Duan Xi tilted her head in confusion, “Why would she leave the sect because of those words?”
The surrounding disciples looked at each other, mumbled something between themselves and they all gathered around Su Jun and Duan Xi, as they were interested to hear Su Jun’s answer regarding Yi Ya.
Su Jun lowered his head,
She didn’t go to the sect with those three when she had the chance, but waited for me for an entire year. Thinking about it, why did she even wait for me… for him?...Maybe… she was—
He shook his head and raised it up, looking at Duan Xi, into her eyes, “It doesn’t matter. Whatever reason she had for leaving, one thing wouldn’t have changed. I still would have left the outer sect and she would have remained in the outer sect.”
The surrounding disciples all looked at Su Jun. One half of them were frowning and they thought,
how can he be so cruel! That’s his childhood friend!
And the other half had serious expressions on their faces and they thought,
he is a true martial artist
.
I have to be like him. The martial path must always come first.
With these two thoughts the disciples started to disperse.
Duan Xi nodded her head, “I see. Let’s go, the preliminaries will still take a while.”
Su Jun nodded, “Alright, but how long do you think it will take for the preliminaries to end?”
“It will take a good while. More than 4 hours at least,” Duan Xi said.
Su Jun nodded, “I see, let’s go to the restaurant then. One last time.”
Duan Xi nodded, “Sure.” She with Su Jun walked out of the arena area and made their way to the restaurant area. On the way there, as per usual they were looked at by those that they passed, but not approached. Reaching the restaurant, they walked inside and sat down at the first table they saw and a waitress came to their table. It was the waitress that waited on them the last time.
“What will you eat?” The waitress asked with a smile on her face.
Su Jun and Duan Xi both turned their heads, looking at the waitress and said in unison, “The same.”
The waitress nodded her head, “Two meat buns and two green teas,” she said, bowed her head and walked away from their table. Su Jun and Duan Xi turned their heads and looked at each other and both smiled.
“What’s the inner sect like?” Su Jun said.
Duan Xi tilted her head in confusion slightly, “What do you mean by that?”
“How strong are the disciples there? Are there many competitions? How do you qualify for the province competition?” Su Jun said.
Duan Xi lowered her head and sighed heavily; then raised her head, “The disciples are between rank 7 martial mortal and rank 2 martial grand core realm. You are already as strong as rank 9 martial mortal so you will not be the weakest disciple, but one of the weaker ones. Competitions are organised every week, but there are requirements for each one. For example some are organised for those below martial core realm. Some for early martial core cultivators, others for middle martial core realm cultivators and so on. As for province competition, there are three spots and three ways to earn those three spots. Each way gets you one of the three spots. The first way, have the strongest cultivation base. The second way, have the most prestige points. The third way, win the competition that is held a month before the province competition. The only ones that can participate in this competition are Duan family, Cui family and Fai family.”
As Duan Xi’s words finished the waitress came up to their table, “I have brought you, your food,” she said as she placed the food on the table. Su Jun turned his head to the waitress, “Thank you,” he said; then Duan Xi turned her head to the waitress and repeated his words, “Thank you,” the waitress nodded her head and walked off. The two moved their heads to their meat buns and started eating. As for their tea, Su Jun drank it while eating while Duan Xi drank it after finishing her meat bun. They both finished at the same time once again and they chatted all until the talisman lit up more than 5 hours later.
“It’s time,” Su Jun said as he looked at the blinking talisman.
Duan Xi nodded her head, “Yeah, let’s go,” she stood up; then Su Jun stood up and the two of them walked out of the restaurant and made their way to the first arena.
On the way there, as per usual Su Jun and Duan Xi were looked at by those that they passed, but not approached. Reaching the first arena, they saw a huge crowd of disciples and the disciples that stood at the back saw them, the disciples widened their eyes and began mumbling.
“It’s Su Jun!”
“It’s the goddess!”
“Quickly, make a path for them!”
“Move, move, move!”
The disciples in the back moved away, making a path for Su Jun and Duan Xi. Then the disciples in the middle repeated the same thing as those in the back said and moved away, making a path for them as well. And finally those standing near the arena repeated the same words that those in the middle said and moved out of the way, making a path for them once more.
Su Jun and Duan Xi reached the arena and they saw eight people standing on the arena and they both recognised four people out of the eight. The first one they recognized was the old man standing in the middle of the arena, Duan Ri. The second one they recognised was the youth whose brother Su Jun crippled, Cui Bo. The third one they recognised was the one that almost crippled or killed Su Jun, Duan Jin. The fourth they recognised was a disciple that Su Jun had a competition against and his childhood friend, Hu Yun.
Duan Ri turned his head towards Su Jun and Duan Xi and he smiled, “You are finally here, come up on stage.”
Su Jun turned his head to Duan Xi, “I am going, see you soon,” he said with a smile on his face.
Duan Xi nodded, “See you,” she said with a smile on her face.
Su Jun walked up on stage, all the disciples surrounding the arena looked at him with eyes sparkling as they wanted to see just how strong was Su Jun. All the seven disciples standing on the stage looked at him, three of the looked at him with frowning expressions, while the other four looked at him with interest.
Duan Ri looked over all the surrounding disciples and loudly announced, “The final round of the outer sect competition will now commence. And it will be held in this format. The disciple of my choosing will become a king of the hill, other disciples will challenge him. The one that wins becomes the new king of the hill, while the loser will get knocked out of the competition. This will continue until no one wants to or can’t challenge the king of the hill. The king of the hill is Su Jun!”
“I challenge him!”
Everyone turned their heads to the owner of the voice and all of their eyes landed on Hu Yun. He pointed his finger at Su Jun, “The fluke that happened three weeks ago, won’t happen again. I am now rank 4 martial mortal, you are not my match, Su Jun! Prepare to lose!” he loudly proclaimed.