20

205th World Winter Tournament

The end of the beginning.

Day 5...

It was a heavy atmosphere felt in the Harconia's most largest and heavily sealed arena hall as the dense packed dark energy was coming out from the always smiling gentleman. With his subordinates pouring out from the portals located around the institute.

Instructors, students and even the sect disciples from the three hidden sects were fighting the demons that were under the command of Fourth, one of the ten generals of the Demon King.

"Teacher! Wake up!" Li Li cried out as the unconcious Chun was being carried by Han.

All of this sudden attack was unexpected.

Earlier from that day

Day 1.

The 205th World Winter Tournament will last for 10 days as every single day has an assigned match or tournament that was being coordinated. Now was the start of the first day.

The silver haired young man with her students would be participating the opening ceremony of the tournament as it would play various entertainment, indicating the start of the tournament.

They were in the massive arena-like gym that would be dealing of the tournament and right now, infront was Lady Scarlet from the Circus playing the harp. Her alluring beauty coupled with her skilled strumming of the harp made her a fairy with angels' singing from the strings.

Lady Scarlet was invited by the King of TwinCity Continent in order for the individuals participating in the tournament would be relaxed and be graced upon by luck. The renowned Lady Scarlet was one of the mage type martial practitioner that could emit blessings through her music. Other than her blessings, she could cursed too through her music but that's another topic to be told.

The agency who handled her was a mysterious existence named Circus, who collected or recruited individuals with high magic proficiency. There were two kinds of martial practitioners, the mage type and the warrior type. The mage types were more skilled in manipulating the qi energy in order to control the elemental energies around it while the warrior types were more on their physical combat ability but mage types were fewer than the warrior types so rarely did people differentiated the two types.

After the performance, the Headmaster of Harconia Institute with the representing elders of various sects infront, ended it with a speech.

"I, the Headmaster of Harconia Institute, Spinther Babel, duly announce the commencement of the 205th World Winter Tournament. Blessed thy odds."

Cheers of the crowd responded the speech.

In the line up of days, the fifth day would be the assigned competition of Chun in the one-time elimination round for instructors as proposed by Kiso. The silver haired young man agreed to it as it would be convenient for not to attend the  other elimination round for instructors.

At the moment, she was with her students preparing for the mini tournament that they would be joining. Other students from the ten continents would be participating too as to test their mental capacity and to earn acknowledgement from one of the judges who was Lin, the TwinCity's Imperial strategist.

He's unexpected presence for this tournament made the participants lucky to see him in personal as he would rarely attend on this kind of stuff.

The surprised youth snuck a glance infront of the contest hall, as the Imperial strategist would be the presiding judge of it. Lin was a known martial strategist for not only a genius in cultivation but also good on mental situations.

This man was gently smiling on his seat as he would observed the students present on the competition while nodding slightly as if assessing them one by one. Feeling the gaze of the silver haired youth, he turned towards it with a raised brow, making Chun to be flustered by this elegant man.

'So handsome and imposing.' The young man thought.

The host of the mini contest then announced the names participating for today's event. Knowing that her students would be on the fourth day, they just seated themselves as to observed the simulation from the big screen infront as the participants went inside an isolated room.

"This today's game is entitled Truth or Truth, this game was compounded by the Imperial strategist himself. The mechanics is to know who is the liar of the twelve players. The twelve participants/players would be under the voting system on the player that was lying after series of discussions and conclusions and if the eleven got it right and the player who was elected to be eliminated would be out of the game and the game would proceed until only two persons would be left for the final round..." the host said as to deliver that this was not a difficult level game and suddenly he smirked as he continued.

"But... if the eleven got it wrong then the player who was elected to be eliminated has a chance to eliminate three people out of the game..." the host stated as the audience was exhilarated by hearing this interesting game.

Meanwhile, the young man who was engrossed of the game was asked to leave by Rin with her. She bid goodbye to her students and followed the young woman.

"Where are we going?"

"We are going to the arena hall."

"Eh?"

"Master Quin invited you there."

Chun conceded because she was curious about Quin's invitation.

Arriving at the arena hall where the main event was happening, her attention was caught by a blazing red hair of a young woman that she knew. It was the seductive lady that was friends with Mika from the Sororite Academe.

Ji Ah was currently fighting a burly man from Xenun continent. The burly man was specialized on brute strength as he smashed both his explosive hands to the young woman who kept on dodging and not even lashing back with her whip.

"Earth strength!"

The burly man gathered the earth energies within his left arm as his arm enlarged greatly and attacked Ji Ah with it. The young woman dodged again as the crowd held their breathe for this poor young woman. It's inevitable to defeat that burly man who specialized on borrowing the elemental energies for his strength, meaning that his attacks would be inexhaustible.

His opponent was not even attacking for the duration of the tournament, she was always on the defensive state so the crowd expected it to be a one-sided fight.

"This beautiful lady should admit defeat before she would be pummeled by that scary man."

"I pity her."

The whip made of a flexible and hard material who was just like a decoration for the audience expanded to the opponent with her visor grip.

"Vine whip!"

It expanded and encircled the burly man with its power. The burly man feeling the danger emitting from the whip jumped to the back by a hair's breathe in order to dodge that ferocious whip. He suddenly felt that the whip was alive connecting to that woman while sensing an unknown energy from her.

Ringing bells of danger came from his instincts as he felt that he was trapped by an unknown force.

The crowd was surprised to the young woman sudden show of attack as recently she was just on the passive state but her display of power made the crowd felt some kind of a vivid qi energy from it.

"Admit defeat," Ji Ah stated at the burly man. Knowing his immobility, he admitted defeat with his pale face as he immediately left the arena.

"What do you need from me?" The silver haired young man said as she arrived infront of the silently observing man after looking at Ji Ah's fight.

"You are here. Follow me." Quin replied and walked to a private box. A special room for revered individuals who were spectating the tournament.

"You may sit." He gestured and Chun followed.

The private box was decorated with expensive furnitures and elegant colors as to bring the extravagance of the room. Chun looked around and saw that they were only the ones present as Rin did not follow inside. This indicated that Quin would be discussing something sensitive.

"A messenger from Phoenix continent gave this. He said that it's for you."

Quin handed a letter with a seal of a soaring phoenix, an insignia of the Phoenix continent. Chun received it but stared at the other, knowing that the man did not invited her for this.

The man observed the cold gaze of the youth and started.

"A spy of mine from the dark lands got a information that the abandoned Prince returned and he was now under training as the heir for the throne."

Listening to this, Chun went silent as she knew already the truth behind it.

"Other than that, the demons were preparing for something as their current activities were being monitored by my spy. They went in and out from other continents, gathering supplies."

Chun frowned and answered, "What does it have to do with me?"

"I know your identity and we need your father's help."