The morning of the third day brought a brilliant and clear sky over the capital of the Aurelian Spear Kingdom. The royal arena was once again packed to its limit as the citizens and visiting cultivators eagerly awaited the continuation of the grand marriage tournant.
Li Yu arrived at the arena alongside the Zhan Clan delegation and took his usual seat in their designated viewing section. He was currently drinking a cup of warm spirit tea when a royal guard clad in golden armor approached their row. The guard offered a deep and respectful bow before addressing him directly.
"Young Master Yu." The guard spoke clearly over the ambient noise of the stadium. "Crown Prince Shen humbly requests your presence in the upper royal pavilion. He wishes to invite you to sit with him and observe today's matches as a guest of the royal family."
Zhan Chen turned his head and offered an encouraging nod toward his cousin.
"You should go." Zhan Chen smiled brightly. "Building a good relationship with the future emperor of a kingdom is never a bad idea. I will keep an eye on Zhan Feng and our juniors from down here."
"Alright." Li Yu agreed as he put down his teacup. "I will return later."
Li Yu followed the golden armored guard up the winding marble staircases that led to the highest point of the arena. The royal pavilion was suspended above the fighting stage and it offered a breathtaking view of the entire city. Emperor Jinhai and Ancestor Longwei were seated near the front of the platform and they were currently engaged in a quiet discussion with several kingdom elders.
Prince Shen stood up from a highly polished wooden table situated slightly off to the side of the elders. He wore elegant robes of deep blue and gold.
"Welco to the upper pavilion." Prince Shen smiled warmly as he extended a hand in greeting. "I am glad you accepted my invitation. The view from up here is much better for observing the finer details of the tournant."
"Thank you for the invitation." Li Yu replied as he shook the prince's hand and took the offered seat. "It is indeed a beautiful vantage point."
Before the two young n could dive into a deeper conversation about the upcoming matches, a set of silk curtains parted. Princess Jinling walked into the viewing area and she was wearing her signature flexible golden chainmail over a crimson dress. She spotted Li Yu sitting at the table and a bright smile instantly crossed her face.
She walked over and gracefully took the seat directly opposite of her brother which placed her right next to Li Yu.
"I see my brother managed to steal you away from your delegation." Princess Jinling teased as she poured herself a cup of wine from a jade pitcher. "I hope you do not mind the sudden change in seating arrangents."
"Not at all." Li Yu answered with a smile. "The company up here is quite excellent and the view is even better."
The three of them quickly fell into a natural and highly relaxed rhythm. Prince Shen was a skilled diplomat but he dropped the rigid formalities of the royal court while speaking with Li Yu as he had gotten reports that Li Yu was more of a ruffian by nature. He was curious about other worlds and he asked Li Yu several questions regarding his travels through the lower realms and the different martial philosophies he had encountered.
Jinling proved to be equally engaging, just as she was a few nights ago. She possessed a sharp wit and she was not afraid to playfully mock her brother when he asked overly technical questions about cultivation. They spent the ti before the matches began sharing stories and getting to know one another.
Li Yu found that despite their royal backing, they were both incredibly easy to get along with people who simply wanted to forge their own paths under the heavy expectations of their lineage. The three of them hit it off quite nicely and their laughter rang out softly across the royal pavilion. Li Yu wondered what Prince Shen had seen in Yue but perhaps the offer she made at the ti was tempting.
The heavy gong finally echoed through the stadium and signaled the beginning of Round Five.
"The matches today will be much more intense." Prince Shen noted as he leaned forward to look down at the floor. "There should be no weak links left in the bracket. Everyone here has survived two days of combat but I must admit I was quite disappointed that the array master Lu Tian was eliminated before the public viewing even properly began this morning."
"What happened to him?" Li Yu asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked toward the staging areas.
"He was matched against a rather volatile cultivator and a dispute broke out in the holding tunnels." Jinling explained with a slight sigh. "The officials disqualified them both for breaking the pre match rules so neither advanced. It is a sha, I wanted to see how far his formations could take him."
The conversation paused as the first match of the day comnced. Zhan Feng stepped onto the stage and faced a highly skilled sword cultivator from a prominent central sect.
The sword user did not underestimate the Zhan Clan, there was a reason why the Zhan Clan was so powerful. The mont the match began, the swordsman activated a high tier movent technique. His body blurred into a dozen afterimages as he drew a slender silver blade and unleashed the River of Severing Steel art. Hundreds of luminous Qi swords materialized in the air, converging into a roaring, tallic river that surged directly toward Zhan Feng.
Zhan Feng did not dodge though, he planted his boots into the floor and let out a deafening roar. Qi erupted from him, manifesting as the towering phantom of a Desolate Golden Ape behind him.
The river of Qi swords slamd into the ape phantom and the collision generated a shockwave that violently rippled against the arena's protective barriers. Sparks of shattered spiritual energy rained down like a teor shower. The swordsman poured all of his King realm Qi into the technique, manipulating the sharp tal laws to drill through Zhan Feng's defense. The golden ape phantom flickered and began to crack under the relentless pressure.
"He is trying to drown Feng in a war of attrition," Li Yu observed as his eyes were tracking the flow of Qi.
However, Zhan Feng simply grinned. He pulled his right fist back, condensing the phantom of the golden ape directly into his iron gauntlet. The gauntlet was growing and Zhan Feng punched forward, unleashing his strike.
The concussive force of the blow shattered the spatial stability in front of him. A localized gravity well erupted and violently ripped the River of Severing Steel apart. The shockwave traveled up the sword cultivator's blade, shattering the weapon into dust and blasting the man across the arena. The swordsman slamd into the barrier, his protective Qi entirely depleted and slid to the floor unconscious.
The rest of the third day proceeded with similar clashes as the remaining cultivators fought tooth and nail for a spot in the top sixteen. The sun slowly set and marked the end of Round Five. The morning of the fourth day arrived and the atmosphere in the capital was buzzing with electricity. Round Four was set to begin and only sixteen fighters remained.
Li Yu invited back so he returned to the royal pavilion and greeted Shen and Jinling warmly before they turned their attention to the arena below. The standout match of the day featured the dark horse Mo Fan against a heavily scarred rcenary who wielded a two handed battleaxe.
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The rcenary was a veteran of countless life and death struggles. He opened the match with a terrifying technique known as the Splitting Heavens Axe. He swung his weapon and was channeling his comprehension of destructive laws to create a hundred foot long spatial rift of crimson energy. The crimson blade of light tore across the stage and completely locked onto Mo Fan's and leaving him no avenue of escape.
Mo Fan held his iron spear with both hands and his unyielding Dao heart flared to life like a burning sun. He did not attempt to match the size of the rcenary's attack. Instead, he utilized the fundantal essence of the spear path.
Mo Fan condensed all of his Qi, his intent and his comprehension of piercing laws into a microscopic and blindingly bright point at the very tip of his iron spear. The air around the spear warped and distorted under the density of the gathered energy. When the massive crimson spatial rift descended, Mo Fan thrust upward.
It was a clash of quality versus quantity as the microscopic point of concentrated spear intent struck the exact spiritual center of the hundred foot crimson rift. A high pitched ringing sound shattered the silence of the stadium and the axe attack destabilized, shattering into millions of harmless red sparks. The backlash of the shattered intent traveled back to the rcenary, blowing his battleaxe out of his hands and sending him crashing to his knees. The battle was violent and flashy but it was over in an instant..
"He pierced the core of the attack," Prince Shen said while observing. "His control over his Spear intent is quite monstrous."
Later that sa afternoon, Fang provided another terrifying spectacle. The wild youth from the southern jungles was matched against Young Master Su Chen of the Verdant Gale Sect.
Su Chen, still burning with the humiliation but realizing he was fighting a fierce opponent, imdiately bit his tongue and burned a drop of his blood essence. He summoned his ultimate technique: The Verdant Gale Domain. A massive hurricane of compressed wind blades that was infused with spatial laws, engulfed the entire southern half of the arena. The dark stone floor was instantly scored with thousands of deep trenches.
"Die, you feral peasant!" Su Chen roared from the safety of the storm's eye and was directing the tearing winds to shred Fang to pieces.
Fang did not cower though, the wild youth let out a feral roar that echoed with the oppressive aura of an ancient beast. A thick and bloody red mist erupted from his pores, forming the spectral projection of a primal blood wolf around his body. This was the manifestation of an ancient and awakened bloodline.
Fang dropped to all fours and launched himself directly into the hurricane. The tearing wind laws slashed against the spectral wolf but Fang's primal aura actively devoured the incoming wind Qi to fuel his own charge. He leaped through the raging vortex and the jaws of the spectral wolf snapping shut on the very fabric of Su Chen's domain.
With a violent twist of his neck, Fang literally tore a hole in the wind laws as he crashed into the eye of the storm, completely bypassing Su Chen's defenses. Before the Verdant Gale heir could even form a defensive seal, Fang unleashed a brutal flurry of punches at him. The Verdant Gale heir's defense shattered one by one until a final and sickening headbutt knocked Su Chen completely unconscious, staining his immaculate green robes crimson.
The bloody victory secured Fang's place as the sun set on the fourth day, leaving only the final eight competitors standing. The dawn of the fifth day brought the highly anticipated Quarterfinals. The entire city essentially shut down as every citizen scrambled to find a viewing array or a seat in the stadium. More were watching now because there were only four matches, it wouldn’t take up their whole day as the other matches had done. The eight remaining cultivators were also the pinnacle of the King realm.
"This is it," Princess Jinling said while leaning against the wooden railing of the pavilion. "The winners today will form the final four. The true monsters are finally clashing."
The first match of the Quarterfinals featured Zhan Feng against Iron Fist ng.
The mont the referee dropped his hand, ng did not simply run forward. He executed a high level spatial technique similar to Li Yu’s Void Step. However, his body seed to lt into the natural folds of space, leaving behind fading afterimages. ng reappeared directly in Zhan Feng's blind spot. His fists were coated in a dark and visibly vibrating Qi. He was using the armor piercing properties of the Vibration Law.
ng struck Zhan Feng squarely in the back, the physical impact was light but the vibration laws bypassed Zhan Feng's thick muscles entirely, sending destructive shockwaves directly into his internal organs. Zhan Feng coughed up a mouthful of blood and stumbled forward with his defensive aura flickering violently.
Zhan Feng roared in anger and swung a backhand to create so space but ng had already used Void Step to vanish, reappearing near Zhan Feng's knee to deliver another crippling vibration strike.
The crowd watched in breathless anticipation as ng systematically dismantled the Zhan Clan brute, slipping through the void to deliver strike after strike. However, Zhan Feng was no fool. Realizing he could not hit a ghost, Zhan Feng bit down on his thumb and sared a line of his own blood across his iron gauntlets.
Tyrant's Gravity Domain
A terrifying pulse exploded from his body and the gravity within increased instantly. The very air turned thicker and golden. This was one of the special techniques of the Zhan Clan that was renowned but readily available within the clan. The imnse spatial pressure instantly disrupted the void folds and violently yanked ng out of his spatial stealth. The rogue cultivator crashed to the floor with his bones now groaning under the suffocating weight.
With his opponent slowed, Zhan Feng leaped into the air while summoning the Desolate Golden Ape phantom once more. He crashed down while driving his gauntlets directly into ng's crossed arms. The overwhelming force shattered ng's defense and drove him deep into a crater in the stone. The rogue cultivator lay perfectly still, having finally succumbed to the overwhelming power of the Zhan Feng who had barely won.
That domain technique was powerful but it also drained the users Qi rapidly. It is only ant to give one a brief advantage to finish the job. The second major match of the Quarterfinals brought Prince Xue of the Glacial Peak against Gao the Unbreakable.
Gao did not wait for Prince Xue to act. He imdiately ford a complex hand seal and summoned his Immovable Golden Mountain Dharma. A projection of a golden and multi ard Buddha materialized around him. He beca a living and breathing fortress of golden Qi. No one had been able to break through this idol the entire tournant.
Prince Xue stepped onto the dark stone but his face a mask of cold indifference. He did not fire blasts of ice techniques or attempt to physically strike the golden Buddha. Instead, he gently tapped the toe of his boot against the stone floor while using his Zero Domain.
A silent but terrifying wave of pale blue light washed over the northern arena. It did not just lower the temperature; it actively froze the ambient spiritual energy in the air.
"He is trying to starve the Dharma Idol," Jinling realized.
Prince Xue's ice laws systematically locked down the flow of worldly Qi in its area. The golden Buddha, requiring massive amounts of energy from the user but more importantly the surrounding as well to sustain itself, began to flicker slightly. Gao roared and poured his internal reserves into the idol but the Zero Domain was relentless. The ice laws began to creep up the golden projection, turning the radiant Qi into brittle, frosted glass.
The fight was an agonizing war of Dao attrition between the two. For thirty minutes, the two cultivators stood locked in a silent struggle of conflicting techniques. Gao couldn’t move his idol but was protected behind it. Xue couldn’t break the idol either and had to resort to this in order to try and starve it out.
Eventually, the frozen environnt proved too much. The ice laws ever so slowly worked its way pass the golden buddha and invaded Gao's body, slowing his blood and his Qi circulation to a halt. The Buddha shattered into a million pieces of frozen light and Gao was left encased in a solid block of ice.
By the ti the afternoon ca to a close, Fang had secured a bloody victory over his own opponent through a once again terrifying display of his primal blood wolf avatar and Mo Fan had efficiently dismantled a highly skilled array user, piercing through layered spatial traps with his unyielding spear intent.
The sun set over the golden stadium on the fifth day and the ultimate brackets were finally set in stone. The final four competitors had erged from the trials of the arena and it wasn’t the final four that most would have predicted from looking at them.
Zhan Feng, the unstoppable tyrant of the Zhan Clan. Prince Xue, the cold and ruthless master of cold. Fang, the wild and feral possessor of an ancient bloodline. And Mo Fan, the mysterious dark horse with a spear path that defied his backing.
"The stage is set," Prince Shen smiled as he stood up from the table. "The semifinals and the grand finals will take place tomorrow. I hope you will join us again, Young Master Li."
"I would not miss it now. Thank you for the invitation." Li Yu replied as he offered a polite bow to the royal siblings.
Li Yu bid them farewell and made his way back down to the main corridors and as he walked through the cooling evening air, he felt a deep sense of anticipation.
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