Severing Time & Space

Treachery at the Tournament

Fifteen winners were selected from the people who took part in the preliminaries. The girl who was part of the Zhou Clan was one of the winners. After the preliminaries, the Zhou Clan's branch head asked everyone who would be taking part in the tournament to travel down to the arena floor.

Wu Jian stood among the crowd of forty-five contestants. There were a lot more people this year than there had been last year. Ten were from his Wu Clan, but there were also ten from the Juishi Clan and another ten from the Ming Clan. The other fifteen, including the girl from the Zhou Clan, made up the remaining forty-five.

Standing on either side of Wu Jian was Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu, and a little further from them was Ming Shen and his group. He could feel the older boy glaring holes into the back of his head. Wu Jian did his best to ignore the glare and focus on what the Zhou Clan branch head was saying.

"The tournament will now begin. My people will erect four rings, which will serve as the battleground for individual fights. Contestants will be selected to fight from a random drawing. I want each of you to come up here and grab a slip from within this box."

As he said this, he gestured to a small box with a single hole at the top, which sat upon a pedestal. Everyone formed a line, stuck their hands into the box one at a time, and pulled out a slip. Wu Jian looked at the slip in his hand. Four. Then he looked up at Wu Meiying and Hou Jingshu.

"What number did you two get?" he asked.

"One," Wu Meiying said, holding up her slip.

"I got three," Hou Jingshu answered.

"I guess that means we won't fight for some time yet," he said. He considered this a good thing. Wu Jian didn't want to fight either Wu Meiying or Hou Jingshu until the end of the tournament.

"Each of you will be placed within a bracket based on your number. Head to the ring with the sign for your designated number. There, you will fight your opponents until one of you is chosen as the victor," Zhou Zu said. He looked across at the sea of heads, Wu Jian thought for sure he paused upon reaching the veiled girl, but then he continued talking. "Winners are selected by knockout, ring out, or surrender. Killing is not allowed. Even if you only kill someone by accident, you will still be disqualified and your family punished. Remember that."

They really weren't playing around. After saying this, everyone was asked to clear the area. Several Zhou Clan cultivators entered the arena, made a series of hand seals to synchronize their chi, and released their technique. Four large rings grew out of the ground. Each one was perfectly square shaped and stood about one foot off the arena floor. There was enough room between them for maybe six people to stand shoulder to shoulder.

"It looks like this year's competition is much bigger than the one two years ago," Wu Meiying said as they were making their way up the stairs.

"There are definitely a lot more people this time," agreed Wu Jian.

"How many people participated last time?" asked Hou Jingshu.

"From the Wu Clan, it was just me, Wu Meiying, and Wu Yong," Wu Jian said. "The Ming and Juishi Clans had four participants each."

"While anyone from the ages of eight to fifteen can participate, most clans only allow people who are at least thirteen to take part. Jian and I were exceptions to the rule," Wu Meiying said. After all, they had only been nine when they first participated.

As they were walking up the stairs, Wu Jian stopped upon seeing something out of the corner of his eye.

"Quickly, hide behind that column, you two," Wu Jian said in a hurried whisper.