Pan Tian prattled on incessantly, but Jie sat with her eyes closed and focused on cultivating. It wasn't that she didn't like the older girl. Quite the contrary, Pan Tian was one of the few people that Jie did like. But she couldn't allow herself to be distracted by things like friendship. No, she could only focus on cultivating and growing stronger.

Ming had said it time and time again. Strength was all that mattered. It wasn't just that the enemy she needed to defeat was so much stronger, but almost everyone else was stronger than her. Only the children were her match, and she knew all too well how quickly everything she loved could be taken away.

Now she was in a world where she had the potential to get the power to keep what she loved safe and until she had that power, what good would it do to even entertain the notion of friendship?

"Liu Jie and Zhao Gang to platform three," said one of the elders.

Jie's eyes snapped open.

"I'd say good luck, but I doubt you need it," Pan Tian said.

Jie gave the older girl a nod and moved to her platform.

She stepped up and onto the raised area. She felt the eyes of the waiting contestants and spectators on her and looked up at the stands. She couldn't help wishing to see Ming there to root for her, but he was busy healing and she was too weak to help him. However, she did see Elder Shi watching her intently.

Somehow that warmed Jie's heart and she smiled slightly despite herself.

A humanoid lion twice Jie's size and looking closer to Pan Tian in age stepped up onto the platform opposite her. He had a mane of fiery-red hair and massive hands closer to paws than human hands. A tail like a lion's swished behind him and the aura of a ninth star Adept pulsed from him in waves.

He pressed one of his mighty paws into the other and bowed to her respectfully. Jie returned his bow just as respectfully. Then, both of them took a fighting stance.

An elder Jie didn't recognize stood to one side on a much smaller, separate platform with his hands behind his back.

"The fight is until surrender or incapacitation. Knockouts and broken or severed limbs are acceptable but killing your opponent or crippling their cultivation will result in immediate disqualification and possible expulsion. Should you knock your opponent out of the ring, it will be considered a victory. The fight starts.... Now!" said the elder.

Zhao Gang immediately cycled two separate martial skills. Twin, long flaming spears emerged in his hands as fire qi roared to life beneath his feet, rocketing him toward Jie. His arms pulled back, ready to strike with his spears.

Jie cycled lightning step to its fullest and his explosive speed seemed to slow almost to a crawl. Jie ran straight toward him, his every movement seeming sluggish to her eyes.

As she neared him, he tried to stab her with his flaming spears, but his movements were far too slow. Jie dropped to the ground, sliding legs first across the lily-white tiles as his spears passed over her head, skewering the space where she'd been and stabbing into the tiles behind her with a sizzling crack.

Jie kicked at his legs as she slid into them, knocking them out from under him, before she sprang to her feet, grabbing the humanoid lion by the hem of his robes. She spun with his momentum, whirling in a blur of motion before releasing him and hurling him off the stage.

He arced through the air like one of those hammers she'd seen thrown in the Olympics back on Earth. He slammed into the sand of the arena floor and tumbled over it, his fiery spears and feet leaving a trail of burning sand that turned partially to glass in his wake.

His spears fluttered out of existence as his feet returned to normal and he drove a frustrated fist down into the sandy arena floor as he snarled.

"Zhao Gang has survived! The winner is Liu Jie by a ring out!" said the elder overseeing her fight.

A stir rippled through the crowd, but Jie gave them no notice. Instead, she looked at Elder Shi. Elder Shi smirked and then mouthed the words 'Show off'.

Jie stepped down and sat back on the bench where she'd been before her fight. She closed her eyes and resumed cultivating.

Three fights later and Jie had yet to face a real challenge. Once again, she returned to her bench and cultivated while she waited to be called.

She heard sadistic laughter coming from one of the platforms while she cultivated.

"How unlucky for you, Pan Tian," said a male voice, "will you save face and concede or shall I break you in front of everyone here and show them just how weak your family is?"

Jie frowned but remained focused on cultivating.

"Big talk after your sister lost with all her helpers against someone at a lower cultivation. The Chen family has a loud bark, but your bite leaves much to be desired," Pan Tian said.

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Jie smirked and continued cultivating. But one thing worried her. The person Pan Tian was talking to was at the second star of the Expert rank. And Pan Tian was only at the ninth star of the Adept rank. A gap that Jie believed herself capable of closing... but she was unsure if Pan Tian could do so.

But Jie remained hopeful.

The official announced the fight had begun and a cascade of explosions followed.

Then came a bone-chilling shriek.

Jie's eyes sprang open.

Jie couldn't see what was going on other than a young man with purple skin and pointed ears standing with a sadistic smile as he looked down at something and Pan Tian's family looked grim.

Then came another agonizing scream.

"See? You're weak. Easily broken. You're trash. Just like the rest of your family. Declare it to everyone here and concede," said the young man.

Jie jumped up onto the back of the bench, so she could see what was going on better.

Pan Tian's leg was broken beneath the young man's foot and yet he continued to press. She couldn't fight back. The fight was over. It was just torture now.

Jie turned to Pan Zhanshi. "Why doesn't she concede?" she asked.

Pan Zhanshi looked grim. "If she concedes, she'll be seen as weak. She has to wait until the judge declares her unable to continue fighting to gain at least some face back," he said. His words were clipped and filled with a cold rage.

The young man on stage pressed harder. Pan Tian's face was white, her jaw clenched, and a defiant glare in her eyes.

Jie looked at the judge, but he remained unmoving. The crowd had fallen silent, and many of the fights on the other stages had stopped to watch the horror unfold.

"Why doesn't the judge end it? The fights are supposed to be over when one person can't continue fighting. She can't possibly go on like that," Jie said.

"He will wait for a time. Should he end it too soon, he'll be seen as siding with our family," Pan Zhanshi said.

"So he sides with the Chen family instead?" Jie asked. Her fists were clenched so tight her knuckles had turned white and lightning snapped and crackled over them without her even thinking about it.

"The Chen family is strong, but no. So far, he's being neutral," Pan Zhanshi said.

"That's ridiculous. Their duty should be to look after their students!" Jie snarled.

Pan Zhanshi growled. "I'm forced to agree, but there's nothing we can do. This will go on for a while yet," he said.

One agonizing second followed another. The young man of the Chen family had pressed so hard that Pan Tian's leg was bent ninety degrees in the wrong direction and horribly twisted. The jagged white of her leg bone stuck out through her skin in a way that made Jie's skin crawl just looking at it.

Jie ground her teeth and alternated between glaring at the young man and the judge and looking at her friend with concern.

Pan Tian didn't allow so much as a whimper to come out of her, but her face had turned as white as her all too visible bone.

Jie tried to wait and observe their idiotic custom or whatever this sick thing was but seeing her friend in pain made her snap.

"Hey!" Jie yelled, "Judge! She's clearly no longer able to fight! How long are you going to let this go on?"

The judge watching over the match and many of those gathered in the stands glared at Jie and a ripple of murmurs went through the crowd.

"Be silent, or I'll disqualify you," said the judge.

"What are you doing? You'll only make it worse! If we call them out, we lose face," Pan Zhanshi hissed.

"I won't let this go on. I don't care about this face rubbish, and I'm not one of your family. I can say whatever the hell I want," Jie snapped. She then turned back to the judge.

"Go ahead! If this is how The Crimson Academy runs a tournament, only an idiot would want to stay signed up," she said.

The judge's lips twisted into a rage-filled sneer. "You rude brat! You will be silent!" he said.

"Oh please. You don't frighten me. You're a spineless worm. You think you're showing The Crimson Academy to be unbiased? All you're doing is showing that no family should entrust their next generation of cultivators to your care. You're pathetic," Jie said.

The Chen family youth smirked. "So does the Pan family need some unknown brat to speak on their behalf?" he said.

Jie snorted. "You're the real trash here and everyone knows it. You fight a younger, weaker cultivator and claim to be strong and skilled? Is the Chen family so weak and honorless that such an act is what passes for an achievement among you? You're nothing. All you've done is show everyone here that the Chen family is without even a shred of honor. What fools would ever ally with someone like you?" she said.

His smile faded and he looked to the crowd that murmured louder and louder like a stirring insect hive, humming and buzzing as the tension rose.

"If it were me, I'd want to ally with the Pan family. While you've shown yourself to be nothing but scum, their young daughter stands against an older and more powerful cultivator without backing down. That's strength. You press on her leg and for what? You just show that her spirit will not be broken by trash like you. You speak of weakness? Are you perhaps looking at your reflection in her defiant eyes, weakling?" Jie said.

"That's enough!" roared the judge.

"Yes," Jie said glaring at the judge, "it is."

She activated lightning step and moved with blinding speed to the stage with Pan Tian.

The crowd's murmurs rose higher and higher.

Jie leaped up onto the platform.

The crowd erupted.

"She dares to intrude on a fight in progress?"

"The girl speaks the truth! The Chen family are cowards! Always have been!"

The judge glared at her. "You've gone too far!" he yelled. Light blue qi flowed out around his hands, covering his palms. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Jie. He struck at her, but his palm smashed into something else before it could reach Jie.

Elder Shi had moved so fast that not even Jie had been able to follow it. She'd blocked the impossibly fast attack from the judge like it was nothing.

"Enough," said Elder Shi, "the match is over. Declare it as such."

"But it hasn't been--" the judge began.

"I don't care. Declare the result. I will see to the girl," Elder Shi said.

A vein throbbed in the judge's forehead, but he inclined his head.

"Pan Tian is unable to fight! The winner is Chen Huo!" he yelled. His voice boomed across the arena and the already roaring crowd grew so loud that the arena vibrated from the sheer noise.

Elder Shi swished one hand and Chen Huo flew back across the arena, uninjured, but far from Pan Tian.

Jie gathered Pan Tian into her arms and carried her away, heading straight for the more private healing tent on the outskirts of the arena.