The Heavenly Wandering Sword
Chapter 2
Li Jian entered and looked around inside the pagoda. There were various rings set up with referees, as well as large betting tables. He went to the fighter registration section and quickly signed p for a fight. It was a low level fight of course, him and another beginner. Li Jian was deep in thought as he wondered how he should win the fight. Drawing his sword was of course out of the question completely, he might kill the poor fellow. Perhaps some wrestling and an easy submission to avoid hurting his opponent too much? Unfortunately, he was too deep in thought and stepped on someones foot as he was walking.
“How dare you, stepping on this young master’s feet.” The foot he stepped on belong to a tall imposing figure, a man with multiple scars on his bare heavily muscled arms. His red hair was slicked back, his face set to a sneer. “If you kneel in front of me and give me all of your possession, I may let you walk off with only your limbs broken.” The others around them all gave them room. Li Jian however looked up, realizing he had stepped on the man’s foot and bowed slightly. “Apologies, there was no intention.” He would start walking off before the man grabbed him. “You think you can step on my foot and just leave? Do you know who I am?” Li Jian shook his head. “Pardon my ignorance, but I do not know who you are.”
The man roared in laughter. “I am Xin Kun, one of the top 10 rated fighters of the Purple Pavilion. So which will it be? Your life or your limbs.” Li Jian scratched his head slightly as he looked at the man up and down. “You said that you are one of the top 10. Which one are you?” Xin Kun sneered at him again, arrogance dripping from every single pore. “I am Number 7.” Li Jian shook his head. “Senior is so arrogant about six others being rated better than him?” He shook his head again and turned around to walk off amidst the crowd becoming silent. How dare this nobody say such a thing to Xin Kun? Xin Kun however let out a roar and sent a fist infused with spiritual force towards the back of Li Jian’s head but Li Jian simply tilted his head slightly, dodging the strike. “No wonder you are only Number 7.” He said as he kept walking.
“You! Do you dare have a formal match then? A place where you cannot run. See if you have the guts.” Li Jian sighed and turned around, looking at the large fighter. “What do I get if I win?” He would ask, his arms folded. Xin Kun snarled at him. “If you win, then you can have my number 7 spot.” Li Jian sighed and shook his head. “What use is that? How much money do I get?” Xin Kun gestured and a member of the Purple Pavilion came over with a large scroll of paper. “Life and death contract, whoever wins gets the storage ring of the other.” Xin Kun had noticed that the nobody had a storage ring, and sensing no levels or cultivation in Li Jian, he was sure that he would win some riches.
The crowd gasped as various people murmured. “Life and death contract, this poor young man is going to be murdered if he signs that.” Li Jin thought about it and agreed. Both of them bit the tip of their thumbs and left their thumb imprint in blood on the paper.
A ring was soon emptied and the crowd gathered around it. Ling Feng and the other two Spiritblade sect members all stood around it, watching. “Do you think we should help him?” Teng Ye Lung asked. Ling Feng shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think we can do much to help him at all. He has signed the life or death contract.”
There were no bets on this fight. After all, no one was willing to bet on a nobody like Li Jian. “Life and death match. Number 7 on the top ten fighters list Xin Kun versus new comer Li Jian. This will be Li Jian’s first fight in the Purple Pavilion.” The crowd all went wild as the referee stood in between the two of them. “A force field will be put up. No retreat, only one may exit.” Li Jian felt the slight hum as two formation specialists set up a force field around the ring. “Only rule, fight to the death. Winner can retrieve loser’s storage ring as stipulated.” With a wave of his hand, the referee ordered the fight to begin.
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Xin Kun was a veteran martial artist, but he was also arrogant. He threw a series of lighting fast punches but to Li Jian, they all felt slow. He took each punch, not bothering to dodge as he was too pre-occupied with thinking about how he would deal with this Xin Kun. It was clear, he couldn’t use any spiritual force in any of his attacks. He would end up destroying the formation and who knew what kind of attention that would attract. Xin Kun however was stunned. With more than ten punches already at 50 percent of his power, it was like punching a solid wall. He quickly took a few steps back and activated his spiritual force. “You will see the martial art of the Bloody Fist Sect.” With a few gestures, he activated the Asura Fist, each of his punches imbued with a bit of demonic force. As a Level 10 foundation establishment realm martial artist, his punches were able to destroy houses. Li Jian dodged those punches easily, more out of annoyance than anything else.
Now Xin Kun was getting more and more agitated. Who was this nobody that was able to take his punches and dodge the Asura Fist. “Coward, come take one of my Asura Fists if you can.” He put all of his force and power into one punch but Li Jian simply caught it in one hand. “The form is good. Speed however, not so much. Hmm you are at Level 10 Foundation Establishment. But it seems that you did not start off practicing the Asura Fist, your Asura Fist is at level two at most.” Li Jian commented.
The crowd was stunned, the Asura Fist that the Blood Fist Sect was famous for, and the move that Xin Kun used the most to win matches even against opponents at a higher realm than him was stopped in a single move by this nobody. Li Jian tilted his head as well as he looked over Xin Kun. “Your martial arts it not in balance with your body tempering. The harder your fist the more powerful your Asura fist would be.”
Xin Kun stepped back, his brows heavy with sweat. “You dare give me advice? You are a nobody, and you will die here.” Li Jian simply stood back and sighed. “If I die here, it will not be at your hands.” Xin Kun charged again, imbuing the Asura force into both his fists and launching a series of lighting fast attacks, punches fast enough that the average viewer was unable to count the number of fists that were thrown. Li Jian just dodged all of them and tilted his head.
“Pardon me Xin Kun, I still have places I need to go to today. Please don’t blame me for being impolite.” Li Jian stepped forward and jabbed two fingers into Xin Kun’s chest as he stepped forward. Without any spiritual force at all, the level of body tempering that Li Jian had practiced had rendered his body harder than anything a mortal would ever encounter. Xin Kun fell back, coughing blood, his heart completely ruptured as he bled to death in seconds. The crowd fell deathly silent as Li Jian stepped forward and took his storage ring and pocketed before stepping out of the ring.
“The winner is Li Jian. The title of Number 7 on the fighters list goes to Li Jian.” Li Jian looked up, slightly annoyed and waved his hand. “Please, I just want the ring. I don’t care about the fighters list.”
“Princess, shall I have a lesson taught?” The man in purple bowed at the woman dressed in an expensive purple dress, a silk veil covering up all but her eyes to the world. The woman looked down from the balcony where she was watching the fight. Her interest had been piqued by the man who was able to defeat the number 7 on the fighting list so easily. “Send the rest of the fighters list, see which one is his match.”
Li Jian looked through the storage ring casually, and smiled when he saw his hull. There was at least fifty thousand spirit stones inside. Enough for a good meal and a nice place to sleep. He also saw a few other trinkets including a Snowy Jade amulet as well as some spiritual herbal grass. The others he would sell of course. Such things had no use to him. He was going to leave when he sensed killing intent from behind him. He turned and saw 9 other fighters, all with the tokens of the Purple Pavilion on their persons. “We are the top ten fighter list of the Purple Pavilion. We hope to exchange pointers with the new number 7.”
He could see right through their façade. They stated openly that they wished to exchange pointers but in truth, they wanted to kill him. “I told you, I’m not interested in the fighters list. If you will excuse me, I have business to attend to.” He turned to go but a gout of flames flew past his head as a warning. He turned and saw that it was a darker skinned man who wore the colours of the Bloody Fist sect. “You killed my junior, do you think you can just walk out?”