Blue Star Cultivator 24 The Battle Stage

ON the day of the life and death battle, Hartley was sat cross legged on his bed surrounded by a sea of swirling blue lights with his eyes closed, he sensed that 80 meters away someone was headed towards him, after opening his eyes blue light illuminated the room and then disappeared suddenly, he got up and leisurely strolled outside and saw Lou Chingham making his way up the mountain.

When Lou Chingham arrived, they exchanged greetings, Lou Chingham then started intimating to Hartley that Lou Lee was the grand child of a very respected elder and the seriousness of the situation.

"If Lou Lee were to be killed by you the ramifications might be very serious, the winner of a life and death battle has the right to let the loser keep his life, for the right compensation ofcourse."

Lou Chingham said all this with a pleasant and caring smile on his face, and was about to say something else when Hartley interjected,

"and if he wins, he will let me keep my life?"

Hartley looked Lou Chingham in his eyes with a pleasant smile plastered across his own face.

Even though Hartley had chosen to return to the Lou Clan with Lou Chingham, he didn't trust him. Hartley knew that if he wants to ensure his life in the short term, he had to be as strong as the elders of the Lou Clan.

Knowing that it would be highly unlikely for an elder to intervene and save his life if he was in a life threatening situation on the battle stage, the only thing he could rely on was his own strength but the opposite to that scenario was true as well. He knew that if he was winning, an elder would certainly step in to preserve Lou Lee's life or even try and kill him outright.

Hartley wasn't worried about the likes of Lou Chingham, he knew he could defeat the pot belly man. It was the others that he didn't know about which slightly worried him..

Lou Chingham's smile turned to a gloomy frown and he replied

"I know you have done things all on your own to this point, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor."

Again Hartely interjected with the same smile on his face,

"So if someone wants to kill me, I can't kill him? what logic does that make in a clan where strength is treasured?"

Lou Chingham replied with a bit of irritation in his voice this time,

"You are important to the Lou clan but if you make enemies of certain elders your path will be ten times as difficult as anyone else, the price of your medicine dans will be tripled, you might not be able to get any high rank martial scriptures or spirit weapons, if they didn't try to kill you outright, the rocky road and the smooth road leads to the same destination why not choose the smooth road?"

Hartley cupped his fist bowed from the waist and said "thanks for you advice." in a somewhat rude and dismissive manner.

Lou Chingham swallowed down the words he was about to say and left the mountain with a gloomy depressing look on his face and made his way towards another mountain, he trekked all the way to the top where there was a person sitting cross legged on a prayer with his back facing Lou Chingham, before Lou Chingham had any chance to make any greeting, the person asked "What did he say?" without turning to face him.

Lou Chingham looked at the floor nervously and replied,

"he didn't say yes and he didn't say no either, but he is a stubborn youth, no telling where his limits are."

The mysterious person balled up his right hand into a fist and spoke to no one in particular.

"We lost 3 core disciples in that stunt at the restaurant, now if we lose another one, what will we tell the Patriarch when comes out of closed door practice? arggg" he gritted his teeth and shouted "LEAVE!" Lou Chingham immediately scrambled away...

The mysterious elder then muttered under his breath,"he killed three of the strongest disciples on Violent mountain in minutes, that stupid grand-son of mine stands no chance."

Hartley didn't even put Lou Chingham's speech in his eyes, as far as he was concerned that was the blabbering of a lackey, right now to Hartley, Lou Chingham was just a glorified message boy.

The first three layers of the xiantian realm is known as the early phase, the next three realms is known as the middle phase and the last three is known as the late phase. Hartley wanted to break through to the middle phase as soon as possible, it would be even better, if he just conveniently broke through when he needed it, but that was wasn't how the world worked, even though Hartley's path was lot easier than others who had to take missions and earn clan points to get medicinal dans and high ranked beast cores to cultivate and still find time to gain enlightenment, all Hartley needed was enlightenment but he had to be patient, it was a process that couldn't be rushed.

Hartley headed for the main battle stage, he hasn't been there before but when Lou Chingham was showing him around when he first entered, he had pointed it out to Hartley. As Hartley came round a bend he saw the battle stage.

A huge circular elevated stage stood in the middle of a flat piece of land, the stage itself was hundreds of meters in size, it was designed so battles can be fought between close combat specialist and long rage specialist at the same time.

What surprised Hartley was the crowd that had turned out, it was as if Lou Lee had made this battle known to the world. There were thousands of people milling about, there were some in blue robes, yellow robes and even some in red robes, there was an abundance of brown robe servant disciples preparing refreshments, and the white robed people were making sure everything was under control.

Hartley never expected this, he casually made his way to the stage, holding his head high, back straight and his chest out. There wasn't any commotion, people hardly knew him, he blended into the crowd and made his way towards the stage.

Soon after Lou Lee made his way towards the stage with a solemn look, he greeted some people and waved at others, with his red robe fluttering in the gentle wind, he made his way to the stage, when he saw Hartley the hate in his eyes boiled over, as he said,

"good, you showed up, me and you sharing the same sky for even one more day is absolutely intolerable, today you shall be my stepping stone, you can be proud."

An elder of short stature donning a fluttering black robe jumped onto the stage, this was an elder that Hartley had yet to meet, his name was Lou Pangie, he stood in the center of the stage with his black messy hair flowing down pa.s.s his shoulders, with his dark beady eyes he stared at Hartley and then Lou Lee saying.

"These two have irreconcilable differences and are to partake in a battle of life and death on this very stage, the winner shall be the one left standing at the end, the winner has the right take the loser's life or he can demand suitable COMPENSATION!"

He enhanced his voice while saying the word compensation giving a slight glance at Hartley, Hartley was unconcerned..."Now take the stage" he instructed.

Hartley not only had an advantage in speed and ease of cultivation, he also has one more advantage that no one else has, he does not succ.u.mb to the theory of gaining something with the right hand but losing something in the left hand.

Which means, most people when they cultivate a powerful move, they are only able to use it limited amount of time in batlle or when they used it, they would be left vulnerable.

From the battle logs that Hartley had read in the library, most battles consisted of experts fighting a struggle battle and then using their trump card at the end, s.n.a.t.c.hing victory from defeat.

Hartley could use all his moves at his leisure, there was no time limit on state of focus, he didn't need to save mana, the star fragment power rus.h.i.+ng through his heart was infinite....

Elder Pangie looked at both fighters and said "FIGHT" before jumping down...