Silence. Total silence across the entire arena!
After a moment of stunned hesitation, every pair of eyes became rooted, motionless, upon that black stone tablet blazing with golden light.
Within the seats of honor, the crisp sound of teacups shattering against the floor rang out one after another. The representatives of all the powers of Wutan City sat there, mouths agape, faces steeped in utter disbelief.
The purpose of their coming today had been simply to confirm whether Xiao Yan really had, as the rumors told, leapt up four grades of Dou Qi within a single year.
Yet what was now playing out in the arena before them not only confirmed the truth of the rumors — it far, far exceeded anything they had expected.
Four grades in a year? Now it seemed the reckoning should be five. Such was this speed of cultivation that there was only a single word to describe it in the minds of the gathered: terrifying!
"This time, the Xiao Clan has struck it rich..." The gathered guests could not stop themselves from drawing a cold breath, murmuring to themselves. A member who could leap five grades of Dou Qi within a single year — one could imagine just how brilliant of a future awaited such a person.
"At this pace, perhaps... who could say, in a few decades' time, the Xiao Clan might produce a supreme powerhouse at the level of a Dou Huang." The guests exchanged glances, and an altogether chilling notion flashed through all their minds at once.
A Dou Huang — should any small family in the Jia Ma Empire produce a warrior of the Dou Huang level, then that family, whatever its limitations might otherwise be, would see its standing rise at once. Even the three great clans of the Jia Ma Empire would not dare to adopt a posture of oppression toward it; for a powerhouse of the Dou Huang level, in this vast and mighty empire, numbered only the barest two or three, and each one of them possessed the ability to overturn heaven and sea, to stand alone against ten thousand foes. No empire in its right mind would lightly choose to offend a Dou Huang warrior!
More than three hundred years ago, the then-solitary Dou Huang of the Jia Ma Empire had seen his own kin fall victim to the slaughter of a neighboring nation's war. Flying into a black rage, he had ridden out alone on a single horse and butchered the enemy's elite corps of ten thousand ironclad cavalry. The massacre saw rivers of blood flow, and the fierce renown he won thereby shook the whole of that country to its very foundations.
From that time onward, the empires of the Dou Qi continent rarely chose to offend a Dou Huang warrior again. From this alone, one could see just how fearsome the strongmen of the Dou Huang level truly were upon this land.
And it was for this reason that, upon witnessing the talent Xiao Yan had laid bare, the assembled guests felt for the Xiao Clan an envy not untinged with jealousy.
At the center of the elevated stage, Xiao Zhan's eyes too were stung somewhat sore by that golden script upon the black stone tablet. Only after some time had passed did he slowly let out a breath and turn a gratified gaze upon the black-robed youth in the arena, murmuring with a light laugh: "The wisest thing this life of mine has done, I suppose, was not letting any rift open up between Yan'er and his father..."
As Xiao Yan's father, Xiao Zhan understood his temperament through and through. He could still remember, clearly, how cold that son of his, barely born, had been toward him in his childhood — a gaze of ice, as though he were regarding a stranger, and not his own flesh and blood.
But thankfully, that old coldness had, under Xiao Zhan's heartfelt care and love, slowly thawed...
Recalling the cold war he and his little one had waged in those childhood days, a faint, gentle smile began to well at the corner of Xiao Zhan's mouth.
"Clan Head Xiao, the cultivation talent of Young Master Xiao Yan truly is astonishing. Your Xiao Clan might well be about to produce a remarkable strongman this time." At Xiao Zhan's side, Ya Fei trained a pair of beautiful eyes steadily upon the black-robed youth in the arena, and parting her rosy lips, said with a smile full of charm.
Xiao Zhan let out a couple of hearty laughs, the pride and delight on his face almost impossible to conceal. He offered Ya Fei a courteous cupped-fist salute, then sighed with a studied air of casualness: "Miss Ya Fei flatters him. This little one's talents in cultivation always come and go in fits and starts. You know of the blows he suffered in those three years. No one can tell whether such a turn might not befall him again. If it were to... ah."
Ya Fei's alluring eyes curved with a charming, low laugh. Whether Xiao Yan's talent would prove enduring or a mere flash in the pan, she could not yet know. The only thing she did know was that the Xiao Yan of today possessed a potential she found worthy of her regard — and that, for now, was enough.
A spell of her captivating gaze flowing outward, Ya Fei had already made up her mind in her heart: from this day forth, she would deal with the Xiao Clan often, and strive to stay on good terms with them!
...
Below the stage, Xiao Yu's small mouth hung slightly open, her pretty cheeks gone stiff, her eyes fixed upon the black stone tablet in stunned disbelief. After a long while, her full bosom rose and fell in great heaves. Hanging her head, she berated Xiao Ning — who sat there equally dumbfounded — in a thin fury: "Didn't you tell me he was only at the seventh grade? How has he risen again?"
Xiao Ning opened his mouth, and muttered rather innocently: "Last month he really was at the seventh grade... this month, it seems he has... broken through again?"
"To climb from the seventh grade to the eighth within a single month — how can that possibly be?" Xiao Yu snapped, her brows slanting up in fury. "Even if that one had recovered the talent he used to have, there is no way he could advance so fast!" Five grades in a single year? Damnable little scoundrel — a pace like that could practically rival that monstrous woman over at the Jia Nan Academy.
"How would I know..." Xiao Ning gave a dull, bitter smile. Then his gaze strayed toward Xun'er in the distance, only to find her watching the youth on the stage with rapt attention — and for his glance, not the faintest sign of any response.
"Damnable scoundrel!"
Thus ignored by the girl he secretly pined for, the flames of jealousy in Xiao Ning's heart surged out of him once more, without the slightest warning. He raised his head and glared savagely at Xiao Yan in the arena, his gnashing teeth lending that boyish face a decidedly fierce cast.