With the provocative words from Lang Sheng, everyone in the crowd realized that this challenge for leadership of the clan was truly serious. For many of them the sheer number of people involved had given this event something of a festival vibe. It was only now that the full weight of this grand battle hit them. They finally realized that this event had immense implications upon the clan and their own lives. How much would things change after this battle? Would they be for the better or the worse? Would the victor take vengeance upon them all for their lack of support? There were many with worried expressions. Had they not given enough support for their Patriarch? Should they have treated the new Lang branch head better?

On the stage, the Jinxi Patriarch did not respond to Sage’s taunting as he had before. It seemed he had sufficiently prepared to be mocked in this manner and he was now committed to his kind and magnanimous old man routine again. Well, that’s how Sage saw it. In his opinion, this guy was just a giant hypocrite that constantly put on an act in order to get people to respect him. Of course, this wasn’t a reason for Sage to hate the man. Sage was no stranger to acting like someone else in order to achieve his goals. A conman can always recognize another conman. The problem was that the Jinxi Patriarch stood in his way. In that case, there was no other choice but to take him down.

Jinxi Po and Great Elder Xie were still on the stage with them and they were acting as the representatives of the two factions in this matter. Since the Patriarch was in the battle, he couldn’t also represent his faction. The two of them locked eyes, saluted and then left the stage. This was the last chance for their factions to reconcile, but they had not even bothered to say a word to each other before leaving. It was a clear signal to everyone that there was no more room for negotiation in this matter. The Xie wanted the Jinxi out of power and the Jinxi were no longer willing to entertain the Xie’s demands.

Once Jinxi Po and the Great Elder of the Xie had stepped off the stage, the battle had officially begun. There were no referees in this match. The rules were set and known by all and the Elders of the Clan were the judges. If either of the combatants broke the rules, they would not only lose the challenge, but they would suffer punishment by the Clan. If the Jinxi Patriarch broke the rules he would have to hide it from everyone in the crowd, if not he’d not only lose leadership of the clan for the Jinxi, but also be locked up for who knows how many years. It was for this reason that Sage felt confident in competing with such an ancient old man. Even if he couldn’t use all his tricks, neither could the Jinxi Patriarch.

The two of them stared at each for a few moments, and the Jinxi Patriarch noticed the strangeness of Sage’s right eye. A field of black stars within a golden ring, the black pupil at the center of a yellow iris. The powerful eyesight of a cultivator caught the difference that no mortal would see without a detailed eye examination. The old man’s attention was caught by this oddity, but there was no chance that Sage would answer his questions so he didn’t bother to ask. The old man didn’t make a move yet. He placed his hands together in front of himself and slid them into his sleeves. The large sleeves pressed together and made the man’s hands disappear. There was no telling if he was just holding his wrists or if he had weapons hidden up his sleeves.

Oh wait, there are no weapons or tools allowed in this battle. So if he wants to use a hidden attack it will have to be a Qi technique.

It might sound like this battle was going to be a barehanded brawl, but most Nascent Souls were extremely old and experienced. Who knew how many combat techniques they had picked up throughout their lives?

Since the old man wanted to stand still to seem like an undefeatable expert, then Sage would just take the role of the headstrong challenger. He did not feel like getting into a battle of posing and showing off with this wily old man. The stone floor of the stage beneath him suddenly cracked. The power in Sage’s leg was immense, and when he pushed off the stone could not resist his force. He shot forward like a bullet and the Jinxi Patriarch was startled. Body Cultivators were rare, and most used merely Qi to battle. To see such speed from just muscle power was completely unexpected.

Even so, the Jinxi Patriarch was not at a loss. There was a surge of Qi around the old man and then a loud rush of wind followed by the boom of an explosion. Dust and debris blew into the air, forming a large obscuring cloud, but there was no more noise on the stage for a few moments while the dust cleared. When the cloud finally dissipated the two combatants had changed places on either end of the stage. The Jinxi Patriarch was standing where Sage had started the match, with his hands still up his sleeves. On the other end of the stage, Sage had his back towards the Jinxi Patriarch and he was standing awkwardly at the edge of a ten foot wide crater. He looked like he was squatting with one leg on the edge of the crater with the other inserted into the hole.

Sage looked over his shoulder at the Jinxi Patriarch and then slowly rose up from that one legged squatting position. His foot pivoted and he turned to face the old man again. He smiled widely and took one slow step forward before exploding with force once again, causing a huge chunk of the stage to break off and fall into the crater behind him. There was another loud wind noise, but the booming sound that followed after it was very different this time. Instead of the loud sound of impact and exploding stone, there was a sharp crack. It was a sound that Sage recognized as the breaking of the sound barrier. This time there was no massive dust cloud, but the two combatants had moved again. Sage had returned to his original place on the stage, while the Jinxi Patriarch had rushed off to the side to occupy an undamaged part of the stage.

For the Elders in the crowd they were able to see what had happened in these two exchanges. The Jinxi Patriarch used some sort of wind related movement technique, causing the air to ripple and shoot him into the air like a bouncing ball while Sage used his great strength to stomp the ground. Not only did it make a stone shrapnel filled explosive attack, but it also put an instant stop to his motion. Then he made a second rush towards the old man who responded with the same movement technique to try to bound away. Only this time, there was a flash of golden light around Sage’s body and the Jinxi Patriarch used a different movement technique that created a sonic boom as he shot out of the path of a blade.

Sage turned around and smiled at the Jinxi Patriarch, “So, you saw it? That’s a shame.”