Repaying debts.

Three weeks passed by in a flash. To Yao Jun it felt like he had been training for only a few days, but as he woke up in the morning, it was already the day of the tournament. Yao Jun put on his green robe and quickly freshened up in the washroom before heading to the kitchen to eat a quick breakfast.

"Jun'er, you mustn't forget, unless it is absolutely life threatening, you cannot let out the Lightning Tiger, just pretend like you can control lightning." Yao Jun's mother repeated the words she had told him almost a hundred times these last three weeks once more, making sure that Yao Jun wouldn't get careless or complacent.

"Don't worry mother, I won't be stupid." Yao Jun responded with a smile before quickly finishing up the rest of his food and dashing out of the cottage, heading towards the town center.

In Flying Fish Town, the Yao clan branch was the king, so using the town square for their own little tournament was no problem. The usually empty town square had now been replaced by a large square wooden arena surrounded by simple wooden benches.

The main reason behind this tournament was to find two people who were qualified to be sent to the Golden Moon branch, but another reason was to showcase the Yao clan's strength to the rest of the town, solidifying their own position.

The benches surrounding the square arena were filled with people. At first glance, it looked like almost 200 people had come to watch. To the residents of this town, seeing 200 people at once was a massive spectacle, but Yao Jun still had some memories of his short time in the Yao main clan, so he wasn't too shocked at seeing this small amount of people.

There were a group of people standing on the arena, three withered old men clad in black robes embroidered with a large boulder, the mark of the Yao clan. A middle-aged man with a scarred face, clad in the same black robes. And seven youths ranging from 14 to 18 years old, also clad in the same black robes.

Flying Fish Town was a tiny town, and most of the youths would often head out on their own adventures, so even though the Yao branch was the king of this town, they didn't have too many youths, ones that were good enough to be sent to the Golden Moon branch were even fewer.

The three withered old men were the patriarch and vice patriarchs of this Yao clan branch, so they held the highest authority in town. The scarred middle-aged man was someone that was sent by the Golden Moon branch specifically to oversee this tournament and make sure that the quality of the youths sent to them would be of the correct standard.

"Thank you all for coming, this old Yao won't stand on any ceremony with you, so why don't we just start with the tournament?" One of the three withered old men spoke in a hoarse voice. This was the patriarch of this Yao branch, but he and the vice patriarchs were brothers and looked virtually indistinguishable, so many people often mistook them for one another.

"Wait, I'm going to join!" The withered old men were just about to leave the arena when Yao Jun called out and ran up through the benches and hopped up onto the stage.

"Get down little Jun, this arena isn't a place for you." One of the vice patriarchs spoke in a low voice to Yao Jun, wishing that he wouldn't make them look bad in front of the examiner from the Golden Moon branch.

"Who are you? Are you part of this Yao branch?" The scarred man ignored the vice patriarch's words and spoke to Yao Jun.

"Yes sir, I'm Yao Jun, just turned 15." Yao Jun looked straight at the scarred man as he straightened his back and spoke.

"Good, that'll make this go much faster. Now there are eight youths, we'll divide them into four groups of two. Each group will fight, the winner moves on, the loser leaves. Four groups will turn into two groups of two, and two groups of two will turn into one group of two. Let me see your combat skills, I'll take with me the ones I deem good enough." The scarred man spoke in a loud, but bored voice, seemingly wanting nothing more than to leave.

"Yes, sir." Yao Jun and the seven other youths responded in unison before lining up. The scarred man quickly divided them into four groups and sent three of the groups down from the arena, clearing room for the first group to start their fight.

The first group just so happened to be Yao Jun's group. Yao Jun was up against a youth he had seen several times, Yao Hou. Yao Hou was a youth who was two years older than Yao Jun, tall and stout, light brown hair and blue eyes, he was considered prince charming by some of the girls in the Yao branch.

Yao Hou only looked at Yao Jun with disdain, they had never talked to each other, Yao Hou felt it was demeaning to be part of the same clan as someone useless like Yao Jun, much less talking to one. Yao Jun always knew what Yao Hou was thinking, he had seen disdainful eyes like these many times.

Yao Jun only gave him a grin. Since he disdained him so much, then why should Yao Jun bother with being nice to him? Yao Hou had disdained him for seven years, so it was about time to pay back that debt.

The two took up their positions across each other and Yao Jun took up a stance. Weapons were forbidden in this tournament, so he could only rely on his fists. But that didn't matter to Yao Jun, he had trained his body for seven years, he had even spent a large portion of those seven years in the forest, hunting, and fighting animals, his entire body was a weapon. Taking some steps back, even if weapons were allowed in this tournament, Yao Jun wouldn't use one, these youths simply weren't worth him using his weapon.

Yao Hou was the first one to move, he advanced towards Yao Jun, his fingers taking on a gray sheen, this was his power, using the element of metal to coat his hands in a hard layer to increase his punching power.

To the youths who were watching, Yao Hou looked like he was rushing at full speed, but to Yao Jun, compared to some of the animals he had hunted, he was simply too slow. He slightly bent forward and took the same approach he did when he fought the Lightning Tiger.

He dashed forward to meet Yao Hou, moving directly past his open arms and into his chest. Before Yao Hou had time to react, Yao Jun delivered an uppercut to his chin. Right after the uppercut connected and disoriented Yao Hou, Yao Jun took a step back before delivering a full powered kick straight to his solar plexus. Yao Hou fell backward and started vomiting, clearly not in shape to continue fighting.

If it were in the main Yao clan or even one of the larger branches, Yao Jun had zero confidence in beating the other youths with just his physical body, but he had never put the lazy youths of this tiny branch into his eyes. They never once trained their bodies, so how could they ever amount to much?

After kicking down Yao Hou, the spectators from the Yao clan were stunned. Was this the Yao Jun that they had always disdained and scorned? Didn't he ignore their gazes because he was too weak to fight back? Had he been deceiving them for all these years? Sadly, these youths would never know the truth.

The scarred man looked at Yao Jun with slight praise in his eyes, he found this kid's quick reflexes and decisive actions to his liking. After getting someone to bring Yao Hou down from the arena, the tournament continued.

The four groups swiftly turned into two groups. This time Yao Jun was grouped against a woman who was slightly shorter than him, standing at about 1.75 meters. If it had been earlier, this woman would be insufferably arrogant and stare at him with disdain, but standing before him now, she could only look at him with a grave expression. She was confident in her strength, but she was also uncertain about his full strength.

This woman, Yao Lei, had black hair, healthy wheat colored skin with nice proportions, and brown eyes, she could be considered quite beautiful. But Yao Jun wouldn't be swayed by something as simple as beauty, he had been scorned and disdained by almost for seven years, he had long since stopped paying much attention to how people looked on the outside, choosing instead to look at their personalities and beliefs.

Yao Lei took a slight stance as she moved towards Yao Jun with a special rhythm. The sound of her footsteps on the arena reverberated around the square, making it hard for people to concentrate. This was her power, she could use the sounds that she herself created to confuse her opponents.

Seeing this power, not only Yao Jun, but even the scarred man couldn't help but give a slightly mocking smile. A power like this could be considered good in this tiny town that wasn't used to strong powers, but Yao Jun had seen his parents powers, and the scarred man came from the much larger Golden Moon branch, they had seen the greater world.

Yao Jun simply stopped thinking and acted on reflex, shrugging off the girl's powers. A swift punch to her abdomen stopped her in her tracks long enough for Yao Jun to grab her arm and spin around and throw her over his shoulder. With her untrained body, she fainted the moment she hit the ground.

Seeing how easily Yao Jun was beating their youths, the three withered old men had ugly expressions, but the scarred man simply ignored them and flashed a smile, this kid sure was ruthless enough, not caring about beauty at all.

The other fight didn't last long either, quickly giving way for the final fight. Yao Jun was just happy that it was almost over, a silly little tournament like this was really just a waste of time. But Yao Jun was still glad that he participated, the whole point was to show that he wasn't someone they could disdain as they please, and he had indeed managed to show just that.

For the last fight, Yao Jun was up against Yao Jing, a youth who was almost 18, he had black hair, green eyes, and a very normal face, but he was the oldest one among the youths of the Yao clan who hadn't already left. Even now, as he was facing him, Yao Jing still looked at Yao Jun with disdain.

"You should just give up, you won't be able to get through my defenses." Yao Jing spoke in a lofty voice as he straightened his back.

"I don't think you will be the one to decide that. Besides, I'm sure that Yao Hou and Yao Lei also thought that they would surely beat me, now look at them." Yao Jun gave a low laugh as he advanced towards Yao Ling. He knew the power that Yao Ling had, it was also the reason he dared speak so arrogantly.

He slowly walked until he stood in front of Yao Ling and threw a simple punch towards his solar plexus. In response to the punch, a translucent membrane of water covered Yao Ling's body, this was his power, a shield of water he could deploy around him.

Seeing this membrane, Yao Jun gave him a mocking smile, and as his fist made contact with the membrane, purple sparks of lightning flashed on his fist, traveling up his entire arm, covering it in small lightning bolts. As the lightning made contact with the water membrane, it swiftly traveled through it and around Yao Ling's entire body, resulting in him collapsing and spasming on the arena.

"You should always make sure you know enough about your enemy before you start acting arrogant." Yao Jun spoke a simple sentence to the spasming Yao Ling before turning to the scarred man.

"Haha, seems like this Yao branch actually has someone that is pretty good. Kid, follow me, we can head to Golden Moon Town immediately, I don't wanna spend another second in this backwater town. I'll be waiting at the town entrance for two hours, if you don't show up within that time, I'll assume that you don't want to join me and simply leave." The scarred man spoke rudely with a laugh. Heading directly for the town entrance.

Yao Jun quickly made his way towards his home, not even sparing a single glance for any of the other Yao branch members. Once he reached the cottage, he was surprised to see that his parents had already packed all his things for him, storing them in a green interspatial ring.

"Here, this is your father's ring, you can consider it a gift for winning the tournament. We will head out for Golden Moon in a few days as well, so we will come to find you then." Yao Xun put the ring onto Yao Jun's finger as she spoke with a loving smile. Their son was doing so much just so that they could return to the main clan in triumph, so how could she not be proud?

"Thank you mother, I will certainly come to find you once you settle down in Golden Moon." Yao Jun didn't stand on ceremony with his own parents, accepting the ring before quickly leaving the cottage and heading towards the town entrance, his journey had just begun.