"Yeah, Li Chun Long got disqualified."

"Doesn"t that mean Fei Wu automatically progresses to the final?"

"Aw…how disappointing."

"Yeah, if Li Chun Long didn"t get disqualified, there"s no way Fei Wu would get to the final."

"He"s too weak."

"He doesn"t deserve it."

As I expected, those were the words floating on everyone"s lips as they conversed animatedly on the day before the semifinal between Zhu Jiao and Bai Ning Xue. As Bai Ning Xue was proven to not have a hand in the matchfixing or a.s.sault on Zhu Jiao, she wasn"t disqualified. Everyone was eagerly antic.i.p.ating that match.

In fact, most people thought that should be the true final. I was just a side character, an insignificant and unimportant partic.i.p.ant who should have been eliminated long ago. I clearly wasn"t as strong as Li Chun Long.

"That Fei Wu…he only got into the final because of luck."

"Man! I wish I was as lucky as him!"

b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. They seemed to have completely forgotten that I had defeated Wu Hei Gui and Wu Xing to graduate top of my group, and beat both Kuang Hu and Feng Tian Yong on my way to the semifinal. Evidently their envy had clouded their rational thinking, otherwise they wouldn"t be spouting such nonsense.

Fortunately, I had already expected that, which was why I had challenged Li Chun Long to an official match. Unfortunately, news of that challenge seemed to have filtered slower than Li Chun Long"s disqualification and the student council"s scandal. No one seemed to be talking about it yet. And obviously I wasn"t thick-skinned enough to go telling everyone about it.

Luckily, I had friends who could do that to me.

"Hey, Wu!"

Tong Xue showed up and smacked me across the back. I almost fell forward, but thanks to my footwork mastery, I kept my balance somehow. Wincing and rubbing my back, I turned to give my cheerful cla.s.smate a glare.

"What"s up?"

"How is your preparation? Are you ready to take on Li Chun Long today? Even though you said you don"t have a concrete plan in mind…"

"I just plan to show up and do my best," I replied, echoing Zhu Jiao yesterday with a straight face. Tong Xue tried not to laugh.

"Well, good luck!"

"What"s going on?"

"Eh? Wasn"t Li Chun Long automatically disqualified?"

"Why are they still fighting?"

The students in the vicinity couldn"t help but be curious when they overheard my conversation with Tong Xue.

"Oh, you guys didn"t hear?"

Finally, those with a little more information – no doubt those who patrolled the online forums and school social media to scrounge up on news – showed up and began chatting excitedly as they joined their ignorant friends.

"Fei Wu challenged Li Chun Long in an official match. He said he didn"t want to win like this, and promised to forfeit the final if he lost."

"Oh…so he does have some backbone after all."

"I thought he was pretty shameless, showing up for cla.s.s after all that, but I was wrong…"

Hey! Who the h.e.l.l was shameless!? What was with these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, going off and thinking whatever nonsense they liked?!

Suppressing my annoyance, I ignored the pointless chatter and continued toward the cla.s.sroom. Even though the official match was today, and there were other ranking matches for those students who were already eliminated from the tournament, cla.s.ses continued as usual. Nothing short of a Minnesota blizzard was going to stop the academy from operating as usual.

"Are you sure about this, Wu?" Tang Qi Hong asked, concerned, when she and Lian Rou met us on our way to the cla.s.sroom. "You know you don"t have to do this, right? You aren"t obligated to prove anything."

I smiled at her. "Oh, but I do. I want to prove to myself that I can fight on par with a member of the student council. I want to prove not just to everyone, but to myself that I"m not inferior to those elites on the student council."

"You"ve already defeated Feng Tian Yong," Ban Zhang pointed out when he showed up from nowhere. Apparently he had been listening in on our conversation from the beginning. "You"ve already proven that you"re on par with a member of the student council."

"Li Chun Long is stronger than Feng Tian Yong, isn"t he?" I pointed out. "Tian Yong is faster, though. But one victory can be considered a fluke. However, if I beat two student council members, then no one can claim it"s solely my luck."

"I don"t think it"s solely your luck," Tang Qi Hong insisted. I smiled gratefully at her.

"Yeah, and I"m thankful for that. However, I want to prove to myself that it"s not luck. Think of it as something necessary for me to build on my self-esteem and confidence. That I can pull off such an achievement not once but twice."

She hesitated, and then sighed.

"Well, you had better win then. I won"t forgive you if you lose to a b.a.s.t.a.r.d like Li Chun Long."

"Yeah. I don"t want to lose to him either." I nodded firmly and clenched my fists, recalling our last exchange. Back then, Li Chun Long surely held the upper hand, and it infuriated me. I needed to exorcize that specter of defeat still lingering over my head. The match hadn"t ended yet, and I was a little tired out from fighting Li Guo Qiang and Xin Lai.

Speaking of which, I actually defeated both Li Guo Qiang and Xin Lai, so technically I had already proven to myself that I was at least on par, if not stronger than a few members on the student council. But I kept that truth from my friends. It wasn"t because I was afraid that they would disapprove of my decision if my motivation was revenge rather than building self-confidence. I just couldn"t be bothered to deliver a complex, lengthy explanation of what really happened back then, during that night. It would take too much time and effort.

"Hmph."

Li Chun Long was already in cla.s.s when we entered. He glanced at me, a sneer curling his lips. At least he wasn"t throwing the usual, cliché lines of "you"re a hundred years too early to fight me" or calling me trash who didn"t know my place. That would be cheesy and plain ridiculous. As arrogant as Li Chun Long was, he wasn"t an evil guy at heart. He was just a little misguided and allowed his feelings for Qing Xin Xia to cloud his judgement.

The aforementioned Qing Xin Xia was squirming visibly in her seat, especially when her senior had come over, presumably to talk to her. She glanced up at us, and looked a little disappointed when she saw that Zhu Jiao wasn"t with us.

That guy would only be here at the last minute. He was perpetually late. I could hardly recall a time when he was early. That wasn"t to say he was never early, but the few times he was marked those moments as unusual.

I tore my glance away from the Green Dragon Sect disciples – a couple of others having gathered around Qing Xin Xia"s desk as well. They were most likely discussing the match with me later. I doubted they would try anything funny, and from what I heard, they were mostly encouraging Li Chun Long to teach me a lesson and destroy me.

There was one of them, however, who didn"t sound very approving.

"You"ve disgraced our sect, First Senior," he told Li Chun Long gravely. "Master is pretty upset with what you did."

"I did it for Ning Xue"s sake!"

That sounded hollow. I was skeptical of that reason. Knowing Li Chun Long, he probably did it because he resented Zhu Jiao for being the target of Qing Xin Xia"s affections, and not because he really wanted Bai Ning Xue to preserve her position as the student council president. Whatever his motivations, however, it still didn"t justify what he did.

The second senior, Er Shi Xiong probably knew that as well, for he was shaking his head with a sigh.

"Don"t let your personal feelings cloud your judgement. And besides, Bai Ning Xue is not a member of our sect. Why do you bother going so far for her?"

"That"s…"

Li Chun Long spluttered, looking furious, but unable to muster a retort. He swore and turned away with a scowl on his face.

I wasn"t one to indulge in gossip and stare, so I paid no attention to any further exchange they might have carried out and focused on the lesson ahead.

*

After cla.s.s ended, we headed for the coliseum almost immediately. Readers probably wouldn"t be interested in the material we covered in cla.s.s anyway, so I wasn"t going to elaborate too much on that. I was sure they wanted to skip straight to the fight scene.

I guess that was the main point of a martial arts story. The combat, huh? Besides, my match with Li Chun Long was a long time coming.

"I see that you didn"t run away, after all."

Li Chun Long was already waiting in the coliseum. The guy was even more eager than I was to begin the match. I suspected it was mostly because he couldn"t wait for the chance to take revenge and beat me up for getting in the way of his grudge against Zhu Jiao and interfering with the well laid-out plans of the student council.

Considering I easily broke them just by eavesdropping and informing the teachers, I wouldn"t say they were well laid out, to be honest. But whatever.

I glanced at the window, where my friends had taken up position to watch the match. Not far away, Qing Xin Xia and the rest of the Green Dragon Sect disciples stood, poised as spectators and supporting their first senior. Behind them were crowds of students, excited over the prospect of watching a battle between two dragons.

Or enthusiastic over the prospect of watching a dragon thrash a trash. I wasn"t unaware of the main student body"s low opinion of me, and thus far my victories over Feng Tian Yong and the rest had been credited as "flukes". Not to mention, Kuang Hu and Wu Xing weren"t very highly regarded when compared to the student council.

The student council members were supposed to be on a completely different level from the other students, after all.

"Shall we get started then?" Li Chun Long turned toward the speaker without waiting for an answer and called out. "Teacher Cai, can we begin?"

"Anytime when you"re ready," was the response. Smirking, Li Chun Long turned back to me and bowed mockingly.

"Li Chun Long, Cla.s.s 1-4. I"m of the Green Dragon Sect, and I"ve mastered all twelve levels of the Solar Celestial Dragon Formula." He drew his sword. "This is my Spirit Sword, Sacred Dragon Sword. I"ve also mastered the seven sword styles of the Green Dragon Sect! And I have three s.e.xagenaries of qi."

A green fiery aura blazed about his elegantly crafted blade, a tiny qi dragon coiling around it as it exuded a ferocious atmosphere.

I showed no sign of being intimidated and merely returned the bow formally.

"Fei Wu, also from Cla.s.s 1-4. Nine-Tailed Fox Sect."

I didn"t bother to give away my skills. The readers would be sick of hearing them for the umpteenth time, and I knew Li Chun Long had no interest in hearing about them anyway. To him, I was nothing more than an annoying pebble on the road that he wanted to kick about to vent his anger before he went into isolation training.

Little did he know that I was planning to rock his world and cause him to be stoned from this battle.

Drawing my swords, I bowed humbly. "I look forward to sparring with someone from one of the esteemed Celestial Creature Sects."

The Green Dragon Sect was one of the four Celestial Creatures, along with Red Phoenix Sect, White Tiger Sect and Black Tortoise Sect. even among the eight major sects, the four Celestial Creature Sects were a power unto their own.

"You may begin."

The moment Teacher Cai"s voice revebrated from the speakers, Li Chun Long lunged forward, his sword igniting with ferocious green flames. In the face of his fearsome charge, I raised both my swords and got ready to block his blow.

ROAR!

A green dragon erupted from his sword, coiling around his body and enhancing his strength several times over. With a bellow, Li Chun Long swung his sword down on my position. I brought both swords up and crossed them in order to parry his blow.

Boom!

The ground beneath us shattered from the tremendous impact. I managed to force Li Chun Long back by sweeping both my swords forward, countering his furious charge with an equally enraged retaliation.

Li Chun Long flipped his body in midair and skidded back after landing on his feet. Trying to steady his trembling hands, which held his vibrating sword, he gritted his teeth and admitted to himself grudgingly.

"Argh…what amazing spiritual strength! No wonder the Nine-tailed Fox Sect"s Tushan City remains impregnable even today."

As for me, I enthusiastlcally stepped forward to press my advantage.

"As expected of the first disciple of the Green Dragon Sect, you"re really powerful. A perfect opponent for me to test out my newly learned skills."

Executing Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship, I swung my sword viciously at the still balancing Li Chun Long, forcing him to parry my blow.

Clang!

As I antic.i.p.ated, Li Chun Long"s reflexes were impressive. He managed to match my speed and warded my attacks off almost effortlessly. Undaunted, I contined to attack him, launching a hail of sword strikes that forced Li Chun Long into the defensive and pushed him back almost one-sidedly.

My recklessness was rewarded when I succeeded in opening up a huge gash in Li Chun Long"s shoulder, causing him to stagger back from the impact as blood spurted from his wound. However, my reckless charge proved to be a double-edged sword when his riposte tore open an injury in my side, causing me to retreat momentarily.

However, I would not be stopped. Taking only a millisecond to recover, I surged forward once more, my a.s.sault intensifying and almost taking Li Chun Long by surprise. We both exchanged several hundred swift and lethal blows, and credit to Li Chun Long, he managed to deliver precise counterattacks that would have killed me had I not parried them in time.

"!"

I could see the green flames burning brightly around his blaze, and even without direct contact, being in such close proximity caused my skin to be scaled by the intense, mystical heat.

On the other hand, I wasn"t the only one taking damage. While I was being burned by Li Chun Long"s fiery qi, he was also suffering from the icy qi that circulated around his arms. Every exchange with my sword caused him to retreat with his arms encased in ice, and he had to repeatedly expend qi to shatter the ice with brute force and sheer heat.

"Uwooooh!"

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

Both of us yelled as we clashed again in the center of the coliseum, both of us putting as much strength behind our blows as we could.

Boom!

We sprang apart as shockwaves buffeted us, the ground beneath our feet giving way and imploding into a crater.

Screech!

Both of us skidded to a halt several dozen meters away from each other, flung away to such a great distance from the sheer power of our exchange.

"Huff…huff…"

I straightened up, even as I struggled to catch my breath. Gripping my two swords tightly, I took a deep breath and recovered my stance, refusing to show even a single sign of weakness. Opposite me, amidst the waving smoke, my opponent was also straightening as he fought to recover even more quickly than I did after the ferocious exchange.

"Phew…"

A bead of perspiration rolled off Li Chun Long"s face and dripped onto the ground. He glared at me, ignoring the sweat that now poured profusely down his face, grimacing when he realized that he had vastly underestimated me.

"His spiritual strength is impressive. And he"s different from when I fought him a few days ago. I"m not sure how…but…I think he"s more…ruthless somehow. What sort of training did he do over the last few days to achieve such improvement? Or was he holding back his skills that night? That can"t be possible."

I watched him and smiled.

"Hmm, this match is better than a few nights ago. Even though the fight has been a lot longer than back then, I still have not lost. Hmm…it seems that my prowess has improved!"

Even though I had been bloodied and wounded, Li Chun Long was in the same condition, having suffered injuries of his own. Frowning in determination, I gripped both of my swords and raised them in an attacking stance.

"I"m not going to lose this match! I"ll prove that I"m not inferior to any of the student council members, and not inferior to anyone from the eight major sects!"

Well, considering that I was technically from one of the eight major sects if you remembered my secondary membership in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, that was kind of redundant, but it was precisely because of that status as an outer disciple of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect that I didn"t want to lose to any disciple from the other seven major sects. Never mind that Li Chun Long was an inner sect disciple who was poised to be the next leader of the Green Dragon Sect.

Aware of his position, Li Chun Long scowled.

"Hmph. Why should I be afraid of a n.o.body like Fei Wu? He"s only a One Star Const.i.tution cultivator who can"t receive artificial qi at best."

Oh really? Then it was up to me to change his opinion. But as I said, I was the type to prove my point with actions and not words, so I just jumped forward.

"Come on!" I hollered as I surged forward, azure qi coalescing around me. Pouring as much qi as I could into my two swords, I executed Draconic Meteor Strike. Blobs of azure qi seemed to fly about and follow behind me like meteors.

"Kuh!"

Li Chun Long tried to move, but he suddenly found his feet frozen to the floor. All around the coliseum, ice was creeping and expanding, turning the whole place into a howling blizzard. Within seconds, Li Chun Long found the majority of his body encased in ice. He gritted his teeth and struggled, but was unable to break free of the ice in time.

"Argh! What an impressive ice technique! I"m completely frozen in place!"

Making use of the opportunity, I closed in on him, swinging both my swords with meteoric force. Snowy winds howled behind me as gusts of azure qi trailed my blades, the meteors lending my blows absurd destructive power.

"!!!"

Realizing that it would all be over if he got hit directly by my Draconic Meteor Strike, Li Chun Long desperately channeled his qi into his Sacred Dragon Sword.

"Celestial Dragon!" he shouted, his fiery green qi taking the shape of a dragon and swirling about his sword.

In that single move, he broke free of the ice, vaporizing it with intense green flames and then channeling all of those flames into his blade.

"Celestial Dragon Thunder Flame!"

Blazing green qi trailed his sword as he swung it upward to deflect my strikes. We both clashed with incredible impact in the middle of the arena, reducing the crater-marked ground into rubble as even the reinforced material was unable to withstand the power of our blows.

I met Li Chun Long"s thunderous, fiery attacks with meteoric force, the collision of our blades wreaking great destruction.

Neither of us were able to get away from this exchange unscathed. Blood sprayed from our shoulders and arms as we furiously matched each other blow for blow, our weapons nicking or grazing whatever openings we could find.

Clang!

Boom!

In one final, thunderous exchange, the both of us were forced to spring away from each other, explosions reverberating across the beleaguered arena.

However, I was far from finished.

"Not bad!"

Even as blood leaked from my mouth, I kicked off the ground and charged at Li Chun Long again, refusing to let my momentum die down.

I would have shouted something like, "Li Chun Long of Green Dragon Sect! Receive another attack of mine!" but that would sound incredibly cheesy. Not to mention, it was a mouthful to say, especially in the middle of a match where the both of us were fighting for our lives and pride on the line. I wasn"t going to bother.

As I said, actions mattered more than words.

"Ugh!"

I wasn"t the only one seriously injured. I could see the blood dribbling out of Li Chun Long"s mouth, my opponent stunned by my fierce attacks. He was clearly taken aback by how I was able to match him blow for blow, and even momentarily overpower him this time. It had only been a few days, but already the flow of this match had shifted in my favor.

However, unwilling to admit defeat, Li Chun Long allowed the fiery qi from his Solar Celestial Dragon Formula to surge throughout his body to empower himself and partially protect him by enveloping him within a blazing aura of thick, yang qi. Steeling himself, he straightened and raised his sword to meet my blow.

Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike!

A much more powerful attack than the normal Draconic Meteor Strike, I rarely used this technique because it used up a lot of my qi. However, right now I didn"t care how much qi I had to expend. As long as I could defeat Li Chun Long…

It wasn"t that I was being reckless and utterly lacked caution. Against another opponent, I might have withheld my attacks and saved my strength just in case he or she was planning something. However, I knew Li Chun Long relatively well. He was a direct and straightforward person who wasn"t the type to scheme. He would come at me with all his strength, to utterly dominate his opponent with brute force alone.

He wasn"t the type to sneakily conceal his true strength. As I antic.i.p.ated, he was coming at me with all his might, trying to defeat me with everything he had.

The both of us clashed again, with Li Chun Long meeting my blow head-on and refusing to back off. Blood spurted from his mouth and he stumbled back, unable to withstand the tremendous power from my strike. However, credit to him, he countered with a wild swing of his sword that forced me to duck. Dropping to my knees, I then whirled around and kicked him in the gut.

"Ugh!"

Li Chun Long reeled back from my kick and swung his sword down to sever my leg, but I had already pulled it back. Spinning around and getting back to my feet, I firmly met his next strike with both my swords.

Clang!

Shoving him back, I kicked him in the chest and drove him back, causing him to cough out more blood. In return, he lashed out with a riposte that cut through my eblow, the fiery qi burning the surrounding skin. The sheer heat cauterized the cut, but the pain was agonizing enough for me to momentarily lose my focus.

There was no way Li Chun Long wouldn"t capitalize on that.

"Celestial Dragon Strike!"

Roaring in fury, Li Chun Long swung his sword at me, his green qi blazing and covering his blade. I parried it by crossing both my swords, but the force was almost too much for me to endure. I found myself flung back, hurtling across the arena.

"Kuh…!"

Gritting my teeth in frustration, but refusing to yield, I flipped myself in midair and slammed both my feet into the coliseum wall. Without pausing, I propelled myself off the wall and launched myself at an astonished Li Chun Long.

"What?!"

I replied with a meteoric strike that almost knocked Li Chun Long"s sword out of his hand, but he managed to recover quickly.

"Solar Celestial Dragon Formula, level 12!"

"!?"

I almost couldn"t react in time. Green flames erupted from Li Chun Long"s body like a supernova and scorched me, flinging me across the coliseum and sending me crashing onto the ground.

"Gah! Ugh!"

Coughing out blood, I tried to crawl to my feet, but Li Chun Long wouldn"t give me the chance. He descended upon my position with a huge swing of his sword. Noticing his movements, I quickly hit the deck and rolled away.

Boom!

Behind me, Li Chun Long carved a crater into the earth, destroying the already wrecked coliseum floor. As he tried to yank his Sacred Dragon Sword out of the broken ground, I quickly seized the chance to roll to my feet and readjust my stance.

"Kuh…"

As blood dribbled from my mouth, I stared at the halo of intense green fire that shimmered around Li Chun Long"s body. A gargantuan green dragon uncoiled and reared up behind and above the Green Dragon Sect head disciple, roaring silently.

No doubt Li Chun Long struck an imposing figure. I found the current atmosphere suffocating, my breath oppressed by the fiery presence of the dragon. Even so, I was aware that the green dragon was an illusion, created by the immense force of his qi alone.

"Phew…"

However, I refused to be intimidated. Holding up both my swords, I glared at Li Chun Long determinedly. I was not going to yield to the likes of him.

Not that he expected me to. In fact, Li Chun Long seemed like he was savoring my defiance, all the more so that he could crush me in a way that satisfied him the most. Grinning savagely, he held up his hand.

"Eleven moves," he declared.

"Uh, what?" I raised an eyebrow and stared at him in disbelief.

"I only need eleven moves to defeat you," Li Chun Long sneered as he held up two fingers for emphasis.