Chapter 11: Average

"No." Wang Fan replied without hesitation. Yi Ren stood silently in his place. It was clear that Plummy Fang wasn't present to soothe things out.

"Come on Pickle Lord, don't be like that. I heard of your fight with Fang Chang yesterday, I look forward to our match!"

"You might not have the chance. We are leaving tomorrow for an expedition, so we might not compete after today." Yi Ren commented indifferently by the side.

"Is that so? What a shame… Oh right! What happened to Pinji, Brother Yi?" Ming Daiyu seemed down for a moment before brightening up again, asking for the little robot shown some days before in the talent competition.

"It was probably taken away by the oldies. It's a bit sad. I would've been able to improve my abilities by a notch by studying that…"

"Oh really they took it away? Don't worry I will talk with them! They shouldn't be taking the disciple's hard work away!" Ming Daiyu was a bit indignant. She was very sensitive to injustice, but her friend Feng Mai only rolled her eyes as she was used to it.

The two boys just remained silent, so the atmosphere soon turned awkward. Wang Fan had nothing to say, and Yi Ren was sentimental for some reason, so he couldn't bother.

Seconds that felt like minutes passed like that. Ming Daiyu didn't know what to do; she wasn't used to dealing with people like these two and she didn't want to just leave either.

Finally, a figure arrived to break the tenseness: it was Yang Pei. His attire was messy, he looked dirty and hurt. It seemed he had been recently released from Stick-old-man's punishment.

"Brother Yang, you were caught after all. How are you able to stand?" Yi Ren asked curiously.

"You see, Brother Yi, we are supposedly leaving tomorrow to… somewhere, so Stick-old-man said he was going to spare me a little. I was released just now as you can see."

"What about our audience? What happened to them?" Wang Fan joined the conversation as he scratched his palm violently.

"They also caught them. I don't know their current condition, but I don't think Stick-old-man is going to release them anytime soon."

"That geezer is pure evil."

As Yi Ren was going to continue with his comments, his rectangular piece of metal shined with the number 11, alerting him of his turn. He then walked to the platform without any words, but, as he was the only one with a match, everyone followed him.

They moved swiftly to the eleventh platform, where the opponent was already waiting. It seemed that the person was famous among the outer sect's disciples, because Feng Mai instantly recognized who it was.

"It's Zheng Lu. You're out of luck Yi Ren! He's First Realm peak, I feel bad for you." She said the last part sarcastically.

Yi Ren didn't mind and climbed up the stage. In front of him was a normal looking boy, who was around seventeen years old. He wasn't tall or short, he wasn't ugly, but he wasn't handsome either.

He was a bit famous because of his talent, and as every famous person, he had a nickname. People called him the Average-guy.

People knew him, but he wasn't very popular. He had a small number of friends and was only recognized in social events where people were looking for him. Nobody stopped him in his day-to-day life.

"Average-guy, huh…" Wang Fan whispered. He remembered the name only because he once tried to recruit him to the talent competition; Plummy Fang had said he got all the requirements, but only he knew what those requirements were about.

"He's a hard opponent. Almost no one knows anything about him, maybe because he's not easy to identify. Even I might have some trouble." Ming Daiyu added from the side.

As Wang Fan knew him, Yi Ren also knew who he was as well. So he greeted him.

"Hello Average-guy. Long time no see."

Average-guy stood unfazed; he was used to that nickname as his friends made fun of him because of it, so he greeted back.

"Hello."

"About the proposal we had made you, forget about it. The sect banned our competition."

"Ah, okay. Don't worry." Average-guy replied plainly.

The two remained silent until the referee announced the start of the fight.

"Begin!"

No one moved for a moment. Average-guy saw that Yi Ren wasn't taking the initiative, so he started walking slowly towards him. His speed was very normal, as if he was walking along with his friends, but when he reached the middle of the stage, his figure blurred in extreme acceleration towards Yi Ren.

Boom

A blast of air grazed Yi Ren's face, which was now a few centimeters to his right as his neck was bent to evade the punch. Average-guy's left fist was in the place where Yi Ren's head previously was. He didn't expect his punch to be evaded, so he locked gazes with Yi Ren for a moment, before continuing his attack.

His body twisted incredibly fast as his right foot left the ground, its heel aiming to land on Yi Ren's neck with great speed. However, Yi Ren simultaneously stepped back and extended backwards, causing the kick to only graze his chin.

Average-guy didn't stop, as two attacks weren't nearly enough to tire him out, and, seeing his opponent not retaliating, he grew bolder; using his other leg while he was in the air to finally connect a hit to Yi Ren's face.

Yi Ren didn't try to evade this time. Strange uneven pieces of unknown material appeared on his hand, each having a hideous yet colorful glow. He flicked his fingers while Average-guy was in the air, throwing the weird stones at him in a way that it was impossible to evade all three.

Average-guy clearly noticed these three flying stones coming at him –also knowing that he couldn't evade them all– yet this didn't disturb his attack. He chose to evade only one to preserve most of his momentum seeing that Yi Ren wasn't going to evade this time.

Two of the stones connected to Average-guy, while the other flew away from the platform, falling into the faraway public.

Clap!

A dry sound was heard. Average-guy's foot reached Yi Ren, but the latter simply caught it with one of his hands while the other supported his chin, like he was pondering about something.

He released the foot when Average-guy was already falling down, so he just hit the ground like a piece of cloth, making little to no noise as he fell unconscious. Two seconds after, he started convulsing right where he fell, and he was already foaming a second later.

The people below spectating remained quiet, as if the match hadn't ended already and they were still watching its climax.

"What the flummery was that?" Feng Mai was the only one who spoke, utterly shocked.

"That's Brother Yi." Yang Pei answered and pointed to the boy in question.

"No! I mean, how did he do that!?"

"He's just like that. How else did you expect him to survive every single one of his failed experiments?" Wang Fan replied, annoyed.

"It seems I have to stick to my field, this was a failure." Yi Ren muttered, looking at the unconscious boy in front of him with disappointment. The referee was going to announce the result, but a person jumped to the middle of the stage before he could speak.

It was a kid with a black eye patch on his right eye. He had an angry expression because of his furrowed brows and tightened mouth. He wore a grayish-white tunic embroidered with grass-looking drawings all over it. It was clear it didn't fit him because the sleeves were longer than his arms and the tunic almost touched the floor.

"I greet the Elder!"

The inner disciple in charge of the match immediately realized the boy's identity and greeted, but Yi Ren was already out of the stage. The boy didn't greet back and directly stated the reason for his appearance.

"You have broken the rules of the 1v1 Outer Competition of Gray Grass Sect by using underhanded methods to defeat your opponent! Yi Ren, you are now disqualified from this competition!"

"Huh? What underhanded methods?" Yi Ren asked curiously.

"Section B, paragraph 13, line 4 of the Gray Grass Sect's 1v1 Competition Rulebook states: 'Any means used in a match that have no relation with the user's direct abilities that pose an advantage over the rival are considered underhanded methods, thereby, are forbidden.' you should've already read the rules of the competition."

"Was there anything like that?" Yi Ren whispered to himself.

"Also, a fellow disciple of the sect was harmed because of your cheating, so you will be punished! This punishment will be decided after the elders make a decision…"

"Sure." Yi Ren answered plainly. Moments later the eye patched elder left with Average-guy on his little shoulder, disappearing from sight. The others soon approached Yi Ren.

"It seems you fell into a trap, Brother Yi. You're still very naïve." Wang Fan expressed his thoughts by the side. In the course of the fight his ears changed from normal to a dark green color. Yi Ren didn't mind this and continued the conversation.

"So there's nothing like the Gray Grass Sect's 1v1 Competition Rulebook, is it?"

"No, there is. Didn't you read it?"

"Uh, no… I've been busy and haven't checked the mail for some time. But then what's your point?

"Yes, Brother Yi. You made those things, didn't you? You could've easily proved they were part of your ability." Yang Pei joined the chat.

Yi Ren only shook his head.

"That's what those oldies want." Wang Fan replied in his place.

"What do they want from you guys?" Feng Mai mockingly asked. Her tone implied that they were overestimating themselves too much to think the whole sect was plotting against them, which was understandable.

"Explosiv-"

Wang Fan was about to speak but Yi Ren stopped him, shaking his head as he grabbed his shoulder.

"Forget it, the time for your match is approaching, Brother Wang. You still haven't won the bet."

"It is now set in stone, Brother Yi. I'll even count this match as your win, but I can't give you more than that. If I win two more matches the title will be mine!"

"There's something wrong with you guys… Huh? Where is Sister Ming?" Feng Mai was momentarily distracted making personal remarks, so she was unable to see Ming Daiyu leaving.

"That girl, ugh!" She nagged a bit and left.

"You forget Junior Brother Ling, he might give us a surprise this time around."

"With my pickles as they are… Not even if you weren't disqualified!"

"We'll see Pickle Lord, we'll see…"

Just as Yi Ren had finished his words, Wang Fan's rectangular metal started emitting light, showing the number 23.