Chapter 38 - Preliminary Phase

At the end of the route prepared for the participants, what awaited him was a large waiting room - inside, leaving out several guards from the regulation division, the number of people present was about fifteen at first glance. These were all participants in today's selection. The age ranged from 20-21, but they had all reached the third stage of spirit apprentice, some recently or some for a long time.

When he entered, the eyes of the participants rested on him briefly before settling on something else. Hei, being the youngest and being only in the second stage, was the most disadvantaged theoretically, but he was, at the same time, the one most kept in sight. It was because of the event that involved the four elders, something that had been unheard of before.

After Hei, other people arrived, but none of them aroused the same reaction. When new people stopped coming, there were a total of 24 participants in the waiting room. In truth, there were more participants, but that waiting room was assigned only to those who were up to 21 years old.

The inner sect gave two possibilities to enter - reaching the third stage within 21 years old and entering the top three in the tournament. Otherwise, reaching the fifth stage within 27 years old and win the tournament. For reasons of correctness, two tournaments were therefore held, appropriately separating the two categories.

Although the second category, from 22 to 27 years, had more fiery and intense struggles, in the end, the participants were nothing but the losers of the first category who had failed to advance when they were younger. For them, even if they entered the inner sect, their path as a martial artist could be defined more or less concluded.

However, there were also some people from time to time that could pleasantly surprise the public and the sect's elders. But this didn’t take away the fact that the primary attention was mainly on the first category. Therefore, the people of the second category were made to fight before, to warm the public.

When the guards of the regulation division concluded that there were no other participants, they went on to confirm their identity and their stages. After that, the participants were divided into four groups of 6 each. They would proceed initially with a preliminary phase that consisted of a battle royale. Then, the last one standing would pass to the next round.

Afterward, the four winners would have to fight in turn between all of them, and the one with the least number of victories would be discarded while the other three would be admitted to the inner sect. In the event of a tie between the participants, a further battle would be held to decide the outcome.

Since the participants were usually the children of families who lived for generations in the Flower Sect, it was possible to know which competitors were most likely to win. In this way, they organized the groups to leave the best for the final phase.

To immediately set the audience on fire, the group organizers chose Hei as a participant of the first group, along with five other participants who weren’t among those with the highest chance of winning. Rather than trying to help him, this was done to excite the public. The audience had, in fact, specifically come to see his abilities. So it would be better if he could advance in the final phase. But that didn’t change the fact that he was in the second stage while his opponents were in the third one.

The six were then accompanied along a dimly lit corridor of which only the exit could be seen. When the participants came out of the corridor, they were welcomed by a big stone ring. All around, there were the seats intended for the public. Witnessing that scene, the six participants couldn’t help but become nervous. Even for Hei’s five opponents who had already watched other past selections before, this was the first time they saw so many people sitting in the stadium.

At Hei's entrance, the attention of those present concentrated entirely on Hei, while murmurs began to arise among the spectators who recognized him. Even from afar, Hei was easily recognizable by the color of his skin, very rare in those places. But mainly, it was because his impact of a month ago had been so strong. Those present at that time had memorized his features and had referred them to their acquaintances.

In one corner of the stadium, there was a section separated from the standard seats. It was the section reserved for the elders and their disciples. In the highest place sat the sect leader, and behind her, there were two beautiful young girls. Hei recognized one of them - it was none other than Lian who had been brought up there by the sect leader. Her blue hair also could be defined as rather easy to notice and rare to find there.

When she went up there accompanied by the sect leader, there was a moment of tension. After all, that action could be understood as if the sect leader had also recruited her in her faction. It meant that she had grabbed the ingenious children of the elusive beast tamer, and this observation put pressure on the first and second elder who led the other two factions.

Looking towards Lian, Hei's gaze was focused on her head, where his mother was hidden. Sensing his mother looking at him, Hei took a deep breath and calmed down. It wasn’t the time to panic, and above all, he didn't have the slightest intention of making a bad impression before his family.

As the audience calmed down, the sect leader stood up and went on to talk to those present. In order to reach all the spectators, her voice was amplified with spirit power. So it was heard loud and clear by all.

"After the exciting final of the second category, we now move on to the preliminary phase of the first category. We'll start with a battle royale that includes four groups, and the winners of each group will move on to the final phase. From there, we will follow a series of individual battles, and depending on the number of victories, we will have our winners to whom the prizes will be awarded. I, therefore, ask you to give a warm applause to encourage these promising young martial artists." Without adding anything else, the sect leader sat in her place.

Once she had finished her speech, the audience exploded in a roar of applause. Although the sect leader's speech was nothing so particular, she still managed to excite the public. It highlighted the expectations that the incident with the four elders had created.

While the audience indulged in a big applause of encouragement, Hei prepared himself by putting his spear together with his shoes outside the ring, then climbing into the ring barefoot.

This action was noticed by all those present who stopped applauding, given that they were left stunned by this gesture. The spectators could understand if Hei didn't want to reveal his mastery with the spear for the preliminary phase, but why did he take off his shoes? The elders became intrigued by his behavior while his group opponents began to mock him.

"Ahahahah, look at him. He understood that he couldn't beat us, and now he wants us to die with the stench of his feet."

"Ahaha, if you like the stink of your feet so much, you want to smell mine? I'll also let you lick them if you beg me."

The participants of this extraordinary selection didn’t like the fact that favoritism was being made to this newcomer. Even though it was thanks to Hei that they could have this extra possibility, they were still born and raised in the outer sect and had been training for several years. They had always asked to increase the number of tests given to move to the inner sect or increase the places awarded, but the sect leader and other elders had always refused.

Now, instead, that opportunity had been granted to an unknown boy who had never contributed to the sect. Rather than letting a brat like him steal their place, they would prefer to eat animal dung. In their eyes, a second stage brat like him shouldn't have to be with them in the ring in the first place.

Feeling those scorns, Hei turned a blind eye, completely ignoring them and looked at the sect leader who would give the start signal. Rather than resisting their provocations, it was more a matter of total disregard for what they said. Indeed, if the stench of feet could kill a person, he would have been more than happy to have smelly feet. He would even go so far as to increase their stink in case. Having been raised by a spirit beast, he was more concerned about improving his body's efficiency than to concentrate on pleasing others. That was the reason why he didn't mind changing his body to make it more beastly.

While they were pissed off by his total disinterest, Hei went on all fours and gave with a glance to his opponents. From his eyes, he exuded the same concentration he used while hunting. After all, they weren’t so different - it was about hunting humans instead of animals. He only had more handicaps because he couldn't kill them instantly.

Noticing his serious look, the sect leader guessed there was nothing to worry about. Although she had been surprised by his strange actions, they had undoubtedly been made for a specific purpose. She, therefore, gave sign of playing the start gong and starting the first round of the preliminary phase.

At the starting signal, Hei snapped at full speed for the closest of his opponents. These, as expected from the circumstances, had decided to get rid of Hei as soon as possible. So they had planned to attack in unison since the beginning so as not to give him the chance to fight back.

‘As I imagined, I feel sorry for you, but I will go to the next phase.’

With unusual movements never seen before in the Flower Sect, Hei was running alternating his limbs as if he were climbing a vertical wall. Despite the bizarre movements, his speed was incredible. Together with the rapid reaction at the stroke of the gong, he completely caught off guard his opponents who remained dazed without knowing how to react. They were used to clashing fists or blades at chest height, and never in their lives would they have dreamed of having to fight an opponent who was crawling on the ground. They didn't even know how to position themselves to attack an opponent of this kind.

Not letting escape this occasion, Hei approached the more isolated enemy, and when he was at the right distance, he stood up and punched him with his left hand straight to the face that made him faint on the spot.

Since it was a priority to conserve one's spirit power as much as possible for the final phase, it was customary not to use one's spirit power unless one was forced to do otherwise. Considering then the reaction’s speed of Hei and the amazement that his actions generated in his opponents, it didn't seem strange that they didn't have the material time to activate their spirit power. And this played in Hei's favor - with his hardening training, even without activating his spirit power, his fists were unusually hard, and receiving a direct hit would cause extensive damage.

After watching him put K.O. one of them with one shot, the other participants panicked. Before they could calm down, Hei had knocked two more with the same method. Their bodies fell on the ground, and their unconscious, bloody faces created considerable pressure and terror in the other two remaining participants who immediately drew their swords, pointing them at Hei.

With a quick nod, the two adversaries agreed to attack simultaneously. They began to activate their spirit power without hesitation - if fighting in their normal conditions would mean being put K.O. with one hit, it was better to consume it now rather than being eliminated immediately in the preliminary phase.

And it was at this very moment that Hei rose to his feet and switched to the two-legged mode, using his toes to hurl himself at them, even faster than before. During the movement, the fingers of both his hands joined towards a single point. They formed the head of a snake while his spirit power was released in unison.

‘Snake Fist!’

Usually, stage advancements of the spirit apprentice rank had consequences on the body even in its normal stage. But it was when his spirit power was activated that these changes could show their maximum effect. Having reached the second stage, that of the muscles, the energy that Hei could unleash with his movements had increased dramatically, also leading to a consequent increase in speed.

Bam!

Quickly, the distance between him and his opponents was closed, and his fingers struck precisely the center of their throat, catching them by surprise and cutting off their breath at the same time. Their spirit power, not yet fully activated, was only able to diminish the damage barely, and the two of them were put on their knees on the ground while trying to regularize their breathing, breathing, and coughing loudly.

Because of the situation they were in, they could no longer keep their spirit power active, and it was dispersed in a short time. Without wasting any more time, Hei punched them both, making them faint like the other participants. Although the blow to the throat had been tremendous, it hadn’t caused perforation of the trachea. Hei had indeed limited the strength in his snake fists to avoid such a scenario, and the two weren’t in a life-threatening condition.

When the two remaining opponents ended up on the ground unconscious, the audience remained speechless. When they heard about Hei for the first time, many members of the sect thought that he was being given a grace treatment due to some particular circumstance and not for his actual abilities. Even though they knew that the preliminary phase was being maneuvered so as not to make the most exciting participants clash immediately, they expected Hei to struggle in the first round, having to face more opponents at the same time and with a disadvantage of one stage. Even if he were to win for some reason, they expected a significant consumption of spirit power from him.

However, what had happened was far from being what they had expected - the five other participants of the same group had fallen to the ground in brief time, after having suffered a single blow. Not only had he put K.O. three without spirit power, but using the sheer force of his fists, he had simultaneously broken the spirit power’s defense of two people with a stage above his own.

Facing those with a higher level of cultivation was something already seen in the sect. Yet only those who were called geniuses were able to win in such circumstances. Although this had happened in the outer sect, it didn’t change the fact that Hei had still beaten five theoretically stronger opponents than he.