Three teenagers clawed their way through the crowd and slowly made their way to the front.
Bi Fan was glaring at these three, already angry with their interference.
He just wanted to procure a pet belt. He hadn’t thought that something as minor as this would spur any trouble; well, bad luck.
“I will only exchange this Yin Yang pouch for a pet belt. My product is not available for sale.” Bi Fan said loudly, sounding a little harsh to be honest.
The boy at the front of the group was rather handsome and very smart in appearance. He was coldly looking at Bi Fan, quietly sizing him up.
“Are you the bully who troubled my junior Jiang Sheng?”
Things suddenly become very clear to Bi Fan; unequivocally clear. These people were a.s.sociated with the ‘rising sun’ school, so they obviously would have been searching for him.
However, he really didn’t care. At present, they were all inside Xi Guan, where fighting was banned. So, it really didn’t matter which school they belonged to, they wouldn’t be able to touch him.
“Who is Jiang Sheng? Please don’t interfere in my business.” Bi Fan coldly replied.
“Well, you do fit the description. This is ‘rising sun’s’ private matter, people who have nothing to do with this, may leave. ” The youngster announced, as a sardonic smile creeped across his handsome face.
Bi Fan spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear: “It is prohibited to start a fight inside Xi Guan. If you create trouble, then I will report this to the authorities.”
That handsome youngster realized that Bi Fan was indeed right, and fighting inside Xi Guan was prohibited. So now, he would be forced to give up the idea of straightening Bi Fan out right now.
“Boy, you’ve picked a fight with ‘rising sun’ students, you’re doomed to die!”
“Well, about that, is ‘rising sun’, the best school in the world? What are you guys so arrogant about?” Bi Fan sneered.
A lot of people disliked the ‘rising sun’ school, mainly because of the arrogant behavior of their students.
However, students from smaller school usually bore this resentment in silence, as they simply couldn’t dare to provoke any trouble with the ‘rising sun’ school.
“’Rising sun’ may not be the world biggest school, but it’s big enough to crush you.” The handsome youngster laughed.
Suddenly someone interrupted their verbal duel, in a very cold voice: “’rising sun’ is the best school in the world? Ah, well, I certainly learned something new today!”
The man who had interrupted seemed extremely strong; he stood over two meter in height; his physique looked formidable and his eyes, sharp.
“I think that’s the eastern Blue Dragon! He’s a new face belonging to the eastern aristocracy, he’s insanely strong, and he made a huge impact at the Jiu Yu list tournament.”
“They say that the eastern Blue Dragon despises the ways of tyranny. Could he be here to help this guy out?”
“Who knows, we can’t be sure of it.”
Bi Fan turned towards the eastern Blue Dragon with a look of grat.i.tude and said: “Thank you brother, for boldly speaking in favor of justice!”
“Don’t thank me, I just could never understand why some people rely on the strengths of their fists to get their way in this world and bully others. Or even worse, rely on the strength of their backers and deface them as well.” The eastern Blue Dragon sounded very impressive.
The three ‘rising sun’ disciples were going green with anger but they couldn’t dare to mess with the eastern Blue Dragon and Bi Fan, at the same time.
Firstly, the eastern aristocracy was slightly stronger than the ‘rising sun’ school and secondly, they had no beef with the Blue Dragon, nor were they interested in igniting one.
So, they swallowed their anger, suffering in silence, and decided to take it out on Bi Fan later on.
“Well, in that case boy, I’d like to challenge you to a duel, would you dare to accept my challenge?” the handsome boy challenged Bi Fan in a very loud voice.
Xi Guan prohibits unorganized fighting, but an arranged duel, where both parties have agreed to fight against each other, is allowed.
Bi Fan didn’t respond, he just wanted to purchase a pet belt and then quickly re-enter the devil’s territory to search for the Marten and the Chimera.
“The boy’s a coward ah! I will continue to bully you forever.” That good looking youngster teased him loudly enough for everyone to hear it.
“Yes, well, we Quinyang students are so weak that you guys can bully us all, huh?”
That voice was really familiar to Bi Fan and he instantly recognized it; he turned around to greet Jing Feng.
“Woah! That’s Jing Feng from Quinyang, he ranked third in the Jiu Yu list!”
This scene was getting more and more attention, as a lot of people had recognized Jing Feng; and they were beginning to discuss him.
“Jing Feng, they say, is almost as strong as Jiang Wen. The last time they dueled, Jiang Wen barely edged past him!”
“Oh! The kid who was looking for a pet belt appears to be from one of the Quinyang Schools; no wonder he wasn’t afraid of these ‘rising sun’ students.”
“Jing Feng, brother, what are you doing here?” Bi Fan asked, pleasantly surprised to see his friend.
Jing Feng laughed: “I heard that there was an anomaly involving evil spirits inside the devil’s territory, so I came here to explore the area for myself. You came here for your compulsory one month conditioning, right?”
“Yes, the conditioning is over, but then I lost Greedy towards the end of my time in there, so now I need to enter the territory again to find him.” Bi Fan explained.
The two of them were chatting without bothering themselves with their surroundings and were completely ignoring those three ‘rising sun’ disciples.
The three of them knew what Jing Feng was capable of, so they didn’t interrupt, as they were afraid of provoking Jing Feng.
If Jing Feng lost his cool, then he could kill them off in no time. Jing Feng was a very powerful and ferocious fighter and it would be foolish to fall for his carefree and casual att.i.tude.
“Great, then we shall go in together afterwards. I too want to enter the territory to inspect this anomaly.”
“Of course, my friend.”
“Bi Fan, why don’t you first teach these three flies a lesson huh? They are quite annoying.” Jing Feng could make out that Bi Fan’s strength had increased a lot and was confident that he could beat the three of them.
Bi Fan merely shook his head as he replied: “I just wanted to quickly get hold of a pet belt, so I can go back into the devil’s territory and look for Greedy. I didn’t except that this would turn into such a big disaster.”
“Pet belt.. well I have one. Why don’t you go and teach these boys a lesson and when you return victorious, you can have the pet belt.” Jing Feng looked coldly at those ‘rising sun’ students; especially the handsome one.
Jing Feng had taken an instant dislike to that boy, probably because he was quite handsome and not on the same side as him.
“Really? That’s all? Well, that’s not going to be a problem at all.” Bi Fan was really surprised.
He looked at the handsome youngster and said: “So, where were we? Oh right…. I accept your challenge! ”
He looked at the handsome youngster: “So, where were we? Oh right…. I accept your challenge! ”
Bi Fan completely ignored the furious looks on the face of that ‘rising sun’ student, as his face turned ashen: “I’m Gu Feng from the ‘rising sun’ and you’re going to regret this a little later.”
Gu Feng was in the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer and unlike Jing Feng, had been fooled by Bi Fan’s ‘brave’ layer appearance, which is why he had dared to challenge Bi Fan.
“Oh well, a little later might not turn out so well for you.” Bi Fan smiled.
A lot of people had gathered around them, and they all started making their way towards the town’s arena.
Along the way, a lot of people got inquisitive about this gathering and started to join the people who were on their way to watch this match.
Jing Feng closed in and whispered in Bi Fan’s ears: “Bi Fan, once it starts, don’t show him any mercy. Use all you’ve got, hit hard, break him to pieces, and I’ll make sure that you don’t get into trouble over this later; just don’t kill the guy.”
“Understood. I’ll teach him a lesson, a very nice lesson. I’ll make sure he never forgets this, anyway, I’ve already managed to offend some very powerful people inside the ‘rising sun’ school, so I’m not really worried about adding a few more to that list.” Bi Fan replied.
They reached the arena complex soon. Bi Fan and Gu Feng had been followed by several hundreds in number. And as the word spread, more and more people were beginning to join this huge crowd.
This was quite unusual, but since a lot of people had entered Xi Guan, intending to go into the devil’s territory to explore the situation, Xi Guan was a lot more populous at the moment, and hence this feud had managed to attract such a huge audience.
Bi Fan and Gu Feng glared at each other, as they made their way to the ring.
By the time they climbed into the ring, a referee was already present there.
“Are you ready? Ready, then let’s start!”
The fight started, and Bi Fan didn’t pull out any weapon, as he had decided to use his fists to face his opponent.
Since Bi Fan hadn’t pulled out a weapon, Gu Feng felt rather embarra.s.sed to pull one out himself, and contended to use his fists as well, same as Bi Fan.
“Boom!” Their punches collided. Bi Fan went back a few steps whereas Gu Feng’s upper body was only shaken up a bit, momentarily.
Bi Fan was only attacking tentatively; he hadn’t really used his real strength in that attack.
“That’s right!” Gu Feng raised his hand high up in the air, already considering himself the winner.
Gu Feng launched a quick attack, casting out ‘monkey fist’ technique; fast, flexible and agile.
Bi Fan didn’t react in a similar fashion. He cast out Wan Zu fist, but didn’t move from his position, sincerely playing with his opponent; he managed to block the Gu Feng’s attacks with ease.
“You couldn’t even breach my defenses, come on, I’m sure you’re better than that!” Bi Fan teased his opponent in a very loud voice.
This made Gu Feng furious, he started attacking Bi Fan in a frenzied fashion. Bi Fan on the other hand, didn’t seem to pay any attention to him, remained calm and composed, and easily managed to block off all of Gu Feng’s attacks.
“This Bi Fan from Quinyang is really powerful, but he’s only using a very basic boxing technique. Although what’s really amazing is that, he is so good at it, that he’s able to use it to match a technique like the ‘monkey fist’.”
“Gu Feng is really strong, he has even managed to break into the ‘spiritual intelligence’ layer. ‘Rising sun’ has managed to recruit an excellent crop of young talented kids in these last few years.”
“Make a guess, Gu Feng or Bi Fan, whose going to win this in the end?”
“I bet on Gu Feng, he’s stronger, he’s in a higher layer.”
“I bet on Gu Feng’s victory.”
Out of those who had turned up to watch the match, someone had even managed to open up a gambling booth, and most of the people were betting on Gu Feng.
“I bet five thousand spars, I bet on Bi Fan’s victory!” Jing Feng had actually decided to place a bet himself, and was willing to bet so steeply in Bi Fan’s favor.
Five thousand spars is a very large sum of money for a student, and were probably all Jing Feng had in his possession.
The people, who witnessed this daring gamble, were startled. Bi Fan’s chances of winning were set at one is to three, which meant that if Bi Fan did emerge victorious, then, Jing Feng would stand to receive fifteen thousand spars as winnings.
That’s a fairly large sum of money, and even ‘emerging from the womb’ layer students didn’t have so much money, unless they were being backed by some very wealthy supporters.
Bi Fan and Gu Feng were involved in a very fast pace fight, and hundreds of people had gathered to enjoy the contest. Several had placed their bets, and now, were cheering for their man.
“Bi Fan, I thought you were in a hurry to enter the devil’s territory. Well, then get to it, finish this off quickly!” Jing Feng cheered loudly.
A lot of people had been surprised to see that Bi Fan was capable of matching Gu Feng. Now, they were even more surprised to find out, that Jing Feng was so optimistically backing Bi Fan to win this fight.
“Can Bi Fan really win this? Is it really possible?”
Many people were beginning to question their previous judgement. Especially the ones who had bet their money on Gu Feng, were beginning to get a bit worried now.
The eastern Blue Dragon hadn’t placed any bets, and continued to watch the match. His empty, fleeting eyes, were twinkling, as if he could see through Bi Fan’s intentions.
“Bi Fan of Quinyang, sooner or later, you’re going to have to use your real strength. I didn’t know that there was another man here, who had such an amazing skill set.”
The eastern Blue Dragon had said this out loud, in a rather excited frame of mind, and had almost jumping up. The people watching the match, who were seated close to him, quickly retreated a few steps and didn’t dare to return to their previous positions.
Jing Feng looked at the eastern Blue Dragon, and then, shouted praise for Bi Fan: “Excellent power, energy and technique! How long do you plan on toying with this n.o.body?!”
As soon as Bi Fan heard Jing Feng’s words, he decided that it was time to quickly finish this fight, once and for all.
He applied his physical strength as well, along with his inner energy in support. Bi Fan’s total strength was close to fourteen Yun Shi, which meant that he was strong enough to be at the peak of ‘enormous strength’ layer.
He cast out the most basic of techniques, Wan Zu fist. Nevertheless, with such amazing power, it seemed to be sufficient.
“Boom! Boom!….”
A series of attacks, forced Gu Feng to fall back, again and again. Bi Fan was too powerful for him, and even though Bi Fan was in a lower layer than Gu Feng, he was simply rendered powerless.
“Go on!” Bi Fan struck again, another punch, and this time, sent Gu Feng tumbling across the ring.
Gu Feng had been thrown around, disgraced, and maddened with rage.
The Rising Sun!
Gu Feng pulled out a top grade weapon and decided to use it even if Bi Fan wasn’t using one. He pointed it straight at Bi Fan’s punch, ready to stab his fist.
Bi Fan’s fist and Gu Feng’s sword were approaching each other with a very strong momentum, stopping, at this point, wasn’t going to be easy.
“Horrible!” The eastern Blue Dragon looked tense, “This ‘rising sun’ student is despicable.”
“Bi Fan is going to lose.”
“That sword is going to tear off his arm. That ‘rising sun’ student is so fierce, ah!”
Jing Feng wasn’t nervous at all, and he continued to wave his fan; even managed a sly smile on his face, for he had personally witnessed Bi Fan’s tour-de-force.
He muttered to himself: “This ‘rising sun’ student is having a very bad day; Bi Fan has a tendency of springing surprises.”