Chapter 45: Leaving BlueFire City

After a few minutes of this, Yang Ji was drenched in sweat, his limbs heavy and his speed decreasing with every second that passed.

After all, moving with such force and aggression also meant that the fighter would quickly become tired.

However, Jia Yuan was slightly better off. Although he had a weaker cultivation base and body and using the Song of Swords depleted his energy at a quick rate, he had managed to conserve more of his energy than Yang Ji had. After all, he had only focused on dodging and blocking.

Now is the time for the counterattack.

Jia Yuan had long ago become accustomed to fighting those stronger than him. After all, he had continuously sparred with Guo Huo while in the crater. He knew that to beat Yang Ji, he first needed to make it so that Yang Ji would waste his energy. After that, Jia Yuan could seize his chance to win. If he couldn’t win in that time frame, then he would have to concede the fight.

Now that the time had finally come, Jia Yuan switched his stances from those of the water dance to those of the fire dance.

He coalesced his fiery aura in his sword, and cut down with all of his strength!

The Yang Ji who could barely move his limbs was unable to defend himself, and Jia Yuan’s sword heavily cut into his body.

“I CONCEDE.”

Yang Ji managed to spit out these words, his face full of humiliation. He had been so confident going into the fight… but he had been played! Who with a Song of Fire would dodge like that anyway?

Instead of teaching the brat a lesson, he had suffered a large injury! He couldn’t stand to bear it. In fact, he couldn’t stand at all, as the wound was bleeding too much and he was devoid of energy.

Some medics quickly lifted Yang Ji onto a bamboo slab and transported him to infirmary.

On the stage, Jia Yuan stood with Hiryu facing toward the ground by his side. “Whoo…”

The last cut had cost Jia Yuan all of his strength. Even though the Song of Swords was such a domineering Song, this also meant that Jia Yuan exerted more energy whenever he fought with it.

Guo Huo understood this principle, that a higher level Song meant that more energy would be used. In fact, this was one of the reasons why he had had Jia Yuan practice control over his Song so extensively while in the crater.

However, in this fight, Jia Yuan could not exercise such control. If he did, he likely would have been unable to harm Yang Ji.

On stage, Jia Yuan breathed another sigh, and then fainted.

Guo Huo stepped onto the stage and picked Jia Yuan up. He looked down at the child in his arms, and had a guilty look on his face.

“Perhaps I was too greedy to try and get him to progress so fast… It looks like his Song is truly too strong. We’ll have to slow down his cultivation speed and focus more on developing the endurance of his body and mind.”

-A year and some months later-

Jia Yuan and Guo Huo sat in the biggest suite the Arena’s affiliated hotel had to offer. Long ago, Jia Yuan had already surpassed 100 wins in the arena, and his name was one of the most frequently discussed in BlueFire City. As for those he had beaten along the way, such as Jia Rou and Yang Ji, they had long ago left the city due to their names being frequently brought up as Jia Yuan’s first stepping stones.

But the Arena, along with the rest of the city, had learned a few days ago that Jia Yuan was leaving the city to pursue a career with the Burning Legion.

Their youngest champion was leaving!

“Jia Yuan, it’s time to leave.”

“Mm.” Jia Yuan now truly had the bearing of a noble, and acted as one as well. After reaching 100 wins, Jia Yuan had been invited to many a feast in his honor. Clearly, the nobles of BlueFire City wanted to foster good relations with this child genius.

After all, Jia Yuan was at the 5th level of Absorption, but could already easily defeat those of the 9th level of Absorption. Many even hypothesized that he would be able to give those at the 1st level of Manipulation a run for their money.

In actuality, Jia Yuan’s body and mind were more than sufficient to support a low level Song at the 2nd level of Manipulation. It was only because of the Song of Swords that he was still at the 5th level of Absorption. As Jia Yuan progressed, the level of energy consumed by the Song of Swords was simply astonishing.

Even though Jia Yuan was revered by nobles and had to maintain an air of nobility around him at most times, Jia Yuan still had his moments where he reverted to his past self, when he would spend his time playing with the other kids in the streets.

Children who were nobles, commoners, or even slaves. It didn’t matter what kind of background they had, Jia Yuan would be willing to play with them all! As a champion of the Arena, many of these kids looked up to him, and as a former slave, who was he to discriminate?

But today, Jia Yuan and Guo Huo were leaving BlueFire City. Jia Yuan was to head to the capitol of the Fire Kingdom, HuoShen City, while Guo Huo was returning to RockFire City. In all honesty, he had nothing more to teach Jia Yuan for the time being, and was therefore returning to his old post. Although he had more stuff to teach Jia Yuan after Jia Yuan had reached the Manipulation and True Disciple stages, there was nothing more he could teach in the Absorption level.

Even Jia Yuan’s swordplay was as exquisite has Guo Huo’s axe handling. His control of his Fire Dance was also wondrous, and his Water Dance wasn’t too far behind.

The two left the hotel and walked to the city gates of BlueFire City, surrounded by Jia Yuan’s fans and the friends he had made during his time there. Even most of the nobles had come to send him off.

Teacher and student looked at each other while standing outside of the city gates. They embraced each other, word not needing to be spoken.

Jia Yuan was thankful for Guo Huo, while Guo Huo was glad that he had picked such an adept disciple.

The two patted each other on the back and let go. Then, they walked their different paths.

Jia Yuan had arrived at BlueFire City in awe of everything in it, and was now leaving with the good will of everybody* in it

Dou Di big brother! I wonder how you’ve been!

*Except for Jia Rou and Yang Ji’s friends.