Chapter 594: From the Sidelines

"Bwahahaha! What the hell?!," Zhen Xun Tian asked through a heavy fit of laughter.

"I knew you guys were teaching your younger generation different battle tactics then what we do, but this is hysterical! I would never think about using a person to beat another person, but I might do that myself now!"

"Such brutality would fit you surprisingly well, I suppose."

"Damn straight!"

"Mmmm..."

Shortly after the initial awkwardness between Prince Jinju Yang and Patriarch Zhen Shi, sort of subsided, the people in the sky box decided to direct their attention towards the contestants instead.

The elders and patriarch of the branch clan had mixed feelings when they saw the Fourth Young Master qualify for the next round.

On the one hand, they were proud and surprised that he was able to handle a peak Aether Master and four peak Aether Acolytes all at the same time despite becoming an Aether Master only very recently. They knew how deadly Zhen Liu’s puppet were, but seeing that their controller wasn’t far behind them in terms of lethality was a comforting sight, since they understood that there was an off, yet for very real, chance of him ending up in a scenario where he didn’t have access to any of his puppets.

On the other hand, they couldn’t help but wonder whether or not there was a more...elegant way for Zhen Liu to win this bout. After all, it looked a bit uncouth and a touch barbaric to use another person as a bludgeoning instrument on someone else, and that "flying elbow" seemed a touch showy.

It also didn’t help that Prince Jinju Yang was still staring daggers at Zhen Shi the whole time this display of brutal strength played out.

"Seriously though, who among you taught this...Zhen Liu, I believe?," Zhen Xun Tian asked in confirmation, continuing after having confirmed that the wild youth was indeed named "Zhen Liu", "how to fight like that? Because it’s clear to me that despite it being a display of pure brute force and savagery, there was a surprising amount of planning involved. As well as luck."

"Uhh..."

None of the elders, even Zhen Yan, attempted to speak up in regards to claiming credit for Zhen Liu’s training. Not only because it was slightly embarrassing to do so, but because they weren’t the ones to train him.

"Actually, matriarch, none of us were the ones who trained him how to fight like that" Zhen Shi admitted, "but we only have a very vague idea as to who..."

"Oh? Tell me more."

"Well...it started when we thought he had died..."

’Wait, the funeral thing was true?’

_____________________________________________

=And that was exactly two minutes on the clock! You can all, as Pathos normally says, suck it.=

[Boooo, victory by technicality, boo...]

<Dammit! How did I forget our lord has been trying to use combat techniques that aren’t just hitting shit really hard?! Why did you have to learn to be clever?!>

[Actually, Frosttusk? Why’d you think the director would take over three minutes to defeat those guys? I mean, I get you like to take things slow, but…]

[Figured...these...guys...would...be...smarter...thought...minn...jarl...would...have...to...be...sneaky...]

[Ah, guerilla tactics, got it.]

[So how long until the ringmaster returns to this plane of existence?]

<=It should be about...now.=>

_____________________________________________

’Alright, I’m fairly certain nobody would mind if I just took this guy’s-’

*Pop*

’DAMMIT!’

<=Welcome back to this reality, milord.=>

Just as Zhen Liu was about to claim what he thought was a fitting prize for beating the shit out of what was a clearly rigged lottery drawing, he was immediately teleported out of the pocket dimension and back into reality.

’Oh hey, they’re back too.’

Funnily enough, the exact same moment he was teleported back, Yue Tai Lung and his merry men were also teleported back close by him.

They hadn’t teleported back as one big pile, but as components to a pile.

Literally, all five of them teleported back into existence as separate entities and all fell down to the ground in poses that suggested that they were originally in a pile.

"Ugh..."

’Okay maybe now that we’re all here I can-’

"Make way, make way, medical team coming through."

’Fuck.’

Shortly after they had appeared back in reality, Zhen Liu was about to make another attempt at "earning" Yue Tai Lung’s aether treasure maces, only to have the medical team show up and take them away.

Like any good prestigious tournament, there was a medical team on standby complete with an alchemist and a healer type cultivator, ready to whisk away any injured contestants and/or injured qualifier opponents.

Occasionally, one of the people who manage to win their qualifier would also need medical attention shortly after, but it was a pretty rare event.

One would also think that one medical team wouldn’t be enough to tend to a little over one hundred plus people, but with the whole pocket dimension thing going on, it made it surprisingly easy to pace out the amount of people in need of medical attention.

’Shit...hope you get better soon...,’ Zhen Liu muttered as he watched the medical team take away his unconscious opponents and his prize.

As he kept watch in that direction though, he could see that two more contestants in his block had managed to win as well.

They weren’t his cousins though, they were Alvis de Howlite and Iona Ecaredies, aka, people he really didn’t want to interact with due to possibly tenuous relationships with both.

[It’s okay milord. I’ll be honest, maces like that aren’t really my thing,] Nepherage said in comfort, [I much prefer to use my fists.]

’Ah...maybe find you some brass knuckles then...’

"Contestants Zhen Liu, Alvis de Howlite and Iona Ecaredies have qualified for the next round!," Zhen Liu heard the Hero Elder announce shortly after, "please follow the aether wisp over to the waiting area."

’Wisp?’

*Fwoosh.*

"Ah."

Zhen Liu had assumed that after winning his qualifier, that he would be allowed to stick around the arena floor so that he could watch his cousins win or lose their respective qualifier match. Instead, a bluish flame wisp appeared before his eyes and directed him to follow it towards the winner’s lounge to wait for his cousins instead.

Not one to stir up any waves (yet), he obediently followed the wisp, after re-equipping all of his "accessories" , and made his way to the winner’s lounge, turning back to give the orbs his cousins were fighting inside of one last look.

’...’

While Zhen Liu didn’t say anything, the kaijin could clearly sense that he was worried and nervous through their connection with him.

It was understandable,since four out of six of them had only just reached the Aether Master stage, literally yesterday.

[Don’t…worry…they’re…strong…,] Frosttusk assured him.

[It’ll be fine, maestro. They had us to empower them! Ain’t no way they’re gonna lose to a bunch of stuck-up soldiers,] Hurricroak added, [even if they got the numbers advantage.]

[While I hate to admit it, if someone can shine brighter than me, I could sense they got potential to go far,] Razorstella agreed.

’It’s not the numbers advantage I’m worried about or their potential power,’ Zhen Liu told the kaijin, ’it’s more like…I’m worried about how big of an information gap is between them and us.’

Zhen Liu thought back on the words Yue Tai Lung shouted at him,about how he was going to become a member of the inner circle if he defeated him, but how he didn’t know which "branch" clan scion he was either.

Clearly, Yue Tai Lung was lying by omission.

The question was…by how much?

’I really hope I can still watch in on my cousin’s fighting while in the lounge…’

_____________________________________________

’So this is the lounge area huh? What a friendly bunch looking…’

Following the aether wisp didn’t take too much time for Zhen Liu and the other two contestants, quite literally a minute at most, but the destination he was led to was…rather unfriendly.

He didn’t know whether this unfriendliness was due to his status as a "brackborn" or maybe it was just the general competitiveness of the tournament in general, but Zhen Liu could sense an undercurrent of animosity that seemed poised to rip out not only his throat, but the throat of everyone around him.

From what he could see, the competitors had already formed into little cliques, based on either a shared identity or similar background at least.

It was actually based on this clique formation that Zhen Liu, thankfully, didn’t have to interact with Alivs and Iona, as they had gone off to join groups that seemed to be on the same mental wavelength as them.

Granted, before they left to do so, Iona gave Zhen Liu one last look over her shoulder.

Something in Zhen Liu’s head told him that she definitely knew who he was, and that this was going to make things awkward…or deadly.

Both, really.

<Yo milord, check the wall over there. It looks like they got displays for all the contestants still fighting.>

’Oh thank gods, a reason to avoid socializing.’

On a side adjacent to the entrance door, was a series of panels that displayed the happenings inside of the [Myriad Marble Garden].

Several dozen or so of these panels showed contestants still fighting in a variety of biomes, either against each other or against the qualifier choices.

Of these several dozen displays though, only six were of interest to Zhen Liu.

’Huh…looks like things aren’t going too terribly.’

That said though, it could’ve been better.