Chapter 10 – First match of the tournament
Together with Luo Shu, Yao Chen was running as if his life depended on it.However upon closer inspection, Yao Chen’s looked dispirited and his face was pale and pallid.
“Hahaha Yao Chen’s finally arrived.”
After all, Yao Chen was the champion of the school compet.i.tion, and had also refined the VioletFlame pill and would naturally have garnered much attention to himself.However, those that did not recognise Yao Chen had a look of surprise on their faces.
“Eh? This is Yao Chen?”
“This is what the champion of the school compet.i.tion looks like?”
“He looks so sickly… could it be that he was recovering from an injury in the past month?”
“It’s possible.After all, winning the compet.i.tion with just his cultivation level of a nine starred martial pract.i.tioner without paying a price beggars belief.”
“If this is the case…. if i were him, i would not have shown myself today and would have tried to retain an air of mystery that would be beneficial to my future endeavours.”
“That’s true, partic.i.p.ating in the tournament looking like this is simply disgraceful.”
Various sounds could be heard and some words of ridicule were purposefully said loudly for everyone to hear, eliciting mocking laughter from the surroundings. Those that did not intend to mock Yao Chen originally did so after seeing his pitiful appearance; Partic.i.p.ating in the tournament in such a sorry state could be said to be an act of charity.
Yao Chen ignored the sounds of ridicule and mockery. Though he was indeed a little sick and in sub optimal condition, he still was confident about the tournament and though it could not be said that he was perfectly confident about his chances, he was still about seventy to eighty percent sure.
Luo Shu’s cheeks twitched;While what the others have said was indeed harsh, Luo Shu also thought that Yao Chen may have bitten off more than he could chew this time.Going into closed cultivation was a good thing but having had his closed cultivation reduce Yao Chen into such a sorry state left Luo Shu speechless and he could only utter a simple phrase of encouragement.
“Good luck brother Chen, i’m rooting for you.”
Yao Chen smiled faintly and proceeded to walk in the preparation area amidst sounds of mockery from the crowd where there were already over a hundred partic.i.p.ants making their preparations.
Although the school only had eight slots for the tournament, not all families will send their children to the school because only the most fundamental of the basics were taught at the school and the only discernible advantage of the school was the firm basic foundation that its students had.Families with the means would either choose to homeschool their children or hire an expert to personally tutor their children and this sort of private education was naturally superior to the general education provided by the school.
The school was not the only one allocated slots for the tournament as there were other families and branches of the clan that were also allocated slots; The Medicine Clan was ma.s.sive, so much so that no matter how one tries to limit the number of partic.i.p.ants there would still be over a hundred compet.i.tors in the tournament. The number of compet.i.tors was a testament to the Medicine Clan’s strength as every youth competing in the tournament was at least of the Martial Master level….with Yao Chen being the sole exception.However, with the a.s.sistance of his techniques, Yao Chen is able to display strength equivalent to that of a Martial Master and as such, he too can be considered a Martial Master.
As an ancient clan, having strong successors was the key to maintaining their strength and it was only when the past, the present and the future members of the clan were strong will the clan be able to display its might and intimidate its enemies.
Yao Chen walked to a corner and was about to sit down when he heard mocking laughter.
“Yao Chen, seeing the sorry state you’re in, will you pa.s.s out halfway?”
Yao Chen laughed deprecatingly.
“Maybe.”
Zuo Hong Le blinked his eyes in surprised and whispered in Yao Chen’s ears.
“Surely you must know that Yao Feng wants to make an example out of you?”
“Aren’t you afraid that he might make you his target after seeing you talk to me like this?”
Zuo Hong Le rubbed his nose.
“What if i told you that he sent me over to gain information on you?”
“Haha, then i won’t disappoint him for thinking so highly of me.”
“You’ve got guts. Regardless of what happens, i admire you. Good luck.”
“You too.”
“Im curious as to what sort of pill you will be refining. While the VioletFlame pill is good, this is the grand tournament and truth be told, a tier 3 pill just isn’t going to cut it here.”
Even if a miraculous victory could only be pulled off once and could not be repeated, Yao Chen had piqued Zuo Hong Le’s interest because when he looks at Yao Chen’s sickly face he had a gut feeling that Yao Chen was about to cause an uproar again; Zuo Hong Le has always had great faith in his gut feelings because they came true most of the time.
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
The self confidence readily apparent on Yao Chen’s face made Zuo Hong Le even more confused because no matter how one looks at Yao Chen, his current condition was extremely poor and he was obviously in no shape to compete.
Right at this moment, the patriarch Yao Dan stood up on the elders platform and after saying the customary words of praise and encouragement to the youths, made a display of his authority before sitting down once more and handing over to the elder Yao Wan Huo so that he may proceed with the tournament.
Yao Wan Huo’s fiery gaze swept across every compet.i.tor , his stern voice ringing out.
“All of you are the hope and future of the clan and i hope that you will all do your utmost………i also have a piece of good news for all of you, the champion of the tournament will have to chance to become the disciple of the patriarch and furthermore, you will also be allowed to have your pick of an earth cla.s.s martial technique from the clan’s treasury.”
The surroundings crowd erupted into cheers.
Every time the tournament was held, there would be an additional reward that serves as an incentive and in the past, the rewards were an exquisite weapon in addition to a Xuan cla.s.s technique and in comparison to the past, the rewards this time round were more than enough to drive the crowd into a frenzy.
Putting the Earth cla.s.s technique aside,the opportunity to become the patriarch’s disciple was what drove the crowd into an excited frenzy.
Regardless of whether it was Dou Qi or pill refining, the patriarch Yao Dan was the strongest in the clan and his only disciple to date was the grand elder Yao Wan Huo.Rumour had it that Yao Wan Huo was only a youth of above average potential before he became the patriarch’s disciple, and under the personal tutelage of the patriarch underwent a transcendent growth spurt and was able to crush every genius of his generation in just a year before becoming the grand elder of the clan, an unparalleled existence that was at the level of martial saint.
It could be said that so long as one becomes a disciple of the patriarch, even if he could not become the next Yao Wan Huo, he would still enjoy an extremely high status as the junior apprentice brother of the grand elder and would definitely become one of the clan’s core elders.The status of a core elder was incomparably high and could not be compared to elders of the school such as Yao Lan or elders that were in charge of the clan’s external affairs.
However, all these were of secondary importance as the thing that drove people into a frenzy was Yao Dan’s ability to turn trash into treasure;So long as one wasn’t a natural born talentless idiot, he would definitely be able to become a martial saint.
The eyes of all the youths in the preparation zone burned with a blazing fighting spirit and Yao Chen’s sickly pale face flushed red with excitement upon hearing of the rewards.The smile that was present on Yao Tong’s face vanished as he looked towards Yao Feng’s direction.Even after sensing Yao Tong’s gaze, Yao Feng smiling expression remained unchanged, after all, while it was good to have fighting spirit, it would all be for naught in the end.
One’s ability was dependant on his strength and last minute preparations were unable to change anything.
The Earth cla.s.s technique and the seat of Yao Dan’s disciple all belonged to Yao Feng; He had already known about the rewards in advance because not only was his elder brother the head of the clan’s disciplinary department, his father was the second elder of the clan with a status that was comparable to the grand elder, and was responsible for the clan’s dealings with the various powers and clans of the outside world.This was a position of immense influence and as such, there was nothing much that Yao Feng would not be privy to.
Yao Feng felt that the patriarch accepting a disciple this time was due to the patriarch taking a liking to Yao Feng’s apt.i.tude and talent, after all, who else could compare to him amongst the clan’s youth? Yao Tong was not his match, much less Yao Chen.
Though the other families did have talented youths, there were all about the same level as Yao Tong and would not be able to pose much of a threat to him. His father had told him that the grand elder was the most impartial person in the clan and the person who trained the grand elder was the patriarch Yao Dan, who was a G.o.dlike figure in his father’s eyes.
Yao Chen had heard of such stories every since he was young, if he could become a disciple of the patriarch, even if it was only a disciple in name….
It didn’t even have to be the patriarch,even being a disciple of the grand elder would be more than he could ever wish for and his father would be smiling in his grave.
“Put all your abilities on display and show your clansmen the proof of your strength, right here and now this stage belongs to all of you!”
Following the grand elder’s announcement, roaring sounds rang out and flames could be seen soaring into the sky as fireworks visible even in the bright sky exploded, signifying the start of the tournament.
In the preparation area, over a hundred youths stood ramrod straight as they lined up orderly and , guided by the guards, walked into the refining arena.
Yao Chen too, had a solemn expression on his face as this was a hallowed moment for everyone in the clan, himself included.
The opening battle was also a ceremonial battle that decided the top eight of the tournament. In this battle, one’s opponent were people that were every bit as outstanding as you, if not even more so, any of which could enter the top eight and be recognised as the true elites of the clan and be marked as someone worth cultivating and while the others would also have some of the clan’s resources allocated for their cultivation, the difference between them and those who were recognised as true elites is akin to the difference between heaven and earth.
Yao Chen found his designated spot, located near the corner, which had a table containing a spatial ring and a card bearing his name.Just as he reached his table, a loud sound was heard as the formation array sealing off the refining arena activated and a pillar of light spread out across the arena, signifying the true start of the tournament.
Everyone immediately burst into a flurry of activity and Yao Chen was no exception as he picked up the spatial ring and sent a stream of his spiritual sense into it, taking a measure of the materials stored in the ring in a matter of seconds.
The vast majority of the items stored in the ring were common materials with some rare materials included however, because the rare materials were given in small quant.i.ties, they could not be used as the main ingredient for refining a pill and could only be used as a supplement.Yao Chen took a deep breath, if he were to refine a pill using the materials given in the ring, he would only be able to refine an ordinary high grade pill. While such a pill would cause a huge uproar in the outside world, this was the Medicine Clan’s grand tournament and the idea that such a pill could be used to compete against over a hundred of the clan’s elite youths was a fool’s dream.
Yao Chen raised his head, took a look at his surroundings and saw numerous people that had already started lighting their cauldrons and took out rare and exquisite materials that they had already prepared beforehand, obviously intending to give it all they’ve got.
Yao Chen’s brow creased, if he were to use the materials that he had painstakingly prepared in advance, what would he use in the finals?An ordinary branch family was different than families from the main line of descent as simply gathering the materials required for refining a special pill just once would require several years worth of effort and only branch families that had a certain amount of influence in the clan would be able to acquire more.
Yao Chen did not even have enough materials to refine a special pill even once and the only materials available to him were those provided by the clan. Outside the sealing formation were Luo Shu and his family who were currently squinting their eyes;Luo Bing looked at his disappointment of a son helplessly.
“What’s wrong with Yao Chen? Did you see your aunt Qing?”
Whether or not one could pa.s.s the preliminaries and enter the top eight was unimportant as what was truly important with regards to one’s future was displaying one’s talent and abilities.After all, with talent, ability and the prestige of the tournament, one need not worry about gaining the support of the clan for their future endeavours.
Anyone whose innate talent was satisfactory and was able to gain the support of the clan would have a limitless future ahead of them and in Luo Bing’s opinion, this was exactly what Yao Chen should be aiming for.As for becoming the champion of the tournament and inscribing his name onto the ancestral stele, it was better to leave such fanciful dreams alone.
Luo Shu scratched his head.
“I’m not sure, when i went over, aunt Qing was nowhere to be seen and brother Chen had just come out of closed cultivation…could he have possibly overtrained himself?”
Luo Bing shooked his head, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng as if he knew the whereabouts of Yao Qing, though he was unwilling to say more in the presence of his two sons.
*BOOM*
Suddenly, the formation array sealing off the refining arena emitted a strange sound;While the sound was not transmitted into the refining arena, it caused a huge uproar outside the formation.
“Heavenly flame! The Nine Nether Gale Flame!!”
The faces of the audience members from various great powers changed.
Yan Xiao, the elder of the Flame clan narrowed his gaze as he questioned the disciple responsible for intelligence beside him.
“Who is he?”
The Flame clan, which specialised in the use of flames and had three heavenly flames within their clan were extremely sensitive to the happenings of the Medicine Clan.There were two heavenly flames within the Medicine clan, the Nine Nether Gale Flame and the Earthen Turtle Spirit Flame.The only ones capable of being a match for the Flame Clan in the use of flames was the Medicine clan, and both clans have had multiple conflicts because of the heavenly flames each side possessed.
“Brother.”
“Elder, his name is Yao Feng, seventeen this year, a lineal descendent of the clan and the younger brother of the head of the disciplinary department Yao Wan Gui.”
“Eh? Yao Wan Gui’s younger brother?Seventeen years old and already able to control the heavenly flame…. no that’s wrong, he isn’t able to control the Nine Nether Gale Flame but is merely making use of pills to borrow the power of the flame.”
The Flame clan were the best at manipulating flames and Yao Xiao was able to discern the truth behind Yao Feng’s usage of the heavenly flame after a mere glance.Though Yao Feng was merely borrowing the power of the flame and his usage of the Nine Nether Gale Flame was insufficient to kill enemies in combat, it would be more than sufficient for pill refining. Furthermore,the reason why Yao Feng was able to manipulate the flames for pill refining even though his Dou Qi’s strength was insufficient was also because he was merely borrowing the power of the flame.
Yan Xiao couldn’t care less about who won the tournament and as long as he was able to get some pills from the Medicine clan he didn’t care much about the happenings of the Medicine clan.However,now that the Medicine clan had methods that allowed a seventeen year old brat to directly borrow the powers of a heavenly flame….
Yan Xiao’s gaze intensified as he looked at Yao Feng.
*Whoosh*
Yao Feng’s arms emitted a loud sound akin to that of a raging gale as two streams of the NIne Nether Gale Flame shot out of his palms into his cauldron.The flames leapt energetically as they revolved around his cauldron and emitted a strange whirring sound that wasn’t loud but yet managed to strangely enter the ears of the crowd, causing them to feel vexed.
Yao Chen had just started circulating his TriFlower Flame Concentrating method to ignite the cauldron when the sounds emitted from the Nine Nether Gale Flame entered his ears, and a feeling of vexation rose unbidden in his heart, nearly causing him to lose control of his flame.
“The Nine Nether Gale Flame!!”
The fact that the clan possessed two heavenly flames was an open secret but even so, the heavenly flames could not be subdued by just anyone. The heavenly flames were sentient and they each had their own temperaments and the Nine Nether Gale Flame originated from the extreme yin of the abyss and had agglomerated into a gale of extreme yin that evolved a sentient consciousness after countless years of devouring souls and absorbing yin energy, and was incredibly tough to subdue due to it’s inherent nature.
And yet, someone who was able to use the Nine Nether Gale Flame had appeared in the tournament! This caused numerous compet.i.tors who were originally burning with fighting spirit to lose their confidence, after all this was the Nine Nether Gale Flame, what did they have that could be used to compete against it?
Heavenly flames were a mystical item for alchemists because every alchemist that possessed a heavenly flame was, without an exception, a legendary figure in the alchemic world whose exploits would spread far and wide.
Yao Chen’s psyche was shaken as a voice kept whispering in his ear and a sudden bout of depression descended upon him and an inexplicable urge to give up welled up within him.All his meticulous preparations were for naught, after all, his opponent had a heavenly flame and was thus invincible as he had nothing that he could use to compete and furthermore, his goal was….
Suddenly, Yao Chen awoke from his trance! Giving up?!
He actually thought about giving up!
Yao Chen’s heart lurched; The tournament was his obsession and also his only chance of inscribing his name upon the ancestral clan stele, he would rather die than surrender in the tournament!
Huge droplets of sweat the size of beans sprouted from Yao Chen’s face and slowly rolled down along his cheeks.He had nearly fallen prey to the Nine Nether Gale Flame’s insidious trap! The Nine Nether Gale Flame is a flame that uses sound to directly attack a person’s heart and all those who listened to its insidious voice would be affected by things ranging from nausea to self destructive depression. Yao Chen collected himself and forcefully circulated his spiritual force,ignoring the insidious whispers of the Nine Nether Gale Flame as he kept repeating his convictions to himself, strengthening them.
“Win….I want to win….I have to win…I MUST WIN!!!”
*BOOM*
Samadhi flames erupted from the bottom of his cauldron as Yao Chen took a deep breath and picked up the spatial ring, circulated his Dou Qi and took out two identical materials from the ring before enveloping them in his Dou Qi and placing them into the cauldron.By using his spiritual sense in conjunction with his Dou Qi, Yao Chen was able to sense any and all changes that the materials underwent under the Samadhi flame’s refining.Driven by Yao Chen’s Dou Qi, the Bone Refining Stone, Paramita Worm and all sorts of materials underwent changes as they merged with the Samadhi flames and slowly, Yao Chen began to a.s.similate his consciousness as well.Currently, Yao Chen was akin to a lord with dominion over everything in the cauldron and with his spirit as the guide and his Dou Qi as the driving force, was controlling the entire process of a.s.similation.
On the elders platform, the grand elder Yao Wan Huo swept his gaze across the arena,gazing at the compet.i.tors who were the future of the clan.The corners of his mouths curled upwards into a smile when he saw Yao Feng manipulating the Nine Nether Gale Flame; Even though Yao Feng was merely borrowing the power of the flame, the fact that he was able to gain the recognition of the flame’s consciousness meant that there was a possibility of him actually controlling the flame in the future.
Yao Wan Huo’s gaze slowly fell onto Yao Tong.Though Yao Tong was a member of a branch family, his father held influence within the clan as the head of a family of soldiers and has earned significant credit over the years.The grand elder knew of Yao Tong’s hidden potential even if other didn’t though currently, under the influence of the Nine Nether Gale Flame, Yao Tong was unable to display his abilities fully and his flame used for refining was flickering unsteadily.
To be fair, Yao Tong wasn’t the only one who was affected as practically everyone in the refining arena was also affected by the Nine Nether Gale Flame with those closest to Yao Feng being affected the most heavily.However, they were all elites and after a short period of time, they were all able to collect themselves and continue their refining though they clearly had less drive and spirit compared to how they were before and as such, the quality of the pills they refined would suffer as a result.
It seemed as if the lineal descendants would be the champions once again unless….
Suddenly, Yao Wan Huo’s gaze intensified as they fell upon Yao Chen as a look of doubt appeared in his eyes.
“Strange..”
A thing middle aged man was walking by from the side when he heard Yao Wan Huo remark and replied smilingly.
“What’s wrong grand elder?”
Yao Wan Huo turned around and smiled.
“Nothing is wrong elder Wan Huang, i just felt that something is a little off with this kid.”
Yao Wan Huo replied as he raised his hand and pointed at Yao Chen.
The middle aged man had elongated facial features, a beak of a nose and had a sinister look to him.Yan Wan Gui , the head of the clan’s disciplinary department who was the second elder of the clan with a status akin to that of the grand elder was his eldest son while Yao Feng, who possessed the Nine Nether Gale Flame and was currently competing was his second son.
“Yao Chen?Surely the grand elder does not think that he has entered into a pill refining trance?”
Yao Wan Huang’s eyes swept across Yao Chen and the corners of his mouth curled into a cold smile.
“I’ve heard of this kid, he’s the champion of the school compet.i.tion and the source of gossip lately though the gist of it is always the same; Yao Tong was careless and Yao Chen was lucky, after all, his ancestors were capable people and that was why he is able to get to where he is today because otherwise, he would never have succeeded because he is only a one starred Martial Master.”
“He’s cultivating with the TriFlower Flame Concentrating method and judging by the rate of his progression, he should never have been able to break through to the Martial Master realm by the age of twenty regardless of what he does because the TriFlower Flame Concentrating method that he is using skips the process of consolidating a foundation in its initial phases and as such, the Dou Qi criterion for breaking through into the Martial Master realm can only be fulfilled by waiting.”
With what he wanted to say spoken, Yao Wan Huo’s gaze fell upon Yao Chen once more with his eyes slightly narrowed and holding a hint of antic.i.p.ation.
Seeing that look of of antic.i.p.ation caused Yao Wan Huang caused his expression to change slightly.He looked at Yao Chen seriously and he furrowed his sharp brows.
“It seems like a person who has exceeded the realm of the TriFlower Flame Concentrating method has appeared.”