Chapter 364 Dragon Warrior Tournament (Part-1)
*Thud*
Xie Zhong flew out of the ring and crashed onto the ground. However, he didn't wake up and lay there motionlessly, causing a great panic among the disciples of the sect.
The proctor hurriedly went to him and checked his condition. "He is not dead." He sighed in relief upon finding that the sect's Patriarch was just knocked out.
"Don't worry." A voice was heard from his behind and he glanced at Lan Ju. The latter continued while walking calmly toward them, "I just struck his chin, which affected his brain, leading to that state. He will be alright within a couple of minutes."
The Elder then rose to his feet and took a deep bow in fear and respect to this Supreme Being who ended the spar in two moves after defending himself from Xie Zhong's barrage of sword attacks for a couple of minutes. "Thank you for the demonstration."
"No problem." Lan Ju waved his hand, "if there's nothing else, I'll be going back to my seat then." He flew toward the VIP section and landed beside Song Yue, calmly taking his seat as if the earlier spar isn't a big deal.
However, for the spectators, it was something else entirely.
They didn't feel like they have watched a spar between two Supreme Beings. Instead, it was like some inner sect disciple sparring against an elder.
From the start to finish, Lan Ju was in control of the flow of the battle.
And when he realized that he had played enough, he cut down Xie Zhong's energy sword with his energy sword and then gave a powerful uppercut to his opponent's chin, ending the match.
Now, this spar increased the attention Mark received from everyone. He could feel gazes from all sides but stayed calm and kept his eyes on the field as the proctor announced the start of the battles.
"First match: Lu Wan of Star sect vs Jia Yong of Xianshu sect."
Lu Wan is a 5-circle realm Spirit Warrior and Jia Yong is a 6-circle realm expert. The latter might be of similar age but she was more experienced in battles. In fact, this is her second time participating in the Dragon Warrior tournament. The last time, she went as far as the top 16.
So, it is clear that she is the favorite to win and no one doubted it. Some people felt pity for the lad who had to face her of all the people.
However, Mark rooted for the seemingly weaker one instead, not because they have the same surname though. There are thousands of families out there with the same surname and they were not related to each other.
His opinion is based on the information he saw on the holographic screen. His identity appeared to be slightly special.
Lu Wan
Race: Human
Age: 28
Rank: 5 (advanced stage)
Spirit Path: Swordsman/mage free𝓌𝗲𝒃𝓃𝒐𝐯𝒆𝙡. 𝑐𝗼ｍ
Attribute: Metal
Bloodline: Bronze Dragon
Affiliation: Leon Empire
Description: A talented spirit warrior from Star sect, a minor sect located in Leon Empire's Tawang mountains. Due to having two spirit paths, his road of cultivation is also double the work.
"A swordmage, eh? This is the first time I was actually seeing this type of person. Interesting from the very first match itself…"
Meanwhile, on the battle platform, the two participants were standing nearly 20 meters apart from each other, waiting for the signal.
As soon as the proctor blew the whistle, both of them charged forward with swords in their hands.
The battle went on for ten minutes without any result. According to the rules, if a match becomes a draw, then, the one with lower realm cultivation will be declared the winner and proceed to the next round. And if both of them were in the same realm, then, the judges (three grand elders of the Xianshu sect) will make the decision by voting.
As a result, Lu Wan was declared the winner and Jia Yong exited the arena in depression.
Seeing that Lu Wan didn't reveal either the powers of a mage or his bloodline abilities, Mark's impression of him improved a bit. He noted down the name in his mind.
Meanwhile, the morale of the Xianshu sect members became quite low.
First, Xie Zhong lost badly to an outsider and then one of the top contestants of the hosting sect ended up being defeated by an opponent of the lower realm. How could they feel good?
Thankfully, it didn't stay that way for a very long time.
During the next 60 minutes, 8 out of 59 scheduled matches were completed. Unlike the very first match, there were no surprises in these matches. The one with a higher cultivation level won it and proceed to the next round.
And then, the proctor proceeded to announce the next match, making every single spectator focus on the battle platform.
"Xie Mei of Xianshu sect vs Liang Cheng of Mt. Hua sect"
As the fifteen-year-old beauty stood up from her seat and took a giant leap, landing directly on the middle of the platform, which is at atleast 150 meters away from the audience section, Mark's attention was grabbed by her.
He then heard Zi Ling gossip to Dong Fang. "I heard that she is the illegitimate daughter of Patriarch Xie."
"Eh?" Dong Fang appeared to be surprised by her statement. He looked at her and asked, "But, isn't he like two hundred years old?"
Zi Ling shrugged her shoulders, "Men are men in the end. You see a beautiful woman and you forget about everything…"
"Hey, that's not true. Not everyone would be interested in romance." Dong Fang argued with her. He added, "I, for one, only love the sword and nothing else."
"Hmpf, as if. Every time I see you, there's always a different girl on your side." Zi Ling counterattacked with a look of displeasure on her face, to which, Dong Fang defended himself, "They were just older sisters who wanted to guide me…"
"Yeah right…"
Ignoring this teenage couple bickering, Mark focused on the girl as her opponent slowly climbed the stage.
Once again, he activated his Sage eyes to take a look at her information. "Eh? Celestial?" A look of surprise appeared on his face, for a moment before he read the rest of the details.
Xie Mei
Race: Human/Celestial
Age: 15
Rank: 6 (peak stage)
Spirit Path: Archer
Attribute: Divine/Lightning/Water
Bloodline: N/A
Affiliation: Kun Empire/Heavenly Domain
Description: Born as a child of a human and a pure celestial from heaven, the girl was born with divine energy and no limiters.
"Divine energy? No limiters?" Mark's eyes lit up in excitement as he saw her details. Staring at her, he only had a single thought in his mind. "If I bring her to my side, then, I would be able to travel to other worlds without any tension. Now, the only question is how?"
And the answer to his doubt came to him as he watched the battle.
Instead of simply defeating her opponent by knocking him out or throwing him out of the ring, Xie Mei opted for a different route. After destroying all of his abilities, she trapped him in a cell made of arrows and injured him little by little.
If one should see it objectively, she destroyed his willpower by torture. Of course, in her eyes, it was justified as she wanted to make an example out of him for trying to look down on her sect. However, the others felt like she was a sadist and they don't want to face her.
On the other hand, Mark had a smile on his face as he found a way to achieve his goal. "Arrogance and loyalty to the sect. I guess I should trample on the sect's pride to make her willingly walk into the trap.
But then again, I might not meet their representatives. So, I guess I should ruthlessly trample on the dignity of Spirit Warriors itself.
Then, all I would need to do is to make a couple of insults on her sect while making sure to not touch her bottom line by speaking about the Patriarch.
Hmm, that's not a bad idea. I'm here to promote modern weapons anyways.
I might as well make everyone understand that there's no need to train so hard to master a bunch of techniques when they have a gun in their hand."
However, his goal of recruiting her can only be accomplished if they meet in the battle.
After reading her information and watching her battle, Mark was confident that she will go to finals without any problem. That means, as long as he wins his battles, he will be bound to meet her sooner or later.
Never in the world did he or anyone for that matter expect that there would be another contestant who will become an obstacle in her path to the finals.