Chapter 117 – First Opponent
Just before the Qi fists landed on the South Star Cultivators, a small hurricane flew between the cultivators and Qi Xiu’s stance, and a person appeared.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The person swung his palms around eighteen times, and all eighteen Qi fists disappeared. It was no other than Ye Wei! He left his courtyard when he heard the commotion, only to see a fight had broken out between his classmates and Polaris Academy’s students. He immediately intervened when he saw that his teammates were about to get knocked down by Qi Xiu’s Qi fists.
“So you’re were looking for me?” Ye Wei said as calm as usual while assessing how strong this teenager with a straw in his mouth was.
“Wei!” Everyone representing South Star was unbelievably shocked, to see Ye Wei, and to see how easy he made it seem to defend against a mid-level Myst stance.
‘It was a Myst stance from their best cultivator! How did you…’ Liu Jian knew Ye Wei was strong, but now he would never forget the terrifying amount of energy he felt all the way to his bones just now.
“Brother Qi Xiu! That’s the kid!” Ning Yang would never forget Ye Wei’s face. The fear he felt for Ye Wei had sunk to his bones. He couldn’t help tremor from fear and have a shaky voice. He was shocked that someone their age could stop Qi Xiu’s Myst stance.
“Ha, you actually stopped it!” Qi Xiu said ignoring Ning Yan. Slowly he stepped forward so he could get a closer look at Ye Wei. He was quite surprised to see a deep glowing shape in Ye Wei’s eyes.
“I see how you can force them to bend their knees, but don’t you think that was an over-reaction?” Qi Xiu narrowed his eyes at Ye Wei and asked coldly.
“Ones who want to insult others should always be prepared to be insulted. Since they came without manners, I thought I would teach them some! If were talking about insults, what do you have to say to the South Star students you people injured for no particular reason?” Ye Wei challenged Qi Xiu’s statement.
“Well, well, well!” Qi Xiu glared at Ye Wei, and spat the straw out of his mouth. He got rid of his playful attitude and became serious, “If you believe strength reigns supreme then we should let our strength talk it out!”
The runes around Qi Xiu’s body began to spin. He then placed his finger at the end of the rune sequence and started writing twinkling runes against the spin.
“Pfft, about time he uses a stance!” The Polaris Academy cultivators were getting excited at the chance to see Qi Xiu show off his power.
“Hey, do you and your trash school know why where the name Qi Xiu came from?” Ning Yang glared at Ye Wei while smiling mischievously, “The reason why he is called Qi Xiu is because he is the master of seven Myst stances!”
“Fist, palm strike, finger strike, knife, sword, spear, and… Why bother explaining, you will see them soon enough. You can come apologize to me if you ever wake up from your coma! By the way, the Floating Light Fist was only the weakest of his Myst stances!” Ning Yang felt ecstatic in a twisted way. He could already picture Ye Wei and the others asking for mercy while rolling on the ground.
“What!?”
“How can he have mastered so many Myst stances? How is that possible? A Warrior who can use one Myst stance would be considered a beast! How are we supposed to fight someone like that?” Uncontrollable panic overwhelmed Liu Jian, Cheo Mo, and other South Star Academy cultivators as they wondered how strong his strongest stance would be.
“Seven huh? Don’t let me down. Let’s hope you are as interesting to fight as you make yourself sound!” Ye Wei smiled; he was not shaken at all as if not impressed by what was said.
The fire of competitiveness lit up in Ye Wei. His blood boiled as his body had been thirsting to fight someone of this caliber for a long while.
‘Low-level Myst stance – Incineration Palm!’ Qi Xiu glared at Ye Wei and said as a sequence of a few hundred runes appeared in the air.
“Rumble!”
Before the stance even took shape, its scorching temperature spread outwards from the runes sequence. The pulsing energy pushed both school’s cultivators backwards.
Everyone but Ye Wei, who was still just standing casually. He let the hot streams of Qi blow onto his face. He did not let his guard down as he searched for weaknesses on his opponent’s stance by feeling the blazing Qi flow.
“Got you!” Qi Xiu grunted as clouds of hot Qi turned into fiery palm strikes that rained down on Ye Wei!
Waves of scorching heat closing upon Ye Wei and the air started to smell burnt as the palms crashed towards Ye Wei’s head, chest, stomach, and other vulnerable parts of his body.
“Careful!” Joe Yin and Cao Ning shouted worryingly.
‘Driftwind Steps!’
Ye Wei’s figure disappeared into a wave of Qi and reappeared twenty meters to the side of where he was. He drew a growing rune sequence while he was dodging the Incineration Palm.
‘Root Prison!’ As Qi Xiu felt a strong suction on his feet, Ye Wei’s fist was already in front of his body.
“Impressive speed!” Qi Xiu narrowed his eye and clenched his right hand into a fist then threw it towards Ye Wei.
The blazing palm Qi was put out by the force wave given off from the clash of fists.
Qi Xiu took five steps back, and Ye Wei took three. The ‘Qi-less’ cultivator seemed to have an advantage.
Both groups of cultivators were deeply shocked by the level of cultivation they just witnessed. Qi Xiu’s Incineration Palm was impressive, but how Ye Wei deflected it and delivered a counterpunch to threaten Qi Xiu was also astonishing.
Furthermore, they were aware that those two were only testing the waters with their toes and that the real fight would be on a completely different scale.
Liu Jian was left in awe as he clenched his fist tight. As for Ning Yang and other Polaris cultivators, their jaws dropped so much that eggs could fit in their mouths. They did not think anyone would be able to have an advantage over Qi Xiu’s Myst stance.
“I must admit that you are strong, and South Star Academy has actually surprised me this year, but there is no way you can beat me!” The seriousness on Qi Xiu’s face grew, and his Qi intensified. He fired up his Incineration Palm again and this time around the Qi flames were burning even hotter.
“How would you know before I actually beat you?” There was no fear in Ye Wei’s eyes as his competitive spirit grew. He stepped forward again, getting ready to counter whatever Qi Xiu had in store for him!
Just before Ye Wei could react, a pressuring presence descended from the sky.
“Who dare make trouble in South Star territory!?” A thundering voice boomed in everyone’s ears as a force field as heavy as a mountain reached the ground.
“Swoosh!”
Qi Xiu’s blazing Qi immediately dispersed disappeared under the immense pressure.
“Hmm, Polaris Academy students are getting increasingly confident about themselves!” Xu He’s voice froze everyone’s blood as his hysterical eyes fell on Qi Xiu and the other intruders. They stepped backwards outside Xu He’s reach. To the vice-principal, an eight-star condensed prime Warrior could easily crush every single one of the Polaris cultivators like an ant with no exceptions.
Nobody expected the vice-principal to arrive out of the blue, and Qi Xiu’s face turned dark as he gazed at Ye Wei. “We will continue where we left off today in the tournament! Then we will find out who of us is stronger!”
“Anytime.” Ye Wei said calmly. He knew their fight was unavoidable, and he looked forward to seeing Qi Xiu showing all he was capable of.
“Goodbye!” Qi Xiu grunted and led his schoolmates out.
“Get out of here! Your vice-principal will hear about this!” Xu He flicked his sleeve and sent a Qi wave that threw them out of the guest palace’s gate.
“Run!”
Qi Xiu then led the Polaris Academy’s students back to their palace.
Xu He had great self-control, and although he could have beaten all the intruders with a flick of his finger, he knew what the consequences would be and how others would misunderstand his intentions.
“All of you gather up!”
Vice-principal led all fourteen South Star cultivators into the sitting area.
“I’ve received the fight schedules and learned who your opponents will be, and Polaris Academy is going to be out first opponent!” Xu He said as he opened the scroll in his head and announced in a concerned tone.
“The first match-up is a grudge match? Interesting!” Liu Jian was ready for war after having been taunted by Polaris Academy twice in a few days. All the South Star cultivators were dying to vent their anger.
‘That Qi Xiu though…’ Some of the cultivators were less optimistic after seeing Polaris Academy’s ace display just a small portion of what he was capable of.
“Qi Xiu is all yours.” Xu He looked at Ye Wei.
“Yea.” Ye Wei nodded calmly.