30 Xu qing's worries

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"Am I dreaming?"

"Who is this guy?"

"How did he do that?"

"Is he cheating?"

"I don't know!"

"Did you notice that he barely moved from his spot?"

"Yeah, that's too scary!"

"If you analyze the fight carefully, you would notice that this guy didn't attacked at all, he just defended."

"What is his cultivation base?"

….

Murmurs and exclamations of the audience are echoing around the area, these reactions are considerably late since it's been about five minutes when the match ended. From the start of the match until the end they didn't have any chances on saying anything at all, that's because the fight was going on too fast that they were incredibly focused. However, even though they could follow what's happening inside the arena, they still couldn't digest everything that's happening, they could only replay the memories they got after the fight and finally talk about it.

Sieg was indifferent to this though, he stepped down to the arena when the referee announced the results, in the end he still claimed the 1st place for this round. Ye Han was unconscious but his life isn't in danger, he was just injured by his own attack, and because he's also a body refiner his regenerative properties are top notch so he should recover faster than most people.

It was just noon when the top 13 rankings were decided so they decided to finish the battle for the top 6 rankings today as well. The contestants were given a period of rest and were told to wait for further notice.

When Sieg entered the room, he was greeted by strange gazes. All of them are wary of him right now, they weren't idiots, all of them here are still hiding something from each other, like a trump card or something. Even though they managed to see the techniques Sieg can use, isn't that the case for everyone here? Sieg also saw what they could do if not maybe even more than what they've shown so far. What made them wary of him is that they never saw Sieg really tried, from the start of his battle until the end his expression never changed, his movements are not disorganized and there was no trace of panic coming from him.

It was like he wasn't challenged by any of this at all.

Some of these people tried to not think of him this way since they would just wound their confidence yet they just can't help but to compare themselves to him, they also don't know if Sieg is just faking it or not. In the end there's nothing they could do though, they already made it this far so there's no backing out.

After few hours of waiting, they heard the familiar footsteps of the announcer, their attentions gathered and waited him to speak.

"Let me congratulate everyone for making this far to the competition. Now only six people would remain after this round. Since there is 13 of you here, there would be five 1 vs. 1 battles and one 3-way battle that's going to happen. The winners for this round would participate for tomorrow's final battle. First, we will now pick the people who would compete for the 1 vs. 1 battles."

The apparatus on the announcer's hand made some clunking sounds and on the screen, it showed multiple slots that are now flashing with numbers, after waiting for a while, one badge number after another started filling those slots. Sieg noticed that his number weren't there in those slots which only made one thing clear.

"To those people who saw their numbers, the referee would call you if it's the time for your match, the others that didn't see their numbers in here means that they are the one's who would participate on the 3-way battle, which would begin after every 1 vs. 1 matches are over." The announcer then stepped outside of the room and left the contestants to wait for their certain battles.

Sieg closed his eyes and continued his meditation, he was also reviewing some inscriptions while he's at it. He wasn't that interested in the battles that would be happening before his turn since he already had a vague idea on who's going to win. He also didn't dwell into the fact that he was going to face two people later on, so he decided to study the assignment Old Pete left him.

These were some basic informations about inscriptions, for example, he already knew that the 1000 Basic Inscriptions are divided into few groups that could either restrict, support or even dominate other inscriptions, it's just that it is hard to fully memorize these since there's just too many.

Sieg was also starting to feel a bit impatient, he absolutely believe that his master only wanted the best for him but fighting the urge not actively cultivate is just too depressing. He was like a starved man that was exposed to a feast but was not allowed to eat anything, he could only drool on sight of the Ki around him. Nevertheless he still fought the urge to actively do it, if his master said so, then there's a good reason why.

He instead focused his attention on playing around with spiritual energies, this is how he had always spent his time whenever he was bored. He will release a strand of spiritual energies and would form it into different shapes like a circle, a rectangle, a square, triangle. Sometimes he would even form it into a shape of an animal or even write his name using it. As time goes one he would be totally engrossed on this that he would be startled that a few hours had passed already. He also noticed that everytime he did so, he would feel somewhat tired but after he recovered his spiritual energy would be stronger.

What he didn't knew is that the outline of the Niwan Palace in his forehead is becoming more and more visible each time he played with spiritual energies.

Niwan Palace isn't actually a 'Palace', rather it takes a form of a 'Crown' starting from a person's forehead and will encircle it. At the middle of this lies a gem-like thing which is where a person's soul could enter and exit as it pleases. The more solid and powerful the Niwan Palace is, the more majestic the crown would look like.

Right now, there a faint circular outline of a halo in Sieg's forehead whenever he played with spiritual energies, it was about an inch thick and there were some weird 'scales' surrounding this halo, it isn't very clear yet since he was still in the 9th step of Awakening.

***

As the battle started one after another, more and more people are cheering and having fun. For them, it is incredibly entertaining to see young people compete with each other. They already have their bets on who would take the first place for tomorrow's final battle and was actually anticipating it.

Majority of the people placed their bets to Xu Qing, the niece of the City Lord. The reason is not only because she's powerful and widely known as a genius of her era, but also because she is such an eye candy. She looked like a fairy that descended to the earth, her long black hair that looked like a waterfall, her skin that even a snowflake would pale in comparison, her 'extremely audacious' figure, and even her ethereal voice whenever she speaks is what made people deeply captivated.

Some men even boldly proclaimed that they are willing to exchange at least 20 years of their lives just to spend a night with such a beauty like this, some even said that they would give up everything just to be with her, and there also some who claimed that they die for her bidding. Xu Qing also attracts the hate of other women as well, that maybe because of jealousy, in the end, every woman wanted to be given such attention too.

For Xu Qing however this is nothing but nuisance, she doesn't have a cold and aloof personality like others said she is. She just hates it when people over-exagerates things, of course she knew that she had quite a status inside this city, she also knew that's pretty and all that but those people around her does everything just to curry her favor, and that's what she hates.

Fake people.

She would rather meet a straightforward person rather be treated with respect, in the end strength speaks for everything, that why she's also greatly disappointed in her previous matches. Everytime she step inside the arena, no more than five minutes would pass and she would walk back down again, totally harmless yet incredibly incensed.

"It seems like the heavens are giving me a blessing, to meet such a beauty right in front of me is a great boon towards my lifespan. It would be an extreme blasphemy to have a fight with such a fairy like you my lady, so why don't we just have a nice talk?"

This is just an example speech that she would receive whenever an opponent saw her climbing up. She was absolutely tired of it that often times, Xu Qing won't even let them finish and attack right away, in the end however, all of them forfeited. What a shame.

Her opponent earlier is also a disappointment, so much so that she ended up hurting him badly. She thought 'Is this competition going to end like this?' To be totally honest she wouldn't be shocked, but she hope to at least have a nice battle before she enters a sect, is that too much too ask.

Suddenly she felt a little weird. It felt like she remembered something yet forgot it immediately, the thought passed like lightning leaving no traces behind, but she also knew that, that thought is incredibly important, she just couldn't put a finger on it though.

This caused her to frown her beautiful brows, in fact, if anyone experienced the same thing they would also done so. A martial artists' instincts are sharp and most of the times, people relied on it unconsciously, and it saved them multiple times already without them knowing it. Xu Qing trains a Ki manual that is called: Tranquil Sky and Clouds, which enables it's user to resemble a clear sky without any disturbance at all.

Thought like this are disturbances for Xu Qing and it would be best to find an answer for it or else it would greatly detriment her cultivation speed and foundation. However, no matter how hard she searched, she couldn't find what's wrong. She decided to put aside first and try to find answers later, who knows maybe the answer would who itself to her.

"Qing'er, you've made some trouble." A man full of white hairs suddenly stepped inside the room with a smile on his face.

"Hmph! It's not like they're going to cause trouble for you though." If anyone was here, they would find this scene extremely awkward since Xu Qing is speaking to the City Lord like there's no age gap between them or any seniority at all.

"Well I'm pretty sure they won't, but what's up with your attitude?" The City Lord chuckled as he sat beside her and stroked her hair, there's a doting appearance thar showed in his face.

"It's just those nasty leecher Uncle, they kept on using these flowery words thinking that I would pay attention to them. I just wanted to experience a good fight is that too much?" Xu Qing pouted and whined to her Uncle.

The City Lord laughed and nodded like he was already expecting this reaction. He slowly stood up and said: "Well, you might as well be prepared then, someone out there would give you a real challenge. Gahahaha." And just like that the City Lord stepped outside the room leaving a dumbfounded Xu Qing inside.

"There's someone who will really give me what I want?" Xu Qing frowned very hard, she tried thinking about it but nothing comes to her mind, she whispered: "Who is it then?"