Foul Play

The metallic sound of weapons clashing resonated through the air. Yue Feixue leapt up to avoid Song Xinglan's slash at her knees, and brought her sword down upon Song Xinglan's head as she descended. Song Xinglan raised his soft sword to block the attack, and the flexible blade began to wind itself around Yue Feixue's sword. Knowing that she couldn't let Song Xinglan's sword bind tightly to her sword, Yue Feixue kicked at Song Xinglan with her boot and yanked her sword back.

As Yue Feixue shifted back, Fu Tianyou moved forward. His dao stabbed towards Song Xinglan's abdomen, but Song Xinglan bent backwards and did a back flip, kicking his feet upward at Fu Tianyou's wrist. Fu Tianyou swung his arm aside to avoid his dao being kicked out of his hand. In that split second, Song Xinglan had completed his back flip and was lunging out to attack Fu Tianyou's unprotected front.

A split second before the soft sword struck flesh, Yue Feixue's sword came plunging down out of nowhere to block the attack. Song Xinglan's soft sword was parried aside, but with one flick of his wrist, the tip of sword zoomed for Yue Feixue's throat. Yue Feixue slid to the side and moved her sword in an upward arc to meet Song Xinglan's soft sword.

Song Xinglan pulled his sword back and sliced to the side, colliding with Fu Tianyou's dao. A burst of power rippled out from the collision, telling everyone that both men used one hundred percent of their might and internal forces. Song Xinglan's soft sword curved and wrapped around Fu Tianyou's blade tightly like an anaconda.

Before Song Xinglan could apply force and wrench the dao away, Fu Tianyou suddenly yanked his dao down and to the right sharply, pulling the soft sword with the dao. Song Xinglan's arm was pulled with it and his entire body twisted. His chest became unprotected and exposed to Yue Feixue, whose sword was flying towards him. There was no time for Song Xinglan to unwind his soft sword and defend himself.

Seeing that Song Xinglan had no means of blocking the stab, Yue Feixue changed her tactic at the last moment. The flat of her sword slammed squarely into Song Xinglan's chest and instantly sent him flying backwards. His soft sword was dislocated from his hand. Song Xinglan fell hard on the wooden stage about thirty meters away. With a groan, he rolled to one side and coughed up two mouthfuls of blood.

"Oof, that was a hard blow," Wang Jingyuan commented to Mo Xian. "Song Xinglan was lucky that Yue Feixue didn't actually stab him through; she must have switched tactics at the last moment."

Mo Xian didn't see Yue Feixue switched tactics; to him, these martial artists were moving too fast for him to really understand every single move. "Oh, did she? She's a nice person."

Seeing how Song Xinglan was heavily wounded, Yue Feixue and Fu Tianyou sheathed their weapons and ran over. They crouched on either side of him. While Yue Feixue helped Song Xinglan to a sitting position, Fu Tianyou hurriedly pressed a few of Song Xinglan's acupressure points.

"Childe Song, are you alright?" Fu Tianyou asked.

Song Xinglan seemed to say something; his lips moved, but his voice was too soft for anyone to hear. Fu Tianyou and Yue Feixue leaned closer.

Song Xinglan's palms suddenly shot out and hit both Fu Tianyou and Yue Feixue squarely on their chests. The two were completely unprepared and caught off-guard; no one expected Song Xinglan to attack when he was already wounded. Their internal forces were not ready to accept such a heavy attack. Fu Tianyou and Yue Feixue flew back and crash-landed on the opposite side of the stage on their backs. Immediately after hitting his opponents, Song Xinglan threw up another large mouthful of blood. From the looks of it, he used up all of his remaining energy to attack, even though he himself was already heavily wounded. He definitely should not be summoning his internal forces for another attack.

Fu Tianyou and Yue Feixue were spitting out their own blood. Yue Feixue clasped her hand over her heart, breathing heavily. "Song Xinglan! You vicious, immoral villain! If I had known you were lying in wait for us, I should have just stabbed you through!"

Fu Tianyou pushed himself up to a sitting position with much difficulty. "We were helping you and making sure you were okay, and this is how you treat us!"

The junior sisters and brothers from each sect ran on stage to help their elder brothers and sister. Huashan Sect and Luoyun Manor were very upset. One of the Huashan pupils shouted towards Feiyue Pavilion: "Song Xinglan had obviously already lost the round! Why was he still attacking? He didn't follow the rules!"

"Exactly! The round was already over! He can't attack!" Luoyun pupils chimed in.

The crowd began pointing fingers too.

"Yeah, what the hell?"

"Song Xinglan wants to win so badly he has gone crazy."

"People like him do not deserve to be the victor."

Song Xinglan wiped the blood on his lips away with his sleeve. "The round was not over," he managed to say. "The drum did not sound."

A Feiyue pupil shouted Song Xinglan's words towards the other two sects. "The round wasn't over! The drum didn't beat, so the round was still in session!"

"Eh?" Everyone looked toward the platform where Wankong Temple resided with the drum. The monk in charge of beating the drum froze as everyone's gazes landed on him. It was true—he hadn't beaten the drum.

Huashan Sect and Luoyun Manor were furious. "Yo, can you do your job?!" A Luoyun pupil shook his fist at the monk. "If you had done your job correctly, my senior brother wouldn't have gotten wounded!"

"Even so, Song Xinglan should know when he is beat and not play dirty!" A Huashan disciple helped Yue Feixue up and glared at Song Xinglan. "Feiyue Pavilion should be ashamed that they raise such insolent, immoral, shameless disciples!"

"Hey! Watch your mouth!" Feiyue pupils were not to be outdone. They shouted back just as ferociously. "How dare you disrespect Feiyue Pavilion? You guys are just sour that Senior Brother Song was able to beat both Yue Feixue and Fu Tianyou at the same time!"

The scene descended into chaos as pupils from three sects shouted at each other on the stage, pointing fingers and throwing insults.