47. THE SECT TRIALS-3

1.5K 53 1
                                    

On the battle ring, stood a beautiful girl. The azure color dress on her accentuated her icy beauty. Her cold eyes shone with confidence, her posture, strong, giving out an imposing aura that made one look up to her in awe and respect.

Beneath the ring, everyone watched her in admiration. The girl who entered the sect two years ago, at profound earth realm, was now at profound Sky realm, in par with the senior disciples.

Her growth and hard work amazed everyone. Masters of the outer sect didn't even get a chance to snatch, before she was picked by Master Cang to be his disciple.

“Disciple Wan Bei wishes to challenge rank fifteen”.  Her sonorous voice rang out from the ring.

Tan Liqin stood up from the gallery and moved towards the arena.

“Wan Bei is lacking in skills, senior sister Liqin, please teach me”.

Her humble request won everyone's appreciation. She was not arrogant or rude despite her strong skills.

“Junior sister Wan Bei, let's begin”. Tan Liqin yielded the first two moves in consideration for her status.

Wan Bei wielded her sword and moved towards Tan Liqin. Equally, countering the oncoming attacks, neither of them had an upper hand.

After her two moves, Tan Liqin moved, launching an offensive upon Wan Bei. She cleverly evaded the attack, maintaining her current conditions in defensive mode.

In the stands, Masters from the inner sect started feeling bored. At first, they all were expecting for Master Cang's new disciple to create a wonder in the duel, but seeing no special moves, they sat back.

Master Cang relaxed, sipping his tea. He was not rushing to see Wan Bei win. His new disciple knows well to hide her trump cards.

The match went on with no winner or loser for an incense stick of time. The audience sat bored and murmurs filled the gallery.

Tan Liqin also felt the match was being stretched for too long, and she was exhausting her strength. 

Wan Huang and Wan Fang saw through Wan Bei's trick. She wanted to drain her opponent's stamina and give her a final blow.

In all the duels before, she won by three moves repeatedly that gave everyone an impression that she would use the same moves. Her opponents prepared themselves according to her strategy and fell for her trap when she changed her strategy.

Wan Bei who, until then, presented an equal attack, suddenly sped up her moves throwing Tan Liqin into disarray. It became too late when she figured out the former's strategy.

Wan Bei moved mid-stage and suddenly thick green vines shot out from her hands. It curled and creeped towards Tan Liqin, wrapping her like a ball of yarn.

The audience and the masters was stunned by the sudden move and sat up straight.

Suddenly, the ball of vine around Tan Liqin burned with an orange flame, incapacitating her. The ball of fire vine then rose and fell out of the ring, disappearing into ashes.

“Thank you for the match”. Wan Bei's voice rang out, pulling everyone from the shock. Thunderous applause and cheers shook the gallery a few minutes later.

Master Cang had a smile on his face. As expected of his disciple, She was able to Master the level five fire-vines technique in just a few months, which really made him amazed of her talents.

“Master Cang's disciple is the real winner this time. Being just a junior disciple, she was able to rise to rival her senior disciples strengths”.

“Initially, I was puzzled as to why Master Cang would favor a newbie disciple from outer sect to such an extent. Now I know, Master Cang saw a pearl among many fish eyes”.

Songs of praises rang around Master Cang who humbly accepted them all.

“She is a hardworking girl”. A single sentence covered what he wished to convey and what he felt at the moment.

Being announced as the winner, Wan Bei proceeded to call out the next opponent.

“Disciple Wan Bei wishes to challenge rank twelve”.

The twelfth ranked disciple conceded defeat, and Wan Bei rose to rank twelve directly and returned to her seat.

For the next few days, the trials continued. Although there wasn't any jaw-dropping fights, still a few new elemental attribute techniques was being displayed on the ring.

On the twenty-fifth day of the month, the sect trials was finally concluded, and twenty disciples qualified for inner sect selections.

The grand leader of the outer sect along with the inner sect masters stepped up on the stage and called the twenty disciples to stand on the arena.

The twenty disciples included Wan Bei at seventeenth position and Wan Huang at twentieth position.

The inner sect masters from each faction chose new disciples from among the twenty according to their elemental attributes.

Eight of them got selected in the weapon smith faction, six for the array division, four for the sword mastery division.

Wan Bei became Master Cang's official disciple.

Although Wan Huang got into the final twenty, her low cultivation level and the fire attribute made her a useless decoration compared to the rest of their strength.

She stood out as a sore thumb, not being selected by the masters of the inner sect.

“Since there is one remaining and no one is interested, I will take her in”. Master Murong's voice sounded on the silent arena.

Wan Huang looked at Master Murong. Back during the Celestial jade sect selections, he hovered around her, attempting to convince her into becoming his disciple.

After entering the sect, she had heard rumors that he was an eccentric and never had any disciples.

Everyone pitied Wan Huang. Even though she surprised them, by qualifying at the finals, it'no use if she could not get proper tutelage under a master.

The thing that surprised them most was Master Murong also selected Wan Fang who didn't even qualify as an inner sect disciple.

Still, they were all jealous. Be it under any master, both of them has already become inner sect disciples, a position they could not currently catch up to.

Prophecy Of The StarsWhere stories live. Discover now