Chapter 214 | The Pre-Match Warning

Chapter 214: 214 | The Pre-Match Warning

Dawn broke cold and clear over Sky-Pillar City.

Inside the main assembly hall of the Southern Maple Compound, the five tournament representatives stood in a neat row before the raised dais: third-ranked Gao Chen, fourth-ranked Zhou Kai, senior disciples Fang Yu and Chen Hao, and Lin Tian at the far right with the cloth-wrapped Profound Void-Yang Blade strapped across his back.

At the front of the hall sat Elder Liu and Elder Bai, while Instructor Qing stood half a pace to their right in a fresh crimson martial coat.

For the first time in five years, the suffocating grey pallor that usually clung to the corners of Qing’s eyes at dawn was completely gone. With ninety percent of the Lethal Fire-Poison purged from her spine, abdomen, and thigh meridians the night before, her Divine Valkyrie Body radiated a sharp, buoyant vitality that made even Gao Chen glance at her in quiet surprise.

Only Lin Tian noticed the way Qing kept her gaze fixed strictly two inches above the top of his head.

Every time her eyes drifted near him by accident, the memory of her own muffled cries against his shoulder and the scorching imprint of his bare palms along her inner thighs sent a tiny, invisible tremor through her fingers on her sword hilt.

Elder Liu set her porcelain teacup down with a crisp click, drawing every eye in the hall.

"In half an hour, the gates of the Heavenly Colosseum will open for the first round," Elder Liu began, her voice cool and authoritative. "Before we step out of this compound, there is something all five of you—especially the four of you aside from Lin Tian—must keep carved into your minds."

Gao Chen and the others straightened their backs.

"You all saw Elder Mo and Mo Yan at the docking spire, and you saw what happened on the avenue yesterday," Elder Liu continued. "For thirty years, the Black-Sun Sect has coveted the three spirit-stone veins along our Crimson Nimbus Sect’s southern border. Every Regional Tournament is used by the host magistrates to re-allocate border mining rights based on total sect wins."

She glanced briefly at Zhou Kai.

"Yesterday on the street, Mo Yan tried to humiliate Zhou Kai in public, and Lin Tian put his face in the dirt instead. With Elder Mo’s temperament, the Black-Sun Sect will not swallow that loss quietly."

Sitting beside her, Elder Bai spoke up, her calm, scholarly voice cutting through the quiet hall.

"The Heavenly Colosseum operates under the joint supervision of the twelve northern sects," Elder Bai said, her eyes sweeping over the representatives. "On paper, the rules forbid killing a fellow righteous sect disciple in the ring. They also forbid striking an opponent who has either fallen completely outside the boundary lines or clearly spoken the words ’I concede.’"

A cold silence settled over the floor as the disciples listened.

"However," Elder Bai continued flatly, "that rule contains a deliberate gap that ruthless sects have exploited for generations. So long as both of your feet remain inside the boundary stone and the full phrase of surrender has not left your throat, any injury short of immediate death is ruled an unavoidable accident of combat."

Fang Yu’s brow furrowed. "Elder Bai, does that mean—"

"It means they will aim to cripple you before you can finish speaking," Instructor Qing cut in, her voice sharp as drawn steel now that the topic had turned to the ring.

She stepped forward to the edge of the dais, looking directly at Zhou Kai, Fang Yu, and Chen Hao.

"I reviewed the magistrate brackets at midnight," Qing said—her ears warming by a fraction at the word midnight before she forced her tone even colder. "Three of our five opening matches are against heavy-handed sects allied with Elder Mo, and Zhou Kai’s fourth match on Stage Two is directly against Zhao Lie, the Black-Sun Sect’s second-ranked Core Disciple."

Zhou Kai’s jaw tightened, his hand dropping to his sword hilt. "Instructor, Zhao Lie is at Peak Level 9 Foundation Establishment, while I broke through to Late Stage Level 8 last month. Even if I cannot defeat him, I won’t let Crimson Nimbus Sect look timid in the opening round!"

"This is not a matter of pride," Elder Liu said sharply, her Middle Stage Core Formation pressure pressing down lightly across the room to cool the young man’s blood. "Zhao Lie practices the Scorching Bone Saber, a martial art designed specifically to shatter joints and sever tendons on impact. If he sees an opening, he will not stop at knocking you out of the ring—he will break your limbs so you cannot fight in the team rounds or cultivate for the next two years."

Elder Liu’s dark eyes moved briefly to Lin Tian, her gaze softening for an imperceptible fraction of a breath before turning stern again.

"Lin Tian and Gao Chen have the strength to handle Peak Stage opponents," Elder Liu instructed. "For the other three of you, test your opponent’s blade if you must, but the instant your defensive Qi drops below forty percent, jump out of the boundary ring yourself. Do not wait until you are pinned to the floor to open your mouth and surrender. Understood?"

"Yes, Elder Liu!" the four disciples answered together.

Even so, Lin Tian could see the stubborn fire still lingering in Zhou Kai’s eyes. For a young inner sect genius chosen to represent his sect in front of thousands, leaping out of the ring without trading true blows was easier agreed to in a quiet hall than done under the jeers of an arena.

"Good," Elder Bai said, rising smoothly from her seat. "Pick up your tokens. We depart for the Colosseum."

The Heavenly Colosseum stood at the center of Sky-Pillar City like a hollowed-out mountain of grey ironstone.

Rising over a hundred feet high, its tiered stone seating circled a vast central pit divided into four massive combat stages paved with array-reinforced granite. Above the public tiers, twelve elevated viewing pavilions hung from the inner walls like stone balconies, each draped in the banners of one of the twelve major northern sects.

By the time the morning sun cleared the city’s nine dragon pillars, over thirty thousand cultivators from the surrounding cities and smaller clans packed the outer stands. The roar of the crowd rolled across the open roof like continuous thunder.