valid grievances the fiery youth just ignored them, he had more important things to worry about right now.

Su Rong stepped forward with a clear purpose, the elder’s gaze settled on him and not even the bold youth dared to meet the aged cultivator’s eyes. He was confident, not suicidal.

“I wish to issue a challenge if you would allow me, honored elder.” Su Rong scrounged up every last drop of respectfulness and sincerity he could find in his body, going as far as to bow just to not incur the aged man’s ire.

One never knew the whims of powerful cultivators after all, and Su Rong had heard enough horror stories about crazy cultivators destroying entire cities over even a minor perceived slight on their honor.

Elder Chao stroked his well trimmed beard absentmindedly as he looked over the young cultivator, waiting for a heartbeat and then one more, making the first challenger just start to sweat in apprehension before answering with a simple and concise. “Very well.”

The middle aged cultivator waved without a care at the bowing disciple, further corroborating his assent with the disarming and almost casual gesture.

Su Rong didn’t buy the man’s indifference for a moment. But this wasn’t the time to examine the elder’s behavior.

Now it was time to fight.

Su Rong once more stepped forward towards his nemesis, his head held high in challenge, he put his hands together with his palm meeting his fist in a traditional cultivator’s salute, then he met Xiang Yu’s eyes.

The sect born disciple wore his usual infuriating smile, waiting expectantly for Su Rong’s challenge like a prince before a servant, the nameless feline beauty he always spent his time with stood just behind him eyeing Su Rong with cold indifference.

Su Rong knew nothing about her outside of her being a burgeoning alchemist, an absurdly useful connection for the green eyed youth, which Su Rong was completely sure had been engineered by Xiang Yu’s family or whoever backed him.

Just another advantage the sect born disciple had over common rabble like him.

The fiery youth gritted his teeth with lips drawn into a frown. He gave Xiang Yu the barest hint of a bow as customs dictated before he issued his challenge.

“Disciple Su Rong would like to trade pointers with brother Xiang Yu.” The dark haired cultivator had to stop himself from letting out a cutting remark as he saw the overly proud youth roll his eyes at his theatrics.

No matter, he would show him soon enough.

Xiang Yu mirrored his stance before answering. “Disciple Xiang Yu is more than willing to accept your challenge.”

Once the proper conventions were out of the way the duo made their way to a side of the garden. The mountain top was large enough for all of their bouts to happen at the same time even if they started to jump around like monkeys.

Xiang Yu and Su Rong stopped once they were far enough from the other disciples, standing a handful of strides away from one another.

They took their respective fighting stance in silence, utterly concentrated on the other’s movements. There was no referee to give them the go ahead, the fight would commence once the first punch was thrown.

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Before Su Rong could grow too impatient and take the initiative Xiang Yu shot forward, winding his right arm back for a punch.

[Inner Fire]

His spiritual energy was slower than usual to respond to his will, the chaotic remnants of his breakthrough hindering him more than he would’ve liked, but still, he was able to intercept the glowing golden fist with his own burning forearm.

Su Rong had been on the receiving end of this particular technique many times in the past so he knew to brace himself against the golden energy’s pushing force. What he hadn’t expected was for the glowing technique not to push his arm away but to push Xiang Yu’s fist over his defense.

A glowing fist rocketed toward the fiery youth’s face but thanks to the power granted to him by his reinforcing technique he managed to mostly avoid it.

Still, the glowing punch grazed painfully against his left cheekbone, almost making Su Rong wince as the golden glow pulled at his skin.

The dark eyed cultivator took the chance Xiang Yu’s momentary unbalance gave him and sent his own burning fist howling towards his opponent’s stomach.

[Bistering Conflagration]

Light red flames enveloped his arm in a corona of fire, ready to scorch his foe’s flesh on contact, but as his punch landed Su Rong felt something hitting his chest with overwhelming power.

The fiery cultivator groaned in pain, taking huge gulps of air as his breath was quite literally kicked out of him, while Xiang Yu sailed back with a grimace, holding his stomach with one hand.

While his quick thinking had allowed him to bleed off most of the force from the attack the firey skill had still burned away his robes and left his abdomen scalded.

Changing gears in the seconds that winding his opponent gave him Xiang Yu activated both his movement technique and his offensive one, deciding to keep his distance while throwing his chi constructs.

A shower of lightning darts flew towards Su Rong, who by now had regained his composure, and the dark haired youth did his best to parry as many of them as he could while trying to close the distance.

After a couple of moments of ineffectually running after the other disciple, Su Rong hesitated for a moment before coming to a decision.

[Inner Fire]

[Blazing Surge]

Su Rong used both his reinforcing technique and his movement technique at the same time in a move the would have left him in pure agony were he still in the Natal Realm, but to his own surprise, only a mild ache suffused his legs as he chained the skills together.

Crimson flames exploded from his legs, the ground cracked then exploded as he shot forward and the luxurious vegetation around his feet was scorched black by his passage.

Su Rong closed the distance between him and his opponent in less than a second, which left Xiang Yu reeling in alarm and throwing up a hasty defense as a devastating punch hit his crossed arms.

Su Rong did not dare activate his offensive technique alongside the other two, lest he make his limbs explode, but even without it, his refined body held enough power to make his hits hurt.

The fiery cultivator delivered a series of consecutive hits at the sect born disciple’s defenses, taking full advantage of his newfound speed, but Xiang Yu wasn’t just going to take it laying down.

The green eyed youth pumped as much spiritual energy into his technique as he could suddenly shooting away from the fiery cultivator, who was now sporting an almost maniac smile.

“It’s no use!” Yelled Su Rong as he once more closed the distance in a series of leaps, soaring towards Xiang Yu like a shark who had just smelled blood in the water.

“You’re right.” Suddenly the green eyed cultivator reversed his movement, now shooting towards Su Rong.

The dark eyed disciple raised an arm in defense but just as Xiang Yu’s attack made contact with him Su Rong’s arm was enveloped in a crushing force.

Su Rong suppressed a wince of pain as he noticed Xiang Yu’s glowing hand clinging to his forearm. Su Rong tried to break his opponent’s hold using his other hand but he was interrupted by a knee delivered straight to his kidney.

As he instinctively flinched back from the pain Xiang Yu delivered another attack straight to the side of his head dazing him for a few moments and leaving him open to more direct attacks.

On and on they went, every struggle made by the fiery youth was met with failure, every counterattack interrupted as Xiang Yu yanked at his arm to break his flow.

The dread started to build up as cuts and bruises accumulated, and the consequences of his liberal use of untested skill chaining left him with a rapidly shrinking pool of spiritual energy.

His almost panicking mind searched for a solution and in the moment he came up with something drastic.

[Inner Fire]

[Bistering Conflagration]

Su Rong activated both techniques at the same time and pumped most of his remaining chi in the skills.

Xiang Yu’s eyes widened as he sensed the chaotic build up of energy, but it was too late to outrun it now, so he let go of Su Rong, crossed his arms in front of his face, and pushed as much of his chi in the front of his body as he could manage and then some.

An explosion of fire and spiritual energy enveloped the two young cultivators, sending them flying away from each other.

Su Rong tumbled in the dirt painfully biting down on a scream, but that didn’t even register compared to the agony that was enveloping his right arm.

As he came to a stop he cradled his blackened limb against his chest, waiting for the initial wave of pain to subside before he picked himself up to continue the fight, he just thanked the Heavens that at least his arm hadn’t actually blown off.

“That is enough.” Elder Chao’s voice cut through Su Rong’s clouded thoughts and his overwhelming presence settled on his shoulders just enough to make him aware of it, bringing with it a crushing sense of defeat.

Even without seeing Xiang Yu, he was more than aware that his current condition would be a lot more severe than his opponent’s.

Su Rong hanged his head down in defeat as he cursed to himself for his recklessness.