The Challenge (2)

What nonsense was this?

The contestants felt as though their body was pressed down by a mountain.

They should have known that the patriarch wanting to end things quickly did not mean the challenge will be easy. On the contrary, who is the patriarch? A legend such as this would never make things easy on them.

Jia Lin and one other person immediately coughed up blood. This caused uproar in the crowd. They did not understand that to Jia Lin, a weight of ten mountains had descended on his energy core. The other boy immediately fainted on the first step causing confusion every where.

"On the first step?" someone said.

"Is it not just to climb the steps?"

"Are the top hundred this weak?" another asked.

"What do you know? If it was easy, why did others stop?"

"Yes! Go and join them if you think you can do it." another defended.

"I don't believe the patriarch's challenge will be easy. This goes to show that!"

If the contestants heard the conversation of the crowd, they would have doubled over and died. Challenge? More like murder! It was as though the patriarch was angry with them and wished them to die.

"Patriarch, mercy!" one of them shouted. Many wondered why he sounded so panicked. The next second, he dropped to the floor after coughing up blood.

Now many were curious. What was happening?

"Patriarch, mercy!" another said.

"Patriarch, I don't want to die!"

their words caused confusion in the crowd. Many looked to Tie Nse who had not spoken. Seeing as he said nothing, they wondered if the contestants were just exaggerating.

"Patriarch, instead of killing us in this challenge, bring out your disciple to face me. That would be a true test of strength!" Di Wong said. When his words came out, another round of uproar went up in the crowd. If Di Wong had not spoken up, many would have just said they are too weak to handle the patriarch's challenge. But as he has spoken, many are sure that the patriarch was intending to kill them.

"Patriarch." Council head Si said. He was really worried the patriarch would really kill them. Not only him, the entire elders including Elder Di and others whose children and disciples were participants. This patriarch was a person no one truly understood. His temperament was odd. One was not sure if he would really get angry and kill the participants.

"I wish to challenge your disciple! That was the only reason why I joined the meet. If you are not afraid of his defeat, bring him out!" Di Wong sent out a challenge. A challenge between the younger generation was very normal, but doing this during the meet and while participating in a level was unheard of.

Many thought that this Di Wong was too arrogant.

"Talking to the patriarch like this, does he want to die?"

"When you are the one facing death's scepter, you can do as you like."

"But will the patriarch really bring out his disciple for Di Wong to test his strength?"

"Test his strength? Is he taking the patriarch's disciple for a training figure?"

Tie Nse looked at the angry form of Di Wong and felt a head ache coming. He agrees that this is his fault. No, this was that disciple of his' fault. If he had not been training that little monster so long, how would he have forgotten that that is not a normal standard of strength? In his rush to leave this meet, he mistakenly made the challenge too hard!

Though his face was blank as he looked at Di Wong, his brain was actively looking for a way to get out of this situation without looking uncool.

Waving his hand, he took away all the swords and reduced the steps to only ten.

"Those standing on the tenth step will the decided as top ten, the ninth and above, top twenty and so on. Climb. It is no more as hard as before." Tie Nse said calmly and the entire arena descended into silence.

Many powers felt their brows twitch at this. He was just reducing the challenge like that?

"Shameless." Lady Mi muttered. They had always known that this young child pretending to be an old man was odd and most times quite shameless. Still, they did not expect him to be this shameless.

It was not just them that thought so. The crowd did not believe what he had just said. He was just going to step back like that?

Di Wong saw that he did not respond to his challenge and frowned.

"Patriarch, has not replied to my challenge." he said and Tie Nse frowned.