Seemingly mistaking my rigid state as me being tired, the referee asked me this question while looking around, intentionally or not, it seemed that the disgusting feeling of being spied on and stripped of all my secrets was removed .
I nodded at the referee and cupped my fist at him with gratitude, he then asked the next challenger to come on stage, but for a few seconds, no one dared to come up, at least no one from the first two rows seemed to be going to make a move, they were staring at Lu Duan on his way out of here, then they shifted their attention back to me and all had fearful expressions on their faces .
He must have used a lot of Blood Qi just now in those two matches, the next one to challenge him would be surly victorious .
Suddenly someone from the crowds shouted this and all those guys seemed to have regained their fighting spirit all of a sudden, but no one dared to take the first step, all of them were eyeing the guy that just talked, they were waiting for him to test the waters first .
I saw that guy look at me with a grave expression then began to get on the stage, like the guys from before, he bowed in greeting to the young master then got in a fighting position, the moment the referee gave the signal to start, I saw him say :
I'm Lu Fa..... .
But he was met with my fist midway his talking, his expression graw more grave when the referee turned to me and once again asked if I'm continuing to challenge .
Lu Fa : Huh, I hadn't lost yet, I was only greeting him .
The referee didn't even look at him and said :
You can challenge him again, but this time I will wait until he kill you before I declare him as the winner .
The moment the referee said this the guy that was about to argue lowered his head and glared at me then turned his body and was about to retreat and I did the same as well, but suddenly I felt all my hair stood on end and out of instinct, I used Crouching Tiger to move away in any direction .
It seemed that I have benefited from beating myself over my lack of combat experience yesterday, the guy who should have gone far was currently punching the air in front of him, his attack was actually a red palm aimed at my crotch area, his infused with Blood Qi palm attack, if he were to have hit me, could severely injure me on the spot .
Thinking of this made me boil with anger, all that anger came out as a powerful punch using the move in the Solid Rock Fist Technique in almost an instant, the referee still hadn't even finished shouting at the malicious guy, but he then saw me directly appearing in front of him and blasting him with a punch to the crotch and he flew off the stage directly as a result .
Other than the sound of him crashing to the people on the other side, no more voices nor sounds were heard, my actions engulfed the place in silence for the second time, surprisingly the one who was first to act, was Lu Chiang asking for someone to go check on that guy who lost conscious .
I suddenly had a bad premonition, that guy always stirring troubles and this time was no different, the referee gave me a look and then proceed to go and check for himself on how that guy was doing, I saw him crouching beside him and checking his pulse or whatever, then he got up and shook his head then said :
His pelvis had been dislocated, he is crippled, his path of Martial Arts is over, putting his misery out, would be the best thing to do, but it's up to young master .
As if responding to his echoing voice, the guy who should have lost conscious shook a little as if responding, but then the body was still as a corpse, most of those who were present looked at me and sucked a breath of cold air at what just happened .
Throw him out of the mansion, we Lu family don't require the service of such a black-bellied person .
Even though the young master was the one who sentenced him to be thrown out, all of the audience attention was on me, people were looking at me as if I was a cruel monster or something, sadly for them, I didn't care much about what their opinions of me or my actions .
I had no much guilt for what I did, in fact I was feeling more calm than ever before, that guy at most got a bitter taste of his own medicine, since it was either me or him, I chose to survive and him to suffer .
Just as the the guy's body was being moved out, I suddenly heard a snickering voice, I recognized it almost instantly, it was the voice of Lu Chiang coming from beside the stage, saying loudly in a reprimanding tone :
Why did junior brother Tian deal such a heavy blow to a clansman, was senior brother Fu wrong about you all along, dealing such a heavy blow to a clansman, you really have a black heart, this wasn't the way that we Martial Practitioners should act, you doing that brought disgrace to the name of the Dojo, abstain from this competition at once and let me guide you back to the right path .
I had already expected that he will be stirring up some troubles for me, but to be mixing truths with lies like that, was something that I hadn't expected him to do, but since matters already become like this, I looked at the righteous Lu Chiang and responded to his request of me, then I looked at the referee who witnessed the whole exchange and said :
" Did I violate any rules, just now ? .
The guy didn't respond to me at first, but looked at the young master, the young master nodded his head, giving him the permission to speak out his opinion, the referee said :
The competitor was acting out of self-defense, since this happened, this was no violation of the rules .
As he finished saying this, Lu Chiang's laughter followed right after and he even said :
Good, good, all of you look at how the current young master of the Lu family treat the members of the family, as disposable pawns, he was even asking for someone to be thrown out, after he was fighting for the sake of the family just now, if the Lu Family had no need for that guy now that he became like this, then I Lu Chiang will not leave him to be thrown out, I hope Young Master Lu would allow me to .
Even though there was a bit of a distance between the stage and the seat of Young Master Lu Jian, I was able to still notice that he was currently still calm and collected as before, he said calmly :
I had already said it before, we in the Lu Family don't have a place for Black-bellied people like him, since you are willing to take him in, then he is all yours, resume the competition .
" Oh right senior brother, I hope you try to guide that guy to the right path, I believe he will need a lot of your guidance, unlike me who seemed to be already on the right one .
At my sarcastic remark, he glared at me and whispered something to Lu Sun beside him, who in return took whatever he was told and then began to head towards the rows of people that were still quite just now, then he looked at me then flashed a smile then said :
Since I your senior brother said that you need guidance then you are in need of guidance, I hope the lesson I prepared for you be to your liking, your senior brother here is only concerned about you getting overconfident and stray away due to this, don't take my previous words to the heart .
It really opened my eyes to see how much of a black-hearted person that Lu Chiang was, the boy of 12 years old was more cunning and calculative than most of the grown-ups back in my old world, that was how much this influence this kind of intense environment have in shaping the mind of people here .
Not caring about talking to him much, I looked at the referee and nodded my head indicating that I'm ready to continue challenging, he nodded at me then once again asked loudly if someone else was going to challenge me .
The guys who their fighting spirit had been just ignited a few seconds before, now their fighting spirit could be said to be completely extinguished, but just as I was looking at those guys, I noticed that Lu Sun was whispering something into the ears of someone standing in the row that had the least number of people and was silent from the beginning of this competition till now .
If I wasn't guessing wrongly, this row was the row of those who had reached the 2nd layer of Flesh Tempering, their bodies seemed to be more tougher, there presence and Blood Qi seemed different as well, I don't know whether was that obvious to other or it was just me, but I had already sensed that their Blood Qi was more vigorous .
Those guys weren't the strongest here, I also sensed a few more Blood Qi signatures stronger than them, but those guys were only the people that fitted the criteria of the competition, so they were more noticable to me, I also wasn't able to sense the Blood Qi of Lu Chiang nor Lu Jian, not to mention that I sensed nothing from the elders, so it seemed that I'm able to sense only those that were at the 4th or 5th layer at most .
I came back to my senses, once I felt that someone had stepped into the ring, I looked up and saw that it seemed that my opponent was none other than the guy from before who was being talked to by Lu Sun earlier .
The guy got on stage and unlike the other guys from before, this guy didn't seem to be greeting the young master, if before I might have not so much about it, but that gesture of his, together with what happened earlier, him and Lu Sun talking, Lu Chiang's words from earlier and now this, I would be stupid if I didn't think that this was deliberate, what confirmed my suspicion were him not greeting the young master and Lu Chiang currently wide smile .
The guy in front of me looked to be a few years older than me, he had a few stitches under his eyes, his body compared to mine was like if my current body was the body of someone who had been heavily exercising in home, then the guy in front of me was hitting the gym for at least 4 or 5 months .
His body was much bigger than mine, just by him coming on stage, I began to feel some kind of invisible pressure, the dude had a shaved head, shaved beard as well, he had an evil look in his eyes as he looked at me .
The referee kept looking at him and his expressionless face now had a frown on it as he looked at that guy who was refusing to greet the young master, I couldn't think of another reason to why he was reacting as such other than this, with each second passing with that guy still not greeting the young master, the frown on the face of the referee grew more and more intense .
But then a sly remark suddenly sounded from the audience, surprisingly the one who was voicing out his thoughts loud this time was none other than Lu Sun, he was saying with a dissatisfied tone :
What is going on referee Lu, shouldn't you be giving the signal to start this fight already .
As he said this, the guys who were lining up behind him directly began to voice out their dissatisfaction with the way the referee Lu had been managing this whole competition, one after another, these guys were criticizing the referee for the shortcomings he had during this competition, some of them even brought the matter from before and put it completely on him .
Accusing him of lacking the sense to danger, that a referee in this kind of competition should have, putting the responsibility of what happened with that guy Lu Fa on him, some even began to say that if he had reacted in time, the family shouldn't have lost one of its clansmen and the these voices were getting louder by the second .
As if finding a good chance to fan the flames, Lu Chiang without getting up from his seat suddenly sneered at those voices, a loud sneer that made all of them to go silent, then he said :
I had no doubt that referee Lu was doing his best and that he had no intention to let any violation of rules go unpunished, I also don't believe that he had any hand with what happened with Lu Fa, with that said, I would still ask Young Master Lu Jian to allow me to pick another referee for the rest of the competition, after all, I can't risk get despised by my senior brothers and sisters for leaving my junior brother get injured in my watch now, can I ? .
As he said this was a straight and righteous face and in such a selfless tone and way as well, I felt that my stomach was beginning to churn and I sensed that I might throw up, if I were to continue to listen to that guy's words, I turned my head away from him, shifted my gaze towards tha referee but only for a second or so, then I turned to look at young master Lu Jian .
I saw him actually having a faint smile as he saw me looking at him or at least that was how I saw it from my point of view, he was currently under the eyes of all the people present, yet I felt his eyes were looking at me in a way that seemed to say ' THIS WAS YOUR SO-CALLED SENIOR BROTHER ' .
I interpreted his gaze as such and saw him actually nodding and saying in approval to Lu Chiang's suggestion :
Since you want to be the one picking the referee, then go ahead, referee Lu Qang you guy can retreat and you have my regards for the hard work you did .
The referee cupped his fist, then got out of the ring and returned to stand where he originally was, Lu Chiang was taken aback slightly at how easy this was decided, but it seemed that he soon recovered and picked a guy with the name Lu Du, someone who seemed to have been already prepared to get called on stage, he wasted no time and directly hopped into the ring in one stride .
Seeing this happening in front of me, I wasn't able to comprehend what was happening, but one thing was clear to me, that I was completely entering this fight on my own with probably my back against the wall as well .
I hope you don't hold it against me brother Tian, your performance had exceed my expectations, that I respect, but since Young Master Lu Chiang boasted earlier about you Dojo disciples being so powerful even being able to defeat 2nd layer of Flesh Tempering with only the first layer of Flesh Tempering, so I Lu Tong, as a second layer Flesh Tempering couldn't help but want to test for myself if that was true or not, I hope you won't be offended .
Even though that guy's words sound polite to some extent, I still felt the cold beneath these words he said, but I wasn't given any time to dwell on this, the referee who had been just assigned gave the starting signal without even asking us if we were ready or not .
The guy named Lu Tong didn't moved an inch, he didn't try to attack nor actually doing anything other than to stay in a fighting position, I looked at him like this and decided to be the one who take the initiative .
I dashed at him and I tried to land a punch to his stomach, but still so him unmoving filled me with suspicious, so I decided to use Thunderclap Fist, my fist landed, but the impact I expected didn't occurred, the moment my fist landed on his stomach, I felt like I hit an unbreakable wall, the momentum of my punch directly disappeared as it touched his Flesh, I couldn't help but be more alarmed and sucked a breath of cold air and tried to retreat, but that was no longer possible .
In an instant, that guy gained hold of my other hand and fixed me in place, then he directly landed a kick on my stomach that sent me flying to the edge of the ring, I felt my internal organs being fine and made sure that I had no internal energy just now, even though the experience I gained through my previous fights were quite scarce, I was still able to get some experience from them .
One of those experiences, helped me in reducing the impact of his kick just now, Blood Qi can be used to enhance the defense and offense of the whole body, but it's just more taxing than using Martial Skills in that way, but for me who had an abundance of Blood Qi, that was a good use of my Blood Qi .
I stood up almost instantly and looked at the guy in front of me with anger all over my face, the guy attack just now was malicious to the extreme, I looked at the referee and he seemed to have no intention in meddling, I saw that Lu Tong was chuckling while saying :
No one will come and save you, so stop looking around, that punch of yours stung me a little, like a mosquito bite, but to break through my Rock Gate defense, you will need much stronger punch than that, I hope you liked the taste of my kick just now, I will enjoy making you taste it some more, it's good to know that you can take a beating .
He said this in a taunting voice as he completely get in position again, I thought that no wonder he kept this position since the fight started, so he was using some Martial Skill that helped in increasing his defences at the account of making him unable to move freely .
I didn't need him to tell me about no one coming to help me, I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, his attack was alleviated yes, but it wasn't completely negated or anything like that, my stomach still was hurt, but the pain was bearable or at least I kept convincing my brain it was .
I removed the dust that was on my clothes as I stood up and took a deep breath and already had a plan that could allow me to beat the guy in front of me, if my suspicions were correct, I might be able to finish that guy off in my next move .
Wasting no time, I once again charged at that guy and like before, he stood there in position looking quite unbothered, my fist landed and I was getting the same feeling as hitting a sturdy wall like before, he caught my other hand and looked at me with a scorning look and said :
I guess your luck has run out, what were you thinking, charging at me like that, were you yearning for a beating, then you will get one .
The moment I saw him about to kick me, I said with a smile that crept suddenly on my face surprising him :
" Well, it just so happen, that my fist is capable of destroying Rocks .
Without a second passing, I had already accumulated enough Blood Qi in my free hand while still being held by him and directly blasted it to his chest, nothing happened after this which was quite the surprise to me more than him, he looked at me and was about to continue his ridicule, but just as he opened his mouth, a mouthful of Blood was spat out and his eyes rolled back suddenly and he collapsed on the floor .
Forcing all the people present to suck a breath of air, then the first to speak was actually the referee, he said :
Tian Long had seriously injured his opponent using crooked methods, for that he is disqualified .
Hearing his words, I couldn't help but blurt directly, saying :
" Surely, you are jesting .
But the moment I said these words, I saw that the referee Lu Du disappeared from his position and directly appeard before me and said :
Whether I'm jesting or not, that's not up to you to decide .
He grabbed towards me and I directly used Great Success to evade him, but then I heard his voice appearing from behind me saying :
Competitor Tian Long, due to your resistance after being suspected of using evil method to hurt your opponent maliciously, I will cripple you as stated in the Lu family book of rules .
I sensed grave danger aiming at my back and this time I actually wasn't able to move due to him holding me off the ground, just as I was almost losing all my composure sensing the imminent threat coming more and more closer to me, I heard a sudden familiar voice that made all my worries go away, the voice was saying :
Ooh, and since when exactly did it become up to you to judge the disciples of our Dojo .
The moment the voice finished talking, I heard a loud noise and saw something suddenly crashing to the walls in the distance, then the threat I was feeling seconds before disappeared and in its place, I sensed a hand suddenly patting me on the shoulder kindly, I turned my head and saw that the hand belonged to none other than my Senior Brother Fu .
Seeing me looking at him, he said :
Congratulations Junior Brother Tian, the master sent me to summon you and you too junior brother Lu Chiang .