74 "You Forced My Hand!" (1/2)
The Cloud Arts Canon, much like the Star-Sword Canon, only possessed seven forms. One could say to have fully mastered the Cloud Arts by only knowing how to perform seven magical techniques.
What made them so special and a source of great pride for the Dark Sky Starry Sect was their ambivalence. Each technique was very different from the previous one, even as their difficulty and level of execution improved.
As such, the first form, Cold Smoke, was a spirit formation capable of debilitating the opponent by paralyzing their flow of Shinsoo.
The second form however, was completely focused on damage and hurting the target.
”King's Tomb!” growled the Hao clansman facing Yan Yan.
As soon as the technique was executed, a large fog sprung up from the young man's feet. Instantly it was as if the two of them were standing inside a cloud.
Because she also knew the technique, Shin Sumi knew that the fog had the property of perturbing the divine sense of whoever tried to look into it besides the caster.
However she wasn't certain it would affect the Inner Sect disciple, whose divine sense was much higher than theirs. Hence why as soon as the fog appeared, Shin Sumi cracked a jade slip she had just taken out.
On the jade slip was a Shinsoo imbued pattern, the one for a hiding formation.
After her little experiment with the spirit formation when she had visited the lower valley for the last time, Shin Sumi had been experimenting some more, at last coming up with a great solution on her own. She had made many such formations, all of them on a different piece of magical jade.
Now shielding herself from the perception of another cultivator was made as simple as using one of these jades.
Without taking any time to confirm the hiding formation had worked, Shin Sumi condensed her Shinsoo in a peculiar way.
”Shinsoo Fist of Thunder” she muttered.
With perfect timing, as soon as her energy was crackling like bolts of energy in her fist, the King's Tomb potent ability was unleashed.
It all takes some time to describe but from the moment the fog sprung up to the first deadly attack, only the blink of an eye had passed.
Two, five, then ten spikes of condensed energy rose up from all around, piercing through the air like the horns of a devil. Because of the fog reducing her vision to nothing, it was impossible for Shin Sumi to spot the deadly spikes.
But thankfully the hiding formation had disrupted the Hao clansman's divine sense as well, sending the spikes into disarray instead of coming at her at different angles which would be unavoidable.
One invisible spike indeed came at her, which she felt at the very last moment. With the speed of her reflexes though, her Shinsoo imbued fist connected with the cloud column before her shoulder was pierced.
A deafening boom completely imprisoned by the hiding formation resounded. The Shinsoo Fist of Thunder completely obliterated the spike, sending tiny purple lightning bolts along the inside of the mist.
A large portion of her energy spent on the Shinsoo Fist of Thunder, Shin Sumi felt the wave of fatigue overtake her but it didn't matter. She had defeated the King's Tomb.
Right before when she knew the mist would disperse, Shin Sumi deactivated her hiding formation with her divine sense and launched herself out of the platform.
Bracing herself internally, Yan Yan's body landed right out of the arena, followed by her spitting a mouthful of blood.
”The oldest trick in the book. A bit of blood and everybody is convinced,” she thought.
”It's my win” confirmed her opponent, a bit surprised by the outcome, ”have I used too much Shinsoo with the Icicle Ring?”
From his point of view, the man had suddenly lost control over his own technique, unable to focus his attacks on the target. Not wishing to toss aside his victory though, he was simply glad some of his cloud spikes had connected.
Under the eyes of the twenty disciples present around this one arena, the Inner Sect disciple in charge of supervision had no choice but to announce the young man's victory. Looking to the side at Yan Yan who was just getting up, her face pale and holding various parts of her body, he seemed to mutter something unintelligible to himself.
”She was completely caught by it. I sensed the disarray of the guy which means he lost control over his technique. That's lucky for her, but she should have been able to end the fight before that, or even use the technique herself, right?”
How could the Inner Sect disciple admit that he too had lost the focus of the fight due to Shin Sumi's hiding formation, even to himself? No techniques of this caliber should have been able to impact his higher level cultivation.
”Let's move on to the next fight” he ultimately decided, ”this is nothing but a facade anyway.”
While the next fights took place, Yan Yan was slowly recuperating by consuming spirit plants and a few pills she had bought from the market. In truth Shin Sumi didn't need such thing at all but the more details, the more convincing her appearance was.
”With this Hao guy obviously stronger than Yan Yan, there's no way she'll move on to the qualification phases, right?”
She was completely intent on losing every fight until she could get out of the Cloud Formation Pavilion main building and the ranking tournament for this branch of the sect.
Instead she simply wanted to go back to her home and cultivate with the Moon Stone some more until she reached the Liquid Realm second step.
The second fight that was asked of her took place a bit more than an hour after the first one, about the time needed for recuperation.
Due to the large number of participants, only two fights per person were scheduled. Then the choice of the two people moving on would rest on the Inner Sect disciple's hands. It was the same for each of the thirty two arenas which were all booming with fighting and from which shouts like 'Cold Smoke' and 'King's Tomb' were constantly overheard.
Unsurprisingly, Yan Yan lost her second fight in what could only be described as a pitiful manner.
The Inner Sect referee was silently gnashing at his teeth, dreading what he was about to announce.
By the time each contestant had fought twice, almost all of the thirty two arenas were done with their activities.
Shin Sumi was looking at all the fierce fighters around her, wondering which one would be chosen in her stead. Surely, after failing to win twice out of two attempts, there was no way Yan Yan would move on, right?
The first selected disciple was, without surprise, the other disciple that the arena had chosen like Yan Yan, a young man whose talent was undeniable.
Around Yan Yan, everybody was nodding, as if to show they had never intended to take his place, instead all fighting for the remaining spot.
”And the second one of you that will join the top fighters in the next selection process is... Yan Yan.”
By the time every participant's jaw had left the ground from shock, they all turned towards the young girl in lilac robes. Yan Yan had dropped her head and was sighing quietly.
”Really? You won't let me abandon the fight at all, Master Cloud?”
Even she couldn't believe it.
”All my efforts to lose were for naught and now I have angered about twenty people.”
”What is going on, Senior Brother,” the man from the Hao clan was first to react and ask for explanation from the referee, ”I beat her fair and square, why should she advance?”
”Yeah, that's right, even I can easily beat that kid! I've won all my fights, why have you chosen her?!”
Normally low level disciples such as them would never dare talk to an Inner Sect disciple in this tone, but this time the anger was too strong. Even the referee looked apologetic as he shook his head, denying any further discussion.
”Fine I guess I don't have a choice now” said Shin Sumi quietly, realizing she had spoken out loud only after the facts.
It was only a few words but for the angry disciples that rightfully deserved a chance it was the straw that broke the camel's back.