Chapter 2

Zhang Di lifted up his token, it signified his battle number and since it was his turn it was releasing a soft hum as he held it up above the crowd, making his passage to the stage easier because he didn't need to shove his way through and he could just wade through the droves of people standing on the stairs of the stadium.

He quickly arrived at the platform and climbed up to meet his opponent. He looked out at the audience and waved towards the wing with his sect members. From the corner of his eye he saw a man with salt and pepper hair discreetly give him a thumbs up from the sects' elder's table.

'Elder Gao...'

Zhang Di faced towards his opponent, cupped his hands and bowed towards him.

"Zhang Di greets Wang Zuo!"

Wang Zuo returned the gesture. "Right back at ya."

He was surprisingly casual despite the serious situation they were in. But then again the stakes weren't that high since all these sects had a relatively good relationship with each other.

They gave each other a nod after the referee raised the flag signifying the start of the fight.

And as soon as the flag soared down, Zhang Di seemed to enter a tranquil state, his breathe grew level and his vision focused. This was why Elder Xu said nothing about not letting him fight, he self-regulated his own breathing, and duels seemed to make him enter a cultivation-like tranquil state. In fact, the inner sect disciple was in that position due to his uncanny ability to cultivate while fighting, something that was happening at this very moment as evidenced by his faintly glowing meridians.

The nine-hearts outer synchronization state was something that only happened to people with a minimum cultivation of the revolving pavilion stage, something that was currently long ways away from his grip, and even then most cultivators wouldn't even attain that state during their entire lifetime, and this state would rarely even occur for those who do get blessed with the opportunity to experience it.

So it was easy to imagine the uproar amongst the other sects' leaders when they find out that someone of the nine hearts body was found, an extremely rare cultivation physique that was only seen once in 10,000 years. There was much joking and half-envious banter coming from the visiting sects' elder's table, as the jade fortress had another blessed genius in their ranks, Cheng Lei, a youth blessed with the moonlit meridians constitution, another unique physique only seen once in 10,000 years.

But that's enough about Cheng Lei, the battle on stage was currently at full-swing.

Wang Zuo was fast, much faster than the youth blessed by the will of the heavens. The only thing Zhang Di had managed to do was firmly plant his feet onto the ground as he blocked each of the other's kicks.

For some weird reason Wang Zuo was only using his legs, and aiming only for the upper half of Zhang Di's body, and Zhang Di could hear Wang Zuo counting each of his strikes under his breath.

'Aiming for a combo? No, I do that too, but the tone of his voice sounds, anticipatory, is he preparing for something?'

Suddenly, a glowing green clawed hand shot out at Zhang Di's face, causing the young man to bend backwards to avoid it, " Verdant Twin Dragon's grasp!" Due to the angle, Zhang Di didn't see the second hand that grabbed onto his robe, but his hand instinctively reached up to push it out of the way and redirect it, sadly his movements were too slow and he only hit his forearm against the other's wrist.

Wang Zuo jerked Zhang Di forward, causing the young genius to lose his footing, and thus give his opponent an opening. Hand outstretched towards the auburn haired youth's face, mainly because Wang Zuo hated how good-looking he was, and he always aimed for the faces of good looking guys. It was his right as a member of the 'plain faced' club.

There was the sound of a crackle as Wang Zuo felt a literal shock roll through his body, golden streaks of jagged light connected and swirled around Zhang Di's figure, causing Wang Zuo to let go as the lightning coursed through his veins.

This caused even more of an uproar amongst the visiting elders, people with lightning affinities were only seen once in 1000 years, and for this sect to have a genius disciple under the illustrious Elder Gao's wings- a man who used to be called the Brutal Lightning Lord- especially one of Zhang Di's caliber, was almost terrifying.

Even Wang Zuo was shocked, literally, this time though, he now regrets not buying that 'stat pamphlet' one of the students was trying to sell to him. He had no clue that Zhang Di had a lightning affinity, if he did, he would have been more cautious, and now his opponent had the upper hand.

He would have sighed in disappointment, as he now knew for certain that he'd lose, but Zhang Di's fist robbed him of even that as it went crashing into his face, Zhang Di's elbow soon following by crashing into Wang Zuo's gut.

His opponent didn't even use any battle techniques to defeat him, just backing up his hits and moves with qi and infusing it with some elemental energy. Whenever Wang Zuo was about to recover from a shock he was hit once again, eventually forming a one-sided battle.

When Zhang Di stopped the audience gasped, Wang Zuo was still standing. On shaky legs he lifted an arm to his nose, blowing out a clot of blood in his nostril onto the stage, taking a stance, it looked like Zhang Di was giving him a chance to put up a fight.

Wang Zuo bowed, thanking him for letting him try again, personally, most would be offended by the gesture and interpret it as Zhang Di being arrogant enough to go easy on them and thanking him would cause him to lose face, but this particular youth had no face to slap in the first place, the thickness of his skin would have hidden his features, he was just glad that he was given a chance to take a breather and readjust his approach to the fight, this new information would be useful and might let him have a chance at winning.

-----

Hands flat against the top of the pillar, the young man proceeded to do vertical pushups on it, both legs sticking straight up into the air as all his weight rested on his arms. His sweat formed a fine sheen on his musculature, drawing even more attention to his toned form, long black hair billowing out below him as he had let it down while he was training.

"More." Was the only word he said before one of his lackeys proceeded to increase the pressure of the gravity on the gravity platform. The effect was visible, he slowed down and his movements became strained, but still managed to move at a steady pace.

Now Cheng Lei like most of the other disciple, was eagerly anticipating the festive activities for the same reason everyone else was, he just found the large amount of strangers made him uneasy, he had spent most of his time practicing and having one of his lackeys watch out for his matches, and purchase some items for him.

Eventually he sent them out of the training room, having them buy a collection of things, elixir cuisine, battle techniques, alchemical products, and even talismans, thanks to his father being an elder, he had a lot of contribution points and spirit stones to spend, so he'd rather use them to purchase things he can't get in his own sect while he still had the chance.

The weight of the gravity on the platform had more than doubled in the time they were gone, and he was now absolutely soaked in sweat, right when he was about to stop to wipe himself off there was a knock on the door, which was curious as he never told his subordinates to knock.

It was likely a stranger and he debated with himself for a few seconds before telling them to come in, who knew it might be something important.

A feminine head with a purple huadian on it's forehead peeked out from behind the huge double doors before turning a bright red as the female disciple walked in. She wasn't wearing robes from his sect, that much he could tell, as her were a deep purple embroidered with purple threads.

He furrowed his brows, as she didn't speak for the first few seconds as she gaped at him, "Speak." He crossed his arms, growing impatient with her. His words seemed to have knocked her out her stupor, and she scratched at her nape due to how awkward this interaction became because she couldn't help but marvel at how good looking he was, there wasn't any attractive guys on his level at her sect so she decided to enjoy the eye-candy while it lasted, especially because he was shirtless.

"Uhm, I think I'm lost. I came here to find the sect's renowned illusionary bird array to practice my archery." She gestured to the intricately carved amethyst bow on her back, "But I can't seem to find it. I even reserved a room with the receptionist, and they gave me this slip." She held up a palm sized wooden plaque, "It says 32, and I think she may have booked me with the wrong room, because this one is obviously occupied and isn't what I asked for anyway." He nodded his head, pointing at the gilded illustration at the bottom of her plaque, "You're in the wrong wing. This is the stone golem wing, the wing you're looking for is the bifang crane wing. Each of the wings have numbered rooms ranging from 1-100, it can cause some confusion if you aren't aware of the building's structure."

"C-could you escort me to where I should go?" She took a gamble on the last sentence, hoping to stay around him a little longer, but he shot that attempt down with his words, "I'm in the middle of training, apologies. But I can give you directions." She nodded her head, now determined to listen in carefully to his next sentence as he told her the direction to head to that wing of the training hall.

"You're in the western wing, the building has a kind of a half crescent shape, if you looked at it from aerial view it would look like a set of teeth. In between each hallway is a courtyard as you may have seen and passed by, and in each courtyard is a statue." While speaking he proceeded to wipe off the sweat that had built up on his neck and head, each movement of his drawing attention to his well-trained form, "Each statue represents what wing you're in. You can tap the slip against the statue and it will radiate a line of light directing you to your designated room. You just need to walk down this hallway and then turn left, keep going and eventually you'll find that statue." When he was done speaking she was about to melt. She had smacked her cheeks with her palms to motivate herself to leave instead of earning his ire by sticking around to watch the gun show.

He watched her leave before going back to his training. Just outside his door as soon as it closed she leaned her back against it, sliding down to the ground, just about ready to roll around on the ground clutching her burning cheeks, "ohemgeeeee, he's so gorgeous, his voice was so hot too~ Thank you fate for directing me to this sight today. I feel refreshed already." The Amethyst Dew Pearl Princess of the Plum Soul Steel Sect fist punched the air before standing up and getting ready to leave, the violet string of beads on her buyao swaying with each step.