Xia Chen
Small mistake the tournament requirements should've been 25 and younger not 20
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"Junior Brother, can you tell me why you chose the black-cloaked person?" Ye Rou asked as she saw Huo Long jump onto the 1st arena, "Though he has a high cultivation base, there are many others with the same half-step Qi Sea realm cultivation base. It can't be because of his mysterious cloak, right?"
"That's exactly why!" Xue Bai lied, "A mysterious genius with a treasure that could block the Spiritual Sense of Master? Isn't that just the template of a dark horse?"
Ye Rou was stunned. Indeed it was extremely reasonable for Xue Bai to guess Huo Long. If anything, the fact that she bet against him was more unreasonable.
Not knowing how to continue the conversation she started, Ye Rou stayed silent and decided to pay attention to the intense fights down below.
Due to the many Young Masters Huo Long had offended, almost right after he landed in an arena, he had a challenger.
However, like with almost every other battle, Huo Long managed to blow his opponent off the arena in 3 blows.
The next three fights also weren't much different, with each only gaining one extra hit before being knocked off. And while it was a better performance, it had to be noticed that none of the three had actually landed a hit on Huo Long. The only reason they lasted so long was that their physical defense was stronger than their other competitors.
Other than that, all of Huo Long's fights were one-sided. Until the final fight, at least.
As Huo Long sat on the stage waiting for his final opponent, bored, eventually, an extremely handsome white-robed young man jumped up onto the stage.
"Junior Brother, your dark horse might be in trouble now." Ye Rou suddenly stood up, "That young man in white is a famous wandering swordsman. Apparently, his village was wiped out by a bandit group, but he was lucky enough to survive and be taken as an apprentice by a famous recluse Domain Lord. After that, he ascended to the heavens in one step, becoming a half-step Qi Sea realm cultivator in less than ten years."
"Huh?" Xue Bai replied. He wasn't paying attention. At first, he was interested, but since Ye Rou spoke way too fast in the middle of her story, her words started synching together, and he lost attention.
"Simplify it, Second Senior Sister. You speak too quickly to tell such a long story." Xue Bai replied, seeing that Ye Rou was about to explode.
"That young man in white is a famous rogue cultivator! Your dark horse is in trouble!" Ye Rou angrily answered.
"Oh? Is his name Xia Chen?" Xue Bai's attention was raised after hearing that Huo Long's final opponent was a white-robed Sword Cultivator.
"How should I know?" Ye Rou answered, "I only just heard his story from one of the contestants. But they didn't say his name."
Finding his Second Senior Sister useless, Xue Bai took matters into his own hand, stood up from his comfortable seat, and looked at Huo Long's final opponent.
'It is Xia Chen! I remember he joined the Soaring Sword Sect thanks to this tournament.' Xue Bai finally found another important supporting character. He was also one of the most liked characters in the game because of both his looks and personality.
This Xia Chen was an extremely talented Sword Cultivator and would eventually become the closed-door disciple of the Soaring Sword Sect Grand Elder. In the future, he would also become close allies with Huo Long during the Righteous versus Demonic war that would engulf the continent in a few years.
So after giving this fan-favorite character another long look, Xue Bai lost interest and returned back to his seat.
"Junior Brother, do you want to change your guess?" Ye Rou asked after seeing Xue Bai come back.
She was thinking that after seeing Xia Chen, and all of his glory, Xue Bai would want to switch his fighter at the last second.
Sadly her guess couldn't be more off the mark.
"No," Xue Bai shook his head, "My fighter will still win. I was just curious about this white-robed young man you were talking about. Such a cool story makes him almost seem like a character written out of a novel."
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ Ye Rou agreed with his words, "Yes, I thought so too. There were so many people clamoring about it. If he didn't look so bothered by it, I would've thought that he had paid a few people to spread rumors about him to higher his image."
However, Xue Bai was still curious about how many cards Xia Chen would force out of Huo Long in this fight.
From his knowledge, if he wasn't wrong, Xia Chen was just a step away from understanding Sword Law and would do so after stepping into the Qi Sea realm. Which was undoubtedly very talented and the main reason why he was accepted as a closed-door disciple by the Grand Elder.
So sitting up from his seat on the lap of Xiao'er, Xue Bai started paying attention to the fight down below.
'He most likely can't force out the Nirvanic Flames, so hopefully, he can at least force out Huo Long's spear.' Xue Bai thought.
–
"This Brother?" Xia Chen probed after jumping on the stage. Still, even now, no one knew Huo Long's gender. Thankfully Huo Long was polite and nodded to his question.
"Brother, don't misunderstand the purpose of my challenge. I have no affiliation with that Luo Clan prodigal. My purpose in challenging you is simple. My Master told me that I was just one step away from comprehending Sword Law and that I could only take that final step by understanding my true path. And I hope that you're strong enough to help me understand it." Xia Chen sincerely spoke, gaining many words of praise.
The most high-standing Young Master that he had offended was an heir to a Viscount Family in the Great Xuan Empire.
And also, coincidentally, the younger brother of Luo Kun, the man that Xue Bai took an arm from.
Ever since his defeat, unresigned, the Luo Clan Young Master would constantly bribe poor youngsters to fight Huo Long without care and pile onto him.
Even now, the Luo Clan boy was still in the stands offering money to whoever hurt him, which annoyed him to no end.
So hearing that Xia Chen wasn't another lackey, Huo Long felt relieved.
"Then I hope you won't lose hope." Huo Long replied in a hoarse voice to hide his identity as he stood up from his cross-legged position.
Taking an odd low stance, Huo Long raised his fists in a boxing position and welcomed the fight.
While the posture did look weird, this stance was something Feng Huang had taught him. And since it had yet to fail him, Huo Long thought it would be enough to deal with this swordsman.
Xia Chen was slightly annoyed at such a response, but since the person he was challenging was much stronger than him yet at the same cultivation level, he related it to youthful arrogance and ignored it.
Unsheathing the sword on his back, Xia Chen spoke, "Then I apologize for my rudeness," Before charging at Huo Long.
Using his strong physical body, Huo Long swatted Xia Chen's downward swing to the ground before sending a punch to the latter's sternum, hoping to end the fight quickly.
However, unlike the other opponents Huo Long had faced, Xia Chen was rigorously trained, and even after his sword got embedded into the ground, he reacted quickly.
Meeting Huo Long's punch with a kick, Xia Chen used the backward momentum from the lost exchange to safely pull out his sword and fall back.
Rubbing his now extremely sore calf, Xia Chen knew how Huo Long's previous opponents felt. This physical body was too strong! It was like he was a demonic beast in human form.
And Huo Long hadn't even used a wisp of Spiritual Qi yet. This was pure physical strength.
"You said you wanted to use me as a whetstone, didn't you?" Huo Long's hoarse voice sounded once again, "Raise your sword and come again."
Nodding, Xia Chen charged right back at Huo Long.
"Junior Brother, this Xia Chen has some tenacity, doesn't he?" Ye Rou praised.
The fight so far had been extremely one-sided, with Huo Long using his wealth of combat experience to either deflect or dodge Xia Chen's attack before sending a heavy blow that forced his opponent to either take it head-on or be forced back miserably.
But either way, Xia Chen was taking a beating. Yet even now, 10 minutes in, he hadn't yielded or even lost one bit of his enthusiasm. Continuing to fight Huo Long ignoring the very obvious strength gap.
Xue Bai nodded as well. He always felt that tenacious people like Xia Chen and Huo Long were praiseworthy. To constantly fight, knowing you'd lose and get beaten so miserably, was a trait that even experts lacked, much less these youths who were 16 and 20, respectfully, and if your ignored Huo Long's record-breaking pace was already amazing.
However, eventually, no matter how obstinate Xia Chen was to win, it didn't give him more strength. And at the 15-minute mark, Huo Long finally found a perfect chance and sent a heavy blow to Xia Chen's chin sending the latter to the ground unconscious.
"Jiang Feng has won!" Elder Zhuo announced before waving his hand and levitating the unconscious Xia Chen toward him.
And after feeding him a pill, Elder Zhuo passed the boy to a nearby Outer Disciple for further help.
"Jiang Feng, I'm sorry to say this, but we hadn't expected someone to win so early on, so for now, until the other stage winners are decided, you can rest on your own." Elder Zhuo said to Huo Long.
Jiang Feng was, of course, a made-up name by the protagonist. He took the phoenix character from his bloodline while taking the surname of an old friend of his in order to create this name. It wasn't creative, but it at least didn't link to Huo Long or his Huo Clan in any way, so it did the job well.
Huo Long had no problems with the arrangement and, in front of everyone, started cultivating without care.
There were 4 Xiantian Great Realm experts and even more Domain Lord realm cultivators around. If he wasn't safe here in the middle of all of them, where would he be?
"Sect Leader Yue, that Xia Chen boy looks like a good seedling for your sect. Are you going to recruit him now?" Dean Guo spoke after the fight ended.
Since Xia Chen looked to be out of commission for the near future, most likely, he wouldn't be able to take control of a stage and defeat five opponents before the time limit ended.
So most likely, he wouldn't be able to secure an Inner Disciple spot. However, if Yue Zifeng spoke up and recruited him specially, he would easily become one and maybe even a Core Disciple if Yue Zifeng looked at him highly enough.
But Yue Zifeng shook his head.
"I know his Master very well, so that boy is most likely here to join the Soaring Sword Sect. So there is no need for me to talk. And as for becoming a Core Disciple? His mindset isn't fit enough for such a position yet. He has the tenacity and talent for it yet, but he is too wilful and ignorant of the world. So it's better for him to become an Outer Disciple and work his way up to temper his mindset." Yue Zifeng calmly spoke while sipping a cup of tea.
Zhu Que had poured him and the other heads a pot of tea, and since the tea leaves were something delicious, he had been drinking it nonstop.
Dean Guo didn't reply to Yue Zifeng's profound words. He personally didn't agree with his opinion, but since Sword Cultivators were the most stubborn people alive, arguing would be pointless.
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