55. A Gamble of Sorts
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Luoyin was already paired with Xu Min, so the two went off to one side while Weiyan suggested a few optimal matches.
"Xu Lian," She began, ignoring Xu Lian's scowl. "...your boundary technique will compliment Disciple Tao. Find him. Xu Wen, pair with Disciple Xue, Du Wen, pair with me, Xu Lin, pair with the Head Disciple, if he agrees..."
On it went for a few minutes, till everyone had been paired, including Zhang Cheng, who had randomly picked one of his usual cronies.
All pairs were given two wooden tokens to carry around, one for each person, and the tokens were enchanted so the Sect elders could note who made a kill during the hunt.
This would ensure there was no cheating, or attempting to steal someone else's kill.
"Now that we have been paired and matched," Elder Zhou began, "The Tournament hunting ground shall be opened!"
He snapped a finger, and a strange crystalline drop of fluid fell right in the center of the platform.
The Platform's tiles raised and fell in circular waves from the center outwards, and the arena vanished as the disciples found themselves in different parts of a forest in pairs.
The Tournament hunting grounds were an ancient sealed-off plain with mountains and forests, and it was cleared of dangerous beasts whenever the tournament approached, leaving only beasts under the Elders' control.
"These hunting grounds have beasts ranging from level one to six, spawning at random locations!" Elder Zhou's voice reached them.
"The beasts will never give chase, so if you meet one that's too powerful, simply run from it, and it will leave you alone.
"However, each kill accrues points to whichever pair deals a killing blow, and higher level beasts count for higher points, with level one giving one point, and level six, giving six points.
"So you can choose to kill numerous low-levels, or only a few high-levels! The Choice is yours!
"Good Luck to all contestants!
"Begin!!!!"
And across the vast plains of the hunting grounds, Yueyan Sect's Junior Disciples jumped into action.
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Meanwhile back in the arena, a Large Wooden board appeared and hovered in the center, displaying the disciple names in pairs, with a score slot reading '00' behind each pair.
As the crowd watched, Zhang Cheng's pair changed to '01', and then swiftly to '02', making his name shoot to the top of the board, and the numbers kept climbing so fast that there were gasps from the audience.
Lord Xu leaned forward in awe, tinged with a bit of suspicion... 'How is he moving so quickly?!'
Lord Zhang resembled the epitome of pride, Zhang Furen had a smug smile on her face, and Xu Linhua's eyes gleamed with adoration and pride.
'Hmph! My sister will regret settling for that trash!'
On the board, several other numbers were beginning to climb and rise higher. The Xu Weiyan and Du Wen pair now read '09', Xu Lian and Tao Yun had '08', and other numbers rose accordingly.
Except one...
The Xu Min and Zhang Luoyin pair still read, '00', remaining firmly at the bottom!
"Heh! What did we expect from that trash?!"
"He's so bad, he's even holding his partner back!"
Lord Xu scowled at the board with worry, as mutters and whispers abounded, all theorizing why the pair hadn't moved at all!
But none could imagine that back in the hunting plains...
"Cheers!" Luoyin and Xu Min raised liquor cups, calmly drinking wine beneath a tree!
At first, Xu Min had wanted to jump right into action, but Luoyin had convinced him.
"Just relax... It's twenty-four hours, right? No need to tire ourselves! Trust me! come, we've not drunk together since the wedding!"
Xu Min was sceptical, but given past experiences, he knew Luoyin was nowhere near as careless as he acted.
'He likely has a plan...' Xu Min guessed, joining Luoyin beneath a tree.
'But what if he doesn't? Wouldn't you fail?' The voice of reason asked, and Xu Min considered insisting they get to work.
But as he accepted a liquor cup from Luoyin, he resolutely thought, 'If we fail, we fail! I'll take a gamble!'
And the two had quite a lazy day...
They were in a clearing with a serene and quiet scenery, the trees and grasses swaying gently in mild breezes.
After some wine, Luoyin explored the area a bit, and then slipped into a nap, while Xu Min meditated a little.
The hours rolled by...
The dim light of dusk and an early moon, found them chatting happily, discussing a myriad of mundane topics, but soon, the conversion veered towards cultivation, and this somehow steered into Xu Min's cultivation level.
"Given your aura, temperament and discipline, I'm surprised you haven't surpassed Xu Haoyuan." Luoyin observed. "Your qi flow is also unique... Perfect for good bloodline techniques."
"Umm? When did you read my qi?" Xu Min sent him a curious look, but Luoyin simply smiled.
"I have an appraisal technique which lets me analyze living things." He quickly raised his hands. "Er... Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to use it on you, but you got hurt because of me that night in the forest."
It was the night Zhang Cheng attacked Xu Min and Haoyuan. Luoyin had used the technique to quickly assess Xu Min's condition, and Xu Min now vaguely remembered Luoyin slipping something into his mouth.
Xu Min knew such an appraisal technique was no joke... certainly not one to be taken lightly, and whatever pill Luoyin fed him that night had made him heal impossibly fast!
"Zhang Yin, how powerful are you exactly?!" He could not resist asking. "What is your cultivation level?!"
"Ehehe, it's not much, not much at all!" Luoyin scratched the back of his head. "I'm more curious about why someone born with talent and a good bloodline suddenly stopped growing."
There was a brief silence in which both men simply watched the wind tease the grass.
Xu Min was understandably hesitant. He hadn't shared his cultivation issues with anyone before.
But he and Luoyin had gotten quite close. If he could hinge success or failure on Luoyin, then speaking about this was no big matter.
He finally sighed.
"Everyone said I was born a rare genius, and three years ago, I was already ahead of my peers, including Haoyuan, but the Clan elders insisted on naming him Head Disciple, since he is the Sect Successor.
"I was content... I was already hailed as a genius and the strongest Junior, but my father is the type to *demand an entire barn, after receiving a single grain of rice... He was insistent, determined to make me even stronger, so the Clan elders would be forced to relent."
He paused, and a flicker of pain crossed his face.
(*He's greedy)
"At first I could handle his constant pushing, but he only worsened when Sister Weiyan first began rising."
There was no end to the hurtful things his father had said back then...
"You waste! You're rising too slowly!"
"Will you only be happy when that Orphan girl surpasses you!"
"See! She's called 'White Swallow' everywhere! What are you known for?!"
"Haoyuan was bad enough! Now you're threatened by one irrelevant unwanted thing!"
At present, Xu Min sighed. "One day, he acted more than he spoke, and began replacing my usual qi pills with more powerful variants beyond my level..."
Luoyin's brows drew into a furrow.
Much like Cultivation, pills and resources had levels as well, levels that were to be strictly respected and adhered to.
If a lower-level cultivator absorbed a high-level pill, they risked damaging their core and meridians, and in cases where their body couldn't handle the rush of power, it might even tear them apart from within, killing them!
"I might have successfully cultivated the pills." Xu Min continued. "It began well, and my power grew... but ironically,during a monumental stage, I recalled his hurtful words while cultivating, and this led to a qi deviation.
"What followed was physician upon physician, but not much could be done. I was already lucky my cultivation hadn't been destroyed, but my growth had slowed to the point of barely moving."
He shook his head. "I've been growing extremely slowly since then, and recently I've been stuck at the doorway of Profound Tier Five.
"Father had acted so I would grow quickly, but he achieved the opposite and was forced to watch those behind me eventually overtake me. Till date we've hidden the matter from everyone, but it's only a matter of time before I fall behind completely."
The trickle of wine made Xu Min glance down to see Luoyin filling his cup.
"A problem shared is half-solved." Luoyin said, refilling his own cup as well. "So let's use the wine to wash away worries!"
Xu Min grinned at him. "Hmm, hmm!" He nodded, as they both held up their cups.
"Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
Xu Min drank from the wine.
But then,
"We'll begin your healing when we get back!"
Xu Min spurted out the wine.
"Ei?!" He turned to Luoyin, who continued drinking as if he simply commented that the grass was green!
Xu Min stared at him in wonder... Was Luoyin perhaps a little drunk? Or had he not heard the part about numerous physicians trying, yet failing?!
But Luoyin neither clarified nor continued, and Xu Min wondered if he had misheard.
By now, the moon had fully asserted its position, bathing them in moonlight, and
Luoyin waved a hand, making the wine and cups vanish as he got to his feet.
"For now, we have some beasts to kill, right?" A talisman appeared between his fingers, and before Xu Min could wonder what it was, it burst into flames and fizzled away.
"Zhang Yin, what're you-?" But a sudden roar cut him off, and the ground began to rumble, causing the rocks and pebbles to dance around their feet. "What's happening?!"
"Hmph! Ready yourself. That was the-... th- the 'Blood Moon' talisman!" He produced another random name. "It will draw the strongest, fiercest beasts from miles around!"
"Isn't that dangerous?!" Xu Min's sword appeared in his hand, and a mild violet aura surrounded it. "Stay behind me!" He said, stepping in front of Luoyin, but Luoyin simply pointed.
A few beasts had burst into the clearing, but they suddenly... froze?
'No! They're moving slowly!' Xu Min realized.
The beasts were moving so slowly that time appeared to have stopped, slowing to the point of nearly being still...
Yet he, Luoyin, and the trees and grasses around them could move normally!
"What is this?!"
"Ah, this is my er-- Time Slow... Technique!"
"That name was obviously just fished out!"
"Ehehe, I haven't named it!"
After the Eye-eater incident, Luoyin had begun developing methods to handle mass beast attacks, and the er... 'Blood Moon' talisman and 'Time Slow' Technique were part of it.
The 'Blood Moon' talisman had been inspired by the birth of the divine tiger cub, and how it had drawn beasts from all around...
Luoyin had simply infused a talisman with a small bit of Yinying's own divine aura, but unlike the cub, Yinying was a 'Shadow' tiger, strongest at night, so Luoyin capitalized on that by burning the talisman at night, which would greatly increase the range of Yinying's aura.
"So that's why we waited till now!" Xu Min was near incredulous.
As for the time slowing technique, Luoyin had planted formation flags around, while he 'explored' the clearing earlier in the day!
'I was right!' Xu Min shook his head. 'He had a plan all along!'
With the technique, the 'laziest' pair never even left their clearing, as the beasts came to them instead.
"Hehehe." A sword appeared in Luoyin's hand, and Xu Min appeared beside him, both men with mischievous glints in their eyes.
Since these beasts were even polite enough to move so slowly, the 'laziest' pair could also leisurely walk, run, or leap about, slaying them efficiently without expending too much qi!
Xu Min grinned when they were done...
Deciding to trust Luoyin had been his most rewarding gamble yet!
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