We arrived as expected very quickly. Mu Bai paid the taxi driver himself, after which we began to wait for Mo Fan and his company. Soon, a second taxi arrived, from which they appeared.
"Hello, Zhou Ming, Wang Pan, Kunsan," Mo Fan said, smiling as he got out first. "Jiaxing Yun, you said you were going to Xi'an, but we learned from Lin Yuxin that you never arrived."
"It happened that way," I smiled awkwardly, then gave the pre-prepared explanation. "I urgently needed to go to my teacher; I told Xu Zhaoting about him. And then I isolated myself for cultivation."
"I see," Mo Fan chuckled. "Then, since we're at the arena, I'll definitely fight you. Xu Zhaoting said a lot about you being strong; it's time to test it."
"Okay, and how are your duels with Xu Zhaoting?" I asked. At this time, everyone else stared at us, not daring to interrupt the conversation.
"Constantly a draw," Xu Zhaoting said calmly when Mo Fan fell silent.
"Let's go, let's start with your duel then," Mu Bai said with a smile. "Zhao Ting, you don't mind fighting me after them?"
"No, I'm for it," Zhao Ting smiled. It seems Mu Bai, having heard that Mo Fan and Zhao Ting are equal, decided to fight the latter, leaving the former to me.
"He Yu, will you keep me company?" Zhou Ming asked. This seemed very amusing to me, as she doesn't know how strong He Yu is now. Well, this will be a good stimulus for her.
"Jiaxing Yun, after everyone else, will you fight me? I want to show you what I've achieved with daggers," Xiaohou asked, stepping closer.
"Yes, I don't mind," I said, shrugging. Now I would see the power of everyone I was interested in. "Then let's hurry to the arena."
Upon entering the arena, Mo Fan and I stood opposite each other, everyone else a little further away so as not to get caught in our magic. This was the first time I had openly fought Mo Fan. It was very important for me to understand whether I should defeat him or lose. I could fully control this, as I was much stronger and more experienced than him. In the end, I decided to test him. If he met expectations, I could lose, but if not, defeat awaited him.
Someone shouted, "Begin!" and Mo Fan immediately summoned his wolf. A perfectly logical tactic: occupy me with a fight against the wolf, and prepare mid-level magic for himself. The wolf was about the height of a servant, a decent height, which was good; perhaps by the first-year competitions, he would already be a high-level servant. He didn't think long and immediately rushed at me at full speed. I remembered that this wolf's roar could create strong winds, so let's see.
I stood motionless, holding daggers in my hands. If it were up to me, Mo Fan's dark wolf would already be dead, but that would be too difficult for me. On the move, the wolf let out a powerful roar, the shockwave of which was quite strong and kicked up dust in the arena. I finally decided to use magic. Since Mu Bai had been checked for involvement with the black church, and I had no particular desire to hide from him how to become stronger, I used a wind rush to quickly get out of the wolf's attack line.
He was very surprised by my actions and hesitated slightly, but Mo Fan reacted in time and unleashed a fireball at me. However, this attack was also completely useless. Using my wind boots, I headed back towards the wolf, thus dodging the fireball. The wolf hadn't had time to change its direction of movement yet, so I managed to skillfully kick it in the head. My blow was amplified by the wind rush, so the wolf flew to the edge of the arena from it and could barely stand on its feet. It was clear that his head was spinning and it was hard for him to stand.
Meanwhile, Mo Fan unleashed a lightning strike at me, which I also skillfully dodged. After that, I hit the wolf one more time so that it couldn't get up due to the pain in its head. Because of this, Mo Fan returned the wolf to the summoning space, and instead of complex mid-level spells, which still required three to four seconds to complete, he switched to initial-level spells, which he created almost instantly. Instead of quickly closing the distance and taking him out of the game, I continued to dodge using wind boots and wind step.
My goal was to test Mo Fan's skills, not to win. After about five minutes, I was quite tired of his endless stream of spells. Since our last meeting, he had become much faster and more accurate, which could not but please me. It was also evident that Xu Zhao Ting had told him about the method of creating spells, which further increased his speed. So it was quite difficult for me to dodge without my developed physique being noticeable.
However, I still needed to test his mastery of shadow magic. Although I was tired of dodging, he was clearly in shock and at the limit of his capabilities. I can imagine his anger: to fully concentrate on casting magic and not hit even once must be frustrating. Deciding that it was time to end the test, I began to approach him, accelerating slightly. These actions of mine threw him into even greater shock, as he probably thought I was also at my limit. Another five minutes of my advance, during which Mo Fan constantly ran away from me using shadow step, I put a dagger to his throat. I didn't like how slowly he reacted to my actions; if he were fighting a three-eyed wolf or someone stronger, he wouldn't be able to escape.
"Damn, you're truly incredibly strong!" Mo Fan exclaimed as soon as he felt the dagger at his neck. "You didn't even use lightning! You just dodged! Tell me honestly, what devilish training did you do to reach this level? A simple wind mage can't dodge so quickly and skillfully, let alone get close to me!"
"It's a secret that my teacher forbade me to disclose," I said calmly. Yes, it was risky; they could guess about my connection to the Gong family and that I was Asura. But they had absolutely no reason to suspect me. Of course, except that my fighting style is similar to Asura's style, and that's it.
"I see, alright. I wonder how the tea boy will deal with Zhao Ting. He's also incredibly agile and strong. I've never, even though I've greatly improved my skills, managed to defeat Zhao Ting," Mo Fan said, moving to the edge of the arena and sitting directly on the ground, unable to stand. I leaned against the wall. It was clearly visible that liters of sweat were flowing from him; Mo Fan was clearly very tired, which would be a stimulus for his growth.
Mu Bai and Xu Zhao Ting entered the arena. It even seemed to me like some kind of improvised tournament among genius classmates. In fact, everyone gathered here could be called that, except perhaps for Kun San and Wang Pan.
"Kun San, before they start, don't you want to bet on victory?" I asked, largely for a joke, not a dispute.
"Go to hell!" he jumped up on the spot as soon as he heard my words. "I've sworn not to argue with you anymore," he said, turning away. Wang Pan approached him to ask about his behavior and received a story about Zhao Kun San's three losses, which was amusing.
Meanwhile, in the arena, Mu Bai and Zhao Ting began. The first to use magic was Mu Bai with his ice prison; he clearly intended to use the same strategy as in the fight with me. Zhao Ting, easily, without unnecessary movements, dodged using wind step. He did it very elegantly and effortlessly. If I focus more on speed when dodging and strive to get close to the opponent, then he simply wanted to dodge, expending as little energy as possible.
However, Mu Bai did not give up and continued to attack Xu Zhao Ting using ice chains and vines. But Zhao Ting easily and effortlessly dodged, using minimal energy and movements; one could say that in pure evasion, he achieved almost perfection, which even I should strive for! Visually, Zhao Ting's wind magic had reached the second stage and was confidently moving towards the third. But he not only dodged but also attacked with lightning magic!
His fighting style was extraordinarily beautiful, refined to the smallest detail, and practically devoid of unnecessary movements! His style could be described with 100% accuracy by the phrase: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Now I clearly understood why Mo Fan could never win against him; it's hard to withstand such practically perfect skills, even with superior combat power! Mu Bai defended himself against Zhao Ting's lightning bolts, which flew almost precisely on target, despite the distance and constant movement, with chains that gradually broke, sometimes moving aside using vines.
After a minute of fighting, Xu Zhao Ting used a mid-level lightning strike spell, precisely on the spot where Mu Bai landed after dodging. All the time while the star map was being built, he dodged without using lightning magic, but just before the strike, he used the wrath of lightning to force Mu Bai to dodge. He managed to defend himself only by using an ice prison, closing himself in from all sides with chains. However, they were torn to shreds by Zhao Ting's magic!
The fight continued for about three more minutes, during which Zhao Ting used mid-level magic two more times, and it was clear that he could no longer do it. Also, soon Mu Bai, having used three ice prisons, stopped even trying to create them again. This was their limit for one fight. Although perhaps Mu Bai was affected by our previous fight. For the last minute of the fight, he defended himself only with vines, trying to freeze Xu Zhao Ting, which he did with great difficulty. But Zhao Ting himself was also slightly tiring during this time, and Mu Bai's ice spells began to affect him slightly.
Xu Zhao Ting still won the fight, catching Mu Bai off guard after using two consecutive lightning strikes. He approached him incredibly closely and was about to cast another lightning spell, but Mu Bai surrendered, realizing the hopelessness of the situation. Zhao Ting not only approached him but systematically forced him to retreat so that he could not escape the attack.
"You're tough," Mu Bai said, breathing heavily. "You dodged masterfully, how did you learn that?"
"By constantly fighting Mo Fan. He's impossible to defeat without dodging," Zhao Ting replied, also breathing heavily. "Unlike Jiaxing Yun, I don't need to get close to the opponent to win. I have strong lightning magic, so I only use wind magic for dodging. Thanks to frequent fights with Mo Fan, I was able to hone my skills to an incredible level."
"I see," Mu Bai exhaled. "You three are simply monsters! You, Mo Fan, and Jiaxing Yun. I fought Jiaxing Yun today and seeing that Mo Fan lost to him, and knowing that you are equal, I thought I would have a chance, but I was wrong. You are on a completely different level!" Mu Bai stated confidently, stepping off the arena.
"I'm only this strong thanks to training," Xu Zhao Ting tried to comfort him. "I heard that you helped your uncle a lot in creating the family business, so you didn't have much time for training. But even so, I must admit that it's very difficult to fight against you and your fighting style; you just need a little more practice, and then it's unknown who will defeat whom."
"Thank you for your kind words, Zhao Ting," Mu Bai replied with a smile. "I think I'll enroll in Xi'an University. You three will also be enrolling in Mingzhu in a month, right?" he asked with burning eyes.
"Well, yes, so what?" Zhao Ting asked. I guessed what would happen next based on Mu Bai's character.
"For young mages, after the first year of study, competitions are held at the Imperial University, so I hope we'll meet there in a fight. And we'll see who wins then," Mu Bai said, still confidently.
"Okay, then we'll meet there," Zhao Ting replied with a smile. Mo Fan also nodded in agreement.