My next fight came even sooner than I anticipated. It seems that there was no real order to who fights who, and just straight up go and finish up your battles.
I got up and ended up facing a young kid, probably in his early fifteen. And he was already a Core Cultivator.
He had a short sword and looked ready to fight a demon incarnate.
The kid charged me with as much speed as he could, then thrust his weapon three times, aiming at none vital areas.
The blows were pretty slow, as I easily dodged them with the barest of movements. Being able to study detailed laws, and inscriptions give one an extremely high mental function and make the moves of someone as young as this kid rather boring to look at.
The kid however had some fight in him and followed the missed blows with a leg sweep and a rising sword slash.
I dodged the leg swing and parried his coming sword by lightly tapping the hand that was gripping his sword as it rose up, causing him to lose balance as he staggered back. I then took a step forward, and once again lightly pressed on his chest.
While he was still destabilized, the light chest tap made him fall on his back.
The kid looked at me, smiled gently, and said, "Thank you for going easy on me. I'm no match to you."
I smiled back at the kid and approached him, then gave him my hand to stand up, "Don't worry about it, it's just a difference in battle experience. You'll become stronger in the future. Also as a small tip, try not to make your moves too obvious, your thrusts were good, but your wide moves gave you up. If I had a sword and ill intentions I could have ended you. So remember, flashy moves will probably get you chicks, but one day you'll end up with a sword through you." I said.
Though my advice sounded grim, the kid took it earnestly and thanked me for it once again then left.
Just as I was about to leave, my name was announced once again.
'The hell? Are they trying to slave drive me?'
So I had to stay in the arena.
Though this might not be a great thing for a cultivator to fight several times in a row, for me this will mean that I'll end up finishing off my opponents soon, and get to take a break and grab a bite. Though I could use a fasting pill, I'm craving some meat.
A slightly older person came to face me this time, he looked to be in his early thirties, and this guy had a lot of scars all over his body. He looked like a veteran that had fought countless battles.
The man pulled two daggers, flipped them in the air continuously while his gaze never left my eyes.
"Begin!" said the referee.
And the moment the man's daggers fell to his hands, he twirled them, one in each hand then slammed them together. Creating a powerful flash of light.
I was blinded in one eye, well, it was the only one I had, but not on my Skypearl Eye. I was still able to follow his thermal signature as he dashed like a flash of lightning towards me.
His daggers flew forward one for the heart and one for the head.
This guy wasn't messing about.
I immediately crossed my arms, with palms open. The first palm struck against the hand aiming the dagger for my heart, and the second palm struck the arm going for my head.
The sudden reaction caught the dagger wielder off guard and was rewarded with a head butt as he never saw that coming.
The man fell back and rolled away several times. This time, he didn't stand, but remained low, like a praying mantis with his daggers aimed at me, as he slowly swayed from left to right.
Not even a heartbeat later, he dashed again like a ferocious tiger aiming to gut me.
But I've had enough of this, the kid earlier was a nice person, who didn't want to bloody his hands, so I didn't hurt him and treated him well, but these people, when they see kindness they mistake it for weakness. I might as well prove them wrong here and now.
Just as he approached the striking range, he shoved the daggers as fast as he could towards my stomach, but I was prepared for that and immediately swung down both my open palms right on top of his own dagger gripping hands.
The sudden blow caused his hand to slam downwards as he never expected a slap from me would carry such weight.
And while his hands were down, his face was well open to a retaliation he wouldn't expect. As my knee shoved straight into his face, definitely breaking his nose, and probably some teeth as a bonus.
the sudden blow was unthinkably fast, and he never had the time to react so he took it head-on, literally.
the impact caused him to fall again, though it took him slightly longer to stand up this time, he managed to do it, dizzied but still able to fight.
His guard was up for my retaliation, but then he realized I never moved from where I stood, not even once.
"You should give up, you lost," I stoically said.
"I'm still standing, unless I'm dead, I'll never surrender," the man said with all the resolution one could speak off.
Though his words would have been admirable if he was in a situation where he could actually have a sliver of hope of winning, the reality of things was that the moment I touched him, I already had my Poison Qi inside his body, so he already lost. But since I don't want to reveal my cultivation technique so early, I might as well go to the second trap I planted on him.
"Mkay, then, take a look at the top of your hands," I said.
The moment he did that he frowned.
"Do you know what those are?" I asked.
Though my words were low, they definitely pulled the attention of a few cultivators who weren't too interested in watching Core cultivators fight.
The man shook his head.
"They are something I placed on you the moment I slapped your hand, and they look exactly like this thing don't they?" I said as I showed him a talisman I pulled from my inventory.
The man looked at the talisman in wonder but didn't understand its utility.
I threw it to the side and had locked only two fingers, my index and middle finger of a closed fist. "Kai." I said, and immediately the talisman blew up in an ear-deafening, a boom that created a big hole on the ground.
The dust settled and I could see paleness growing on the face of my competitor.
"So, how about you give up, or do you want to risk having your hands blown…"
Reluctantly, the man hesitated for long seconds before throwing his daggers, "I concede." He said.
"Winner! Shen Bao." The referee said.
Well, that was easy.
Soon, I went down the arena, thankfully my name was called. And I took the opportunity to grab a bite from my side pouch and began leisurely eating, while everyone was stressing out about their opponents and things like that.
As I was watching, my eyes caught the sight of Meng Hao as he went up the arena. His opponent was a burly-looking guy with a massive steel spiked club.
That thing looks heavy and would bring a world of pain if one were to be hit with that.
Just as the fight started, the burly man mocked and joked about how relatively 'scrawny' Meng Hao looked. Yet from my eyes, for a kid his age, Meng Hao was well built, not too much muscle as to hinder his movement, and at the same time, he had a firm solid stance.
Meng Hao's personality was always cold and calm, and he was a person with very few words. And all the provocative words from the big guy didn't even work as they fell on deaf ears.
Once the referee ordered the match to begin, the audience had a grand show to watch. As immediately, the burly man swung his several thousand kilos of weight club towards Meng Hao, with enough force that wind screamed as the weapon coursed a wide and devastative arc towards Meng Hao's body.
Yet the tan kid never moved a muscle but a single arm. Not even willing to pull his sword, Meng Hao's hand extended to the side and abruptly, unceremoniously stopped the massive club in its track, As Meng Hao's hand had dug itself into the steel club. Then with a crunching grip of his fist, the massive club broke and shattered, leaving the burly man looking in utter horror at what just happened in front of him.
'Damn, guess that Meng Hao is a body cultivator…pretty cool," I mumbled as I was munching on a fried chicken leg.