Tournament Preparations
You bound up a nearby crate and onto the rooftops, deciding to go after the person-in-black. Spotting the figure receding into the distance, gliding over large gaps between the buildings with their qinggong, you give chase. Running atop a solid roof is far easier than running along shaky tree branches. Although you can’t soar through the air like your target, your stride is faster. As you hop and vault over obstacles and gaps, you begin to close the distance. You seem to be headed into the poorer districts of the city, where people tend to keep their heads down.
The figure turns their head, looking back at you. Suddenly, they stop in their tracks and reverse direction. Their hostile intent is clear.
“Decided to fight instead of running?” you call out. “That suits me just fine.”
The person-in-black strikes just as your feet touch the roof that they are on. A palm comes whistling through the air, aimed right for your head. You dive forward, throwing yourself down low before it hits. Pressing your outstretched hands against the roof tiles, you push yourself forward. You can feel the tiles crack slightly underneath your fingers as you fly past the person-in-black. With a quick flip you get back to your feet.
The person-in-black turns around, but too late. You throw a quick jab at them. Unable to avoid, they cross their arms to block. The force of your blow drives them staggering backwards until their heels are hanging out over thin air. As the mysterious person teeters on the verge of falling, you reach out to grab them. Their eyes are squeezed tightly closed. Before your fingers reach the person, they whistle loudly.
Suddenly, three other black-clad figures arrive, surrounding you. You had been too hasty in chasing your target. “Isn’t this a bit unfair-“ Your words are cut off as they descend upon you with a flurry of blows. You parry their punches swiftly; none of them are anywhere near as fast as Master Zhang, or even Sister Miaozhu and her nuns, but the sheer amount of strikes manages to force you back. Still, you are not too keen on using your full strength here – you don’t want to make things too messy if you can help it.
Knocking aside a kick, you grab the outstretched leg, pulling it towards you and smashing the back of your fist into your assailant’s side. As they are sent crashing to the floor, you spin around and smoothly segue into the only move of the Xianglong Palms that you know, attacking with a quick surge of your inner strength. Your palm zips forward like a striking snake, throwing another of the shady figures backwards with the briefest contact. With that same arm, you turn and grab the last of the three newcomers by the neck.
Your grip is strong – you could rip their throat out easily. Your fingers begin to dig in as the figure struggles helplessly. “Look,” you sigh, offering them a way out, “can’t we just talk about this?”
The first person-in-black you chased leaps at you with a battlecry. Now there is no mistaking it; it is a girl. You turn to hurl her partner at her, but instead something is thrown at you. Something round. It explodes in your face, releasing a thick cloud of smoke. As you choke and sputter, a palm slams into your chest. Caught by surprise, you release your grip on your hostage.
Then, there is a familiar, exceedingly unpleasant feeling. That of thorns worming their way inside you, inflicting pain and agony. You have felt this once before. The woman in black. It is not as strong, however, though you do not know if it is due to your growth, or because this practitioner is not as skilled.
They are the enemy. They are Shun’s enemy. They are definitely your enemy.
After three years, you have finally found someone who may lead you to the woman in black.
This is unmistakeably the Yuhua Duqing Palm.
It is different this time, however. You are not who you once were.
Excitement boils within you. Your qi stirs in response.
Like a rising tide of formless mud, Yuanshi Hundun rises up to meet the agonizing qi, swallowing it whole. The strike is still enough to leave you breathless, but you are otherwise unharmed. There was too little inner strength behind that blow to overcome your neigong.
As you expected, the people-in-black are gone when the smoke clears. You cluck your tongue in slight disappointment.
Looking around, you find no trace of where they have gone. No matter. They are, for some reason, running around trying to link themselves to Zhang Jue. From the time you spent with him you understand that he is probably the last person who would be linked to this sort of organization – they are simply too clandestine for his tastes. These mysterious people should be here until the tournament ends, at least; your invitation was probably no coincidence.
Luckily, they seem to have no idea who you really are, though your little attack will have put them on guard. They should think you are nothing more than some noble young do-gooder - plenty of those in town during the tournament period - who passed by and decided to stick his nose into matters not of his business. This just means that you will have to be a bit more thoughtful regarding these people from now on so that you may devise a plan to lure them out.
Then, you will have the pleasure of interrogating them… those that survive, at least.
***
You arrive late the next morning – though you had thought you were unaffected by the Yuhua Duqing Palm, it seems that it had some lingering side-effects. You feel slightly dizzy, though it should not affect your performance too much. You approach the tournament hall with your mask already on. There are many fighters milling about the place. Before entering the hall proper, you look around for any signs of the Emei nuns.
You spot Cao’er together with Yifang and her friends. Perfect. This is the first thing you will do.
With a measured gait, you walk past Cao’er, heading off to a more secluded area.
Turning the corner, you count the seconds.
She pokes her head from behind the wall after ten seconds. Lifting your mask slightly so that she can see your face, you grin.
“…knew it was you!” she squeaks, as she walks up to you excitedly. You make a hushing gesture.
“Does anyone else know?”
“…no, don’t think so,” she shakes her head. “They don’t seem to have noticed.”
“Good. You look much better if your hair isn’t covering all of your face, by the way.”
With a croak, she fiddles with her hair embarrassedly. You begin to engage her in small talk, asking about her life at Emei. She seems to be doing fine, but says that life at the monastery does not suit her. There are too many rules for her to follow, and she feels awkward around the other nuns. When you ask if she wants to go off with you after the tournament, however, she declines, saying that there is still quite a lot more that she has to learn, and that she will stick to the agreement.
“…no matter how much I want to elope with you…” she sighs. You try to ignore a rather strange word that she used in that sentence, and move on to your opponent for today, the nun Yiling.
“She is skilled,” says Cao’er. “Not as skilful as my sister though…”
You are surprised. You had fought Yifang before this, and seen her rather dismal performance against the bandits. Either Yiling is not very good, in which case you should be able to handle everyone in the competition easily – Murong Yandi aside – or Yifang is a lot better than you had thought her to be.
“I suppose… Yifang is bad in a real fight, but she is really good in sparring when she is less nervous,” says Cao’er after deliberating for a while. “She told me this is the first time she participated in the tournament. She never dared to before.”
“Why is that?” you ask.
Cao’er stares at you rather coldly. “…your fault. You said something about understanding you. She found out you were invited… so she thought she could understand you better by participating… I suppose it is okay because she is my sister and sisters share…” She begins to mumble some words that make less sense to you the more you think about it.
“Well, I’m sorry I said it,” you apologize. It looks like that nun may be a source of future headaches due to your careless words. For that you really are sorry. “Is there anything more you can tell me about Yiling?”
“…you aren’t interested in her also, right? No, I guess not, it’s for the fight,” nods Cao’er. “I have to think on it. I remember some of her sparring matches… I will tell you later… Anyway, have you gotten the schedule for your match?”
You had almost forgotten. Feeling embarrassed that you had to be reminded by Cao’er of all people, you head to check out the schedule.
***
The first round of the tournament was divided into two sessions, with one taking place after the other. The matches in each session would take place simultaneously.
The matches in the first session are as follows:
Xumao vs Faceless
Yiqing vs Nie Shuixian
Wu Tong vs Mo Liuye
Su Liaojing vs Xuzheng
Zhou Xiaowu vs Gan Maqi
Gu Dipeng vs Yifang
Xuzhan vs Ma Youxuan
Xuzhu vs Yixing
The remainder of the matches are in the second session.
Nameless vs Shapeless
Zhu Cangxu vs Lantu
Xu Wanke vs Wu Yin
Xiaoxiang vs Gao Xiaoma
Li Mao vs Murong Yandi
Wu Jin vs Guo Fu
Yiling vs Man Tiger Pig
Jixuan Wuni vs Nie Mudan
You could check out one of the matches in the first session yourself. You would be fighting in the second session, so you could have to ask Cao’er to watch one of those matches for you, although she would also be free to observe a single match in the first session.
Of the participants, there are a few surprising entrees besides the disciples of the Eight Sects – they are saying that this is the first time there has been so many independent finalists in twenty years.
The most interesting of that lot are the trio of Nameless, Faceless and Shapeless, who are appearing in a tiger, wolf and cock mask respectively. They participated in the battle royale and swept to victory – in fact, they could be said to be the reason there were a few other independent finalists, as the three had purposely targeted Eight Sects’ disciples in each of their battle royales, proving skilled enough to knock out a few promising participants, allowing the independent participants to sneak into the last four standing. As a result, Qingcheng had been utterly eliminated from the competition, though their best young fighter, the new head of the sect, Song Lingshu was in mourning and did not participate, deciding to be a spectator instead. Ma Youxuan and Xu Wanke seem to be rather average pugilists from average schools, but Jixuan Wuni and Lantu are foreigners; Tibetan and Tujue, respectively.
You also found a grinning beggar offering to take bets on the matches. For this first round you simply do not know enough to place any of your meagre pittance on any of the other contestants; but you could opt to have Cao’er help you bet on your own match…
***
Choice of matches to watch:
You may pick one match from the first session to spectate personally.
You may pick one match from the first session and one match for the second session for Cao’er to observe.
***
A. You bet on Yiling winning.
B. You bet on yourself winning.
