Chapter 319 – Truths and Lies (V)

Chapter 319

Truths and Lies (V)

Xi Zhao lazily escorted Dai Xiu with his eyes as she went up to the stands and sat down, while her opponent lay passed out on the stone floor still, only scooped up by a couple of cloaked figures a few moments later.

He turned his attention to the man standing opposite of him–he was short, good two heads shorter than Xi Zhao despite looking at least twice his age. A lean build concealed within loose, brown robes and a face hidden behind long, overgrown black hair.

The man held a pair of daggers in his hands, tucked into the sleeves that went over about ten inches past the tips of his fingers, with an extremely vague trace of Qi that surprised Xi Zhao quite a bit–he’d only met one other person, Senior Brother Tao, who could conceal his Qi that well.

Xi Zhao pulled down his hand and grabbed the handle of the sword, feeling the stir of Qi.

“Whoa, whoa, careful there,” the short man spoke in a dubiously deep tone. It was forced, even Xi Zhao could tell, as his voice cracked so frequently it sounded like someone was tearing a sheet of paper every few seconds. “You don’t want to annihilate the entire arena, no? Can your Master even afford to pay back the fees?”

“… oh?” Xi Zhao arched his brow slightly, curious as to where this was going. “Do you propose we thumb-wrestle, then?”

“Heh. Not quite. How about a bet? We compete in martial arts, not Qi.”

“Why would I?”

“Because you’re a man?”

“I’m not a man; I’m a boy, still.”

“… because you get to show off your martial arts?”

“The best way for me to show off is to split you down the middle… with my Qi.”

“Are you screwing with me, boy?!” the man growled, his grip on daggers tightening.

“If you want to be petty, I have the teachings to match it.” Xi Zhao shrugged, though his hand never left the handle of the sword; he didn’t trust anyone here. Though he was nowhere near as clever as his Master, even he could discern that their opponents weren’t selected at random.

Dai Xiu’s, for instance, used a whip, a weapon his Senior Sister struggled against as it was one of finesse and distance. It was just that the woman was nowhere near good enough, and she faltered.

Similarly, Xi Zhao struggled with speedy cultivators–in a direct collision, he was stronger than anyone in his group, save for Senior Brother Tao. The issue was that they, too, knew that, so they avoided it.

The attack, no matter how strong, was useless if the opponent avoided it–and by all measures, the man in front of him was well-versed in movement-based arts. All this talk about not using Qi was likely just some throwaway pettiness rather than a tactic.

But it didn’t matter.

Stolen story; please report.

Just like how Dai Xiu overcame her own ‘weakness’, he would, too.

“You are all beyond arrogant, it seems,” the man said with a sneer. “Quite a reflection on that Master of yours.”

He expected it and remained relatively calm–at least compared to Dai Xiu.

Rather, he knew well enough everyone–not just these people here, but many in the future, too–would target precisely that, their Master. After all, nobody knew their Master as well as they did; on the surface, the man appeared wholly unimpressive.

Of course, if the world knew the tenth of his Master’s capabilities, they’d all be on their knees, begging him to take them in.

What worth, then, was getting agitated?