The grand competition of Dragons and Phoenixes is about to start, and unlike yesterday, where there were ten platforms, today only four remain, but each is bigger than yesterday and labeled A to D. This time, Lucian is in bracket A, and today, he's the first to fight, and his opponent is none other than Han Daeyhun.
The stands were buzzing with murmurs.
"Han Daeyhun, isn't he the Radiant Light Sect's golden child, so he's going first, eh?" one wandering cultivator whispered, stroking his beard.
"Golden child or not, you really think he can best that boy?" another scoffed.
"That Lucian… didn't he defeated Jin Hyeon-ryu with only one move???!"
"Tch, ridiculous. Jin Hyeon-ryu didn't even react and he's already defeated.... this brat might be a monster," said a swordsman from the Snow Lotus Clan, narrowing his eyes.
"Hah, monster or demon, it's the same! Look at his ominous aura... both him and his sword—definitely not someone of the righteous path," muttered a righteous sect elder under his breath.
Among all the young masters of the righteous alliance, Han Daeyhun is the most hateful toward Lucian. He despises this young lad deep into his bones for no reason other than assuming he's from the demonic sect.
A group of junior disciples huddled together knowing Han Daeyhun temperament.
"Isn't that a bit extreme? Hating someone just for being in demonic sect? They don't even come out of their mountain peak." whispered a timid girl from the Azure River Sect.
"Shh!" hissed her senior brother. "You'll get yourself scolded saying things like that. Han Daeyhun is known for being obsessed with righteousness!"
"He's like that because he's righteous!!!" another disciple interjected, puffing out his chest. "A man like him won't stand for corruption. He's the future hope of our alliance!"
"Hope? Hah. More like being self-righteous to me." A mysterious man cloaked in black robes chuckled darkly, earning sharp glares from the righteous disciples around him.
Han Daeyhun grew up in an orphanage until he was 10. His mother died giving birth to him, and his father became a drunkard who blamed him for the death of his wife, always abusing Han Daeyhun. His father also became a gambling addict, leading to him being unable to pay the debt he owed to an illegal gambling house. His father, who was scared to die, exchanged Han Daeyhun to pay off his debt. After being sold as a slave, he was secretly transported to their hideouts, but some bandits attacked the caravan he was in, so he became an orphan. He stayed in an orphanage belonging to one of the Radiant Light Sect's management. One day, an elder of the Radiant Light Sect happened to visit the orphanage and noticed the talent of Han Daeyhun.
Because of his talent, that elder adopted Han Daeyhun as his son and took him in as his direct disciple. Being a disciple of a righteous sect that always taught their disciples about black and white truth, he became obsessed with pure righteousness and refused to acknowledge the reasons behind others' actions. After all, we can't blame him. The trauma he experienced as a little child and his hatred toward evil people obviously intensified, leading to his obsession with being morally pure and condemning others for the slightest mistakes. He absolutely cannot stand injustice and has earned the respect of some because of this.
While some of the young masters of the righteous sects and clans see Han Daeyhun as a hypocrite and narrow-minded person—who is truly pure and perfect in the world? No one. Even the righteous alliance leader kills people, and if we only see black-and-white truth, isn't he evil too? It is indeed irritating to see others acting so perfect and righteous as if they have never made mistakes, earning him disdain from his peers.
"I will definitely kill him! That demonic brat dares to set foot in our righteous alliance?!" he murmured, clenching his fist and walking up to the stage to fight Lucian.
"How dare you set your filthy feet in our Righteous Alliance territory?!" he said, gaining the displeasure of those masters from the evil faction and those higher-ups from the demonic cult hidden in the crowd.
Snickers rippled through a corner of the audience where demonic sect members were lurking.
"Righteous Alliance territory? Hah! As if they can defend it," one scoffed, he's definitely from evil faction or heavenly demon cult.
Another laughed. "This boy barks too much. Reminds me of a pup trying to scare tigers."
"Watch your mouth," a righteous elder snapped at them, his face darkening.
"Oh, calm down, old man. We're just enjoying the show," said a masked man with a lazy smile. "We all know how this is going to end."
Han Daeyhun is aware that his skills won't match Lucian's, but his temperament and worldview made him stand on this stage with courage and bravery. He's not stupid enough to believe he can best Lucian; he just can't allow the existence of evil in the world, and this competition is a golden opportunity for him to eliminate some of them.
The adopted father of Han Daeyhun, Elder Xuan Yiming, also known as the Sword of Ten Thousand Rays, looked at his beloved adopted son and sighed to himself.
"It seems I spoiled Little Yhun a little too much…" Elder Xuan Yiming, a renowned elder of the Radiant Light Sect, one of the 9 great sects in the murim. His face filled with worry for this child. After all, he just insulted those masters that came here to watch or participate, would they let that child slide after saying that? "I need to stay with Little Yhun side for the time being..."
When he first heard the story of how Han Daeyhun ended up in the orphanage, he felt pity for this child and also saw himself in him. Afraid that this child's talent would go to waste, he adopted him and treated him as his own son since Elder Xuan Yiming didn't have a family, having only devoted his life to the way of the sword.
He knows that his love and protection toward his adopted son led his personality to become like this, and to be honest, Han Daeyhun is only speaking what other righteous alliance members can't voice out right now.
"Still," whispered a sect leader from a distance, "the boy's sharp mouth might just drag the Radiant Light Sect's name through the mud."
"Hmph, not might. It already has!" another elder of Radiant Light Sect responded with disdain visible on his face.
While some gossips in their own seats.
"Let's not pretend,"
"The righteous alliance has been a joke since this tournament started. That Lucian, Seo Hwa-rin and Matheus fellow is making all their so-called geniuses look like toddlers."
After this competition started, their reputation is hitting rock bottom among the three factions, making them the laughingstock of the martial world. After all, their later generation, although no doubt full of geniuses, is being trashed by the evil factions and unaffiliated ones. And some of these unaffiliated might come from the Heavenly Demon Cult. What does this mean? They are a big joke in this competition.
Daring to hold such a grand competition, openly inviting those of Evil faction and Demonic sect means they are taunting both factions, as if saying, "If you're so brave, then come join the competition, or just hide in your territory if you're that scared," yet their youths can't even win easily? It is indeed embarrassing.
They choose to question the Righteous Alliance leader's judgment rather than see the flaws of their own. The righteous faction is busy plotting against each other and only holds competitions for their disciples to exchange pointers or exterminate bandit hideouts, while the evil faction is always one step away from death's door. Unlike the righteous faction, which only resorts to plotting and can't publicly attack each other, the evil faction is different. They settle their grudges in fights to the death, building real-life experience.
No need to mention the lunatics of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Those people are at each other's necks as always, since they only respect strength. So you either prove yours or drop dead. If you die from poisoning or being assassinated, that's on you for being weak, for not being able to expel poison or block daggers. This makes the members of this faction pursue strength for survival, whether they like it or not. I mean, who likes to die, right?
So, it is natural that both faction has an upper hand and they will definitely win in this so-called competition.
Back in the present:
Lucian didn't even bother to hear this child whining. To him, if you want to prove your point, then be the strongest so others can't deny it. What's the point of barking when it doesn't even do anything?
You want a peaceful world? Then be the strongest so others won't even dare commit sins. Being righteous without strength to speak for you is just hypocrisy.
Thus, Lucian didn't even care to listen to this child's words, but maybe being influenced by Jeonglak after being together for five years, he taunted this child.
"You already carry the face of a mutt; must you yap like one as well?"
This made all the crowd watching laugh at Han Daeyhun, especially those from the evil and demonic factions.
"Pfft!!!!!~ Did you hear that? He called him a mutt!"
"I mean.... Who can deny it when he's close to that Lucian brat? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Looks definitely like a mutt!" Some master of demonic cult that's in disguise said.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! This brat has a sharp tongue!!! I like him!" laughed an evil faction cultivator, slapping his knee.
The righteous elders' faces turned red hearing this. "Such arrogance!" one of them spat.
"Arrogance? No, no. That's a fact.... Pfttt!!!~ a mutt....." a rogue master commented while trying to stop himself from laughing.
"He doesn't even see Han Daeyhun as a threat."
Lucian didn't say that because he was affected by Han Daeyhun's taunting… It's just that there was a surge inside him to make fun of this child. Maybe he really had been influenced by Jeonglak's twisted amusement. After all, they've been together for five years and at that time, Jeonglak played prank on him and even made fun of for no reason. And the worst part is Han Daeyhun couldn't even refute it since Lucian is much better looking than him.
"YOU–!!! I'LL DEFINITELY KILL YOU!!! YOU BASTARD!!!!"
Han Daeyhun charged even though the match hadn't started yet, but how could he even touch Lucian when even Jin Hyeon-ryu, who's much more powerful than Moyong Seojin, couldn't defeat Lucian?
Lucian didn't even need to use the Void-Reaping Steps to defeat this kid. In his eyes, this kid was moving really slow, like in slow motion. He only needed to evade by taking a step to the right and dodge before using the handle of his sword to hit this child behind the neck, making him lose consciousness.
"Thud—"
Just like that, the match ended with Lucian's effortless victory. He didn't use any martial arts to defeat this kid, making others gasp.
"Impossible…" gasped a righteous disciple, his face pale.
"Impossible? You think so? I'd call that mercy," other one replied.
"Mercy? That was humiliation!" another righteous elder muttered bitterly.
"This… this Lucian might really shake the entire balance of the martial world!" whispered a traveling merchant, adjusting his hat nervously.
Although Han Daeyhun irritates most of his peers, he is only one step below Moyong Seojin in terms of strength, who is recognized as the number one genius of the righteous faction. Although the evil and demonic factions saw this as a natural result, those from the righteous faction knew how strong Han Daeyhun was. Even Elder Xuan Yiming, the adopted father of Han Daeyhun, is fully aware of his son's strength. This made the righteous faction members dejected. This only meant one thing: Lucian is powerful enough to make Han Daeyhun look so weak.
With that, Lucian successfully advanced to the next round.