44. Battle Arena 2

She could guess what was about to happen and quickly formed a water shield and club in her arms before facing the incoming arrows with the shield while quickly spinning the club in her other hand.

She did not remain still as she knew that long distance combat was perfect for archery. She had no particular pattern as she sprinted closer to him before stopping and throwing the club at him.

Chu Jiangsu was confused and attempted to block the incoming club with a single hand and was shocked when it shifted slightly to the side before flying towards him and painfully hitting his chest.

He did not expect it to be so painful as it felt as if someone had tried to punch a whole through his chest. His attacks stopped briefly as he subconsciously rubbed his chest feeling around for wounds.

Chen Liju had not expected him to stop but still took this as a chance to attack and closed the distance between them before kicking him in the groin making him gasp in pain as he bent forward in a protective stance.

She did not care and wasted no time as she swiftly moved to his unprotected back and gathered all the energy she could master before sending a huge water fist that rammed into his back tossing him off the stage.

Her work was not done as she quickly run to the side of the stage and formed a few snake like water tendrils like he had done before and used them to pull him into the water. She held onto him tightly until she heard the arena count her points before letting go and falling to her knees.

She felt empty and exhausted after using all that spiritual qi but was still happy that she had at least gotten a single point. This point acted as a boost to her morale as she quickly tried to gather as much water attribute spiritual qi as possible.

This was the scene that greeted a ruffled Chu Jiangsu he did not waste anytime and stomped his foot causing a thin layer of ice to form on the ground and patiently watched as it slowly spread around the stage.

Chen Liju's eyes were still closed as she focused on regaining her strength. The thin ice layer seemed to notice this and rapidly approached and was just about to get to her feet when her eyes shot open and she jumped up onto a thin platform of water she had just formed.

Her move seemed to ignite something as both of them suddenly zoomed towards each other causing them to collide at the centre of the stage. Ye Muxu and Lu Tao were anxious as they watched the duo collide against each other before separating.

Although they could not hear the sounds that came from the stage due to the array that surrounded them they could feel the massive impact making them wince.

The duo did not seem to care as a long sword formed in Chu Jiangsu's hands and a staff in Chen Liju's hand. They both stared at each other and only delayed for a second before pouncing on each other.

One could only imagine the sparks that would have flown if their weapons were not made from water but there was no need to feel sad as their fight was nothing short of a climatic battle as their weapons swiftly moved around colliding against each other.

Chu Jiangsu's ice sword had already been broken and cracked in many places before he managed to disintegrate Chen Liju's staff. She also seemed to have lost a lot of spiritual qi as she now fought with her bare hands.

Seeing this everyone knew who was going to win and were not shocked when the stubborn Chen Liju was suddenly tossed off the stage and fell into the water.

This time her spiritual qi was depleted and could not be used luckily she had landed in one of the shallower parts of the pool ensuring she could still be above the water surface while just standing.

"Chu Jiangsu wins this duel with a point difference of 3:1." the arena's mechanical voice announced followed by a few loud gong sounds.

She emotionlessly looked up at the celebratory fireworks that had gone off on the arena's sky line and smiled when Chu Jiangsu peeked down at her before she was pulled out of the water by an ice cold tendril.

He seemed to be calm as he calmly placed her onto the stage and bowed down to her making her bow back to him. They were done when the previously detached bridges stretched out and reattached themselves to the stage giving them a way out.

This time she was calm as she walked down the bridge and out of the arena before taking in a deep breath of air. She was still standing outside the door when Chu Jiangsu also walked out before quietly stopping next to her prompting her to turn to him.

"Is everything okay?" she asked wondering why he was just staring at her.

"Yes I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job today and I believe winning a slot will be easy for you." he spoke up shocking her as she had not expected this from him.

"Thank you so much for saying that and dueling with me it was an honor." she appreciated and walked away with a content smile feeling more confident in herself.

She had just made it to the main floor of the mansion when she run into Wentian who immediately offered her a solution to her depleted water attribute reserves. "The pool which you soaked in a few days ago is abundant in water attributes."

He had said after seeing her and walked off leaving her to rush out of the mansion. She still remembered the way to the pool and replayed the duel in her mind as she walked down the beautiful familiar paths.

She got to the pool in no time and decided to look around more as she had not been able to do so last time. The pool area was enclosed using numerous leafy bushes or trees that formed a magical jungle green wall isolating the pool from the outside.

Even the small weak iron wrought gate feat the aesthetic making the entire place look like a secret garden a prince charming would use to woo a princess. The only problem was that the pool covered a huge portion of the enclosed area leaving a small area that was covered by thick woolen looking grass.

Unless prince charming was taking his girl out for a swimming excursion this would not work. She also wondered why the water in the pool was not still and constantly moved with a pattern despite not having an opening.

That is when she subconsciously found herself staring at the statue before climbing into the water and making her way towards the center of the pool.

The statue seemed more life like the more she approached it and even seemed to be beckoning her to get closer. Like a moth to the flame she got closer and did not realize that her eyes and the eyes of the statue had both turned purple.

So she quite literally swam into the opened arms of the statues and was nowhere to be found after it closed its arms and went back into its previous position and lost the purple glow in its eyes.

Chen Liju would only realize this a couple of days later and immensely regret not asking Wentian about this statue. He himself would also regret not checking up on his own young miss.

While she was lost inside the statue time quickly passed with the other participants of the selections trained and practiced for the oncoming tests that would impact their entire lives.

This was especially true for Ye Lin who used this time to consolidate his cultivation and perfect his skills as he waited for the day he would be able to finally show the entire clan just what he had been doing all these years.

Ever since his parents had been killed by an enemy clan years ago everyone had been so good to him and were willing to do nice things for him as they probably felt guilty about what had happened.

Instead of appreciating this and choosing to be a decent human being he had decided to actually take advantage of this situation to help himself through out this very hard times and was shocked when everyone turned on him after learning the truth.

They even went a step further and spread the news to everyone turning him into the selfish parent less kid who was willing to lie and manipulate people just for favoritism and attention.

Even though all their claims were true as he had often used what had happened as a crutch on multiple occasions. Nothing changed the fact that he was still an orphan who had just lost his parents and according to the clan leader.

He had even went further to defend him by claiming that Ye Lin was probably going through a tough time and messed up just because he missed his parents.

Although most of this was not true he went along with it an act that greatly pleased the clan leader and ensured him a valued person spot next to the clan elders who took care of him and his needs.

This did not change anything though as all the clan members still remembered what he had done and would whisper about it among themselves and so he believed that the selections were his only chance to clear up the whispers as they would instead talk about how he was talented.