Greed

Mark's eyes were filled with greed as he saw Kenshin's pouch. He had no doubt that it was filled with the green pebbles necessary for qualification. Judging from the size and the noise coming from the pouch, whoever had that pouch by the time the competition was over would undoubtedly be qualified.

The competition lasted for only a day, so time was of the essence. Mark saw that Kenshin was incredibly skilled, so he decided not to act rashly. He simply observed, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. Ruka knew not to move without Mark's go ahead, and she was quite content looking at Bastian.

"Kenshin! For the last time! Tell me the key chant now! I'm about to die here!" shouted Bastian as he frantically dodged attacks left and right. Kenshin did what he does best, remain quiet. Bastian wanted to attack Kenshin right now, but he knew that would be a futile endeavor.

This difficult situation all started this morning. The previous evening Bastian had gone to sleep just like normal. When he woke up the next day, he was already in the middle of the tournament area with Kenshin and his cultivation had been sealed. He had no weapon and armour to protect himself with.

Bastian's cultivation had been sealed by a sealing spell. It had the same effect as enchanted shackles, making him no different from an ordinary man in terms of power. All he had to work with was his awakened body and Kenshin's battle experience, of which the latter was proving difficult to use at the moment, especially considering that Bastian's body had no energy of any kind whatsoever.

According to his knowledge, this kind of spell could only be removed by a key which can be in any of the forms of magic. Kenshin told Bastian that it was a chant, and that he would tell Bastian what the key chant was when the time was right, only if Bastian followed certain conditions. After telling Bastian the conditions, Kenshin became silent and started attracting trouble.

"Listen Kenshin, last week when I asked you to help me train, I didn't mean to go Spartan on me." said Bastian telepathically to Kenshin. One of the most useful abilities of the Soul Brethren bond was the ability to communicate freely with your counterpart.

Kenshin didn't reply and kept dodging. The fact that Kenshin was having an easy time annoyed Bastian to his limits. As the mob of unwanted opponents increased, Bastian started to get more injuries. At first they were only bruises and scratches, but as time went on, more and more troublesome opponents joined the fray.

What annoyed Bastian the most was that none of the mob fought against each other as if they had a tacit understanding. Whenever new opponents arrived, the older members of the mob would incite the new ones to work with them, making things much more difficult for Bastian.

Bastian was not fully aware of the fact that Kenshin had taken all of their pebbles, so for them to be fighting each other would be meaningless. He was far too busy trying to avoid being killed.

Bastian's sense of smell was undoubtedly his strongest sense. He could tell that not only was the mob getting larger, but the number of spectators was increasing as well. Mark and Ruka had long been discovered by Bastian, not to mention Kenshin.

Kenshin finally stopped dodging around, and jumped on top of a tree. But that wasn't all he did, with a movement barely anyone could notice, he tied the pouch of pebbles to Bastian's waist in a manner so fast you would think he was a specter. This caused many of the observers to remain quiet.

No Qi was released, no energy ripples, so it was definitely not a Martial technique. Yet the movement itself was clearly not ordinary. Everyone except for Bastian was baffled by the sight. Bastian knew quite well that Kenshin had merely applied some of the insights he had of the Dao into his movements.

Bastian had this knowledge as well, but applying it with his body under these conditions was not an easy feat.

Bastian's greatest asset after his awakening was the improvement to his senses. You could even say no one there had senses that were even half as sharp as his, coupled with his understanding of Kenshin's perspective, he was able to clearly see the movements, but just like the other times earlier on today, his body was unable to catch up to his mind, resulting in him being taken advantage of.

F*ck Kenshin and his stupid Dao of the Sword! F*ck Qi and Martial Techniques, I'm supposed to be a mage damn it!

At their base, mana and qi differed in how they affected things. Qi was energy with a living element to it, thus it worked best on one's body. Were as mana was a non-living energy, and worked best on the environment and on objects. For Bastian's needs mana was far more useful, so he saw no need to use qi. Bastian naturally created yuan, but he had no idea how to use it.

After doing research, Bastian discovered that yuan was not something common cultivators knew or understood, thus even now he had no idea what to do with it. Yuan could do what both mana and qi could do, even improving on anything mana and qi operated with. For example, a spell used with yuan was far more powerful than a spell used with mana, but it was equally more difficult to use yuan.

Not to mention the fact that Bastian didn't want to cause a ruckus were he to use yuan in front of others. Bastian had questioned Kenshin about whether or not he knew what yuan was, but Kenshin refused to talk about the subject, forcing Bastian to split his yuan into mana and qi every time he wanted to cast a spell. The left over qi from the splitting would just enter Bastian's body and rest there.

The moment Kenshin jumped on to the tree he pointed to Bastian and said, "I am no longer in this battle. And I promise by my honor as a warrior not to interfere. You may do as you please."

For a moment, there was a brief silence. No one knew exactly how to react to this news. Many of the observers had not chosen to act due to the fear they had of Kenshin. All of the Advanced Fighters, especially the ones on the cusp of breaking through to become a Teacher, got a feeling of immense danger if they even thought of attacking Kenshin.

Many of the warriors here today were alive due to following their instincts, so they took the subconscious warning very seriously, so many of the more skilled warriors had chosen to merely observe. A few of them hadn't even had their pebbles taken by Kenshin, they had just sensed the battle ensue and followed their senses to the location.

Warriors on The Sovereign Continent took their oaths seriously, especially those with a particularly high cultivation. To break through cultivation levels, one not only had to train their bodies, but their hearts and minds as well. Cultivators who had doubt in their hearts and didn't have minds that were pure in regard to their beliefs would find it much harder to progress.

Thus when Kenshin promised not to interfere, most of the warriors here, if not all, believed his words and sighed in relief. Bastian started looking around and saw that the people hiding started coming out one by one.

Kenshin sent a telepathic message. One which made Bastian sigh in relief, causing many of the people there to be confused. After all, with Kenshin's absence, Bastian's situation had worsened, or so they had assumed.

The message was short but very simple. Yet this simple message turned Bastian's situation from dire to bearable.

"From now on, you are allowed to kill."