Path Of The Lilies

"As I had expected, they"re searching for you," Qi Huan remarked as he looked at Ye Jiao. This time, Ye Jiao just visited him in his room and didn"t include Lu Wan because that boy was busy.

Ye Jiao looked at Qi Huan. "It"s not intentional, alright?"

"In any case, it"s their retribution for trying to take advantage of you," Qi Huan crossed his arm as he had an amiable smile on his lips. "Normally speaking, these fruits can get over the market price because of their size and Natural Eon Energy that it contains. However, they"re trying to push the price down into only 90 silvers or so."

"Didn"t they only plan on selling it at the price of 1 gold?" Ye Jiao tilted her head in wonder.

"There"s no way they would want to do that. They"ll surely realize the value and try to hike it up until it"s 1 gold and 10 silvers or even more. Though, their attempt will be futile because the children soon realize that a lot of stores sell them. They"ll just boycott it and don"t want to buy it if they don"t lower the price," Qi Huan pointed outside. "These children are not idiots."

Many of them came from renowned families, so their elders would surely think of this way. If it was only a store selling them, it would be hard to push the price down. But since there were several stores, it was absolutely possible.

"It"s fine. I"m already satisfied with the amount…"

"You shouldn"t be like that. If you can earn more, you should strive for more. Don"t let other people take advantage of you," Qi Huan stood up. "Anyway, it"ll be better if you start to train again. Consuming a few of the Natural Essence Fruit might be able to help you."

"Got it, thanks Senior Brother Qi."

Qi Huan waved his hand. "Now you should leave. My men are going to return back."

"Ok."

Ye Jiao slipped out of the room and headed to her own. Since she was uneasy after seeing a lot of people who seemed to search for a small rich lad, she visited his room. Thankfully, Qi Huan had sent his men away to search for something or she wouldn"t be able to meet with that man peacefully.

As soon as she returned back, Ye Jiao took out the Natural Essence Fruit and ate it. The warmth from the fruit was much bigger than before as Ye Jiao could sense the impurities coming out.

Soon afterwards, the room became smelly because of her.

"I guess I"ll just eat this in the bathroom…"

Just like that, the day pa.s.sed while Ye Jiao continued to practice her circulation of Eon Energy and used the Natural Essence Fruit to get rid of the impurities afterwards.

The next day, Ye Jiao headed to the arena and watched from the sidelines. She blended in the crowd and watched as the students took a lot.

"First battle: Cao Ren vs Bai Xiang!"

Woah!

The surrounding people cheered up when they heard the name. It was not a secret that the two of them were the representatives of their respective kingdoms. Because of that, the crowd was yelling even louder.

"It"ll be a good chance to watch the fight," Qi Huan chuckled and retreated to the side. This time, he didn"t return back to his VIP room because his fight was right next after this. He just conveniently picked a place in the stand near Ye Jiao.

"Yeah, both of them are powerful."

"Not just powerful," Qi Huan"s eyes flashed for a moment. "You"ll understand when you see their fight."

"Begin!"

As the teacher said that, the two of them took out their weapon. Bai Xiang held a long and large halberd while Cao Ren held a long and thin sword. In the next second, the two of them rushed forward as if they were already impatient to fight.

Their weapon was moving towards each other as they crashed in the middle.

Clang!

Sound of metal clas.h.i.+ng filled the arena. The two of them retracted their weapon and continuously attacked each other. Cao Ren"s sword kept on trying to find the gap in fast strike and wonderful swordsmans.h.i.+p while Bai Xiang was defending with his large halberd.

"Defending?" Ye Jiao was stunned when she watched their bouts. She had seen their fight before, but they ended theirs in mere seconds. With the fight ended that early, there was no way anyone could find out their fighting skill so quickly.

"It"s weird isn"t it?"

"Yeah, it is," Ye Jiao nodded in agreement. "People who use a halberd usually use it to attack and not defend. Its size and the various blades at the edge is unsuitable to keep on defending."

Even though it was not impossible, the degree of Bai Xiang"s defense was simply insane. It was as if he had lived his life to learn how to defend and didn"t attack at all.

Qi Huan nodded. "It"s true, but his strong defense is the reason why he"s selected as the representative from our kingdom. In the fight he had with other geniuses, he thoroughly crushed them and drained their stamina with his insane defense."

"How about you, Prince Qi?"

"Me? Of course, I won," Qi Huan replied confidently. His eyes were locked on the arena as the two continued their bouts. "But you see, I have the feeling that he"s not fighting with all he got."

"Huh?"

Clang! Swis.h.!.+

Cao Ren"s sword was placed in front of Bai Xiang"s neck. He had an amiable smile on his lips as he uttered his words one by one. "You lost."

"You win," Bai Xiang readily accepted his loss. "It"s a good fight."

"Yeah, you still have that insane defense," Cao Ren remarked. He was teaming up with Bai Xiang in the hunt, so he had already seen his fighting skill. It was not remarkable, but the defense was extremely strong that he found it hard to break.

"Thank you for your compliment."

"It"s nothing, I"m glad that I have seen your fighting skill before or I won"t be able to defeat you today."

Unlike Lu Wan"s fight that ended up with hostility, the two of them readily accepted the result. On Ye Jiao"s side, Qi Huan sighed. "That"s what arena battle are supposed to be like. It"s not a place for hostility."

"It"s not going to be possible to ask them to be friendly."

"Indeed. It"s my turn, so see you little girl."

"Next battle: Qi Huan facing against Wei Yin."

Ye Jiao still watched the fight from the seat as she saw Qi Huan swiftly defeated Wei Yin. Even though that woman was stronger than Wei Cheng, it didn"t take a long time for Qi Huan to defeat her. It seemed that Qi Huan"s strength was already far above the younger generation of the Wei Family.

"Doesn"t it mean I can start attacking them?" Ye Jiao thought about it for a moment, but she decided against it. If she tried to attack them head on, she would be the one to lose because Wei Shang was already Eon Energy Master rank 4. Trying to fight him when she has just reached rank 2 was the same as suicide.

The battle continues swiftly and soon they already have the top 8. Ye Jiao noticed that Mu Xin lost in the top 16 battle along with many others. After the top 8 was determined, they fought against one another once again to get the top 4.

After fiercer round of battle, they got the name for the top 4: Qi Huan, Chen Zi Quan, Cao Ren, and Lu Wan.