Chapter 40 - The Finals

Stepping up and entering stage 1, Qing Yi looked at the girl in front of her cautiously. The girl, was called Yi Xuan and she managed to place third in the entrance examination, compared to her who entered only due to her master's help.

Yi Xuan was even one small cultivation realm above her and was most definitely stronger than she was, but Qing Yi did not let this dissuade her from fighting. No matter what, she had decided to give the fight her all.

"Hello, I'm Qing Yi." Walking up to Yi Xuan, Qing Yi bowed slightly as she introduced herself.

"Yi Xuan. Hope we can have a good fight!" Yi Xuan smiled slightly upon seeing Qing Yi's introduction.

The difference between the final fight in the newcomer tournament compared to the rest of the fights was obvious as everyone had their eyes focused on stage 1, waiting for the battle to begin.

"Yi Xuan, Qing Yi, both of you may begin fighting when you are ready!" The elder in charge of stage 1 announced the beginning of the final match and the crowd eagerly watched as the final match began.

Qing Yi and Yi Xuan quickly took a few meters distance from each other before starting to measure one another up. Trying to grasp an opening in the other party's defence.

In an instant Yi Xuan suddenly shot forward as she suddenly launched an attack towards Qing Yi.

When the surrounding people saw this scene, they all felt that the outcome of the match had already been determined. As for Qing Yi, her heart became nervous as she looked at the incoming attack from Yi Xuan. How could she block off this attack?

At the moment when Yi Xuan appeared directly in front of Qing Yi, she barely managed to raise both her hands in a defensive posture before she suddenly felt like both her arms were about to break at any moment under the pressure of Yi Xuan's attack.

The qi inside her dantian frantically flowed towards the point of impact trying to repair the damage and fend off the foreign qi that was slowly invading Qing Yi's body through her arms.

It was the moment that the foreign qi of Yi Xuan reached her dantian that Qing Yi suddenly felt her qi flare up as it aggressively pushed the foreign qi out of her body and expelling it directly at Yi Xuan, causing her to retreat in pain at the sudden burst of qi hitting her.

Feeling the power of her qi having recovered completely along with an illusion of endless power suddenly flowing through her, Qing Yi attacked Yi Xuan before she managed to recover from the earlier burst of qi hitting her.

The attack came too fast for Yi Xuan to react and she was hit directly in the chest as she tried to make more distance between the two of them, she breathed in and out with a bit of difficulty before refocusing herself and countering Qing Yi's follow up attack.

The attack from Qing Yi was simple and lacked any sort of technique, clearly, she had not trained in any sort of martial technique for close quarters combat and was only using her fists infused with qi to attack Yi Xuan.

Yi Xuan on the other hand was a little different and at least trained in some martial art techniques for close quarter combat. The attack earlier which resulted in her qi infiltrating Qing Yi's body was an example of such a technique.

Yi Xuan would understandably not choose to use the same martial technique again, as she got hit by a backlash last time.

Blocking Qing Yi's attack, Yi Xuan thought about how she should deal with her.

Swoosh!

Dodging an incoming attack by Qing Yi, Yi Xuan managed to draw a distance between the two of them.

Qing Yi knew this was bad as she had lost the upper hand and the chances of Yi Xuan being caught off guard once again was close to none.

Yi Xuan knew this as she took her time to contemplate over how she would go about her next and possibly final attack.

"Your new disciple is quite strong Xuan Hao, but she seems to not have trained any sort of martial technique for close combat… This match is already over…" Looking at Qing Yi with a slight shake of his head Wang Hu determined the outcome of the match.

"Indeed… Looks like I will have to find a martial technique for her, so she won't be so hopeless without a weapon…" Looking down at Qing Yi, Xuan Hao sighed slightly as he saw Yi Xuan take advantage of her lack of a good martial technique and knock Qing Yi out of the stage in one simple yet complicated move.

Qing Yi, who was hit by the attack looked slightly bewildered and sad at the outcome of the fight.

While she already knew that she was not at the same cultivation realm as her opponent, she did not believe the reason that she would lose would be her lack of any sort of martial technique.

Let alone a good palm technique for fighting close quarters, she had never trained even the weakest martial technique. All she had ever trained before was sword techniques that her father had taught to her since she was small…

"Hah…" Sighing at the outcome, Qing Yi turned to look at the place where her master was sitting.

"Xuan Hao, your disciple is looking over here! Remember to give her a bright smile and don't show any sort of disappointment, that will only make the little one more sad than she already is! Losing is not a fun thing, but we all need to go through it in the process of learning…" Wan Hu nudged Xuan Hao's shoulder as he told him.

Xuan Hao heard him clear as day and turned to look over in Qing Yi's direction.

At the moment, Qing Yi looked beaten up with a slightly swollen eye from a fist attack that had managed to hit her in the face. This made her look quite pitiful, and Xuan Hao could not help but feel bad for her.

"It's fine to lose Qing Yi, it's a part of the learning process, just show her how much you can improve in the next tournament that the sect holds!" Sending over his divine sense, Xuan Hao transferred a message to her.

Qing Yi heard her master's words and instantly lit up with determination shining in her eyes as she turned to look towards Yi Xuan.

"The winner of this year's newcomer tournament is Yi Xuan!" As the elder announced the result of the final match, Qing Yi made her way out of the venue to meet up with her friend Zhi Ruo and Zeng Shihan.

"You don't have to worry so much about it, Qing Yi, you managed to get second place! That in itself is already awesome!"

"Yeah, I'm sure you will be able to win against that Yi Xuan in the future!"

"Indeed, there is always a next time!" Hearing both her friends, Qing Yi smiled brightly as the three of them made their way out of the tournament ground.

Meanwhile, Xuan Hao watched Qing Yi taking off with a wry smile on his lips.

"What about the reward for second place…? Why do you just leave…? Don't you want the reward, or did you just forget?"

"Second place you may come up on the stage for the reward ceremony! Second place? Qing Yi! Is she still there?" As Xuan Hao saw the elder looking around confused on the stage wondering where Qing Yi went, Xuan Hao sighed to himself.

Hah… Having a disciple was indeed troublesome…