When the remaining four contestants assembled the following day, Leader Zhou called them onto the arena floor. Sha Xiang, thanks to the availability of the inner sect’s healers, appeared to have fully recovered from her fight the previous day. Both she and Cui Bao looked eager and ready to fight. A tiny part of He Yu hoped they would have to face each other. That would have been poetic justice.
The rest of him wanted nothing more than to face Sha Xiang now. The four of them were arranged in a row, and from where she stood on the other side of Tan Xiaoling, he could practically feel her gloating. She was going to hold the fact that she’d beaten Chen Fei over him, and he knew it.
“The four of you have demonstrated talent beyond even those also qualified for the inner sect,” Leader Zhou began. “With rank comes responsibility. Both to your juniors and to the sect. Fight well, and bring honor to yourselves and the Shrouded Peaks Sect.”
It took considerable effort for He Yu to keep his features schooled at Leader Zhou’s mention of talent. Given what he’d seen, and what both Princess Tan and Li Heng had said in the first days, that the four of them stood here now was more from design than their own ability.
Sure, Tan Xiaoling clearly would have gotten here on her own, but what about Xiao Jun? If he hadn’t fought her before qualifying for the inner sect, He Yu had no doubt that Xiao Jun would be standing here. What about Zhang Lifen’s concessions? By now, He Yu was certain that Li Heng facing off against Tan Xiaoling in the last round had been part of that.
The same was probably true about Chen Fei—in her matches against both Qiao Xia and Sha Xiang. How much of the tournament results were truly up to the abilities of the disciples? The longer it had gone on, the less he thought talent mattered.
His suspicions were confirmed, so far as he was concerned, when Leader Zhou announced the day’s first match. The other two bowed, and returned to their seats, leaving him alone in the arena with Sha Xiang. Well, he’d been hoping for this, hadn’t he? It was time to make good.
Across from him, Sha Xiang hopped from one foot to the other. She’d always been small, much like himself, and her advancement to Body Refining hadn’t changed that. It had given her a lean and well-muscled physique, and it had smoothed out some of her rougher features.
Her arms, left bare by the sleeveless uniform she insisted on wearing, were toned and strong without being bulky. He Yu knew from their last fight and from watching her in previous rounds that she was far stronger than she looked, as were most cultivators. More importantly, she was fast.
But so was he.
Between his new robe, his increased proficiency with the Sky Dragon’s Flight, and now his cultivation of the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering, He Yu was faster than ever. Stronger, too. Perhaps most importantly, they were both fresh and at the same advancement. Although Zhang Lifen had told him he’d done well, the fact that he’d not managed to beat her last time had stung, and he’d never forgotten that. He’d been preoccupied in the time since, but now?
“Gonna beat you down like I did your girlfriend,” Sha Xiang said.
He Yu said nothing. She was trying to get under his skin, and he knew it. He wasn’t going to let her.
“Fine. I’ll just make sure you beg me to stop before I finish you off then,” she said.
He shook his head. “You’re cruel,” he said at length. “And a coward, I think.”
The fury that crossed her face then was the sweetest thing he’d ever seen. Before she had a chance to respond, the gong sounded and the match began.
Neither of them hesitated. In an instant, the arena surged with the qi as their presences clashed. Sha Xiang’s volcanic blend of earth and fire poured out from her, carrying with it choking fumes, waves of heat, and the scent of blood. He Yu met her as the leading edge of a summer storm—black clouds heavy with rain, and the distant rumble of thunder sounding in the distance.
She blasted across the arena towards him, using the same attack she had during the tournament at Shulin. This time, however, He Yu could see the shape of it. It was almost like time had been slowed down. It was merely a result of his cultivation—she was easily ten times faster than she had been then, but with advancement, his perception had increased to far beyond that of the mortal he’d been then.
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He Yu stepped into her attack, sweeping his guandao forward and up. She twisted away and countered with another punch aimed at his weapon. He activated the Bracing Wind, knocking her back. Slamming her fists together, she activated her body enforcement and her skin took on a rough look like hardened stone. Molten earth bled from her fists.
“First you,” she snarled, “then the desert rat.”
Earth qi coalesced into a mass of stone about a foot across. For an instant, it floated there in front of Sha Xiang—before she punched it. The stone shattered, exploding into a shower of sharp, jagged shards that sprayed toward He Yu.
He poured wind qi into his legs—activating the Sky Dragon’s Flight—and into his guandao. The Bracing Wind rushed outward from him, but he still took a few minor nicks from the shards. He activated the Empyrean Ninefold Body Tempering. Heaven qi surged through his meridians and crackled along the length of his guandao. His skin took on the faint shine of his body art, and tiny flickers of heaven qi danced along his arms.
The blade flashed, and Sha Xiang reacted just an instant too late. The attack scored a line of red that ran from her ribs to her waist. Although she’d managed to move enough that she’d avoided the worst of it, it was a solid hit that would leave her weakened for the rest of the fight.
With the fluid, sweeping motions Fang Yingjie drilled into him, He Yu transitioned into a follow-up. He brought the blade back around, this time coming in from above. The downward strike roared with the Crashing Wind, and this time Sha Xiang was too close to avoid it.
So she did the only thing she could, and attacked. An earth-infused fist slammed into his ribs. His new body technique was probably the only reason she didn’t shatter every single one of them on the side she hit. The qi from her attack blasted him away from her, and he had to use the Sky Dragon’s Flight to catch himself. She was on him in an instant—delivering a rain of blows that took all the speed he could muster to defend against.
As her fists crashed into his guandao’s haft again and again, the only thing he could think of was Chen Fei lying on the ground and helpless under a similar barrage. As much as he had wanted to finally and truly humble Sha Xiang for himself, in that moment it seemed almost more pressing that he do it for Chen Fei.
Whatever he felt for her—something he still hadn’t managed to sort out yet—and whether or not she returned it, was irrelevant. He hadn’t given her that mid-grade spirit stone out of any attempt to win her over. His motives had been more straightforward than that. He simply didn’t want anyone in his small circle of friends or companions or whatever they were left behind.
Two visions had come to him time and again during his meditations—himself standing alone on a mountain peak, and the same but with companions. Those companions had been distant, but they’d been there, which was more than he’d had back home. He knew which he preferred.
The swirling mass of wind and heaven qi in his dantian pulsed, then cycled just that little bit faster. He stood upon the steps leading to the Heavenly Palace. He wasn’t yet very far up, only a handful of steps on a path that stretched to the heavens themselves. But he was no longer at their foot. Behind him stood Sha Xiang, shrouded in darkness and standing in a rust-red field.
“You’ll be alone sooner than you think,” He Yu said. He swept out with his guandao, the blade trailing crackling sparks of heaven qi behind it.
“Good,” she spat. “Anyone who can’t keep up with me deserves to be left behind.”
Sha Xiang’s fists surged with earth and fire qi, dripping motes of flame that burned the flagstones beneath her. Something in the feeling of her spirit stirred—the same wrongness he’d felt when she used that Four Demon Fists technique during their last fight, but stronger.
Stronger, and—not less wrong, but somehow more integrated. It fit her better than it had previously. Whatever it was, it had changed. He couldn’t say how for sure, and the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment gave him no real insight.
“Then why are you holding back?” he demanded, advancing with a series of vertical sweeps, driving her back toward the edge of the arena.
“I don’t need it to beat you,” she snapped, clearly growing more angry.
“No?” he asked. “Then why haven’t you beaten me without it?” He didn’t know what “it” was, but clearly, it had something to do with that sense of wrongness about her.
“Fine,” she said, growing calm like she had the last time they’d fought. “I’d wanted to save this for the final round, but I guess if it’ll shut that fucking mouth of yours, I’ll use it now.”
A gathering of qi rippled down her arms, adding bulk and muscle and power. The dark, foreign qi also coursed along her body and overlaid itself on her legs as well. She seemed to grow fractionally larger and gained that same sense of danger as before. Like towards the end of her fight with Chen Fei, the scent of blood became mixed into the volcanic aspect of her spirit.
“I hope you remember this technique, He Yu. I can use it now. You haven’t been the only one to trip over gifts from the heavens this past winter,” she said.
He did remember it. The wrong-feeling qi churned and coursed through her spirit. He could, for the briefest instant, see another spiritual presence laid over Sha Xiang’s as she activated the Four Demon Fists.