58 A Cry of a Crane

The next day, after a night of rest, the disciples of Gui were only left with the top-four.

There were hundreds of disciples in the outer section. At competitions of year-end evaluation, there were often draws. Elders usually discussed for the arrangement of disciples in draws, to fight again, or to both advance; sometimes they arranged one or even two outsiders to join and have a melee, and it was said that there had also been a few cases that a lucky draw directly determined who would advance.

After a group discussion, Li Xiaochun and Zhong Yifan were arranged to have a competition against WEI Gaoyuan and Wei Gaoyuan, that meant, let the two Gaoyuans decide who would be promoted.

By drawing, Li Xiaochun VS WEI Gaoyuan, Zhong Yifan VS Wei Gaoyuan.

Liu Xingfei had finished the evaluation yesterday and finally won the fifth in Xin grade. It was not bad but he was not very satisfied because it was the same as the previous year, no improvement.

Rather than to watch the competitions among the top-three of Xin, he came to the area of Gui to watch his junior brother Wei and Zhong.

As a disciple of the Blue-Feather, Liu Xingfei naturally wished that Zhong Yifan would go further in the evaluation this year, but he knew Wei Gaoyuan much more than anyone else. Junior brother Zhong had no chance to win at all. So, he came for asking Wei Gaoyuan whether he could let junior brother Zhong win.

"Brother Liu!" Wei Gaoyuan greeted as soon as he saw Liu Xingfei, and then laughed, "I heard from brother Chu yesterday, you'd got the fifth of Xin!"

"Well," Liu Xingfei sighed, twisting his mouth, then show four of his fingers, "I've been ranked fifth for four consecutive years. It's really not easy to get a place in top-three."

The corner of Wei Gaoyuan's mouth rising, he wanted to laugh but held it back.

Liu Xingfei had been in the outer section for four years, and participated in four year-end evaluations, and ranked the fifth for four times. Could any disciple of Xin perform more steadily than brother Liu?

Speaking of today's competition against Zhong Yifan, Wei Gaoyuan had to tell Liu Xingfei that Li Xiaochun, who would appear in the first against WEI Gaoyuan, was his brother in the East Mountain Sword Club. Thus, it was not that proper to present Zhong Yifan with an easy ticket in and send his brother Li out.

Wei Gaoyuan came up with an idea: according to the results of the fight between Li Xiaochun and WEI Gaoyuan, he would perform to let Zhong Yifan lose in the same amount of patterns as Li Xiaochun could resist WEI Gaoyuan, and next, just pushed the headache back to the Elders~

Sound not bad~ Liu Xingfei was very satisfied. After expressing his appreciation, they talked about if they could find a few more missions next year to earn some contribution points.

The stage gap between Li Xiaochun and WEI Gaoyuan should have made the competition finished soon, in not more than three patterns of WEI Gaoyuan. But WEI Gaoyuan didn't use his weapon, unlike him, Li Xiaochu chose to use his sword from the beginning to the end and concentrated much more on the defensive than on the proactive. So, it finally took WEI Gaoyuan as many as seven patterns to drive Li Xiaochun off the platform.

As a consequence, WEI Gao yuan was the first to be one of the top-two of Gui, as everyone expected.

When Wei Gaoyuan stepped on the platform, he drew out his sword first, that ordinary one worth two silver coins, showing his respect to the competition as well as the Blue-Feather.

In fact, in the first six patterns, he hardly used the sword to attack; even if he gave, it was some of the simplest swordsmanship he'd learnt.

Upon his seventh pattern, Wei Gaoyuan's figure suddenly vanished out of Zhong Yifan's sight!

It was time to say good bye! Zhong Yifan got an astonishment in his heart, and until Wei Gaoyuan's figure appeared again in front of him next second, the body of his sword had been on the shoulder of Zhong Yifan.

So far, some brothers and sisters, who came as audience in curiosity or for amusement, had realized that the boy they were watching had been the second to reach the final, not bad, but it still seemed not powerful enough to challenge the disciple of Xin…

Anyway, just sit and wait for the final result, if the boy couldn't win WEI Gaoyuan, how many rounds he would keep himself standing on the platform while confronting the top of Xin?

...

Another morning came, with the snowing gone. It was much colder, though.

The cotton-padded jacket distributed by the section made Wei Gaoyuan looked a little bit fat.

Actually, he didn't need to put on it as a martial artist was able to run his Internal Qi to resist cold more or less. For those who had reached the Mystery, as usual, a thin gown with an underwear was enough in the winter around zero degrees centigrade.

Wei Gaoyuan had a childhood worse than the poor. Once winter came, he could only put on such a luxury cotton-padded jacket in his dream; once he got some warm clothes, he gave it to his sick sister; once winter left, it always left full of frostbite on his hands and feet.

Now, he was just wearing a cotton-padded jacket, and would stand on the final stage. A sweet present always preferred to come with a few sour memories.

Compared to Wei Gaoyuan, WEI Gaoyuan looked more like a young handsome swordsman. He was wearing a gown as white as snow, waving with his tidy black hair in the morning wind; tied behind his back was the three feet long sword in the silver sheath.

WEI Gaoyuan jumped over, landed stable on the platform, and slid his sword out of the sheath. Likewise, his body was a sword out of the sheath, ready to shoot anytime.

Wei Gaoyuan walked peacefully onto the platform, step by step.

The wind on the platform felt colder. He said in his heart.

Sister, where were you now? How were you now? Had you learnt how to fly into the sky on your sword from some Taoism Follower master?

While he was thinking, his opponent WEI Gaoyuan raised his head, "I didn't want to use my sword, but this is the final; if I don't use, it would not be polite to you, and… I won't keep my strength. Take care of yourself, junior brother."

Wei Gaoyuan raised his head, seeing the eyes of WEI Gaoyuan, which appeared not so firm as before.

Indeed, WEI Gaoyuan was kind of hesitant about the final. Originally, he regarded himself as a red-crowned crane standing among a bunch of doltish chickens. Except for Li Xiaochun, no disciple of Gui had cost him more than five patterns. But yesterday, he found that Zhong Yifan, who seemed almost equivalent to Li Xiaochun in the stage and strength, only took seven patterns by Wei Gaoyuan. Although Wei Gaoyuan used his sword, he did not do his best for sure. Thus, should he reconsider Wei Gaoyuan's data? This opponent appeared as simple as his cotton-padded jacket, but…

(Red-crowned crane: recognized as a first-class cultural bird since ancient China. It represents loyalty, integrity, and noble character.)

Wei Gaoyuan gave a smile, whose eyes seemed blank suddenly. He just felt somehow this final was not so meaningful as he'd thought before — what if he won the final to stand on the summit of Gui?

The dragon might be staring above the clouds at the red-crowned crane who was overlooking the chickens on the ground.

In a flash, his eyes turned meaningful and soulful, which gave Elder Xu on the judge seat a very bad feeling!

"Go!" with an order of the referee, WEI Gaoyuan's sword shot first. An all-Internal-Qi sword-strike! He just wanted to end the game in one pattern!

Elder Xu's eyes were fixed on the point of WEI Gaoyuan's blade. He could accept WEI Gaoyuan lose in the final, but he could never accept WEI Gaoyuan lose in one pattern!

WEI Gaoyuan's sword turned into a flash of lightning — a visible flash of Sword Qi, so fast that even some of Xin disciples were astonished!

In the distance, a drop of bright dew was gliding on a leaf and falling off a big tree…

The Sword-Qi had almost reached the chest of Wei Gaoyuan. Wei Gaoyuan's figure abruptly blurred in front of WEI Gaoyuan.

Right after that, Wei Gaoyuan's blurred figure moved and passed by WEI Gaoyuan, which, in WEI Gaoyuan's eyes, was just a common and quick passing…

A crisp short sound came, like a cry of crane.

There only left silence then.

Standing behind WEI Gaoyuan, Wei Gaoyuan was sliding his sword back into the scabbard.

Elder Xu's face was pale.

The drop of dew in the distance had just fallen on the ground, smashed.

WEI Gaoyuan fell onto the ground, without any voice.