Six months passed this way. And Jie broke through seven times, reaching the eighth star of the Adept rank. Her dantian hummed with more power than ever before, yet Jie still felt deeply unsatisfied as she had so much further to go...
After yet another grueling day of training, Elder Shi watched over Jie as she stretched to keep her body supple.
"Have you entered the tournament yet?" Elder Shi asked.
"Yes," Jie said, "I filled in my entry after training yesterday."
Elder Shi smiled. "Good. I have high hopes for you," she said.
"Do you know of anything that can heal a god ranked cultivator?" Jie asked suddenly.
Elder Shi frowned. "A god ranked cultivator? Why?" she asked.
"Humor me. Please," Jie said.
Elder Shi shrugged. "Another god ranked cultivator who specializes in healing, I suppose? But they're not exactly easy to find. Why do you ask?" she asked.
Jie frowned. "What about lower ranked healers? Can't they do anything?" she asked.
"I doubt it," Elder Shi said.
"Why not? It's all just bodies isn't it?" Jie asked.
"You're a very strange child. But, no. It isn't so simple. A pebble cannot hope to heal a mountain," Elder Shi said.
Jie nodded. "Then where would I find a god ranked healer?" she asked.
"Why do you want to know any of this? You're far from a god ranked cultivator. Unless... Oh," Elder Shi said, her eyes going wide.
Jie's intense blue eyes flicked to Elder Shi and in that moment the elder shivered slightly.
Damn. This girl has a frightening presence, Elder Shi thought.
"I think I understand why you wish so badly to learn of a healer. I only know of one that might have such power... but they're impossible to get to. I'll ask around and see if I can find another," Elder Shi said.
Jie nodded. "Thank you," she said.
Jie wondered what Elder Shi thought she'd figured out. But decided to ignore it. Questioning it seemed like it'd only risk giving away more information and for now, at least, Elder Shi seemed to be on her side.
***
The academy grounds bustled like an insect hive on the day of the tournament. Students ran to and fro, filled with too much excitement to keep still.
Jie, however, calmly cultivated as she waited outside the arena she'd been assigned. It was a massive, elliptical building of red and white stone. With statues of the red woman The Crimson Academy seemed to admire so much flanking the wide staircase that led up to the doors of blood-red metal.
Many other youths were arrayed at the base of the enormous staircase to the arena, and more than a few sent her strange glances. But Jie showed no sign of noticing them let alone acknowledging them. She did, however, scan them with her spirit sense just to get a feel for them.
The weakest were at the sixth star of the Adept rank with the strongest being at the ninth star of the Adept rank. Though there were only a handful of those. Most tended toward the middle of the range.
Several students discussed what prizes might be on offer, but such useless conjecture wasn't worth Jie's time.
The only thing she needed was strength. She frowned as she thought of Ming, alone in her residence and still busily trying to heal himself.
If only she were strong enough to heal him as easily as he'd healed her.
She sucked in more Essence and refined it into crackling qi. Once again, someone she cared for was dying and there was nothing she could do.
She ignored the pain as more Essence detonated within her dantian. She would not lose another. Never again. If Elder Shi couldn't find anything, she would. But first, the tournament. It was for this reason that she cultivated even more fiercely than before. Soon, she'd get a chance to battle in the arena and stabilize her cultivation. With the insane speed she'd been working at lately and with the help of so many pills, she was already at the peak of the eighth star of the Adept rank.
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But her progress was still far below what she desired.
If only she were god ranked already.
Jie felt an elder approaching and opened her eyes as she casually stood and dusted the winter snow off her clothes.
"Alright group 67B! It's time to begin the first round of the tournament!" boomed the elder. He looked middle-aged with a long beard and a body rippling with enough muscles to make a body builder scream of injustice in the world.
"Round one will be a test of your endurance and strategy as much as your skill. You will all enter the arena at the same time for a free for all smack down! The last five remaining will progress to the next stage of the tournament.
"Remember, great clans and families, including your own, have come from across the Spectral Empire to see you perform today. Fight bravely and fight well. Listen closely to the rules and ensure you conduct yourself as befits your station lest you bring shame to your family. Well? What are you lollygagging for you sorry bunch of ingrates? Get in there!" the elder roared.
The students raced up the stairs and through the elaborately decorated halls to take their place on the sandy arena floor.
Countless large fires burned in braziers all around the arena, and it felt like walking into an oven after sitting and cultivating in the freezing snow outside.
Elders stood around the rim of the arena, several of them wearing green armbands with symbols of wood marking them as healers.
All around them, watching from every angle, were row upon row of men and women. The majority were human in appearance though there were many other species present. Most of them, particularly those with the best seats, wore fine clothes. And judging by the similarities in features between some of the students and some of those watching them, Jie could only surmise that a good portion of the crowd consisted of the families of the students.
Somehow that knowledge made Jie's heart ache though she did her best to ignore it.
Jie spotted Headmaster Siluvius in the most opulent viewing box, sitting like an emperor on his throne in the shade of an expensive-looking canopy. Several elders sat at his side while the wealthiest and most powerful families had their own slightly less luxurious seating on either side of the Headmaster's private box.
The higher up the tiers of seating, and the further away from the action, the lower the class of people seemed to be. With the highest level seemingly reserved for lower class standing room and restaurants which cooked a variety of strange, alien food. A steady stream of beautiful waitresses and handsome waiters flowed up and down the tiers, taking orders and bringing food on shining silver platters.
At the very top of the arena, white flags with a symbol of the red woman in the center flapped in the wind, while large metal spokes pointed inward and upward like great claws emerging from the top of the building.
Red canvas hung between the spokes, like enormous canopy blinds, each section able to be pulled further to shield the crowd from the falling winter snow as necessary.
Jie took it all in and then dismissed it, turning her gaze to the students around her with cold, calculating eyes as they took their places. Some stood together in small groups of what she assumed must be friends. Others positioned themselves near some of the weaker cultivators no doubt in the hope of surviving the initial frenzy.
Although Jie would never admit it, her blood thundered eagerly in her veins as she stepped inside the arena despite the ache in her heart. The sand beneath her feet. The roar of the crowd. The other students all looking at each other with wariness and aggression.
But, what truly set her heart pounding was the air of competition.
She took a deep breath as though drinking it in and walked straight into the center of the arena.
She smirked. If Ming were here, she hoped he'd approve. After all, this wasn't about winning some silly tournament. It was about pushing her beyond her limits. It was about putting herself under pressure so she might become a diamond among coal.
A few youths looked at her with disbelieving gazes as though shocked silly at her arrogance. To this, she gave them her first reaction. A smile.
The crowd rippled with frenzied discussion and even the muscular elder from before raised an eyebrow.
"You're far too arrogant. I'll take you down first," said one of the youths closest to her. He released his aura of a ninth star Adept as he cycled his qi and several martial skills at once.
Gleaming, dark silver qi the color of steel grew out over his body, forming thick metal armor with a snarling demonic-looking faceplate that glared at her as it bared sharp fangs of gleaming qi.
More qi grew out from his right hand, forming into a wicked-looking halberd as a thick circular shield blossomed over his left arm. His shield too had a snarling, demonic face. And it moved. The muscles of its brows rippled like liquid metal as it scowled at her and licked its razor-sharp fangs.
The purity of his qi and the solidity of his techniques was impressive. No doubt Jie was supposed to be intimidated by the sight as his aura weighed on her. Instead, his aura washed over her like a gentle breeze.
Jie fixed him with her electric eyes and released her own aura of the peak eighth star.
Immediately, everyone in the arena took a collective step away from her.
"What... is this... pressure?" one of them, a youth at the eighth star Adept rank said through clenched teeth despite being some distance away.
Though Jie was only at the eighth star, she'd learned in her fights so far that her aura weighed heavily even on those far above her cultivation.
But, her display of power only signaled to the hundred or so youths in the arena that she was a threat.
Many of them fixed their sights on her and she smiled with pure joy as something stirred within her. A kind of giddy excitement and a desire to make Ming proud.