Chương 49: Mo Fan and Mili Ridegold

Staring into the shadow of the alley, Miss Mili turned back and followed the captain, who stood there with his whole demeanor radiating sheer discomfort.

"Captain, that disciple was only at Qi Condensation. Don't you think your reaction was a bit much?" Approaching him, she put the artifact back into her inner pocket.

"The further you advance along the path of cultivation, the more cowardly you become..." Picking up the pace, the captain led her toward the main street." Oh! By the way, what about that lively crowd out there?" She suddenly remembered the huge gathering of disciples in front of the arena entrance.

"Today, more precisely, in just a few minutes, there will be a battle for tenth place in the local list of the best of the best inner disciples, the Heavenly Talent List." Smiling and throwing everything else out of his head except for this list, he began rubbing his hands together. While he had been at the arena asking what was happening, he had learned a lot of information about the participants, and most importantly, he had learned about the underground betting." Hmph!

Are you going to bet all your money on the winner again?" Frowning and crossing her arms over her chest, Miss Mili demonstratively overtook him and walked toward the opening to the street." Hehe! Miss Mili, as a pirate... Ahem, ahem! As a sailor devoted to his trade like me, how could I pass up easy money!" Catching up to her, he spread his arms to the sides and, laughing, began to make excuses in every way." Hmph! Only because this disciple might be inside, at the arena, do I agree to go and watch!

But only for that reason!" Huffing and turning up her nose at Captain Scar, she continued walking forward, completely ignoring the fact that the idea to find out what was happening at the arena had been entirely hers. Hearing this, the captain's smile stretched from ear to ear, and he began walking faster, even overtaking Miss Mili, toward the exit, anticipating the sound of spirit stones he was about to win. …." Ptoo!"

Standing in the same corner in the darkness, An finally managed to spit out the blood that had accumulated in his mouth.' I almost lost consciousness from the pressure of his Qi... Foundation Establishment realm... Ugh!' Exhaling and realizing that he was now safe, he fell to the ground, leaned his back against the wall, and wiped the blood from his lips. When Captain Scar had activated his Qi, he had been in the same place as before.

In reality, the moment Miss Mili had revealed and activated the artifact, An had managed to read the information from it and understand how he had been detected. Having grasped how it functioned, he immediately tried to modify his Qi Silence, eliminating the involuntary releases of his vitality into the surroundings. Surprisingly, it proved to be much easier than he had expected. The fact that a Foundation Establishment cultivator had not been able to find him greatly surprised him.

He had thought he was finished and had been ready to activate his Qi and break through to the main street as quickly as possible, but his technique had turned out to be much better than he had anticipated. The only problem was when the wave of energy passed through him. Afraid of being discovered, An held that energy inside himself and didn't release it.

He was afraid that after the energy wave passed through him and collided with the energy inside him, what would come out would no longer be the original Qi, but mixed chaotic energy, by which that cultivator would easily be able to tell where he exactly was. Because he had to hold this energy inside himself, belonging to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, even though it was very weak, only the minimal density of Qi was used by that man, it still caused a lot of trouble.

In the seconds that this energy remained inside, it managed to destroy many muscles and veins, even damaging several bones, but his regeneration handled it perfectly, leaving only blood in his mouth.' I never thought a person could be that beautiful...' Recalling her facial features, An felt something akin to intoxication. Just her appearance alone could cloud one's mind.'

Even though what she said was true, more precisely, she believed what she was saying, I read from her Qi a very strange emotion hidden in the deepest corner, which greatly alarmed me… As if this girl had learned to control even her emotions perfectly… If that's really the case, and not just another bout of paranoia, that's really frightening…' He looked at the spot where she had been standing, at the remaining traces of her footprints in the dry sand that covered the entire back alley.'

As she said, the name of her family? Ridegold? The Emperor and his Right Hand… It's as if all of that should mean something to me… Maybe it's worth digging through the Scripture Pavilion again, trying to find any information about this place, about what surrounds me at all…' An again remembered that he had never found any information about what surrounded the Sect: states, continents, empires, or other Sects, except for those he had heard of.

All the knowledge he had was obtained randomly, from disciples talking around him. But when he had gone through the entire Scripture Pavilion in search of techniques, he had not been able to find anything resembling information or history about this world. He came to the conclusion that the Sect could not have imagined that there would be someone who knew nothing about the world in which they lived.

After all, even masters of slaves like him were typically obliged to teach language and writing and other important things, most of which he had not received from the memories of the original owner of this body. Most likely, no one expected a disciple to appear who knew absolutely nothing.'

I wouldn't be surprised if whoever ends up helping her, the chosen and true one, ends up turning half the kingdom against himself, clashing with imperial contenders and their best friends, and drowning in assassination plots within the royal family! Ugh! Just thinking about how much headache will fall on whoever comes to her aid in the end… Heh!'

Recalling her words, about the strange biography she had given him, An, as always, drifted off into his thoughts, and carefully walked toward the exit onto the main street through other alleys. Coming out of the alley and finding himself on the street, he quickly made his way back to the arena. Seeing that there were significantly fewer people, he understood that it had most likely already started, and he had missed the inevitable trash talk at the very beginning of the match.

Pushing between the remaining disciples still waiting for their turn at the main entrance, An found himself before the huge gates leading into the main hall of the arena. Moving with the flow of people, he reached a wall with doors leading to different sections of the stands. Noticing the runes and Qi around these doors, he understood that they were not quite doors, but more simplified teleporters, each leading to a specific section of the stands, as indicated on the plaques above the doors.

Moving with the flow closer and closer to the doors, he saw disciples approaching them and applying a spirit stone to a small plaque on the side of the door, resembling a small mailbox. Looking around, he understood that only a small portion of the disciples were doing this. He realized that this spirit stone probably would teleport you to better seats, rather than to the back of the stands, as had happened with him in the Coliseum.

By the time he reached the doors, he decided that he would not waste a single stone on this, even though he had a whole pile of them in his pouch. Approaching the door, he squinted and slowly passed through the sizzling barrier. Finding himself inside this teleportation window, he felt a strong dizziness, but what surprised him was the absence of the usual flash of light that usually accompanied his teleportations. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Where to sit... Oh! This spot's free!" Looking around, rubbing his itchy temples, An found a free spot and quickly sat down, realizing that the view from his row wasn't bad at all. His seat in the stands was close to the arena itself. Sitting more comfortably, he threw a glance at the arena, where a battle was already in full swing.' Oh... Looks like I really did miss the trash talk… Or wait, no!'' His opponent is a girl? Hmm, so there probably wasn't any kind of conflict… Eh…'

"As expected, she doesn't fall short in appearance compared to the rest of his flock… Don't tell me…" Propping his chin up, An sat and watched the arena. For some reason, as he watched what was happening below, he suddenly relaxed, and was even interested in seeing how events would unfold, while commenting out loud, completely ignoring the disciples sitting around him. The moment he had teleported here, he had immediately scanned everyone he could.

Knowing that the strongest among those present was only at the fifth layer, and not feeling any threat, he could allow himself such behavior. Besides, that year in confinement, alone with himself, had made itself known.

"Hey! You! One more word about our Magnificent Sister Es Alda, and!" One of the group, a massive disciple, couldn't stand the muttering above him and stood up from his seat, turning toward An." A-ah!" He barely finished his threat when he saw An's gaze fall on him, and everything suddenly plunged into darkness. Hearing the threat directed at him, An activated his Qi and directed it at that group of disciples, knocking them out immediately, without creating any problems.' I'm not violating any rules…'

he thought, throwing one last glance at the pile of disciples drooling on each other. The disciples sitting nearby, seeing what had happened, immediately turned away and pretended nothing had happened. All the hot-headedness and anger at An's remark about their favorite vanished instantly.' Hmm... Strange, a whole year has passed, and he's only broken through to the seventh layer. His control over Qi hasn't improved much, only his techniques have become more flashy and pretentious.'

Sitting in the stands, he watched the battle with interest, especially how both fighters in the arena controlled their energy when using techniques. Even though Mo Fan was only at the seventh layer, his opponent was at the peak of the eighth, just one step away from the ninth. The only thing that set him apart from his opponent was his control, which again wasn't great, but significantly better than Es Alda's.' Well, judging by the activation speed of their techniques, the girl has no chance of victory.

The longer the fight drags on, the less chance she has.' Pushing his fallen hair out of his face, An crossed his legs in a lotus position and sat more comfortably. BOOM! The entire arena shook. The formation around the platform, where both were jumping in different directions, dodging attacks, creaked and emitted very unpleasant sounds, from which some disciples even covered their ears.' Ho! Here come the secret techniques!'

Suddenly, both opponents simultaneously froze on opposite edges of the arena, and activated their strongest techniques. Whooosh! The entire arena was submerged in a huge wave of energy as dark as night, devouring all the light around itself. The moment this uncompromising wave crashed into the energy from Es Alda's attack, the entire arena shook so violently that even the seats the crowd occupied began to tremble and crumble.

One moment, everyone covered their ears from the terrible sound that was trying to burst their eardrums. The next moment, complete silence, and only emptiness inside the arena itself, leaving one of the opponents on their knees, defeated.' Hmm... His secret technique wasn't used quite correctly… He should have concentrated his Qi at a single point, but instead he spread it over an area, completely killing the destructive momentum that should have followed the energy…

In the end, he only gets half of what was intended.' Sitting and analyzing their last techniques, An was simply drowning in the number of mistakes made by both. But in reality, these mistakes weren't anything serious for those who made them.

After analyzing the technique that Mo Fan had used, An understood that, most likely, if Mo Fan had known the correct way, precisely how it was originally intended to be used, he could have gone toe-to-toe with a Foundation Establishment cultivator while being at the seventh layer of Qi Condensation. But that was only An's personal opinion. Sitting and watching, he saw Mo Fan approach the defeated opponent and extend his hand to her with a light, sincere smile.

Confused, she didn't take his hand immediately, only after a few seconds. Standing before each other, they bowed, showing respect, and after saying something to each other, parted to different sides of the arena.' Eh… because of the huge amount of chaotic Qi around, I can't even tell what they're really feeling…'

An tried to read the emotions from their Qi flows, but because of the enormous energy noise around him, leaving him buried under mountains of information, he simply couldn't get, or rather reach, the emotions he needed." Wow! Did you see that!"

"Now that was a fight! I told you it would be worth it!"

"Yeah! Yeah! By the way, what technique do you think he used?"

"Who knows… Maybe it's his family inheritance?"" Heh, with that kind of power, first place is not far off for our new rising star!"

"First place? I don't think so! Master Gab Eric didn't hold first place for over five years for nothing. Do you think Mo Fan has any chance? Ha! Don't make me and my now-empty pockets laugh! Ah … Betting that much was a mistake!" The entire stands exploded in discussion. With madness on their faces, the disciples clamored and dreamed of future battles, as if it were they themselves, and not Mo Fan, advancing toward the top of the Heavenly Talent List.

Sitting in the stands and listening to the noise around him, An noticed two people walking out of the crowd toward Mo Fan, moving confidently. Recognizing who they were, he exhaled in relief, and immediately shook his head, imagining what this protagonist had just gotten himself into, how much trouble he would have to endure after today's chance encounter. ….

Walking toward the arena exit, Mo Fan saw two people approaching him: a girl in a thick coat covering half her face, and a man who looked about thirty-five with a weathered, hardened countenance. Mo Fan, realizing this was no coincidence and that they were indeed approaching him, stopped and straightened his back slightly.

"Disciple Mo Fan, I am Ridegold Mili, daughter of Ridegold the Great!" Closing the distance, Miss Mili nodded slightly and introduced herself, simultaneously taking a compass-like artifact from her inner pocket.

"Ridegold… It is an honor to stand before the daughter of the Great Ridegold, defender of the Emperor!" Hearing the name, Mo Fan looked visibly surprised. Quickly recovering his composure, he executed a respectful bow. Seeing his manners, she smiled and activated her artifact. With surprised eyes, she watched as the compass began to glow and slowly turn, pointing directly at him. Her smile grew even wider; she felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her soul.

Her eyes even moistened, realizing that not all was lost. Especially after the unsuccessful encounter with the disciple in the dark alley.

"Inner disciple Mo Fan, there are too many ears here. Would you mind walking with us to the tea house across the street?" Taking a step forward, standing only an arm's length from Mo Fan, she stared intently into his eyes, dark as the abyss. Hearing her offer, Mo Fan nodded without hesitation, knowing that he sensed no threat from them." Oh! By the way! Do you know a disciple with dark brown hair and green eyes, looking younger than you, with strange but high cultivation for an outer disciple?

When I saw him, he was in an old, blackened outer disciple uniform?" With burning eyes, Miss Mili remembered and decided to try her luck, asking this inner disciple. When she had pointed the compass at An, the artifact had shown not only the direction in which the disciple with high vitality was located, but also the internal oscillations of his cultivation. Essentially, her artifact could subtly bypass An's Qi Silence, by tracking his minor vitality leaks, a flaw he had only corrected once cornered in the alley.

"Green eyes, with high cultivation? Hmm, I'm sorry, Miss Ridegold, but no." Mo Fan thought and shook his head. A few of his opponents came to mind, who, like him, were in the public eye within the sect, having established themselves as geniuses among geniuses, the future of the sect. But none of them would walk around in old and blackened clothes, as this girl had described." Eh … Too bad… Oh, and by the way, you can just call me Mili!"

Disappointed only for a moment, she smiled warmly, making Mo Fan's heart skip a few beats. ….

'Haa... Now you'll have so many new problems, good luck dealing with them...' An, sitting on the stands and seeing what was happening, simultaneously pitied Mo Fan, understanding what kind of whirlpool of problems he had just stepped into, and felt a strong relief, knowing that these two would definitely not bother him anymore.

Satisfied with the show he had watched, he stood up from the stands, turned around, and walked toward the wall where the door containing the teleportation gateway back to the Arena hall stood.