Little Spring ignored Zhao XiuYing’s snide comment. His eyes lost focus, like he was concentrating on something else entirely.

She drew close and struck toward his temple, using the back of her fan. The kid might look lost in thought, but he deftly blocked her attack with his broken sword. Then he used his Qi strengthened body to throw it back toward her.

To get rid of the momentum, she had to take several steps back.

Even I was impressed that the kid managed that. Her spiritual weapon was no joke!

As if the light clicked in Little Spring’s head, his eyes cleared. Suddenly, he sent out a crescent of sword Qi from the stub of his weapon.

Me and several others watching him stood up.

Because this brat just taught himself the Any Blade is My Sword mindset!

I didn’t fucking learn that until I was in my late teens!

Well, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it enough from me... but still; he was only fucking eight!

That Qi attack must have caught Zhao XiuYing off guard, because it struck her shoulder. Unfortunately, she had a protective item hidden somewhere and came out unscathed.

The little fairy was so enraged that ‌she increased her effort. Her fan nearly doubled in speed when she next attacked him.

He deflected it once again, but it was getting harder. His sword was too small and her fan was just too big. Still, Little Spring stayed steady as a fucking rock.

In the middle of a barrage of attacks, he sent a spiritual palm at her. She barely deflected it with her fan, then fought off another two small sword Qi attacks.

Considering he only started learning how to cultivate a little over a year ago, this was damn impressive.

“I! Will! Not! Lose!” she yelled. Then she jumped back and pulled a talisman from her ring. She activated the spell while glaring at Little Spring. It turned into a thin bolt of lightning.

The kid was so shocked that he didn’t get out of the way. The bolt struck him. Fortunately, he still had the protective talisman on him. Unfortunately, whatever level of lightning she used, it obliterated his protection.

Fuck. This should be the point where the kid gave up. Maybe he didn’t think of it, because, when she took out another paper, he still said nothing. He didn’t even hint that he was interested in conceding and was instead trying to close in on her.

She flicked the paper at him.

Fuck, was he about to get killed by this damn lightning bolt? Because I knew for a fact that it would kill him if it struck. Or, at the very least, break his sect token.

Little Spring jumped back and to the side, then he used the Unusual Backstep Sword Escape to remove himself from the path of the lightning. All with a god damn broken sword!

The bolt struck the arena floor, leaving a familiar black mark.

The kid was impressive. Unfortunately, Icy Tsundere Fairy had deep pockets.

She took out a third talisman.

He sent a blade of Qi slashing towards it, but she activated it before that. Her talismans must have been at Foundation Establishment (just barely within what the rules allowed for) because it crushed the thin Qi Condensation stage Sword Qi.

The referee appeared in front of Little Spring and stopped the lightning with a simple shielding technique. Easy for a Golden Core. Then he called, “Zhao XiuYing, wins!”

The two bowed to each other.

Icy Tsundere Fairy flicked her hair back and sauntered over to the waiting area.

Little Spring took a second to pick up the pieces of his broken sword. He stared at it for a second, bit his lip, then walked over to me. He handed me the metal bits. “I’m sorry. It’s broken.”

I stored them in my ring. “I’ll make you a new one.”

He blinked up at me. I grinned and smoothed his hair. It had become messy because of the fight. “You did well not getting hurt.”

His lower lip trembled. “I’m not sure about that. I think that if I’d tried harder or done things differently, I could have won.”

“Let me tell you as someone who has lost over and over and over... and over and over.”

He scowled up at me. What? Could he not imagine me losing?

“Losing a bit of face is better than losing your life. And losses are only really losses if you don’t learn from them.”

Then the brat hugged me in front of the whole damn stadium.

I stiffened and patted his head. “Hey, let go. We’re in public, you know.”

He sniffed a little, and after I tugged his sleeve a few times, he let go. He didn’t look like he’d been crying.

Well, whatever. Kids needed hugs.

“Hey, instead of being sad. Get good, then get revenge.”

“Yes, Sister Lin!”

***

It didn’t take them long to clear the arena floor; however, Icy Tsundere Fairy needed time to recover from her last two fights so the referee told everyone to take around a half hour break before the final.

During that time, I didn’t just sit on my ass cultivating inside my tent. That only took a few minutes. I made plans on how I could approach Icy Tsundere Fairy.

Considering that she was the last obstacle between me and my home, I wouldn’t make the mistake of taking her lightly. She might be only eight years old, but she could take on a Zhang Clan member and beat his ass.

Considering all the limitations put on me, I had no illusions of my superiority. I mean, I had superior abilities, but raw power (used properly) could still trump advanced skills.

While I didn’t know everything she’d hidden away, I could still make a few guesses.

First, the special items she could use needed to be something in or under Foundation Establishment.

This covered an insanely large number of possible items. But, judging from her prior use of talismans, she would likely use several of those as well. Of course, I didn’t know if she came here with those talismans or if someone gave them to her during our rest time before the finals like McTraitorFace.

What mattered was that I might be able to take one lightning strike between my body cultivation and a proper spiritual shield. However, there was also a possibility that it would break my sect token, so I shouldn’t take that chance.

That said, I had the pieces of Little Spring’s broken sword and most of a half hour left.

I pulled out a few spirit stones and created a secret craftsman’s formation. It was one that made metal malleable. This worked on both hot metal and cold lower ranked spiritual metals. Like the one used in Little Springs' old sword.

I pulled out a few of the tools I had collected ever since the magical space went out of commission.

Then I went to work. It took all of my enhanced strength, but I pulled and twisted it into shape.

Slowly, I changed Little Spring’s sword into my own secret weapon. Muahahahaha!

***

Little Spring stepped inside the tent. “Sister Lin, they’re about to start again.”

Then his eyes widened as he looked at my precious secret weapon in horror. “What is that?”

I shoved it into my ring and grinned. “A surprise.”

“It’s...”

“Not pretty, I know.”

He grimaced. “I don’t think...”

“—It will be effective against Zhao XiuYing? You let me worry about that. It’s not what weapon you use, but how you use it.”

He nodded sagely, but I didn’t think he really understood me. Whatever.

“Now, are you ready to watch me kick a little girl’s ass?”

“You’re technically a little girl, too.”

I scowled at him as we exited the tent. I also took out a protective talisman and stuck it onto my arm just in case.

“Fairy Lin versus Zhao XiuYing!”

Once again, and for the last time in this tournament, I stepped onto the arena floor.

Zhao XiuYing also walked over, posture filled with confidence.

“You have anything you want to say before we start this?” I asked.

“I’m going to defeat you, one way or another.”

“Pretty tough words for someone I could throw across the arena with one arm.”

She snorted coldly and took out her massive fan. “And what words do you want to say before I crush you?”

With a huge grin on my face, I pointed my sword at her and said, “Ten moves!”

She blinked.

“I will defeat you in ten moves.”

She scowled at me, obviously not believing it.

“I don’t care if you defeated 888 arrows or whatever they say you did. You’re not getting first place here.”

My eyes moved to the box where the Peak Masters sat on either side of the Sect Leader. I couldn’t see them, but I knew that Fairy Verdant Bamboo was up there eyeing me and hoping I would lose.

The referee yelled, “Fight!”

I sent a slash of sword Qi at Zhao XiuYing.

As I expected, she dodged. Unfortunately for her, I knew where she was going to land and had already sent another blade of Qi there.

She used her fan to block it. A small slice cut into the metal edge of her fan.

I had also expected that. Her weapon wasn’t for show.

With a wave of her massive fan, she sent out a thin but powerful stream of icy wind toward me.

Instead of taking it head on like Little Spring had, I held my sword out in front of me and broke the wind up.... At the same time, I started running closer to her.

I had a limited amount of sword Qi I could use when reduced to the second layer, so any attacks I could make from close up helped to conserve my energy.

Her eyes grew wide when she realized how close I was. I guessed she’d assumed that since Little Spring and I had the same master, we had the same fighting techniques. Ha! I hadn’t taught that boy everything I knew.

She barely had time to get her fan up when I slashed at her throat. Her fan caught my blade but she was pushed back a few inches due to my strength. Of course, at the same time she tried the same freezing bullshit that she used against Little Spring. Amusing.

“That won’t work against this sword!” I feinted like I was coming from her upper left, but ‌moved my sword in a swish to reach her upper right. It came down toward her head.

The little fairy used a movement technique and escaped backward.

With shaking hands, she pulled out another talisman paper. It was the same lightning type ‌she’d used earlier.

Unfortunately for her, I had turned my miss into another slash, sending an arc of sword Qi in the direction I deduced that she’d escape to.

It sliced right through the paper and landed against a protective barrier. From the flickering, I could tell that my attack had drained a significant amount of energy from it.

Her eyes grew wide.

As clever as these kids were, they were still kids.

She hurriedly took out another paper, and I finally pulled out my secret weapon!

As soon as she pointed her talisman my way, I shoved the long stick of metal into the arena floor and jumped back.

Zap!

Lightning zipped toward me and hit the massively ugly lightning rod I’d MacGyvered.

As the great philosopher, XKCD, once said, ‘Science. It works, Bitches!’ Wait, maybe they were a comedian of some kind? A webcomic? Whatever. I couldn’t remember everything from a thousand years ago.

What mattered was that I’d stopped this bitch from using her favorite high-powered attack with a ridiculous stick of metal... that I imbued with subtle lightning-attracting properties thanks to a small formation. Muahahahaha!