A Dark Horse

As the elder announced the results, there was a moment of silence, before the crowd erupted into cheers. It would be a lie to say that most people didn't expect Yun Huan to win, since she was the seventh strongest in the outer sect rankings, and Hua Shu was previously unknown.

Hua Shu had managed to surprise everyone with her strength, though, displaying a domineering final strike, which neared the peak of what was possible in the qi gathering realm.

Although she had won her first fight, Hua Shu was now completely exhausted, with only a drop of heavenly energy left in her Dantian. It would take about a day to fully recover, which would obviously make advancing in the tournament an impossible feat, since the competition for ninth stage cultivators was all held during the same day.

Hua Shu had a broad smile on her face, as she limped towards the sidelines of the arena, sitting next to Li Zhu, before immediately starting to cultivate, recovering her energy.

Li Zhu knew not to interrupt her, so he simply turned towards the elder in the arena, waiting for the next round of the competition.

"For the next round, Ti'en Hu will face Wang Da... may the participants step into the arena."

'Wang Da! It seems like I won't be able to fight him so soon' thought Li Zhu, who had been partially hoping that they would be matched up, so that they could finish the fight that they had started.

Of course, both him and Wang Da were valued by the elders at this point in time, so it made sense that they would each be matched with weaker disciples, who had not had a shocking performance during the preliminary round.

As Wang Da walked into the arena, he didn't even look at his opponent, simply demanding, "Give up now, or it won't end well for you! We both know I'm the one intended to win this fight, anyway!"

Ti'en Hu, a muscular young man, simply laughed, before replying, "You're funny, kid, but where I'm from you would have been killed for speaking like that! I don't really like talking, so let's fight!"

Everyone in the crowd, as well as most of the elders, were shocked as they heard Ti'en Hu's words. After all, he was not a famous disciple, and the man he was facing was ranked sixth in the Outer Sect.

Wang Da frowned as he heard Ti'en Hu, before charging towards him with his trusty halberd. The best way to prove his strength was with actions, and if he managed to defeat Ti'en Hu in one strike, then his reputation would only increase.

Seeing Wang Da charging towards him, Ti'en Hu simply shook his head, before suddenly punching himself in the chest. As his fist connected with his chest, Ti'en Hu's eyes turned red, a fierce aura suddenly being released from his body.

Wang Da had now reached the muscular T'ien Hu, as he used the skill which he had displayed at the training grounds. A massive projection of a halberd appeared in the sky, slashing downwards towards Ti'en Hu. This was Wang Da's most powerful skill, which he had only used a few times before.

Ti'en Hu had a crazed expression on his face, as he raised both of his hands, in an attempt to catch the shining halberd.

'Just because Wu Chen could defend against this strike, this nobody believes he can contest my strongest skill!!' thought Wang Da, disdain visible on his face.

The halberd was quick as lightning, as it reached Ti'en Hu, who had his knees slightly bent, and his arms high above him.

As usual, a blinding light came from the clash, causing the spectators to be left unaware of the result.

"Do you think he caught it? I saw Wang Da's fight with Wu Chen, and that man caught the strike with one hand!"

"Yeah, but Wu Chen practices a cultivation method which gives him incredible defense, and this Ti'en Hu seems more like an aggressive fighter, focusing on offence. Although Wu Chen can catch Wang Da's attack with his bare hands, he is probably the only person in the qi gathering realm who can, let alone this unknown disciple"

Hearing this last man's statement, many spectators nodded, thinking the same.

The moment Ti'en and Wang Da appeared into view once more, even Li Zhu and the elders were surprised, since the fight had surprisingly already ended.

Ti'en Hu had one foot over Wang Da's chest, who was laying down on the floor, unconscious. Ti'en Hu did not seem particularly proud of his victory, but he did shoot a few glares at Wang Da, before returning to the side of the arena, a mere ten seconds after the fight had started.

'How is that possible?! Even if he blocked the strike, to knock Wnag Da unconscious so quickly... this man is fierce!' Li Zhu was incredibly surprised, since he had not expected there to be another dark horse in the competition, aside from himself.

The moment he had first seen Ti'en Hu, he had believed there was more than what met the eye, but it seemed as though he had still been underestimating this muscular young man, who had beat Wang Da effortlessly.

Wang Da was dragged out of the arena, a pitiful expression still present on his face, despite him not being conscious. His strongest attack, which he prided himself in, had now been blocked in two separate occasions, by barehanded opponents.

With this fight, Wang Da was eliminated, and Ti'en continued on to the next round.

Most fights after that were uneventful, with the seeded participants winning their fights. Li Zhu's fight was also the same, as he fought a weak disciple, and defeated him with only one sneak attack from Shadow Lurk. The young man had not expected Li Zhu to reappear so close to him, so he had been knocked out with one single punch.

The Inner Sect tournament was often like this, with fights between two strong disciples only occurring in the second round of duels. This made the first round quite boring, but at least it passed quickly, since most fights ended within the first ten seconds.

Li Zhu was glad that the he had spectated all the fights, though, since he had seen one of Song Fai's spirit beasts, probably the weaker of the two. The spirit beast was a Brilliance Lion, which used light as a way to blind and attack its opponents. This spirit beast was somewhat rare, but Li Zhu had seen many of them being used in Heavenly Dragon Empire, so he knew its weaknesses.

Li Zhu hoped that Song Fai's other beast would also be as such, since if he recognized a spirit beast he could find a way to fight it properly.

After the first round, an hour was given to participants to recover their energy, though to disciples like Hua Shu, who had reached their limit when fighting, an hour was not nearly enough time.

As expected, the hour passed quickly, with Li Zhu mostly sitting around, since he was already in peak condition to fight. As he idled around, he tried to remember the fights of every participant who passed the first round, in order to find a way to fight them. There were a total of twenty people left, and each had a very different fighting style, which Li Zhu needed to take into account when deciding his strategy.

As he learned more about his possible opponents, the second round was soon beginning.

The fights this round were much more exciting, since everyone that had gotten this far in the competition was powerful, albeit to different degrees.

Hua Shu, though, was forced to admit defeat, since she could barely stand up, let alone fight. Although this was unfortunate, she was still very close to the core consolidating realm, so she would enter the inner sect soon anyway.

Still, she would only get the rewards of reaching the top twenty, which was quite unfortunate, since if a disciple reached top ten they would have the chance to choose a skill from the Flaming Saber sect Library, without cost.

After the first few fights, where the previous top ten outer sect disciples defeated their opponents, it was Li Zhu's turn to fight his way to the top.

"The next fight is between Li Zhu and Yin Jing... may the participants step into the arena!"

'Yin Jing! The guy with he Frost-Steel wolf!' was Li Zhu's only thought, since he hadn't had any more interactions with this cold young man after the day of the sect examination, during which Yin Jing had arrogantly charged around in his family's wolf.

It seemed as though his opponent didn't think the same way, as Yin Jing stared at Li Zhu with extreme hatred, and even a tinge of killing intent.

Fortunately for Yin Jing, only Li Zhu could feel such a small trace of killing intent, so the elders did not disqualify him for evil intentions.

As they walked into the arena, staring each other deeply, Li Zhu thought, 'Strange... this guy has killing intent towards me, even though we don't really know each other. Well... I guess he'll learn the hard way what wanting to kill me signifies!'