Chapter 7

Li Jie followed the pull of the magical formation inscribed on his hand, making his way over to the arena where his second fight would take place.  He took his time, stopping to view some of the other fights; to a cultivator, watching other cultivators fight could allow them to gain important insights and new ways to use new techniques.  Among the fights between applicants, many possessed techniques unique to their families, leading to an array of magnificent martial skills being fired back and forth all over the field.

“Thousand Illusory Fists!”  A shout reached his ears.  Li Jie turned towards the yell just in time to witness a 7th level Nascent Realm cultivator throw a simple punch.  However, along with the punch, dozens of fist illusions accompanied it, all of them feeling just as dangerous as the real fist.  

‘Why call it Thousand Illusory Fists if you can only make a few dozen?  It looks like he still hasn’t mastered the skill yet.’  Li Jie thought as he wondered how the other cultivator would respond to the deadly illusions.

In the face of the Thousand Illusory Fists, the other cultivator’s expression had not changed one bit.  He actually took a step forward with one behind his back in order to meet his opponent.  Speaking in a soft, gentle voice, he informed his opponent of the name of his technique, “Forsaken Strike.”

One of his hands forward moved with an open palm in an illusory fashion--as if it were in slow motion, but at the same time it was even faster than his opponent’s punch.   Li Jie found himself drawn to that palm strike as he had been wandering a colorless wasteland for decades and suddenly discovered a single blooming red rose.  Any of the fist illusions that came close to the palm strike immediately dispersed into nothingness, helpless to stop the onslaught of the enthralling palm strike.

It stopped centimeters before his enemy’s chest, causing his opponent to sigh in relief.  A temporary respite that didn’t even last as second as he was blown backwards by a force emitted from the palm.  He wasn’t knocked out of the arena but began coughing up blood even before he landed.

“I concede.”  He said as soon as he could stand up again.

‘Hmm it seems that both of the techniques were actually similar in power but in this case the cultivator who used Forsaken Strike had far more mastery over his technique.  How interesting...’  With the fight over, Li Jie continued on his way to his next fight.

When he got to the arena the first thing he noticed was the excessively large broadsword strapped to the back of a young girl who was impatiently waiting with her arms crossed.  Her orange hair held by a short pony tail stuck out in a sea of cultivators.  She glanced over at Li Jie after feeling his stare and began smiling while waving, “Li Jie, over here!”

‘Has she completely given up on trying to be a princess?  Anyway this will be a troublesome fight, but it might be fun.’  Li Jie sighed and walked forward.

Lily, suddenly understanding that her new friend was actually her next opponent, stopped smiling and began glaring intensely at Li Jie like she was a predator about to consume her prey.

“Woah there.  I know you’re hungry but you can’t eat me, okay Lily?” Li Jie, mistaking the look in Lily’s eye as one of extreme hunger, began backing away slowly.

Now the glare turned into a pouty face as Lily picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it lightly at Li Jie.  “Lightly” being a relative term of course since the pebble flew through the air loud enough to create a piercing whistling noise.  Li Jie adeptly dodged it and turned around just in time to see the pebble smack another cultivator in the head hard enough to knock him out.

Both Li Jie’s and Lily’s faces immediately went completely white, and panicking, she leapt up on the stage while pointing to Li jie, “Ahh.. uhh... Let’s fight!!”

Li Jie was happy to oblige since he didn’t want anything to do with cleaning up the mess Lily had just caused.

‘Damn this woman is violent.  I want to try defeating her without using any of the arts my ancestor gifted me though since we’re so close in age and cultivation levels.’  Li Jie thought and stepped onto the stage.

The inner court disciple who just witnessed everything was struggling to keep a straight face as he raised his hand and then brought it back down, signalling the start of the fight.

Weapons were uncommon in the outer court disciple examination because they took generally took years to learn effectively, and many of the applicants were teenagers who were still growing.  They would outgrow any weapon they used in a short amount of time.  Thus applicants like Lily, who carried a weapon, were quite odd.

Furthermore, Lily’s weapon was an extremely large sword sheathed in a odd black scabbard that made the sword appear even bigger.  Most cultivators preferred lighter weapons to give them more mobility and options.  Li Jie wasn’t too concerned about the sword since he thought that there was no way for Lily to effectively wield that sword.

However what Lily did next completely shattered all of his expectations.  She reached for her sword, drawing it with the black “scabbard” still on, and then began wielding the sword with both of her hands.  She gave it a quick test swing.  This single casual swing created a huge wall of wind that collided into Li Jie, forcing him to take a step backwards.

“That black scabbard wasn’t a scabbard after all, but rather the blade itself?  And the sword was actually a greatsword?”  Li Jie asked incredulously.

Lily simply responded by squinting her eyes, jutting her head out forward, and sticking her tongue out.  She shifted her weight to her lower body and dashed forward, the greatsword following behind her at waist level.

Li Jie, still unsure of the greatsword’s power, cautiously advanced with the intention of trading blows to gauge Lily’s prowess.  But before he could enter the proper range to use his fists, Lily slashed upwards with her greatsword, causing the air to swirl and spin chaotically.  Strangely, the faint shape of a dagger emerged from the chaotic air, screaming through the air as it went straight towards Li Jie’s head.  He barely managed to shift his head in time to feel the ethereal dagger cut a shallow gash across his cheek.

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In the air still watching Li Jie, the elder nodded in appreciation of Lily’s attack, ‘Such impressive control over sword qi at her age.  In the future surely her name will shake the very foundations of our world.  Perhaps I’ll allow her to become his wife!  Heh...’

Li Jie had no time to look up in the sky and see the elder’s perverted expression.  He had to focus on Lily or risk losing his life.  Crouching slightly and sending qi to his feet, he quietly muttered, “Detonate Accel.”

Lily heard a small boom as Li Jie suddenly accelerated forward like a shooting star, leaving behind a cloud of ash.  This, of course, was the same ability that his master often used, just used with less skill and power.  Surprised at Li Jie’s speed, Lily gathered her strength and slashed horizontally with a speed that one wouldn’t expect from a greatsword.  This time a huge wall wind of spread out in front of her, filling the entire arena.

Narrowing his eyes, Li Jie focused on the wind wall directly in front of him.  He quickly slashed both of his hands through the air in a cross, sending out two Wind Blades to collide with the wall.  It created a narrow opening which he slipped through.  Using Detonate Accel again, Li Jie approached Lily even faster than before.

Her lack of battle experience apparent, Lily cursed at her mistake.  She wielded her giant sword horizontally as a type of shield in order to receive Li Jie’s attack.  Li Jie threw a Jade Palm Strike but oddly aimed directly at the sword, rather than trying to hit Lily, who tried to push Li Jie’s palm back with her strength.  Expecting a contest of strength, she suddenly felt Li Jie’s force disappear.  She watched as he borrowed the counter-force from the exchange to fly up and backwards at a 45 degree angle.

At the apex of his path, Li Jie suddenly reversed directions using Detonate Accel and flew back towards Lily like an eagle diving for the kill.  Faint red qi gathered ominously on Li Jie’s fist as he prepared to learn the other ability his master taught him, “Shattering Flame Lotus”.

Seeing how Li Jie held the advantage in the air with his Detonate Accel, Lily decided to use an overhand smash to bring him to the ground permanently.  She judged that her sword would reach before his fist.  Profound energy burst from her body as she hefted the enormous sword and brought it crashing down towards Li Jie.

Li Jie, however, once again surprised Lily by using Detonate Accel right outside of her greatsword’s range.  He crashed straight down into the ground, his fist smashing into the dirt floor shaking the entire arena and throwing up enough dirt to obscure vision temporarily.  At her current level of training, Lily could not change her sword mid-swing, especially with how much power she put into her overhead strike.

She felt Li Jie’s presence pass by her left side as he prepared to deliver the decisive strike to her back.  Making a quick decision, she flipped her body forward, using the forward momentum of the greatsword, barely evading the palm strike.  But in order to gain as much distance as possible, she was forced to let go of her blade.  As soon as she landed from her flip, she quickly turned around to find Li Jie already less than a meter away from her.  His entire body was covered with soot, and sweat dripped from nearly every pore of his body.  Nonetheless, the fire burning in his eyes was brighter than ever.  

Li Jie put all of his remaining power into the next strike since his enemy had lost her sword.  Using Detonate Accel to close the gap, an enormous amount of qi gathered on his right fist again as he swung it at the weaponless Lily.

“Shattering Flame Lotus!”  He yelled.

Lily, seeing the determination in his eyes, decided to give it her all in fighting Li Jie.  She performed some mysterious hand incantations at lightning speed and then kneeled to the ground with both hands pressed into the arena.  

Quietly under her breath she whispered, “Yao Sword Art: Fields of Eradication.”

Like a dolphin leaping out of water, a single milky green jade pillar erupted from the ground at a blazing fast speed, crashing into Li Jie’s chest.  He felt like he had just run into a warhorse galloping at max speed.  Li Jie’s body flew backwards through the air and landed with a thud outside of the arena.  Although he had probably broken a few ribs, he hadn’t suffered any other serious wounds; in fact, he was standing up shakily after lying on the ground for a few breaths.  Instead the most painful feeling came from his overuse of qi and the crushing disappointment of defeat.  Would he truly not be able to enter the sect because of this fight?

On stage, Lily, after confirming Li Jie was okay, gave a small grin and promptly collapsed from overusing her qi.

The referee and any other surrounding cultivators lucky enough to witness the fight stood there in shock for a while.  Suddenly the scarred elder descended from the sky.  He wrapped the unconscious Lily in his qi, allowing her body to fly alongside him.  He then went over to Li Jie and did the same to him before glancing at the referee, “You’re dismissed, I’ll take care of these two,”  he commanded.

Clasping his hands and bowing, the inner court disciple replied, “I understand, elder.”

But the elder had already taken the two and flown off towards his own residence.  Li Jie, too tired to protest or even care about what was happening, simply allowed himself to drift off sleep as they flew across the sect.