I wouldn"t say that the past two weeks had been entirely uneventful. Some major things happened while I was staying in the Wu Ling Academy dormitory, but I was too impatient to rush into the long-awaited tournament arc that I was going to skip through them. What, don"t worry. If necessary, I"ll just insert them back in through a flashback later on.

If they were important to the main story, of course. I doubted they were that important, at least not for the moment anyway, so I was going to fastforward straight to the tournament arc before the existences beyond the fourth wall could complain.

"Um, okay…"

I glanced at the tablet as I walked out of my dorm room. I was pleased that I managed to get back the dorm room I had been a.s.signed to for the last three years in middle school. It seemed that nothing had changed. I owned few things and many books, as usual. Furthermore, with digital uploads, eBooks and e-readers, more people were choosing to read electronically over actual, physical books. Having experienced the convenience of a Kindle back in my previous timeline I was half relieved that I didn"t need to worry about s.p.a.ce or lugging around a whole load of books wherever I went. If I needed to read something, I could access them from my tablet.

A pity the same couldn"t be said for martial arts manuals. Unlike digital uploads or physical paperback copies, martial arts scriptures were spirit artifacts in their own right. The teachings and techniques inscribed into them were a form of Spirit Engraving. They emanated a mystical sort of power that wouldn"t be present in any book.

But at the moment I don"t need new martial arts techniques…even if it"s for the tournament.

To be a competent martial artist, I had to master my own techniques to their utmost extremes. It was quality over quant.i.ty. There was no point learning as many techniques as I could if I wasn"t even good at one of them. In fact, learning so many different techniques would only serve to confuse me and disrupt my focus. I would rather master one technique to its extreme than to devour as many different technqiues as I could.

That wasn"t to say it was bad to learn multiple martial arts. I was aware of many students who chose to go down the path of the many. While not extreme as…say, Li Fu Chen, who supposedly mastered over a hundred sword techniques just to achieve Sword Intent and come up with his own technique (that was just ridiculous, and the b.l.o.o.d.y smug b.a.s.t.a.r.d was for all intents and purposes a Mary Sue taken past the limits of good writing), I had several schoolmates who learned four or five different techniques, and perhaps combined them to come up with their own mixed martial arts fighting style. Even I wasn"t that different, having learned about three different martial arts. Shadow Steps (which probably included the footwork techniques that Teacher Jiao taught me), Heaven and Earth Formula, and Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship. And that wasn"t even counting the self-learned skills that I incorporated from my experiences with the Lunar Rabbit and Ghost Bear, which allowed me to come up with a form of my Lunar Rabbit Kicks and Ghost Shadow Sword. Of course, I wasn"t arrogant enough to consider those actual skills.

Otherwise I wouldn"t have bothered with Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship in the first place.

"Hey, what are you strolling around for? Hurry up!"

Having seen me just emerge from my room, Feng Tian Yong showed up and slapped me on my back. Hard. I almost doubled over and fell flat on my face, but fortunately my footwork and balance had always been stable.

"What"s going on?"

"Oi. Don"t tell me you forgot what day it is today?"

I sighed and scratched my head. "The day of the tournament, right? They"re a.s.signing us to our sixteen groups today?"

"If you know that, then why are you idling around here for? Hurry up!"

Feng Tian Yong almost disappeared in a blur, sprinting off in the direction of the main campus. I sighed again as I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Even if we hurry, it"s not like it"ll change our group a.s.signments or something."

Closing my eyes, I muttered grumpily under my breath and then followed after Feng Tian Yong. Stepping into the courtyard, I caught sight of the Phoenix Express landing in the carpark not far away. As I expected, Tong Xue and Lian Rou alighted from the bus. This time, they were accompanied by Tang Qi Hong.

Oh, Tang Qi Hong had finally come out of seclusion, huh? I wondered if she had finally managed to succeed in mastering the Spirit Engraving and forging process necessary to craft a spatial storage device. Knowing her, there shouldn"t be any problems.

With a smile, I headed toward them and waved. The trio saw me and stepped to the side, making way for the other Nine-Tailed Fox Sect disciples who also attended Wu Ling Academy as students. I joined them a few seconds later, ignoring the looks from the fellow disciples who didn"t know me that well other than that I was "Tang Qi Hong"s a.s.sistant."

"How have you guys been?"

"All right. What about you?" Tong Xue grinned. "I heard there was a major incident in Wu Ling Academy about a week ago."

"Nothing much," I stifled a yawn. "The princ.i.p.al asked me to help out, but by the time I arrived, there wasn"t much for me to do."

Tong Xue frowned. "That"s not what I heard…"

"More importantly, the groupings are out. Feng Tian Yong was telling me to hurry up earlier. Let"s go."

"Ah, that"s right!" Lian Rou nodded. "The tournament is today! We shouldn"t be late!"

The four of us immediately headed toward the main plaza. As we made our way there, weaving through the throngs of students, I leaned over to ask Tang Qi Hong.

"How was training?"

"It was good." Qi Hong looked smug. "I"ve learned how to forge a spatial storage device. I"ll teach you when we return to Tushan after the tournament."

"I"ll be relying on you then."

"Over here!"

While the four of us walked, Ban Zhang suddenly appeared and waved at us. Grateful that the cla.s.s president (he was still cla.s.s chairman even after three years) saved some s.p.a.ce for us, we moved in his direction. He was located somewhere near the front, currently separated from us by a sea of excitedly chatting students.

"Wouldn"t the groups be emailed to every student anyway?" I wondered out loud, even as we jostled against the crowd.

"Certainly, but it"s more fun this way." Lian Rou giggled. Tong Xue seized her hand tightly to make sure she didn"t get carried away by the crowd.

"That"s right!" he agreed. I raised an eyebrow, but didn"t comment. Apparently, Tong Xue was pleased at the chance to hold his girlfriend"s hand.

"Whoa…"

Tang Qi Hong grabbed hold of my shoulder and hung on as we wove through the crowd to fight our way toward Ban Zhang"s position.

"Glad you made it," he told us when we finally joined him near the front of the gigantic holographic bulletin board.

"Where"s Zhu Jiao?" I asked, noticing that one member of our group was conspicuously missing. Ban Zhang shrugged.

"Late, as usual."

It figured. The protagonist Zhu Jiao was always late. If everything went according to the usual clichés, he would rush in at the final moment, possibly drawing the whole school"s attention, and fall over right in front of the bulletin board. Then he would find out that he had been drawn into the Group of Death, filled with the most powerful candidates.

Typical.

"Hmm, which group am I in?"

"Oh boy…Feng Tian Yong is in my group…" Tong Xue groaned. "Looks like I"m not going to make it to the round of 16, after all."

"You don"t say," Lian Rou muttered. "I have Bai Ning Xue in my group."

Everyone turned to look at her sympathetically, but Lian Rou merely smiled.

"It"s okay. I told you, I don"t expect to progress far in this tournament. I"ll do my best, but I"ll be happy with a good ranking."

"Do your best!" Tong Xue encouraged her. "I"ll do my best too!"

Apparently the rankings within the sixteen groups also mattered. Lose all your matches and you would be placed at the bottom of the school. Second and third places would mean you were within the top fifty, and there would be other rounds where the second-placed fighters would fight against the other second-placed rankings in the other groups for another fifteen matches to decide their standings. So it wasn"t as if only first place was the only goal to look forward to.

Naturally, the higher your ranking in the academy, the more resources you would receive, whether it was in the form of money, spirit pills, artificial qi, martial arts techniques, etc. There was intense compet.i.tion over these limited resources.

Not to mention the prestige this would bring to their respective sects…that was why the various sects were so invested in enhancing the abilities of their disciples, to ensure that they bring home trophies and glory to the sect.

I doubted the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect held much faith in me, but if I earned a respectable ranking, perhaps somewhere among the top hundred among the four hundred or so students in Wu Ling Academy, they would consider my application for the Blood Blades. Obviously if I ranked poorly, like amongst the two or three hundreds, they would throw out my application faster than spoiled pizza.

"Ugh, I have Kuang Hu in my group," Ban Zhang groaned. We all glanced at him, with only Tong Xue and Tang Qi Hong"s eyes lighting up in recognition.

"Who?" I blurted out.

"Kuang Hu…he"s a new student who joined Wu Ling Academy during the first year of high school. He"s one of the most promising students in the White Tiger Sect…his talent is on par with Qi Fu Ren"s, but he"s more…focused and hardworking." As usual, Tong Xue had all the information. He glared at me. "He"s one of those I told you to watch out for."

"Oh, right." I pretended that I remembered what he was talking about. Fortunately, Lian Rou was on hand to ask in my place.

"Is he strong?"

Tong Xue"s annoyed gaze melted instantly. Oi, your att.i.tude toward Lian Rou and your att.i.tude toward me are totally different! Isn"t this double standards!?

"Very strong. He"s more powerful than Qi Fu Ren would have been if the latter kept up his flippant att.i.tude toward training. But…he"s ruthless and merciless. He"s known as the Mad Tiger, Kuang Hu. He won"t stop until he rips his opponent apart…sometimes literally. But there will be teachers refereeing the match, so they will step in to stop him if his opponent surrenders."

"That sounds scary."

"I would rather not fight him if necessary," Ban Zhang agreed with a shudder. "They say he"s among the fastest martial artist in the academy."

"Oh?" that caught my attention. "Interesting."

"Don"t force yourself. Surrender if you have to." Lian Rou, as ever, was practical, and did not prize victory over health. Ban Zhang smiled bitterly.

"If I"m in danger, I"ll surrender immediately. But I"m not going to give up before I even fight. Not against that b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"This guy sounds like a new Qi Fu Ren," I observed. Tong Xue chuckled.

"He"s not that bad. He"s just…pretty ruthless in battle, but he doesn"t bully other people like Qi Fu Ren."

"That"s good to hear."

"Hmm, I should be able to get out of my group just fine. The few opponents I have to take note of are Xue Bing from the Snow Valley Sect and Qing Xin Xia."

Tang Qi Hong was musing to herself as she studied the list displayed in huge letters across the bulletin board.

"Oh! You"re in the same group as Xin Xia?" Lian Rou"s eyes widened. I listened intently, having a few recollections of the shy, dimituitive girl from the Green Dragon Sect. Qing Xin Xia was certainly talented, but her skills lay more in healing than combat. She was set to be the next Teacher Yi Liao, at least from what I heard.

"Go easy on her, okay?" Tong Xue laughed.

Tang Qi Hong frowned. "I can"t afford to underestimate Xin Xia. She might specialize in healing, but I"ve heard that she has become very strong recently."

I wonder why. It was obvious with everyone who had half a brain that Qing Xin Xia was in love with Zhu Jiao…except Zhu Jiao himself. The protagonist was as dense as a neutron star and too obsessed with his childhood sweetheart, Bai Ning Xue, to notice Qing Xin Xia"s affections for him. No doubt Qing Xin Xia planned to use the tournament as a chance to display her prowess and draw Zhu Jiao"s attention toward her.

Ah, how enviable it must be to be the protagonist of a web novel! To have all these beautiful girls flocking toward him! If only Tang Qi Hong didn"t reject me! Ugh…

"What about you, Wu?" Tong Xue asked. He then spotted my name a few seconds later, after glancing through the bulletin board. "Oh, you"re in the same group as Wu Hei Gui and Wu Xing! Oh boy, that"s not good."

"Why?" I asked even though I already knew the answer. Shaking my head, I sighed. "Never mind, I know why…"

"Oi, you know how strong Hei Gui is, right? We"re in the same cla.s.s!"

I nodded. I had witnessed his fearsome defensive abilities in cla.s.s, especially during the training session. In the whole of Wu Ling Academy, it was not an exaggeration to say that Wu Hei Gui was the strongest, if not the second-strongest in terms of defense. The Black Tortoise Sect was famous for their formidable defense techniques, after all.

"He"s going to be a tough nut to crack…like, literally."

Tong Xue scoffed at that. "If you can still make jokes like that, then you"ll be fine. But the other guy, Wu Xing…"

"I believe Wu Xing is from the Kun Lun Sect, correct?" Ban Zhang scratched his head. "I don"t remember much of him, other than the Kun Lun Sect is one of the major eight sects, and they dabble in esoteric elemental techniques."

"Yeah, he"s from another cla.s.s too." Tang Qi Hong furrowed her brow. "I don"t think I"ve heard much of him either, but he does have a reputation for being extremely intelligent, talented and strong. I don"t know the details, though…"

"Wu Xing is known as the Five Elements of the Kun Lun Sect," Tong Xue filled us in. He was as reliable as ever. "He"s known for mastering the esoteric five elements principle known to the Kun Lun Sect and is able to wield all five different types of five elements at will, countering whatever elemental technique his opponent uses against him." He turned to me with a grave expression. "He"ll definitely be a tough opponent."

"I"ll figure something out," I replied. I was aware that none of my cla.s.smates were expecting much of me, but Tang Qi Hong was hoping that I would rank highly in my group at least. So did Tong Xue, probably because he wanted a comrade to join him in Blood Blades.

"But you shouldn"t have a problem against the others…uh, looks like Tu Zi Yi is also in your group." Tong Xue frowned. "Hmm, you should be careful of her too. Even though she"s only a Two Star Const.i.tution cultivator, she does have some mean skills."

"In other words, I can"t let my guard down around her."

"Yeah!" Tang Qi Hong tried to grab my ear but missed when I ducked. "Don"t let your guard down just because she"s a girl, understand!?"

"Yeah, yeah." Even though she was the one who rejected me and insisted that she needed to focus on working hard to become the next leader of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, she was acting somewhat possessive of me. Girl, that was just…not right.

"WHOA! Wait for me!?"

As if on cue, Zhu Jiao b.u.mbled right into line, almost catapulting into the crowd of students. Being martial artists, all the students immediately parted on reflex, allowing Zhu Jiao to barrel past without striking any of them.

Bam!

Zhu Jiao flipped himself up at the final moment and crashed onto both feet. Looking apologetic, he bowed to everyone in the surroundings.

"Sorry, sorry! I hope no one was hurt!"

"Hey, Zhu Jiao!"

"You"re finally here!"

"Whoa, are you all right?"

Tong Xue, Ban Zhang and I strode forward to meet him. Zhu Jiao grinned and scratched his head sheepishly.

"Yeah, I think so. Sorry about that."

"Always making quite the entrance, are you?" Ban Zhang shook his head, amused.

"As expected of the protagonist," I muttered. Fortunately, no one heard me or they would be asking me what I meant.

"Have you guys already seen your groups?"

"Yup. It"s you now."

While we gathered to look for Zhu Jiao"s name, the crowd of students reformed and plugged the gap that Zhu Jiao"s reckless charge created.

"By the way, where"s Ning Xue? Is she not here yet?"

Zhu Jiao glanced around, puzzled. Not far away, Qing Xin Xia – who was with Li Chun Long and the other disciples of the Green Dragon Sect – twitched. Her pretty face crinkled into a frown, and I swear I saw a flicker of murderous intent behind those hazelnut eyes of hers.

Oh boy…that"s not good.

Was Qing Xin Xia a yandere or something? Even so, there was probably no need to worry. Bai Ning Xue was powerful enough to take care of herself. The chances of Qing Xin Xia winning against Bai Ning Xue in combat were pretty low.

Low, but not impossible, but honestly, this wasn"t my problem, and I doubted that the gentle Qing Xin Xia would be capable of such atrocities in any case. Her reaction was perfectly normal. Who wouldn"t think of killing their bitter rival once in a while? To act on it, however, was entirely another matter altogether.

"Oh! I"m there!"

"Wow…you"re pretty unlucky, aren"t you?"

The moment Zhu Jiao spotted his group, Tong Xue sighed and shook his head sympathetically. Zhu Jiao glanced at him, surprised.

"What do you mean?"

"You"re in the Group of Death. Look, Yu Wen Tian, Long Sheng, Xiong Lao Hu, and Hu Bei Yue are all in your group. These are all people from the eight major sects. Yu Wen Tian is famous as a prodigy in the Snow Valley Sect. Long Sheng is from the Green Dragon Sect, said to be on par with Li Chun Long. Xiong Lao Hu of the White Tiger Sect…that"s going to be quite the troublesome opponent. I heard only Kuang Hu is a match for him within their sect, excepting Bai Ning Xue, of course, who is thhe undisputed strongest in White Tiger Sect. Oh, and Hu Bei Yue is pretty reputable in the Red Phoenix Sect. I heard she pushed Feng Tian Yong all the way for the top disciple spot a month ago. Man, your luck is terrible."

"Ha ha ha," Zhu Jiao chuckled. "I just have to beat all of them, don"t I?"

Everyone just stared at him. Except me, who was aware of how Zhu Jiao was the typical happy-go-lucky protagonist. Besides, this was the exact situation I was complaining about the other day. Tong Xue could provide all these detailed dossiers about all the opponents that Zhu Jiao would be facing, telling them how strong and talented and powerful and amazing they are, but at the end of the day, it didn"t matter.

Zhu Jiao would win against all of them and emerge as the top of the group. Then these poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds would be consigned to oblivion, with no one ever remembering their names again. h.e.l.l, I doubted thse poor souls would ever appear in this trashy story again.

Poor overhyped fodder characters meant solely to make the protagonist look good.

"You sure are confident, aren"t you?" Ban Zhang remarked with a wry smile. He didn"t doubt Zhu Jiao at all.

"Well, my goal is Ning Xue. I can"t lose to anyone until I meet her." Zhu Jiao clenched his fist determinedly and raised it. "We both will meet in the finals. I can"t lose until then! I mean, if I can"t even beat these guys, then how will I ever challenge Ning Xue?"

"Oh, wow…you"re already sure you"ll meet her in the finals."

I couldn"t help but shake my head and remark dryly. I knew it would happen. It was inevitable. But even so, for Zhu Jiao to be aware of that himself…

"It"s set in stone! I"m sure Fate will arrange that for me!"

"Hmm…good luck."

I nodded and patted his shoulder. Ban Zhang joined in, and then Tong Xue allowed himself a laugh before slapping Zhu Jiao in the back.

"If anyone can pull this off, it"ll be you."

"Yeah…don"t forget. You"re a Five Star Const.i.tution cultivator." Tang Qi Hong was smiling. "Even if everyone else has forgotten, we haven"t."

"Prove everyone wrong!"

"You"re level 8 in name only. You"re more than a match for any of these guys!"

"Aw…stop it, guys, you"re making me embarra.s.sed." Zhu Jiao laughed, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden. "Besides, I can"t afford to underestimate my opponents. It would be disrespectful to them."

"This will be difficult," Ban Zhang agreed as he glanced at the bulletin board again.

"Hmm…but you know what, I"m getting fired up!" Zhu Jiao was rubbing his palms enthusiastically. "The stronger my opponents, the better! It"s best to fight against powerful opponents! Otherwise there will be no meaning to this tournament!"

Zhu Jiao"s positive att.i.tude was unbelievable. Nonetheless, his excitement was infectious and I couldn"t help but smile too.

"I hope we all get through this unscathed," I murmured quietly. "Not just earning a high ranking, but for all of us to at least finish this tournament safely."

"Amen to that!"

And with that, our tournament began.