The competition continues

Bai Jingshen calmly analyzed his opponent. The young woman certainly received professional training; however, she was a bit to reliant on her accessories. The former emperor had seen similar fighting styles before, where rich cultivators won their fights by figuratively throwing money at their enemies.

Bai Jingshen thought for a second and came to the conclusion, that the beautiful woman would choose to admit defeat if he pressured her. Something Bai Jingshen didn't realize until he saw the tournament tree, was that there actually existed a double elimination system, meaning everyone had to lose twice in order to be disqualified. Therefore, Julia would surely keep her trump cards and rather admit defeat.

After having this thought, Bai Jingshen decided to storm at Julia again. The latter took on a defensive position, wanting to see if one of her jewelries could give her a chance. She quickly was stunned however, as she realized that Bai Jingshen rained down a flurry of quick knife attacks on her. His stabs were precise and cuts swift, leaving her completely on the defensive. Julia as well as many onlookers grew shocked to realize that Bai Jingshen not only reached the perfection realm in the Borde Spear Techniques, but even in his knife techniques.

The former emperor slowly pushed Julia around, not letting her any time to muster a counterattack. Both competitors' faces grew more and more serious as their attacks followed one after another. Only the clinging of metal against metal could be heard echoing in the empty competition ground.

People quickly lost interest in other fights, as the tension between Bai Jingshen and Julia continued to grow stronger.

Suddenly, Julia decided to make a last attempt as she felt her stamina falter. She quickly blocked one of Bai Jingshen's knifes with her arm again, while trying to touch one of her necklaces.

However, the experienced fighter was exactly waiting for this moment. As Julia blocked his knife, he quickly let go of it, grabbing Julia's wrist. He ignored the pain of Mana burning his hand, suddenly pulling on the young woman's arm. Julia was thrown off balance and fell towards Bai Jingshen. It might look weird from a spectator's perspective, but Bai Jingshen didn't have any impure thoughts, as Julia's body leant into his while he put his knives edge against her fair neck.

Suddenly the young woman was shocked frozen. Her heart began to rapidly thump in her chest. She almost wanted to get angry at a man holding her this intimately, but luckily Bai Jingshen's voice quickly made her realize her situation again.

"Do you give up?"

"… I admit defeat."

With Julia's words, Bai Jingshen instantly let go of her. The young woman angrily turned around. It was strange, but now that this man dared to throw her away like some worthless commodity, she felt a heavy hit to her confidence. Was she not beautiful enough?!

However, looking at Bai Jingshen's eyes filled with respect, she realized that this man didn't care about her beauty and just saw her as a worthy opponent. Although she wouldn't admit it, but Julia was suddenly happy as someone seemed to respect her for her abilities rather than her looks.

Bai Jingshen felt slightly confused, as his illusionary core started to spin. He could vaguely feel Julia going through a lot of emotions. However, he wasn't too sure what exactly was going on in her mind. It might be worth asking her sometimes if they would ever meet again. Not having the leisure to think to much about it however, Bai Jingshen cupped his fists at the young woman before leaving the fighting stage.

Julia was still caught up in a roller coaster of emotions however, therefore she was slow to react and only turned around after Bai Jingshen already left. She hastily ran off, her head slightly turning read from embarrassment.

Although no impure thoughts existed in Bai Jingshen's head, in a cube somewhere at the top a young man saw this scene completely different.

"How dear he!", echoed Lehno's loud shout through his viewing platform. A loud scream followed by crying could be heard as one of his maids went to the ground, having just had a cup thrown at her head.

"We will fuck him up boss!"

"Yeah, he was obviously flirting with your future wife!"

"Cripple him if you can. I don't want to see that guy ever again!", sounded Lehno's order.

Bai Jingshen meanwhile got fetched by Phill and brought back to his team. He was shocked however, as he saw George next to Phill. The young man was bloody all over, clearly having met a ruthless enemy. Bai Jingshen remembered that George fought against some Black Wind Mercenary, so he quickly asked:

"George what happened? Why would that mercenary idiot be so heavy handed?"

George wanted to answer, but suddenly he threw up blood, only able to let a wounded growl out, so Phill helped him out:

"Don't bother to answer. There is still the law's suppression here. Let me tell him…

George met some Black Wind Mercenary. He had the upper hand the whole time, and just as George pressed for a win the mercenary desperately counterattacked. He didn't aim for a win anymore, but only wanted to get rid of a competitor. You don't have to worry however, with his injuries he will easily be healed until tomorrow."

This time, Bai Jingshen committed the Black Wind Mercenaries to mind. Although he didn't have a deep relationship with George, they were still teammates. Bai Jingshen didn't mind teaching those mercenaries a lesson if he ever came across them.

Phill's platform slowly glided back into Thobar's cube again. As Bai Jingshen got off, half carrying George, the door opened by itself and the RSS team stormed in. All of them wore angry faces, showing Bai Jingshen that the Black Wind Mercenary was most likely more heavy-handed than it sounded from Phill's explanation.

Those 9 brawny men all talked amongst each other, obviously worried about their comrade. Luckily Phill was trained for such situation, so he quickly calmed everyone down and led Bai Jingshen to the infirmary.

The former emperor was surprised as he arrived together with George and Phill, as suddenly a young woman jumped down from the bed.

She hurriedly grabbed her big glasses from the cabinet nearby, bound her black hair up with a rubber band, before turning to Phill.

"Hi Phill, hi guys. I'm Era. I will be your nurse during your stay here.", introduced the young woman herself. Unfortunately, her bright smile quivered a bit, showing her embarrassment.

"Good day Miss Era. Sorry if my question seems rude but, have you been here the whole time?"

"'Ahmm I'm just not good with crowds. But it doesn't matter. I'm here for the injured, so just lie that gentleman on my bed here, I will do the rest."

Bai Jingshen didn't want to pry into the nurse's private matters any more and quickly put George down, before Phill lead him outside again. Sitting down near Sam, he could finally ask about the others' results and learned that Ryan and Sam both managed to win, while Liam lost his battle. The former emperor congratulated his teammates and talked to them for a while longer, before deciding to meditate until his next match.

Therefore he found Phil and asked him, if there as a good place do meditate. The guide told him to use a bedroom, but to also stay on alert, as his AI would tell him about the next fight. Bai Jingshen nodded and made his way over towards the bedroom door, half expecting someone new to suddenly show up as he opened the door. Unfortunately, Bai Jingshen was only met with a short hallway with doors on both sides and a display on the wall next to him. The young man looked at the red blinking light on the small screen and realized, that he could chose a room as his own here. Since no one was using a bedroom yet, Bai Jingshen simply decided to go with the number one.

Arriving at his bedroom, he realized this room was really sparsely decorated. It only featured a bed and a cushion for medition. It fulfilled its purpose however, so Bai Jingshen wouldn't complain.

As he sat cross-legged, Bai Jingshen felt a light pain shooting through his leg. He was suddenly remembered about his own injurie again. Taking a closer look at his leg however, he realized that his wound this time was rather shallow. Julia also wouldn't scoop so low as to use poison, so Bai Jingshen was sure his wound would heal until his next fight.

The RSS members admired Bai Jingshen's calmness as he was really in the mood to meditate. They also realized his smartness, as they felt their own body's growing wary from the excitement of this competition. They would always stay in the main hall, watching every match, only taking a few naps in between. Sam was the only one who forced himself to follow in Bai Jingshen's footsteps and got a good rest in, visibly improving his fighting results. Finally, as Bennet was watching his disciple's results, he ordered all of them to sleep.

In this way the next few days flew by for Bai Jingshen. He only got up to fight his matches, but unfortunately none of his opponents could make his blood boil like Julia. Speaking of her, the strong woman decided to stay low key and won all of her lower-bracket matches with ease. Although she wasn't in the limelight anymore, she was still one of the favorites.

Contrary to the RSS and SFT members. Other than Sam and Spike, all of them won and lost some matches, with two of the SFT members as well as Michael and Daniel already being eliminated after three matches.