Chương 151: Chapter 150: After the Fire

He was yanked out of his reverie as he heard a commotion at the door and turned to see inner sect disciples carrying in more of the injured. If Yang thought the melted-nose Senior Brother was bad, then compared to what was being brought in, he could be considered amongst the most handsome of the lot. The worst of the new arrivals had an arm bone visible through the charred remains of the surrounding tissue.

If this had been his first world, then most of these people wouldn't have survived their rather gruesome injuries. He watched in quiet horror as bed after bed was filled, each new arrival in a worse state than the last. He noted with some relief the distinct lack of screaming. Whatever pill he had been fed seemed to be standard procedure, administered before the injured even left the arena floor, and it appeared to be doing its job.

The influx came in waves, each one arriving shortly after the last, inner sect disciples bringing in the latest eliminated and leaving immediately to harvest the next crop. At some point, watching all this, Yang realized what the event rules had not explicitly stated. The competition doesn't end after a fixed number of attacks. It ended when only one participant was left standing.

He looked around the room at the hundreds of beds and realized that by the time the event was over, most of them would likely be occupied. He decided that getting eliminated early with only half his skin burned off and all his appendages intact was not the worst outcome he could have had from this event. Although there was no screaming or crying, there was a smell that brought down the spirits of the injured even more. It was a mixture of cooked meat, along with singed hair, with an overlay of herbs.

It was the cooked meat smell that unsettled Yang the most, as it was familiar, yet the awareness that that smell was coming off from the burnt flesh of his fellow humans was horrifying. Having your skin melt seemed an awful experience. He winced as he saw another disciple being cut out of his sect robes. Thankfully, it looked like the sect robes were made with such things in mind and hadn't fused to the skin.

Eventually, the flow of arrivals slowed down as the number of participants had been thinned down in the previous rounds. Then two more disciples entered on their own feet, a rare form of entrance as of late, accompanied by the inner disciples who had been lugging around the injured. One of them looked handsome enough, especially with the wide smile on his face that was only marred by the other half of his missing face. The other one only looked singed in a few places.

Yang barely had time to form a thought before he saw a litany of congratulations coming from the occupied beds towards the two disciples. The non-melted one gestured towards the melted face senior brother.

"Brother Jian Feng was the last one standing, and I had to settle for the second." He gave a modest smile and then turned towards the resident of an already occupied bed.

"Sister Gui Yun got the third rank." And the room occupants shot another barrage of congratulations towards the Senior Sister. Yang was grateful for the use of the senior sister's name because otherwise, with how burned this senior sister was, he would have trouble distinguishing if it was a senior sister or a senior brother. Soon, those two were guided rather than carried to their beds since they had the honor of, or rather the ability of, walking on their own feet.

The second-place disciple seemed to have relatively minor burns and was cleared quickly. Whereas the first-place disciple had the honor of receiving the same care as the majority of his fellow participants. The top two had to leave for a while to receive their prizes, but the third-ranked sister had to stay in since she seemed in no condition to leave the bed.

Yang leaned back on his pillow and let his eyes rest since it seemed like all action was done and over with, and now all he had to do was wait to get discharged. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. He was suddenly jolted awake as he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Senior Brother Zhen Hao and Senior Brother Lin Yi standing at his bedside. He must have fallen asleep; otherwise, he would have felt and heard them approach.

"Junior brother Yang, you look well," Senior Brother Zhen Hao said with a teasing smile.

"Don't joke, Senior Brother," Yang then made a show of looking around.

"Though compared to my fellow participants, I seemed to have fared reasonably well in the injury department, if not in the competition itself." Both senior brothers let out a chuckle at his joke, but senior brother Lin Yi turned serious quickly.

"You did well, Junior Brother. At your realm, facing so many rounds against an attack of that intensity is a miracle in itself." Yang turned a bit despondent.

"I didn't account for the narrow space I would have to fight in and the formation I would be in," Yang explained to Senior Brother Lin Yi.

"I was prepared for dealing with fire, but it was all in an open space." Senior Brother Lin Yi let out a smile and nodded, "Understandable. You are young, Yang, and have never been in any kind of combat situation; it's not a surprise that an unexpected variable caught you off guard."

"Wait until you are in an actual fight," Senior Brother Jiang Zhen Hao said, "These attacks were telegraphed and came from a stationary source. Real combat situations rarely give you either of those advantages." Yang just nodded.

"You did do well, Yang," Senior Brother Zhen Hao continued with uncharacteristic seriousness, "you must remember, you are a major realm below the cultivators this event was designed to test. There is a reason the realms are divided as major and minor realms."

"Indeed," Senior Brother Lin Yi said.

"Zhen hao is right. The difference between a major realm boundary is not linear. It is qualitative. The difficulty of fighting across a major realm difference is astronomical. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times, the outcome is as expected. You are more likely to defeat a ninth-stage Qi Condensation cultivator than that same cultivator is to defeat a fresh Foundation Establishment one." At that, Yang had to do a double-take.

"Really?"

"Really, atleast in a straightforward fight. When you cross a major realm threshold, you go through a fundamental change. You will understand it when you get there." Senior brother Lin Yi said with a chuckle.

"Now get up, Junior Brother, you have been released." Senior Brother Zhen Hao glanced around.

"I had to apply a small amount of pressure to get us in here. The others are waiting outside." Yang got off the bed, giving a nod in passing to the Senior Brother in the bed next to his, who seemed to have regrown his nose, and followed the two of them towards the far end of the infirmary. They went out through a different set of doors that opened directly outside the arena. Outside, Yang saw hundreds of disciples loitering, likely waiting for their friends.

Yang saw Senior Brother Zhen Hao nod at the disciples guarding the doors as he gestured towards Yang, "See, I told you my junior brother is only a qi condensation cultivator. He needs help getting back." Yang saw the guarding disciple take a peek at his sleeve embroidery as he nodded, and they made their way towards where the rest of the senior brothers and senior sisters were waiting, along with Ye Xuan. Ye Xuan saw him first.

"Yang, are you alright?" He came over and looked Yang over carefully." I was so worried after I saw you burn…"

"But he grew less worried as he saw the condition of others eliminated after you," added Senior Sister Xing Fei.

"Yes," Ye Xuan admitted.

"Once I saw what came after you left, I felt considerably more at ease about your situation." Ye Xuan looked cautiously at Yang as he said, "Brother Yang, you should be glad you got out when you did." He let out a slight shudder as he added, "Seeing how the others got hurt worse and worse, I couldn't even imagine the pain." It was Senior Sister Shen Yue who said," Wait till you see actual fight, there are worse injuries than simple burns."

"Worse, yes." Senior Brother Xu Kai said, "But the fire tends to make rather gory wounds, even if they're not that difficult to treat. It's the actual combat where techniques are used where disciples get most grievously wounded, but it's just not as horrible to see for the viewing audience, so it doesn't make as deep an impression on the mind." Yang had to agree, while the injuries seemed horrible to look at, even the most serious ones were going to survive.

"Lin Yi, you should drop Yang back home," said Senior Brother Liu Te, "He's healed, but it does tend to make one weaker. It's best if he rests since his next event is in a couple of days." Yang had to agree he was still feeling a bit hazy. Senior brother Lin Yi asked him to follow, as the others also followed behind to leave the peak. As Yang was walking, he made sure to use the coin to send a message to Senior Brother Wu Nai that he wouldn't be needing a ride back.

They reached the landing area together, and Yang quietly got on the sword behind Senior Brother Lin Yi and waved goodbye to everyone as he felt the sword rise beneath him.