The slip he held up had the number three boldly imprinted upon the surface. After showing it to everyone, he walked back to Mei Xilan.

“It seems we’ll be fighting second,” said Mei Xilan.

“Yeah. And we’re going against Qin Country. I don’t know much about them, other than they produce flying ships,” said Wu Jian.

Known as the country of ship builders, Qin Country was the only nation able to produce flying ships. Every nation who wanted a flying ship had to get one from them. A few countries had tried to reproduce flying ships by reverse engineering the feats used by Qin Country, but none have succeeded in making anything more than the most basic of ship. Qin Country zealously guarded the secret to their ship-building. The sealing arrays used in the production of airships had a powerful lock on it that prevented people from being able to see the full thing.

“That’s really all you need to know,” Mei Xilan said.

“I would also like to know how powerful they are, but I can guess,” hummed Wu Jian.

Given their status as the only ship-builders capable of creating flying ships, they had a lot of power and influence within the Xaio Continent. Even the Xia Dynasty folded to their demands on occasion. It wasn’t unreasonable to call them one of the greatest powerhouses in the world, and with so much wealth accumulated in their nation, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that their cultivators would have been nurtured with all kinds of alchemy pills and rare treasures.

He glanced at the five members from Qin Country. There were three men and two women who looked to be in their early to mid-twenties at a guess. Their leader was a young man with brown hair, sharp eyes, and a cocky smirk. He was taller than Wu Jian by about a head. He was neither broad of shoulder nor did he have a thick chest, but looks could be deceiving. Wu Jian could not sense his cultivation, which meant he was at least in the first subrealm of the Deva Realm.

The other two young men could have passed off for twins. They had short blond hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. Unlike their leader, who wore extravagant robes, they wore sleeveless training gis that showed off their thick arms. It was clear from the muscle definition in their arms, shoulders, and chest that they were used to doing hard manual labor. He wondered what sort of cultivation method they used. Both were ninth subrealm Human Limit Realm cultivators.

Standing together were the two women, who couldn’t have looked more different if they tried. One of them had blonde hair tied into a ponytail, wore her hanfu ruqun in a way that he could only call slovenly, and only seemed interested in showing off her sex appeal. She looked like a high-class courtesan. The other woman had black hair that descended to about the middle of her back, dark blue eyes, and skin as white as snow. She seemed almost delicate and ethereal, as though she’d evaporate at the lightest touch. They were both pretty strong, but the woman with blonde hair was a bit stronger. Wu Jian could tell from the instability of her chi that she was pushing into the Deva Realm.

He wasn’t the only one doing the observing. The men and women from Qin Country were staring at him with arrogant smirks. Even the young woman who looked like a delicate flower exuded arrogance. Well, that was only natural, wasn’t it? People who hailed from a powerful nation like Qin Country would be arrogant, and these people were the cream of the crop, the best of the best. They had probably spent their whole lives being spoiled rotten and told they were special. Anyone would become arrogant with an environment like that.

“Will the people with the number one and two slips remain while everyone else clears the arena?” asked Huǒ Yan.

Wu Jian and Mei Xilan walked alongside the rest of the crowd, vacating the area for a small section of the stands that had been reserved for participants. It was large enough to seat several dozen people, so there was plenty of room. That was why Wu Jian didn’t expect the people from Qin Country to come up to them.

“So you're our opponents, huh? You don’t look like much,” said their leader.

Wu Jian raised an eyebrow. “Did you come up to us just to tell us that?”

The man waved his hand dismissively. “Not at all. I came to wish you luck. You’re going to need it, after all.”

“Well, thanks I suppose. Good luck to you as well,” said Wu Jian.

“You don’t seem to care all that much,” snarked the blonde woman. “You should be showing Senior Brother Liu Huan way more gratitude! He’s taking the time to wish you luck, you know? Do you not understand how fortunate you are?”

“It’s fine, Yang Xiang.” The leader waved another hand. “I don’t mind. They come from the Shang Kingdom, which small and far removed from ours. It is only natural hicks like them wouldn’t understand how blessed they are.”

“You’re so magnanimous, Senior Brother!” The blonde girl clasped her hands together and stared at him. It looked like she was sparkling. Wu Jian could have sworn he’d seen stars in her eyes.

So the leader’s name is Liu Huan and the blonde is Yang Xiang. I don’t know who the others are, but they don’t seem as important. They’re just followers.

“Of course.” Liu Huan wrapped an arm around Yang Xiang’s shoulder and stared deeply into her eyes. “It’s important for people as powerful and wealthy as us to show consideration for those who come from lesser nations.”

“Oh, Senior Brother…”

Wu Jian blinked several times behind his mask as the two went into their own little world. It was like nobody else existed anymore. He glanced at the pair’s companions to find them grimacing like they were fed up. This must have been a common occurrence. Were these two a couple? They seemed like it at least. Just looking at them as they became wrapped up in each other’s embrace made him want to vomit sugar.

It didn’t seem like the pair were going to bother them anymore, so Wu Jian and Mei Xilan turned back to watch the current battle about to take place.

Xiao Shui stood on one end of the platform alongside his four companions. Their formation was a basic spearhead. Xiao Shui was in front, and two people were on either side of and slightly behind him, forming the head of a spear. Battle formations like this were often used to break enemies apart. It was easier to kill individual enemies than it was a group.

Their opponents wore dark green and blue hanfu. He didn’t recognize the uniform. The team was composed of three women and two men, and they stood in a defensive square formation. It was the exact opposite formation as the people from Sui Kingdom. The woman in the middle seemed like the leader of this group. She wore silver armor that gleamed in the light and carried a large battlefan behind her back. Light brown hair sparkled in the light, pulled tight into a bun, with only a few bangs framing her face, which possessed a heroic demeanor.

The formation was strange with one woman on the front left, another on the back right, and a man on the front right, with the other on the back left. It seemed so deliberate that he couldn’t help but wonder if there was a reason for it.

“The first match is between Song Country and the Sui Kingdom,” announced Huǒ Yan.

“Song Country… isn’t their country famous for being the first country to introduce paper money?” mumbled Wu Jian.

Paper money was a new concept that hadn’t spread to more than a handful of kingdoms. Most still used bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and spirit coins as currency. Some countries like the Xia Dynasty scoffed at the idea of using paper as currency. Wu Jian could see where they were coming from. Paper had no real value to speak of. However, some nations had decided to use paper money because of its convenience.

Paper money was a country’s currency in the form of bank notes of a specific value and were used to pay for goods and services. It held the backing of a country’s government, while the central bank kept control over the note’s printing and circulation. The benefits of using paper money was that cash-strapped governments could issue it without purchasing expensive gold and silver. The downside was that paper currency’s overall value was tied to a nation’s wealth. A poor nation’s currency would hold no weight internationally.

Just like every other match in a tournament, the elder refereeing had the contestnants bow to him, each other, and their ancestors in a show of respect. Then the match started.

Just as Wu Jian expected, the team from the Sui Kingdom charged forward with Xaio Shui in the lead. None of them used weapons. Their fists were glowing with a bright, golden light as they raced forward. It was like they had absorbed the powers of the sun and channeled it into their fists. There was so much chi packed into them. Wu Jian shuddered as he realized these people could actually prove to be quite a threat.

The four members on either side of the square formation each made the same hand seals in perfect synchronization. How many hours must they have practiced this? After they finished ten hand seals, they summoned some sort of paper slip, placed it in front of their foreheads, and then a large, square-shaped barrier sprang into existence. It was bright silver and looked solid. Xaio Shui, leading the group, slammed into this barrier and bounced back. The other four members of his group followed suit.

“Huh… I’ve never seen a technique like that before,” Wu Jian placed a hand on his chin and studied the barrier.

“I have heard of techniques like this, but I’ve never seen them put in practice,” Mei Xilan paused a moment, studying the silver barrier. “I’m sure you’ve seen barrier techniques before. This is one of them. However, the way its formed is different. It’s called a group formation barrier. Several people perform hand seals in perfect synchronization to harmonize their chi. It looked like they can’t form the barrier on their own, so they channeled their chi into a sealing formation slip that created the barrier for them. Pretty convenient.”

Wu Jian listened attentively to Mei Xilan’s explanation. He had seen several barriers before, but they weren’t used very often, and he had never heard of a group barrier like this. However, he had seen people use combination techniques and had even used them himself when fighting alongside Huǒ Shuchang. This must have been something similar to that.

While the barrier was up, the woman in the center summoned five paper slips and threw them. Wu Jian thought she was stupid. However, the paper slips quickly lit up and darted forward. They shot from the barrier as if it wasn’t even there. Their destination was the five young men from the Sui Kingdom.

“Hah! Do you think such a weak attack is enough to hurt us?!”

Xaio Shui laughed as he punched the slip. He probably assumed, like Wu Jian, that the slip would simply be destroyed. What happened instead was the slip shattered into several fragments of light, which wrapped around the group of five quickly, binding them their hands and legs together. Xaio Shui and his cohorts squawked in surprise.

“Oh. Another strange technique. It’s a binding technique, right?” asked Wu Jian of no one in particular.

Mei Xilan nodded. “Yes. That is a binding technique.”

“She’s using those paper slips again,” he said with a murmur.

“My guess is that woman in the middle is a seal master… or an apprentice at the very least.”

“I’ve heard of them before. They create sealing formations. That’s all I know, though.”

“You should probably learn a bit more.”

“Yeah. I don’t want to be caught unprepared.”

With the five men bound, the five from Song Country undid their barrier formation, summoned profound spirit weapons, and went on the attack. Wu Jian wondered if this was the end for the arrogant Xaio Shui and his cohorts.