Unity Is Strength

"Well, Little Sister, did you learn anything?" Meng Jingzhou leaped up onto the treetop and gulped down the fruit juice Meng Jingyu was just about to drink. Meng Jingyu glared at her elder brother with an aggrieved look, waiting a moment before asking, "Then why didn't we open an underground gambling den and bet on Ning Fan winning?" Meng Jingzhou waved a dismissive hand. "Sure, our Meng Family colludes with officials and merchants, but even we can't go breaking laws and violating discipline." *** The little wooden puppet's swordsmanship was exceptionally exquisite. Sun Chuanxian had seen many sword cultivators, but he had never seen one with such technique. "Ice Dragons Emerging from the Sea!" Sun Chuanxian bellowed, conjuring two ice dragons. The beasts spewed icy breath, freezing the ground solid and coating the canopy overhead in a layer of frost. Yet the little puppet kept swinging its wooden sword with spirited "hei hei ha ha" cries, generating a rudimentary Sword Dao domain around itself. Neither the dragon breath nor the extreme chill could harm it in the slightest! "Ning Fan, who knew you were hiding a hand like this!" Sun Chuanxian's opinion of Ning Fan shifted. They had clashed so many times, yet Ning Fan had never once revealed his identity as a puppeteer. And now, on the tournament stage, he was even using the puppet's cute appearance to lower his guard—what scheming depth! Ning Fan was equally astounded. He hadn't expected the little wooden puppet to be so capable in a fight; those five hundred thousand spirit stones were worth every penny. "It seems my greatest rival in this tournament is you! With this move up your sleeve, even Lu Yang would be in for a bitter battle if he crossed your path!" The matches of the second round were being held simultaneously. Sun Chuanxian noticed that Lu Yang, still tied to his chair, was watching their match intently, which proved Lu Yang also thought highly of Ning Fan's puppet arts! Lu Yang had always believed in giving people what they paid for. Since Ning Fan had coughed up five hundred thousand spirit stones, his service had to be worthy of that price tag, so he was controlling the puppet clone quite conscientiously. "Slash!" With a sharp snort, the little wooden puppet severed the heads of both frost dragons, then slammed into Sun Chuanxian like a miniature hammer, knocking him clean out of bounds. "Ning Fan wins!" "It really won?" Ning Fan beamed with delight. He was just about to retrieve the puppet when he saw it dash into the crowd and vanish without a trace. The service worth five hundred thousand spirit stones concluded right then and there. Another duel in the second round drew just as much attention, featuring An Nan'er, granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, and Luo Wushuang, son of the Minister of War. "Fellow Daoist An, I never imagined you and I would face each other here." Clad in full armor and gripping a heavy halberd, Luo Wushuang looked every bit the fierce young general tearing through a battlefield, brimming with martial vigor. "Unfortunately, I cannot go easy on you this time. My father ordered me to defeat Lu Yang without fail to wash away the humiliation of his past loss to Daoist Buyu!" An Nan'er's expression remained tranquil. The two jade bangles on her wrists expanded, transforming into a pair of jade rings that hummed in midair. "What a coincidence. My grandfather also instructed me to acknowledge Lu Yang as my elder brother no matter what. Victory in this match is mine!" Hearing this, Lu Yang, who was serving as the prize, was just about to shout, "If you want to take me as an elder brother, there's no need to fight!" But Meng Jingzhou, as if having anticipated what Lu Yang would say, darted forward in a flash and stuffed a rag straight into Lu Yang's mouth. What a joke—how could they let him hog every good thing? This was an uneven contest. Luo Wushuang possessed early Soul Formation cultivation, whereas An Nan'er was only at peak Nascent Soul. One was an unrivaled prodigy in battle, the other a marvel born amidst heavenly phenomena. Had their cultivation stages been equal, they could have traded blows evenly, but separated by a full realm, there was hardly any contest at all. The two exchanged glances, both appearing to make up their minds, and spoke simultaneously. "Fellow Daoist An, if I overpower you with my cultivation stage, you probably won't accept the outcome even if I win. I shall suppress my cultivation now, so if you lose, you will concede wholeheartedly." As he spoke, Luo Wushuang formed hand seals, placing a restriction upon himself to lower his cultivation to peak Nascent Soul. "Fellow Daoist Luo, don't assume you're guaranteed to win just because I seemed a stage lower than you. Truth be told, I broke through to the Soul Formation stage long ago; I had merely sealed my cultivation before now." An Nan'er swiped a finger across the space between her eyebrows, and her aura surged violently, advancing to the Soul Formation stage in the blink of an eye. Luo Wushuang: "..." An Nan'er: "..." A dead silence descended upon the scene. An Nan'er was the first to speak, breaking the stalemate. "Why don't you restore yourself to the Soul Formation stage?" Luo Wushuang fell silent for a moment before replying, "...That will take two hours. Why don't you seal your cultivation again?" "Once the seal is undone, I must wait four hours before I can seal it again." Both sides lapsed into another long silence. They couldn't very well make everyone wait around pointlessly for two hours. "Fellow Daoist Luo, pardon the offense!" An Nan'er steeled her resolve. Though overpowering someone with a higher cultivation stage wasn't what she had intended, it was now the only viable option. "Holy crap, wait—" Luo Wushuang hadn't expected An Nan'er to act so decisively. Before he could react, the two jade rings behind her swooped forward and slammed him straight out of bounds. "An Nan'er wins!" On the other side of the arena, Zhong Yi, son of the Secretariat Director, who had also carried high expectations from the crowd, ran into an exceptionally troublesome foe. "Who is this guy? He fights so fiercely—it looks like Zhong Yi is about to lose." "Probably some clan's illegitimate son kept hidden out of sight." Knocked flying by his opponent, Zhong Yi stumbled back several paces before steadying his stance. Panting heavily, he glared at his foe. "To think there was a master like you hidden so deeply within the Imperial City! Who are you? Why have I never seen you before?!" His opponent appeared to be a young man roughly the same age as Zhong Yi. Hearing Zhong Yi's question, an embarrassed look crossed his face, and he explained sheepishly: "To tell you the truth, I'm just a cultivator from out of town. I heard the Imperial City's Luotian Forest was quite famous, so I came over to check it out. Then you all showed up and squeezed me into the crowd. I figured slipping away right then would look bad, so I was too embarrassed to leave. Then that guy surnamed Meng insisted I draw a lot. After drawing, I was thrust into combat in complete confusion, and then I ran into you." "By the way, I'm in the Body Integration stage." Zhong Yi: "..." *You're in the Body Integration stage—how in the world do you have the nerve to fight a bunch of young people like us? Do you have no shame at all?* The Body Integration stage youth slapped the back of his head and laughed heartily. "If I cared about saving face, I wouldn't have made it to the Body Integration stage in the first place, right?" With that, he sauntered off, leaving not even a name behind. "Zhong Yi wins!" Zhong Yi proved terrifyingly formidable, cutting down every opponent in his path until he met An Nan'er in the grand finals. After three hundred rounds of bitter struggle, he finally bested her. "Congratulations to Fellow Daoist Zhong Yi on your victory!" Meng Jingzhou smiled and clapped his hands, stepping aside to clear a path and reveal Lu Yang, who was tied tightly behind him. "Now, whether Fellow Daoist Zhong Yi wishes to challenge Lu Yang or become sworn brothers with him, the choice is entirely yours." In truth, there was no need to ask. Meng Jingzhou could tell from the raging fighting spirit burning in Zhong Yi's eyes that he would definitely choose to challenge Lu Yang. Still, could a mere early Soul Formation cultivator really hope to defeat Lu Yang? Zhong Yi did not answer directly. Instead, he said in a solemn voice, "The ancients hacked through brambles and thistles, passing down knowledge across generations to forge a cultivation system for posterity. In the late Great Yu era, the Jiang family rose, commanding vast armies to establish the Great Xia Dynasty. This proves that there are some feats no single person can accomplish alone. Unity is strength." Pointing a finger straight at Lu Yang, Zhong Yi declared with resounding conviction: "I choose to gang up on Lu Yang!"