Opponents

Blake already expected that the fight wouldn't be so difficult, since she felt that the other party was on the second stage of the Body Refinement Realm, but for it to end in a single move was a bit surprising for her.

This was the first official fight she had with a cultivator ever since coming into this world, if you didn't count with happened with Ye Xia, after all. She kind of expected more.

'Is this guy ok?' Blake looked at the fainted disciple. He didn't seem to be wounded that much, the array properly did it's job.

Blake was regretting hitting him in the head with full power a little bit, it was overkill on the poor guy. Her self control today was pretty bad. She shook her head and sighed as she left the stage, the fainted disciple was carried out by servants.

"Oh!"

As Blake was walking to the audience, her eyes suddenly caught the sight of familiar faces, and she ran there with a big smile on her face.

"Hey guys!" Blake waved to Little Xun and Fang Qing.

"Big Sister Blake!" Little Xun smiled and waved back. Fang Qing just nodded with a slight, barely noticeable smile.

"Haha! I missed you Little Xun." Blake hugged him. He looked embarrassed as he turned his head away.

"I missed you too Fang." Blake stopped hugging Little Xun and said that to Fang Qing while patting Little Xun in the head. Fang Qing just nodded again, his face emotionless like he didn't care.

"Still the same Tsundere like always, huh?" Blake laughed.

"Tsundere? What that means, Sister Blake?" Said a confused Little Xun.

"Forget I ever said this."

"But I'm curious now."

"Not saying it."

They kept chatting with each other, Blake sharing how she was training swordsmanship and martial arts, Little Xun talking about how life was in the inner sect, and Fang Qing barely talking anything as he didn't seem to care about chit chatting. It was then that Blake caught sight of another familiar face.

"Hey, Zhao Long! Come here!" She shouted to Zhao Long who wasn't that far away from them while waving. He looked at Blake and company, hesitated for some time and finally walked towards them.

"Are you off work today? How are you doing."

"Hello Sister Blake! Today the mission hall isn't open, so we have the whole day off." He greeted Blake as soon as he reached there.

"Oh right, almost forgot to introduce you. Fang, Little Xun, this guy here is my friend Zhao Long. He is a clerk at the mission hall so we talk with each other daily."

"Disciple Zhao Long greets Senior Brother Fang and Senior Brother Xun!" Zhao Long immediately cupped his fists and bowed, switching his tone to a respectful one with a bit of nervousness in it. He called both of them "Senior Brother" even though he was older, as the hierarchy in the cultivation world values strength over age.

"No need to be so formal, any friends of Sister Blake are my friends too." Little Xun said with a smile. Even though his words were friendly, he was searching from top to bottom for anything suspicious in Zhao Long. He wanted to see if this Zhao Long guy could bring harm to Blake in some way.

Fang Qing was completely open with his suspicions, and he had been staring strongly at Zhao Long ever since he came close. His gaze got specially strong when Blake said "talk with each other daily", he looked like he was about shoot lasers out of his eyes. Zhao Long felt like crying being stared at like that by a powerful cultivator.

Blake was not really a sociable person, so something like introducing friends to each other was not something she would do in the past. This changed with months living in this world, but the main reason right now was unstable Qi. She was in a really impulsive state right now and even the slight thought could become an action.

The already socially awkward Blake who was under the influence of unstable Qi, was completely oblivious to the weird atmosphere between Zhao Long and the two, and just sat down to watch the matches with smile like she was going to watch a movie.

The first round of matches wasn't that interesting, as it was either a one sided fight or a dragged out match between two weaklings. Rarely did two strong disciples meet each other right off the bat.

The second round though was more interesting as the chance of strong disciples meeting each other increases. The battle for a spot in a inner sect was always tough, out from more than a thousand outer disciples, only fifty could enter each year, so it was not a surprise some people couldn't enter even after having years worth of time.

Anyone who seriously wanted to compete for a spot, needed to be at least at the third stage of the Body Refinement Realm. This was the bare minimum and anyone who entered the tournament and was below this stage either wanted to gain experience to feel how it was like and try next year, or was just plain arrogant. You needed to be a Xianxia novel protagonist material to be able to win a tournament like this while below the third stage.

Blake noticed a bunch of interesting potential opponents. There was a spear user using fire techniques, which was pretty rare considering most spear fighters had lighting Qi natures. There was a dual swords girl that was using wind techniques, swiftly cutting down her opponents. A disciple who looked big as a giant wielding a greatsword, and...

'That f*cking bastard...' Blake clenched her fists with force as illusory flames burned in her eyes. Fang Qing who was just behind her frowned at her actions.

She was looking at the guy who slapped Ye Xia.