The final day of the tournament blossomed into being with a beautiful sunrise. A sunrise filled with sparkling rays of hope, happiness... and the promise of revenge.
As always, Jie was cultivating. Just as she had every day since coming to this world. She drew in deep breaths of the cool morning air, sucking in vast quantities of Essence and refining it within her dantian.
Jie refined yet another strand of dragon lightning qi much as she had countless times before. The small flickering strand joined the rest of the roiling storm of crackling blue qi within her dantian and the entire storm flashed with dazzling blue light as it rumbled like thunder. Her speed, strength, and power skyrocketed, and Jie smiled as she broke through into the ninth star of the Adept rank. Just in time for the finals, too.
She hoped it would be enough for what she had planned.
She let out a slow exhale as she opened her eyes and stared at Ming's meditating form. Would Ming be okay with what she was going to do? To put her life in danger as she planned? After all, if she just broke Chen Huo's bones, he'd be all better within a day. No. That was unacceptable. But a wound that might just haunt him for the rest of his life?
Yes. That was more like it. It'd also enrage the entire Chen family though.
"What would you say, Ming?" Jie asked. But, as usual, there was no response from the dragon. Just his slow, steady breathing and the constant flow of Essence that streamed into him like a maelstrom.
Jie sighed. Maybe she was being foolish. Maybe she should play it safe. But, Ming wasn't one to say things he didn't mean. He'd said that she'd have to walk through fire and death. He'd told her over and over again that in times of life and death, she would be pushed to break through her limits. Would he want her to do this? Or would he be angry at her?
"I guess it all depends on what results I get then. Isn't that right you old snake?" Jie said with a smile, "I'll use this to get stronger and you won't argue with my decision. Take care, Ming. And... I'll find a way to heal you. Like you healed me."
She closed her eyes and resumed cultivating. Her fight would only start at noon. She'd need to be there a bit earlier though to watch who would win third place. Ithilix and Pan Zhanshi were competing after all, and she wanted to watch her new... sort of friends. Was Ithilix a friend? Were the Pan siblings her friends? What did it mean to have friends anyway...? It'd been so long... she didn't even remember ever having friends.
Well, she'd show her support for them anyway.
While Jie cultivated beside Ming, Elder Li strolled past her residence on his way to the arena. As he did so, a cold shiver ran down his spine as he suddenly felt all the Essence around him being drawn into Jie's residence like a river flowing into a bottomless pit.
The feeling lasted only a moment before everything snapped back to normal. Elder Li shook his head, wondering if he'd imagined the sensation, and continued on his way.
Hours later, Jie stepped inside the arena. It was much the same as before, although now the benches were far taller and further away from the center stage.
That, and there were only a handful of people on the arena floor. Pan Zhanshi and Ithilix waved to her from one of the benches as Jie entered the arena.
She caught Pan Tian's eyes in the stands and the older girl gave her a wave and a smile.
Jie found herself smiling and waving back as she sat next to Pan Zhanshi and Ithilix.
"You're here early," Pan Zhanshi said.
"I saw the third-place fight starts around this time," Jie said, "I didn't want to miss it."
Pan Zhanshi and Ithilix smiled at her in a way that made Jie feel she'd been right to show up as she had. Although, truthfully, she didn't understand why either of them cared. But, somehow, it warmed her heart that they did. The higher bench allowed her to see not only the stage but over it to Chen Huo on the other side.
It amused Jie that he sat alone. But, if it bothered him, he didn't show it. Their eyes met and he smirked at her.
Jie kept her face expressionless, but inside she felt a bloodthirsty smile settle on her soul. Was that wrong? Ming probably wouldn't think so.
Jie closed her eyes and focused on her cultivation, dismissing him utterly. A moment later, she felt Ithilix and Pan Zhanshi do the same.
After what felt like no time at all, Jie heard the judge call out, "Welcome, honored guests! For our first match of the day, we shall determine the third-place winner of the Crimson Academy's younger generation! Please welcome Pan Zhanshi and Ithilix to the stage!"
The crowd applauded as Pan Zhanshi and Ithilix leaped up onto the stage opposite one another. As in her fight against Jie, Ithilix pulled off her robes and tossed them aside as she grew a full two feet. Her carapace gleamed like armor in the winter sun.
Both Ithilix and Pan Zhanshi gave off the aura of the first star of the Expert rank and Jie felt a degree of pride for Pan Zhanshi at having so recently broken through.
They both bowed to one another at exactly the same level of respect and a series of murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"Let the fight... begin!" roared the judge.
Almost instantly, Pan Zhanshi's body became shrouded in his strange, dark qi. But, before he could do anything else, Ithilix vanished in a swirl of poison qi and appeared at his back.
Ithilix slashed at him with her forearms, the serrated teeth upon them glowing with green qi. Pan Zhanshi spun to meet her as he created his blade of dark, shadowy qi. He parried her slashes with his sword even as he cycled another martial skill and an eclipse appeared above the stage, shrouding it in darkness. Tendrils grasped for Ithilix, slowing her just enough for Pan Zhanshi to keep up with her frenetic fighting style.
They exchanged a flurry of blows before Pan Zhanshi's form faded away into nothing and he seemed to vanish entirely from the stage.
Ithilix reacted immediately, covering the entire area around her in a cloud of poisonous qi and then remaining within it so Pan Zhanshi would have trouble seeing her as well. Although he could probably still sense her aura as Jie could.
Jie felt Pan Zhanshi's aura reappear within the cloud and with it came the clash of qi blade on empowered serrated limbs and the sizzling crack of Ithilix's tail puncturing stone.
Pan Zhanshi's aura moved, and he emerged out of the dark shadow that covered the stage thirty feet away from the edge of Ithilix's poisonous cloud. Bright shining stars appeared above and behind him as he cycled another martial skill. He fired them and Ithilix appeared behind him in another puff of poisonous qi as the stars exploded in a dazzling display within the green cloud.
The two clashed. Both so evenly matched that it seemed neither could gain an edge. Strike, parry, strike parry, strike parry. The air filled with the sizzle and spitting hiss of dark shadowy qi on green poisonous qi.
Yet, neither of them seemed to gain any ground. They dueled on a knife's edge. A single mistake from either of them would mean instant defeat.
But, neither of them made mistakes.
Small cuts appeared on both their bodies but neither was able to land a true blow.
Gradually, however, it seemed that Ithilix was wearing Pan Zhanshi down through a combination of her poisonous qi taking its toll and the fact that while they were now both first star Experts. Ithilix had been one for longer and no doubt had a larger qi pool to draw from and had an almost imperceptible edge on strength.
An edge that Pan Zhanshi's incredible skill almost helped him overcome.
Ithilix fought with a level of patience that Jie didn't think she could match. Whittling Pan Zhanshi down with frustrating slowness as her poisonous qi worked through his body. Constantly just a hair's breadth from him taking the match.
It was an impressive spectacle of skill from both fighters and Jie studied their movements closely.
A nagging voice pushed her to ignore the fight and focus only on cultivating, but for once, Jie did not obey. She wished to support her friends. If only for a few minutes.
Besides, they'd been training for longer than she'd been on this world and she found herself gaining insights that she hoped to apply in her own battles as she watched their incredibly close match.
After yet another particularly close exchange, Ithilix and Pan Zhanshi separated and stood standing opposite one another again. Both of them panted heavily, blood both green and red glistened upon their bodies and Pan Zhanshi's robes looked half-shredded.
Pan Zhanshi coughed violently. No doubt the countless poison clouds were finally taking their toll even as his shadowy form looked half green from the amount of poison qi coursing through him.
Jie was impressed that he was still able to stand let alone able to fight. But, his movements had been gradually slowing and Jie didn't know how much longer he could keep it up before Ithilix's poison brought him to his knees. Or outright killed him.
A knot of worry formed in her gut at the latter thought.
Pan Zhanshi faded into invisibility once again and appeared a moment later at Ithilix's flank as he stabbed at her with his sword.
Ithilix spun and parried the blow then countered with a poisonous punch to his throat. Pan Zhanshi tried to dodge as he had endless times before, but the poison seemed to have slowed his movements too much.
Ithilix's strike clipped the side of his jaw and that slight advantage precipitated the end as Pan Zhanshi found himself the focus of a relentless series of attacks. He dropped into the shadows and re-emerged forty feet away but Ithilix appeared behind him in a swirl of poisonous qi yet again and continued pressing the attack.
Ithilix's patience was suddenly replaced with a wild, unrelenting flurry of attacks as she capitalized on his ever-so-slight mistake. Pan Zhanshi parried and evaded admirably but it was clear he could no longer keep up. He tried to strike back, to put Ithilix on the back foot and reset the tempo of their duel, but Ithilix parried the attack and sliced at his exposed neck with her serrated forearm. A strike that would surely kill him.
But, Ithilix pulled her attack at the last possible instant, the glowing blade of her forearm stopping just a hair's breadth from his throat.
They both froze in that position for a long moment as Pan Zhanshi swallowed hard. Finally, he said, "A good fight. I must yield."
"Pan Zhanshi yields and Ithilix is our third-place winner!" roared the judge.
The arena roared with applause and Jie had the impression it was directed at both of them after their impressive display of skill and unbelievably close fight.
Pan Zhanshi and Ithilix hopped off the stage together, spoke briefly, and then separated with Pan Zhanshi heading into the arena building itself. No doubt to get a healer to remove all the poison pumping through his veins.
Ithilix donned her robes and all but skipped over to Jie with a big smile plain on her face.
Jie returned the bug girl's smile. "That was a great match," Jie said, "you might want to ask him to spar with you some more in the future."
Ithilix's smile grew. "Do you think he would accept such an invitation from this one?" she asked.
Jie shrugged. "He will if he's smart. That was such an even fight... I can't imagine anyone not wanting such a great fight. I could see you two getting better in just that short time," she said.
"You are too kind, Princess," Ithilix said.
Jie's smile turned frosty. "We'll see if you still think that after I'm done with my one," she said.
Ithilix gave a chittering laugh. "But, you do so to exact vengeance for your friends. This one believes that to be extreme kindness," she said.
An elder came out and repaired the stage with a wave of his hand. Not long after, the judge stepped forward once more.