In the bright and warm sunlight, the Streamer Sword shone exuberantly. As it traveled across the air,
the light spots reflected all through its body from the sun started to dance on the surface.
As Zen lifted the sword right up to Tracy's throat with a simple flick, the light spots traveled slowly from
the hilt to the tip. Right now, the sword blade was just a mere inch away from Tracy's pure white neck.
Or one could say that Tracy was only an inch away from certain death now.
The distance was so short that if Zen's Streamer Sword had flung forward even slightly, Tracy's head
would have certainly fallen off.
"Stay down! I don't know the first thing about this burning blood essence. And if you jeopardize your life
span, that's none of my concern. But I know your strength might increase a lot with this spell. So of
course, I am not going to give you an opportunity to utilize it. You stay put. Or you die!" Zen was
expressionless in his threat, even though his demeanor was frightening. His voice sounded very cold,
and seemed to possess no tenderness even towards this beautiful woman. As if to enforce his stance,
the Streamer Sword in his hand shoved a centimeter forward. Under his fine control, its tip pierced her
delicate skin and wisps of blood started trickling down from the fine cut that it had made.
The reason behind his stern stance was that even though he was clueless about what that burning
blood essence was, he knew that it could have increased Tracy's strength to a terrible extent,
especially if the price of doing it was her life span. Now that Zen had gained an advantage in this game,
he had decided that he wasn't going to give her any chance now.
Tracy sensed the icy sword intent pressed against her neck and her taut shoulders seemed to loosen a
bit. Right now, she was rooted to the spot like a puppet who had been left free on its strings.
In her entire lifetime, she had never been so close to death before.
At the sight of her almost defeated, Patrick, who was standing outside the arena, breathed a sigh of
relief. Zen had already claimed that he would give Tracy no quarter, and right now, he had succeeded
in at least subduing her. As to whether he was going to kill her or not, Patrick was not so worried about
that.
He had never practiced swordsmanship, but he had heard of it from people and he knew that
swordsmanship required a fine character of the practitioner. 'That doesn't mean it would demand the
practitioner to obey the Five Commandments and the Ten Commandments like the Buddhism
cultivation method I am practicing does, ' he thought to himself, 'but its minimum request is that the
practitioner has to be upright in his moral ideologies.
Being able to go so far in swordsmanship shows that Zen is not a heartless man and has a strength in
his character that not everyone might have. The remark he just made was probably a bluff to scare
Tracy.'
The reason Patrick could analyze the fight so deeply could be attributed to his advanced age. The
numerous winters which lay behind him allowed him to see the world differently and become more
perceptive. That way, he had a lot of experience in analyzing people.
However, Tracy was still very young and her mind couldn't have gone far. She couldn't have known that
Zen was bluffing.
The harsh remark that he had made and the poker expressions on his face immediately intimidated
her. 'He... truly won't hesitate to kill me!'
Tracy was the sort of person who seemed quite petulant and merciless when things were progressing
normally. But if one were to say the truth, she was just a highly gifted girl who had not even grown up
completely yet. And even though she was sometimes tasked to go on adventures for Cloud Sect, she
was always accompanied by several disciples who could protect her if things, at some point, went
terribly south ways.
But right now, she was alone, and facing such an awful bloke; someone who had declared that he
would chop her head off if she didn't stay still.
Her long lashes quivered for an instant, and the rim of her eyes turned red. Then, much like flowers
were blooming in ultra-fast motion, bean-sized tears started rolling down her cheeks and dropped onto
the ground with clear clatters. Very soon, a paddle of tears had formed at her feet.
If Zen were to express his emotions truly right now, he would say that he was feeling quite awkward for
bringing a girl to tears with his sword. After all, his sword had nibbled at her neck. If possible, he would
have chosen not to fight with Tracy, who, being frank, was giving him a headache. But he also knew
that now was not the time to be soft-hearted. If he let his stance loose and let her burn that damn blood
essence, then it was highly probable that he would not have been able to secure a win in this match!
"Crying isn't going to help you. Admitting your defeat is your only option." Zen clarified indifferently.
Suddenly, Tracy glanced over her shoulder, which gave Zen quite a turn and he hastened to draw back
the Streamer Sword a little. The very next moment, he heard Tracy moan. In a soft voice she sobbed, "I
admit my defeat!"
Then, the referee, who had been standing to a side for a long time now, finally nodded and announced,
"Zen from Drizzle Peak, won! Tracy, a personal disciple, lost!"
After Zen had withdrawn his Streamer Sword, Tracy lowered her head and bustled off the stage.
Outside the arena, Patrick tried to comfort her and patted her head, his face brimming with affection.
However, Tracy shook his hand off like a cranky child, and then stumped into a corner and sat down,
her cheeks swollen in her anger.
She was pouting. As someone who had been taking care of Tracy like a big brother for a long time
now, Patrick knew everything about Tracy's temper. 'Well, it's alright. Perhaps experiencing some
failure will do some good to her mindset and she might be less cranky in the future!
The important thing is that Zen did a great job in the arena. At the very least, he stopped Tracy from
burning her entire blood essence at the expense of reducing her life span...'
Burning blood essence was something a practitioner would do only in extremely dire circumstances.
Cutting down one's own lifetime in order to win a match was the sort of thing that probably only Tracy
would do.
Therefore, Patrick turned his face towards the arena and nodded at Zen, giving him a grateful smile.
Zen smiled back as well before stepping out of the arena.
They both knew that they were bound to spar soon.
Watching Zen exit the arena triumphantly, Master Wen felt all sorts of feelings well up inside his heart.
He had been leading Drizzle Peak for a long time now and from the very first time that his disciples had
participated in the All Peaks Competition, his biggest dream had been to see one of them wedge his
way into the top 100.
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