18 18. Competition Day - Part 4

Bai Cong was deep in thought so his body jerked when he felt something poke him. He looked behind him and saw Bai Chang looking at him with a face full of curiosity.

"Is something the matter?" Bai Chang asked, "You're not moving."

That's when Bai Cong noticed how everyone that had passed the first test were already lined up.

"I'm fine," Bai Cong took a deep breath and calmed down, "Let's go."

Bai Chang watched as his younger brother walked to the end of the line. He sighed to himself and followed behind him. He never knew what ideas were floating around in Bai Cong's head.

Seeing that everyone were now lined up, Ding Huo took out a few things from his spatial ring. They were an orb that was connected to a detecter stone. It looked similar to the one Bai Cong had used when he had tested his potential. The other item was another clear orb that was bigger than the one connected to the detecter stone.

Ding Huo cleared his throat, "This is a detecter stone," he said pointing to the huge stone, "It will be used to test your innate potential. When you put your hand on this orb, the stone will light up. The light will increase and stop on whatever color your potential is."

He then walked over to the other device, "This is a spirit root reader. It's used to determine what your affinity is if you even have one at all."

After he finished, Ding Huo beckoned for the first person to step up. It took less time to get through the detections since there wasn't as many people compared to when the first test was being taken. The line filed down until it came to be Bai Chen's turn.

Bai Chen walked up to the orb, already knowing what evaluation he was going to get on the detecter stone. He put his hand on the orb and patiently waited for the colors to light up, and light up they did. When it reached the color violet, it stopped.

Ding Huo nodded his head in appreciation and led Bai Chen to the spirit root reader. Like the detecter stone, Bai Chen put his hand on the orb. The clear orb lit up and two colors came into view. One was pure white while the other was blazing red.

"A double affinity spirit root," Ding Huo mumbled, "And they're red and white, meaning that you have an icy-fire affinity. A rare commodity indeed," he chuckled.

Bai Chen nodded his head with his head held high. He walked away with a confident gait and a bit of arrogance mixed in.

The line moved along until it came to be Xiong Wei's turn. He quickly walked up to the orb and stretched out his hand. The stone lit up and colors started to light up until it reached the color violet. The orb then shook and slowly turned black. It started to levitate up until it reached the top of the stone which had now also turned black.

Ding Huo watched with surprised as the whole process happened, "An unreadable potential," Ding Huo started getting excited, "you have an unreadable potential, amazing!" he cried with happiness.

"Come, come. Let me test your spirit root," Ding Huo pulled Xiong Wei over to the spirit root reader and practically crushed his hand on top of the orb. The orb shined until two colors appeared, gold and red.

Ding Huo then started laughing with jubilee, "A pure Yang physique, it's a pure yang physique. The ancestors are looking down at my Holy Righteous Sect!" Ding Huo cried with joy.

Xiong Wei ignored the Ding Huo who was laughing crazily and walked away.

"Did you hear that, he has a pure yang physique!" someone in the crowd said.

"A pure yang physique? What's that?" another person asked.

"I don't know but no one with that physique hasn't been seen since-"

"But who is that boy?" another person interrupted the previous person, "I've never heard of a person with that name before."

"Me too, who is he?"

While people in the crowd were trying to figure out who Xiong Wei was, Bai Cong was now donning an ugly face. Now that everyone was looking at Xiong Wei, it would be a hundred times harder to kill him. The last few people went until it was Bai Cong's turn. He walked over to the detecter stone and put his hand on the orb. The stone lit up and like what happened with Xiong Wei, the orb and turned black and rose to the top of the blackened stone.

Ding Huo, who had just been getting over his excitement now had another punch of happiness, "Two people with unreadable potentials! This is indeed a good day that I, Ding Huo am alive to witness this!" he yelled up to the heavens.

Painfully aware that everyone in the arena was looking at him, Bai Cong walked over to the spirit root and placed his hand on the orb. The orb lit up and two colors appeared. One was white while the other was gold.

Ding Huo's eyes lit up in with even more happiness if that was even possible, "A pure yin spirit root! It's a pure yin spirit root! A person with this affinity hasn't been seen since-," he abruptly stopped talking before he finished what he was about to say.

"Nevermind, you can go ahead," Ding Huo said to the confused Bai Cong.

"An unreadable potential and a pure yin spirit root. I'm not that surprised that the Bai family kids possess it," a person said while nodding their head.

"Yes indeed," someone else in the crowd agreed with the previous statement, "It's not surprising in the least."

"But to think that two people with both unreadable potentials and pure yin and yang physiques would appear at the same time. This hasn't happened since-"

"Yes, how amazing it is," another person exclaimed.

Done with his evaluation, Bai Cong walked over to where Bai Chen was standing.

"First brother, what does having a pure yin spirit root mean?" Bai Cong asked.

"I'm not too sure," Bai Chen tried to dig back into his memory, "I've never heard of that spirit root before. You can try asking father or mother when we get back."

"Hmm," Bai Cong hummed and decided to do just that. While Bai Cong was talking to Bai Chen, Bai Chang had already gone up. He got the same evaluation as Bai Chen and he walked over with a face full of pride.

Bai Chen rolled his eyes at him, "Don't get ahead of yourself now," he warned.

"I know big brother," Bai Chang waved him off, "Potential is only a factor, cultivation is the key blah, blah, blah."

"You-," Before Bai Chen could say anything more, Ding Huo cut in.

"Now that that's done, the real competition will commence. I will now ask all people ages 5 to 8 to stand over there. Everyone ages 9 to 14 can stand over there while people ages 15 to 18 can stand right there," Ding Huo pointed to three separate places for the competitors to place themselves into.

Bai Chang wished his brother luck and ran to where his group was. Bai Cong nodded his head at Bai Chen before walked over to his group of kids.

"Now that everyone is separated, I will explain the process of this competition," Ding Huo started to say, "There are three arenas and each group will have one arena to spar on. Kids ages 5 to 8 will be part of the red group. Kids ages 9 to 14 will be in the orange group while kids 15 to 18 will be in the yellow group. All of your names have been written on a stick that will be randomly pulled to match of opponents in your own color group," Ding Huo said as he took out the three boxes that were assigned to each group.

"To make it fair, an opponent with a stronger cultivation level will have their level lowered to the cultivation level of their weaker opponent. This is basically a competition of skill, not cultivation," Ding Huo explained, "If you are defeated, you are no longer part of the spar. If you want to stop the fight, you have to say you give up. If not, an overseas will keep watch to make sure no lives are taken. But that doesn't mean they will make it in time."

This made Bai Cong somewhat happier. He had only just started cultivation just a month before so he had an obvious disadvantage compared to the other kids in his group who had more than a year to start cultivating. It also made it easier to kill Xiong Wei, that troublesome boy. All he had to do was 'accidently' kill him fast enough that the overseer won't have time to save him.

"Each group will have its own prizes that will benefit people of those specific groups," Ding Huo continued, "The prizes will be revealed once the competition is over. Now I will announce the first competitors for each group."

Ding Huo reached into one of the boxes and pulled out two sticks. He then repeated the process for the other two boxes.

"For the red arena, the first competitors are Zhou Li and Ping Fu. In the orange arena, Jing Ru Fang will sparing with Hong Mian. The yellow arena will have Chen Guo and Shi Tu," Ding Huo read off the names for each arena.

Bai Cong watched as Hong Mian walked up to the arena with a serious look that Bai Cong had never seen on her. In her hand was a long, red whip. It didn't look like anything special but it was radiating a bloody aura.

"The Three Fires Whip. The Hong family lord actually gave such a whip to her."

Bai Cong heard someone whisper among his group.

"It's such a bloody whip too," someone else piped up within the crowd.

Her opponent, Jing Ru Fang was a tall, muscular boy with sun-tanned skin. He nodded his head at Hong Mian and unsheathed his broadsword.

The overseer for the orange arena lowered Hong Mian's cultivation level to moral realm Qi-Rebirth before the spar was allowed to start.

Hong Mian quickly jumped back to the edge of the arena and lashed her whip down before Jing Ru Fang could respond. The whip wound around him and like a anaconda, it squeezed the air out of him. The boy fell on the arena floor, trying to get air into his lungs but it was futile. His eyes rolled back and his lips started turning blue from the lack of oxygen until he finally fainted.

Hong Mian then loosened up the whip and released the boy. It was a quick battle with the Jing Ru Fang not having a chance to even show off his techniques.

The overseer jumped onto the arena to check up on on the boy. Seeing that he was okay, the overseer nodded at Hong Mian.

"This winner for this round is Hong Mian," the overseer announced to the crowd.

Hong Mian then walked off the arena platform and into the crowd of kids and turned back into the shy, blushing girl she was before. It was as if it wasn't her that had almost suffocated a guy to death in the arena.

"You're stronger than I thought," Bai Chang said when Hong Mian walked over to him.

Hong Mian blushed, "Thank you," She said softly.

The other battles in the other two arenas also concluded with Zhou Li progressing to the next round in Bai Cong's group and Chen Guo progressing to the next round in Bai Chen's group.

Bai Cong didn't really pay attention to most of the battles in the first round until Bai Chen was called up in his group.

Bai Chen jumped onto the arena with elegance and calmly smiled at his opponent who was a burly boy. Donned in commoner clothes the boy was holding an old sword in his hand that looked like it was chipped in a few places.

The overseer at Bai Chen's arena lowered Bai Chen's cultivation level until it was at Martial realm peak. Bai Chen then unsheathed his double-edged straight sword. Its silver coating glittered when the sun shone on it.

Bai Chen stayed where he was and allowed his opponent to strike first. The boy grabbed his sword and slashed down hard. Bai Chen blocked the strike with expertise and side-stepped while also striking down at his opponents abdomen.

The boy saw it coming and jumped away but Bai Chen didn't let him get too far before he slashed down again, this time connecting his sword with his opponent's arm. His sword pierced through the boys soft flesh and blood started pouring out.

"Aowa!" the boy cried out in pain. He stumbled back away from Bai Chen and held his arm to stop the bleeding.

"You can give up you know," Bai Chen said as he smiled softly at the boy.

"No," the boy gritted his teeth and ripped a piece of his shirt off to wrap his wound.

Bai Chen chuckled at his useless antics, "Suit yourself," was all he said before he once again slashed down his sword at the boy.

The boy gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and moved to evade bai Chen's strike. He then quickly ran behind Bai Chen and pierced at his back.

Bai Chen had already guessed what the boy was going to do so he simply parried his strike when he quickly turned around to face him completely unperturbed.

A glint passed through Bai Chen's eyes and jumped farther away from the boy. He held his sword in front of him and moved it in a circle around him while mumbling something under his breath.

Then images of swords appeared around Bai Chen. All the new swords looked similar to the sword Bai Chen was holding in his hand except that they were all made of Qi. Bai Chen commanded the swords at will and willed them to attack the boy.

The levitating swords flew at the boy at high speeds and was about to strike him until boy yelled, "I give up!"

The swords then stopped just inches before they struck the boy. Bai Chen sneered and snapped his finger to get rid of the Qi swords.

The boy hurried out of the arena in total fright. The overseer looked over at the Bai Chen and announced that he won the fight. Bai Chen jumped out of the arena with a smile still plastered on his face.

"That's my brother you know," Bai Chang bragged to the other people in his group when Bai Chen won his spar.

"Next up in the orange arena is Bai Chang and Wei Zhou," Ding Huo announced.