The battles quickly passed by, several mysterious cultivators apparent, all of whom Qian Feng took note of, and as he sat in silence, the top three comeptitors were decided. Him, a hidden cultivator named Lu Teng, and a domineering Earth affinity axe-wielder named Gong Ren. Of the two, Qian Feng was more wary of Lu Teng, who had won all of his matches without revealing any cards, but was intrigued by Gong Ren, who was so confident(or stupid) that he didn't even bother worrying about revealing his fighting style, going all-out in every single match. The boy had to admit, that took courage.
Regardless, it seemed Qian Feng really was lucky. He hadn't had to fight much for chiefly one reason - everyone had to actually battle when it was their turn. That was, if someone won because their opponent conceded right away, the victor would have to go up against the next competitor instead, continuing on doing so until someone didn't concede or the victor won the entire tournament. That meant that the especially, obviously strong cultivators fought a lot and cleared the way until someone was brave enough to take up the challenge. That by itself reduced the normally many fights Qian Feng would have to have to merely three, including the championship match.
And even beyond that, Qian Feng, at that time, was lucky enough to only have to fight once, instead of twice, which was also a possibility. Since there were three people who advanced, but only two people could fight at once, it was doubtless that one of the advancers would get to sit out; and this person, conveniently, was Qian Feng.
"Fight!"
This battle was interesting to watch, even for the uninterested Qian Feng.
Gong Ren started out by shrouding his axe in Earth Qi, making it far heavier and thus, causing it to hit harder. His fighting style was the basic berserker build: tank hits like a monster, hand them out like a god. Gong Ren used his Earth affinity to bolster his defenses, making him a scary opponent by itself, but capitalized further upon the potential of his affinity and used it to increase his offense by making the axe essentially a massive blunt weapon.
Qian Feng's future build would counter him because of the Force affinity's ability to reduce the force of incoming attacks for defense, but by his estimations, the cultivator would only become able to do that at the peak of the Martial King stage, or whenever his insight into the Law of Force(he planned on learning more on that subject later, since all he knew was that insight into that law was what would allow him to gain that ability) reached the required level. As it was, though, Qian Feng would still win easily against him due to both his high-powered Trigger that could blast through even Gong Ren's defenses and his formidable defense above even Gong Ren's, because of his high proficiency with similarly high-level skills, so high-level that it was absurd Qian Feng even knew them. Actually, when Qian Feng thought about it, Gong Ren's fighting style was just a watered-down version of his, without the overhwleming offense(sure, Earth could technically augment attacks, but it wasn't very effective) or the hope-crushing regeneration.
Lu Teng, however, Qian Feng didn't know so much about. In all his other matches, Lu Teng had won simply by throwing a shuriken into their weapon and shattering it instantly, which usually persuaded the opponent to concede(thank god he hadn't faced any bare-handed fighters, lest he have to do the same thing to their hands, assuming they didn't give up). From the accuracy and skill of that throw, Qian Feng assumed Lu Teng had spent quite a bit of time with shurikens, but even that was just an inference, and a dubious one at best. Hopefully, the fight with Lu Teng would shed some light on Lu Teng's capabilities.
The aforementioned battleaxe wielder charged forwards, his axe's power augmented by his Qi, and an armor of Earth already materialized over his body. Gong Ren, unfortunately, never got the chance to reach his opponent, Lu Teng executing the exact same move, and the only move Qian Feng had seen from him - a shuriken throw.
At the very least, Lu Teng seemed to acknowledge that Gong Ren was stronger than the others, the shurikens that were previously unadorned now shrouded in a black aura.
Qian Feng knew the second those shurikens were released. The battle was over.
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No matter how strong Gong Ren seemed to be, Lu Teng's power simply dwarfed it, the small shuriken alone a blazing sun in comaprison to Gong Ren's aura. Gong Ren, as the warrior in the thick of it, was not fortunate enough to notice the danger he was in, which made sense given that he was the one in the fight, and didn't have the benefit of an outside perspective.
As a result, Gong Ren brought up his empowered axe to block the weapon, his bulky arms tensing as they prepared for the blow. And a blow it was, with Gong Ren being blasted out of the ring, his axe shattered into pieces and his arms likely broken in several locations.
Qian Feng's pupils rapidly dilated. He had seen the loss coming a while away, ever since that shuriken had been thrown, but that drastic of an outcome was certainly unexpected.
Given this, Qian Feng was sure that if he wanted to win, he would need immense amounts of capitalization upon his current advantage(without a doubt, Lu Teng though Qian Feng was a speed-type cultivator) and luck.
Even with that, Qian Feng was in now way confident that he could win. But, it would soon be time to find out.
After an hour passed, allowing Tu Feng to "rest"(everyone very much doubted that that attack had taken much energy, if any) the two finalists were called up to the stage.
Qian Feng stared at Lu Teng. He knew this was going to be difficult, but Qian Feng was confident he wouldn't lose as badly as Gong Ren, and certainly wouldn't suffer the same crippling outcome.
He formed a sword out of Qi - more deception could never hurt, after all, and swords usually synergized well with speed cultivators. And, after learning from Lu Teng's example, Qian Feng simply tensed and fired up his Force Qi, ready to dart out of the way of a thrown shuriken.
The boy's predictions were not wrong, nor was his observation in vain, as the exact same move was displayed, with Lu Teng's arm blurring as he threw out a powerful shuriken, so sharp it seemed to cut through the air.
A dart to the left. A dash to the right. Minutes passed by as Qian Feng swirled through the air, gracefully dodging shurikens. For someone with such a solid and slow fighting style, Qian Feng was somewhat surprised at his proficiency with such movements.
The warrior's pupils dilated as seven shurikens surrounded him, encroaching upon their target in beautiful arcs. There was no escape. For most, at least.
Qian Feng, making use of the timing gap, dashed forward while rapidly formulating calculated guesses as to the exact point his opening would appear.
In a prodigous display of timing, Qian Feng bounded forwards, waiting for the exact moment and then leaping through the gap, breaking free through yet another net of shurikens.
As Qian Feng slowly fell into a hyperfocused state of mind, his movements became more practiced even as he slowly approached Lu Teng, the boy's combat genius shining through.
Finally, the perfect moment arrived.
Qian Feng was but a meter away from his opponent, in perfect striking range and position. With that opportunity, though, came danger, and the meter of distance meant that there was only a slight lag between Lu Teng's arm blurring once again and a shuriken arriving right in front of Qian Feng's face.
Suddenly, he was met with an inescapable situation. Three shurikens was all it took, as the boy was left with no room for movement before being struck. There was no dodging.
Qian Feng's sharp eyes picked up on the minute body language, the slight loosening of Lu Teng's shoulders as, from his perspective, he finally cornered that pesky but frail movement cultivator. He relaxed ever so slightly, become just that final bit more lax in his defenses. Bad move.
The warrior relished the sight of the pupils of Lu Teng, the fearsome combatant who had been cornering him with his shurikens ever since Qian Feng stepped up to fight, dilating as they responded to the immediate danger, the terrifying silhouette looming above them.
Having released his conjured sword and formed a guan dao, Qian Feng only had to pump this new weapon with massive amounts of Earth Qi to bolster its durability, successfully, warding off the shuriken crashing into the guan dao's shaft, even at the expense of his creation as it exploded while warding off the powerful attack.
But that explosion meant nothing.
Another guan dao was quickly materialized into Qian Feng's hands as he jumped upwards, reinforcing the strike with a Harmony Blade and morphing the attack into an offensive move so powerful even peak Martial Warriors would be nothing before it.
This was it.
But suddenly, it was Qian Feng's turn to experience true panic as Lu Teng's left hand, which the boy realized too late had never moved up until then, drew a black, demonic sword from depths unknown and clashed against the strong attack Qian Feng had painstakingly mustered.
And that was it.
Not much was even required - just the feedback from the mysterious sword sent the boy crashing into the walls behind him, unconscious.
"Winner, Lu Teng!"