As I calmly and quietly had my meal, I took note of the few people who will be our opponents after this charade is over.
The majority of them were in the first stages of Nascent Soul cultivators, with a few that were on the second, and third. While only three had more Qi releasing from them that gave them out as fifth to sixth stage cultivators of the Nascent Soul Realm.
But among them, only one man, a calm collected-looking youngster, definitely not beyond thirty years was sitting on a small stool and had one leg above the other, and above his leg was a pretty big-looking zither. It looked crud, old, and wouldn't catch the eye of anyone looking to collect something musical.
Compared to how that man carried himself on that chair, and the air about him, his instrument was like something he picked up from the trash.
Yet, even with all the ugliness of the instrument, its strings were taut, its condition was perfect, clean even if the wood was stained. It was a strange sight, but one must always know, that the oddest things are usually the scariest.
Not to mention that this very man had his Qi wrapped so much around himself, that he matched that person on the booth. They both were able to easily hide their qi from leaking and revealing their cultivation base.
While I was eating the last chicken leg, I was once again called out. But I didn't even have to make it to the top of the arena before my opponent gave up.
'Seems like showing them I can blow them up with a single contact was enough to scare away those who aren't confident. Which was nice as I was now able to finish up my meal.
I sat down back and waited for more opponents. Three of them straight up gave up, and the last one I had to fight, though winning or losing didn't matter as I already had nine points and that placed me first on the elimination rounds.
The last one was a young kid who seemed slightly nervous. He used a spear, and spoke, "Please let's exchange some pointers."
I nodded at the kid.
The referee started the match, and surprisingly the kid didn't rush forward, and calmly approached with a spear pointed forward.
I stood still, with both hands behind my back, and waited for him to make the first move. Which he didn't hesitate to do after realizing that I was full of openings.
His spear thrust was precise and aimed straight to my shoulder. Which gave away his good intentions to not actually try and harm me.
I went for the dodge, only to see the kid's kind and gentle expression switch to that of a venomous snake.
The spear that was going for the shoulder now aimed to pierce through my head. To which I had to make a backward bend to dodge. He didn't even hesitate after having missed as he sliced down with the spear to gut me. I twirled to the side dodging the blow once again and retaliated with an open palm.
Yet the palm didn't touch anything, as once again the kid disappeared from in front of me and was now to my side with his spear aiming to bore through my ribs.
I immediately blasted as much Poison Qi from under my legs as I could, forcing myself away from the spear which nicked my robes but wouldn't have pierced through the reinforced scales plating my robes from inside.
"You're rather ruthless…" I spoke. "And since you have a nasty personality like that, let me treat you with the same."
I said as I lowered my stance a bit, and went into Twisted Snakes form. A hand-to-hand combat art from the Poison God's book.
It wasn't something I used a lot besides when I trained in the white room of the Laughing Slaughterer's pagoda, and lord of lord pagoda. Because I never needed to use empty hands and always managed to get the victory by using poisons, and my puppets.
But now, it was a good time to try this.
The kid moved as fast as he could, running with extreme speed that I couldn't even follow his legs as they moved.
His spear went like a flash towards my face.
My raised hands however remained steady until the spear was within my own personal space, then I moved, as my hands began twisting around the spear-like live snakes.
The mere sight of my hands transforming to illusory demonic snakes made the kid's spear thrust falter. However he still kept his cool about him, realizing that he was going to have his neck gouged out by my fingers shaped like snake claws, he forced himself to stop and jumped back.
A loud snapping sound echoed from my fingers as they snapped on empty air.
Breathing heavily the kid unconsciously rubbed his neck.
"Not bad, your instincts are sharp," I spoke.
"Here I come, defend yourself," I said and moved forward. And this was the first time I moved.
My movements followed the footwork of the Twisted Snakes, as I zigzagged my way towards the kid with my hands slowly making full rotations.
The illusory snake hands once again appeared as they threatened to end the lives of anyone they bite.
The kid in his hasty retreat away from my charge tried to swat away my fingers which crunched and snapped at the spear in his hand, creating large gaping holes in its wooden material.
He continued defending as I kept snapping my fingers on his spear, until the spear chipped and broke, and until he had nothing to defend himself with. I stopped when my fingers were less than an inch away from taking away his eyes.
"Concede…" I spoke.
The kid, his eyes, finally returned to normal causing his weird nature aggressive feral nature to switch off. He's hesitant and scared nature returned.
He immediately bowed, "Thank you for showing mercy!" he called, then rose up, "I concede."
The referee looked at me, slightly weirded out by my attitude apparently, then said, "Shen Bao Proceeds to the Nascent Soul competition."
'Nice, that was easy.'
I went down and sat back on the ground, meditating away the time as many other battles had to be done before the Nascent Soul competition would start.
One thing made me wonder, however. In my matches, no one really cheered or hyped up the fight. But on the other side, where Meng Hao was, everyone was screaming their lungs out.
And from my understanding of things, it appeared that really, everyone likes an underdog.
As every single one of Meng Hao's competitors was some monstrous-looking guy.
And since I mostly won my battles with finesse and had all my opponents concede. No one really enjoyed them. While Meng Hao literally beat the snot of every single one of his opponents.
The pretty bloodthirsty crowd I might say.
Not that I was jealous I wasn't getting the attention, for real, it's good to stay low-key right now. The last thing I want is for the Nascent Soul cultivators to actually start paying attention to me and prepare some underhanded tactics or means to fight me.
Soon, the fights ended. And six of us were chosen to compete in the real tourney.
"Thank you all for waiting, and congratulations to the participants of the Core Stage for reaching the Main Event. Please don't feel discouraged when facing Nascent Soul cultivators, as this will be a good learning practice. Anyway, for the rules of the next fights. No killing is allowed! Anyone who breaks the rules, even on accident will be severely punished, this is a day of celebration, not funerals."
'Good rule, this will make the Nascent Soul kids slightly feeling better when facing Nascent Soul cultivators.'
"Another thing, everyone is allowed to use any means to secure their victory. Use all you have in your arsenal to win!" the commentator said.
'Oh, now that's pretty vague, but let's see how this turns out."
"Let the battles begin!" the commentator spoke.
And immediately the rounds started with one of the kids from the Core Cultivation stage being chosen to face a Nascent Soul cultivator, and the latter was someone I met a couple of times now
It was the one who almost ran me over. What was his name? ah, Lang Ho.
"Little kid, you should surrender, because even if there is no killing allowed, I'll still break your bones. Don't make me waste some energy on you," Lang Ho said.
Of course sicne the other person was a Core cultivator who won many battles wouldn't coil away from this fight, and ignored the rambling brat's warning.
Sadly, he shouldn't have. As the moment the fight has begun, Lang Ho used teleportation, grabbed the kid by the scruff of his neck as if he was a cat, then teleported him high in the skies. Then simply dropped him after snatching away his holding bag.
Then he teleported back.
"This is what will happen to all of you, might as well just surrender and give up, and not waste our time." Lang Ho spoke, domineeringly, towards the Core Cultivators.
I saw a few who hesitated, but I and Meng Hao didn't even care about this guy's threat.
Soon, the incoming scream of the kid falling from the skies came as he was approaching the ground. If no one was going to help him, he will definitely splatter on the ground.
"I CONCEDE!" said the kid, and immediately the referee teleported up and grabbed the kid before he would become a hard-to-clean mess.
Seems like Nascent Soul fights will be really annoying. But they should be fun never the less.. Especially since it was my turn now to go up on the stage.