The Six Immortals Chapter 21

 Watch and Learn   The devil’s territory was massive in size; some considered it to be boundless. There were a lot of cities on the borders; Jiu You was one such city. The devil’s territory was full of demons, and all kinds of goblins, witches and other evil beings. This place was always reeking of trouble. The devil’s territory was a good place for all levels of practitioners to gain experience and train. Several schools even sent ‘fetus’ level students into the devil’s territory. In Jiu You city, a lot of schools had made it compulsory for their new recruits to survive in the devil’s territory, so they could learn discipline. Schools in Quinyang had the same rule; a new student would have to survive a month inside the devil’s region before starting training with the school. No exceptions were made, not even if student belonged to an influential family. This was done to improve the self-control of the students and would provide them with valuable experience, which would make them better over time. Bi Fan had received all this information from Xiaofeng. Xiaofeng had taken the charge to mentally prepare Bi Fan for this test. She also told him about various other things that happen inside the devil’s territory. “Bi Fan, if you wish to survive inside the devil’s territory, then you will need to be very careful. It’s not the demons that you really need to worry about, but the people. There will be a lot of people inside the devil’s territory and you will need to be careful and on guard against them.” Xiaofeng had cautioned him. This made sense to Bi Fan, practitioners competing against each other often held grudges. If such two martial artists happened to meet in the devil’s territory, then a blood bath would be inevitable. “Thank you Xiaofeng, I will make sure that I’m well prepared before I enter the devil’s territory.” Bi Fan had said. That day, in the evening, Bi Fan practiced even harder than usual. He even started practicing the first technique from the secrets of double-edged swords, ‘The rainy-flying sword.’ There was always of chance of running into trouble inside the devil’s territory, and he needed to be well prepared to defend himself. ‘The rainy-flying sword’ technique was a rather strange technique. It didn’t involve much use of strength; in fact the sword would appear as light as a feather, simply leaning to the sides.  However, it was a very difficult technique to learn, so naturally, in such a short time, Bi Fan hadn’t been able to get a good grasp of things. In order to defend himself, Bi Fan didn’t mind using the forbidden techniques. He knew that in critical times, when things got desperate, forbidden techniques could come in handy. So, apart from practicing ‘the rainy-flying sword’, Bi Fan also practiced ‘the blood devil’ technique. Next morning, all the girls from Yunufeng were ready to go out, to see the student’s tournament, and so was Bi Fan. Of course, most of these girls were more interested in watching Jing Feng, rather than the tournament itself. Today Xiaofeng had dressed up all nice and had even put on some make-up. She looked very beautiful. Looking at Xiaofeng made Bi Fan’s heart a little sad. He knew that she had specially put in so much effort into her appearance today as she might get to meet Jing Feng. “Am I falling in love with Xiaofeng? No, I don’t deserve Xiaofeng.” Bi Fan was a little surprised that this thought had even come into his mind. “Xiaofeng has been very kind to me, I’m sure it’s just an illusion, I’m just very fond of her.” Bi Fan told his heart, in an attempt to convince himself. The Ming Fung valley was even more crowded than it was yesterday. A large number of people had gathered to witness that student’s tournament. Even though the tournament hadn’t started yet, the cheers were already flying in all directions. “Jing Feng! Jing Feng! You are the most handsome, you are strongest…” the girls kept shouting after him as he warmed up. As for the boys, most of them were envious and jealous of Jing Feng, so they wouldn’t cheer for him much. “Mo Nan! Mo Nan! Knock out Jing Feng!” Mo Nan was consider second only to Jing Feng, but he looked somewhat rugged and violent, so naturally wasn’t a favorite when it came to the girls. However, when it came to beating Jing Feng and embarrassing him, he was the best hope the boys had. Cheers for Mo Nan were louder, even overshadowed those for Jing Feng. After all, the number of boys present was more than girls; hence they were making more noise. “Really crazy day, huh!” Bi Fan exclaimed.  Yunufeng girls had arrived a little late, but still managed to get seats very close to the rings. Jing Feng quickly spotted Bi Fan and came to join him. “Bi Fan, you kept your promise.” Jing Feng had come over to meet Bi Fan so he could get a look at all the Yunufeng girls, as they rarely ever left the Mountain. Specially Xiaofeng, as she looked very gorgeous today. Jing Feng had an accomplished name, and a gifted martial artist. Furthermore, he really appreciated beauty. Bi Fan smiled: “Brother, you need to concentrate on your preparation.” He couldn’t catch Jing Feng’s gaze, his eyes looked a little distant. “This contest doesn’t require much work” Jing Feng said, in a relaxed tone. “Jing Feng, you’re going to win!” A girl shouted. Jing Feng was already carrying himself as a champion, so no wonder all the girls were going crazy about him. Unfortunately, like every other man, Bi Fan couldn’t help but feel jealous of him. After the contestants had gathered, Ling Xin Ya took his seat and announced the start of the tournament. Ten rings had been set up, and ten sets of officials would be monitoring and judging the fights. The contest offered sixteen very generous rewards to the winners, which attracted a lot of martial artists to participate. The tournament was being contested by close to a thousand participants. The ballot would randomly draw out two names, and the fight would start. The tournament followed an elimination system, and only the winner would be allowed to progress to the next round. The participants would be put in a pool of sixteen, and the winners would progress to the next pool. The student’s tournament displayed some excellent fights between some very talented players, which was the reason it attracted such a large gathering. Most of the students were around ‘brave’ layer, even the ones who were at ‘inner breath’ layer, were stronger than ordinary martial artists of the same rank as they knew some really skilled techniques. To win at such a level, one would require a great amount of skill. Bi Fan was already mesmerized, plus, he really wanted see some new tricks. Bi Fan could now easily memorize new things, so he could use this skill and collect books that illustrated the new techniques that he witnesses, and then learn them. And as long as he could a good look at the technique, he would be able to memorize it by heart with ease. Even if he wasn’t strong enough to practice these techniques, it would make it easier to deal with them if he ever encountered them in the future. Not just that, the more skills he picked up, the easier it would be for him to come up with his own variations, which would very beneficial for him. Previously, Bi Fan’s memory hadn’t been very strong, but now he could remember things with ease, which was oddly surprising. Bi Fan wasn’t aware that most of the changes in his body were brought about by the Ying Yang lotus. He believed that it was the Wannian Spirit Milk that had given him such amazing talents. Xioafeng was sitting beside Bi Fan and was constantly looking at him as his eyes swept from one ring to the other, studying and observing the different techniques on display. She was rather surprised, so she asked him: “Bi Fan, can you make you what they are doing?” “Keep looking.” He replied, not even bothering to face her. He needed to pay a very close attention to the techniques on display in order to practice them later. “Bi Fan, you’d be better off picking one stage and watching the fight. It would help you gain some experience.” Xiaofeng advised. “I know.” Bi Fan’s eyes still not glued to one ring, as he continuously kept changing his line of sight to get a look at new skills. “HMMPPHH” Xiaofeng groaned, slightly animated and offended.

Chapter end