A Rude Welcome

Zhou Xinqiu explored a few areas before heading to the battle arena to check it out herself. 

"Woah isn't that rank 186 Wu Lin from the White Blade Faction!!" One of the students around the battle area yelled in surprise.

"The other one is also rank 190. We are in for a treat!" Another student replied.

"Ah? What treat? These ranks are too low." Zhou Xinqiu walked up to them with a bored expression. 

"Well it's not every day that the top ranking individuals fight each other so… this is the next best thing! You must be new here and must not yet appreciate how hard it really is to get on the ranking in the first place. " A girl replied in an annoyed tone.

"It really didn't seem that hard.." Zhou Xinqiu rolled her eyes and walked away.

"Huh?"

—- 

Wu Lin jumped into the air as white milky qi flowed around him and turned into elegant arcs as he slashed at his opponent with his blade. White Daisies grew along the path of destruction caused by those arcs. Each arc slammed into his opponent with increasing intensity as his opponent was being pushed back while he tried to gather up all his qi to form a wall to block the destructive strikes. Inevitably his opponent was backed up and pushed off of the arena with the burst of the final arc. 

"Automatic Forfeit" The supervising elder called out. 

"Wowww Wu Lin's techniques are really beginning to become stronger!" The student that had spoke with Zhou Xinqiu earlier cried out.

"You're really a suck up huh? That Wu Lin's technique wasn't anything special. It's just that the other guy's defenses are just complete utter trash." Zhou Xinqiu rolled her eyes and started walking away.

"Hey you!" A voice behind her called out but she didn't pay any particular attention to it and continued walking away.

"Yah!? You think you can just say trash about me and walk away?" Wu Lin suddenly yelled which finally got Zhou Xinqiu to turn around. 

"Me?" She said, pretending to be confused. "You know those arcs have tons of break points that can easily be broken. The only half decent one was the final one but I'm sure you can't automatically access that and have to gradually get there." She stared into his eyes and spoke condescendingly.

"You're that newcomer aren't you. Just because that stupid drum array broke, which was probably not even caused by you, you think that you suddenly are entitled to teach the whole world?" Wu Lin raised his tone.

"Hah? The whole world, I wouldn't dare to. However, teaching you a thing or two is a different matter altogether." Zhou Xinqiu casually put her hands behind her back.

"Then come onto the stage and teach! I want to see who will be the one teaching."

"ok"

She walked onto the stage and sat down in a cross legged position. "My student, send out your best!" She smiled provocatively. 

Wu Lin closed his eyes and placed his left palm on his chest as his white qi began flowing around him before he projected his blade forward using his right hand. The first arc was sent rushing towards Zhou Xinqiu. She looked at the arc in interest before closing her eyes and displayed the first technique on the forbidden flame mastery, 'Burning Heat Aura'. A quick but concentrated blast of heat was sent radiating out which completely burnt off most of the energy on the arc while the rest disintegrated as soon as it reached 2 inches away from her body due to her soul aura. The second and third arc followed as Wu Lin began to get increasingly angered. Zhou Xinqiu activated two Ten bronze soul imprints and placed them on each of her palms and began poking and punching at each of the arcs at different precise locations right before they reached her, all while still having her eyes closed and sensing the break points with her soul sense. Both of the arcs exploded internally causing no damage. 

"Understand?" Zhou Xinqiu smiled again.

"UGH" Wu Lin's face began to burn deep red as he unleashed the fourth, fifth, and final arc simultaneously. "How could I lose to someone of a lower level??", his feet produced a crater in the ground as he propelled himself forward toward her as well. 

"Hmph" She finally opened her eyes, stood up, and stared intently at the flying arcs that were hurling towards her. She formed a bigger sized ten bronze imprint and dashed towards Wu Lin and his arcs as well.

The milky white arcs collided with the bronze imprint causing little shockwaves before the final arc laid down its final blow onto the imprint causing the imprint to crack in all directions. However, before it was able to shatter, Zhou Xinqiu raised her right hand in a fist parallel to her head as the Blood Lotus Flame gushed out and warped around her fist and forearm. Within the next second, her fist slammed into Wu Lin's chest and it was all over. 

The entire arena turned silent as Wu Lin coughed up blood. It took her one offensive attack to end all of Wu Lin's momentum. 

"As I said before, your offensive techniques are powerful but lack finesse and are flawed and that on top of having no decent defenses doesn't match your trash talking." Zhou Xinqiu dusted off her clothes and looked back. "Does this mean I take your rank?" She smiled and began walking off the stage.

Another voice spoke out with a deep tone from behind her, "Learn who you offend before you commit to it. You seem to really enjoy teaching, let me hand you some pointers." A man with long black hair who dawned elegant dark blue robes stood on top of a pillar and stared down at her.

"That…. That's Wu Zhan… Wu Lin's older brother… Rank… 151"