Zilan rushed towards the unconscious Fujo and placed a healing pill into his mouth.
A few moments passed before he finally awakened, face pale and coughing erratically, but still his life wasn’t in any danger nor did he seem to have any permanent injuries.
“Don’t do that again.” Reprimanded Zilan. “Your skill in manipulation is too sorry for you to play mind games with someone else.” His tone eased up as a smile appeared on his face.
Fujo didn’t know how to reply to that so he just bitterly smiled.
“You didn’t tell me you had a wife.”
“For now, I don’t. Things happened a long time ago, I haven’t see her since.”
Zilan could tell from his voice that Fujo didn’t want to talk about it, so he ceased his questioning.
“By the way, who is the amazing Alchemist that will heal your wife? Thousands of times better than that Yasen? I’d like to meet him.”
Fujo’s mouth opened slightly. He didn’t know how to tell Zilan that his Uncle had told of him of his amazing theories and had even said that you would greatly surpass him in the not too distant future.
“Cough, Cough* Ah, my injuries are flaring up. Brother Zilan let’s talk about this another time.” Since he couldn’t give an adequate answer he decided to avoid the question all together.
Zilan obviously knew that Fujo was ducking however, he didn’t mind. In the future, if he could help Fujo’s ‘wife’ then he would do his best.
‘I wonder what this wife of yours would think if she finds out about all of the other ‘friends’ you bring home.’ Thought Zilan to himself, inwardly shaking his head as he couldn’t figure out how such a straight forward person could eat from so many different pots when he already has a woman in his heart. Maybe it was a Beast thing.
Zilan then helped Fujo back to the chairs, placing him in the second seat as he had managed to defeat Yasen. Even if he hadn’t necessarily beaten him down, he was still able to throw him off the platform which according to the rules was enough to be declared victor.
Speaking of Yasen’s loss and Fujo’s victory, Zilan couldn’t help but marvel at the suction and repulsion ability that his good brother possessed. If he could continuously evolve it and eventually surpass the shackles of this small plane (being able to work in worlds with greater restrictions), that ability would definitely be a divider, separating him from the mediocre practitioners at his cultivation level in the Universe.
From his perspective, despite how Yasen currently looked and moved, Zilan was confident that he had sustained internal injuries. Nothing too serious however, if one accounted for how much of the attack’s force the protective membrane absorbed before it was broken through, then they would realise that Yasen was only hit with about half of the entire force of that blow. After all, that attack Fujo threw his way was nothing to scoff at, it was already great that Fujo didn’t sustain any permanent injuries after using it.
You need to understand, it is impossible for a cultivator in the tempering stage to be able to contain energy of the Soul-compression stage. It’s just too powerful and violent in nature for their bodies to handle and that is why what Fujo did was exceedingly frightening. He not only sucked in energy at the Soul-compression stage, he was also able to condense it along with the other energies he’d absorbed and hurl it at Yasen. It’s a miracle how his internal structure was able to handle just the sheer load of energy without exploding.
Nevertheless, that technique Yasen showed, the one that allowed him to control Fujo at least temporarily through impulses of some kind, greatly interested Zilan. It was something he believed if cultivated thoroughly would have allowed him to easily beat Fujo. After all, he was older than Fujo and had a higher cultivation therefore beating him without sustaining injuries should be expected.
Of course, Fujo didn’t really beat Yasen since if this was a real fight and not a tournament styled event, even with that suction and repelling attack he used, Yasen would have still been able to claim his life.
…………….
Judge stood motionless by the platform. He had seen everything that had transpired however, he still felt that it was unbelievable. Even if this was just a tournament, history had been made as Fujo was the first Beast to defeat a soul-compression stage practitioner in the rookie ranking tournament.
Composing himself, he turned towards Juen Onin and asked,
“State your challenge.”
“Junior will not be challenging for a higher position.”
Judge didn’t question him, instead turning towards Mawe,
“State your challenge.”
Mawe looked around, seeing that it was Zilan and Fujo currently ranked above him, he was immediately enraged and was raring to go however, a thought suddenly entered his mind.
‘Even if I challenge that injured bastard, he still has that Half Breed behind him.’
If Mawe was to beat up Fujo, then with Zilan’s godly speed, the damage he would cause when angered was something he currently could not handle.
Thus with a belly full of resentment Mawe decided to stay put at where he was.
‘Damn it, just you wait.’
Hearing his decision to stay put, Zilan was not only surprised but also impressed. Knowing when to advance, hold your position and retreat was a quality all great individuals shared.
‘Maybe I should stop calling him Mr. Rock.’ Mused Zilan.
Judge was also surprised by Mawe’s decision but he managed to hold his tongue. Next up should be Fujo but since he was no longer in any condition to challenge the first chair, Judge decided to ask Yasen as he was the only one yet to state his challenge.
“Yasen Andriani, state your challenge.”
Yasen closed his eyes for a moment before shaking his head.
“I will hold here.”
In his mind, the whole Fire Guardian ranking didn’t matter, only when it came to Alchemy would he claw and scratch for every opportunity. Right now, after battling Fujo, he had many things to think about. For example, the fact that he could use his House’s ability was good news but some of the words Fujo spoke, hit him hard and it was necessary to think on the matter.
The crowd reacted to the news by collectively gasping. Some amongst them booed and cursed while others came up with different theories such as Fujo had injured him badly or he is the weakest of Soul-compression stage experts or that he was afraid of tasting defeat again, some even went as far as to say that the tournament was beneath him thus he didn’t wish to participate any longer. Only real fights were worthy of him.
Amongst all of the people in attendance though, the one person who could be said to be the most disappointed, was most likely Zilan.
‘Hey, hey, hey, don’t wreck my perfect narrative.’
If he didn’t dominate this tournament from start to finish then his name would definitely not resound the way he wished it to. In fact, stories about the soul-compression stage rookie who backed out would overshadow his great accomplishments.
Even if he took this win, others wouldn’t be convinced instead saying that he wasn’t the real champion because he didn’t fight the ‘strongest guy’ let alone beat him.
Zilan could see the narrative changing before him and he didn’t like it.
Judge helplessly sighed,
“Who will be using their second challenge?”
No one responded. Domin wanted to fight Fujo but he was injured so he let it be. Zilan was too fast for the others to think about challenging him and Yasen was obviously not trying to fight thus challenging would not result in a good ending for the challenger. Not to mention, the rookies that fought were now tired. After all, the people they’d been challenging were ranked ahead of them for a reason. It was akin to fighting an uphill battle, regardless of whether you won or lost, you would most likely be the most tired.
“Very well then, I declare this tournament ove-…”
“Wait!”
Just as the crowd was sighing, disappointed in the way things were wrapping up. Just as some of the bigwigs were standing up to leave. Just as Judge was about to end the Rookie Ranking tournament.
Zilan stood up and said,
“You haven’t asked me if I wish to challenge or not.”
*Silence*
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