The sun had already vanished beyond the edge of the city when the people from the two families started to approach the arena, but the small island didn't end up turning dark as a result. A faint light started to rise up from the lake around the island, strands of the light gathering above the island to form a bright silver moon that illuminated the area. Tien Huang moved closer to Liang Chen as the approached the arena, handing him a leather pouch filled with pink powder.

"You should take this. Just mix it with some water and then drink it, it'll neutralize the poison that was hidden in some of the food. The poison is changed slightly each year so I couldn't give you an antidote earlier, having you swallow that and then the poison would probably be worse than just having you digest the poison."

Tien Huang's voice was a little hushed, but not to the point that he was whispering to make sure that no one else heard him. Clearly, the act of poisoning the food and drinks was something that both families tacitly accepted. Liang Chen accepted the pouch and unfastened the wine gourd he had fastened to his belt during the banquet, pouring the powder into it and giving the gourd a few shakes.

Once the powder had properly dissolved, he placed the gourd against his lips and took a big swig to put Tien Huang at ease. The wine inside the gourd was made by the Enlai clan, and Tien Shih had indeed been right, they made excellent spicy wine. Tien Huang nodded his head after seeing that Liang Chen took the antidote, unaware that the wine Liang Chen was drinking was in fact poisoned.

Tien Huang also handed the Zun twins the same antidote, but Liang Chen had stopped them from getting their hands on anything poisoned so it wasn't really necessary. Liang Chen spotted a few similar scenes playing out around him, everyone making sure that the poison wouldn't end up being too much of a problem. Liang Chen was a bit curious why they would still use the poison if it was dealt with this easily, but he didn't bother voicing the question out loud.

The group quickly reached the arena-section of the open area, the expressions of Tien Huang and some of the other youths immediately turning solemn. The seating areas surrounding the single stone stage were large enough that those who would partake in the duels could enter separate rooms beneath the seats to prepare anything they needed, the place looked more like a coliseum than it did a normal sparring stage.

Tien Huang was one of the fighters so he bade Liang Chen farewell and vanished into one of the doors situated on the base of the stone seating areas. Liang Chen didn't have to say anything, his shadow wriggling faintly for a second before quieting down, Yumao leaving his side to keep an eye on Tien Huang.

The rest of the people present ascended the seating areas and picked a chair from which they could spectate the following duels. The eastern side of the seating area was occupied by the Tien family and the western was occupied by the Enlai family, only those closer to certain people from the other family stepping past the invisible boundary the two families had decided on. But just as Liang Chen was planning on following the Zun twins to the top of the seats, a slightly aged voice called out to him.

"You, come sit here with me. You can bring the two servants as well."

Liang Chen didn't have to turn his head to see that the person calling out to him was Tien Bao, the current ruler of the Tien family. He spat out a breath of air and then brought the Zun twins with him to the seating area located closest to the stage.

The seats there were much better than the other seats, covered in a thick layer of soft cloth while also having a small table in front of them. Tien Bao was leaning back in his seat, pointing at the three open seats to his left. Liang Chen received a few curious stares since he was called out like this, but he could just ignore them as he took the seat next to Tien Bao.

"Alright, I'll just take this seat then, since you're offering and all."

The Zun twins took the seats next to Liang Chen, but they were a far cry from as casual as he was, their movements so stilted that they almost resembled puppets. This was Tien Bao, the great leader of the Tien family, it would be rare for them to just see him, much less get to sit next to him like this. Tien Bao rested his chin on his hand, gazing at the stage that already held two people, not bothering to beat around the bush as he spoke.

"I don't know who you are or why you've decided to rest here for a while, but those children have already lost enough. If you try to harm them or move against the Tien family, I will eradicate you without mercy."

One of Liang Chen's eyebrows rose in the face of Tien Bao's direct threat, he could certainly see why Tien Shih had warned him about Tien Bao's blunt nature. But if you asked him, blunt people like this were far better to deal with than smiling schemers and the like, it was a refreshing change of pace. Tien Bao clearly didn't know anything concrete about Liang Chen, which was one of the main reasons behind his threat, but Liang Chen had no interest in telling him anything either, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm just passing through, as long as you don't give me a reason to, I won't do anything bad."

Tien Bao nodded his head in response to Liang Chen's statement, accepting it for the moment. He descended into silence after he finished saying his piece, returning his focus to the sparring match already taking place on the stage. Liang Chen also didn't really have anything to say so he put his focus on the ongoing match, splitting off part of it to keep an eye on the surroundings.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

And while nothing happened during the first match, he received some news from Yumao while the fighters for the second match entered the stage. Someone had apparently snuck into the area where one of the Tien family fighters was preparing and had tried to wound him so that he couldn't fight, he might have succeeded if hadn't been for Tien Shih, who had shown up out of nowhere.

At the same time as he received these news, he also managed to spot a member of the Enlai family make his way out from the rooms underneath the seating area. The youth had a few wounds on his body, the most notable one being his left arm, which had been bent in an unnatural manner.

The youth made his way over to an elder from the family and whispered to him, the news quickly reaching the female leader of the family, who frowned in annoyance when she was informed. She glared sharply at Tien Bao but didn't say anything, quietly giving the order to tend to the youth's wounds. It was obviously done by the Tien family, but as long as she couldn't bring out any concrete proof then there was no point in mentioning it.

Without any proof, the Tien family could just say that they had wounded their own fighter to pin the blame on them, it wouldn't be the first time either family had used that excuse. So they could only swallow it and blame themselves for being the weaker ones in this first hidden exchange. But she wasn't disheartened, there would be many more exchanges to come, and they had yet to pull out their own trump cards.

Both families were already very familiar with these sparring matches so one after another passed without incident. There was a slight tenseness over the Enlai family side during the fifth match, they received the news that one of their attacks on Tien Huang had failed. If it was a normal failure, they wouldn't care much, but the problem was that the attacker wasn't even certain who had moved to protect Tien Huang.

He said that the room suddenly flooded with darkness, his body halting where it was before he was battered by something he couldn't see. With how familiar the two families were with each other, they, of course, knew about the various laws that their strongest cultivators practised. And as such, they knew that there were only three people in the Tien family that cultivated the law of darkness, but they were looking at two of them on the other side of the stage, and the third person was a young child that they knew still remained within the family estate.

They glanced suspiciously at Liang Chen, who they had no proper information on, but with no leads to latch on to they had no choice but to temporarily put the matter aside. The fights thus continued in a fluid manner, even Tien Huang stepping onto the stage once to take part in a fight.

The fluidness continued all the way up until the 15th match, at which point the Tien family had won eight matches and the Enlai family had won seven matches. The ones currently fighting were a muscular girl from the Tien family and a muscular man from the Enlai family, one wielding a large axe while the other wielded a surprisingly thin and flexible sword.

The two were evenly matched in strength so the battle was a fair bit fiercer than the previous ones, both fighters slowly accumulating wounds. But the end of the battle came while the two fighters were on a part of the stage that was closer to Tien Bao than it was the Enlai family. The girl from the Tien family smashed up the sword of the man from the Enlai family and stepped in, smashing her shoulder into his solar plexus and knocking him down.

But the woman didn't halt her attack there despite clearly being the victor, a violent light flashing through her eyes as the pain from her wounds got to her. She gathered her strength in her arms and smashed the axe down, angling it towards the man's chest. The leader of the Enlai family frowned darkly at the sight, but neither she nor Tien Bao moved to stop the woman.

The families were rivals, and while they generally had a non-verbal rule to not kill during these competitions, a non-verbal rule was far from binding. If the woman chose to kill the man here, in an official duel accepted by both families, there was nothing that either side could say. But while they had their rules, there was one person present that wasn't exactly known for caring too much about something like rules.

"Alright, that should be about enough, there really isn't a need to take things further."

The voice interrupted the woman's attack, a hand grasping onto her axe's handle and halting it in place before it could hit the downed man. Liang Chen had appeared at her side without her realizing it, his casual grip on her axe rendering her unable to even budge it. He wore a somewhat exasperated expression, he would have preferred it if he didn't have to step out like this.

But no matter what, he still had his morals and his limits, and he would abide by those even if it meant having to step forward. He didn't know a damn thing about the man lying on the ground next to him, knew nothing of his sins and virtues. He could be someone worthy of death, or he could be someone worthy of life, Liang Chen didn't know. And since he didn't know, he would rather save a life than take it and end up regretting it after learning the truth.

"You should go now, I'm sure you know that this is your loss."

Liang Chen spoke to the man who was frozen on the ground, the shadow of death that just loomed over him had practically paralyzed him. Liang Chen's words helped him snap out of it, quickly uttering a few thanks before he got up and left the stage, admitting his defeat. Liang Chen let go of the axe after the man left, returning to his seat while shrugging his shoulders.

"It's just a few sparring matches, no need to take things too far."

The expected scene occurred when he returned to his seat, he felt a large number of gazes land on him, vigilantly inspecting the youth they had mostly disregarded since he was just a wounded person that Tien Huang brought back. Luckily, he had the sparkling gazes of the Zun twins to break up the monotonous vigilance and inspection that the others showed, the two children were filled with nothing more than simple admiration and awe.

Liang Chen didn't say anything in response to the two gazes, maintaining the expression of a casual observer. But his actions had already caught the attention of everyone present, and also caused a bit of worry to sprout within the hearts of the Enlai family. As such, the leader of the Enlai family leaned closer to the elder sitting at her side, quietly giving him an order. Since such an unknown variable had entered the fray, it was about time that they themselves brought out one of their own variables.