Chapter 15 - Power of the Sects

Garnt felt his jaw had dropped beyond the surface of the world watching the chaotic battle. He had expected Lind to fare well, but that last move was a good 2 minor tiers above him! How had Lind manipulated the Qi so expertly? He narrowed his eyes as he saw Lind shake his hands and grimace as the crowd cheered the end of the first round.

The 20 members would now be entered into the brackets. The sun had barely reached the peak. The tournament would blaze on as the ring was quickly divided up. Garnt noted that Lind would be facing many of the same people he just battled with. Luckily, all of the elimination round got a rest as the early registered competitors took the first round of the main tournament.

Many crimson robed members of the Frey Clan came into the ring with their counterparts in greens and silver from the Gu and Che clans respectively. Several individual cultivators stood out. Garnt watched as the brackets were formalized and frowned. The formation merely reflected the results of what should be a random drawing combined with a few seeded prospects.

What caused the frown was the name Hu marked for the final round seed. It was the name of the Overseer's son. More than that, a lot of the Frey Clan members were facing each other. A few were randomly in other groups, but Garnt would be 3 days dead before accepting there was not a hand behind this set up. No official called it out but even a few of the contestants frowned near Garnt's view.

"It would seem the little gnat has no concept of subtlety." The Grand Master had clear rage in his voice but Garnt could only nod. It was clear the man did not care if people suspected cheating. He would continue with his plans. The few clan members randomly in other groups were matched up against powerful foes. It was clear the intent was to eliminate any threat to Hu.

"He missed one." The Grand Master pointed at the final group made up of the elimination round competitors. Lind's line up if he kept winning were no more than 1 or 2 minor realms above him. Garnt then realized that Lind had only registered his name but not his affiliation with the Frey Clan. Whether that was intentional or simply the boy wishing to not dishonor the clan if he lost, it made him a hidden dagger.

"Spirits watch over him." Garnt spoke the prayer and the Grand Master nodded as the crowd began to roar as the main tournament began.

****

"Well?" The deep frown on the 3rd Princess' face would have inspired fear in many. After the brackets were announced, it was clear something was up. Her advisor and bodyguard had quickly sent a message out to their network in the arena to find out what was going on. The Princess had met the son of the Overseer and there was no way he could qualify for a first round seed let alone the finals. He had next to no potential in cultivation after using pills to force his breakthroughs.

"My Lady, it seems there is a young Mistress of the Frey clan that is being pursued reluctantly. The Clan tried to use the tournament to stop him, but it would seem the arrogant fool does not mind showing his cheating to all. It is worse than the reports we had received." The black cloak shook with contained rage.

"Are you sympathetic to her, Silvia?" The Princess smiled at the reaction of her closest friend in her life. Silvia looked sternly at her mistress before nodding. It was one of the accepted practices to forge alliance through marriage, but the consent of both parties was still required. Other powers ignored this, but the Lotus Empire prided itself by boasting the freedom of its citizens.

Even so, it was not uncommon for a powerful person to try to force their will on others. So long as a person was effective, the Emperor or his enforcers overlooked such infractions. The 3rd Princess did not share this view and took great pleasure in rooting out the corruption in her Empire.

"Let us allow the fool to put the noose around his neck then. Make sure any infraction of the tournament rules are noted but no lives should be lost." The dark pressure coming off the Princess made Silvia sweat. While she had once been far more powerful than her ward, the Princess had caught up quickly and was now close to surpassing all her bodyguards. That fact was not well known to many outside of the closest aides.

The roar of the crowd drew both their eyes as elemental Qi flew through the air as the judges stood over the divided ring. Much like the elimination round, these first few rounds would quickly eliminate the inept or weak. The odds makers were sweating no doubt after the dark horse of a 3rd tier Soul Realm made it to the main tournament.

The round was stolen, however, by 2 people. A tanned young man with a massive broadsword on his back entered the ring and even from the stands the feeling of sharpness came off of him. His pale eyes seemed bored as he looked over at his first opponent.

"Now, the show begins!" The Princess smiled ear to ear as many in the crowd cheered the swordsman on.

****

Lind had stabilized his body. The last bolt of lightning had left most of his arms numb. Soul Touch may allow him to pull off tricks like redirecting attacks, but that did not make him immune to the side effects. Mud would dirty his hands, water would make him wet, and lightning would still numb whatever limb he used to redirect it.

If the person was on the same tier as him, it would go better, but still numb his hands most likely. The twins had helped push Lind's abilities to the max once he learned to control the flow of Qi into his meridians and body. Combat was still the best method to temper his elements and his foundation.

He had a limitation that would be hard to overcome in this tournament was his longevity. At tier 3, Lind could only store so much Qi in his dantian but a tier 6 could more than double the storage and have higher quality Qi as well. The further one mastered their elements, the more techniques one could use as well. Lind, unfortunately, was severely limited in techniques.

He could not do anything safely beyond tier 1. Fireballs, water whips, and so forth were easy for Lind, but blending any element like fire and light into lightning would cause damage to his meridians. The less power, the less backlash but if Lind tried to bring forth his full cultivation power, it would likely put him out of commission for the rest of the day. The main problem was, whenever he tried to blend elements, he could not exclude any of them.

Lightning would be mostly fire and light but then the remaining 4 would flood his attempt and cause the backlash. It infuriated Lind because Teyla could make lightning despite having a 3rd element. His Soul Eyes allowed him to see the 2 spheres in her dantian mix before becoming lightning and the wind element would calmly be sitting there with no issue.

Lind heard the roar of the crowd and turned to the ring as he would be up soon at the rate people were eliminated from their duels.

"Solon! Solon! Solon!" The name being cheered was for the broadsword youth. If Lind was to guess from the Qi, Solon was tier 6 in the Soul Realm and close to Tier 7. Strangely, while he had wind and earth as his elements, there was a strange energy around him. It felt sharp and piercing all at once. Lind realized what he was seeing was stunningly a form of specialized Qi.

Masters of combat could invoke Intent from their elements. The conditions required mostly stemmed from compatibility but a sword user with wind alone was already excellent. Earth was icing on the cake. Sword Intent was visible to Lind's eyes but Solon never even drew his sword. How much training would it take for someone so young to manifest Intent already?

Lind watched in awe as Solon said something to his opponent that made him mad. The opponent was from the Frey Clan. Lind recognized him from the class he had with the twins. He never learned his name as few wanted to speak with Lind despite his clear friendship with the twins. Likely the disgust of his origins and jealousy of his connection to the twins made this situation what it was. Still, Lind had no desire to see him dishonor the clan.

Before the clansman could pull out his staff, the wooden staff was sliced into 2 pieces before them all. Silence descended on the stage. All the duels froze. Lind was unsure if any of the judge's shared his talent, but his Soul Eyes bulged at what he had just seen.

Solon had flicked a finger and silvery sword intent flew accurately across the space between them and cause no damage to flesh but destroyed the staff. Lind knew those staffs were specially treated and engraved with formations to strengthen them more but that intent was like a hot knife through butter!

The face of his clansmen paled and he fell back. The judge took that as defeat and Solon descended. Lind knew that hesitating with that swordsman was instant defeat. He had a few ideas but without seeing more, he was unsure if any of his ideas would work.

Things were getting rowdy again before the tone of the crowd changed. Whistles and lewd comments suddenly flew and Lind tried to find the source. It took a while before a parting on the other side of the ring revealed a new pair facing off.

Another Frey Clan member was facing a woman. Lind raised one of his eyebrows up at her getup. An open slit v-neck outfit with leather bands covering her torso emphasized her body shape. She was well toned and tanned with dark green hair cut short. Her oval face was intoxicating but Lind frowned. Her elements were water and darkness but something was off. It was like his eyes were being pulled to the exposed flesh against his will.

Lind shook it off and just noted it. The only weapon visible was a coiled whip that gave off a strange aura. There was no intent so Lind suspected it was a forged weapon. Whips had some use for crowd control but Lind suspected there was more to it. The clansmen was not exactly doing honor sadly as his eyes were glued to her chest. There was amusement in her soft brown eyes from what Lind could see.

"Shoti, come to my room tonight! Shoti, become my wife!" The shouts ranged from the ridiculous to the rude but Lind tuned it out as no one seemed to notice her whip was moving. Shoti tilted her hip out and leaned forward which seemed to draw all the eyes including the judge.

Lind felt shocked though, because he lost sight of the whip! It has seemed to move on its own and then vanish while the handle was still in her hand. The crack was followed by the clansman flying to the left as his left arm was sliced open easily. However, he also had a whip mark on his left leg at the same time!

Lind then concentrated and saw traces of water Qi for the leg attack but the whip recoiled as if alive back to Shoti's hand. She smiled and brought many hearts to a stop as the clansman just looked up in shock and conceded. Shoti swayed seductively as she walked away but Lind noticed the serious look on her face as if it was simply another day to her.

"Who are those 2?" Lind spoke out loud unintentionally. One of his fellow competitors looked at him in stunned awe.

"Those are rising stars of the super sects! Solon of the Divine Sword Sect and Shoti of the Heavenly Maiden Sect. They were offered seeded spots but refused and will earn their spots in the finals this afternoon. They are amazing!" Lind felt the hero worship out of the older man next to him but Lind was hard pressed to disagree on their prowess. Both had used a single attack and minimal Qi. Both expertly moderated their consumption that natural recovery was more than enough to get their Qi back.

The power of sects were terrifying but Lind knew those 2 sects were special. They were independent powers and even the most vile of bandits would never harm a hair on the head of any of their disciples. The few groups that had, were made extreme examples of to never do that from what history had recorded. Why were they here?

"NEXT ROUND GET READY!" Lind snapped out of his thoughts as his first main round was up.