Frog eating swanmeat!

The annual Sect tournament started five days later, and when I learned more about it, I was more than glad that I wasn't participating. While it was true that it was a way for Outer Sect disciples to earn a place in the Inner Sect without being formally invited by an Elder, it was open to the entire school and not just the new disciples, as I had thought.

I did attend to watch, though. Not only to provide moral support but to see many different ways of fighting in a controlled environment, especially of those of higher cultivation, like the two men fighting with literal flying swords in front of me right now. They each had multiples and moved them around telekinetically, like the way Magneto might fight with a sword, but each movement was still infused with a large understanding of the weapon, my intuition told me.

I blinked and almost missed the thrilling conclusion to the fight, where a fancy sword moved in the blink of an eye hiding a small group of swords in its shadow and smashed into one of the competitors, obliterating the outer protective barrier but being stopped on the inner layer. That was how these fights were different, too.

They were overseen by Golden Core elders, who placed two barriers on each participant. If the outer barrier was breached, it was match over; you lost. The inner barrier was there to protect the competitors after the first outer barrier was breached and was really strong. I couldn't tell if this was just a common spell that Golden Core level cultivators had or if the barriers were coming from some sort of magical device or formation, though.

I was quite curious because this was an area where a cultivator spell vastly exceeded the state of the art for the Abjuration school. Although the power level of an average Golden Core cultivator was close to or equivalent to what Merildwen would consider a demigod to have, they might just be using a profligate amount of energy to get around certain abjuration limitations.

It was through these preparations that you could go mostly ham on these fights, as opposed to the more civilised sparring sessions where you had to hold back. Incorporeal attacks, like psychic attacks and attacks of the soul, would still be effective and were somewhat restricted, but I might be one of the only ones who had those types of spells at this level, at least in a school that focused so much on the sword.

There were three fights at a time, so I switched to watching the tail end of another bout featuring two cultivators closer to my level, one of which was familiar.

One fighter performed a textbook beating of the enemy's blade back and riposting with a slash that destroyed the enemy's outer barrier at their neck. The invisible barrier briefly became visible as it shattered into translucent yellow fractals before the attacker's sword was held fast by the inner barrier, signalling a sure decapitation if there was no protection.

"Winner, Jiaozi Liu!" yelled the referee. I grinned, and a couple of the girls who had started gravitating around me smirked. Apparently, my goal of laying low was kind of impossible after I seized the dwelling of a long-time Outer Sect member. Being the centre of a clique of young women was ... a new experience.

All of the females in my clique that were inducted with me refused to call me anything but "Senior Sister" despite having the same seniority. One of them was even one cultivation stage ahead of me, too.

One of them asked, "Oh, you like the big and wild type, then, huh?"

Oh, gag me with a spoon. I just liked that he was a good sport with me stealing his house and making him hop around on one foot for several hours until he broke free from the spell. He'd even approached Xiao Li and me to practice together a few times.

He was actually pretty chill and, surprisingly, really strong—stronger than his presence at the lowest of the nice villas suggested. He might be a couple of stages below the top of the Outer Sect, but his strength was right at the top.

I had mistakenly picked a Crouching Tiger when I stole his house, as he had the same idea I had. He didn't care about the unofficial Outer Sect disciple rankings, so he just got the best class of dwelling possible and never challenged anyone above him—exactly what I intended to do.

"Ugh, no," I told the young woman. The idea was repulsive because that had been Merildwen's type, and I had memories that I didn't enjoy remembering of her dalliances with a couple of these types of men.

"Yes, I think Senior Sister Wen likes the younger type. Senior Brother Xiao Li mentioned that they travelled and lived together for over a year!" another one teased me, and I narrowed my eyes at the young woman in question, which caused her to shrink back a little bit, thinking perhaps she had overstepped herself.

I shook myself, shuddering a bit, "He's like a younger brother to me. Please cease your speculations about my romantic interests." Especially since some of them were much more my type, and I thought I'd achieve a better closure rate if I attempted to seduce—err... speak to them one at a time.

Not that I was even sure I would pursue a relationship with a fellow disciple. It sounded like it might lead to much drama, actually, so I probably would just recuse myself from periodic visits to the "big city" and its fleshpots if my teenage-elven hormones went out of control.

I frowned, thinking about that. I was close to full-grown, perhaps the equivalent of seventeen or eighteen years. I still was a little bit shorter than Meril's mom had been, but not by too much. But how long was an elf considered the equivalent of a "teen"? The tabletop game suggested a hundred years, but Merildwen's memories suggested only half of that or a little less.

Elves weren't quite the same as what the tabletop games suggested, for one. Their lifespan was a bit shorter, only amounting to about six hundred years, and they did sleep instead of meditate like I was expecting. That made me so glad because I really did love sleeping.

Elves being auriculomotile or having "movable ears" was also a pretty big and obvious difference, them being much bigger than a traditional depiction of elvish ears, although not quite as bad as could sometimes be depicted in anime and other media.

So, probably another twenty-five years of this, then? Oh well. It wasn't quite as bad as I recalled being a teenage boy; it just seemed like it might last longer.

Six hundred years was a hundred years longer than the average lifespan of a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator, though, so this gave me a huge advantage. One of the biggest issues with cultivation was running out of time once you ran out of talent and reached the point of diminishing returns.

I didn't know if the longevity I received from cultivating would be a flat bonus or a percentage based on my base lifespan. I didn't know enough about biology to do a comparative analysis of the bodies of non-cultivators and cultivators to even understand the method by which cultivation increased one's longevity.

If it was a percentage-based boost, then I would live a seriously long time absent violence, six or more times longer than a regular cultivator. There were no other elf cultivators to know, though, so I would assume that it would just give me a flat bonus; if it didn't, then it would just be a nice surprise.

My eyes shifted sideways, and I glanced at my gaggle of girls. Two girls in my clique were monster disciples; one even had been a disciple for a few years. She was the only one who followed me who was technically senior to me, so far, anyway.

Diremonsters, which both the sect and this girl thought I was, tended to have a lot longer lifespan than humans, but almost to balance that out, they tended to be a lot worse with their comprehension skills.

They weren't unintelligent by any means, but they tended not to learn new skills at the same speed, which was a problem because I liked learning new things and didn't so much like hiding what I had learned.

A monster's cultivation speed could be slow or fast but always tended to slow down after they reached their species cultivation ceiling for their current age. This was the second extra factor that limited them beyond merely their talent when compared to a human.

I wouldn't draw too much attention to my cultivation speed until I'd reached the middle or late Foundation Establishment realm, I thought. I'd just be thought to be a talented monster until then, based on what little I could learn about the "cat" species I was supposed to be, which was quite a terrifyingly strong monster.

I mentally shrugged while still staring at the matches going on. That girl spoke of the devil, and he would come. Xiao Li was setting up in the bullpen, it looked like.

I had been worried I would be considered valuable property after learning that these "ghost cats" could be quite powerful, but the truth was talent was still the deciding factor. There were plenty of every monster species who never amounted to much, even with a fancy heritage. For example, most fox diremonsters were considered descended from various different nine-tailed fox breeds.

The main difference was that these fancy monsters almost always were born with a human's intelligence and didn't have to scrabble up from being just demonic beasts or even regular animals. Still, very, very few ever reached the "peak" of their species. Monsters didn't grow more powerful just by growing up unless you were a genuinely mythical being like a Golden Crow or a Xuanwu.

The two-metre tall, broad-shouldered Senior Brother Liu walked through the crowd and stopped next to my clique. I congratulated him, "Congratulations on your victory. I would have thought that you would rest afterwards." After I congratulated him, all of my "friends" copied me and did the same.

He looked at me like I was daft and shook his head, "No way. Your friend, junior Martial Brother Xiao Li, is fighting next, and he's one of the only one of us outer sect disciples who is still in the main tournament. I'm doing well in the losers bracket for Qi Gathering realm cultivators, but he is fighting Senior Brother Chen, next, a genuine Foundation Establishment cultivator. I wouldn't miss seeing that, and you have a really good vantage point for his arena here."

I hummed. I hadn't really been keeping track of how the tournament was laid out or progressing. I just watched fights and scrutinised the fighting abilities I saw displayed.

I knew it wasn't single elimination, and it was structured so people started out fighting other people near their own cultivation levels, too. Once you lost, you dropped down into the loser's brackets, which were separated by major cultivation realm. I hadn't really considered it, but that type of structure did mean that if you didn't lose right away, you would be fighting above your level.

That was probably how most of the talented lower-level cultivators would be eliminated down into the loser's brackets. I seemed to recall some fights that ended instantly—I had mostly ignored them, but that might have been what was happening. I nodded slowly, scooted over and gestured so that Liu could sit down next to me.

"Is anyone hungry?" I asked, including Liu and my clique.

The older diremonster girl flattened the tufts of feathers on her ears for a moment before offering, unsure, "I-I could go get us something to eat."

I twitched my own ears and shook my head, "There's no need, Nalani. I baked a bunch of curry bread. There's enough for everyone." Cooking and baking was a lot less of a hassle when you had as many Unseen Servants as you wanted that could do the drudgery. I even had regular servants, too, who would cook me whatever I wanted. Or attempt to, anyway. The huge batch of curry bread was me showing the regular servants how they were made. They still hadn't quite gotten the knack, though.

I had taken some curry, cooked thunderfowl meat and wrapped it in dough before lightly frying it enough that the dough cooked into bread. I had been hankering for some more Indian food, but this was the only way I knew where you could enjoy curry either on the go or with any reasonable hope of not getting it everywhere.

Still, I glanced at the bird diremonster Nalani's offer before saying, "However, if you want to be quick, you can go get us some refreshments. Get a few pitchers worth."

I produced a couple of spirit stones and handed them to the girl. One downside to living in the school was that gold was basically worthless unless you used iy to import materials from outside the school, and that took a long time. Basic food was provided by the school, but if you wanted to sample the goods from the immortal chef division, which set up a number of concessions stands for the tournament, including fancy drinks, it would cost you spirit stones. Still, one stone would be enough to buy quite a lot of beverages, I thought.

The girl looked unsure about me paying for everything, but I didn't give her a choice. Finally, she nodded and literally leapt into the air, transforming into a large Moonlit Owl and flew off. She had exceptional control over her shapeshifting abilities, including the unusual ability to shift her clothes and anything she was wearing with her.

That was a standard ability in transmutation magic, but it wasn't so standard in transformations here unless you had quite expensive clothing that detected the transformation and shifted on its own.

Nalani was an example of a diremonster that wasn't living up to her potential as the strongest Moonlit Owls could be in the Spirit Venerable stage, right before you transcended your tribulation and became immortal.

I reached into my spatial pouch, but instead of pulling anything out, I pulled a number of curry breads out of my storage. I didn't have a spatial pouch that would freeze time. Only spatial rings could do that, but a number of spatial pouches did have enchantments on them to keep food at a certain temperature.

"What is... curry?" asked Senior Brother Liu as Nalani returned, gliding in soundlessly above us before flaring her wings widely for landing and transforming back into a girl, pulling about a half dozen large pitchers of a beverage out of her own spatial pouch, including two small containers of ice.

My clique seemed relieved that he had asked as they were looking at the pieces of bread in their hands nervously.

"It's a type of spiced sauce that traditionally goes really well with rice and meat. In this case, there is thunderfowl meat," I explained, and then went into a bit further detail, explaining what was in the bread.

Senior Brother Liu shrugged and bit into the bread first as Nalani made me a glass of whatever beverage she bought, including ice. I noticed that the iceboxes were pretty small and guessed that ice was a bit dear here. I wondered if I could twist Ray of Frost's spellform enough while casting it to generate ice cubes.

I didn't think so, but I think I could produce shaved ice, like a snow cone, and brightened with that idea.

There was another cantrip that would work, too: Heat/Cool. This spell could heat or cool anything and could heat water until it evaporated or cooled enough that it turned into ice. It was one of the first cantrips an Apprentice learned when they studied transmutation, along with Prestidigitation, to study the phase change caused by raising and lowering energy states. Prestidigitation itself could heat or cool liquids, but not to the same extent. But I didn't have an ice tray.

Liu widened his eyes and said, "This is good! It's spicy!" That caused the girls to nibble on the bread as well, and it seemed to be a universal opinion. Good, but spicy. Spicy enough that beverages were quickly poured, and all of the ice was used up in a jiffy.

I sipped my beverage and gasped. This was... lemonade! Not even Magical Chinaland sort of lemonade but actual, honest-to-goodness, just like your nana made every summer lemonade.

I must have been smiling because Nalani asked, "Do you like the drink?"

I nodded, "What fruit is this beverage made from?" I didn't have the word for lemon in the dictionary that Mrs Mei shoved in my head. Or maybe I did; sometimes, I didn't remember a word until someone else said it first.

"Lemons," the bird girl replied calmly, and then glanced down at the empty icebox and frowned, obviously wondering if she should go get some more ice.

I shook my head at her unasked question and motioned her to hand me the ice boxes. For the first one, I pointed at it and only let the very smallest amounts of Qi into the spellform, casting Ray of Snowcone, continuously filling the box up with shaved ice.

In the other box, I filled it with pure spiritual water and cast Heat/Cool until I was sure it was superchilled. It was still in its liquid state, though, as I had cooled it so quickly.

I always liked this science experiment, and I carefully sat the icebox full of supercool water next to me, careful not to agitate it. I then produced a small knife and handed it to Nalani, hilt first, and grinned, "Stick it in the water and stir it around."

She frowned but did so, the agitating intruder creating the first nucleation site, which quickly crystalised from there, transforming the entire tub of water into a solid ice cube. Nalani blinked, pulling the knife out and handing it back to me, and I sat it next to the ice cube. Anyone who wanted regular ice would have to chip their own out themselves. She asked, "Was that a special knife?"

I shook my head, smiling. I wondered how much of this world ran on the physics and thermodynamics that I knew from Earth. I sat back, feeling satisfied and content. Just the familiar beverage and a simple science demonstration, even if I didn't explain the science behind it, was enough to make me feel pleasantly nostalgic.

Nalani finally ate one of the curry bread and looked very surprised, asking seriously, "S-Senior Sister, would you be willing to share this recipe with me? If I can modify it to be a genuine immortal dish, I would definitely share with you the proceeds we could generate from adding the dish to the archives."

I blinked, and tilted my head and asked, "Proceeds? Also, you're an immortal chef?" I had a lackey who was a professional chef?! I had to get her to cook for me! And teach me how to cook better, too!

Nalani nodded, "My cultivation might be slow, but I am one of the better chefs at the Immortal Food Pavillion. Recipes work like any new technique contributed to the sect. The contributor receives forty per cent of the contribution points that a disciple pays to learn it. I think your curry sauce is good, but not quite at the level of being a recipe that someone would pay for. But it is close, and more importantly, it is something new. New flavours are rare."

I nodded, seeing no problem with it. Moreover, this gave me a lot of different ideas for earning contribution points. I already intended to try to create talismans for many of my spells, and if I could create a book of talismans based on that, I would likely get a lot of points if I contributed it to the Dao Repository.

I didn't think I would realistically be able to monopolise the production of the talismans I intended to make, as I had a feeling that some of them would be much better than the existing state-of-the-art in utility talismanry. Just Sending as a talisman would probably be commercially worth a lot of money, not to mention as an honest-to-goodness strategic communications tool.

There were other talismans and even spirit tools that could transmit messages, like the "one thousand li voice transmission" talisman that I could almost make, but they generally had strict limits as to the distance involved and definitely couldn't send messages across different realms, and often used expensive components to create the ink necessary to draw them.

I wasn't naive enough to think that one elf could maintain a monopoly on such useful things. Even our school itself might not be big enough to keep a monopoly on such a useful talisman, although I am sure that they will try.

If I could, I would aim to produce them and start selling them. Eventually, I was sure the Elders of the school would approach me and try to rope me in to contribute the way to manufacture them to the school. I was glad that there were already pre-existing methods to reward contributions like this. I would aim for more than the minimum, though.

"Yes, of course. That sounds like an excellent idea. How much do you think we can earn with this recipe?" I asked Nalani.

She seemed unsure for a moment before shrugging, "I t-think five to ten points would be what the Immortal Food Pavillion would charge for the sauce recipe after I modify it into a true immortal dish, so that would net us about one to two points each time someone bought it. We might get a little more if a lot of derivative dishes are produced, but we only get a small fraction of the forty per cent on those. So probably not more than one hundred points a year, but it adds up."

I nodded. I was familiar with the concept of passive income. And this was apparently a lifetime patent.

Xiao Li's fight was about to start, so I said, "Come with me to my house after we leave here, and I'll show you how I make it."

I frowned, ears twitching and moving in an attempt to listen to the distant arena like little radar dishes. Finally, I said, "What is Xiao Li's opponent saying?" I had a lot better hearing than humans did, but not that much better.

Nalani said quietly, "He recommended that Senior Brother Xiao Li forfeit; that way, he can keep his trump cards for his fights in the Qi Gathering losers bracket. Senior Brother Xiao Li declined, which infuriated the other Senior Brother."

I had been asking rhetorically, not expecting an answer, but I suppose an owl would have really good hearing, even when she was transformed into her human form.

Oh, they started. It looked like the Foundation Establishment Senior Brother was not a close-in fighter. He had a flying sword and sent it streaking at Xiao Li telekinetically and combined that with a type of ranged shadow attack, snaking out to attack Xiao Li or his shadow.

"Tsk," I said frustratedly. This type of attack reminded me of my poor, singular shadow trapped in my amulet. My only incorporeal undead left, and I was afraid to keep the poor thing living in my shadow as protection as I normally did because he might be irreplaceable in this world.

I mean, it was true that he was a ravenously hateful mass of malevolently negative energy, but he might be the only one of his species left in the world.

Well, species might be stretching things as he wasn't alive and never was. But it would still be a shame for him to disappear completely. Who knew what kind of research it might unlock when combining a negative energy entity of Merildwen's universe with spirits of this one? For example, I had never created a really strong cultivator or diremonster shadow yet. I just wasn't willing to risk him.

Xiao Li dodged around the shadow and twisted the sword, darting towards him with a casual parry of his own blade. When the enemy's sword was parried, he performed a kind of twisting motion around the blade and then gracefully kicked it hard into the ground, driving the sword halfway into the arena floor.

Grabbing someone's flying sword wasn't generally done. Not for any kind of chivalry-related reason but because it was coursing with the Sword Qi of the weapon's wielder. Even touching "dull" areas like the hilt or guard could cut.

Even kicking the pommel as he did was risky, but I think he must have covered his foot and tournament barrier with his own sword Qi as well, which was quite difficult—I could barely generate any Sword Qi at all, and even then, it was limited to a thin layer on the sharp edge of the blade, and only temporarily as I made cutting motions with the sword.

Driving the other disciple's sword deep into the ground seemed to infuriate the man. He apparently wasn't quite strong enough to pull it out telekinetically, so the sword just wiggled a bit and stayed in place. Rather than wait for the man to attack at range, Xiao Li decided to do so himself and cast Fire Bolt repeatedly, causing the other cultivator to have to dodge, jumping around with a shocked expression on his face.

I noticed an increase in the interest in the crowd, too. Normally, attacking at range like this with spells wasn't something most Qi Gathering cultivators did. There were obviously ranged spells for our level, but most wouldn't casually throw them out like Xiao Li was doing, reserving them for a trump card.

Xiao Li had a huge density of Qi, though, due to his excellent cultivation method, which was even a little better than mine—possibly to the point where he had close to the same amount of Qi as an average first-level Foundation cultivator. Fire Bolt was also a lot more efficient in terms of how it used energy than any Doaist spell I had seen, too.

I think Xiao Li was annoyed with this man and decided to beat him at his own game. Suddenly, Xiao Li's other hand shot out, and he threw out Lightning Lure. Except, to my shock, the coil of lightning energy left contact with Xiao Li's body and travelled like a bolo, wrapping itself up and around the other cultivator's body.

What the fuck?! How had he changed Lightning Lure?! The only reason that spell worked was because it remained in contact with your body as the caster was feeding energy down the physical connection that holding one end of the "lure" provided. If you threw the lure, it should have dissipated instantly.

Sitting up with a frown, I tried to pay closer attention. Cantrips were so optimised already that they weren't easy to modify unless the goal was to make them worse, like my Ray of Snowcone. Speaking of which, the shaved ice was quite popular, combined with the lemonade, so I quickly refilled the container. I also handed out second servings of curry bread to anyone who wanted one.

 I'd have to interrogate Xiao Li as to how he modified the spell.

The other cultivator was quickly untangling himself, the energy of the spell dissipating, but not quick enough. Xiao Li cast several overpowered Fire Bolts at the man's head, the last causing the outer barrier to crack and disappear in fading fractals. Xiao Li's fire bolts were at least two times the strength of mine, if not more, so I basically never used that spell anymore.

"Hahaha, get that asshole!" cried Senior Brother Liu, but quietly enough that his voice wasn't likely to travel far. Clearly, Jiaozi Liu didn't appreciate this man that Xiao Li just defeated.

"Winner, Xiao Li!" the referee yelled, his voice magically reaching all observers, and he seemed surprised.

Down in the arena, there appeared to be a disturbance, where Xiao Li's opponent wasn't being very graceful in defeat. Nalani said, "The Senior Brother says that Senior Brother Xiao Li ruined his chance to fight Senior Sister Xi Mengyao in the next round, and he would remember it."

Xiao Li obviously looked excited at the prospect of facing the beautiful Inner Sect disciple. Even his opponent noticed, who raised his arms and gesticulated, and Nalani continued relaying what was said, "He says that Senior Brother Xiao Li is like a frog trying to eat swan meat and that Senior Sister Xi Mengyao will destroy him in an instant."

I snorted. I was pretty sure it wasn't her meat that Xiao Li was interested in eating because he seemed to have similar tastes as I did, but maybe I was just assuming lewd intentions when there were none—like a hustler who was always worried about getting scammed.

The Elder, who was acting as a referee, got involved and shooed them both off the arena so another match could start. I glanced next to me and asked, "Senior Brother Liu, do you not have another match today?"

He shook his head, "Nope. Junior Martial Brother Xiao Li will have one more after this next one; then, almost everyone is done for the day. With this victory, he might slip directly into the semi-finals in our losers bracket tomorrow." I nodded and could even see people manning the concessions in the distance. They looked like they were closing up shop.

"Wait... you don't think Xiao Li has a chance to win his next round?" I asked curiously.

Jiaozi Liu snorted and shook his head, "No. No way. No way in hell. Junior Martial Brother Li is gifted with the sword, terrifyingly gifted, but... Besides the fact that Senior Martial Sister Xi is in the middle-to-upper of the Foundation Establishment, she is also rumoured to be a reincarnated immortal. Her comprehension and skills are not small."

I raised both eyebrows. A reincarnated immortal? How interesting. Due to the nature of how fights in the upper tiers of cultivation happened, very few people actually had a chance to reincarnate after they died because mostly their souls were destroyed right along with them.

However, if a strong enough cultivator, at least in the Spirit Venerable realm, did die and go through the Netherworld Kingdom, it was somewhat common for them to regain some or all of the memories eventually. Sometimes, the reincarnated immortal's soul became so strong that the methods to erase their memories didn't work completely, but other times, they just bribed the Netherworld Kingdom officials. I was sure that this was a service that Judge Wu would offer for sufficient karma merit points.

Although they were collectively called "reincarnated immortals", the truth was that almost none of them were actually Celestial Immortals. Most were either Spirit Venerables or Earth Immortals. These were sometimes called False Immortals, but never to their face. They were cultivators who attempted to transcend to become a Celestial Immortal and failed, yet survived for one reason or another.

That was probably the largest group, as their path to future cultivation was shattered irrevocably, but they could have a new shot if they reincarnated. So, while they seemed to be a mythical existence to us at the low levels, the true powers of the realms weren't intimidated by them at all. After all, if you failed the tribulation once, you would fail it again, they guessed.

I watched the next three fights, switching with a glance between them, but my heart wasn't in it, and they seemed boring. Finally, Xiao Li and the beautiful lotus-riding girl appeared. Then, they each saluted each other.

Nalani said, "She says she is impressed by Senior Brother Xiao Li and hopes to see more of him when he joins the Inner Sect after the tournament, so she is not going to play around with him." That was a pretty good endorsement, I thought.

"Begin!" the referee said.

Xiao Li had a feral grin and looked like he was about to leap at Xi Mengyao. However, she just dropped her sword in a slashing motion. Simultaneously, a huge phoenix made out of fire appeared behind her, rushing around and through her, seemingly doing no harm to her, but crashing into Xiao Li. His outer barrier was destroyed instantly, and even then, he was picked up and smashed bodily into the side of the arena wall, slumping down onto the ground motionless.

Holy shit. I had seen a couple of Xi Mengyao's previous fights, and she just kind of elegantly stabbed people, mostly—or used flying swords in the same way that other cultivators of her level used them. Had this bitch fucking killed Xiao Li? She smashed him against the wall. Barrier or no barrier, your brain had to decelerate pretty fast with that impact.

But, no, thankfully, the dumbass leapt to his feet and, if anything, had an even more enormous grin on his face, gesticulating wildly and speaking. Nalani relayed, "He said uhh... that was awesome, and he wants to fight her again, especially when he gets stronger. She agreed."

Senior Brother Liu whistled and said, "That had to be one of her trump cards to deal with the other Foundation Establishment Inner Sect disciples. She must have respected him pretty highly to show it off early."

My ears twitched. I was annoyed but couldn't quite place why. I nodded at Nalani, "Alright, there might be a couple more matches, but I am heading out. Nalani, let's head back to my place, and I will show you how to make curry." I glanced at my clique and nodded, "I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow, Senior Sister!" they replied in various ways, and I hummed as Nalani and I departed.