Chapter 43: Challenging Himself
For the next five days, Jia Yuan was continuously “tortured”
by the lessons of the old lady. However, despite the torment, Jia Yuan’s
demeanor and bearing were starting to resemble less of that of a poor slave
boy, and more of a young sire from a noble household.
At the end of the fifth day, Jia Yuan stood tall as he
escorted the old lady out of the hotel room. The two exchanged some
pleasantries, and then Jia Yuan let the two old folk converse.
Guo Huo handed the old lady her payment, and then the old
lady left.
As soon as the old lady left, Jia Yuan ran to his bed and
belly-flopped onto it.
He hated having to constrict himself to such strict
mannerisms, but he had to put up with it, since the scary old witch… Jia Yuan
shuddered just thinking about it.
Guo Huo glanced over at Jia Yuan, and had a sad smile on his
face. When he was a kid, he had also gone through such training… although it
wasn’t as severe as what Jia Yuan had gone through in the last few days. Of course,
the teachings of several years of repetition had been pounded into Jia Yuan in
only a few days, which was a big part of why it had been so hard on Jia Yuan.
Jia Yuan had only made it through the last few days because
of the exquisite food that Guo Huo ordered every day from the hotel. Every time
he was ordered to do something, he did it to the best of his ability, but his
mind was filled with thoughts of the dishes he had tasted the night before.
Back straight! Delicious chicken!
However, that ordeal was finally over.
After a night of resting, Jia Yuan and Guo Huo again walked
toward the arena.
“Teacher, I wonder how strong I will be after my Song
evolved to sustain two elements.”
“Don’t get overconfident. You’re still just a tadpole
compared to someone who is truly strong. You never know, although you have a
rather unique Song, another genius could appear at the arena.”
Upon reaching the C-1 arena, they waited for about twenty
minutes until Jia Yuan was called up to fight.
“Hey, that’s the kid who created the explosion a week ago
right? He’s supposed to be freaking strong!”
“Yeah, I saw him fight the other day.It actually looked like
he made a breakthrough partway throughout the fight! What speed of cultivation!”
Some of the audience members recognized Jia Yuan, while
others had heard rumors about the kid who had basically destroyed one of the
arena’s stages.
Jia Yuan’s opponent for the match was another 30 year old at
the 7th level of Absorption, a citizen of the Fire Kingdom.
As soon as the match began, there was no doubt about who was
stronger. After all, after breaking through to the 4th level of
Absorption, Jia Yuan was stronger than those at the 6th or 7th
level of Absorption, assuming that the opponent had only acquired a low level
Song.
As soon as the fight started, Jia Yuan unsheathed his sword
as the start of his Song, and in the same motion slashed the air in front of
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.him.
A large blade of fire flew across the stage, which on
contact, simultaneously cut his opponent’s chest open, pushed his opponent out
of the ring, and set the opponent on fire.
The fight had only lasted a few seconds! Some of the
audience members who had wanted to see more fighting from the child prodigy
they had heard about were rather disappointed, but what they saw still awed
them.
A fight between the 4th and 7th level
of Absorption! Usually, that would be a complete destruction of the fighter at
the 4th level of Absorption. However, this young man in front of
them had completely flipped the script!
At this time, Jia Yuan and Guo Huo were walking toward the
front desk.
“You again? Are you here to withdraw your winnings?”
“No, but we’d like to advance to a higher level arena again.”
“Oh?”
The manager looked at Jia Yuan with quite a bit of interest.
After all, less than a week ago Jia Yuan had already moved to the C-1 arena.
Could it be that the C-1 arena was already beneath this kid?
“Alright, you’ve logged two wins in the C-1 arena, so you
are eligible to go up if you’d like. What level of competitors would you like?”
Guo Huo was about to speak when Jia Yuan suddenly spoke up. “The
9th level of Absorption.”
Both the manager and Guo Huo turned to Jia Yuan with looks
of incredulity on their faces. “What!?”
Guo Huo was quick to the point. “Jia Yuan, you’re only at
the 4th level of Absorption! Against those of the 9th
level of Absorption you’ll be at a disadvantage! Remember, you can die here!”
The manager nodded in agreement. He could see from Guo Huo’s
bearing that he was nobility, which meant that the kid with him was probably
the disciple of a famous school or the son of a rich family. Even though the
arena had a large number of guards and was well protected by both said guards
and the fighters who enjoyed competing there, they didn’t want to cause trouble
for no reason.
Jia Yuan didn’t face either of the adults, but said in a
calm voice, “Trust me teacher. I know what I’m doing.”
“…”
Guo Huo wasn’t exactly buying it. However, after some
deliberation, he shook his head, but agreed. “Fine. The path to the peak of the
mountain is never easy. Perhaps it will do you good to learn how to fight from
a disadvantaged position while you are still young.”
In truth, the reason Guo Huo accepted, was because of how
strong he was.
Even if he was sitting in the stands during one of Jia Yuan’s
fights, it would be a simple matter for him to forcefully stop the fight if Jia
Yuan were truly in grave danger.
As for the arena’s guards… even if they had 5 times the
amount of guards they did, even they wouldn’t be able to stop Guo Huo from
doing whatever he wanted. Such the strength was one of the top cultivators in
the Fire Kingdom.