Cult of the Sacred Runes

Chapter 131 – New Challenges

On the next morning, all young cultivators gathered at the amethyst platforms again, enthusiastic and eager to start the second day’s fight and expand their capacities.

South Star’s opponent of the second day was Ling Yin Academy, which came twenty-eighth last year. South Star was able to claim victory easily, gaining another point without even showing Ye Wei.

The win streak continued for two weeks. Apart from their first opponent, South Star did not really face any worthy enemies, which gave Ye Wei a chance to rest, consolidate his cultivation and strengthen his arsenal by learning the Selenic Triple-Primal Sword and the third evolution of Supernova stance.

On the fourteenth day of the tournament, South Star finished early again, and Ye Wei decided to join the other youngsters to watch the fight between Frozen Sun City’s Golden Wood Academy and Seven Star School, as the dark skinned boy, who had made eye contact with him at any opportunity, would be fighting.

“Ye Wei? It that you?” A clear bell-like voice sounded from the noisy crowd.

Ye Wei’s gaze fell onto a young lady in her early twenties. Her dark green dress was skin tight, elegantly complimented her curves and made her look extra sassy. Her lengthy body and pretty face made her stand out in the crowd like a crane in a flock of chickens.

“Xue Yao?” Ye Wei recognized her facial features.

“Took you some time!” Xue Yao’s brows rose as she smiled.

“How have you been?” He could feel Xue Yao was already a condensed prime Warrior.

She did not answer directly, but instead narrowed her eyes and assessed him, “You’ve grown a lot and became really handsome in three years! Where is your girlfriend? Did she come with you?”

“Hey… Don’t joke around like that!” Ye Wei’s face became red, too embarrassed to answer.

The two then decided to catch up using voice transmission technique as the crowd was getting noisier.

Turned out Xue Yao, Hong Xun, Zhou Hou and the others met the descendants of the Glacial Emperor’s disciples and picked up their legacies. Everyone of them improved quickly in the course of three years.

“It’s a shame Hong Xun and the others couldn’t make it herethey all missed you. We all got together a few times after we left the labyrinth, we were made to swear our loyalty to whomever inherited the Glacial Emperor’s legacy, or we shall be smited by the heavens. We were also told that the inheritor will have a jade trinket, using which he could communicate to us…”

Xue Yao then looked at Ye Wei, who was surprised to hear what have just been said to him, and assumed that she already knew who became the Glacial Emperor’s inheritor.

Seeing that Ye Wei was chatting with a beautiful girl, Liu Jian, Chen Mo and the rest of the South Star crew became a bit jealous, but at the same time admired Xue Yao as they could also feel that she was a condensed prime Warrior despite her young age.

“So, little Wei, why haven’t I seen you fighting?”

“I did on the first day, but haven’t had the chance to since then.”

“Oh well, my brother is representing Golden Wood Academy, and I have to go now! Catch me later!” Xue Yao heard the crowd going wild and noticed someone on the platform had been injured. Worrying that it might have been her brother, she quickly went away.

“Take care!” Ye Wei waved goodbye. He felt grateful for all that Pu Yuan had done, surprised by the set up that gave a small but powerful force in his command. During the three years, Pu Yuan had been treating Ye Wei with great patience as if Ye Wei was his own apprentice.

In Ye Wei’s mind, Master Yi and Pu Yuan had been treating him as if he was family.

***

In the evening

“We have been pretty lucky with the matchups. Apart from the fight with Polaris Academy, we won every match with relative ease even without Ye Wei.”

“Let’s maintain our win streak!” everyone in South Star felt elevated from the great results so far.

“The tournament is almost half over, and we are one of the only five schools with a clean record. I think that says a lot! Well done guys!”

“Yes, but that means we have to pay extra attention when we face Galaxy Academy, Zhoutian Sword School, Tri-Solar School and Seven Star School. We are aiming to finish in the top three!” Vice-principal Xu He looked around him and smiled gladly. “During our best run a long while back we managed to finish seventh, but I think we will definately top that this year!.”

“Tomorrow we will be facing Tri-Solar School. Their team’s average cultivation level is higher than ours. Furthermore, they have Shi Hun Tian, one of the God’s Seven among them, be prepared for a tough fight!”

“If we win tomorrow’s matchup, then the odds are we will surely be in the top three. Boys and girls, please, do your best! And, Ye Wei, we will be depending on you to deal with you know who.”

Everyone simultaneously looked at Ye Wei with wary, although he had defeated a powerful cultivator known as Qi Xiu, a God’s Seven is another level of existence. They were imagining the possibilities of their teammate becoming one of the seven.

“I will do my best!” Ye Wei smiled and nodded.

‘The human race is more laughable than I remembered it to be. Calling seven children God’s Seven? Get over yourselves! Hahaha!’ the Progenitor chuckled.

Ye Wei’s face turned black, upset by the Progenitor’s mockery.

After the pep talk, all of the students went back to their own rooms to prepare for the day after, feeling a bit nervous.

The fifteenth day of the tournament arrived, as the starry night eventually diffused into a bright morning with clear sky. The amethyst platforms were already warmed by the sun, when the students began to gather.

“We have an interesting matchup ahead of us today, neither had South Star or Tri-Solar dropped a match, they will undoubtedly fight their hardest to keep their record clean!”

“Interesting? I don’t see how Tri-Solar can lose this match. Shi Hun Tian is one of the God’s Seven! Two years ago he came into the public’s attention, rose like a star out of nowhere and took the God’s Seven title. And for the past two years, he had been training behind closed doors! He could only have gotten stronger!”

Although most of the crowd recognized Ye Wei’s strength, not many thought he could actually overcome Shi Hun Tian and become a God’s Seven.

“I wouldn’t be so sure just yet, apart from South Star’s first match, we didn’t really see Ye Wei fighting. What if he didn’t show all of his strength when he fought Qi Xiu?”

Everyone approved of Qi Xiu and knew him from two years ago, when Shi Hun Tian and him both took on the same God’s Seven, where Shi got the title and Qi Xiu fought a good fight before he eventually lost.

Some of the audience thought South Star had hope, some of them thought it was dead even, and most of them thought Shi Hun Tian would be able to finish South Star single-handedly. Although they didn’t have the same opinion, all of them were looking forward to see this unfold.

“Hey, Xu He, did you hear the crowd? They don’t think you are going to win!” Tri-Solar’s vice principal, Shi Xiao Ran, chuckled.

“It won’t be the first time when we become the unfavourite winner and it certainly won’t be the last.” Xu He replied coldly.

“Haha! I admire your confidence. What do you say to making this more interesting?” Shi Xiao Ran took out a hand fan from his possession and smiled indifferently, “If you win, this mystic arms is yours!” His tone became slightly provocative.

“Medium-grade two-star mystic arm, you are generous.” Xu He narrowed his eyes.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to play with me!” Shi Xiao Ran laughed.

“Well if you insist to shower me with gifts…” Xu He took out a knuckleduster from his possession.

“Let the fifteenth round begin!” the City Lord’s voice echoed, the audience below and above eventually took their seats as the contestants stepped on the amethyst platforms.

The audience cheered when they saw Shi Hun Tian walking close to platform three.

“That’s him! Shi Hun Tian! I haven’t seen him fight for two years! Do you guys still remember the fight when he defeated Mu Kong within fifty blows? I couldn’t believe a fifteen year old was able to beat a God’s Seven!”

“Of course I do, I don’t think this fight will be much worse!”

Shi Hun Tian began to stare at Ye Wei from across the martial platform, “I will make you forget about Qi Xiu and show you the distance between us is more vast than you could ever have imagined!” He mumbled to himself.

Feeling the burning gaze, Ye Wei casually looked back at Shi Hun Tian and continued talking to Cao Ning.

“This Ye Wei kid doesn’t seem to care at all!”

“Arrogance is the mother of regret, let’s see how it’s gonna go.”

Contestants of both schools lined up on the opposite sides of the platform. After two weeks of demanding fights, everyone from South Star, even the less experienced ones were looking more fierce, more confident.

Unlike the first day, most of the influential audience on the cloud platform had their eyes on platform three looking forward to see South Star, a school that they hardly cared about not long ago.

Most of the patriarchs and the representatives from the Green Army already had an idea about who they would like to recruit after watching the fights for two weeks, excited that two of their favourites will be facing each other.

“It doesn’t really matter whoever comes out on top, they are both fit for the purpose,” the intimidating armor they wore made their smiles look slightly awkward.

Ning City’s patriarchs were also eager to discuss their opinion before the fight started.

“I think Shi Hun Tian is going to carry his school to score a win today, two years ago he had already shown great potential. I think he must have broken through to become a condensed prime Warrior since then.”

Defeating Qi Xiu at his best was undoubtedly a feat and it did not fade in the audience’s minds, but Shi Hun Tian too defeated Qi Xiu, not only was that a convincing victory, he also had more opportunities to show his capacities while fighting some of the stronger schools.

The crowd slightly tipped towards, supporting Tri-Solar School, and waited impatiently as the young cultivators warmed themselves up.