Chapter 17 Elimination round

"Peasant? This clown actually thinks am a peasant!" Lucas couldn't help but chuckle inwardly to himself, however outside, he had an indifferent and cold expression.

When everyone else heard Lucas call Leon and idiot, the whole place was silent before it went into an uproar.

"This kid sure is bold, why is he even here, don't tell me he is here for the martial contest".

"Not possible, at his age, he would be lucky if he can even get into the fourth rank, let alone actually being able to compete, everyone knows that".

"This kid is seeking death, because he managed to launch a sneak attack when Leon wasn't looking, he will most likely suffer today".

"That's true, I wonder which family he comes from for him to be so bold".

"Can't you see his clothing, its either he comes from a poor family or he has no family.."

Discussions broke out as Lucas stood there watching Leon who had a broken wrist. He sneered inwardly at how simple minded these guys were. In the graymoore family, his cultivation base at his age should be good, but not too outstanding.

The people on the balcony were stunned at the sudden change of events. Even the girl who was on the verge of sleeping had her interest roused up.

"That kid sure has guts, however his age is too young. He is just being rash and nosy".

The old man said as he studied the youth who just arrived. Anyone could tell, judging from his clothes that he didn't have a strong backing as he was dressed so casually. If one didn't have a strong backing, their strength would never be able to compete with those that do as resources, pills and many other cultivation tools were important to increase strength.

The woman nodded her head as she agreed with the old mans point of view. Only the middle aged man stayed silent as he pondered in his mind while looking at the youth with a complicated gaze.

"He looks... Too familiar, where have i seen him before?"

"You call me another peasant but you are no more than trash in my eyes, and as for the fact that I dare to injure you, its actually really simple. I hate bullies and I don't like your face"

Leon hadn't even recovered from his first shock of someone calling him an idiot, now the same person had called him trash and said he didn't like his face. When had he ever been so humiliated, and by a commoner no less.

His eyes turned bloodshot with rage as he glared angrily at Lucas. "Kid, you are seeking death!" He roared out as his pent up anger was on the verge of exploding.

"Idiot! Less than Trash!" The people on the balcony were stunned. Had this youth gone crazy? Forget the fact that his age was too young, based on his clothing, there was no way he had cultivated any martial techniques at the intermediate grade. He would be counted lucky if someone of his status had a high level basic grade martial technique. Only one thought appeared in their heads. This youth was too arrogant.

But was he really being arrogant?

Lucas himself was a little surprised for intervening, since he didn't have any enmity with this person nor had he ever seen Leon before. Truth be told, the main reason was because he was in a bad mood. Not only had three people tried to kill him, but one of them even escaped, to make matters worse, he didn't know who sent them to kill him or where they were from.

Now when he watched this scene of Leon trying to trample on a defenseless persons pride and dignity, he felt his blood boil as he detested such characters. On normal days, this wouldn't happen at all.

The stunned crowd finally regained their senses an immediately spoke out in harsh rebuke.

"This youth is too arrogant, never have I seen someone as Muddleheaded as him".

"He called Leon trash, even if Leon is among the top in the generation, his strength is not something this commoner can handle".

"Shameless boasting"

The crowd erupted and rebuked him harshly, some thought he was just shamelessly boasting and would be beaten by Leon any minute now.

"Hump, too arrogant, he doesn't even look like someone who has a single technique up his sleeve" The girl on the balcony snorted as she looked at the drama. She already had a bad impression of Lucas on first sight.

.....

Fueled by the words of the crowd, Leon couldn't hold himself back anymore as he rushed forward. He activated his movement technique with his saber clasped in his left hand as his right hands wrist was broken.

Shark Swimming concept!

Three sabers, Five flares!

His robes billowed even though there was no wind as he turned to a blur in the eyes of those with lower cultivations. However to Lucas this speed of his was so pitifully slow. Faced with the incoming saber, Lucas remained calm and collected as if he wasn't the one being targeted.

In just a flash, Leon's saber strike had already appeared before Lucas, the people watching the scene thought that Lucas was stunned from the pressure of the attack and could no longer move out of fear. They sighed and shook their heads.

"This youth is a goner" the old man said.

"Die for me!" Leon exploded out in rage, it was like he could already see the vision of Lucas being sent flying several feet away and coughing blood like a waterfall.

However as his saber was about to touch its target he suddenly felt like a dangerous aura had been locked on him, the aura made him momentarily shudder as his palm holding the saber turned sweaty. Why did he suddenly feel this way.

Suddenly a voice sounded out that made him feel like he was frozen on ice.

"Pitiful". Lucas who had been standing until the saber was five inches away from him finally made his move. A strong fist flew out faster than Leon's eye could catch, the fist accurately hit Leon on the left wrist that was holding the saber.

" Split snatch "

As his fist landed on Leon's wrist, he immediately performed split snatch and stole the saber away from him. Leon's hands erupted in pain as he took several steps back with a scream. His wrists were broken, both of them were broken.

"What happened?" All of the cultivators shouted in shock. The scene that they had never expected had actually happened. "My wrists, they.. They are broken, he is just a commoner, only a peasant, how did he break both my wrists without me being able to react?"

Leon yelled out loud as his mind was in chaos, the crowd was visibly stunned for a while as they replayed the scene in their heads. At that moment, Lucas's voice sounded out like a ghost to Leon.

"One move, you lost".

Leon snapped out of his daze and looked at the youth that was at least two years younger than him with fear in his eyes. Apart from fear, there was also rage, resentment and unwillingness. At that moment, he lost his cool.

"You bastard, do you think you can get away with this, my clan will definitely get revenge for me. When that happens, you will be a dead...."

"Too noisy, you aren't worth my time".

A casual kick sent him rolling on the dust. "Young master!"

Two simultaneous shouts rang out, they were the two lackeys that followed Leon around everywhere.

"Get off me!" Leon roared in anger. Then he stared at Lucas coldly. "I Lucas Cauli will find a way to wash this humiliation off me"

After saying that, he turned and left. He didn't even turn around to collect his saber which was a Low level unranked spirit weapon. Spirit weapons were divided into the separate levels. Under the soul lining grade, these weapons were spirit weapons of the low grade., soul lining grade weapons were Enhanced level spirit weapons while those above the soul lining grade were ranked spirit weapons.

"Thank you for helping me". Gale, the skinny looking figure stopped up with slight difficulty and bowed to Lucas with gratitude in his eyes. If not for him, only God knows how badly he would have been toyed with.

"Don't thank me, I wasn't in a good mood, that's why I intervened. Usually I would mind my own business the same way you would mind yours if it were you in my own place".

Lucas answered nonchalantly and walked away to his original position. The crowd automatically gave way for him with respect and awe in their eyes. It wasn't until Lucas reached his original spot, sat down cross legged and closed his eyes in a cultivating pose did the crowd break out in an uproar.

"Too strong, did you see how he moved?"

"It didn't look like he used a martial skill, I bet that was just a casual punch".

"He managed to break Leon's wrists with a causal punch as the latter was attacking with a saber, what strong perception". The crowd discussed the fight that took place, however, not much could really be said about it since the fight only lasted for one move and no more.

Up on the balcony, the watchers were stunned at the sudden change of events.

"What skill does he possess, he actually managed to pinpoint the wrist which was were the saber skill was at its weakest and full of flaws". The old man exclaimed with praise in his eyes.

He had never seen such a young figure with such good battle instincts. Although it was just one move, he knew just how hard that one move to defeat him was to accomplish, especially for someone his age.

"This kid is mysterious, he managed to win without exposing his cultivation base at all. Interesting".

The woman said with a face of slight interest. The female however said nothing.

"Am I capable of being that precise when attacking a weak point?" She was analyzing the scene that took place but didn't put it to heart. In her opinion, in front of ultimate power, such moves were only petty tricks.

"Look, someone from the Sun clan is coming here". A youth shouted with immediately drew the attention of everyone present. They knew that the selection rounds were about to begin.

Coming from afar was a small group of people that consisted of three men and two women. They were middle aged men and young women who wore long bright yellow robes like the sun with a sun logo at the back. This was the figure of the sun clan.

The man in the lead was a black man of average height which fitted his average appearance. After sweeping the crowd, he announced.

"The Sun clan martial competition will begin immediately, these will be the elimination rounds".

As he finished speaking, some youths took in a breath of cold air, many of them came from families with lower status than the sun clan. In the delta province, the sun clan was rated 13th among all the influential powers.

"The first round of selection is simple, all of you with cultivation bases at the fourth level of the dawn tier grade or lower, leave the grounds immediately".

His voice was calm and cold and sent despair to some of the cultivators in the crowd. These were the ones who came from low families and didn't have the resources or high enough background to raise their cultivation bases.

Soon people started to walk back the way they came from. Gale who was in the crowd smiled bitterly as he looked at the youth who had saved his life. He was still sitting there cross legged. He opened his eyes to hear the announcement then closed them back right after. This was enough to tell him that his opponents strength was at least at the fifth level. He on the other hand was just a peak fourth level and didn't make the cut. Gale glanced at him one last time and followed the small numbers outside of the sun clan east side towards either the estate entrance or the arena.

The number of people who came were a bit numerable. Out of the 276 people that came to the sun clan, about 63 left because all their cultivations were lower than the fifth level. Seeing that no one else was moving, the middle ages black man continued.

"If you have a cultivation at the fifth level but you are older than 18 please leave the premises". At the moment, sounds of despair could be heard among the youths. Some had already begun to feel good that they had managed to pass the first level, however the second assessment was a bombshell to their souls.

More people walked out this time, about a 117 people walked out of the crowd effectively lessening the number of people.

The number had reduced to 96 people straight away. Lucas who had opened his eyes was fairly surprised. All these people were at least 18 or lower but they were already at the fifth level, however, their talent was average at best.

"Now that we have less than a hundred people, the real elimination rounds can begin!"

The middle aged man nodded and signalled for the crowd to follow him and he made his way towards the sun clan estate arena. Lucas slowly stood up and followed, now he had to battle over ninety people for him to get a spot in the sun clan.

...

As he moved, majority of the crowd kept a safe distance away from him. To them, he was too mysterious and a possible danger.

It didn't take long before they got to the arena. The sun clan family arena was rather large and was currently filled with people. It was clear that the whole of Blackburn city was here to watch, after all, martial contests don't just happen everyday. Currently, there were 96 participants who were standing in the arena. In the arena, there were ten platforms each where the battles would most likely take place.

"This is all your chance to become a disciple of the sun clan. All of you are lucky enough to pass the elimination round but only 15 of you will be accepted into the sun clan, those 15 will be the elites among you". The middle aged man who spoke earlier said again spreading his voice around the arena with core energy. It instantly drowned out the noises from the crowd.

Lucas who was listening could tell his cultivation base wasn't something simple. "From his voice, he should be at the peak of the dawn tier grade".

As Lucas speculated, the middle aged man continued. "The second round of the eliminations is simple, all you have to do is last in an exchange of twenty moves with a disciple of the sun clan that has the same cultivation base as you".

"Huh! Just to last twenty moves, aren't the sun clan really looking down on us?"

"Maybe they are just trying to increase the passing rate for the majority, but if that is the case, why do they limit the available slots to fifteen people".

"This whole thing is really confusing, I don't get how its so simple, its like they are trying to confuse us ..."

Discussion broke out among the participants while the crowd was also discussing the terms. In the face of two people with the Same cultivation, the match would be at a draw at most unless the other person was a complete idiot. Even with a higher level offense or movement technique, it still wouldn't do much to make a person last lower than twenty moves.

The middle aged man who said this smiled as he listened to the crowd, as he finished speaking, ten disciples in bright yellow uniforms marche out into the ten platforms. They were all dressed the same and all of them had on token on their belts with the words outer and inner written on them.

"Shit! What is the sun clan trying to do? They are actually sending their inner disciples to fight in the elimination rounds".

"Are they crazy, who the hell is gonna last twenty moves, am barely an outer disciple of my clan, but some of these guys are inner disciples".

"It looks like the number of 15 is too much, I doubt there will be up to five people who will be able to successfully pass the test".

The crowd broke into an uproar, the sun clan was actually being shameless to send some of their inner disciples to exchange moves. One had to know that inner disciples had better movement techniques and better martial skills as well as higher low level spirit weapons. Even long low level spirit weapons, the grades still existed.

Hearing the crowd, the group of Sun clan disciples didn't bother with them and stood there expressionless. There were five outer disciples and five inner disciples. All had the strength ranging from the fifth level to the ninth level of the dawn tier grade, although to the Sun clan, the ninth level disciples were just a formality. They would consider their selves lucky if the could find someone at the eight level under the age of eighteen.

"Hmmm, this Sun clan isn't so simple, it looks like they go for quality over quantity, well that's what it looks like on the outside".

Lucas was slightly intrigued by the sun clans methods. Although he wasn't worried about it, he was slightly curious.

"Everybody relax, you are not required to beat the inner disciples and just exchange up to twenty moves. The inner disciples are mainly level seven upwards for those who are the real geniuses among you". One of the robed women spoke out which caused the crowds bustling to die down.

Even though he said that with a clear voice, one could still hear the mockery contained within. To the members of the sun clan, the possibility of that happening was close to impossible.

"The top five of the contest will be given a 50 silver coins as well as first grade core pills for their cultivation while the first place will have the opportunity to experience the clans Body Strengthening pool".