Chapter 43: Challenging Himself

For the next five days, Jia Yuan was continuously “tortured”

by the lessons of the old lady. However, despite the torment, Jia Yuan’s

demeanor and bearing were starting to resemble less of that of a poor slave

boy, and more of a young sire from a noble household.

At the end of the fifth day, Jia Yuan stood tall as he

escorted the old lady out of the hotel room. The two exchanged some

pleasantries, and then Jia Yuan let the two old folk converse.

Guo Huo handed the old lady her payment, and then the old

lady left.

As soon as the old lady left, Jia Yuan ran to his bed and

belly-flopped onto it.

He hated having to constrict himself to such strict

mannerisms, but he had to put up with it, since the scary old witch… Jia Yuan

shuddered just thinking about it.

Guo Huo glanced over at Jia Yuan, and had a sad smile on his

face. When he was a kid, he had also gone through such training… although it

wasn’t as severe as what Jia Yuan had gone through in the last few days. Of course,

the teachings of several years of repetition had been pounded into Jia Yuan in

only a few days, which was a big part of why it had been so hard on Jia Yuan.

Jia Yuan had only made it through the last few days because

of the exquisite food that Guo Huo ordered every day from the hotel. Every time

he was ordered to do something, he did it to the best of his ability, but his

mind was filled with thoughts of the dishes he had tasted the night before.

Back straight! Delicious chicken!

However, that ordeal was finally over.

After a night of resting, Jia Yuan and Guo Huo again walked

toward the arena.

“Teacher, I wonder how strong I will be after my Song

evolved to sustain two elements.”

“Don’t get overconfident. You’re still just a tadpole

compared to someone who is truly strong. You never know, although you have a

rather unique Song, another genius could appear at the arena.”

Upon reaching the C-1 arena, they waited for about twenty

minutes until Jia Yuan was called up to fight.

“Hey, that’s the kid who created the explosion a week ago

right? He’s supposed to be freaking strong!”

“Yeah, I saw him fight the other day.It actually looked like

he made a breakthrough partway throughout the fight! What speed of cultivation!”

Some of the audience members recognized Jia Yuan, while

others had heard rumors about the kid who had basically destroyed one of the

arena’s stages.

Jia Yuan’s opponent for the match was another 30 year old at

the 7th level of Absorption, a citizen of the Fire Kingdom.

As soon as the match began, there was no doubt about who was

stronger. After all, after breaking through to the 4th level of

Absorption, Jia Yuan was stronger than those at the 6th or 7th

level of Absorption, assuming that the opponent had only acquired a low level

Song.

As soon as the fight started, Jia Yuan unsheathed his sword

as the start of his Song, and in the same motion slashed the air in front of

him.

A large blade of fire flew across the stage, which on

contact, simultaneously cut his opponent’s chest open, pushed his opponent out

of the ring, and set the opponent on fire.

The fight had only lasted a few seconds! Some of the

audience members who had wanted to see more fighting from the child prodigy

they had heard about were rather disappointed, but what they saw still awed

them.

A fight between the 4th and 7th level

of Absorption! Usually, that would be a complete destruction of the fighter at

the 4th level of Absorption. However, this young man in front of

them had completely flipped the script!

At this time, Jia Yuan and Guo Huo were walking toward the

front desk.

“You again? Are you here to withdraw your winnings?”

“No, but we’d like to advance to a higher level arena again.”

“Oh?”

The manager looked at Jia Yuan with quite a bit of interest.

After all, less than a week ago Jia Yuan had already moved to the C-1 arena.

Could it be that the C-1 arena was already beneath this kid?

“Alright, you’ve logged two wins in the C-1 arena, so you

are eligible to go up if you’d like. What level of competitors would you like?”

Guo Huo was about to speak when Jia Yuan suddenly spoke up. “The

9th level of Absorption.”

Both the manager and Guo Huo turned to Jia Yuan with looks

of incredulity on their faces. “What!?”

Guo Huo was quick to the point. “Jia Yuan, you’re only at

the 4th level of Absorption! Against those of the 9th

level of Absorption you’ll be at a disadvantage! Remember, you can die here!”

The manager nodded in agreement. He could see from Guo Huo’s

bearing that he was nobility, which meant that the kid with him was probably

the disciple of a famous school or the son of a rich family. Even though the

arena had a large number of guards and was well protected by both said guards

and the fighters who enjoyed competing there, they didn’t want to cause trouble

for no reason.

Jia Yuan didn’t face either of the adults, but said in a

calm voice, “Trust me teacher. I know what I’m doing.”

“…”

Guo Huo wasn’t exactly buying it. However, after some

deliberation, he shook his head, but agreed. “Fine. The path to the peak of the

mountain is never easy. Perhaps it will do you good to learn how to fight from

a disadvantaged position while you are still young.”

In truth, the reason Guo Huo accepted, was because of how

strong he was.

Even if he was sitting in the stands during one of Jia Yuan’s

fights, it would be a simple matter for him to forcefully stop the fight if Jia

Yuan were truly in grave danger.

As for the arena’s guards… even if they had 5 times the

amount of guards they did, even they wouldn’t be able to stop Guo Huo from

doing whatever he wanted. Such the strength was one of the top cultivators in

the Fire Kingdom.