Conclusion

The tournament continued as Wei Nan dazzled the audience with his Shadow Devil spirit with constantly shifting attack patterns and razor sharp shadowy attacks. Xiangjun also impressed those watching with his powerful Fire Salamander, however, he was eliminated by someone from the third year Genius Class in the quarter-finals.

The semi-finals came, and it was Wei Nan against Nie Li, and Lin Hong against another third year classmate. Ning'Er met with Wei Nan and Nie Li before they fought.

"Which of you think you have a better chance against that mysterious demon plant? He's...dangerous." Ning'Er asked them.

Both of the boys eyes were filled with a cold fury to take revenge for their friend who had almost lost his life and she could tell that they both wanted the opportunity. She sighed deeply and turned to Wei Nan, "Your demon spirit specialises in assassination from the darkness. If you hid in the darkness and launched a surprise attack at a vital spot, you would easily defeat Lin Hong. But face to face with his myriad of vine attacks, you would find it hard to break through his defenses."

She put her hand on Nie Li's shoulder. "Actually, I'd prefer if you didn't fight. That Lin Hong's killer intent is as cold and calculative as a killing puppet. It's as though he has no more emotions left in him. If you feel that you're in danger, concede immediately and the elders will intervene if he goes overboard. I don't have any more advice to give you because your strategic mind is your greatest weapon."

In the ensuring semi-final fight, Nie Li and Wei Nan did a light customary spar to demonstrate their techniques without any intention to hit each other or exert unnecessary soul force. It was easy for the audience to see through the intentions of the halfhearted motions but they appreciated the techniques that were being displayed nonetheless. It also made them even more keen to see the finals as they knew that Lin Hong would be fighting against one of Lu Piao's close friends. What would happen?

"In the final battle of the tournament, please welcome to the sparring ring, Nie Li and Lin Hong!" The announcement rang out in the arena.

Nie Li stepped out with a firm resolve in his eyes. Unlike the fight against Wang Fang, he hadn't come up with any solid counter measures for Lin Hong's demon spirit yet. From what Ning'Er had told him, his opponent did not suffer pain the same way and if threatened, could easily launch a reflexive attack which would take his life without any hesitation.

Without any hesitation, the moment the fight began, Lin Hong transformed into his demon spirit as though he knew that he would be no match for Nie Li's hand to hand combat in human form. Nie Li followed suit and once again took the form of a slender, faceless humanoid.

Following the same attack pattern that he had used throughout the knockout stages, Lin Hong sent his whirling vines slashing down, left, right, at Nie Li from various angles with no break in between. No opponent had been able to break through this technique yet so he saw no reason to change anything. In any case, his body had the resilience of a plant which could regenerate over time if needed.

The first thing Nie Li turned into was the Panterran that he had seen Ning'Er use in their trainings together. Although he could only display around fifty percent of the physical abilities of each of the creatures he transformed into, this form would give him a large boost in speed and agility to begin testing the limits of Lin Hong's vines.

He began evasive maneuvers while finding opportunities to rake his claws into the vines that swung at him. Although he was successful several times and even manage to slice off a few of the vines, the plant demon didn't display any pain or suffering at all. However, there was a clear sense of frustration as the vines kept missing its target over and over. The attacks kept speeding up but because of the anger, it because easier to predict where they would land.

Nie Li smiled as he smelled the faint scent of spores that we being released by the vines that attacked at him. Lin Hong had just been faking his impatience in order to secretly disperse numbing spores in the air with each attack and parry. Fortunately, Ning'Er had already warned him ahead of time and made him consume an antidote before the battle began. However, this gave him an opportunity.

As the attacks continued to rain down, the Panterran began to stumble from time to time as though it were getting drowsy, where a few vines started connecting with glancing blows. The onlookers could visibly see Lin Hong preparing a big attack. As the smaller vines continued to occupy the panther beast, the largest vine curled itself for a big attack.

As the Panterran stumbled once again, the vine pierced forward with deadly trajectory. The referee had already started stepping towards the two fighters in case he had block the attack but with a sudden shift in direction, Nie Li sprang at unbelievable speed forward towards the main body of the plant, avoiding the thrusting vine at the same time.

The powerful jaws of the Panterran bit into the rough bark of the plant and tore out a chunk as Lin Hong let out a weird screeching sound. Finally, an attack that had caused pain had connected. Planting its powerful paws on the exact same spot, it launched off at full force while raking its claws downwards. There was another unusual squeal as all the vines closed in, narrowly missing the jumping panther.

While in the air, Nie Li transformed into a Giant Winged Roc and swooped down to plunge its beak into another part of the main body of the plant. Lin Hong stumbled backwards in pain and once again, lashed out with its vines but the flying beast had already jerked to the side. Nie Li knew that his opponent was wounded and disoriented, and did not want to lose this opportunity.

The vines streaked after him, forming a net in the air so that there was no escape upwards anymore but Nie Li just let himself fall towards the ground, transforming into a Fire Salamander at the same time. With incredible speed, he slithered up onto the plant, avoiding any attacks with his twisting body, and began striking at exposed portions with fiery attacks from its claws.

Lin Hong screeched in pain before hastily retreating backwards. Feeling the pain of the accumulation of all the different attacks, he began to wrap all his vines around himself forming a solid sphere of protection. From the many layers that were forming, it would be difficult for Nie Lie's attacks to break through if they remained at the same level of power.

One of the weaknesses of the Shapeshifting Fae that Nie Li had merged with was that it lacked singular attacks of great strength. This was the price that it had to pay in order to have the versatility it possessed. Nie Li slithered speedily towards the sphere of vines to test its toughness but the moment a fiery claw swiped at the vines, a sharp branch immediately exploded outwards and pierced through the Fire Salamander's shoulder. Hissing in pain, it retreated quickly to reassess how to attack.

It seemed as though this defensive method had a built in reflexive counter which would instantaneously respond to physical attacks. It lacked the ability to initiate attacks but made it increasingly difficult for a close combat to build up any sort of momentum to break through the intertwining vines. If this continued, it would likely end in a stalemate unless Nie Li could generate a very powerful attack to break through, or if he made a mistake and ended up countered effectively by Lin Hong's defensive method.

Nie Li lifted his reptilian head and a forked tonged flicked out as his eyes made contact with Ning'Er. Then, he transformed into a Scarlet Flame bear, the strongest close combat form that he had obtained so far. He had used many of the demon beasts of his team because after all the training with them, these were the beasts that he became so familiar with that he could most accurately use their forms and abilities.

Then he crouched down as he started to forcefully channel his soul force from his dantian in an unnatural flow around the bear's body. He felt excruciating pain as he reversed the flow of soul force in three key meridian points, forming an unusual triangular stream of energy. As he felt some of his energy pathways begin to rupture, an insane energy began to bottleneck at those points and come close to erupting. Without waiting any longer, his threw his head back and roared at the sky as he channeled the berserk energy to his right arm. Bright blue flames burst out from his entire arm, and the crowd began to smell that even the bear's own fur and skin was being singed.

Ning'Er's face turned slightly pale as she realised what Nie Li was doing. She had taught the team a secret technique that would forcefully overdraw on their vitality to dramatically raise their strength for a short time but that would cause severe damage to their bodies, which they would need time to recover from. She had told them to only use it in extreme emergencies.

Why would Nie Li hold this tournament so importantly? It was all right for it to end as a draw. But as she saw the conviction in his eyes, she realised that even if she shouted for him to stop, he would not draw back at this point. She could only pray that he would not be too injured and be able to recover without affecting his future training and growth potential.

The Scarlet Flame Bear ran forward with unstoppable momentum and with a might swipe of its claw, smashed through the layers of vines as though it were made of paper. A few counter vines struck into the bear's body but were unable to pierce all the way through because of how tough its defense was. Nie Li had time to pull back for one final blow, and with one final roar that shook the wooden seats of everyone watching, thrust his giant paw into the main body of Lin Hong.

Lin Hong screeched as he experienced an unbelievable pain course through his plant body. The force of the strike threw up the entire sphere of vines into the air, causing it to bounce with crushing impact several times before coming to a stop fifty feet away.

As Nie Li stood there, panting at the exertion of those two blows, he hurriedly transformed back to human form so that the damaging technique he just used would be cut off. He almost fell over as the soul force churning in his body abruptly stopped and he coughed out a large mouthful of blood, while keeping his eyes focused on Lin Hong in the distance.

If the plant demon managed to get up to continue fighting, Nie Li would concede because he knew he could not carry on in his current state. While he kept on watching, the vines slowly retreated within the main body until all that was left was a boy lying motionless, with black singe marks remaining all over his body. The medics quickly rushed to his side.

"He's alive! And it doesn't look like he's suffered from a fatal injury. He's just unconscious from severely depleted soul force and the pain of the burns all over his body. Bring him to the infirmary!"

They rushed him out as the crowd roared and applauded with appreciation for the battle they had just seen. Nie Li's unrelenting tenacity and flexible battle approaches, as well as the myriad of demon beasts he had displayed, gave them a visual experience they would remember for the rest of their lives! And Lin Hong's formidable ability with the plant demon was something most of them had never seen before today. If this boy could maintain his humanity and fight for Glory City, he would be a great addition to the city's forces!

Nie Li stoically walked back to his friends slowly, with a big smile on his face. "I did it!"

"Stop pretending. Du Ze and Linjian, hurry up and support him. We need to bring him to the Lu Family immediately. He'll need medicine and at least a month of rest to recover from hi-." She stopped mid-sentence and Nie Li's eyes rolled backwards as his body flopped forwards. Fortunately, the boys were close enough to catch him but they were alarmed at blood that continued flowing out of their friend's mouth.

"Hurry." Ning'Er led the way to the Winged Dragon Family's carriage so that horses could expedite their journey to their intended destination. She knew that Nie Li had only used the technique for a short few moments to land two attacks, so his life wouldn't be at risk but she didn't want any of his potential to be damaged.

The Next Generation Tournament would be talked about for many years. A fourteen year old boy from the second year had won in the face of much older fighters of higher cultivation bases from the third year. And there were four students from the younger generation who were even disallowed from participating because they were simply too strong!