For all that William was now based in Liaoyang, once they actually entered the country and were headed toward the Yu clan, he couldn’t help but think about Ostana. To be fair, he’d lived in Ostana more than twice his current lifespan in his previous life… and a third of his current life as well. However he was also worried about them because they seemed the least ready to fight the Demon King. Perhaps that was not true, but at the very least that was what William had seen, with the entire Wizard’s Guild, such as it was, being completely unprepared. On the other hand, it was possible that William just hadn’t seen factions like that in the other countries. It just grated on him particularly hard in Ostana because the guild should have been prepared, but instead had made things worse than doing nothing at all.

William found that the city streets were rather empty. It wasn’t that it was a strange time of day, the sun was high in the sky, but not many people were out and about. Upon reaching the gates of the Yu clan, William learned why from the guards at the gate. “Greetings, young master. Most of the clan is over at the arena, where a tournament is happening.”

William hadn’t heard about any such tournament coming up… but he had also been gone for about a year, and it was entirely possible to organize and hold one in that time. That would explain where everyone was. William and Dong Xin made their way to the arena, and then to the section where the Yu clan was watching. Everyone seemed to be concentrated on the current match, so William turned to watch the stage as well.

On the stage he saw Yu Huan faced off against someone he didn’t know. He had somewhat felt ripples of power, but they were quite muted outside of the arena floor. However, upon looking and concentrating, he got a better sense of what was going on. It wasn’t particularly an interesting spectacle to watch with just the eyes. While William had to admit that there was a rather impressive display of unarmed techniques, that was the limit of the visual interest. William knew that different tournaments had different rules, and some of them forbid weapons for the sake of safety. However, William thought such a tournament wouldn’t draw so many people… and more importantly such tournaments generally focused on what martial techniques people could use. It was not that there wasn’t anything being used, but it was just that it couldn’t be seen.

Not that William couldn’t tell what was going on, but he was somewhat surprised to find that both Yu Huan and her opponent were using soul techniques. They really weren’t that common, since they were very hard to train to an effective level, as well as generally being kept secret. William watched as he felt that waves of power were pouring out and then crashing against each other, creating ripples and new waves as they collided into each other and deflected each other. Visually, Yu Huan had just thrown a punch and her opponent had kicked out, with neither connecting in a solid hit.

William watched as the resulting waves rolled off of Yu Huan and her opponent. They were both diminished when deflected, but some made it through. However, Yu Huan appeared to be using Soul Armor, and William thought the opponent was also using something similar. Upon looking closer, her opponent was older, though William couldn’t tell exactly from where he was. However, at the very least he didn’t appear to be a young adult. That told William that this wasn’t a tournament for the younger generation alone.

As the fight continued, William felt that Yu Huan had the upper hand. Though he felt that her level of training was lower, somewhere in the second major breakthrough versus the third, she seemed to be winning in the exchanges. William could see that the waves of energy she released were more focused, cutting through that of her opponent. Although he seemed a bit more swift and accurate with his attacks, when the effects collided he seemed to be losing out.

Then Yu Huan’s opponent threw an attack that solidly hit her in the abdomen, while at the same time he blocked her kick with his other arm. Then, he collapsed. Sounds of surprise rang out from the audience. William hadn’t particularly expected that result either, but upon reviewing what he saw, it made sense. Although Yu Huan had taken a hit directly to her abdomen, she had also concentrated the majority of her Soul Armor technique in that area as the attack came in. Meanwhile, she had struck an arm that wasn’t specially defended. Normally that wouldn’t be good enough to take someone down- the arm wasn’t even broken. However, that was thinking in terms of normal attacks. In matters of the soul, there weren’t any particular weak points throughout the body.

In that sense, Yu Huan concentrating her soul armor was a somewhat risky move, because if she got hit elsewhere her defense would have been weaker. On the other hand, William saw that she had actively shifted it to that area upon seeing the attack. Meanwhile, her attack connected with the arm. That didn’t particularly matter, because the body was just the way to access the soul. It wasn’t something William could easily explain to others, but as he saw it, the soul was sort of evenly spread throughout the body. At the very least, attacks on any area could reach the soul, but the total contact area somewhat mattered, and somewhat didn’t. The actual physical attack was less important than the soul aspect. However, fast attacks meant a higher chance of a hit on the actual body, and many soul attacks were more efficient when transmitted across shorter distances. Thus, one could use a soul attack at a distance, but without proper control most of the effectiveness would be lost. This was especially the case in more powerful attacks.

As William was thinking about that, there was suddenly sounds of excitement. William expected such from the area around him, which contained the Yu clan, but there was also a good uproar from everywhere. William realized that he had just watched the end of the final match. He had to say that it was quite interesting to see, and he wished he had arrived sooner to see the rest of the matches.