50 Group Banter

Ye Xiu was walking towards the stands where he spotted Xiao Tu waving at him at the entrance of the Arena grounds. Obviously confused to why Xiao Tu would be waving to him when he could find them in the stands easily, he ran towards Xiao Tu.

"Ye Xiu, you did well in your fight! I didn't expect you to be able to use two whips at the same time! Was this what you were keeping from us the entire time? Was this going to be a secret move that you would take out in the future to fight us or something?" Xiao Tu wasn't sad that Ye Xiu had kept his new fighting style a secret from him but was actually extremely excited at the thought of fighting Ye Xiu whilst he is using his new fighting style.

"We can talk about my fighting style later when the others are here. Has Shi Die woken up yet?"

"Nah, he's still unconscious. Shang Yang is taking care of him right now so if you want to head to the stands we can go now. All the matches are nearly over right so you don't need to stay to watch the matches anymore. We can just go back to our dormitory rooms and leave Shi Die to rest there."

"Sure, why not. I want to rest now anyway. Even though swinging around my whips may not tire my muscles it still consumes a huge amount of energy. I'm absolutely hungry right now and I want to eat a huge amount of food to counteract this hunger. What sucks at the same time is that I don't feel like cooking anything right now and the Mess Hall is so far away that I'm too lazy to walk."

'An opportunity for me!' Xiao Tu beamed when he thought about it. "I'll get the food for us! What do you want to eat?"

Ye Xiu thought for a moment with his finger on his bottom lip. "Surprise me with whatever you buy! I'm sure if you ask a favour from Jin Yuan, he'd definitely agree to cook something up especially if you say something about Shi Die being injured or that something abnormal had happened. Just get as much food as you can. Everyone here eats a lot of food, so get as much as you think we're going to eat."

"Just put it into your dimensional storage so that it stays warm because I'm just going to go meditate first as you get the food. I want to at least recover from my fatigue so I can taste the food and remember the taste of the food. I like to enjoy the taste of my food when I eat it so I don't want to be too tired to even care."

Xiao Tu just noticed. "Leave it to me! If Shi Die wakes up, don't ask him anything yet and wait for me!" Xiao Tu started to run out of the Arena grounds and towards the Mess Hall. Ye Xiu shook his head at his friend's antics and went to the stands to look for Shang Yang and Shi Die.

Ye Xiu spotted Shang Yang stroking Shi Die's hair as his head was resting on her lap. She noticed Ye Xiu and waved with her free hand. "Hey, saw your fight. That was definitely something else. I've never seen anybody have a fighting style like that and I've travelled with my father to many different places."

Ye Xiu scratched his neck. "I wanted to come up with a style that enemies would be unable to counter easily because they've never met it. That fighting style is not completed so it's still extremely rough when it comes to the techniques that I know for the style. I only really know one kind of 'technique' for it, and it's basically employing the same concept as my 'Entangling Roots' style just with two whips."

"I haven't added my Qi thorns to it yet because it's extremely hard to concentrate on making sure the whip doesn't meet each other in mid-air and make the entire thing fall apart. My current limit is just to have the two whips attacking and just shoving my Qi into the whip so that it is sturdier, hits harder, becomes longer or repairs itself. Things as intricate as Qi thorns for the both are out of my league until I learn how to multitask for more than three things at once."

Shang Yang listened to Ye Xiu ramble on about his new fighting style intently. "I'm sorry if I'm just going off on a tangent, I have so many ideas and problems with the style that I want to do or fix so if I talk about it, I go into my own world."

"It's fine Ye Xiu. By the way, have you seen Xiao Tu? He was supposed to go find you but he hasn't returned yet seeing as you are already here."

"Oh, Xiao Tu is going to the Mess Hall to get some food for the four of us. I feel famished and I think Shi Die would like to get some food into his stomach when he gets back. I was going to tell you that we'll be returning to our room now that all the matches that we need to see have finished. The only matches that are going on now are the second year's group stage fights so it won't be too interesting yet."

Shang Yang nodded. "If that's the case then you should help me carry Shi Die back to the room. I'm too lazy to carry him right now since I have no strength in my body."

Ye Xiu was snorting in amusement, "I can't believe you said something so unrealistic. You having no strength in your body since you have barely done anything today is a joke. Don't be that lazy, it's not good for you. Out of the four of us, you are probably the laziest person in our group when it comes to training."

Shang Yang bobbed her head up and down. "A girl needs to do something else besides just training every day. I spend my time to do my hobbies and to live my life. I'm still young so I want to experience what I can before I'm too old to experience anything. I've travelled a lot more compared to any of you so you don't understand how weird it is to be stuck in a single place for a long period of time."

"I don't know how you feel but I get what you are saying. I'm not condemning you for not training as hard as us, it was just meant as a joke but I won't say it anymore if it bothers you."

"It doesn't bother me, my mind just feels like it should be elsewhere rather than be tied down in a place for years." Shang Yang looked at the darkening sky. "We should get to the rooms now. Xiao Tu would probably already be finished buying the food if I know him well enough."

Ye Xiu sighed. "I totally forgot about that. I was busy listening to you and forgot about Xiao Tu going to buy food for us."

Smirking, "Are you going to help me carry Shi Die or not?"

"Fine, fine. I'll help you carry Shi Die, don't worry about it." Ye Xiu crouched down so he could pick up Shi Die. "Let's go."

They walked back to their room quickly and saw that Xiao Tu was already. "Hey! You guys took a while to get here."

Shang Yang took the opportunity to annoy Xiao Tu. "More like you were too much of an excitable puppy which is why you got here at record speed."

Xiao Tu ignored her. "Jin Yuan managed to cook up some food extremely quickly! I don't know how he managed to do it but I'll just keep on thinking that it is some kind of Spirit Cook thing that allows them to achieve such miracles easily. I managed to get a lot of food so you don't have to worry about running out of anything to eat today! By the way is Shi Die awake yet? If not I can always wake him by shaking him violently." Xiao Tu had a mischievous smirk on his face.

"No he's not awake yet and no you may not shake him awake. Who knows what actually happened to him during the fight. It could be very tiring for him to have that happen to him. I know that it definitely looked painful to see what happened to Shi Die and it was intriguing at the same time but I have his safety first. Leave him alone and let him wake up of his own accord."

Xiao Tu pouted at Ye Xiu's blatant refusal. "Fine. We'll just wait for Shi Die to wake up and wait for him to tell us what happened." He spoke in a resigned tone.

They spent several hours eating and meditating before Shi Die woke up.

"Ugh... Where am I?" Shi Die grunted as he tried to get up from his bed.

Ye Xiu rushed to his side and popped a pill into his mouth quickly. "That should get rid of any after-effects of whatever you experienced."

Xiao Tu gave a wan smile. "Thanks for the help Ye Xiu. Do you know what happened to me after I collapsed? I can only remember the both of us striking at the same time before falling unconscious."

Ye Xiu nodded. "You lost the match to Yan Guo. He apparently managed to strike you in the stomach where you started to bleed. You managed to scratch his face severely and it looked like he was rather uncomfortable with the injuries though he was trying to prevent himself from showing any emotions. Besides that... I can only say that Shang Yang and I saw an interesting thing occur to your body as we went to heal you from your wound."

Shi Die frowned. "Interesting? Was it related to whatever happened to my body during the fight?"

Ye Xiu was contemplating the question. "The most likely answer would be yes. It probably had something to do with that transformation of yours during the fight. You had grown fangs and claws and had marks all over your body which seemed to be pulsing with energy. Your speed greatly increased and after you were injured, you managed to heal in mere seconds after the injury was inflicted. I have no clue as to what your ability was or if it has any side effects for you but as far as I can tell it's beneficial for you."

Shi Die was unsure whether he should talk about what he felt during his transformation but went with what his heart told him anyway. "When I was transformed it felt like I was ruled by animalistic urges. I had the urge to rip my opponent apart into pieces because he threatened my survival. It also felt like I wasn't in control of my body, it was like I was a spectator inside of my body just watching and feeling what my body does but being unable to do anything to stop myself."

"I could feel where all of you were. It was strange... I couldn't see any of you but I knew where you were during that time. That animalistic side of me that came out... Believed you guys were no threat to it and felt like you were part of its family. I can't tell you much else about the power really. I felt like I had more energy and besides the burning sensation that could be felt throughout my body... I don't know what else to tell you." Shi Die sighed in frustration.

"Look, it's fine. I was planning to ask Sir about what happened during the tournament anyway. I have a theory on what it could be and he could possibly confirm it for me because he knows much more about this kind of stuff anyway." Ye Xiu consoled Shi Die.

"Thanks, Ye Xiu." Ye Xiu passed the food over to him so that he could relieve his hunger.