(MC POV)
The ordeal that happened during the day was just a minor interlude that was placed at the back of my mind but not forgotten.
I had seen how worried and scared Chuyan, Linda and Lynda were, and I felt that I was a bit reckless in my actions and behaviours, as I had made the girls I considered my children worried and scared for my well being.
It seems I have been looking more at pacifism and had neglected the fact that some people would see that as me being weak or scared of their background; that was why that man named Bai Qi felt that he could force me into marrying one of his daughters just because he is both powerful and the leader of the biggest sect.
Now that I am remembering this guy, why was he hell-bent on marrying his daughters to me anyway? I forgot to ask, damnit.
"Now is the time that we all have been waiting for: the new additions to the personal disciples of the Pink petals sect!" The host on the stage screamed with passion in her voice as six young and energetic female disciples donning personal disciple robes came on the stage looking both nervous and proud for joining the sect.
I did not bother listening to their names and their tiers as I looked at the sect master of the pink petals sect, who had been looking at me the entire time. I had tried to ignore her gaze, but it was now getting a bit annoying.
Ignoring her, I watched the performance of the newly accepted disciples challenging other disciples from other sects.
Yes, performance. Even though they all looked like they were fighting for real, everything was already planned from the beginning, and the fights all just ended in draws, and the disciples that had been selected from other sects would just praise them for their talents and their skills, and that was it.
After that would then be a little exchange fight, where other sect disciples, or disciples aside from the newly accepted disciples of the pink petals sect, would challenge other sect disciples to a little match. They called it an exchange battle, but it was just a way to measure the other sects, or rather for enemy sects to measure the power of their rivals in terms of their disciples' prowess and skills.
"I challenge Nas from the Old Town Road sect." A youth with fiery red hair jumped on the stage as he called out his challenge.
"You will regret challenging me." Another youth with black hair jumped on the stage; an elder from the pink petals sect acted as a referee for their little battle.
The one with fiery hair started off with a fireball, trying to create some kind of distance between him and his opponent, and the one with black hair responded with a wall barrier made of earth. When they both collided, the wall of earth now had a hole that had lava around it, making it easier for the fiery-haired one to see the water arrow that was being created by the black-haired one, but he was not able to dodge in time, so he created a wall of flames, creating a steam-filled stage, hiding himself inside it.
The fiery-haired one quickly used a gust of wind to blow the mist away and followed up with another attack.
"Lightning stride!" The fiery-haired one increased his speed with lightning techniques as he looked to make the fight a close-quarters combat as he drew his sword from his space ring.
He has a space ring? I thought only masters and elders could afford it since, of course, I am the creator and had set the price pretty high, so I was not expecting disciples to have them; maybe his master gave it to him to help in his fight.
"Don't even think about it, Ice zone." He countered with an ice spell, making the arena covered in small spots of ice at random places, maybe hoping to make the stage slippery for the fiery-haired one.
These guys, even though they are in the proficient tier, their control of the secondary elements is pretty decent, but they aren't using their full potential.
After seeing this fight and the others that happened before, I realised that some masters only teach fanciful techniques and arts to their disciples, but not the practical ones that can really save their lives and easily allow them to secure a victory.
For instance, the ice zone technique – it sounds cool and all, but it takes time to really affect the environment and just wastes your elemental energy when it's not a group battle, and when someone uses the lightning stride, they move fast, but they only progress in a straight line, which leaves them open to a fireball to the face or a barrage of other attacks. Using a practical technique like frozen lane would freeze the path in front of you, making the person using the ice stride literally run on ice, giving him less room to dodge since he has no friction anymore, and you can then fire a barrage of spells at him.
Even the mist that was created when the water spear and fire wall clashed would have been a very good place to use a barrage of wind blades.
Remember, they can't be seen, but with the wind blades passing through the mist, you can at least know the direction that it passed so that you can easily adjust your aim, but the one inside the mist won't see what attacked him.
The one with fiery hair was able to close the gap between them as he attacked, and the black-haired one retaliated with a strike of his own after taking out his own sword.
Another fanciful move; how could they not have had their sword out since the beginning of the match? Don't they know that using a storage ring increases the risk of you losing connection with your surroundings and getting killed in a match?
Their masters would have given them a storage ring to conceal their weapon and might have removed their valuables from the rings, but what if they later have storage rings and keep their weapons inside, and they try taking them out during a fight? They would have to look for the weapon inside the storage ring since they already have tonnes of things stored there already.
The way a storage ring works is the same as a sack; to take something out involves you having to reach into the sack and feel around for the thing and, in other cases, open the sack and dump everything inside out. luckily fo them they only have swords there.
Only people who have a grasp of the space element can do something like what they are doing.
"Nas wins"
I looked back at the fight and saw that the fiery-haired kid was out of the stage in a sorry state and the Nas kid was standing on the stage, barely, since he looked to have dislocated his shoulder and had a wound across his chest.
The battles went on, and I just watched them, bored to death as they only did more fanciful moves and useless tactics and attacks.
"I challenge Yuri of the Ink cloud Sect."
Hmm? Did I hear it right?
Looking at the stage, I saw a girl in pink robes looking a bit dishevelled, like a mad woman, looking in my direction as she pointed at Yuri, who was sitting beside me with Lynda on her lap. Even she was shocked as she looked at me.
The person on the stage was actually Shangguan; it took me a while to recognise her, and she had a determined look on her face.
"Is that even allowed?"
"I though dao children of sects only face off against other dao children?"
...
"Master Zen?" Elder Liang looked at me and called, looking a bit worried as he looked at Yuri and Shangguan, who were on the stage.
"Yuri?" I ignored him and rather focused on Yuri, who looked at Shangguan on the stage with a look of concern.
"Would accepting her challenge bring any trouble? You know with my sorceress identity.
Ah, right, I had taught her about her powers, how to use them and her identity as a sorceress being very rare and sought after by other practitioners since, unlike practitioners that have to manipulate their energy and the elements, sorcerers can create constructs with their cores, and these constructs can range from living to inanimate.
What made them popular was the golems that they usually made.
"No, but are you sure you want to accept? You aren't proficient in it yet," I advised, knowing fully well that she had already made up her mind since she handed Lynda to me.
"Yes, I want to teach her a lesson on your behalf." She looked at me and smiled as she created spider-like appendages behind her as she went down to the stage.
This drew gasps from the audiences, as they could not believe what they were seeing.
"Go, mama!" Linda cheered from Chuyan's lap.
"..."
Right, I forgot that I only told people that the twins with me were my adopted daughters, and now they would suspect me since Yuri looked like a woman in her early thirties.
But you know what?
"Go, darling!"