A Shameless Start
On either side of the Cheonun Sect, packs of fighters stood arrayed with eyes glittering like drawn blades.
Gi Yeo-hae seethed as he watched the five disciples fidgeting before him. Unable even to open his mouth, he settled for a frigid exchange of glances with Qi Gongtian.
Qi Gongtian traded looks with the four Five Meridians Realm disciples of the Gi Clan standing behind him. Murderous intent filled their eyes.
"Don't worry, Father. I won't let that bastard Yeop Pung leave Taibai Peak alive today!"
The Ouyang Clan and the Gongsun Clan were no different. Together with the Gi Clan, they had advanced a total of twenty competitors to the finals, and every one of them was an expert more than capable of threatening the Cheonun Sect disciples. They glared at the Cheonun Sect like wild beasts straining at a leash, ready to pounce the instant their shackles came off.
Ouyang Cheong and Gongsun Hong had already aligned themselves with Gi Yeo-hae.
If we can't stop the Military Supply Bureau from taking the championship, we can at least let the Gi Clan have their revenge.
Every Cheonun Sect disciple competing in Taibai Peak's Ascent Battle would be caught in a storm of blood.
The twenty from the most powerful faction of all—the Military Supply Bureau's Heavenly Phoenix Legion—wore no expression whatsoever. They seemed utterly unmoved by the taut tension crackling around them.
At the very front, the cold-faced youth Sa Cheonseong neither spoke nor moved. His eyes were unfocused; he stood there in body, but his mind was somewhere else entirely. A paltry Ascent Battle like this posed no challenge to him. All he had to do was move forward, climb the mountain, and reach the summit.
In his heart, he had already placed himself far beyond this battlefield. His true rivals were last year's top five in the hunting tournament, the geniuses of Phoenix City—and beyond that, the young prodigies of the entire Great Jin Empire.
The trash standing before him wasn't even worth a glance.
At Naeng Chu's booming cry announcing that the hour had come, the patriarchs of each faction quietly stepped aside.
Maeng Chang-haeng clenched his fist, pouring one last surge of fighting spirit into the Cheonun Sect disciples. The three clan patriarchs raked those same disciples with gazes sharp as blades.
Every competitor held their breath as one, waiting only for the starting signal.
The mountain itself trembled with the thunderous declaration.
In the next instant, twenty streaks of white light exploded from the starting line. In the blink of an eye they had covered a hundred yards—the twenty geniuses of the Heavenly Phoenix Legion.
They were blindingly fast.
Qi Gongtian and the Six Meridians experts of the Ouyang and Gongsun Clans flashed their eyes. But they didn't move immediately. They had already abandoned any competition for hunting rank; their sole focus was crushing the Cheonun Sect's spirit.
Qi Gongtian in particular radiated killing intent from every pore as he murmured to the three clans' competitors behind him.
"Hold those Cheonun Sect bastards tight. The moment we're clear of the mountain's base, we attack!"
But the instant he ground out that order, the competitors behind him all wore identical looks of bewilderment. One of them even pointed a finger past him.
"Young Master, l-look at that!"
Qi Gongtian furrowed his brow and turned around.
What? What the hell is this? Cheonun Sect—what are those people even doing?
On the stone steps, fifty-seven Cheonun Sect disciples were strolling upward at a leisurely pace. One walked with his hands clasped behind his back. Another gazed at the sky. Someone was whistling. Someone else hummed a little tune. They looked for all the world like idle young masters out on a scenic ramble. Who would ever guess they were competitors in the final round?
"Hey, Senior Brother Wang, look at that rock. It's so ancient—has to be at least ten thousand years old, right?"
Ancient, my ass!
Qi Gongtian and everyone else were speechless. It wasn't just the competitors. The three clan patriarchs who hadn't yet left, the commanders, Naeng Chu, even the eliminated contestants who'd been hanging around in the distance, ready to jeer—every last one of them stood slack-jawed.
What are they playing at now? Don't tell me the Cheonun Sect is forfeiting the match?
"Wang Maeng!"
Qi Gongtian's brow was a mass of wrinkles. He bellowed until his throat tore.
"What the hell are you people doing? Are you not competing in the finals?!"
"Of course we are!"
Wang Maeng, at the very front, lazily lifted his head. He'd been in the middle of admiring the rock's ancient beauty.
"But sightseeing while we climb is our hobby. Who are you to tell us otherwise? If you don't like it, go on ahead! Come on, everyone, make way! Young Master Qi is coming through!"
At his words, the Cheonun Sect disciples all laughed and stepped aside. Simple-hearted Yeongchun in particular beamed even brighter, waving at Qi Gongtian.
"Come on through, come on through! This way, this way! The path's nice and clear!"
Go where, exactly?!
The three clans were at a loss for words. Their original plan had been a coordinated assault on the Cheonun Sect. But how were they supposed to attack anyone in this situation? They were still at the mountain's entrance. Dignitaries were watching. Thousands of eyes glittered from the crowd. Start a fight here? The Cheonun Sect brats could act shameless all they wanted—the three clans still had their reputations to consider.
But if they dragged this out, when would they ever get out of sight? Don't tell me these people planned to kill time right here at the entrance, sightseeing over rocks? Damn it!
The sound of grinding teeth rose from every direction.
Then something even more outrageous happened. Yeop Pung came sauntering out and offered Gi Yeo-hae a gentle smile.
"Brother Gi, are you really not going?"
"Yeop Pung... you little bastard, what the hell are you trying to pull?"
"Pull? Me?"
Yeop Pung played dumb, blinking innocently.
"I was just suggesting we go together."
"Go together, my ass!"
"Well then, I'll take that as a no. I'll be on my way!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the smile vanished from Yeop Pung's face.
A burst of gold erupted beneath his feet. In an instant he became a streak of golden lightning and vanished from the spot, already racing toward the distant specks of the Heavenly Phoenix Legion.
"Shit! He bolted!"
Gi Yeo-hae and the remaining nineteen experts went deathly pale. The instant they tried to give chase, the Cheonun Sect disciples in front of them surged into the center of the path in a chaotic rush. The already-narrow passage was jammed shut in a heartbeat.
On top of that, the Cheonun Sect disciples who'd been so absorbed in sightseeing just moments ago all charged at them at once.
"Wh-what are you people doing?!"
The three clans were completely stunned. They couldn't make sense of the Cheonun Sect's intentions at all.
Wang Maeng stepped forward with gusto and planted a hand on Qi Gongtian's shoulder.
"Aigoo, Brother Qi! Meeting like this must be fate. I've been taken with your bearing ever since I saw you at the Dragon Tomb. I've been wanting to share a drink and catch up—how about a cup in this lovely mountain breeze? As it happens, I've got some excellent wine on me!"
Wine, my frozen ass!
Qi Gongtian sensed in Wang Maeng the exact same shamelessness as Maeng Chang-haeng.
Yeop Pung is already that far ahead—and he's going on about wine?
"Get lost!"
Qi Gongtian's face twisted as he shoved Wang Maeng aside and tried to chase Yeop Pung. But a Cheonun Sect disciple he'd never even looked at twice moved first, clamping down on his shoulder.
"Aigoo, Brother Qi! No need to rush like that!"
"You—do you have a death wish?"
Qi Gongtian glared with eyes full of killing intent, drawing up the Profound Qi of the Six Meridians Realm. But at that moment, five more Cheonun Sect disciples closed in on him.
"Wow, Young Master Qi! We admire you so much! Could we get an autograph? Or maybe a little souvenir... Oh, you don't mind? Thank you, thank you! We'll just help ourselves!"
It all happened in an instant. As if they'd been preparing for this for a long time, the Cheonun Sect disciples moved with perfect coordination, latching onto Qi Gongtian's body in a heartbeat. Who took which position, which body part to target, which technique to use—it all unfolded according to a meticulously crafted script.
They used nothing but the cheapest street-thug techniques, but the effect was outstanding. The three clans' competitors couldn't move an inch from where they stood.
It was exactly as the Cheonun Sect had planned. If they couldn't match up one-on-one, they'd overwhelm with numbers. Besides, in this narrow entrance, no one could use a proper technique. Packed together like sardines, how was anyone supposed to unleash a wide-area art?
And with so many big shots and spectators still watching, they wouldn't dare kill anyone... would they? Seizing precisely this opening, the Cheonun Sect was using fifty-six ordinary disciples to hold back twenty experts from the three great clans.
"This is...!"
Countless mouths in the crowd outside fell open.
Naeng Chu and the other dignitaries had never seen a tactic like this. Their furious gazes found Maeng Chang-haeng first. A scheme this shameless could only have come from this old gangster.
Even the Cheonun Sect elders, Han Un among them, felt a twinge of embarrassment in that moment. Of course, they too had taken part in the disciples' "special training" over the past several nights. But these methods hadn't seemed like much during practice—now that they were being used in a real match, the shame exploded. They could no longer even imagine how these Cheonun Sect disciples, thoroughly drilled by Peak Master Maeng, would grow from here. These were the pillars who would carry the Cheonun Sect's future. Had they gone crooked from the seedling up?
The most excited of all were the eliminated contestants watching from outside.
"Whoa, whoa, that's insane!"
Every one of them sparkled with excitement, crowding closer with cries of amazement. This was a first since the hunting tournament began—talk about an eye-opener. Look, look—those so-called brilliant clan heirs weren't so different from the rest of them after all. Hahaha...
From the very start, the summit battle had veered in a direction no one had expected. The stone-step entrance had become a tangled hellscape.
But a stalling tactic like this couldn't last. After a few minutes of tangled grappling, Qi Gongtian's patience finally snapped.
He detonated every ounce of force the Six Meridians Realm could muster. Killing intent roared out of him like a breaking dam.
His enraged roar, thick with murderous qi, echoed through the mountain valley.