Escaping Fate

by Tinalynge

  Although this expert was in no way an external one, he still had some speed which made it possible for him to dodge just far enough to avoid a hit from Xu Min’s sword. Standing further back, the Three-Star Warrior was in a bad position as Xu Min had pushed him further back. He was so close to the corner of the arena that he was uncertain whether or not he was going to fall down. Currently finding a place to take a stance was in no way an easy feat.

  Being in the corner, Xu Min constantly got closer and closer to the older man. The sword in his hand had been raised slightly, drawn back, and ready to attack. Before he could do this, the expert desperately took a stance causing even more of his Qi to come out. This Qi turned into gale winds, forcing Xu Min backwards and making it impossible for him to advance closer.

  Lifting up the sword within his hand, Xu Min managed to block some of the wind and come to a standstill. Moving forward was still hard, but falling further back was now stopped and the two experts were caught in a standstill. Xu Min could not move further up, but the opponent could not stop wasting his Qi. He knew that as soon as he did, Xu Min could once more move closer.

  Gritting his teeth, the opponent forced even more Qi out from his body. He pushed back the young man and observed the arena in front of him, calculating how far back he needed the young man to go to be able to put out another stance.

  The entire surrounding area was quiet as no one said a word. Everyone was deeply shocked by what they saw in front of them. The majority had at first expected Xu Min to lose within one attack, especially as they saw the snake which had been slithering around the ground. But as soon as it had appeared, the young man who was clearly only a One-Star Warrior had decapitated it. Next, the Qi waves had appeared and once more the young man had managed to get through them without problems. Finally, everyone within the room had understood that the young man who had seemed arrogant actually had the strength to back up his persona. Even the opponent on top of the arena had understood that although he could look down on the majority of the experts below his rank, including many on his own rank, this young man in front of him was clearly different from the other ones he had battled before. To think that a young man who still had traces of childness in his features was this strong. He was clearly a young man with amazing talent.

  Although he was thinking like this, the tall expert was aware that he had no time to waste. Instead, he stopped the gale wind of Qi and took another stance. A small stream of blood was leaking out from the corner of his mouth, showing that forcefully canceling his attacks had injured him internally. Although he was injured, his eyes were filled with determination and no signs of giving up could be seen. This was something that caused Xu Min to smile gently and happily as he stayed at a distance, waiting for the next attack.

  Although it was risky for Xu Min to take on each attack, he simply had no other choice. To attack, he needed to force the opponent to cancel an attack and then use his own stance to force the opponent out of the arena.

  The tall and lanky warrior was fully aware of how Xu Min thought. Although he hated the fact that he needed to follow the expectations of the young man, he had no other choice. If he did not make a stance soon, the young man was going to directly attack him. This left him no room to make a stance and protect himself.

  Seeing this, the older man lifted both his arms and took a stance. A white cloud completely surrounded him that quickly rose in size until eventually the entire half stage was filled with this Qi flowing from the older man.

  Seeing this, Xu Min gritted his teeth and the sword in his hand started humming as it slowly shot towards the Qi in front of him. This caused the young man to be astonished as the sword itself seemed to absorb the Qi that had filled half the arena.

  As soon as the sword had touched the Qi, small snakes appeared and attacked the edge of the sword. As soon as it touched it, the Qi snakes were being absorbed by the sword itself, alongside the Qi filling up the entire arena.

  Feeling this, Xu Min felt how the sword in his hands grew in strength. More and more power was sucked up and energy ripples were emitted from the sword; some of it was leaking through the handle and into Xu Min’s arm which was filling his body with foreign Qi. This Qi which slowly went through his body and through the meridians to slowly merge with his own Qi. As this happened, the young man felt how the Qi which had been around the arena slowly made him climb closer and closer to the ranking of a Two-Star Warrior. After only one-third was left behind of the Qi that filled up the arena, Xu Min felt how his body started to tremble. Ever so slowly, his bones started emitting creaking sounds. The dantian inside his body swelled, Qi billowed through his body filling him with strength, and the fatigue he had felt before had completely vanished.

  Although Xu Min had just broken into the ranks of a Two-Star Warrior, the sword seemed to not stop just there. It kept sucking up energy from the arena and this energy entered both the sword and Xu Min.

  Everyone viewing what was happening were stiff in surprise. They could not understand why the Qi that was meant to attack and protect slowly dissipated like this. All of them were also astonished to see that during this critical moment, the expert was finally breaking through. No one apart from the opponent could feel or see that the Qi was entering Xu Min, strengthening him from the inside.

  Who did know what was going on was the opponent who was still hiding within the mist of Qi that kept swirling around him. He could feel how his Qi was being sucked away from him, into something different. He also felt how he was constantly being weakened. Although he was not going lower in rank, the Qi he was losing was no small matter. He had released everything within his ability before the abnormal suction force appeared, sucking up the Qi that had left his body.

  Finally, the Qi had gotten so transparent that the older man could see the sword tip which was touching the wall of the Qi. The suction force came from within this sword, something which shocked the taller man deeply. Seeing that his energy was being absorbed, the older man once more forced himself to break one of his stances. Instantly after he took a new stance, the rest of his Qi flew above him where it took the shape of a bow and an arrow. The arrow pointed straight at Xu Min who narrowed his eyes as he saw the weapon pointing his way.

  Not wanting to waste time and give the young man enough time to actually prepare for the attack, the older man’s hands made a gesture. As though he let go of an arrow, the Qi arrow instantly followed suit. The arrow rushed towards Xu Min who lifted the sword as a protective shield, hiding behind it. He smiled as he felt how the arrow was turning into splinters before another arrow appeared. Soon, arrows rained down upon Xu Min; however, he was now filled with energy on the inside. His sword hummed with strength and the young man slowly made his way towards the taller man.

  Reaching him did not take too long as he managed to block every arrow. As he reached the opponent, it was easy to finish the battle. All he had to do was place the sword at the neck of the opponent who instantly nodded in forfeit.

  The opponent had already lost more than four fifths of his energy to the abnormal suction force within the sword. He had used the remaining of his energy to execute the stance where he created a shower of Qi arrows. This ended up draining his last bit of energy, causing him to not even have enough energy to move away from Xu Min as he arrived with his sword.

  Smiling, Xu Min went to the middle of the arena, his body bursting with energy. He was far stronger than he had ever experienced before. A smile was on his face as he knew that this had been the best luck he had ever experienced. Although he should know when to stop, Xu Min felt like he could afford to suck up Qi from one more person before he had to go back home to balance his energies. He wanted to continue to prepare for the upcoming tournament.

  Chapter 44 - Stealing Energy

  The entire room was silent. The ones who had been training and heard the unusual loud noises coming from the arena at the back all stopped their training to walk closer and see what was happening. Seeing that there was a O
ne-Star Warrior fighting a Three-Star Warrior, everyone was perplexed as to how this youngster was capable of holding his ground against a superior opponent. Even more shocking was that the young man managed to make a breakthrough right there on the middle of the stage.

  Although this young man had broken through, he was still only a Two-Star Expert. The opponent in front of him was a Three-Star Expert and still he had been incapable of defeating the Early Stage Two-Star Warrior. This proved that although this young man had shown his arrogance earlier, he was indeed capable of showing off as anyone would consider him a great genius of the younger generation.

  By the side of the Arena, Yong Meilin was standing with a smile on her face and her hands clapping. Her laughter was like drops of fresh water falling into a small stream. Her joy was able to refresh anyone who listened to the sound, entrancing them as though she was a fairy. She was stealing away their lifeforce with nothing but her beautiful voice and astonishing appearance.

  “Xu Min, you are as amazing as you said,” the fairy said with her beautiful voice. The moment she said this, the spell had been broken. Everyone within the training ground came back to their senses, their faces turning sour as they saw the elated expression on Yong Meilin’s face as she looked at the young man on the stage. Seeing how he only replied to her with a small smile, the many men felt so jealous inside. They were jealous that it was not them who were being looked at with such care.

  Xu Min did not care about the jealousy as all he felt was the thrill when the sword in his hand started absorbing the energies from his opponent and depositing them inside himself. He was not completely certain how it worked. He knew that he had to practice it some more to truly understand what type of weapon his master had given him as a farewell gift.

  “Who is next?” Xu Min’s voice rung through the incredibly silent grounds and the next in line finally realised that it was his turn. His eyes turned serious and a sneer appeared on his face.

  “You might be good,” the opponent said as he climbed onto the arena, “But I am not as easy to beat as some internal expert. Let us see how well you will manage someone who is an external expert just like you!”

  The expert in front of Xu Min was a Two-Star Warrior much like him. Xu Min’s physical strength was equal to a late stage Two-Star Warrior and he also noticed that the man in front of him was a warrior of the same rank. Although, his internal energy was stronger than Xu Min’s.

  As an eternal expert, this man’s entire body was filled with bulging muscle. His body was clearly focused on pure strength alone, especially since his arms had astonishingly large muscles beneath the somewhat tanned skin. Looking at this man, Xu Min could understand the major difference between the two. Although they both were external experts, they had gone down two different paths of training, and now they were waiting to see which way was the better one.

  Xu Min trained his entire body and ensured that every muscle within his body had been pushed to their limits. He also specialised in speed while the man in front of him who focused purely on strength would not be as nimble as Xu Min. However if this man managed to catch Xu Min, the battle would be over. There was no way that Xu Min could hope to escape such a grip or be able to protect himself against the strong arms clamping down upon him.

  Even though it was like this, the certainty of victory was evident on Xu Min’s face. He even winked to Yong Meilin just as the battle was about to begin. This caused the opponent to become starling red as rage fumed within his body causing him to run towards Xu Min.

  The strong arm shot out like a snake attacking, but although he was fast compared to other experts, he was nothing compared to someone like Xu Min. He had trained his entire body day in and day out. Xu Min trained in the docks at Honghe City and within the small room that belonged to Overseer Wang.

  As the attack launched towards him, Xu Min took a step to the side and he gracefully avoided the punch which was coming his way. Seeing this, the older man felt his anger rise. As he was thrusting the arm forward, he swept it to the side in the hopes to catch the young man off-guard.

  Seeing the arm change trajectory, Xu Min was not astonished in the least. Instead, he let go of a snort filled with disdain as he leaned backwards and once more managed to escape the double attack from the opponent. He avoided the attacks so skillfully that not even the corner of his sleeves had been touched. As he avoided the attacks so gracefully, Xu Min once again astonished the ones observing the battle. Yet, one thing was to avoid, but another was to attack. The man in front of him was filled with muscle in his upper torso. There was so much so that they managed to create an amazing defense, not allowing for any Qi to penetrate into his internals and cause him serious injury.

  The man in front of Xu Min was a very well-known expert within the paid guards of the Yong family. He usually fought against the Three-Star Warriors as his body was protected by a large layer of muscle. This allowed for him to stand against the internal techniques and made it easier for him to win against the average Three-Star Warriors.

  Usually, external experts were weaker than the internal ones. Once in awhile, experts would appear as opposites, the external experts which specialised against internal experts. Xu Min’s current opponent was one of these experts.

  “So you think that just because you can defeat Three-Star Warriors that I am an easy target?” Xu Min mumbled to himself, his brown eyes turning slightly chilled. Absorbing energy from an external expert seemed to be impossible for the sword as all the Qi was only floating around within his body and not outside it. The sword in his hands only seemed capable of absorbing the energy which was floating around within the air. This removed any chance of Xu Min draining the opponent's energy.

  “It is a pretty cute weapon you got there,” the tall bulky man said, standing on the other side of the arena. He reached his arm down from the arena and he too grabbed his weapon of choice.

  Xu Min raised an eyebrow in surprise as he saw a massive axe within the arms of this external expert in front of him. It seemed as though things had just gotten much more complicated.

  The two men were standing on the arena, neither of them took the initiative to attack first. Both were wielding their weapons in a posture so that they could both block and attack at any moment. The atmosphere was so tense that one could almost cut through it. The axe seemed dominant, as though it was capable of chopping through the young man in front of him. Although he was not as bulky as the man in front of him, Xu Min had a strong body and the sword in his arms was humming slightly. Energy ripples left the sword one after another much like waves crashing against the beach, rolling over land, and slowly vanishing into the sand. These energy ripples did just that. They left the sword and rolled into the air until it vanished into the air, dissipating to never be seen again. Feeling this much energy within the sword, Xu Min understood that he had most likely only gained half of the energy absorbed. The sword was simply filled with energy which did not belong to Xu Min himself.

  “Prepare yourself!” The other man finally lost patience, having been affected by rage for too long. He was incapable of holding back for any longer and with a strong and outstretched arm, he swiped across the entire half of the arena. The sound of the air being split into two was sounding out. Although Xu Min had managed to avoid the first few attacks, many of the audience were looking at the arena with held breaths as they wondered whether or not he would be capable of avoiding this swift axe that only left a blur behind. The strength of the man’s arm was even stronger than what Xu Min had expected. As he once more got ready to dodge, he was surprised to see how skillfully the axe was being moved.

  At first, he had planned on running to the side, making a narrow escape. Now, this was not an option as the large axe was swiping past its range being half a circle. Xu Min retreated a few steps instead. He looked at the ground and saw that some black hair had been cut off, landing on the floor of the arena ground.

  Seeing how close it had been, Xu Min raised an eyebrow on hi
s forehead. The young man was suddenly unable to contain a grin which appeared on his eyes.

  “My turn!” he said and with a kick on the ground he used the force to set off against the opponent. The sword in his hand was ready to strike. This was the first time that Xu Min was using his real speed. Speeding towards the man in front of him, a grin was evident on his face as he wielded the large sword as though it weighed nothing. Seeing this, the opponent’s eyes widened in surprise.

  Although he had planned to attack, he quickly got in a defensive stance. The muscle in his body swelled, and he grinned just as much as Xu Min was. Both men were Late Stage Two-Star Warriors, and both of them were capable of posing a threat to the other. Neither dared to be complacent as still both were completely certain that they would win.

  This was an attack of pure strength. Looking at the two from outside, it would seem that Xu Min had no chance of winning. However, he gathered all the strength throughout his entire body, and poured it all into the already humming sword in his hands. As he brought down the sword, it collided with the opponent’s great axe.

  A massive boom sounded out and the entire ground shook. The arena was completely filled with a cloud of dust. From the arena, there was a large scar stretching through the entire training ground, disturbing anyone who tried to train.