The atmosphere that evening was a strange mixture of celebration and sober reflection. Hu Jian and Lin Tao were ecstatic, recounting their victories with a boisterous energy. Today's victory bolstered their confidence. Brother Kai listened with a proud paternal smile, offering quiet words of praise and advice.
Li Yu was celebrating and having fun with his friends but also thinking about today's fight. He sat at the stone table, a cup of untouched tea growing cold in his hands, his mind replaying every moment of his fight with Feng Tao.
"That was a clean victory, Junior Steward," Brother Kai said, noticing his contemplative mood. "You removed his strength and defeated him with a single decisive blow."
"It was clumsy," Li Yu corrected. His friends fell silent, their celebratory mood dimming as they saw the serious expression on his face. "I won because my foundation is deeper and my technique was able to end things instantly. While that isn't a bad thing in a fight, I found myself lacking combat experience and natural instincts of what to do next in battle. His instincts were sharper and his spirit gave him an offensive edge that I do not possess."
He looked at his own hands. "My Koi spirit is a peerless tool for cultivation but in combat it offers me nothing. No attacks and no physical enhancements. This was something I already knew but became clearer in battle. When I face an opponent of a truly equal foundation, I will be at a disadvantage. My fight today was a victory but it was also a warning to continue to get better."
His friends listened, a new understanding dawning on them. They had seen the victory; he had seen the flaws.
The next day, the second round of the competition began. The number of contestants had been cut in half. The atmosphere in the arena was more intense, the battles on the platforms more brutal and skillful.
Hu Jian and Lin Tao both fought valiantly, their new strength and confidence on full display. Hu Jian faced a disciple with a powerful earth-attribute spirit and lost after a brutal, ten-minute battle that left both combatants exhausted and bruised.
Lin Tao, through his cunning and control, managed to defeat a fire-attribute opponent who was a full stage higher than him, earning a roar of approval from the crowd. They both returned from their matches, one defeated and one victorious. However, both with the satisfied, enlightened look of warriors who had learned a valuable lesson.
Li Yu's turn soon came up. His opponent was Yao Ling, the talented alchemist whose Seven-Tailed Spirit Fox he had helped before.
He remembered their first meeting clearly. She had come to him with her desperate worry for her companion. He had spent a day with her, observing the fox and at that time they had spoken at length about the nature of spiritual beasts.
He had found her to be a dedicated, intelligent and surprisingly humble cultivator. Her deep love for her craft and her companion inspired him to find loves of his own. They had parted on terms of mutual respect and she had become one of the few disciples in the inner sect he would consider somewhat a friend.
He met her on Platform Five. A murmur of excitement went through the crowd for the next match.
"Junior Brother Li," Yao Ling said, a small wry smile on her face. "I had hoped we would not meet so early in the competition. I still owe you a debt for saving my Little Yin." Her Rank 5 Seven-Tailed Spirit Fox, Little Yin, materialized beside her, its silver fur now thick and lustrous. It looked at Li Yu and let out a soft friendly chitter.
"There is no debt between friends, Senior Sister," Li Yu replied with a polite bow. "Only a contest of skills. I ask that you do not hold back."
"I would not dream of it," she said, her smile vanishing. It was replaced by a look of intense, competitive focus.
The match began. Yao Ling did not charge. She was an alchemist and her fighting style was a beautiful, deadly art of preparation and control. With a flick of her wrist, she scattered a handful of fine, green powder. It hung in the air, creating a sweet-smelling fog. It was a powder meant to paralyze and slow movements.
"What was that?" Li Yu thought to himself. He had never fought an alchemist before and his knowledge was still much too shallow. Since he didn't know he would just have to get rid of it. He immediately created a small swirling vortex of water in front of him, the «Flowing Water, Still Shadow» art, sucking the powder out of the air and concentrating it in front of him. He then tossed it out of the arena.
But the powder was just a distraction. While he was dealing with it, Little Yin moved. It was a blur of silver light, its seven tails fanning out behind it. Each tail glowed with a different elemental energy—fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning, light, and darkness. It was a creature of incredible, versatile power. It opened its mouth and spewed a torrent of silver flames.
Li Yu's eyes narrowed. He used his «Rippling Shadow Step» to evade, his form a fluid watery blur. But the flames were relentless, guided by the fox's powerful spiritual sense. He was forced into a constant, defensive dance, unable to find an opening.
It was happening again, when he wasn't just able to overpower his opponent completely from the start, he was on the back foot. He was reacting and seemingly always a step behind. His mind, so brilliant at cultivation, was not a fighter's mind. He saw the attack, calculated the optimal defensive maneuver and executed it flawlessly. But he never saw the next move to make. When he didn't have that extra power from cultivation, he was found lacking.
He lacked the innate, predatory instinct that told a true warrior when to dodge left to create an opening elsewhere and exploit it. He had no killer instinct currently and it made him sluggish in battle.
"You are a difficult man to pin down, Junior Brother," Yao Ling's voice called out from the other side of the platform. With another flick of her wrist, she threw three small black pellets at his feet. They exploded with a loud bang, releasing a thick, sticky black liquid that spread across the platform. This limited his movement space.
He was being systematically corralled, his superior movement technique rendered less effective by his opponent's clever use of tools. He was being outplayed. His ability to read the flow of a battle against a truly skilled opponent, were still far too weak. This combined with his lack of knowledge for how others fought made him slow to react.
He had been sparring with the same people this entire time and that limited his growth. It was the wrong thing to do but one that came out of his cautious nature to not reveal himself. He was a genius at cultivation but on an even battlefield he was a terrible fighter.
He saw a flicker of movement to his left. Little Yin was preparing another attack. This time it was a blade of solidified wind. Li Yu knew he could dodge it but it would force him into the corrosive liquid. He was trapped.
He let out a quiet sigh. He had wanted to test his own skills, to see how far he could go on his own. But his own skills were not enough, at least not in the same realm. He needed more training, more knowledge and most importantly more real fights. How he was going to get the latter was a tough question for himself with his nature to hide.
Currently, it would seem that he would need to either just vastly over power his enemies through cultivation where he can smash them like an ant or overwhelm them with his demonic beasts or perhaps other tools.
Just as the wind blade was about to strike, Li Yu's hand, which had been resting at his side, touched the Beast Bag. "Crimson," he commanded through their link.
With a furious draconic roar, a portal opened and the jade-scaled form of his Rank 4 beast appeared in front of him. Crimson took the full force of the wind blade on its thick armored hide. The powerful attack, which would have seriously injured a normal Fifth Stage disciple, simply scraped against its scales with a screech of protesting metal, leaving only a thin white line.
"A fine beast," Yao Ling said, her eyes gleaming with a new and more serious light. "But my Little Yin is a Rank 5. Let's turn this into a competition between beast masters and see how we do."
Li Yu agreed and the battle transformed. It was no longer a duel between two disciples. It was a chaotic four-way war. Little Yin, with its seven elemental tails was a whirlwind of versatile power. It was sending blasts of fire, shards of ice and bolts of lightning across the platform.
Crimson was a fortress of pure physical might, its every charge shaking the very foundations of the stage. The Koi sanctuary had helped to empower Crimson and he was much stronger than someone of his rank.
Li Yu and Yao Ling became the generals, their minds a flurry of commands and strategies. Li Yu used his mist and ice blades to support Crimson, to create openings and to limit the fox's movement. Once again he found himself to be lagging behind with all the strange tactics and tools Yao Ling was using. Her bag of tricks seemed endless, alchemists really fought dirty he thought to himself. Though, even he himself knew he was thinking that just to comfort himself.
Crimson was doing much better, his beastial instincts were sharp and he was reacting to things before Li Yu could give commands to it. Yao Ling used her pills, powders and artifacts to enhance her fox's speed, to create defensive barriers and to try and poison Crimson with a debilitating toxin or restrict its movements.
Finally, Li Yu got an opportunity. Crimson was able to feint little Yin into an attack in the wrong direction. Crimson was then able to use that chance to smash little Yin away, leaving Yao Ling exposed.
Li Yu created a thick disorienting mist when he saw the chance. Li Yu then appeared behind Yao Ling, his form a silent ghostly shadow. He did not aim for Yao Ling for he didn't want to hurt someone he considered a friend. His aim was for the ground beneath her feet and he smashed.
A deep, heavy and irresistible wave of force slammed into the stone platform. The stage itself groaned and a web of cracks spread out from the point of impact. The sudden, violent tremor sent Yao Ling stumbling and knocking her back on the ground.
It was all the opening Crimson needed. It lunged with its thick powerful tail and with a controlled sweeping motion knocked the already off-balance spirit fox off the platform.
The moment her spirit was eliminated, Yao Ling raised her hand. "I yield," she said, a look of frustration on her face from the defeat.
The referee declared Li Yu the winner. The crowd erupted in a roar of approval at a match well fought. Li Yu recalled Crimson and walked over to Yao Ling, offering her a hand. "It was a fine battle, Senior Sister. Your control over your companion is something I can only hope to achieve."
Yao Ling took his hand, a small genuine smile on her face.
He had won. But as he walked off the platform, his heart was heavy with the same realizations of what he was lacking.
He looked up at the central platform where the final rounds would be held. He knew that it would be possible with his currently suppressed self to get there on his own. The lesson was a bitter one but it was a necessary one.
He was a cultivator, yes. But it seemed it wasn't going to be one of those geniuses that excel at fighting in the same realm, being invincible against his peers at the same level. At least not right now but maybe never. His true strength might always lie in his superior cultivation, his body's foundation and perhaps it might not even lay in his own hands but in the loyal powerful companions who fought by his side.
He smiled at the thought, the future was unknown and only by continuing to live and advance would he truly know. This tournament was the right choice, he was learning a lot and enjoying watching all the other fights. All of the excitement from everyone, it was infectious. At times like this, with everyone gathered here to watch and enjoy the sect seemed like such a great place to be.