Jinjing Liqiu monitored the crowd that had gathered in the arena below her. She watched for any of the dark grey robes that signified the membership to the Roaring Thunder Sect, but could barely make out any. It seemed like the majority of the sect had simply not shown up today.

  Initially, she had been elated when none of the candidates from her rival sect had made it through to the next round yesterday. Now, she was beginning to rethink that sentiment. As satisfying as it was seeing them fail, the injury to their pride was undoubtedly great. She had no interest in worsening relations with them even further, but that was exactly what currently seemed to be happening.

  More worryingly than the disciples and members, none of the Elders from the Sect had shown up today either. Only Patriarch Zhou was here, and his mood seemed to be rather abyssal as well. He hadn’t greeted anyone upon arrival, simply moving to a seat far in the back and not getting up from there since then. Just about the minimal amount of face that the Roaring Thunder Sect could give them without just completely ignoring the tournament that they had come here to participate in.

  It was an unfortunate blemish on the otherwise perfectly successful diplomatic achievement that the tournament was turning out to be. Had she known this beforehand, Jinjing Liqiu would have arranged the fights differently to give them an easier time, but who could have ever predicted that the disciples of the mighty Roaring Thunder Sect would perform this badly?

  Well, it was too late now. She had to focus on the positives, which there were many of. All things considered, the tournament had gone just about as well as she could have wished for. Candidates from the Parting Clouds Sect and the Serene Plains Sect had done amazingly well and were spread all throughout the final rounds. It was highly likely that they would win in several of the age groups.

  The Lunar Peaks Sect had also done quite well, which was good news in her book. The fourth of the great sects could go home satisfied with their performance, many prizes and a good impression of their two sects. Alienating them would have been a much bigger blunder than the Roaring Thunder Sect, who they were already clashing with.

  Perhaps she could extend an olive branch to Xing Zhou by arranging for a couple of show matches after the tournament where his sect’s senior members could show off their strength and their treasured lightning Qi.

  Now that she thought about it, that was a rather good idea. It would present their sects in a good light, showing the Roaring Thunder Sect that they were willing to give them a chance to redeem themselves. It would also function as a gesture towards the other sects, signaling that they were trying to work towards a harmonious coexistence of the sects in the alliance.

  The crowd would undoubtedly love it as well. To them, she could brand the entire maneuver as something ot the tone of ‘giving us a glimpse into the possible future of these amazingly talented disciples’.

  Yes, she would do that. She looked around, locating Tengfei Ye among the small crowd of elders in the loge. She needed to discuss this matter with him.

  …

  Xing Zhou silently sat in his seat, a grim stare hiding the grin that was trying to creep onto his face. He didn’t like having to hide his true emotions like this, he believed it to be unbefitting of someone of his strength, but he was happy to make an exception today. People would soon find out anyways.

  Their plan had worked out perfectly. He had to give credit to Elder Song Fan who had been the chief architect behind it all. Sure, it wasn’t that complicated to begin with, but it still needed someone to coordinate the others.

  Spreading the sentiment of mistrust and resentment throughout the ranks of members and disciples so much that barely any of them had shown up today was an especially impressive achievement for a single night of work. He hadn’t expected that part to work out this well and it spared them a lot of unnecessary sacrifice. He would be rewarded with a powerful position in the sect that would rise from their efforts.

  Of course there were others involved in that as well. The participants had all done a great job acting out their defeat to the crowd. Young Heng Zhou in particular had done put on such a convincing act, that even he would have been tempted to believe that the boy had tried winning in earnest, had he not known better.

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  He had already noticed the boy before for his impressive physical strength, a trait that mirrored his own condition in his youth, but it seemed like he would have to pay some more attention to him once this was all over. Hard work had to be rewarded after all – especially if it was hard work that benefited him.

  Xing Zhou sent another sliver of Qi into the amulet he had hanging around his neck. One of the great treasures of his family, this artifact was connected with a second one which would send out a pulse of Qi in return. Communication over long distances was difficult and most artifacts of this kind would shatter upon use or at least need to be properly repaired by an expert, but this one could be used repeatedly without damaging it. The signal it sent was also almost impossible to detect or intercept, which went a long way in not arousing any suspicion in situations like this one.

  After a while, the amulet pulsed with Qi twice, which Xing Zhou made sure to mask with his own Qi so nobody else here would notice. This was the signal they had agreed on to mark that everything was ready on the elders’ side. It would soon be time for him to act then.

  He reclined in his chair and waited. Soon, the opportunity he was waiting for opened up in the form of the announcer shouting out the next match.

  “And now, in a match that I’m sure many of you have been waiting for, two amazing contestants will meet on the stage for the match to decide who will make it into the finals! From the Venerable Lunar Peaks Sect, you know her as well as I do, the jade-like mystery, the song of blades, Young Lady Qiao Bai! Facing off against her, from the most honored Serene Plains Sect, the peerless young warrior, the untouchable…”

  Xing Zhou stood up and unhurriedly strolled towards the front.

  “That is the one who defeated my grandson, isn’t she?”, he asked, speaking to no one in particular.

  He slowly replaced some of his feigned annoyance with mild interest, purely as an excuse to get up from his seat. He didn’t actually care the slightest bit for the girl, she hadn’t even actually beaten his grandson after all.

  Standing at the guardrail were a few other elders, as well as Patriarch Tengfei Ye, who seemed interested in the performance of his own sect’s member. A welcome distraction.

  Other than that, the only one he took note of here was Elder Wei. The man wasn’t involved in his plans in any capacity right now, but he was interesting nonetheless. What fascinated Xing Zhou about him was, that he seemed to carry the same flame of ambition, the same special something that he himself possessed as well.

  He didn’t know how exactly he could tell, but he had been able to do so for as long as he remembered. It was little more than a feeling he had in his gut, but the few people he had met who’d sparked it, had all turned out to be truly interesting cases later on. They seemed, in some way, to be destined to leave a mark on the world around them.

  He had taken to calling it the ‘flame of ambition’ because it seemed to describe the personalities of all of these people rather well. He’d never seen anyone this strong exhibit it though… except himself of course. How ironic that it was a fire cultivator carrying this “flame”. He would make sure to pay close attention to his actions in the future.

  For now, his focus was required somewhere else though. The fight had been going on for a couple of minutes now was keeping the attention of everyone around him quite well. Xing Zhou sent qi into the amulet twice in quick succession, signaling his elders. They would start their action in exactly one minute.

  He turned away from it and began strolling towards the elevated seat of Jinjing Liqiu. As he walked, he began slowly activating his soul, while spending most of his attention on making sure as little of the agitated Qi leaked out as possible. He was wearing several powerful artifacts that aided him in these efforts, so the amount that actually got out and could be detected was so low that it wouldn’t catch anybody’s attention.

  Indeed, except for a couple of respectful bows from those he passed, nobody paid much attention to him as he came closer and closer to his target. He passed Jinjing Liqiu without so much as acknowledging her – a rather disrespectful behavior, but very much in character for him.

  When he was just a couple of steps behind her, he stopped. Perfectly timed, his soul had finished powering up and he started pulling immense amounts of Qi from it and gathering them in his right hand, without turning around.

  Just as he was finished and about to strike, he felt a piercing gaze in his side. When he turned his head, his eyes met with those of Elder Yue Zhong of the Lunar Peaks Sect. Her expression made it clear, that she had noticed what he was up to. After a single moment of holding their eye contact, she turned around and started making her way towards Patriarch Long Zhao with hurried steps.

  Xing Zhou had no idea if she had any intention of stopping him, but if she did, that was the wrong move. Because it took him just a single second to finish preparing his attack.

  Nobody had time to be surprised as he unleashed the suppression of his soul and whirled around towards the Matriarch of one of the four great Sect of the Northern Sect alliance.

  Because in the very next moment, he struck.

  Foul cultivator… In pursuit of dominance over the peninsula… emboldened by the flame of ambition.

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