The Arena was full.

Every single seat was filled, nobody wanted to actually miss this! Not after what happened in the last match when half the young masters that did not come bit their own asses! How could they have missed the moment that annoying prince was sent to the yellow springs! How just how could they be so foolish! Witnessing that scene, the few that had attended had their noses far in the air, boasting to everyone else. It was quite easy to do this! Because the Wind in this Empire had changed!

Xiu Shihong effortlessly beating the first prince and killing Ning Yu?! The Emperor being openly attacked without any repercussions? Many people had their eyes on Xiu Shihong. She was beautiful, she was strong, and she was willful! A true untamed beast!

The Xiu Clan clearly were the future leaders of this Empire, while the Ning would decline! There were very few that did not think this way after all that had happened, nobody expected Xiu Shihong to actually kill a member of the Royal family, that deed swayed the political power in the empire by quite a bit. And the Emperor... he could not even retaliate, because the rules of the tournament were quite clear!

And there was quite some chatting! There were also a few young masters with pulled up sleeves, barely held back by their elders! Because after what happened in the last two matches this match was actually quite something! Ning Jiao, the little princess! Beauty like a piece of pristine jade, a flower that had jet to bloom, looking frail and delicate to all the onlookers was facing the murderer of her brother, Xiu Shihong!

Would the same thing happen again? Would Ning Jiao die at the hands of Xiu Shihong? Or would she be injured and her cultivation crippled?! There might actually be more people here then there were at the fight between the first prince and Xiu Shihong!

...

Kou did not look forward to this at all. Not at all! She did not want to show who she was nor did she want to lose but an all-out battle would consume a lot of energy, and it was not certain who would win! Kou felt like biting herself in the bum. She had not even thought about involving Xiu Shihong into all of this... but seeing as it came to this she had no other choice.

The tiny foxes' eyes glowed in icy blue as she stepped into the arena at Ning Jiao's side. Letting out a deep breath that seemingly froze the whole arena in an instant. "Ning Jiao... you better stay back a bit." For the first time, Kou herself stepped forward as she looked at Xiu Shihong. She felt complicated. But to be honest she was .. just a little bit looking forward to this! She had always lost against her! Today it would be different!

...

Ning Jiao was nervous. This big Sister was very strong, she had seen all of it, so she activated her flames right from the beginning looking at her with wide eyes, as to not miss anything. With Kou at her side, she felt very safe, and unlike her brothers, she had no grudges against this lady. Ning Jiao .. actually felt fairly little for that brother of hers. They had interacted very little, and from what she had seen of him he was very cold.

The only people she actually liked were her dead mother, her first and second brothers, and her grandad. Father was just weird and kept showing her off to strange people she did not know so she had already lost all her trust in him, she was not dumb after all! She was a smart girl, Kou said so, so it must be true!

There was no malice in her eyes as she looked over at Xiu Shihong her eyes were pure, she only showed nervousness and anticipation, as well as the fighting spirit of a muscle brain! She was actually looking forward to this, if anyone in the stands new they would all cry tears!

...

Xiu Shihong focused on Ning Jiao first... the girl did was just as always.. and showed no hostility whatsoever, she just stood there ready with her large eyes looking up to her... the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. She had watched this girl's fights, and she was not like the other Ning at all, she was too pure.

She let out a sigh. What a stupid thing. Her mood soured and she readied her spear immediately. She was not clear how strong that fox was, but she would not lose here. She wanted to thoroughly shame and humiliate the Ning Clan. But she would not kill this girl. Even Xiu Shihong could see that this small girl was just a bystander, having not much to do with the Ning beside the name.

After all, Xiu Shihong was in core-formation, reading someone like Ning Jiao was quite easy to do for her. When she felt the impressive cold qi coming from the fox she actually shivered slightly before hardening her resolve. She was actually not watching Ning Jiao very much the most of her focus was on those small blue eyes.

Standing there they exchanged blows with their eyes before Kou created a large arsenal of ice spears floating on top of her, each and every single of them was fast and strong, shooting towards Xiu Shihong who struck them with their own spear shattering the bombardment in front of her. This was just to feel each other out after all!

However!

The Ice that shattered everywhere was Kou's next attack, every shard suddenly became lively and shoot towards Xiu Shihong. It was impossible to dodge! But Xiu Shihong flipped her hand and a talisman appeared in it. Slapping it into the air in front of her a golden protective Aura appeared around her blocking the Ice!

The ground mumbled. Xiu Shihong was more of the type to use brute force. She also was adept at using Talismans? That was quite something! It was rather rare in this country to have Talismans in the first place, the few that were around came from the outside world!

Kou curled her nose slightly, she signaled Ning Jiao to stand back and gather her strength, before Kou herself jumped further forward now directly confronting Xiu Shihong. With a swipe of her paws, a large claw out of ice shot out shattering parts of the Barrier! But behind the golden light, Xiu Shihong had already fully donned her armor and spear, preparing a counter-attack.

Afterward, the two of them vanished in afterimages, like only core-formation fighters and creatures of similar power could, their exchange of blows was shocking and on point! The Arena underneath them cracking again. However! This time the people had enough, there were actually 8 core formation elders as well as 200 cultivators of the 4th realm on standby! Now that it seemed dangerous everyone poured their power into the formation making it unbelievably strong, the cracks quickly closed.

With her two tails swaying wildly Kou felt frustrated, if she used anything else but Ice, she knew Xiu Shihong would know immediately! She already felt a suspicious look from the other girl. Also A Gold Core was really unfair! The amount of energy Xiu Shihong could pump out in a balanced manner was insane and Kou felt slightly dejected

...

While watching from above the old man was combing his beard watching. "Who would guess that there would be a heavenly and a mutated core here...These two might become quite formidable in the future!" He was actually looking down at both of them as children! It was not malicious at all but this was all he could see them at!

"Most people in this empire if they even make it far enough just have false cores, and their elite have the weak red core and think of themselves as strong. If these two stay here they would dominate this empire... but they would forever be unable to advance... I have to take them with me at all costs, even if I offend my old friend and the lord of this place."

He was quietly talking to himself, however as he did he felt a hand on his shoulder. Unbeknownst to him, someone had appeared. It was a middle-aged man, seemingly around 40 to 50 years old. He had a heroic appearance and would fit the description of a "Silver Fox" a mature man that could make the ladies swoon him!

His voice was smooth and deep, but the most striking feature was his eyes. deep and multicolored like a rainbow. "You need not fear my retribution... Neither of these girls is fully native to my lands. And we already discussed that I would send out some children... On the other hand, I need to observe this fight... to see if any of them is suitable to become my successor."

The Old man looked up and let out a sigh. Next to him was the lord of this small space. And it was nobody to carelessly offend! He had cultivated to the Grand Ascension realm! A true powerhouse in the mortal world, he could be said to be one of the overlords of this plane! However, he had retired into this land and shut everyone else out, he was in fact the Ancestor of the Ning family Ning Lei! The Earth God he was called.

While the Old Man was far beneath him in cultivation, they had developed a friendship of sorts over the past 500 years he had been the emissary in this place! While he himself was only in the great circle of Nascent Soul the other one was as closer to a true immortal then trifling mortals!

He let out a sigh "You have agreed with the other powers, I know it is necessary to send some out as symbolic hostages. So I indeed do not need to fear anything, it still eludes me why you would restrict the people here so badly. " He shook his head before looking back to the fight, while Ning Lei just had a smile on his face.

"I won't tell you either."

...

The Fight between the 3 of them had raged on for a while now. Neither Kou nor Xiu Shihong was able to get out any advantage, and Ning Jiao could not really do anything whatsoever, she was actually struggling to protect herself from the battle!

At least... it looked like neither of them had an advantage, Kou felt very unpleasant! She could not use any of her magic items, or other techniques so she was slowly but surely being pushed back because Shihong didn't hold back at all! She used her magic items, talismans, her techniques, everything! If Kou was able to act like that they would probably be even! But right now she was straining her Ice Core!

This was indeed very difficult! And Ning Jiao even if she was powerful as she was did fundamentally not have a chance here, she tried to attack once or twice after gathering her power but it just ended in the girl almost being kicked out of the Arena.

Finally, Kou had enough, even if Shihong knew. Kou had to win this so she came to a stop for a moment her icy blue eyes glowing in golden light for a moment before spears of light were mixed into her Ice-type attacks, she also spread her shadows out, jumping back and forth between the shadows created by her own attacks!

Xiu Shihong was... obviously shocked at the sudden change! She had used some effort to suppress this creature but now it suddenly attacked with things it had never displayed before! It even had darkness mixed into her domain which has previously only been ice! The fox was actually so fast, that Shihong was simply overwhelmed! She did not even see the creature arrive in front of her! Had she known that this creature could use these abilities she would have been surprised so easily!

A swift kick of her back paws, right into Xiu Shihongs face, In the same time, Ning Jiao was there, she had forced herself through all the chaos when nobody was actually paying any attention to her whatsoever! Nobody did, not the fighters nor the audience, she had just been standing there, listening to Kou. But when she saw Kou going all out she no longer held back! Her Fist was neatly buried in Xiu Shihongs belly - forcing air out of her mouth! The girl was kicked out of the Arena in a moment of shock and carelessness. She shattered the barrier and landed on the ground outside, her face bewildered.

She shoot back to her feet her eyes focused on the fox... which had a slightly sheepish expression on its face which was just so similar. For a moment Shihong just stood there. Then her brows knitted tightly together as she stared forward in a daze. The fox moved forward, looking down at her from the Arena, Ning Jiao standing next to her with a slightly apologetic expression. All of them were clear that if this had been a real fight it would not be over with just this.

Ring outs were quite rare, as the participants usually wanted to dominate their opponents.

Xiu Shihong standing there still slightly bewildered, glared at the fox. "We will talk once this calms down!" She growled before moving off with a swagger... there was no shame or defeat in her step... However! Kou and Ning Jiao had won. The people were silent for a moment before cheering came from everywhere. Who would've expected that the Young Ning's Spiritual beast was this powerful?!

Many people had some envy in their hearts as they looked at the white fox that was able to beat a core-formation expert! However... with the emperor not around nobody was there to hold a proper ceremony, so the few core-elders that lived had held up the barrier congratulated Ning Jiao instead, praising her quite a lot! However Ning Jiao had no use for this, she picked up Kou putting the small fox on her shoulder before bowing slightly to the elders. "I need to find my Honored Father to get my reward... " She pulled out her storage pouch and an impressive flying treasure was pulled out resembling a pink lotus flower. She shot into the air and flew off immediately not waiting to receive any more praise. After all, Ning Jiao knew that Kou only did all of this to save someone so she would not waste any more time with niceties.

...

Ning Lei watched after them, nodding slightly. "The young one is quite good... the blood of my wife is quite thick in her...and she has great aptitude. It's good that I noticed before those fools got sell her off somewhere..." He rubbed his beard, and together with the excited old man they vanished in a flash of light.

...

The Emperor sat on his Throne. His Broken Arm had already been healed, however, he still felt a sting of pain whenever he looked at that arm of his! How could the Ancestor and his own Father allow this! He had always been a good and filial son! Had he not brought all the big sects together to polish the talent this country had ever since he had heard that they would send some people to the outside world?!

Carefully he had instigated everything so that their youths could become the strongest! Just so that the outside world could hear of the might of the Ning! And with that, there would be benefits for the empire right? Everyone would profit so why did he have to suffer like this!

And his worst problem was currently in front of him. He had just recently gotten a letter from that young Master from the outside telling him that he would come and pick up Ning Jiao soon. But now that girl was fierce and strong! She had just won the Tournament, she would not be a good quiet little wife at all! So the girl that was currently standing in front of him with that damnable tiny fox on her head demanding her reward gave him quite the headache.

However with that beast with her had he any chance to suppress her?! He was not even sure, and he could not count on anyone to help him right now! The Elders were all on her side having seen her fight, and they knew nothing of his deal with that young lord. It was not strange to demand a powerful item after winning!

But the Flowering Blade ?!

....

Kou looked at the Emperor... unlike that other old man she had met in the palace before she got the feeling that she could stomp this guy easily, however, given that that old man was apparently his dad Kou did not want to make a ruckus, however, the silence in the room and the expression of the Emperor was annoying her to no end. She was currently on a time limit you know? Could you please hurry up!

She did not know or care for the emperor's current blight... and even if she knew she would not care. But suddenly their audience was interrupted by two old men, it was the old man from the arena, and the old man she had met with Ning Jiao before.

"What are you waiting for hand over her price son... my friend here already said he would take Ning Jiao along, so given her a treasure or two will just make her life easier in the future." The old man with sandals just crisscrossed his arms behind his back while watching his son.

Who let out a big sigh... "Fine.." With a flick of his sleeve, he pulled out a beautiful ornamented fan. It flew over to Ning Jiao who quickly caught it with a smile, putting it into her own bag. Having heard that she would get to go outside was already the most thrilling reward!

However, the gray beared old man looked at Kou now. "That includes you by the way." He spoke in passing to the fox, who froze on the spot. "Get your affairs in order I will bring you outside in half a year of time." He nodded slightly. Before looking down at both of you "A proper explanation will be given at a later date, just make sure you are ready, and here when the time comes." Obviously, this was an order, and he stretched out his hand. 2 small marks appeared on both Ning Jiao's right hand and Kou's right paw. "This is a mark that will tell me about your location." He nodded... After which Kou felt her back suddenly turn wet.

She had planned to go back to the Island with Shi Shi! Maybe ask her friends to come along but not go somewhere else! But now how would she go away from this old man who seemed even more powerful then Ning Jiao's granddad?! While her expression was not saying anything (She is a fox duh) her mind was in turmoil as they quickly left the throne chamber.