Chapter 30: The Four Mountain Peaks
The final stage of the competition had arrived and everybody outside the arena were all running around, either buying tickets for their seats, or placing bets for who would win on each of the matches.
The seats in the arena were all filled up that some even had to stand just to come watch the competition. Zuo Hai and Luo Ning were already seated, buying one more seat for Tang Feng if he came.
"Is Ge'ge alright? Why hasn't he come yet?" Luo Ning said, her eyes full of worry as she looked around impatiently for her brother.
"Don't worry, your brother is really strong, so I'm sure he's fine. He's probably just taking care of some minor business," Zuo Hai said, trying to calm her down.
"Is that true? But he promised to watch the matches with me," she said softly as she rested her head on her hand.
Zuo Hai, who was watching her, turned to the other side suppressing his anger.
'Luo Zeng, you monster, how can you make your little sister worry for you? When I see you, I'm going to hit you so hard,' he said in his thoughts as he bawled his fists and gritted his teeth, making a ridiculous facial expression.
He calmed himself down and turned back, consoling Luo Ning as the competition began, with the commentator appearing on the arena, and explaining the rules of the final stage once again.
"The rules are thesame except that this time, two groups will fight against each other in one of the arenas (The Elemental Mountain Peaks) that will be chosen by the elders."
When the crowd heard the famous elemental mountain peaks were going to be the arenas of today, they all chattered in excitement to one another.
"Whoever wins the first match will have the ability to pick his opponent and arena for his next fight, up until his group wins or is eliminated," the commentator concluded, clearing his throat as he began calling out the 4 groups of contestants that got past the last stage.
The four groups came out, welcomed by the crowd's cheers and each section calling out their captains, some of who waved at the crowds with smiles on their faces in response to their cheers, while some just walked past with serious expressions on their faces.
Four gates to different dimensions were opened, revealing the various mountain peaks and the captains of two groups came out, and the elders all raised their fingers in unison, picking the mountain of ice as their arena.
"Oh my God, the elders just chose the ice mountain peak as the place the first match will hold," a spectator from amongst the crowd exclaimed, causing people to look closely at the match.
"The competition begins," the commentator officially announced, causing the two groups to be immediately transported inside to the ice mountain peak, appearing on the frozen river of the ice mountain peak.
All the contestants immediately fell down when they had arrived, leaving only their captains who were barely able to stand on their feet.
"The contestants this year are so weak?" A woman with a soft savory voice spoke in her chamber, sipping her tea and fanning herself as she watched the match on her majestic carved ice throne, with a huge icy tablet before her.
"What? What happened? Why did they all fall down like that?" Series of questions emerged from the enraged crowd, who were disappointed that the fight they were waiting for started like this.
"This is expected, I heard that the ice mountain peak is the coldest place on the continent where no ordinary person can enter. The yin energy there is so abundant that any man who enters there without a strong foundation or Tang energy in him will have his yang energy devoured by the yin energy and the person will become frozen," one random spectator spoke out, turning everyone's attention to him.
"What? So terrifying! It is indeed worthy of being called one of the elemental mountain peaks. Their energy is so strong and violent," another spectator concurred, causing everyone's mindset to slowly change about the match.
"But the Ice mountain peak is made up of women, right? How do they have their children?" one spectator asked out of curiosity, but he was immediately shushed by those around him, before being told in whispers,
"Do you want to die? Just keep quiet and watch the show?" they said, turning back to watch the competition which had already started.
The captains had already begun fighting each other with all they had, knowing fully well that neither of them would be able to last against the cold. So the match was turned into a battle of attrition, with both clashing swords and releasing multiple techniques at each other at the detriment of their own chi.
"Hai'ge, why are they still fighting even when they are not fully able to handle the cold?" Luo Ning asked, grabbing on to Zuo Hai's hand in anticipation and worry for what would happen next.
Zuo Hai was overjoyed that Luo Ning was so close to him, that he began thanking the heavens that Tang Feng was nowhere to be seen.
"They both want to find out which one of them would be the first to fall and be frozen like the others," Zuo Hai patiently explained, watching Luo Ning as she took in the information.
"So the first person who falls loses?" she asked.
"Yes, that's right," he replied, still hesitant to call her Ning'er.
"Thank you Hai'ge," she said, still keeping her hands around him as her eyes remained glued on the fight.
A full incense stick of time had passed and the two were still going hard at it.
"These two are really resilient," the woman with the soft voice from earlier spoke up. "Very good. They will soon reach their limit," she said, signaling for one of the maidens to come.
When the maiden had arrived, she whispered something into her ear and signaled for her to leave after she was done, then she turned back to watch the match.