The first batch of the third stage went by in a whirlwind of flashing steel, flying sand, and the wet or is it dry sounds of broken bones. The crowd was still buzzing from the raw energy of the previous round, but as the winners were dragged off to recover and the losers were carried away on stretchers, a heavy, and expectant silence fell over the plaza. Then ca the second batch. Bao Zi was called up to Arena 03. His fight was painful to watch for anyone with a weak heart; he was panting heavily, and his white steam was thinning out until it looked like a boiling kettle losing its fla, and he looked like he was one solid hit away from collapsing into a puddle of sweat. But sohow, by tripping over his own boots at just the right mont and accidentally head-butting his opponent's chin while falling, he barely scraped by with a win. He wobbled off the stage, looking more like a drowned rat than a victor, clutching his sore head. (Ouch...)
Then, the voice of the head announcer bood across the marble plaza, amplified by the heavy arrays. "Third Batch! Arena 01: Ren Tie versus Geng Hu! Arena 02: Yin Zhe versus Lin Xue!"
Ren Tie walked toward his arena with the steady, and heavy gait of a moving mountain, his face a mask of calm and noble focus. But nearly all eyes were drawn to Arena 02. Or rather, they were drawn to the space directly outside Arena 02.
Yin Zhe wasn't entering the arena. He was standing right at the edge of the boundary, just outside the shimring violet curtain of the sound array. He had his hands tucked casually into his long sleeves, while his black hair fluttering in the evening breeze. He wasn't looking at his opponent. He wasn't even looking at the judge. He was looking at the crowd, while waving with both hands like he was a grand emperor returning from a successful war. He even blew a dramatic, and lingering kiss to a group of confused-looking aunties sitting in the third row. (Mwah!)
"Is he serious right now?" soone in the crowd yelled, while throwing a half-eaten fruit toward the arena. "Get in the ring, you clown! Stop wasting our ti!"
"He's stalling! He's absolutely terrified of the Ice Beauty!" another voice mocked.
"Look at him, he looks like he's trying to sell us so fake dicine!"
[Ridiculed Reactive points 800]
[Watched Reactive points 2,200]
[Confused Reactive points 1,500]
Yin Zhe's dark eyes glead with a hidden light as the notifications flickered in his peripheral vision like tiny fireflies. "Keep it coming, you beautiful, and angry people," he monologued, with a shaless, and wide grin stretching across his handso face. "Every insult you hurl is another spirit stone in my pocket. Your 'boo' is just another step toward my next skill upgrade. I love this crowd!" He stood there for a full three minutes, while striking various "heroic" poses and carefully adjusting his collar as if he were preparing for a royal portrait, while the tension in the arena reached a boiling point.
Inside the arena array, Lin Xue was not smiling. She was a cold beauty from a minor noble family that specialized in winter-style cultivation Frost elental, and she looked like she was made entirely of porcelain, silk, and pure spite. She was tall and slender, with skin so pale it was almost translucent just like Yin Zhe's Jade skin and her eyes that looked like frozen lakes in the dead of winter. In her right hand, she held the Whispering Snow Sword, a slender, elegant blade that emitted a constant, faint mist of white frost. (Hsssss...)
She was a Qi Realm cultivator. This was a massive deal to everyone watching. In this world, reaching the Qi Realm was the true gateway to power. it was the level where a cultivator finally gained an actual Elent, not like those techniques that just mimic the elents. This is a real elental power point. For Lin Xue, that elent was the biting power of Frost.
"Are you quite done playing the fool, Mister Yin Zhe?" Lin Xue asked, her voice was as sharp and cold as a falling icicle. "Or do I need to co out there, drag your corpse into the circle, and finish this farce myself?"
Yin Zhe finally stepped through the shimring violet curtain of the sound array. The mont his boot touched the stone inside, the temperature dropped by twenty degrees. (Brrrr!) Lin Xue didn't even have her sword raised in a fighting stance yet, but her re presence was chilling the air to an unnatural degree. Frost began to creep across the cobblestone floor, turning the broken stones into white, and jagged crystals.
"Drag ? Oh, please," Yin Zhe said, his voice dripping with fake, and exaggerated hurt. He clutched his chest with one hand as if he'd been struck by a physical arrow. "A beauty like you shouldn't say such violent, and unladylike things. It completely ruins the aesthetic. Why don't we just settle this over so tea? I actually have so dried purple xushu flowers in my bag. Very high quality, and very relaxing."
Enforcer Wu Tiao, who was acting as the judge for this specific match, slapped his hand against his forehead with a resounding crack. (Slap!) He looked like a man who would rather be anywhere else on the entire planet. "Yin Zhe... please. Just... stop talking. My blood pressure is already reaching a dangerous level today."
"Judge Wu! You look terribly stressed!" Yin Zhe chirped, completely ignoring the frost that was now beginning to form a white crust on his own leather boots. "You should really try so of Xuan Yi's special pills for that. Though, looking at his eye bags, maybe you should find a better doctor. He looks like he died three weeks ago."
Lin Xue's grip tightened on the hilt of the Whispering Snow Sword until her knuckles turned as white as the frost. (Creeeak...) Small, and delicate snowflakes began to fall within the arena array, even though the sky outside was a clear, deepening orange. This was her elental field. It wasn't strong enough to freeze a man solid in a second, but if the fight lasted more than 10 minutes, the cold would slow Yin Zhe's blood, numb his fingers, and eventually turn his muscles into stiff wood within 15 minutes.
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