“From the mighty Roaring Thunder Sect… a disciple we’ve already witnessed honoring that name… a descendant of the glorious Zhou Family… he wreaks havoc onto his enemies with a strength that seems to be inexhaustible… welcome with me… Young Master Heng Zhou!”

  Heng Zhou stepped up onto the central stage, bathing in the rapturous applause of the crowd. He had shown them many times before that he was one for a good show. His opponents fell before his indomitable might and he had them crawl in the mud and beg him for his mercy before accepting their surrender. He was the hope and pride of the Roaring Thunder Sect, a position which he would not take lightly.

  And this was his time to shine! He had been assigned the very last match of today and as such of the quarterfinals. The crowd was riled up and ready for an exciting battle. It should have been the perfect moment.

  Yet right now, he was feeling conflicted. Something that he just couldn’t make any sense of had happened. Just before he had been called out for the match, a senior member of his family’s leadership had approached him. Acting all secretive, they had ordered him to lose the coming match on purpose but had refused to give him a reason for it!

  Heng Zhou just couldn’t wrap his head around that! He was supposed to follow the orders of senior family members without question, but if he lost now, everything would be terrible! He would dishonor his sect and family, he would not receive the grand prizes that were intended for the winners and most importantly, he would squander the chance to impress Patriarch Zhou! Why would his family want that? And how could they make him do it?

  Was someone trying to trick him, because they wanted to prevent his rise? Had they made a mistake? Was he missing something?

  His thoughts were interrupted by the announcer’s thundering voice.

  “And now, from the venerable Lunar Peaks Sect… the beautiful enigma, cold like ice… representing the honored Bai Family… a tempest of dancing perfection… applaud for the last participant today… Young Lady Qiao Bai!”

  With a slowly rising annoyance, Heng Zhou realized that the applause this time was even louder than the one he had received. And was that just his feeling, or had the announcer praised that girl more than him?

  What bullshit… he had seen her fights himself. She was fast and skilled, but it was honestly not that impressive. If he wanted, he was sure that he could easily beat her. The crowd was only hyping her up because of her looks and her stupid mysterious act. Ripping that to pieces would be so incredibly satisfying…

  There was no way the Patriarch actually wanted him to lose, right? He probably didn’t even know of this dumb ploy, whatever it was. Or maybe it was all just a test to see if he was fit for a leading position… a leader couldn’t back down because they were intimidated by some nonsense. Yes, that had to be it! They wanted to see if he would figure this out because they were considering him for an important position. Maybe the Patriarch wanted to take him as his disciple after seeing his talent firsthand…

  That settled it. He would crush the girl and prove his worth to the sect’s leadership. The Patriarch would be proud!

  …

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Qiao quietly measured her opponent as she stepped onto the stage. Heng Zhou… she had seen him fight a lot, because she had correctly predicted from the start, that she would need to face him at some point. He had soundly beaten all of his opponents until now, dragging out the fights towards the end in a tastelessly sadistic manner. A good fighter but not a good diplomat, that much was for sure.

  It was hard to accurately gauge the strength of other fighters in the tournament because as long as they were not properly challenged, they could hide their real capability. As Chonglin’s example from the competition showed, this was a rather advantageous strategy and Qiao had certainly been making use of it herself as well.

  Heng Zhou had already shown himself to be capable of feats of immense strength, but what worried her was that he had so far revealed next to nothing in terms of his technique. He had mostly just overwhelmed everyone through force alone.

  Furthermore, he was a member of the Zhou Family, which was, by all measures, the most powerful family in the entire alliance. He ought to have been supported to the extreme from a young age. While he wasn’t the direct disciple of an Elder, neither was Qiao. This would be an extremely tough fight. One that, looking at it objectively, he was probably favored to win.

  Qiao didn’t let her nervousness show. She could do this. She had trained all this time for this exact situation. She had grown alongside her friends and learned from Elder Wei. She was ready. Chonglin had already been eliminated this round, as had all the others from the Lunar Peaks Sect in her age-group. They were counting on her!

  “And now, get ready for an exhilarating match between these two talented contestants! Let the final match of today commence!”

  For a while, neither of the two combatants moved. Qiao held her sword loosely to her side as she monitored her enemy. He had his broad saber slung over his shoulder and was clearly raring to fight, though he restrained himself from rushing in, instead opting to taunt her.

  “Afraid, huh? Don’t worry, I’d be the same in your position. It’s not every day that you are forced to face a prodigy from the most powerful sect in the Alliance. I’ll try not to beat you down too badly, wouldn’t want to scratch up your pretty face.”

  Qiao didn’t show the slightest reaction. Cheap tactics like this were something her mentors had taught her to ignore long ago.

  Realizing his taunt hadn’t quite landed to the effect he had probably imagined, Heng Zhou tried again.

  “Actually, scratch that, you’re not that pretty anyway. And from the way you’re just standing there, it seems like you won’t be able to put up much of a fight as I tear you apart. You probably got to this point by pure luck. Well, that has now run out.”

  Qiao let him continue talking for well over a minute, fully aware of how this entire scene would look from the outside. She wasn’t one to deny an opponent the opportunity to make a fool of themselves. Instead, she took the time to clear her mind and calm her heart as he continued to waste his breath.

  When she was done, she started casually approaching, the tip of her sword still pointed downward. When she was a little closer, she interrupted the self-aggrandizing ramblings with a quiet, bit firm voice.

  “Done yet?”

  Heng Zhou was momentarily stunned, then his face darkened.

  “You asked for it.”

  And the battle began.

  Qiao sidestepped the first overhead strike and immediately had to jump backwards to dodge a follow-up kick. Next it was her turn, and she tested the waters with two slashes in quick succession which were both deflected with impressively little movement.

  The two continued exchanging blows like this for a while, neither willing to fully commit yet. As far as Qiao could tell, Heng Zhou used a style that minimized his movements to efficiently compensate for his longer and heavier weapon. His strikes were extremely forceful, making it hard to meet them directly, but he was clearly slower and less mobile than her.

  Consequently, her tactic should be dragging this fight out, letting him exhaust himself with his heavy attacks before overwhelming him with her speed. His should be driving her into a corner with attacks she could not face until she wasn’t able to retreat anymore, then breaking through her defense with sheer force.

  Seemingly having come to the same conclusion, Heng Zhou forced her to step back with a mighty swing and started pursuing her.

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