Chương 320: Truths and Lies (VI)

Wan Lan watched the two kids give quite a trashing to their two opponents with a faint smile hanging on her lips and arms crossed over her chest. She never, not for a second, doubted them. Ultimately, the difference between the Foundation Establishment and the Spirit Manifestation Realm was precisely that Spirit--but none of the people here could manifest anything remarkable.

The dagger-wielding man, for instance, likely manifested some low-quality wind spirit, which was why he was a bit quicker than ordinary but nowhere near quick enough for Xi Zhao, who had been beaten hundreds of times by Senior Brother Tao. Even when the crowd cheered as the short man drew Xi Zhao's blood, all she could see was that his mastery of Surging Spirit Art was just about to reach Initial Realm. Turning toward her own opponent, she didn't really know what to make of him--the man was... big.

Not tall, but big. She imagined that she'd need at least Xi Zhao's help if they wanted to wrap their arms around him. He was a strength type, the best she could tell, but that wasn't really her weakness--her weakness was Senior Brother Tao.

"Y-y-you're a sweet, sweet thing," he slobbered while he spoke, his face riddled with pockmarks.

"I-I don't, don't want to hurt you. Your tender, he he, tender flesh. N-nice skin. Soft, soft skin."

"... ah. You're the creep," she said, cracking her knuckles.

"Well, it's not my weakness, but you are making me sick. So, close enough, I guess."

"Y-you! I, I'm a gentleman! I--""--yeah, yeah, I'm sure you're the crown prince of being nice. Can we skip the part where you throw out random words to try and get me riled up and get right to where I bash your skull in, which, by some miracle, actually makes you less ugly?"

"... h-he he, you, you're not sweet. Y-you don't d-deserve me! I--" Wan Lan didn't wait any longer, pouring Qi into her legs and shooting forward, arm extended. The man didn't put up any form of defense, allowing himself to be hit. She exclaimed softly as she found herself repelled by a soft kind of energy, rolling back and landing about twenty yards from the man, glancing down at her fist that seemed to be boiling slightly.

Surging Spirit Art quickly dispelled it, but it looked like the man had slathered his entire body in some sort of poison.

"H-he he, y-you can't hurt me! Nobody can--""You're the ugliest thing that's ever lived," Wan Lan said.

"See? I actually can hurt you."

"Y-you bitch! H-how dare you! Aaaghh!" The more time she spent with her Master, the more she found it enjoyable to twist somebody into rage; it was inordinately therapeutic, as she herself would often slip into the same mindset, especially when fighting Senior Brother Tao. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! Despite her best attempts... she was unable to fix that part of her.

Any time a battle would extend, and she would find herself pushed against the wall, something in her would wake up and take over, like a dormant parasite. The man ran--well, no, he waddled toward her, each one of his steps actually causing the arena to slightly tremble. She frowned--he wasn't that big, she didn't think, so the shaking wasn't the byproduct of his weight but likely some martial art. She ran toward him, too; if there was a wall, she wasn't nimble enough to climb it or clever enough to circumvent it.

Not unlike her martial arts, her approach to fighting was rather direct--push through and destroy everything in her path. The man roared and slammed forth his palms, Qi sizzling within them. Wan Lan ran to match him but stopped at the last second and instead punched downwards; at the same time, about a dozen pillars of earth jutted out like speartips, all aimed at her, as sharp as steel. Her fists easily tore through them, though two did manage to stab through her.

She winced briefly at the pain as she pulled back, blood pouring from the wounds--they were fairly deep, at least two inches each.

"Ha ha! S-s-stupid bitch! I-I hope you l-learned your lesson!"

"You know," she spat to the side as she executed Surging Spirit Art, healing the wounds so quickly the speed matched a high-quality pill.

"I really, really don't enjoy being called a bitch."

"Huh?" She pushed forward, her knee extended; before the man could react, she slammed it into his face, breaking the nose directly. The man cried out and stumbled backwards while she stopped the momentum, landing on the ground and immediately reversing it, spinning in place with her leg extended. Her heel dug directly into the man's ribs, past the layers of flesh, shattering all the bones beneath and ramming him sideways.

The massive body rolled and skidded along the stone, extending well past the arena's edge and falling off into the lake, shooting up a stream of water. In the meantime, she glanced down at her outfit and frowned; it was ruined. She knew well enough that her Master wasn't in the best financial position and loathed the thought of burdening him further by needing yet another outfit.

I should learn how to sew, she thought to herself as she pushed Qi into her heels, crouched, and then jumped, leaping over the adjacent arena and landing right by Dai Xiu and Xi Zhao. Dai Xiu was pouting, Xi Zhao was smiling helplessly, and Wan Lan immediately realized why, her indifferent expression turning into a grin.

"Looks like I was the fastest, no?" she said.

"Humph! You just got lucky!" Dai Xiu said.

"If I got that fatty, I would have killed him in three seconds!"

"Hooh? Really? Even when Master expressly forbade us from killing?" Wan Lan said, fixing her hair and sitting down.

"--ugh."

"Tell me, who, still, had to be reminded of that? Was it me? Or little Zhao?"

"Sister Lan, didn't Master also say that we shouldn't squabble while in public?" Xi Zhao said, prompting her eyebrow to twitch.

"This isn't a squabble," she said.

"Just a nice... conversation, between the big sister and the little one."

"I-I, I will grow, too!" Dai Xiu exclaimed, her cheeks flushed red as her arms covered her chest.

"And they'll be bigger than yours!"

"... I was talking about our heights, though?" Wan Lan said, her finger on her lips that hung up into a smile. Dai Xiu turned feverish, hurriedly burying her head like the legendary tale of an ostrich, and Wan Lan had to hold herself back from laughter. Xi Zhao had also looked away, his ears red, as she found the slightly stuffy feeling in her chest slowly dissipating. She looked toward the last arena, where the young girl stood on one end, and the old man stood on the other.

There was a trace of jealousy in Wan Lan's eyes when she looked at Light; though she could understand losing to Senior Brother Tao, as he was a once-in-a-generation genius that even the Holy Lands were unqualified to teach, she would lose to Light, too, if she wasn't allowed to use her overwhelming difference in cultivation. That girl... was terrifying. In some ways, she was even more terrifying than Long Tao.

However much everyone here would kill and die for their Master, Wan Lan prayed inwardly that old man wouldn't involve Master in the petty games--if he did, Light would kill him, even if the Heavens themselves interceded on his behalf. It would not matter. She would kill him, all the same.