Let The Tournament Begin!

The attention of the entire courtyard was on the village elder as he held the box. Instead of shuffling the box and taking a slip out, he instead waved a hand and sent the slips of paper flying to the board to his left. Each name took a proper place within a box. Hong Zhao checked the listings and saw he was the fourth match. He smiled as he saw Ren Cai's name at the third match listing. He could at least see his competition in action first before having to face her. No other cultivator seemed to be his match within the group, yet he had a feeling that Huang Yi had something up his sleeve. The older boy had been too quiet since he had returned to the village. He obviously knew his strength was much weaker than Hong Zhao's, yet he didn't seem to care.

"The rules of the tournament are quite simple." Elder Huang Ji continued. "This will be a test of your martial arts. While you are permitted to use your techniques, killing is strictly prohibited." He looked at his grandson out of the corner of his eye. Huang Yi only glared at the old man in what Hong Zhao could only assume was dissatisfaction. "As well as maiming." The village elder said with finality. "With that aside, let the tournament commence!"

Hong Zhao looked at the leader board and saw the names of the first two contestants. They were both female three star student ranked cultivators. "Xiuying Zhao and Shi Lingxin, take your positions!" Huang Ji shouted at the crowd and walked off of the stage. When he was gone, the two girls took his place, slowly walking to the arena.

Looking at the two girls, Hong Zhao was slightly impressed. Not by their cultivation, but by the way they carried themselves. By his guess, they were both around seven years old, maybe a little older, yet they had an air of a true martial artist. They didn't hesitate when jumping on to the stage, nor did they shy away from the gaze of the other. He couldn't quite tell which one would have the upper hand just at first glance.

The competitors bowed in respect to each other, then the match was officially started. The one named Xiuying Zhao took a step to the left, which made Shi Lingxin take a step in the opposite direction. They circled each other for a moment, each trying to ferret out weaknesses in the other's defenses.

After a few seconds of gauging each other, Hong Zhao blinked for an instant, and the two girls raced to each other. Their speed was nothing compared to his vortex thrust, yet it was enough to gain a few admiring glances from the crowd around the arena. Shi Lingxin met Xiuying Zhao in the center of the arena, blocking the opposition's jab to her face with her forearm, then grabbed the fist and used the momentum to pick Xiuying Zhao from the arena and slam her to the tournament floor. Before landing painfully, Xiuing Zhao's feet bent in a way to absorb the blow of the ground and instead of landing on her back, she propelled herself back to her feet and back flipped a few feet away from Shi Lingxin, landing in a defensive position once again.

Though the encounter only took a few seconds, Hong Zhao examined each movement the two girls made. If this was what he was to encounter, he couldn't help but smile with the confidence he felt. The two girls combat experience was only limited to their training, not the combat experience he had within this world, or within his last life.

Glancing over to Huang Yi, Hong Zhao's smile faded slightly. The older boy seemed to easily follow the two competitors movements. He could see his eyes moving with every step they took. Hong Zhao could see no look of doubt or hesitation on Huang Yi's face. He looked calm and collected, almost bored even.

Hong Zhao looked at every other student ranked cultivator and noticed a hint of respect in each of their eyes.

The battle raged on around the arena as the two girls fought to gain the upper hand. It was a long match. Hong Zhao noted that neither of the opponents had any martial arts abilities, yet he didn't feel that it was that odd. Even for a sixth star student ranked cultivator, it was thought impossible for such a young child to have the attention span necessary to train an ability, much less find someone who took them seriously enough to show them. Hong Zhao noted the knowing smiles of all the grown ups.

As the two young girls continued their dance around the arena, neither were gaining the upper hand. It looked more like a literal dance to Hong Zhao than what he had originally come to believe a fight should look like. He was used to his life or death struggles in the Jade Forest. The only other human fighters he had gone against got their throats cut. It wasn't exactly a match between equals.

Sweat shined from the ground of the arena as the mid day sun blazed on the two girls. Hong Zhao wiped a bead of sweat of his own away from his forehead before it went into his eyes. If he was already sweating, he wondered just how bad the two girls might be faring.

Hong Zhao watched the crowd more intently as the fight continued. Every cultivator present seemed to be entertained by the two combatants, except for one cultivator. The very cultivator that seemed to make him uneasy.

Huang Yi seemed not to even pay attention to the fight. Instead, he was looking very intently at his grandfather. Without taking his eyes off of the village elder's grandson, Hong Zhao made his way to Li Wei and Li Wuhan. The two looked his way as he got closer and made way for him.

"I don't want you two to show your abilities during your matches." Hong Zhao said quietly yet naturally, as if he were just having a normal conversation with the two children. "Do not make any expressions that may give away what I am telling you. Just smile naturally." His eyes darted back to Huang Yi to emphasize his point.

The two smiled as Hong Zhao instructed, yet he knew they didn't understand. "What do you think he is here for?" Li Wuhan asked as he smiled towards the match, at least pretending to still be interested. Hong Zhao silently thanked whatever god that watched over this world that this child understood how to be subtle.

"That isn't a question to answer at this moment." Hong Zhao said under his breath. His warm smile and calm demeanor made the two sweat more than the sun would have ever made them. "After the tournament, meet me at my courtyard." He then waved at the two and turned to leave back to his place beside Ren Cai who watched him carefully.

"You three seem pretty friendly." Ren Cai simply said as Hong Zhao took his place. Once again he was taken aback by the maturity the young girl was showing. Her hazel eyes seemed to bore into him, almost as if she were taking measure of him. He once again felt as if she were not natural, as if what happened to him may have happened to her as well.

Hong Zhao nodded slightly. "We and the Li family have been through quite a lot of late." He said simply. "You could say that I'm a family friend." A light smile played upon his lips. If she was going to speak in a way that a small child wouldn't, then he didn't feel the need to play the part with her either. "I feel like we could be friends in the future as well." His eyes met hers as he returned her measuring look.

If anyone were around the two sixth star student ranked cultivators, they may have felt slightly perturbed by how unnatural the exchange of pleasantries were. The young children seemed to be speaking as if they were old friends from long ago, not young acquaintances.

"What do you think of the fight so far?" Hong Zhao pushed the subject of the Li family away from them. If anything, he wanted to know whether the young girl had her own abilities, or if she were just another of the cultivators that were still coming into themselves.

"I suppose you will see just what I think of them after we fight ourselves." She gave him a knowing smile. It seemed this girl wasn't going to give anything away. "Just know that if you hold back, I might accidentally kill you."

Hong Zhao paused for a moment. Not once had he been so openly threatened since he had gotten to this world. He smiled slightly, excitement seemed to radiate from his eyes. "You got it, ma'am." He said in his best southern gentlemen accent. This seemed to take the young girl by surprise. She doubled back a bit and laughed lightly. Hong Zhao knew from that moment, this girl was not so simple.

The match lasted for a few minutes after the conversation ended. The victor was Xiuying Zhao, yet she didn't win with anything interesting. She seemed to outlast Shi Lingxin through sheer force of will. The moment the other girl fell off the arena platform, Xiuying Zhao collapsed. Her chest rose and fell softly as Huang Ji announced her the winner. In a flash, two adults came to the arena on either side of her. One of them popped a pill into her mouth. After a few moments, her body seemed to glow softly white and her body levitated a few inches off of the ground.

The two men gently led the young girl off of the stage, one man in front and the other behind. "Levitation pill?" Hong Zhao whistled as he watched the display. For a continent of student ranked experts, they sure knew some interesting alchemy. He could think of many uses a pill like that could have in his previous occupation.

"Does that seem unnatural to you?" Ren Cai gave Hong Zhao a sideways glance.

"I just haven't seen anything like that before." Hong Zhao said simply. He had to be careful with what he said around this girl. It felt like she was trying to gauge him again.

"Then why did you call it a levitating pill?" her eyebrow went up dramatically. Now she was just teasing him. "I'm not here to bust your balls." Ren Cai laughed and lightly elbowed him in the stomach.

"Who exactly are you?" Hong Zhao became serious instantly. He had never heard that expression, that is except within his own world. This was the final piece to the puzzle. She had to be from earth.

"I thought I had already introduced myself." Ren Cai smiled gently. "My name is Ren Cai of course."

The young girl turned to walk in the direction the crowd began to leave in. "One day you might tell me who you really are." Hong Zhao called out before she was out of earshot.

"Maybe one day you might remember on your own." He heard her voice faintly through the crowd.

Hong Zhao watched in confusion as the young girl disappeared. He had never before been in a relationship with a girl. Not in this life or the last, there wasn't enough time. The crowd slowly swallowed her image, cutting him off from his thoughts. "Whoever you are, I know now that we are not acquaintances.

Turning to leave, he noticed that Li Wei and Li Wuhan were waiting for him by the entrance to the arena. Both of them had an expression that wouldn't fit a normal set of children. Hong Zhao gave an inward sigh. He supposed they hadn't been the carefree set of children since their trek through the forest. "This tournament is goi