Chapter 881: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 34)

And here a new thing that had yet to present itself within the duel area, appeared for everyone to see and hear.

"Crack!", that was the sound of both the ground below sword four and his bones shattering on the spot.

"Aghhhhh!", what followed was a pained scream being forced out of his mouth before he lost consciousness.

[The other participant can’t continue, the winner is "golden sword"]

Even after falling to the ground, there was a five second countdown set up by the blue flaming board’s arrangements, if the opponent does as much as raise to kneel instead of outright being pressed against the ground, then the duel can continue, it’s a consideration for those that might be taken by surprise, to make sure that the one to come up ahead, thoroughly deserves the win.

But sword four fell the moment the duel started and he didn’t even get to last one second before he fainted while being pressed against the ground, in other words he was absolutely crushed.

"...", there was silence for a moment, before a commotion broke out in the vicinity.

"No way, did you see that, that guy with the "r" mask was completely destroyed, what a fool", said a guy with a green soil pattern mask.

"What a letdown, aren’t they from the Sword Tower sect, they are ranked third among the sword cultivation forces, and are also within the top twenty in terms of battle prowess in their whole divine empire, and yet one of their top core disciples, lost so miserably?", said another guy, this one had a dry wood pattern mask.

"And against a dual cultivator to top it off", added a girl with a blue lake mask.

"Fourth brother!", leaving aside the mockery and scorn that those guys were receiving, the guy with the "o" letter mask, in other words sword three shouted as he got up the stage to help the fainted sword four leave the platform, leaving a bloody trace behind of him, because sword four had suffer not only broken bones but even organ damage.

A faint blue light bathed him as he was taken out of the platform, and his previously pale face regained some color, apparently the blue flaming board administrated first aid to prevent death.

’Fourth brother’s wounds were quite heavy, he will be fine after resting and taking medicine, but he won’t be able to participate in tomorrow’s match...’, thought sword one as he evaluated the state in which their youngest brother was.

No one from the top tables had participated yet, and while there had been some one-sided defeats, no one had made their opponent "suffer" as much as Aster, currently.

So, only now did people realize that duels didn’t lack consequences as they originally believed, of course this happened only if the difference between the two participants was abysmal, which confused most if not all of people.

’How did that sword cultivator lose against that guy, wait a second, that blue flame supervisor said that all paths would be weighted and taken into consideration, are you kidding me, his disgusting deeds as a dual cultivator count as "effort"...’, thought the feather masked woman.

Others reached a similar conclusion, and the previous awe towards Aster, transformed into anger, because they found common ground with sword four.

’Are you telling me that a dual cultivator bastard can suppress us, who had trained for real just because he has messed around with women a lot!’, add to that the fact that Aster showed zero humility and instead fanned the flames.

"Next one hurry up, I’m losing time that I would rather spend with little sister five, or do you want to surrender right away, I’m fine with whatever allows this duel to end faster", he said as he pecked Alice’s "mask", which made sword three grit his teeth, the difference in level between himself and sword four was not that big, so he knew he was going to lose, however he is a main body path cultivator so he didn’t think he would end up in such a bad state.

Also, they were the ones that started the challenge and couldn’t back away just like that, they weren’t dao disciples which are the equal of divine royalty for sect type forces at divine firmament level, but were still the top five core disciples which are directly below them.

And this was literally a heaven-sent chance not only for their sect since the second ranked sword cultivation force, which is also a sect, wasn’t present here in any way or whatsoever, but also one for them, because due they found a gate while they were out of the sect on a mission, and managed to defeat others that aimed to claim it while the dao disciples of their sect were defeated, because they were honestly unlucky, they who ranked around 18 in the top 20 forces in a whole divine empire, met with the ranked 11 and were destroyed, so only the group of core disciples ended up entering.

But if they lost the face of their sect, forget about them fighting to surpass the second sword cultivation sect in the ranking, they won’t be able to raise to dao disciples ever.

"Fourth brother suffered a bit but he will be fine, don’t worry and hold your head tall for the sect", said sword one as he nodded at sword three, the latter nodded back and then jumped onto the stage to then take a solid stance.

"The duel can start!", sword three gave the greenlight, and Aster by default was ready at any moment, so the duel started and just like before, sword three fell to the ground, he screamed but tried to endure at least one second.

What he didn’t know is that sword three didn’t endure enough for the blue flaming board to finish evaluating Aster’s "efforts" and just a few fractions of a second were enough to widen the gap between them by an absurdly large distance, and the difference transformed into a huge amount of pressure.

"Aghhhhh!", sword three screamed like a pig in the slaughterhouse, his eyes rolled back on the spot and his limbs twisted in weird directions, only then did the duel end.

[The other participant can’t continue, the winner is "golden sword"]

The cold message from the blue flaming board returned all those waiting to see a nice spectacle, to reality.

"Holly hell, just how much has that bastard been flirting around!", exclaimed a few people in unison, sword three had a tougher body so he held out for a few extra fractions of a second, and that resulted in his limbs being crushed due to the increase in pressure.

It was a horrible result, the worst one before Aster started participating in the duels, were people falling to the ground and bleeding a bit from their nose or mouth, there weren’t even fractures, until Aster started participating at least.

"Hahaha, why the long faces brothers, I have "suffered" and put a lot of "effort" to get to where I am, I have never been defeated in a gathering between dual cultivators after all", said Aster with a frivolous and "prideful" voice, which only angered people even more.

Some others changed their stance towards Aster though, he might be seen as "trash" but only now did they remember that the girls surrounding him radiate an incredibly outstanding feeling, any of them could have sat at the high upper ranked background table without any problem.

’There are no dual cultivation sects in the top ten forces at the Rainbow divine empire, but that might not necessarily be the case at other divine empires, maybe that lecherous bastard comes from a place like that, and his status must be incredibly high there, a high ranked dao disciple... no, perhaps he might be a dao children’, thought the feather masked woman.

While Aster didn’t radiate any "strong" feeling currently, that was just in terms of battle prowess, he had strange vibrant "vitality" not in the way of body cultivators, but as in his yang was absurdly strong, that’s why others easily believed him to be a useless dual cultivator.

"Cocky bastard, if we were to fight with swords you would be on the ground even faster than third and fourth brothers!", aggressively said sword two, to which Aster shook his head.

"That’s stupid, you want me to face you in what you excel, it would be the same as me asking you two see who can get "closer" with little sister five, faster, of course you’ll lose miserably since you all know nothing but swinging swords at others", he shamelessly said.

Now, don’t forget that the first one to explode earlier when he hinted at that girl with the "d" letter mask, was sword two.

"Let’s start the duel!", shouted sword two as he jumped onto the stage, like sword one had thought there was a big difference between sword two and the previous two guys, and there is a proper reason for it, he started training at the same time as sword one, meaning a few years before the other three.

"Crack!", and that allowed him to endure almost half of a second more than sword three before his legs were crushed.

"Bleeegh!", having tried to "tough up" the pressure caused him a strong negative reaction, as in he vomited blood and lost consciousness on the spot.

"Second brother...", mumbled sword one as he saw the closest to a "rival" among his four martial siblings miserably lose like that, and now he was facing a big problem, if he lost not only would they lose all the face of their sect, but given that they would all be unable to even move, they would be unable to keep an eye on Aster.

He also liked sword five, so he absolutely didn’t want to have her to be alone with someone else even if it was just for half an hour, of course all this was under the pretense that they "honored" the bet they made.

But that was even worse, going back on their word in front of basically all the camps in this place was even more detrimental than just losing face, who would take them seriously, what if they had to cooperate with other camps later, no one will trust them, and the worst part is that they were the ones that put themselves in this situation.

Sword one was returned to the real world by Aster snorting as he said.

"Those inconsiderate guys supposedly treasure you but they didn’t even bother to ask little sister five if she was right with accepting the bet, luckily I, golden sword am not like them, even if I win the duel, what I want is just to "invite" little sister five to sit at our table, she can accept or decline as she pleases without any problem, after all how could I be angry at such a pretty little sister".

An interesting thing about people is that when someone seen as "good" fails to keep that standard even in the slightest, hate will rain upon them by others, on the other hand if someone "evil" does even the slightest good, they will be praised for it.

It shouldn’t be like that but that’s how things work, therefore, Aster whose image was in the negative in most people’s eyes, just shot through the roof, because he wasn’t "forcing" that girl with the "d" letter mask to make him company, and instead exposed the carelessness of the ones that were supposed to look after her who wasn’t experienced in the outside world.

’If this had happened on the outside and the other party could resort to violence if we didn’t honor our side of the bet... what would have happened’, she couldn’t help but think.

She felt angry at herself for not thinking about it before, her brothers indeed made decisions on her stead without consulting her first, based just on the fact that they had the same master and were raised together.

In comparison, the other party might be frivolous and clearly showed interest on her, not in the way she would prefer, but just by his actions he was better than the brothers in which she blindly trusted until now.

"I thank brother golden sword for his kindness, I will decide what to do based on the result of the last duel", said the girl with the "d" mask as she greeted Aster by closing her left fist and pressing it against her open right hand while she slightly bowed at him.

That’s a sign of "respect" between cultivators, it means something along the lines of "I recognize your strength and wisdom", the fist and open palm are inversed if the one making the gesture is a man by the way, not all cultivators put weight to these kinds of things, but sword cultivators who are known by pursuing the peak of power through swordsmanship, do, so the previous carried a lot of meaning for those watching the duel

’Damn bastard!!!’, inwardly screamed sword one, he could see their young martial sister give him a distant gaze, because she actually agreed with the handsome mask guy, they didn’t ask for her opinion and directly agreed on her stead, when the one to pay for their defeat would have been her.

"Enjoy it while it lasts you damn bastard, once we meet in a match you are dead meat", said sword one to which Aster nodded.

"For now, get up the stage and try to hold a complete second unlike your brothers", he mockingly said.

At this point, sword one’s eyes were bloodshot, he wanted nothing but to refuse and storm out of this place, but he couldn’t, so he jumped onto the stage and allowed the duel to start.

"I surrender ackk!!!", that being said, he directly admitted defeat before the duel could properly start, which still resulted in him being smacked against the ground, his right leg and left arm were broken, but he didn’t lose consciousness.

"Heh, despite being the oldest brother he didn’t stand up unlike the younger ones, what a disgrace", said some of the people watching the duel.

"No wonder they have never gone past the third rank, they are a shame for sword cultivators!", said someone with a slashed rock mask, he was also a sword cultivator, albeit from a lower ranked background.

’Damn idiot, now I can’t even intervene, the face of our Rainbow divine empire has been dragged through the mud!’, thought a guy with a mask that had a slashing mark dividing it vertically, he was a member of the first ranked sword cultivation force from the Rainbow divine empire and was in a group from the top table, though they didn’t have a high-grade gate appearing there, based in the intel Aster had obtained from Cassandra and Ryan.

If Aster kept being the one in the "wrong", then he could have stepped in to regain some face for them, but not only did Aster expose their lack of thought regarding their younger martial sister, but sword one also didn’t face his defeat with unyielding spirit like sword two, the public opinion had taken a 180° shift and some girls were even showing active interest on the handsome mask golden sword, so he missed his chance to interfere.

Especially because before Aster could leave the platform, the girl with the "d" mask who ignored sword one who was stumbling as he descended the platform due to his broken leg and arm, said.

"I also request a duel, I already decided to accept the invitation of brother golden sword, but if I’m going to be resting for the remaining time here, then I want to see how far do I stand from someone that would defeat not only my martial brothers, but also the top members of our Sword Tower sect".

’Would you look at that, I only gave her a little hand because those four are the type to believe themselves to be "smart", but that’s some nice fighting spirit she has, it works for me too since I don’t want to waste time dueling others’, thought Aster to then say.

"Sure", and with that, sword five jumped onto the stage and with a small nod, the duel started, it’s worth mentioning that by this point most people had stopped paying attention to Aster’s platform, but the focus shifted to him again because people didn’t hear any scream even after a second had passed.

"Hey, are you for real?", said a couple of people, that girl with the "d" mask remained standing for a whole second and then fell to her knees, but she wasn’t smacked against the ground.

"I... concede", still, she only made it past two seconds before her bones started creaking, which was when she admitted defeat, not without having earned some nods of approval from quite a few people.

At this point the participants had understood that actual battle prowess weighed less than the effort put to obtain it, sword five was weaker than her senior brothers and technically she should have put less effort since she has been training for less years, but what they didn’t know is that even when she wasn’t being taught by their master, she observed them training and clumsily practiced on her own, which earned her a scolding from their master.

Still those kinds of situations allowed her to not be outright crushed when facing Aster, of course this is because she only continued for a couple of seconds.

’The evaluation process was barely starting, in a rough calculation one would need to last at least ten complete seconds to reach the end of his "efforts" and the pressure would be dozens if not hundreds of times what I faced... I don’t know if I should be amazed by it or wary of it’, thought the girl with the "d" mask.

It would have been better if Aster was a sword cultivator in her eyes, but whatever the case, someone that had put such "effort" even if it was for dual cultivation, was worthy of respect from her point of view, of course she thought so because Aster helped her realize something important, so his impression improved from a piece of lustful trash to a frivolous but at least somewhat decent person.

"Thanks for giving me a chance, I’ll wait for brother golden sword’s teammates to finish their duels", said sword five as she left the platform to meet with those four, sword two had regained his senses but he couldn’t move at all, the other two were still unconscious and sword one was relatively fine except for the burning hatred that was assaulting him right now.

"Junior sister, you don’t have to follow that scum, let others think and say as the please, we the Sword Tower don’t care for...", before sword two could finish his sentence, sword five whose face was visible for her teammates frowned as she said.

"I agree with second brother and that’s why I’m going to accept brother golden sword’s invitation, I will see for myself whether he is what other people think he is, or what I think he is".

Sword two nearly snapped on the spot, but sword one who was ignored by her earlier, calmly said.

"Sister five regained some face for our sect in our stead, let her do as she pleases, in any case we’ll be going back to the tables since we are not in condition to stay here, so we can be ready to act if it’s needed".

Sword two gritted his teeth but he ultimately nodded, and while sword one’s decision sounded "wise", his thoughts were completely different.

’This little bitch was hiding such a strong "fighting spirit", if our master had seen her, she would have been chosen as the next dao disciple candidate instead of me...’, he thought.

Apparently his love for his position as the top core disciple was bigger than his "love" for his junior sister, which is understandable from a cultivator’s point of view, if he lost the position of top core disciple to sword two that would be fine, it would be considered just his "rival" catching up to him, but if someone way younger than him like sword five did it, he’ll be practically finished, no high ranked resources will be given to him anymore, especially because he is reaching the time limit to become a dao disciple at the main sect, or be sent to be one at a subsidiary of their sect.

Leaving that aside, unlike Aster, Mira and the others didn’t have trouble to ask for someone to duel with them, thanks to sword one and the others, they had been introduced to the middle and high upper grade background groups, and those three simply chose someone among them, from the ones that looked at Aster with disdain and openly mocked him earlier.

And since they used the phrase "accept our duel or apologize to our young master", you know what happened next, the duels took place and the opponents were crushed just like it happened with Aster.

An opportunist took the "chance" to challenge Alice, thinking that she was the easy target, since everything she has done so far is appeal and flirt with the handsome mask guy, imagine his surprise when he was smacked against the ground on the spot.

That being said, those four were given some strange gazes, because now that people knew that dual cultivation counted as "effort", they didn’t know if Mira and the others were strong or well, just had "trained" a lot with Aster, which earned the latter a glare from the ligress.

’This tease loving dragon, he did it on purpse!’, thought Mira to herself, she didn’t openly complain though, because Aster had successfully gained renown while completely hiding their strength too, and that was not easy to achieve.