I looked around, a little dazed. Even though this was the same arena where I – and many of the students from the middle school section – took my level test, the atmosphere today was somewhat different. There was a buzz in the air, an excitement that surpa.s.sed the furor that my level test generated the other day.

"I know, right?" Tong Xue agreed beside me. "What do you think?"

My friends had brought me to this particular duel so that I could have a better understanding of it. My first six months here had been spent mostly in isolation, so I had avoided the coliseum. I mostly trained against training dummies and programmed battle puppets, so I didn"t watch or duel against human opponents.

But that turned out to be a mistake. The whole purpose of all the disciples from the various martial arts sects in the Alliance gathering in Wu Ling Academy was to spy on each other, learn each other"s techniques, or duel against each other. And what better way of collecting intelligence on the techniques of rival sects than to watch them fight in an official match?

"I…don"t know."

"Well, don"t say that." Tong Xue grinned. "We"re here to watch Qi Fu Ren fight, so that you"ll have an idea of his fighting style, and how his mind works."

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d…" Zhu Jiao hissed venomously, his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flaring. He clenched his fists as he fought to restrain his anger. "f.u.c.king coward is picking on the weaker students again. He refused my challenge, and then went to challenge Luo Bin."

"Who"s Luo Bin?" I asked, puzzled. Tong Xue had an answer, which he showed me in the form of his tablet.

"Cla.s.s 1-1, from the Winding River Sect."

"Oh." I immediately understood. "Water techniques?"

"Yeah."

While we were discussing, I noticed someone approaching us. I waved at her while she was looking around nervously.

"Tang Qi Hong, are you here to watch the fight as well?"

"Ah…right." Tang Qi Hong strode over. Usually, she was with her best friend, Lian Rou, but I didn"t see the blue-haired beauty today. That wasn"t surprising. Lian Rou wasn"t that interested in fights to begin with. "Are you doing all right?"

"Yeah, as you can see, I"m fine."

I raised a hand to a.s.sure her. When I first returned to Wu Ling Academy, Tang Qi Hong had been the first to approach me. Apparently, she didn"t forget that I had saved her life before I dropped into the Abyss, and was pretty relieved that I had survived.

It was also clear that she felt a measure of guilt that she wasn"t able to help me when I plunged into the abyss, and according to Tong Xue she had been one of those who volunteered in the search party that combed Sen Lin Forest for a month before it was called off.

"Mind if I join you guys? Lian Rou wasn"t interested in watching the fight."

"Sure." I gestured for Tang Qi Hong to join us. She stepped up next to me and peered through the transparent gla.s.s.

"Oh, it seems like the duel will be starting soon."

"This will be bad," Ban Zhang muttered under his breath, concern touching his voice. I followed the direction of his gaze and saw that the two combatants were entering the stage.

Qi Fu Ren strolled in arrogantly, that smirk never leaving his face. From the opposite side, a frail-looking kid stepped outside, his furious expression belying his tinier stature. Qi Fu Ren must have done something to p.i.s.s him off.

"It"ll be over in a minute."

"Aren"t you guys giving Luo Bin too little credit?" I protested, glaring at Tong Xue for being dismissive. My cla.s.smate merely shrugged.

"If you don"t believe me, you can just watch."

"…"

I obeyed quietly and focused my attention on the arena. There was a teacher refereeing the match, and at his signal, the match began.

"Qi Fu Ren, of the White Tiger Sect," Qi Fu Ren mockingly cupped his hands as a sign of respect, except that his actions lacked any genuine sincerity. "I"m at the fifth level of the Qi Essence Stage, and my affinity is with the metal element…to be more precise, lightning."

"Luo Bin, Winding River Sect." the student from 1-1 was unable to hide his contempt. "Third level of Qi Essence Stage, affinity with water."

The two of them regarded each other for a moment, and then disappeared.

"?!"

My eyes widened slightly and I glanced around, only for the two to clash in the center of the coliseum. Thick clouds of qi erupted from their collision, and both golden and blue qi swirled and buffeted the reinforced walls with shockwaves.

"Whoa!"

"What an explosive start!"

The students watching reeled back from instinct despite the arena being built and designed to withstand such power. I didn"t blame them. Even I was somewhat taken aback by the sheer ferocity between the two.

Boom, boom, boom!

Wham! Crackle!

The intensity of their qi shot up exponentially as the two combatants clashed and exchanged blows. Despite being two levels lower than Qi Fu Ren, Luo Bin was giving his opponent a run for his money, striking and punching furiously. For a moment, Qi Fu Ren seemed like he was forced into the defensive, blocking and parrying the strikes. However, he answered with several counters of his own, but Luo Bin executed a couple of fluid movements to deflect those counters. Lighting spilled out and slammed into the ground, scorching the concrete, but Luo Bin remained unharmed.

Thousands of water droplets floated in the air, suspended and unmoving. Since my ice affinity was somewhat related to water, I could clearly sense the potent qi held in each droplet, just waiting to be unleashed.

And then they were fired.

Responding to Luo Bin"s will, the water droplets turned into bullets, stretching and then hurtling forward to slam into Qi Fu Ren with enough force to punch through concrete. Realizing the danger, Qi Fu Ren disengaged and stepped back, throwing his hands up to conjure a wall of electricity. Water sizzled and vaporized into steam as they struck his lighting barrier, but a few broke through and tore holes through his body.

"Gnnnh!"

Qi Fu Ren staggered, blood dripping from the tiny holes punched through his body. He chuckled as he glanced at them, more amused than hurt.

"Oh…not bad. You"ve certainly gotten a lot stronger."

However, Luo Bin showed no mercy. Already he was lunging forward without any hesitation, his fist c.o.c.ked back.

"I"ll kill you!" he roared.

"Wow," I remarked as I watched Luo Bin sock Qi Fu Ren. The latter was knocked off his feet and sent sprawling onto the ground. "He definitely has quite the grudge against Qi Fu Ren."

"Can"t blame him." Tong Xue sounded gloomy. "Qi Fu Ren has been bullying him since two months ago, and the abuse only escalated."

"If you think you can beat me up forever, you"re dead wrong!" Luo Bin hollered as he kicked Qi Fu Ren. Two colossal streams of water also slammed into Qi Fu Ren simultaneously, lifting the guy off his feet and hands and hurling him into the wall. The tremendous impact actually cracked the reinforced concrete and Qi Fu Ren slumped down. "I"m not going to stay below you forever!"

"Wow…that Luo Bin has gotten a lot stronger," Tong Xue admitted. I glanced at him and smirked.

"By the way, it has been over a minute."

"Yeah, I know…I didn"t expect that. Sorry."

I rolled my eyes. "Why are you apologizing to me? You should be apologizing to Luo Bin instead. Do that later."

"At this rate, Luo Bin might actually win," Ban Zhang commented, pleasantly surprised. "I can"t believe how much he has improved!"

"No." at Zhu Jiao"s ominous declaration, the rest of us turned to stare at him in shock. He shook his head. "Even with his improvement, it still won"t be enough."

Lightning sparked and danced around the arena, and Qi Fu Ren rose to his feet, his body clad in electricity. His face had turned into a demonic, murderous mask of rage and hatred. Gone was his humor and arrogance, both of which had been replaced by fury and vengeance.

"This can"t be good," Tong Xue muttered. Tang Qi Hong"s face blackened.

"Qi Fu Ren has gotten a lot stronger again."

"Really?" I hadn"t been around for two months so I could only take her word for it.

Qi Fu Ren blasted Luo Bin"s water attacks apart with his lightning, but the latter didn"t seem perturbed. Instead, he conjured a barrier of water to shield himself from a lightning bolt that Qi Fu Ren threw at him.

"So you"ve finally gotten serious, huh?" he sneered.

"I"ll kill you, filth," Qi Fu Ren snarled. "Trash who doesn"t know his place. You should just lie on the ground and remain like the rubbish you"ve always been."

"So that you"ll have someone to beat up when you feel like it?" Luo Bin growled. "f.u.c.k you. I"m going to pay you back for everything you did to me."

He then launched himself forward, heedless of the devastating lightning that crackled and filled the vast s.p.a.ce of the coliseum. Jagged bolts of lightning lanced and blasted at him, but he deftly deflected them with raging whirlpools of water.

"Amazing."

I couldn"t help but be impressed, enraptured by the elemental fury between the two duelists.

So this is the difference between a test and an official match…the difference between a human opponent and a test dummy…

The atmosphere was saturated with so much emotion, with so many raw sensations. Unlike humans, the test dummy or battle puppet was devoid of emotions and feelings. Despite being able to efficiently and almost flawlessly replicate the martial arts techniques of masters, they lacked that essential human nature – the power of emotions and feelings. They fought coldly and mechanically, driven by nothing but their programming. As a result, they sometimes became predictable, one-dimensional fighters who fought only because they were told to do so.

In contrast, the human fighters were driven by an a.s.sortment of emotions, goals, dreams, ambitions, grudges and instinct. They sometimes made decisions based on emotions, or trusted their gut feeling as opposed to reason. This made them unpredictable. And they had goals, things they wanted to achieve. That gave them additional strength, power that could not be quantified or measured accurately. This was why I found the whole level and stage thing bulls.h.i.t.

Humans had a strength that cannot be measured. Time and time again, we had proven that throughout history, we had defied all odds to prevail and rule over all other living things in the world despite being relatively frail and weak.

Qi Fu Ren and Luo Bin traded another few punches before they sprang away after a particularly violent clash. Lightning wreathed Qi Fu Ren"s fists while currents of water snaked and flowed around Luo Bin"s arms, forming some sort of fluid gauntlets.

"You…" Qi Fu Ren muttered under his breath, his voice laced with fury. "If I let you go now, you"ll be a huge threat to me in future."

"Never mind the future, I"ll defeat you now!"

Luo Bin wasn"t a man of many words. With that simple shout, he then lunged forward again, generating a huge whirlpool of water to propel himself forward while simultaneously blasting water bullets to attack his opponent.

"Guoooh!"

Qi Fu Ren bellowed in defiance before he gathered as much qi as he could. His right hand glowing golden after acc.u.mulating so much qi, he swung his fist at the incoming water and unleashed his most powerful lightning attack.

"Lightning Flash!"

"What"s with martial artists always shouting out the names of their attacks and techniques?" I asked, bewildered.

"Sh, don"t ask," Tong Xue reprimanded me. "Just go along with it."

There wasn"t much I could go along with. Qi Fu Ren"s attack erupted into a colossal pillar of golden lightning, vaporizing all the water in the vicinity. Luo Bin vanished into the gargantuan beam, no doubt electrocuted and fried by the immense power of Qi Fu Ren"s attack.

But Qi Fu Ren wasn"t done yet.

He launched himself into his gradually fading pillar of lightning, his fists still wreathed in electricity. c.o.c.king his right arm back, he threw a vicious hook that struck Luo Bin"s convulsing body and knocked him out of midair.

Luo Bin slammed into the ground, carving a huge crater into the concrete even as he continued to skid across the broken surface. Qi Fu Ren mercilessly bore down on him, slamming his foot into Luo Bin"s abdomen.

Crack!

An ominous sound snapped across the arena. Even so, Qi Fu Ren was not done. He kicked the unconscious Luo Bin up and began to pummel him.

"That"s enough."

I had no idea when, but the teacher who was refereeing the match had suddenly appeared in the coliseum. Before Qi Fu Ren"s devastating fist could reach the scorched Luo Bin, the teacher seized his wrist. Lightning crackled and bit at his fingers, but the teacher seemed completely unaffected by their electrocuting effects.

"Luo Bin has been incapacitated," Teacher Cai Pan informed him coolly. "This match is over. Cease your attacks at once."

"Hmph."

Qi Fu Ren didn"t seem satisfied, but even a bully like him wasn"t stupid enough to go against a teacher. He lowered his fists, then turned away to stalk off.

Before he left, however, he turned around to smirk.

"Well, it"s fine. I"ve damaged his dantian. It"ll be a while before he can cultivate…if he can cultivate ever again, that is. Whatever the case, you"ll continue to be my punching bag for another long while."

Laughing, Qi Fu Ren left the stage.

*

"That was vicious."

I felt sick just from witnessing that whole thing. After Teacher Cai Pan applied the necessary first aid, the medics had rushed in to ferry Luo Bin to the infirmary to get him treated. However, even with Teacher Yi Liao"s top-notch healing techniques, if Luo Bin"s dantian was damaged, there was very little she could do to help him with that.

It would take a year or at least six months for him to recover before he could resume cultivation again. Fortunately, Teacher Cai stepped in and intervened before Qi Fu Ren could carry things too far, otherwise Luo Bin would have been crippled for good.

"The worst thing is that Qi Fu Ren would not be punished for this. Technically, he did not break the rules surrounding official matches."

Zhu Jiao sounded bitter as he leaned forward and crossed his fingers.

"Luo Bin"s not the only victim," Tong Xue informed me when Zhu Jiao sank into a sullen silence. "He has been picking on other students as well, especially during the two months you weren"t here. In fact, I think he had gotten worse after your disappearance."

That coincided with the stunt he pulled in Sen Lin Forest when he attempted to murder me in cold blood.

Tong Xue must have read my mind or at least picked up those thoughts, for he leaned a little closer and dropped his voice to a whisper.

"He"s been getting a lot bolder when he believed that he could get away with murder. After the cover-up, he seems to believe that he"s untouchable."

"Of course," Zhu Jiao grumbled bitterly. "He literally got away with murder."

"I can"t believe the academy didn"t punish him!" Tang Qi Hong hissed furiously, balling her fists.

"…so you all knew that he was the one who attacked me."

"Some of us saw it," Ban Zhang said quietly. "Even Teacher Jiao. But Princ.i.p.al Xiao hushed it up, and we were ordered not to talk about it."

"I heard that the academy was under pressure from the White Tiger Sect," Tong Xue offered.

"Master told me to continue pestering and pet.i.tioning to Princ.i.p.al Xiao," Tang Qi Hong grumbled. "But he threatened to expel me, so she had no choice but to stop. She told me that the White Tiger Sect has great influence on the academy."

"Nonetheless, it doesn"t change the fact that Qi Fu Ren"s behavior is getting worse." Ban Zhang sighed as he slumped his shoulders. "Right now, we"re at a loss at what to do."

"…Uh huh."

"Speaking of which, when do you intend on taking the level 5 test?" Zhu Jiao asked me. I shrugged.

"Not anytime soon."

"Eh? Why? You should take it as soon as possible."

I raised my eyebrow at Tong Xue"s exclamation. "Dude, I almost got my a.s.s kicked by a level 4 test dummy. What do you think will happen if I attempt to challenge a level 5 test dummy?"

Zhu Jiao snorted at that. "Are you trying to be funny? Don"t bother deceiving us. I know you were holding back. You clearly weren"t using your true strength."

"Eh?" Tong Xue turned to stare at him blankly. "How do you know?"

"Do you honestly think Fei Wu would have survived two months in Sen Lin Forest with only that amount of strength?"

"Zhu Jiao has a point there," Ban Zhang admitted with a nod. Tang Qi Hong merely shook her head, having guessed that as well. Tong Xue swiveled his head around and groaned.

"I…never realized that."

I patted him sympathetically, though I was secretly relieved that I was able to hide my true strength so well (Zhu Jiao was an exception, that guy was insane). "Don"t worry. It"s not important. Anyway, there"s no point sticking around here. Let"s go."

The five of us slunk away from the spectator window and began returning to the dormitory. With the official match over, there wasn"t any reason for us to remain. As we walked forward, I was suddenly aware of one of our cla.s.smates coming over.

"Tu Zi Yi?"

The disciple from the Lunar Rabbit Sect nodded and stopped before us. She glanced around nervously, fidgeting, before settling her gaze on me.

"Fei Wu, do you have a moment?"

Tang Qi Hong immediately tensed up and instinctively stepped between us.

"Oi, oi, what is this?" A mischievous grin was spreading over Tong Xue"s face. He looked from Tu Zi Yi to Tang Qi Hong to me, and back again, giggling idiotically.

"It"s not what you think," Tu Zi Yi told him coldly. She glanced at Tang Qi Hong and her eyes softened. "Don"t worry, I just want to ask him a couple of questions."

Tang Qi Hong didn"t relax, but I gently gestured for her to withdraw and sighed, having guessed what this was about.

"You want to ask about my techniques…and why they"re so similar to your sect"s."

Tu Zi Yi"s eyes widened, having been caught off guard by my bluntness. She glanced uncertainly at the other three guys and Tang Qi Hong, but Ban Zhang took the hint. Nodding, he gestured for Zhu Jiao and Tong Xue to leave with him. Tang Qi Hong also read the mood and obediently distanced herself.

"Eh…"

Tong Xue wanted to stick around for a bit longer, but he realized that he wasn"t welcome here. So he reluctantly followed.

"Make sure you tell me about this later!" he called out to me, earning a glare from Tang Qi Hong.

"I already told you that it"s not what you"re thinking!" Tu Zi Yi shouted at him before he disappeared. I shook my head.

"Ignore Tong Xue. He"s just joking. More importantly…" I stared at her seriously. "What is it you want to ask?"

"Isn"t it obvious? If you already know that it"s regarding your techniques, I want to know where you"ve learned them. And how? How did you get access to our Lunar Rabbit Sect"s techniques? Who taught you?"

"First, it seems like you"re misunderstanding something." I held up a hand. "The kicks I"m using are not the same as the kicks from your Lunar Rabbit Sect. they might be similar, but I do not believe they are identical."

"What are you talking about?!" Tu Zi Yi demanded. "No matter how I look at them…"

"Secondly," I cut her off rudely. "I learned these kicks from Lunar Rabbits."

That silenced Tu Zi Yi. She stared at me intensely, as if unable to decide whether I was messing around with her or not.

"I"m not joking," I a.s.sured her. "I really did learn those kicks from Lunar Rabbits." Sighing, I leaned back. "You do know I was trapped in Sen Lin Forest for two months, right? How did you think I survived? By learning and adapting to the demonic creatures and magical beasts living in Sen Lin Forest, of course."

"That"s…"

Tu Zi Yi trailed off. I shrugged.

"Well, I don"t blame you. But I believe your Lunar Rabbit Sect was founded by someone who learned or at least tried to imitate the devastating kicks of a Lunar Rabbit. So it"s only natural that the kicks I learned directly from sparring Lunar Rabbits are very similar to the ones your sect has pa.s.sed down for generations."

"…I see."

Tu Zi Yi sighed, and then turned away.

"I can"t say I completely believe you, but I"ll take your word for it. For now, anyway."

"I"m not lying. It"s up to you if you want to believe me or not, but I"ll tell you now that I didn"t encounter any master in Sen Lin Forest who taught me Lunar Rabbit kicks. They were all really learned from those magical beasts themselves."

Unable to argue, Tu Zi Yi waved me away before she talked off. I watched her leave, and then turned back to catch up with my friends.

*

"So what really happened between you and Tu Zi Yi?"

Tong Xue was hovering behind me, relentlessly asking that same question over and over again. I sighed and shook my head.

"I already told you. Nothing. She thought I learned martial arts techniques from her sect, and I a.s.sured her that I didn"t."

"Is that all? Really?"

I really hated it when Tong Xue teased me like that, so I just shut up and refused to play along with him.

"Stop bothering Fei Wu!" Tang Qi Hong snapped, but I had the feeling she showed up nearby just to eavesdrop on the conversation. She seemed incredibly relieved that nothing had happened, or perhaps I was being overly self-conscious. "If he says it"s about martial arts, then that"s all it is!"

"But hey, I was surprised when you used those kicks against the level 4 test dummy." Tong Xue finally turned serious, partially because he was wilting under Qi Hong"s glare. "They really resembled the kicks that Tu Zi Yi used. It"s only natural that people think you"ve learned her sect"s techniques."

"They"re similar, but they"re not identical."

"Of course someone with an intimate knowledge would know that, but have you forgotten that the students of Wu Ling Academy all come from different sects?"

"No." It wasn"t that I forgot that, but I wasn"t exactly expecting anyone to know anything in detail. But I was too tired to split hairs, so I left it at that.

Unfortunately, I wasn"t given much of a respite. Barely had we finished our conversation when there was a loud crash in the corridor.

"What happened?!"

"Whoa!"

"Let"s go take a look!" Tong Xue shot up from his seat and hurried outside. Despite my exhaustion, my curiosity got the better of me and I followed him, just as eager as everyone else to see what had transpired.

"!"

The moment I stepped outside, I recognized the unmistakable figures of Qi Fu Ren and his two cronies, Hu Shuo and Ba Dao.

That wasn"t all. Against the wall, lying in a heap, was the miserable figure of Luo Bin. Qi Fu Ren stepped on him, preventing him from getting up. Evidently, he was the one who attacked and threw Luo Bin against the wall.

"f.u.c.k you…" Luo Bin spat defiantly, even as Qi Fu Ren ground his head against the floor.

"Huh?" Qi Fu Ren snarled as he shifted more of his body weight to crush Luo Bin. "Did I hear that right? From someone who lost to me? Someone who can"t use his qi?"

"I"ll kill you," Luo Bin growled. "After I recover, I"ll kill you. I don"t care if it takes six months or a year, I"ll definitely…!"

"Hmph." Qi Fu Ren kicked Luo Bin up, slamming the poor guy against the wall. "Big talk from someone who can"t use his qi, especially after losing so pathetically to me yesterday. Perhaps you haven"t learn your lesson yet, human punching bag!"

Raising his lightning fist, he punched Luo Bin, discharging the powerful electricity to electrocute the latter, who was now unable to muster any qi defenses now that his dantian was damaged.

The fist never reached Luo Bin.

Bam!

"Hmm?"

Qi Fu Ren scowled when he saw that I had intercepted his fist, preventing him from landing a blow on Luo Bin. He turned to glare at me.

"Another one who doesn"t know his place."

"Hey!" Tang Qi Hong was rushing forward. "Stop it, you guys!"

I nodded at her and gestured for her to stand back, but she did so only reluctantly. Nonetheless, she was getting ready to intervene if necessary. Fortunately, I didn"t intend to go to blows with Qi Fu Ren. Not yet, anyway.

"Don"t you find it boring to pick on the weak?"

"Pretty rich, coming from a weakling like you."

Yet here I was, able to intercept his Lightning Fist without so much as a scratch or negative reaction. If Qi Fu Ren was intrigued by my resistance, he showed no sign of it. After all, Zhu Jiao had demonstrated previously that it was not impossible to defend against Qi Fu Ren"s signature Lightning Fist attack.

"If you really think I"m weak, then you wouldn"t be afraid to accept my challenge then," I replied with a smile.

"!"

Qi Fu Ren blinked in surprise, not expecting the curveball I threw at him. Behind, his cronies waddled up.

"Of course boss wouldn"t be afraid!"

"He"ll just wipe you across the floor!"

"You"ll regret ever challenging him!"

"Boss will just utterly destroy you, right boss?"

A single glare from Qi Fu Ren silenced his rambling flunkies. Then he slowly turned to regard me, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

"Afraid? I"m more worried that you would never come around to challenging me."

"Well, here I am, challenging you right now." I shrugged nonchalantly as I casually inserted myself between Qi Fu Ren and Luo Bin. "An official match, in front of everybody. A few days from now, on Sat.u.r.day morning. How about it?"

"Hmph. Consider your challenge accepted. In fact, make sure you don"t run away."

With a snort, Qi Fu Ren turned away and waved flippantly. Hu Shuo and Ba Dao hastily followed in his wave, but not before sending venomous looks in my direction.

"Isn"t that too reckless?!" Tang Qi Hong demanded. I shook my head, but before I could answer, someone else popped up.

"Are you seriously challenging Qi Fu Ren?" Tong Xue asked, concerned. As always, he was almost invisible when Qi Fu Ren was fully engaged in the conflict, and conveniently reappeared when the violence was gone. "He"s at level 5 and the fifth level of Qi Essence Stage, you know?!"

"Who cares?" smirking, I pushed my gla.s.ses up my nose as I watched Qi Fu Ren and his posse leave. "Levels aren"t everything, you know."