54 "Hey its you again!" (2/2)
”Wait… Has he changed his robes ?!”
Focusing his divine sense on the green dot, all the Elders present realized that Shin Sumi had gone from orange to yellow robes. Only a trained eye like Elder Peng's was able to notice a special set of embroideries on the sleeve of the material.
”He has robbed my Tai Bu AGAIN ??!”
***
Tai Bu woke up to an empty arena. Remembering quite clearly his last instants before lapsing into unconsciousness, the first thing he checked was his bag of holding.
As it turned out, before leaving, Shin Sumi had thoroughly inspected his inventory, cleaning out all she could find besides his weapons. This time at least she had left him the few swords and spears he had amassed during his trial.
In the place of his impressive stock of talismans and artefacts was a single high-grade spirit stone, worth at least half of what she had stolen.
At least Tai Bu had something to comfort himself over.
That did not do the trick as he jumped to his feet and shouted with rage.
”YOU SON OF A DOG SHIT, I WILL GRIND YOU TO DUST WHEN I FIND YOU AGAIN !!”
But for now he was stuck in this sub-dimension, unable to leave before the next person came in and he could defeat them. He was about to slump back behind the small hill where he was resting before when a blur appeared in front of him.
In the middle of the road to the second arena, Shin Sumi was looking at the yellow robes floating from her body.
”Wow, these garments are definitely not bad ! Really light and well designed. That's to be expected for high potential disciples, I guess.”
Shin Sumi had donned one of the sets of robes of Tai Bu's, feeling that a yellow robed disciple was less strange around the mountain of the central ring.
She didn't know that from all the people that had reached the fifth section of the floating dimension, only a handful were wearing orange while a hundred or so were in yellow.
Shin Sumi felt fancy in her new robes, and even quite confident. She now knew how strong she was in comparison to other disciples below the Liquid Realm, and by wearing yellow robes she didn't feel like she was cheating as much.
Preciously hidden in her bag of holding were her green robes, still folded and unused since more than a year ago. She had never worn them.
”At first I was afraid that it would attract too much attention while I didn't have the strength to back it up. Now I could probably wear them but where is the fun in that? Yellow level disciples would become a bit afraid of going up against me, wouldn't they?”
Shin Sumi realized how impertinent and full of herself she sounded but it was still true.
Ever since she had arrived in the Dark Sky Starry Sect, she had seen low level disciples cower in fear so many times in front of higher graded individuals.
Like a ray of sunshine in her bright robes, she arrived at the second stop along the mountain path.
Not bothering to check the energy barriers, trusting her divine sense, she directly headed towards the grey monolith.
This time she was prepared for the teleportation. Just because she felt strong didn't mean that somebody wouldn't try to sneak on her just as she appeared.
The second sub-dimension seemed to have come from the same small world as the first. Tiny houses and road paved the arena enclosed by another small mountain range.
This time there were already two disciples battling in the arena.
The two of them were yellow robed, emitting powerful Shinsoo fluctuations as they attacked each other with longswords and metal pole.
They had probably been evenly matched because as soon as Shin Sumi appeared they decided to call off their battle and rush towards her.
”If I can't beat you, Dafun Ghu, then I'll have to take my win from him!”
”Not if I beat him first, Ke Muhan!”
The two disciples surnamed Dafun and Ke charged straight towards Shin Sumi, although they still tried to sneakily attack the other to no avail.
One glance had been enough for them to realize that they didn't know the features of Bai Fulong.
If they didn't recognize the new fighter, then it meant that he surely placed below them in the Shinsoo Gathering ranking.
”Rejoice Brother, for you will be able to tell the world that you have been defeated by the mighty Dafun Ghu!”
”No way, come taste my blade first!”
Shin Sumi felt both of their pressure mount up on her. But compared to the pressure given off by a giant Silver Desert Swordfish, or a Sand Hawk, how could Shin Sumi be too affected by two human cultivators?
Steadying her breathing in a split second, Shin Sumi focused. The one named Ke Muhan was a bit faster than his compatriot and thus she concentrated her first movement on him.
With a perfectly timed leap, Shin Sumi took off of a roof that looked like a small temple. In the air, her foot turned, her toes pointed directly as Ke Muhan's attacking arm.
At the same time as she evaded the metal pole, she kicked him out of balance. Her jump pushed the assailant to the ground and propelled her towards the second man.
Because she had been fighting bigger adversaries, spirit creatures quite a lot, Shin Sumi had grown adept at mid-air battles. That was especially useful when her sword had the power to instantly return to her hand, allowing her to attack not once but twice in a leap.
A golden arc split the air as she passed above Dafun Ghu. The longsword he was holding with both hands didn't even shake or vibrate, the Gold Tyrant Flying Sword's thin blade simply cutting through with almost no resistance.
Shin Sumi landed behind the two disciples who immediately turned with gobsmacked expressions on their faces.
The shock, however, didn't last more than the blink of an eye.
Ke Muhan stood from the ground and Dafun Ghu slapped his bag of holding to produce another longsword.
Their eyes locked onto Shin Sumi, not bothering to look to the other as they both said in unison:
”Whoever finishes him first gets the win.”
Even though they had been locked in combat when she arrived, Shin Sumi immediately sensed the complicity between them.
As it turned out, both men had been friends for a really long time, they had even gone through the Rising Star Tournament together so far.
The atmosphere of the arena completely changed, prompting Shin Sumi to take a fighting stance. The same trick wouldn't work twice.
”I haven't fought more than one opponent ever since the stone golems of the first ring” she thought, conscious of her lack of experience in the matter.
The three pairs of eyes shone with battle intent, the two versus one fight ready to begin, for real this time.
***
”Eh...Eh...”
Shin Sumi didn't emerge from the monolith's sub-dimension for another hour. She was panting and covered in small cuts and bruises, but at least she was victorious.
”These two really are dangerous together... They gave me more trouble than any other fight so far.”
She had used all the tricks she could, but there was a limit to what she could do against two opponents with good skills and perfect coordination.
As soon as she was out of the arena, she sat down to meditate and restore her energy levels.
The pure and gentle flow of Shinsoo around assured that she could have a good rest in a short time.
She wished there was a body of water nearby so that she could use the little nut's powers to mend her cuts and repair her body quickly. For the time being she would have to hold her wounds tight with her own Shinsoo until they repaired themselves with time.
For a cultivator, a large quantity of energy could be used to almost instantly regenerate, but being only in the Shinsoo Gathering Realm, she didn't have that ability quite yet.
Shin Sumi was meditating for a few hours with the help of spirit beasts cores when the grey monolith shone with a blue glow. A yellow figure appeared.
Ke Muhan didn't say anything, not even looking at her for more than a quick glance.
Judging from her appearance, winning against Dafun Ghu had been a really tough fight. He clearly wasn't willing to provoque Shin Sumi right now. Or Ever.
Shin Sumi finally stood up, having recuperated enough to get going to the next challenge.
Ke Muhan simply looked at her, the features of Bai Fulong forever etched into his memory as someone that was not to be trifled with.