Volume 4: Chapter 27 – The Competition Begins
I didn’t have the time to check on Teacher Zhen as Teacher Di had already completed chanting his offensive spell. Since I was only battling him, it was easier to counter his spells. Even if I can’t take his spells head on, I could still defend against it.
Teacher Di used the rank 7 spell, Lightning Array Burst. I rarely used that spell as it was difficult to control. Teacher Di cast nine bolts of lightning to surround me; forming a simple array. This would result in me being unable to dodge his spell by using the short distance teleportation spell so every lightning held strong offensive powers.
I won’t be able to avoid facing the multi-directional spell. I just had to resist it as I didn’t have the time to cast a strong spell to counter it. I merely cast a few low-grade protective spells on myself and fused Dou Qi in them as much as possible before it got in contact with the spells.
Hong! I was tossed high up by Teacher Di’s magic spell. My protective barriers was completely broken as a result of resisting his attack. I was lucky that I had fused some Dou Qi into the barriers as it had decreased the severity of the attack to its lowest. It was still inevitable that I coughed out a mouthful of blood. I hurriedly cast a light element recovery spell to heal my body as a preparation to face Teacher’s Di next move.
Teacher Zhen shouted, “I have enough of fighting already! If we continue, it’ll probably cost my life!” Teacher Zhen was seriously hurt this time due to underestimating me.
Teacher Di and I withdrew the offensive spells that we had prepared to cast. I awkwardly ran forward to support Teacher Zhen. “Are you alright? You’re too strong for me to hold back and had to fight with all of my might.”
Teacher Zhen shook his head and said, “You’re not the one to be blamed. It should be me. Let’s stop training for the day as I need to tend to my wounds as soon as possible since the competition will be starting tomorrow. The training of Ma Ke by the Si Di and XIn De should also be stopping soon.” Injuries weren’t hard to treat for Teacher Zhen with his current skills. After Teacher Zhen walked away, Teacher Di whispered to me, “Was that the fusion of light elements and Dou Qi that you had told me before?”
I nodded. “That’s right! Although the power of the fusion spell is strong, the speed to fuse them takes some times.”
Teacher Di replied, “That spell is not bad. You’ve to improve that spell as it’ll be really useful in the future.” I nodded in agreement.
Teacher Di said, “Alright! That should be enough training for the day. Let’s head back to have some food and get some rest before the competition tomorrow.”
Ma Ke and I accompanied with the four Magisters went to the prince’s mansion the next day. The Prince himself personally came to invite us in. He said in gratitude, “Thank you all for your support! I’ll have to depend on you today.”
Teacher Di smiled and replied, “Your Highness, you don’t have to be this polite to us as we aren’t doing this solely for you. We hope that you’ll be a good Emperor if we succeed in winning the competition.”
The Prince nodded affirmatively. “You don’t have to worry as I promise that I won’t let you down.”
The venue for the competition was in the Royal training ground. It was very spacious and had an ancient protection spell so that the training ground wouldn’t be destroyed easily.
The Prince lead one hundred guards to escort us to the Royal training ground. The competition was carried out in secret so only those involved in setting up the competition knew about it.
The Prince said, “I have invited the kingdom’s High Priest to be the judge. If the competition didn’t involve so many magic experts, I won’t have been able to ask for his help.”
I curiously asked Teacher Di, “ who is that High Priest ?” Teacher Di explained to me that he held a neutral position in the kingdom so he won’t be biased in the judging the matches. Anyone who are religious were his disciples. The kingdom had numerous believers. If he wanted the kingdom to be his, it would be extremely easy for him. Luckily, the power he held weren’t impossible to resist against. The High Priest himself was a very kindhearted person. No one knew how old he really was and nor did anyone saw him got angry before. Everyone would be able to relax with him judging the battles. I stared at the High Priest only to see that he had calmly closed his eyes and ignored the commotions happening around him. He wore a strange attire. He had worn a black robe and a wooden staff in his hand. There was a glittering red jewel at the top of his staff. It seemed as though he had felt me staring at him as he slowly opened his eyes and a light ray entered my eyes. My entire body shook in response, but it was a power that wasn’t filled with animosity. I wasn’t in any discomfort in the entire process. When I was at a loss of what to do, the High Priest closed his eyes again and regained his previous posture.
‘I didn’t know that there are so many experts in the Kingdom of Aixia.’ The opposing team arrived at that moment. They also had roughly one hundred people. It was obvious that they were mostly from the Royal Mage Union.
There were five people leading the group. The person walking right in front of the group wore a brocaded garment. He looked to be approximately fifty in age. He had a cold expression as if nothing was related to him. If I haven’t guessed wrongly, he should be the opposing power Duke Te Yi as four people moving by his side had magical staffs in their hands. They should definitely be the leader of the three main families and the leader of the Royal Mage Union, Dun Yu Xi.
Since Du Yu Xi was an Earth Magister so he should be one on the left; wearing a yellow magician robe. ‘I wonder why he did the same as the High Priest to close his eyes. Was that suppose to be cool? However, the magic staff in his hands looked like an advanced one. It should be an Earth based magic staff.’
The Ri, Yue and Xin family leaders were easy to be recognised as the clothings they wore had sun, moon and stars embroidered on them respectively. That’s interesting! The one wearing the sun embroidered robe should be Feng Liang Ri’s grandfather, Si Feng Ri. He looked very gloomy.
We went with the prince as his representatives by going to greet the five of them with five of us as well.
Duke Te Yi said, “Your Highness, I’m sorry we were late.”
The Prince said smilingly, “You don’t have to be this courteous. It’s my group that came early. Since all forces has arrived, shall we start the competition?”
Duke Te Yi said solemnly, “Alright! Let’s start the battle that will decide the fate of the Kingdom.”
A hoarse voice said, “Are all of you prepared?”
The Prince and Duke Te Yi bowed simultaneously and said. “Yes we are! Honourable High Priest, please give us the permission to start the competition.”
The High Priest sighed a little and glanced at everyone before replying, “This competition happened inevitably, but I hope that you all won’t seriously harm your opponents. You’re the supporters and talents of the Kingdom. The Kingdom still needs your support. I foretold from gazing the stars a few days ago that there’ll be a serious calamity that will bound to happen on the human race in the near future. You’ve to conserve as much powers as possible so as to be able to deal with the unknown dangers. Do you understand? Thus, I’ll judge the team to be disqualified if someone from that team killed their opponent.”