Final Roster

A moment later, lights brilliantly encircled them, and the now familiar feeling of twisting through space swept over Wei’s body.

The next instant, he landed with a soft thud in the second floor of the Arcane Tower Sect. They had passed the second round!

He smiled, and then turned to look at his team mates. As he did, his smile was soon wiped from his face.

Tears were streaming down Leah’s eyes, and what was worse, Zack was missing!

”Leah, what happened?” Wei asked, moving a step in her direction.

”I-I, I couldn’t help him,” Leah mumbled through her tears.

Wei reached out and gently wiped the tear from her face. He looked into her eyes, saying nothing.

After a couple more sniffs, Leah finally managed to speak again. “Zack, he kneeled over his brother's body, and then, just as we were about to teleport back, he took his sword and stabbed himself in the stomach.”

Wei’s stomach churned. To the side, Aaron couldn’t hold it back, and he vomited, adding hurling sounds to Leah’s sniffles. Wei Wang bit back the urge to vomit as well, and instead put his hand on Leah’s shoulder.

”It’s okay, they will be together now. Zack didnt want to win without Widow, so he went back to the mortal world instead. It’s not real, remember? We don’t actually die, we go back home instead.”

”R-right,” Leah said quietly.

In the back of his mind, Wei was already realizing that this meant they were down two members again, but it would have been wrong to bring it up without giving Leah and Aaron some time.

Aaron still lacked a fighting technique, but fortunately Leah had managed to find an Ice element cultivation technique that seemed to perfectly match her long range bow style.

Still, they were in quite a predicament now. From his calculations, there should only be two more rounds left in the selection tournament, and from here on out it was doubtless that the competition would intensify. If they couldn’t find two very high quality teammates, this next round might be the end for them.

One by one, other teams began to return. This time, however, was far different from the results of the first round. At that time, most of the teams had come back with four or five members, and it had been difficult to find two new recruits to join their band of three.

Instead, sole survivors or pairs were returning, missing three or four members from their groups.

”So this round really was brutal,” Wei thought to himself, looking out at the returning survivors. “But for those who came back alone, they must have something special that let them survive. Hm, it seems like our group was actually quite fortunate. We made if off light, only losing the brothers.”

Wei Wang turned to look at Leah and Aaron, who had quietly made their way over to their cots to rest. That was okay, Wei could handle the recruitment alone.

Just then, a black girl with a strong frame holding a spear materialized not far from Wei. She had frizzy brown hair and stood with her back facing Wei, so that he couldn’t see her face.

She was alone, but wet blood had drenched her tunic thoroughly. Maybe the fact that she survived a bloodbath, or maybe it was the strength with which she held her spear in her hand, but Wei couldn’t help but admit she had an imposing aura about her.

In a situation like this, the strongest survivors would be picked immediately. That meant he couldn’t wait.

“My team lost two brothers. They were twins. After the first one died, the other one took his own life,” Wei said to the girl, even as she stood with her back still towards him.

She turned, slowly, a stern look on her face. She gripped the spear tightly in her hands. Wei couldn’t quite tell what she was thinking.

Then she looked away, turned her head down, and walked straight past him without saying a word.

Wei could only sigh. He had hoped saying that would create some bond between them, but either the girls grief was too great, or she was a strong solo fighter who unmoved by losing even her own team.

“Well, if she’s like that, then maybe she wouldn’t be a good fit for us anyway. In these trials, early on it's easy to win just by being stronger than everyone. As each round passes, the playing field should level out. Once everyone is strong, teams that have a lot of independent types wont win against teams that band together and fight as a group. I’ll look for someone else.”

Even as Wei turned, another boy teleported in. He was a tall, muscular youth with blond hair. This time, he teleported in facing Wei, and Wei was surprised to find that even though he was physically quite strapping, his face was actually a bit ugly!

He had blue eyes and blond hair, strong wide shoulders and was carrying a broadsword on his back. The broadsword was almost large enough to qualify as a two handed sword, but from this boy’s posture it appeared he could wield it with just a single hand.

What made this boy ugly was his mouth! His lower jaw stuck out past his upper jaw, and his teeth sat visibly outside his upper lip! Not only that, but they were twisted at unruly angles, giving him an almost brutish appearance.

He smiled when he looked at Wei, and then he opened his mouth before Wei could say a word.

”I’m much smarter than I look. I know, I look stupid, I get that a lot. But in my class, I actually have the top marks. I go to an elite, private school. My parents are very wealthy. Well, I’m all alone now. My teammates got in a fight with each other in the last round, and I couldn’t convince them to stop fighting before we got ambushed. If it wasn’t for my Timestone Step Cultivation Technique and my Broadsword Sweeping Arts, I would have lost with them. But, just a step back in time and a single slash of my broadsword, and it was one against one before the other side knew what happened.”

The boy grinned and ugly grinned, and seemed quite proud of himself.

Inside, Wei was panicking. Did this kid really have such a massive mouth? If he joins, then there will be no shutting him up! Not only is he ugly, but no matter what he says, someone who talks this much must be an idiot! Who cares if he has top test scores in school! Why would you go and announce all your techniques to a complete stranger! Wei hadn’t even invited him to join them yet!

”Oh, is that your team over there?” The boy asked, and Wei paled. It was like he had seen a ghost. Turning to look, Wei was astonished to find Leah and Aaron waving happily to the ugly blond boy. What was even more incredible was the silent black girl from a moment ago was standing next to them, talking to them without him!

“Great, well, I’ll go introduce myself,” the blond boy said as he strode past Wei, “If you still want to be on our team, you’re welcome to stay!”

WHAT?!?!?

I’m welcome???? This was too much, wasn’t this Wei’s team? After Hui Li had abandoned them in the first match, Wei had internally taken ownership over the team. He felt like he was the leader, as he was the most talented in combat, and he also had the most direct kills so far.

But this brutish blond boy whose teeth were like tusks of ivory had sauntered past, offering to introduce himself to Wei’s team before even telling Wei what his name was! How could Wei bear the shame of this?

Just as he was considering slinking off by himself to look for a new team to join, Leah waved towards him and then jogged over, grabbing his arm. “Wei! Look, we made new teammates already! And they both seem really strong, come on, I’ll introduce you!”

Leah’s touch was cold as ice, but despite her newly Icy aura, Wei couldn’t help but feel butterflies dance in his heart as she took his arm and led him back. His feet were numb, like rocks being dragged by the tide. Before he knew what was happening, he was already standing with his newly reformed group of five.

”Na Alakee, this is Wei Wang, he fights with his fists and has a fire aura. He’s really strong, and really nice! Wei, Na Alakee has a really unique ghost cultivation technique. She said she can turn into smoke and almost go invisible. When she gets stronger in her cultivation technique, she will be able to go completely invisible, and might even be able to teleport short distances. Oh, and she fights with a spear.”

”We met,” Na Alakee was definitely the quiet type, so how did Leah manage to get so much information out of her in such a short time.

”Glad to have you, Na,” Wei said politely, trying to ignore her short words. As long as Leah and her were friends, that was enough for him.

”And this is Thomas Portsworth. He is a mainline fighter, but also a magic user! Apparently he can step backwards in time!”

Wei could only force a half smile. He didnt really want Thomas as a teammate, but at this point it was too late. Luckily, Thomas hadn’t said much while Leah was speaking.

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”Don’t worry, Wei and I already met. He’s a great guy, good character, strong fighter. Well, everyone, thank you for joining my new team!” Thomas opened his mouth just as Wei was thinking he hadn’t said too much.

“Hahaha,” Aaron immediately started laughing, obviously thinking Thomas was cracking a joke.

”Well, right, on that note, maybe we should all vote for a leader?” Leah gestured, glancing around. Na shrugged dismissively, and Aaron finally spoke up.

”Sure, that sounds great. I nominate Wei Wang! He has been with us from the beginning, and saved both Leah and I already multiple times.”

At this, Thomas’ brutish jaw hung open, as if it was going to drop on the floor.

”And I second that. Wei has been a good friend so far. He isn’t like others who will turn their back on you the second you are too weak for them,” Leah said.

Wei couldn’t help but feel the butterflies rising in his heart again.

”I don’t have any problem with that,” Na Alakee said, finally saying something. “That’s three. As long as Wei accepts it, he will be the leader of this group.”

Wei gulped, and then nodded. “I accept,” he said quietly, biting his tongue.

Thomas looked at the four of them, and then turned with a pout. Was he going to start crying?

“Fine!” He said, “but I think once you see me in combat, you’ll change your mind!”

”Don’t mind him,” Na Alakee said to Wei. “Your friends trust you, so I do as well. I might disappear sometimes, but as long as you are good to me as a teammate, my spear wont be far away.”

With that, Na Alakee walked over to one of the empty cots and sat down to meditate.

Wei suddenly felt exhausted. It had been an emotional hour, with the loss of Zack and Widow, and then sudden addition of Na and Thomas, the fight for the position of leadership, and getting to know new personalities. Not only that, but the fact that Aaron and Leah both looked up to him so much was a bit overwhelming.

He wasn’t used to being the hero. He decided to follow Na’s lead by moving over to his own cot and sitting down to meditate. It would be several hours before the next round started. All the participants would need to return, new teams would need to be formed just like theirs, and then the judges would have to create the brackets all over again.

As he sat in meditation, he slowly gathered his thoughts to himself.

He had a lot of work to do. After his encounter in the cultivation chamber, he had a learned a lot about how sparks work. When he had been in that secret cultivation room filled with extra origin Chi energy, as long as he held the jade tablet in his hand, he was able to fill it with activation energy while meditating. In this way, he was able to overcome the limitation of only being able to store a single origin Chi spark in his body at a time.

That jade tablet had been an inscription technique. Even the very first layer had a price of five origin Chi sparks! But still, holding it in his hand a meditating, he had been able to unseal it, imprinting the first layer of inscription knowledge directly onto his mind.

Now, however, he realized that it would have been much better if he had used that moment to activate the second layer of his cultivation technique. He was expecting the limit on his ability to store origin Chi sparks to increase with each layer. With more sparks available to him, he would be that much more dangerous in battle.

He wanted to test this theory now.

Holding the jade cultivation tablet Pheonix Ascending Hidden Flame in his hands, he began to meditate. Slowly, his mind calmed down and energy began to circulate through his meridians. After about thirty minutes, the first Chi spark consolidated in his core.

After that, however, nothing happened. He had reached his limit, and even though he was holding the tablet in his hand, it wasn’t charging.

He sighed, and put the tablet down. So, apparently that was a special case. Maybe it only works in cultivation chambers, where the origin Chi is already so dense and thick? This felt like a major setback. Wei had been looking forward to using this hack to quickly level up all his abilities, but now he realized it wouldn’t be so easy.

On the bright side, this also meant that everyone else who didnt find such cultivation chambers would probably be stuck at the first level of their cultivation techniques for a very long time.

In that case, as long as Wei could find another chamber like the previous one on his next one or two trials, he could leap frog ahead of everyone else and secure the top position! With a higher cultivation foundation, and more points spent on his combat technique, he would surely be the undefeated victor!

However, at the moment that was still a far ways off. Right now, he still wasnt any better than the current average. He had thought after the first stage had completed that he was in a good place with the combat technique, and after the second round he improved again, holding onto his lead.

Now, however, he had only taken an inscription technique and had not leveled up his combat ability much. This meant that his natural lead was eroding. More and more contestants, similar to Leah, would now have caught up to him, having both a combat technique and a cultivation technique. What was more, he was starting to feel like he was at a bit of a disadvantage against all of the weapons techniques. Fighting with nothing but his fists and feet meant he could only dodge sword and spear attacks, not parry them.

As far as his blocking technique, that was only useful against other unarmed fighters. But here, it seemed he was the only one who really fought with just his fists. He had two options. He could either try to find a new combat technique that used a weapon, or he could focus on increasing his cultivation technique.

Even at the first layer of the Pheonix Ascending Hidden Flame technique, his physical speed, strength, and toughness were increased. It was possible that if he continued to increase his cultivation base, his skin could become as strong as iron, and then he wouldn’t need a weapon. At that point, it was possible he could block a sword strike with just his fist!

Thinking this, he knew that finding another cultivation chamber in the next stage was his foremost priority. For now, he decided to take every moment he could to put sparks into his Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat Technique, slowly becoming a stronger base fighter.

But first, he would need to decide how to alot origin Chi sparks to the combat technique. Luckily, it only took a single spark to unlock a layer of this basic technique, so as long as he had the time to cultivate, he could slowly keep increasing his level. He had unlocked the first two layers so far, and hadn’t touched the third layer.

On the other hand, the Arcane Tower Sect master who was judging, and had given him the second and third layers of the technique slip, had told him that it wasnt necessarily best to move on quickly to the higher layers. Instead, it was better to build a firm foundation.

He debated this in his mind for a moment. “Well,” he thought to himself, “there’s only one more layer left unlocked. I’ll unlock it first, to see what it has, and then maybe I’ll start over again at the beginning. From there, I can either distribute sparks evenly, or I can put all of the rest of the sparks into the first layer of the technique.”

Using the spark he had just consolidated attempting to open the second layer of the Pheonix Ascending Hidden Flame, he held the Basic Hand-to-Hand Combat Technique slip in his hand and injected his consciousness into it, passing the first and second layers and descending all the way to the third and final layer.

As he did, the spark in his core ignited and energy swept out his hands and into the jade tablet. Instantly the knowledge of the third layer imprinted on his consciousness.

Four forms. These new attack forms were more powerful, but also more situational. Not only that, but Wei realized as he received them that he was already naturally using multiple of these moves!

That was because they naturally built on the moves of the previous two layers! The first move was the almighty 180 kick. This kick combined a dodge with a spin into a roundhouse, allowing one to step forward to either side, dodge a blow, and then counter attack with an extremely powerful kick from the built up momentum!

But that was precisely the move that Wei had used to dodge the rapier attack in the previous round!

The second move was also already being used by him naturally, the jump kick! This kick was a powerful attack that could be used when charging at an enemy from a distance, relying on the built up speed to jump into a Flying kick attack. In this kick, one leg was bent horizontal and used to stabilize the other, which was held straight out as a weapon.

But Wei had used this attack already as well!

As for the other two, they were actually unique. The attack he was most excited for was an origin Chi attack that relied on the Palm Strike from the second layer. What made this attack unique was that it communed a single Chi spark to slam the enemy with a concentrated blast of origin Chi energy. This attack could actually be used as a medium ranged attack! It had a range of about six feet! It wasnt a long ranged attack by any means, but if he came up against a sword or a spear user who was too fast to dodge, he use this attack to strike them from beyond their blocking range.

The only drawback was that this attack directly consumed an entire spark. At his current cultivation level, he could only maintain a single extra spark in his body at a time. This meant he would need to choose between activating the Pheonix Flame or conserving his Chi for a single, massive, medium ranged Chi Strike.

He sighed. Yet another reason it was so important for him to level up his cultivation base. If his capacity to hold Chi sparks in his body increased as he expected it to, at the very least he could use both a single time. If so, that would completely level up his combat capability and make him a much more versatile fighter.

Finally, the forth move was surprisingly another dodge movement. However, this move combined the dodge of the first layer with an added grab. By stepping past an opponents momentum, and then grabbing their arm, this technique relied on enhancing an opponents movement and catching them off guard to throw them forward to the ground.

Naturally, this technique wouldn’t work against someone much stronger or faster than him. In that way, it was similar to the Sword Fist, and best for fights where he didnt want to actually land a finishing blow. In his mind, this kind of attack probably wouldn’t be very useful.

“So, this is why that Master said that its best to focus on the foundational layers for combat. Most of these moves, either cannot be used more than once per fight, or they are things I’m already naturally putting together simply by knowing the first two layers,” Wei thought to himself.

Of course, doing it once by instinct and having the spiritual memory of 1,000 practice strikes imprint directly on his consciousness were two entirely different things. There were several points of finesse where the 180 kick in the tablet differed in execution from his clumsy, instinctual use of it. Now that he had experienced practicing it 1,000 times, he knew he could pull it off much more quickly and with more accuracy and power.

As for the grab, it felt like a bit of a waste of a Chi spark. The Chi strike was powerful, but it likely wasnt something he would need quite yet. Of course, if he did manage to get lucky in the middle of a stage and increase his cultivation layer, then maybe he would be able to use it after all.

With this in mind, he decided to put his next two Chi sparks into the first and second layer of the combat technique. After that, he was still debating whether he should invest again in the third layer, or skip it and just keep enhancing the first and second layers.

It took about an hour more of meditation to gather the next two Chi sparks, and Wei was starting to get more comfortable with his meditation technique. It took slightly less than half an hour to gather a single spark, and a few more minutes to use it to imprint the memories from the jade tablet directly onto his mind.

Like that, he practiced his basic punch, roundhouse kick, horse stance, dodge, front kick, back kick, palm strike, and sword fist 1,000 times each over the next hour.

Just as he was deciding whether to continue, the beautiful female judge stood up and directed them to prepare for the next round to commence.

”Shit!” He thought, “I just used a spark to level up the second layer, I’m empty right now!”

There was nothing he could do but protest. The judges certainly were not going to wait another half an hour for him to get ready. Shouldn’t he have been doing that already?

Reluctantly, Wei Wang joined his team as Leah Levi, Aaron Murphy, Na Alakee, and Thomas Portsworth all gathered together on a nearby transmission array.