“I will surprise him with something totally different, it is so obvious he is expecting me to repeat my earlier actions,” Huiling thought to herself.

She channeled Ki into the bracelet on her right wrist, and as it flowed from there to her hand, an intense scarlet aura surrounded it.

Xiaoxia redirected his path fifteen feet before reaching Huiling. When he glanced at her, he could see a look of surprise on her face, even as she changed her direction while raising her hands.

In the next second, intense scarlet Ki streams shot out from her palm in a conical area towards where he is.

“BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!”

Hitting nothing but air, the ground shattered as chunks of it flew everywhere from the point of impact. Craters up to a feet deep were gouged out from where the Ki streams hit.

Huiling applied her own foot technique and shifted off to her right side, as she let off another barrage of Ki attacks towards where Xiaoxia moved to.

She was startled when he changed his direction, it was against what she previously thought. Even more so when he did a repeatedly.

“BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!”

Her attacks missed him again, as he was no longer there.

She kept moving with her foot technique, assured that no country hick is going to be able win her in a competition of foot techniques.

-

It is not going exactly as planned, however it was more or less working.

“As I thought, she is slower than me,” Xiaoxia confirmed his earlier observations.

This time he let off a few focused Ki blast towards her whenever he changed direction.

“WHAM! WHAM!”

She blocked it with her right hand, and somehow the her Ki defense seemed impenetrable. It did not even flicker when the focused Ki attacks hit it.

“Something is wrong,” Xiaoxia was trying to understand the reason to Huiling’s attack and defense prowess.

-

The spectators’ galley had been expanded onto the stadium field, and it is now just a hundred feet from the single battle dais in the middle of it. This allowed the stadium to accommodate over a million spectators.

In the front VVIP section, while Amelia was screaming her usual support, Instructor Wei was becoming a little suspicious and looked towards Menon.

“Old Man, are you thinking what I am thinking?” she asked him.

“Yes, I have been observing that young lady, and it seems peculiar that there is such an unpleasant aura coming from her. What is more peculiar is that bracelet she is wearing, it is very likely made from a mythical creature,” he told her.

“I thought so as well, it would explain why she is able to develop her attacks and defense to such a level,” she agreed.

“There is however a big problem, the more she uses it, the more her mind will be influenced by its primal instincts,” Menon informed her.

“That is none of my concern, I only worry how is Xia Er going to overcome this. Besides I still cannot put my finger to how she is able to use it,” Instructor Wei opined.

“My only guess from what research shows, is most probably the innocence of a child’s mind, that made it accept its owner. There are many similar artifacts who are known to work only for children, and remains attached to them even as they grow older,” he added.

“Innocence? Don’t make me laugh, how in the world is Huiling an innocent child? From what I was told, she was born rotten,” Instructor Wei relayed the information Amelia had told her.

Amelia did not even pay any heed when this was mentioned, as she continued shouting her support oblivious to her surroundings.

“Perhaps, but it is the only explanation why it would work on her. Besides no child is born rotten, its only their upbringing. I daresay whatever we hear she has done, may be to her it’s the right thing. Right and wrong is a matter of perspective,” he enlightened her.

“Don’t teach me how to suck eggs old man,” Instructor Wei retorted.

-

“Impossible!” was the next thing to come to Huiling’s mind.

Whenever she tried to approach Xiaoxia, he would vanish from the spot and appear somewhere else. She had been trying to get close to him to finish him off.

It did not dawn upon her that perhaps he is faster than she is, and it only made her more frustrated and reckless.

She began to pour Ki into the palm of her hands, while applying her foot technique to avoid Xiaoxia’s focused Ki attacks.

As the energy flowed into her palm, it became brighter and brighter, and within a short duration it’s glow was half as big as she was in person.

The referee sensed something was amiss and immediately pulled out a device from his belt. After activating it, a thick energy barrier formed all around him.

He could defend it without its aide, but that will just bring unwanted attention. Not something he needed, and definitely not something his organization would appreciate.

Being careless was no stranger to him, and he learnt it through the hard way. It was perhaps the best kept secret that he is actually much older than anyone else present there.

-

“Hmmm, that guy looks awfully familiar, I definitely know him,” Jay said to himself, as he observed from his usual spot in the rafters.

His attention was drawn to the referee when he activated the energy shield. While looking at him, Jay’s mind refused to accept the fact the referee is that someone.

“Nah! That is not possible, I think I made a mistake,” he mumbled, as he turned his attention back to the match. It is getting really exciting.

-

Xiaoxia felt a huge aura gathering around Huiling, it felt vaguely similar to something he saw a few months back. This current aura is not comparable to the one from the previous time, but it’s purpose is definitely the same.

Back then he saw Jay unleashed his abilities and annihilated the battle room, all the skills he used was for a very simple reason. It was solely meant for destruction.

He immediately faced towards Huiling and poured as much Ki as he could generated to the front portion of his body, while crouching down protecting his head and other vital organs.

“Damn it, what is she trying to do?!! Ergh!” he swore, as he winced in pain.

His right arm was radiating pain throughout his body when he immediately activated his Ki defense. The flow of Ki aggravated the wound and blood began to seep slowly from it.

He was swearing, because he knew the attack that Huiling was going to do, will most probably create havoc on the battle dais. What was even worse, is that the energy shield would probably not be able to handle this attack.

-

"Damn! Everyone take cover!” Instructor Wei shouted loudly, noticing it as well.

By amplifying and transmitting her voice with Ki, she could be heard in the entire stadium instantly. It is one of the techniques limited only to people in the Unknown Realm.

It was too late for most of those who were nearer to the dais, as they had no idea what it meant. On top of this, their reaction time was really bad.

The moment Huiling stopped moving, she raised her palms overhead and sneered towards Xiaoxia, it was all or nothing for her. The blue Ki from her left hand mixed with the red Ki from her right, causing a purple facula at their point of contact.

“BA DA BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!”

The explosive energies collided and rained out innumerous shards of purple Ki, as it wrecked the shield of the battle dais and bombarded into the spectators. The Ki shards flew over a few hundred feet and gradually dissipated, but not before hitting everything in their path.

Amongst those closest, many could not avoid the Ki shards as it smashed into them and they crumpled onto the ground, suffering terrible injuries.

-

Xiaoxia could feel the impacts of the Ki shards behind his Ki defense, as its intensity fluctuated against the onslaught. It worked perfectly and it held up against the attack, albeit barely.

By tightly crouching and concentrating all his Ki defense to the front, he was able to use less Ki to set up a much stronger and concentrated shield for the smaller area. He would have been hard pressed to do so while moving or standing up.

The multiple impacts of the Ki shards drove him dozens of feet away and he almost tumbled over. The whole stretch of the ground behind him was undamaged, while the rest of the area was pockmarked with craters.

-

“Haha! I win! There is no one who can withstand that,” Huiling declared to no one in particular.

There is a twenty feet radius around her which is free from damages and dust. Beyond this, the entire field was choked with a wall of dust, and distant coughs and wheezes were heard from the spectators. The visibility was close to zero, and she did not know Xiaoxia had successfully defended against the attack.

Her knees wobbled, as she sank to the ground. The bracelet did its job perfectly well, but took its toll. It turned her right arm greyish-purple and the skin surrounding it looked withered and dead.

Huiling was not too concerned, modern healing could repair this damage in no time. Moreover she will recover with no side effects. There were past occasions this happened before, besides the immense costs involved, there was nothing for her to worry about.

“Huh?” she exclaimed, as a figure rose up slightly to the left in front of her.

“It must be the referee,” she concluded, however feeling a little confused how he could survive the point blank blast.

The referee was still hidden in the cloud of dust, and he did not suffer any damages. It was not him that Huiling saw.

“This is rather unfortunate,” he murmured, things are not going well.

He made a slight movement and vanished from the spot.

Xiaoxia noticed earlier the only area that was free from the suffocating dust was directly ahead of him. He stood up and moved over to avoid breathing in more dust.

-

The moment he entered the area, he was looking at the shocked face of Huiling. He immediately noticed a few things, one of them being that she was sitting on the ground, and the next was the ugly greyish-purple look on her right arm.

Forgetting the competition was still ongoing, he approached with his guard down, trying to extend an offer of help. He was brought up in a good family and knew the ways of chivalry, hence it was a natural reaction when he saw Huiling in that state.

-

She was extremely shocked at how this country hick managed to survive the attack. The Ki shards that rained out in the hundreds of thousands, would have turn anyone into shreds. Although individually their power was weak and barely comparable to the Ki blade she used to slice his arm, their sheer numbers would have made up for it.

The last straw for her, is when he approached her with sympathy in his eyes, she hated it beyond more than anything in the universe.

"How dare he look at me with sympathy!!!!", right at this instant she lost all semblance of human control and went rabid on him.

-

Xiaoxia was about eight feet away, when he noticed something terribly wrong. Huiling’s eyes turned crimson right this moment and she shot out at a tremendous speed from where she sat.

He instinctively reacted to it and sidestepped, as her left hand clawed at his face. The next thing he knew, she was lunging at his neck with her teeth, as a loud snarl came from her.

Turning his whole body to avoid this, she flew passed him and landed on three of her limbs. The right hand limply flailing around as she move erratically. It was a very pitiful sight.

She was not using any Ki, and everything she is doing now was something that Xiaoxia have never experienced before in his whole life.

“RARH!” she roared out, and went for his jugular once again.

This time Xiaoxia twisted to his right and fluidly brought down his left hand on the back of her neck. At this, she landed in a heap with her body twitching in spasms.

**********

It took more than a couple of minutes for the dust to settle and visibility to be restored back on the dais. By then anyone could see Xiaoxia was the only one left standing, with his right arm bleeding again.

It took another few more minutes for it to sink in, as a substitute referee was sent to declared the winner. The chaos that happened earlier, as well as having no idea where the previous referee went, added to the confusion and the delay.

“Red side unable to continue!” the substitute referee announced and added, “Blue side wins!”

The crowd who were shocked into silence at the terrible event earlier, roared in appreciation. They totally supported Xiaoxia, and they viewed him as the hero who took down the villain Huiling.

**********

“What an unexpected result, it could not have been better! I owe you one Chen Zhen Xia, you did my job for me. Now the only thing left is to finish it,” the child thought, as it took out the restricted item and headed for the medical facility.