For the preliminary rounds, particularly because these were "only" the group stages, the academy had decided to lay aside the training facilities as temporary arenas. As a result, most of the matches – almost all, in fact – were taking place in the training facilities instead of the ma.s.sive coliseum that was located in the main campus building.

That did not stop the other students from milling around the tight confines of the training facilities" interior. While the matches would be recorded and available for viewing if we download or stream them in our tablets, there was nothing that could beat the atmosphere of actually spectating the fights in person. Hence, most of the students were tightly crammed within the narrow corridors, pressing their faces against the transparent screens.

I would have been among them, but unfortunately my match was scheduled as one of the firsts. Bidding farewell to my friends – most of whom had matches of their own – I proceeded toward the room that I was a.s.signed to.

"Let"s see…room 603. Ah, here it is!"

Stopping in front of the designated room, I glanced around at the growing crowd of spectators. It seemed they weren"t here to watch my match, but rather the matches in the neighboring rooms. Already those duels had started and I could hear elemental clashes of qi colliding against each other with deadly force.

They"re really going at it, I thought, feeling slightly nervous. After almost two years in isolation, this was the first time I was dueling against a schoolmate.

Speaking of which, who was my first opponent?

"Oh…Tu Zi Yi."

The name was vividly portrayed on the screen of my tablet. Glancing at her homely face, I briefly wondered how far she had progressed over the last two years since we last had a duel. Tong Xue had told me she had polished her skills and warned me not to let my guard down. Even though Tu Zi Yi was a Two Star Const.i.tution cultivator, she was still a formidable opponent.

I recalled how she easily crushed me the last time we fought. It was shortly after she had received artificial qi.

Would today be a repeat of that?

Stepping into the room, I saw that it was empty. The thick, reinforced walls seemed to close in on me, giving off a slightly claustrophobic feeling. The training rooms were not as vast and s.p.a.cious as the official coliseum.

Only the finals would be taking place in the coliseum. The twenty-four preliminary matches would all take place here, in the training facilities.

"Looks like you"re here!"

I blinked at the voice and turned to look around, but saw n.o.body. Instead, I spotted a speaker at the corner of the room, which was accompanied by a security camera that slowly revolved and tracked my movements.

"Teacher Cai Pan?"

I recognized the voice. It was definitely the teacher who usually refereed most of the official duels in the coliseum.

"Yup. Good luck with your match…the both of you."

Turning around, I saw that my opponent had just arrived. Tu Zi Yi stepped into the room, greeting me with a nod.

"Good, now that the both of you are here, you can start any time the both of you are ready. Just give me a head"s up when you do."

"Roger that." I saluted. Tu Zi Yi also nodded.

"Understood."

I glanced at her, waiting for her to give the signal, but unlike me, Tu Zi Yi wasn"t impatient to start the match. She merely smiled.

"It"s been a while since we last fought, haven"t we?"

"…yeah."

"But you…haven"t used martial arts in a while, I heard? Shortly after our last duel, you…had an accident and weren"t able to use martial arts for almost two years."

That was the official story that had spread around the academy after the Chinese Parasol Tree incident. I had let people believe what they wanted because I couldn"t be bothered to explain to them the truth.

And this misconception benefited me more anyway.

"Well, something like that."

"Do you have some tricks up your sleeve, though? Considering that you have no intention of surrendering."

Evidently Tu Zi Yi remembered the outcome of our last duel, and how she one-sidedly crushed me. And since that was the result, I was in no position to say anything about that. It would just make me sound like a sore loser.

So I just smiled and shrugged.

"I would rather try and fail than not try at all. Besides, it"s not a guarantee that I would lose."

"True." Tu Zi Yi nodded. "But you should know, I"m much stronger than I was two years ago. If you haven"t undergone any tremendous improvement, you…don"t stand any chance of winning against me."

What was this? Trash-talking the opponent before the match? Trying to lower my confidence, or provoke me to anger so that I would get all reckless and be more p.r.o.ne to mistakes during the match? I"m afraid that wasn"t going to work on me.

"Well, let"s not waste any time and begin then." I gestured for her to ready herself, and was about to call out to Teacher Cai Pan when she nodded and formally cupped her hands. Realizing that this was the tradition for all official matches, I returned the greeting and also cupped my hands. Lowering my head, I waited for Tu Zi Yi to introduce herself.

"My name is Tu Zi Yi. I have practiced kicking techniques for 5 years. I specialize in the Lunar Rabbit Divine Kicking techniques and the Lunar Fang Shadow Kicking techniques. My estimated inner qi is approximately two and a half s.e.xagenaries. I"m from the Lunar Rabbit Sect, and a student of Wu Ling Academy."

…uh, yeah. I know. Then again, I remembered that this was tradition. All sorts of formalities. It was only proper etiquette to introduce yourself right before a formal duel. So I nodded and bowed my head politely.

"Fei Wu. I"ve practiced martial arts for about three and a half years now. As you probably already know, I practice Shadow Steps."

Tu Zi Yi frowned, noticing that I had omitted a lot of information from my introduction. Despite her confidence, it seemed that she had done some research on me.

"Aren"t you learning a sword skill right now?"

"Oh, that"s right. Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship. Rest a.s.sured, I won"t be using it against you. I"m ashamed to admit it, but my swordsmanship is not at the level where I can use it against competent opponents."

"I see." Tu Zi Yi smiled thinly. She craned her neck and noticed that I really wasn"t carrying any sword with me. "Even so, at least include it in your introduction. Otherwise you"ll come off as being dishonest."

I was already being dishonest, given how I made no mention of my Heaven and Earth Formula. That was something I needed to keep secret at all costs. Fortunately, it seemed that no one had caught wind of that.

"Right, sorry." I smiled good-naturedly and beckoned for her. "At your signal."

"Of course." Raising her head, Tu Zi Yi shouted toward the security camera. "Teacher Cai Pan, we"re ready to begin!"

"All right!" the almost mechanical voice boomed out from the speaker. "The both of you can start the match immediately!"

Tu Zi Yi instantly moved, disappearing into a blur. Thunder Dash or something similar, it was a standardized movement technique for all Wu Ling Academy students who learned it in order to close in on the enemy.

Well, the hardcore Traditionalists did not learn it preferring their own traditional techniques from their own sects. Unfortunately, the Lunar Rabbit Sect was a tiny sect with little resources, so Tu Zi Yi had to make use of everything she could get from the academy.

"!"

Whoosh!

I barely ducked under Tu Zi Yi"s first kick, her leg flying upward to connect with my skull. A sonic boom followed, a clear sign that her leg had been moving at a speed that broke the sound barrier. If I got hit by that…!

She"s trying to end the match instantly in her first move!

Good thing I had fast reflexes, or I would be lying unconscious on the ground by now. Well, perhaps I wouldn"t, but I would still be sprawled on the ground nursing a splitting headache. Taking the full brunt of that kick was no joke.

"!"

Tu Zi Yi sc.r.a.ped her foot against the ground and spun around with another kick. I managed to parry that with both hands, but her two and a half s.e.xagenaries of qi was enough to push me back half a meter.

"Fu…"

I exhaled, but Tu Zi Yi was already delivering a roundhouse kick that threatened to floor me. I blocked that one as well, my hands trembling from the tremendous impact and my left ear ringing from the following sonic boom.

"…you…"

Tu Zi Yi gritted her teeth and switched her foot, kicking me in the midriff. I brought my elbow down and deflected her foot before it could reach me, and then used Tui to widen the distance between the both of us.

"You"ve really improved," Tu Zi Yi admitted grudgingly as she stared at me. "But even so, you aren"t able to receive any artificial qi. How are you able to match me blow for blow, eeven though I have two and a half s.e.xagenaries of qi?"

Obviously I had no reason to tell her. She might have a ma.s.sive amount of qi from the academy, but I had absorbed the qi of over a hundred demonic martial artists. I had no idea how much qi that equated. But it should be way more than three or four s.e.xagenaries of qi. Maybe. I didn"t care.

After all, the exact quant.i.ty and numbers did not matter to me. All that mattered was that I wouldn"t be pushed around by the sheer amount of force that my schoolmates possessed by virtue of having more qi.

"Hmm, but…you"re forced into the defensive. So it"s not as if you"re on par with me."

Tu Zi Yi"s confidence rea.s.serted itself when she realized that she had been attacking one-sidedly all this while. So perhaps there was still quite the gap between our abilities, or so she concluded. I smiled, allowing her to believe that.

"Hah!"

Tu Zi Yi delivered another kick, then swung around for yet another kick. Each and every time, I would effortlessly dodge her or block when she was too fast for me to evade. Dodging under a kick, I then dove to the side before she could kick me from below.

Tu Zi Yi was no slouch herself, swapping patterns in a somewhat unpredictable manner in an attempt to take me by surprise. It was a pity that I could read her attacks like a book, with the agitated flow of her qi visible to my senses like Christmas lights in the winter.

"Huff…huff…"

After what seemed like a few hundred failed kicks, even Tu Zi Yi had to step back to catch her breath. Panting heavily, she withdrew to what she believed was a safe distance and raised her head to glare at me.

"How are you dodging all of my attacks?"

"Not all." I shook my hands exaggeratedly. "Man, your kicks pack a lot of power!"

"This can"t be right!" Tu Zi Yi seethed. "You shouldn"t be able to block a direct kick from me! Not with the amount of qi you have…"

She trailed off when she realized something.

"Or were you finally able to receive artificial qi?! Were you hiding that from everyone else? Is that why you haven"t been fighting for the last two years? You were too busily cultivating and undergoing procedures to absorb artificial qi!"

"Sorry." I made a cross with both my arms. "But you"re mistaken. I swear, I have not received any artificial qi at all."

Tu Zi Yi did not notice the emphasis on the word artificial. She began shaking her head in denial and jabbed a finger at me.

"You"re lying! If you haven"t received any artificial qi, then it"s impossible for you to…!"

She never got to finish her sentence. Suddenly I was right in front of her, and I executed a perfectly executed Lunar Rabbit Kick that she had been using on me the whole time. Unfortunately, Tu Zi Yi"s G.o.dlike reflexes saved her from being knocked out, and she managed to just barely block my strike, skidding back only a few meters.

"You…!"

"We"re here to fight, not to talk," I reminded her. "Might I remind you, we"re still in the middle of a match. We can debate on the impossibility of this situation later, but for now…" I aimed another kick at her head, forcing her to step back. "Let"s settle this once and for all."

"I couldn"t ask for more!" Tu Zi Yi cried out, more from frustration than anything else. Clenching her teeth, she retaliated with a kick, but I darted out of her reach. Tu Zi Yi advanced, delivering another kick that I dodged by a mere hair"s breadth.

With a shriek, Tu Zi Yi swung her foot down, pulverizing the ground and sending a spray of rubble upward. I merely used Tui to withdraw to a safe distance, using the shower of debris as a screen to obscure her view of me.

"How are you having such stamina?!" Tu Zi Yi demanded. She was steadily getting out of breath, the exhaustion showing on her face. "Stop running around and fight me directly!"

"You don"t honestly think I"ll do that just because you tell me to?" I asked while moving back to avoid yet another lethal kick to my face. Tu Zi Yi"s foot swung downward and smashed a crater into the floor in front of me.

"You coward!" Tu Zi Yi spat. I laughed at that.

"Hah! You"re only saying that because you believe you"re stronger than me, and you somehow think that gives you the right to beat me up with brute strength. If your opponent was physically stronger, would you say the same and fight him directly?"

"That"s…!" Tu Zi Yi"s eyes narrowed as she glared at me. As I thought, she was just being a hypocrite.

"Hmph. In the end, all you people care about is your own advantage. You complain when things don"t go your way, but in reality these are just excuses. If our positions are reversed, you won"t hesitate to use the same tactics as me to avoid getting crushed."

"Shut up!" Tu Zi Yi lashed out with a kick that would have taken my head off if I hadn"t stepped back at the last second. "This is the rule of the jungle! The one with the sharpest fangs wins! Thus, Killing Bites!"

"What the f.u.c.k, are you trying to be Brute Rabbit or something?!"

I couldn"t believe that Tu Zi Yi was audacious enough to rip that cla.s.sic line off that trashy manga that focused more on fanservice than actual story. And played up on the whole animal-girl thing, which was probably why it was popular.

Me, I was just reading it purely because of Nomoto, and I hope he…never mind. This was not the place to discuss my favorite character in Killing Bites.

"Stop moving!"

"And let you hit me?" I couldn"t believe I was having this conversation yet again. Did all combatants think they are ent.i.ted to a free hit on an unmoving opponent or something? That their opponents should just stand still and take their hits? What kind of logic was that?

Then something occurred to me. Stopping, I caught Tu Zi Yi"s foot when she tried to kick me and held it still.

"I"ll let you kick me if you let me kick you."

"Huh?!" Tu Zi Yi did a double take as she glared at me. "What nonsense are you spouting about?!"

"As I said," I repeated calmly. "I"ll let you kick me if you let me kick you."

Tu Zi Yi stopped and took a deep breath, but in reality she was running through several calculations in her mind. She had reached her limit, her stamina severely depleted as she tried and failed to hit me. She knew there wouldn"t be long before she collapsed from exhaustion, and if I was hiding something, I could easily finish her off.

After all, it was more energy consuming to attack than to dodge. That was why I was a lot more energetic and less tired than her. And Tu Zi Yi knew that.

"Fine." Tu Zi Yi drew a deep breath and smiled thinly. "But on one condition. You"re to let me kick you first."

I had already expected that, so I nodded. "Deal."

Tu Zi Yi"s smile widened. It was clear that she believed she could take me down with one kick. One kick was all it took. She was confident that as long as she kicked me directly, she would win this match.

I merely stood there and waited, beckoning for her to attack.

Tu Zi Yi took a deep breath and began gathering large amounts of qi into her legs. She leaped back, putting some distance between us, then sprinted forward. Halfway toward me, she jumped up and spun her body in midair, almost like a drill.

I watched every movement carefully, learning as much as I could. This was definitely one of the Lunar Rabbit Sect"s most powerful kicking techniques. Tu Zu Yi was clearly taking no chances. She meant to finish me off once and for all.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

With a fearsome cry, Tu Zi Yi descended upon my position with everything she had. I shifted my head a little, but otherwise didn"t move my body. Tu Zi Yi crashed down with the force of a meteor, her foot smashing against my chest.

BOOM!

An enormous explosion rippled across the room, sending tremendous shockwaves everywhere to batter the reinforced walls. The ground beneath my feet shattered, and a crater was carved right in the position I stood on.

Even so, I didn"t move. I didn"t budge a single inch. I merely stood there resolutely, absorbing the impact from Tu Zi Yi"s kick.

"You…! Why does it feel like you"re wearing armor!?"

Yelping in surprise and pain, Tu Zi Yi quickly withdrew and jumped backward, hobbling on her sore foot.

"I"m not wearing armor." I spread my hands out to show her nothing but my uniform jacket and shirt. Of course, I didn"t show her what was underneath my clothes, but it didn"t matter. I was telling the truth. It wasn"t armor. "Even if I was, it"s not against the rules. Have you forgotten? We"re allowed to use Spirit Armaments, equipment and weapons."

"Ah…" Tu Zi Yi realized that I was right. Then she frowned. "Wait…if you"re already wearing protective gear, then why have you been dodging my attacks all this while? You could have weathered my kicks this entire time!"

I held up a finger. "First of all, I"m not wearing any protective gear." The training gear I had on was in no way armor, after all. "Secondly, where"s the fun in that? I don"t want to win just because of stupid equipment. I want to win based on my own skills."

"Your own skills?" Tu Zi Yi scoffed. I smiled thinly.

"Perhaps…but then again, you"re the one who failed to finish me off even though you supposedly have better skills than me."

"That"s…"

"And…one more thing." I held up a third finger. "It"s my turn to attack now. You agreed to let me kick you, right?"

Tu Zi Yi turned very pale, and she backed away, shaking her head desperately.

"No…no! You lied to me! You never told me you were wearing armor! This doesn"t count! You tricked me!"

"Again, I"m not wearing armor. And I never lied to you. I never said I wasn"t wearing armor either. You made that a.s.sumption on your own…probably because I chose to dodge most of the time rather than endure your attacks. I offered you a deal, and you never asked for more information or details. Besides, you"re just making excuses now that the situation is to your disadvantage."

"You tricked me! I don"t care! This doesn"t count!"

Tu Zi Yi was wailing and running away by now. She must have realized that her attacks had little effect on me, and was therefore choosing to run instead of fight.

She also clearly showed that she had no intention of upholding her end of the deal. She reminded me of a certain writer who desperately begged me to read and review her story while promising to read and review my story in return, only for her to block me when I made a few mild criticisms of her cheesy dialogue, lack of character development, and most of all, her random use of j.a.panese. And that review never materialized.

That was all right, I didn"t need reviews for my story. I already knew the result. Zero point five or one star rating. I was the one most aware that my story was trash. Best not to get any reviews.

The point was that, it didn"t matter whether the other party kept their end of their deal or not. I had never expected them to in the first place.

"!"

Tu Zi Yi suddenly realized I was beside her.

"How…?!"

I merely smiled and then kicked her. Tu Zi Yi tried to dodge, but she wasn"t able to evade in time. Her reflexes were as impressive as ever, and she managed to cross her arms to parry my kick.

It was useless.

"Gah?!"

Blood spurted out of her mouth as she crashed across the training room, bruised and battered. She struggled to crawl to her feet and hands, looking bewildered.

"…how…?"

She must be wondering how she was unable to dodge that.

The reason was simple. It was simply because she had run out of stamina.

I was aware of Tu Zi Yi"s speed. Quite frankly, Tu Zi Yi was one of the fastest martial artists in Wu Ling Academy. If I were to fight properly with her, I would never have been able to catch her. Especially when I was weighed down by training equipment. She was simply too fast and too fleet-footed.

That was why I allowed her to attack me one-sidedly all this while. I was luring her to expend the majority of her strength, so that I could exhaust her and drain her stamina. And once she was tired – like right now, I would strike. With her stamina at its limits and her strength drained, she wouldn"t be able to muster the speed necessary to duck my kick.

And contrary to her expectations, it didn"t matter that I didn"t receive s.e.xagenaries of artificial qi from the school lab. I had purified qi after a.s.similating all those qi from over a hundred martial artists. Granted, most of their qi had been lost through entrophy, and because qi absorption was quite an inefficient process, but I possessed more than enough destructive power to breakthrough any defenses she could muster.

Consequently, it was Tu Zi Yi lying on the ground, coughing blood and struggling to get up. She glanced up at me fearfully as I advanced mercilessly, jumping high up and getting ready to deliver a Seismic Step.

Her eyes widened and she fell back. Throwing up both her hands, she screamed.

"I surrender!"

BOOM!

It was almost too late. An explosion billowed outward as I crashed down, engulfing both of us in dust and smoke. Teacher Cai Pan appeared a second later, his eyes hard. With a swing of his hand, he cleared away the smoke.

Fortunately, nothing had happened. My foot had smashed the ground and crated a small ravine, splitting the reinforced concrete apart from the sheer force. Just centimeters away, Tu Zi Yi"s head lay, her eyes wide and teary. She was mumbling something from fear, her eyes staring hollowly at the ceiling. Apparently she was in deep shock.

I pulled away my foot from the crater, turned to Teacher Cai and shrugged.

"Well, she said she surrendered."

Teacher Cai sighed in relief and nodded.

"I heard that," he a.s.sured me. "This match has ended in your victory."