Chapter 272: Sparks
In the bright and warm sunlight, the Streamer Sword shone exuberantly. As it traveled across the air, the light spots reflected all through its body from the sun started to dance on the surface.
As Zen lifted the sword right up to Tracy's throat with a simple flick, the light spots traveled slowly from the hilt to the tip. Right now, the sword blade was just a mere inch away from Tracy's pure white neck. Or one could say that Tracy was only an inch away from certain death now.
The distance was so short that if Zen's Streamer Sword had flung forward even slightly, Tracy's head would have certainly fallen off.
“Stay down! I don't know the first thing about this burning blood essence. And if you jeopardize your life span, that's none of my concern. But I know your strength might increase a lot with this spell. So of course, I am not going to give you an opportunity to utilize it. You stay put. Or you die!” Zen was expressionless in his threat, even though his demeanor was frightening. His voice sounded very cold, and seemed to possess no tenderness even towards this beautiful woman. As if to enforce his stance, the Streamer Sword in his hand shoved a centimeter forward. Under his fine control, its tip pierced her delicate skin and wisps of blood started trickling down from the fine cut that it had made.
The reason behind his stern stance was that even though he was clueless about what that burning blood essence was, he knew that it could have increased Tracy's strength to a terrible extent, especially if the price of doing it was her life span. Now that Zen had gained an advantage in this game, he had decided that he wasn't going to give her any chance now.
Tracy sensed the icy sword intent pressed against her neck and her taut shoulders seemed to loosen a bit. Right now, she was rooted to the spot like a puppet who had been left free on its strings.
In her entire lifetime, she had never been so close to death before.
At the sight of her almost defeated, Patrick, who was standing outside the arena, breathed a sigh of relief. Zen had already claimed that he would give Tracy no quarter, and right now, he had succeeded in at least subduing her. As to whether he was going to kill her or not, Patrick was not so worried about that.
He had never practiced swordsmanship, but he had heard of it from people and he knew that swordsmanship required a fine character of the practitioner. 'That doesn't mean it would demand the practitioner to obey the Five Commandments and the Ten Commandments like the Buddhism cultivation method I am practicing does, ' he thought to himself, 'but its minimum request is that the practitioner has to be upright in his moral ideologies.
Being able to go so far in swordsmanship shows that Zen is not a heartless man and has a strength in his character that not everyone might have. The remark he just made was probably a bluff to scare Tracy.'
The reason Patrick could analyze the fight so deeply could be attributed to his advanced age. The numerous winters which lay behind him allowed him to see the world differently and become more perceptive. That way, he had a lot of experience in analyzing people.
However, Tracy was still very young and her mind couldn't have gone far. She couldn't have known that Zen was bluffing.
The harsh remark that he had made and the poker expressions on his face immediately intimidated her. 'He... truly won't hesitate to kill me!'
Tracy was the sort of person who seemed quite petulant and merciless when things were progressing normally. But if one were to say the truth, she was just a highly gifted girl who had not even grown up completely yet. And even though she was sometimes tasked to go on adventures for Cloud Sect, she was always accompanied by several disciples who could protect her if things, at some point, went terribly south ways.
But right now, she was alone, and facing such an awful bloke; someone who had declared that he would chop her head off if she didn't stay still.
Her long lashes quivered for an instant, and the rim of her eyes turned red. Then, much like flowers were blooming in ultra fast motion, bean-sized tears started rolling down her cheeks and dropped onto the ground with clear clatters. Very soon, a paddle of tears had formed at her feet.
If Zen were to express his emotions truly right now, he would say that he was feeling quite awkward for bringing a girl to tears with his sword. After all, his sword had nibbled at her neck. If possible, he would have chosen not to fight with Tracy, who, being frank, was giving him a headache. But he also knew that now was not the time to be softhearted. If he let his stance loose and let her burn that blood essence, then it was highly probable that he would not have been able to secure a win in this match!
“Crying isn't going to help you. Admitting your defeat is your only option.” Zen clarified indifferently.
Suddenly, Tracy glanced over her shoulder, which gave Zen quite a turn and he hastened to draw back the Streamer Sword a little. The very next moment, he heard Tracy moan. In a soft voice she sobbed, “I admit my defeat!”
Then, the referee, who had been standing to a side for a long time now, finally nodded and announced, “Zen from Drizzle Peak, won! Tracy, a personal disciple, lost!”
After Zen had withdrawn his Streamer Sword, Tracy lowered her head and bustled off the stage. Outside the arena, Patrick tried to comfort her and patted her head, his face brimming with affection. However, Tracy shook his hand off like a cranky child, and then stumped into a corner and sat down, her cheeks swollen in her anger.
She was pouting. As someone who had been taking care of Tracy like a big brother for a long time now, Patrick knew everything about Tracy's temper. 'Well, it's alright. Perhaps experiencing some failure will do some good to her mindset and she might be less cranky in the future!
The important thing is that Zen did a great job in the arena. At the very least, he stopped Tracy from burning her entire blood essence at the expense of reducing her life span...'
Burning blood essence was something a practitioner would do only in extremely dire circumstances. Cutting down one's own lifetime in order to win a match was the sort of thing that probably only Tracy would do.
Therefore, Patrick turned his face towards the arena and nodded at Zen, giving him a grateful smile.
Zen smiled back as well before stepping out of the arena.
They both knew that they were bound to spar soon.
Watching Zen exit the arena triumphantly, Master Wen felt all sorts of feelings well up inside his heart.
He had been leading Drizzle Peak for a long time now and from the very first time that his disciples had participated in the All Peaks Competition, his biggest dream had been to see one of them wedge his way into the top 100.
He had pinned a lot of hopes this time but with Yehudi's failure at the very beginning of the competition, the hearts of Master Wen and other masters of Drizzle Peak had sunk to the bottom.
However, to all of their surprises, Zen had powered through every match and overcome every opponent, regardless of how strong they were. He had kept on winning all the time and had finally arrived at stage that he was in now. Master Wen's hopes now lay on him now.
Apart from letting out a cry of exclamation, he truly did not know what else to say.
'It's a pity that Aura is not here to see this. I wonder what would her expressions be if she could see her favorite disciple achieve so many things..' Master Wen wondered in his head.
'Unfortunately, a rumor has swept through the entire Burning Sky Empire these days—the Burning Sky Palace is suffering from an internal strife. Some princes are scrambling for the throne, and somehow Aura is involved in it. What a shame...'
Master Wen was, after all, a master from the same peak as Aura was. The two knew each other well, and that was one of the primary reasons he had been keeping an eye on the Burning Sky Palace and collecting information about Aura. But given that his position was not very high in the hierarchy, he was not so well-informed as Saint Viana was. Accordingly, he had no idea that Aura had already been put under house confinement.
Considering the complete lack of messages from Aura, he naturally deducted that Aura was not doing very well and might even be under some sort of confinement.
Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do to help her.
And at that moment, Master Wen's eyes lit up suddenly! He had had an idea.
'Zen!
Perhaps Zen can help Aura!
He has just defeated Tracy. As long as he doesn't act below par, there is no doubt that he is going to make it to the top 3! He is totally qualified to try the Cloud Road!
If he really does pass the test of the Cloud Road and gets admitted into the Cloud Hall, he would be able to assist Aura.
If Zen joins the Cloud Hall, then it is true that most probably, his strength won't be able to match Elder Xu or Kenneth of Cloud Sect in a short spell, but I am sure that he is going to be of a lot of help. After all, if inside the Cloud Hall, his future is going to be limitless, which means that even Kenneth would have to take his words into account!
Ever since Kane, the emperor of the Burning Sky Palace, disappeared, Kenneth has been the only one who could command the place.
Cloud Sect has played an indispensable role throughout the history of the Burning Sky Empire. It even helped several emperors fight their way to the throne. Cloud Sect was even powerful enough to take control over the whole Burning Sky Palace in the past once.'
'But ever since Kane has marched into the Cloud Hall with his amazing talents, his power has become even more impressive than Kenneth's, and that gave him more leverage. The moment Kane started to rule the Burning Sky Empire, it began to break free from the control of Cloud Sect. After all, Kane's position is not beneath Kenneth's.
Kane and Kenneth are both working for Cloud Hall, and that is the sole reason why the powerful Burning Sky Palace and the mighty Cloud Sect have had no serious conflicts until now.'
'However, with the disappearance of Emperor Kane, whose return to the empire alive and well is uncertain, it's a good time for Kenneth to take over again in this turbulent situation. Unfortunately, Kenneth does not seem tempted by this idea and that beats me completely. Instead, he has just let those princes fight each other in the palace.'
Based on all the information that Master Wen had collected, all he could do was analyze the situation and come up with plans. Other means and ideas were simply out of his reach given his present position.
Staring at Zen, who was sitting cross-legged a short distance away, Master Wen decided to have a serious conversation with him when the All Peaks Competition was over. He believed that Zen would not ignore the hardship Aura was enduring. After all, he couldn't have forgotten the grace that Aura had bestowed on him.
When the round-robin came to this point, the ranking of most of the participants had already settled, with only the top 5 somewhat disputable!
First to mention were two black horses—Zen and Rocher, both of whom had not lost a single match so far. Zen had even vanquished Tracy, who had the body of a Blue Phoenix. In light of that, the entire crowd was under the impression that he could be one of the top 3. However, his exact position in that trio wasn't decided yet.
Rocher still had not unsheathed his sword, but had still managed several victories, which meant that his power was unfathomably high. Ever since he had gotten into the round-robin, he had easily defeated his opponents without demonstrating any impressive skills, so everyone believed Rocher had the ability to make it to top 5.
Next were Patrick and Jacques. These two were the best out of all personal disciples. If everything went their way, then the crowd had a general agreement that they would end up the champion and the runner-up respectively.
As to Tracy, she seemed quite dispirited over her last failure, so no one knew whether she would come onto the stage again. But if she did, then there were very high chances that she would find herself in the top 5.
However, no matter how much they calculated, there was one more person who was probably going to influence the ranking of the All Peaks Competition. Once he entered the competition, then it was certain that every participant was going to fall one rank lower.
That figure was Evan.
Evan had earned the title of the top personal disciple on Cloud Sect and his powers were widely acknowledged all around. Everyone respected him and thought that he would always remain the top disciple.
However, Evan was still in the middle of a close-door training and no one knew if he was going to come. They were all wondering whether he would meddle in the final of the round-robin. Therefore, he was an unpredictable factor, which was excluded from their calculation at the moment.
More importantly, it was the ones above them who would determine the order of top seats on the Cloud Sect Ranking as well as the ranking of this All Peaks Competition. What the crowd was most concerned about was the confrontation among them.
Of course, that did not mean that these disciples did not care for the contests among other participants. After all, the competition for the top 100 was directly going to decide the ranking of the 33 peaks, and that was, perhaps, the second most important thing for the disciples.
As the people looked on with great expectations, waiting for the next round to begin, wondering who was going to come next, the referee finally declared the opening of a highly crucial match, “Personal disciple Jacques versus Zen of Drizzle Peak!”
Previously when Jacques had stepped into the arena, he had proclaimed that he wanted to challenge Zen. He had been so sure of himself that he had promised he would restrain his Illuminating Soul Realm cultivation within the nature level. But it turned out that Zen was even more arrogant, and had answered that Jacques did not need to restrain his level of cultivation and they were going to have a fair duel when the time came!
The duo had become quite hostile towards each other even before coming onstage. Now, with their match up next, they were finally going to encounter each other during the round-robin.
Every single person in the audience knew clearly that they now had a huge drama to watch!