Chapter 24: The Mountain Of Black Lightning
The smoke slowly cleared, revealing the aftermath of the match. Both fighters were on the floor, none of them moving an inch. The crowd began murmuring among each other, but they soon stopped when they saw someone moving. The fist fighter was the first to get up, staggering as he struggled to get on his feet, this caused Tang Feng's lips to go up in a smirk, "Sure enough, you didn't disappoint", he said to himself.
Qin Qingyin descended to call the match, and Tang Feng decided to take his leave as well, fully aware of the hostility directed at him, amused, he decided to play a little game with Bai Dong, so he looked back and graced his exit with a mocking smirk. Seeing Tang Feng mock him further sent a huge blow to Bai Dong's ego, "Good, very good. Just you wait", he said, making a menacing face through every word as he watched Tang Feng walk away from the scene.
The preliminaries of the competition smoothly after that first battle, with each and every contestant putting up a good show as they fought against their respective opponents. Amongst the 1000 contestants that participated, only 400 managed to advance to the next round. The next round was announced to take place in 3 months.
Tang Feng had initially planned on taking part in the competition but since an opportunity had presented itself, he didn't see a reason not to grab it. Ever since that day, Bai Dong has been trailing Tang Feng, wanting to ambush him or find a way to rile him into his trap, but Tang Feng was always two steps ahead of Bai Dong, evading his traps and destroying those sent to ambush him.
"Ugh", Bai Dong said as he forcefully slammed a tea cup on the table causing it to almost break down from the force, Qingyin came and poured him a new one, "Senior brother, calm down", she said, but Bai Dong said nothing and took the cup sending the tea in it down his throat, a warm trickling liquid flowing down as he gulped it all at once.
He slammed the cup again and wiped his lips with his free hand, "I can't stand that a mere guard dares to look at me so arrogantly, I'll show him the difference between the heavens and the earth", he said, his face starting to turn red as he bawled his fists in rage.
"Senior brother, I have a plan on how we can deal with Luo Zeng without lifting a finger?", Qingyin said, leaning towards Bai Dong to whisper in his ear, "Oh? What are your thoughts?", Bai Dong said, excited to finally have a plan that'll put Tang Feng in his place.
Tang Feng had picked the cave with the waterfall as his training spot. So whenever he wants to train or test his new skills, he always heads there. He wanted to test his limits by fighting in the simulation, all those he had come across and faced since last time,
Su Yan presented in the simulated reality, a digital screen consisting of the list of people Tang Feng had faced and those Su Yan had copied.
Tang Feng decided to pick two opponents this time. There were only 3 weeks until the next phase of the competition, so Tang Feng wanted to improve his skills as fast as he could. He had been doing physical training to strengthen his body so it could keep up with his speed and higher techniques, and now he was at the Nascent Soul Realm Final Stage. He had chosen the swordsman from the previous competition and Xiao Yao.
"Su Yan, from now on, I want you to set the difficulty of any cultivator below the void saint realm to normal. Anyone higher than that can be changed", he said, wanting to fight all the cultivators at full strength,
Tang Feng was face to face with the opponents that he picked, the ground covered with molten lava flowing down from a mountain like a river that burns through the paths it flows; a destructive force. Above him was a thick dark cloud that struck lightning as dark as night itself, extending up until the lava pond below, causing a splash at every strike. Tang Feng was dumbfounded, a satisfied smile on his face as he said in thought, 'This is more like it', charging at his opponents, all of them jumping towards each other clashing at the next lightning strike.
The day of the next phase of the competition finally arrived. The venue was moved to a a larger stadium, with a more wider platform, all the spectators were walking in and taking their seats. Ban Shanzuo told Luo Ning that this would be a perfect opportunity for them to advertise their restaurant and gain more customers, so he sent her out of the shop with some fliers.
Tang Feng and Zuo Hai both walked in to watch the competition, and crossed paths with Luo Ning. Luo Ning was very excited to see her brother there, "Brother", she called out to him, waving her hand, Tang Feng saw her and smiled walking towards her with Zuo Hai following closely behind him, "Brother, you're here to watch the competition as well", she asked with so much enthusiasm, Tang Feng just nodded, "hmm. What about you? Is that old man giving you trouble?", he asked, Luo Ning smiled, "No. Grandpa just asked me to come distribute the fliers here", she said.
"Woah, Luo Zeng, is this your sister that you're always talking about?", Zuo Hai said popping up behind Tang Feng and jumping on Luo Ning, "I'm Zuo Hai, Luo Zeng's close friend and brother, feel free to call me brother too", he said, a smile on his face as he held her hands, "Good afternoon, big brother", Luo Ning said, her voice ringing in Zuo Hai's ear, his expression changing into one's who's lovestruck, "An angel...Luo Zeng, why didn't you introduce me to her sooner?", Zuo Hai asked, holding on to Tang Feng, "Ning'er, come sit with me", Luo Zeng simply said, ignoring Zuo Hai, as they all picked seats besides each other.