Chapter 51: The Strength Trial

The Strength Trial was to take place in the arena, presided over by the Holy Maiden. She nodded at me.

"I assume you'll be representing the Lan family?"

"That's right," I confirmed and stepped onto the stage. I watched the Yun family. "So who's my opponent? Sir Yun Jian Tian?"

"No," Yun Hai said quickly, stepping in front of his son. He grinned. "For this trial, we've hired an innate realm master. Lady Feng Huang, please."

A lady dressed in red robes stepped onto the stage, smiling. Her auburn hair blazed brightly and her green eyes sparkled. In one hand she held a treasure weapon, which resembled a red dart, metallic feathers spreading out from the shaft and its sharp golden tip glowing with fire.

"She will represent the Yun family and be your opponent. I trust you have no complaints? Surely you won't bully the Yun family by challenging someone who's only at the Foundation Establishment realm."

Wow…Yun Jian Tian was a lot weaker than I thought he would be…then again, he was more of a scholar than a cultivator, so maybe that was why his cultivation realm stagnated. Not that I was going to judge him for it. Different people had different interests and talents. There was absolutely nothing wrong with being good at studying but not being adept at fighting.

And if you hear all those cultivation authors insulting you for it, claiming that might is right and only absolute strength matters, you can just tell them to fuck right off. Most of the time, these cultivation story authors who espoused such values of "only power matters" were physically weak and unhealthy, spending more time typing away at their keyboards than actually doing any exercise to keep themselves fit.

It was ironic, really.

"Well, I don't have any complaints, but I would like to point out something," I said with a shrug. "Even if you win the Strength Trial, you do so without using the strength of the Yun family. You're relying on outsiders to win it for you. So how can you make all those claims about absolute strength is everything and only the strongest has the right to rule to justify your right to the position of castellan when it isn't even your own strength?"

"That's right," one of the spectators agreed. "After the Strength Trial is over and that innate realm cultivator leaves, then wouldn't the Yun family go back to being weak? How can they claim to have the right to the castellan position without any real strength of their own?"

"Yeah, what if we get attacked? The Yun family can't protect us on their own, they'll have to hire outsiders again. Might as well stick to the Lan family instead if that's the case. At least they have their own strength."

"Shut up!" Yun Hai shouted. He then gestured wildly to Feng Huang. "This lady will be the daughter-in-law of the Yun family! So she'll be part of our strength in future! Satisfied?!"

"I never agreed to that…" Feng Huang began, but Yun Hai quickly interceded.

"I'll pay you another hundred thousand spirit stones!"

"All right then. But I'll decide which of your sons or nephews I'll marry."

"Deal!"

Wow. I didn't know what to say. I settled for being amused. Yun Hai then turned back to me with a sneer.

"Any more complaints or rhetoric?"

"None," I confirmed with a shrug. "Let's begin the Strength Trial now."

"Lady Feng Huang, we'll be relying on you. You know what to do."

"Yes." The lady in red jumped onto the stage, her fiery aura blazing and taking the form of phoenix wings. Her dart glowed crimson, resembling a ferocious bird of prey just waiting to be unleashed. She smiled. "I'll end this in less than ten rounds."

The holy maiden cleared her throat and raised a hand. "Without further ado, the Strength Trial will start. Begin!"

The moment she swung her hand down, Feng Huang hurled her star phoenix dart at me. A phoenix materialized around it and it streaked forward like a fiery meteor to embed itself deeply in my chest.

I raised my hand and caught the dart, the star weapon exploding in my grip.

"Whoa!"

I winced as flames swept over me, engulfing my figure and threatening to incinerate my flesh. It was battering against my protective aura of qi, ravenously consuming whatever qi I mustered to defend myself. Despite its best efforts, it failed to penetrate my aura.

"Impossible!" Feng Huang exclaimed. "That's a star weapon! You can't just catch it with your bare hands and emerge unscathed!"

"Hmm, I wonder." I shrugged and lowered my hand, still holding onto the star phoenix dart. "Is it safe to say that this treasure weapon now belongs to me?"

"You…!" Feng Huang spluttered furiously. "Return it to me!"

She lunged forward, her arm wreathed in fire. Punching a fist at me, she unleashed a torrent of phoenix-shaped flames that scorched the arena, leaving a blackened trail of soot and charred concrete in its wake.

I smacked the poor phoenix aside. For a moment, it looked like tears were spilling from its eyes before the flames dissipated harmlessly.

Then Feng Huang was in front of me, throwing a fiery punch at my face. I deflected it to the side, then dodged her flaming kick that left a scorched crater in the ground. While she was slightly off balance, I struck her with an elbow, but she blocked it with her upper arm. Countering with a hook, she then tried to grab her star phoenix dart.

"Return my star weapon to me!" She shrieked.

Fiery qi exploded around her and a red circle materialized behind her, taking the image of a vermillion phoenix. An astrolabe or something? Wait, were we still in the right story? Why was this turning into Super Son-in-law in another world?

As tempted as I was to open up a Green Dragon astrolabe and freeze her, I didn't because I simply didn't have such skills. Come on, my name is Hei Ye, not Qin Shi. Why would you expect me to start opening up the astrolabes of all four Celestial Creatures?

Ducking under Feng Huang's next kick, I then struck her ankle with my foot and caused her to stumble. Seizing the chance to strike at her face, I was impressed when she threw her hands out to catch my wrist and forearm before flipping herself over and above me, evading my blow. Her foot swung down from above, trying to catch my temple, but I shifted my head to the side and allowed her kick to harmlessly brush past my hair.

The both of us spun about before our fists collided. Hers was wrapped in flames while mine was shrouded in shadow. Even so, the resulting detonation when our punches lashed threw us several paces back.

"They are evenly matched!" Yun Hai growled in disbelief. "How is this possible?! Isn't Hei Ye trash who can't cultivate?! How the hell is he fighting on par with an Innate Realm cultivator!? HE MUST BE CHEATING!"

"Is there something wrong with you? Why do you keep insisting that my son-in-law is trash? The evidence is right before your eyes, yet you keep denying it. Are you delusional?" Father-in-law folded his arms and shook his head in disgust.

"But…but Jian Shen said so…!"

"If Jian Shen told you to eat s because it's healthy, will you?"

Yun Hai spluttered and turned away, choking from nausea. While he tried to straighten himself, the holy maiden spoke up.

"There's no sign of cheating. I'm referring over the match and I can vouch that nothing is untoward. Sir Hei Ye is not using any spirit pills or whatever to illegally boost his strength, nor is he using any illegal treasures or tools."

"But he's TRASH!"

"Would you shut up?" One of the holy maiden's priests snapped, no longer able to tolerate his nonsense. "If you continue slandering the participant, we will throw you out. We'll even disqualify the Yun family."

"Yeah, how can someone so deluded be considered as castellan? Accusing people of rigged elections and vote fraud when he lost the popular trial, and then smearing people's reputation as trash even though the guy is proving his strength and abilities right in front of everyone…"

"Good thing he isn't orange, we will probably die if he spends four years at the helm."

"Yeah, he'll probably tell us to drink bleach or inject chlorine if there's a pandemic."

"He'll ask his supporters to launch a coup after he loses the election, to overthrow the castellan."

Good heavens, sometimes real life was stranger than fiction. If the audience knew what happened in my previous world, they might just realize how close they were to experiencing a political disaster.

Feng Huang's flames broke me out of my thoughts, and I sank into the shadows to escape being incinerated. Emerging from elsewhere, I tried to attack her, but she whirled around with a kick that forced me to duck.

Scraping a hand against the ground, I did a cartwheel to avoid her next fiery stomp. Hopping a few steps back, I evaded another torrent of phoenix-like flames before diving into the shadows once more.

"Stop hiding around and fight me properly like a man! You coward!"

Feng Huang was growing frustrated. I wasn't sure how to react. Did she really think I was going to rise to the bait and let her hit me to prove that I wasn't a coward? That would only prove that I was a fool, not that I was brave.

Exhaling, I dropped to a crouch and then sprang at her. She tried to strike me with a flaming swing of her arm, which might cut me in half if it landed, but I dropped to the floor and allowed her blazing arm to scythe the air above me. Sliding across the ground, I planted both my palms against the stone and propelled myself upward with a kick from below, breaking past her guard and catching her by the jaw.

"Ugh!"

Blood trickled from her lips, probably a result of her biting the insides of her mouth from the blow. She gritted her teeth and countered with a downward kick, but I rolled away before spinning around to kick her at the knee. She went down with a grunt, but was able to cross her arms to block another kick from me.

"No Shadow Kick?!" Father-in-law raised an eyebrow. "When did he learn that?"

"Ah, husband is from the Black Shadow Sect," Lan Bei Er quickly explained.

"Oh, right. I have seen him practice the Black Shadow Sect techniques before." Father-in-law nodded. "But a lot of them appear to be very different from the traditional Black Shadow Sect ones. I've never seen one like his where you can conjure dozens of shadow swords."

That was because those new techniques were invented by Hui Ying.

Feng Huang wiped the blood from her mouth before she launched herself at me again. Her eyes swept across my body, trying to find where I had stored her star phoenix dart, to no avail. It was safely inside my spatial pouch.

Then she would go for my spatial pouch.

"Uh-uh," I said and caught her wrist before she could grab my spatial pouch. She struggled, but I simply spun around and threw her over my shoulder. Flipping herself about in midair, she landed on her feet and knee, skidding backward even as she grabbed at the ground with her fingers. Looking up, she caught sight of the blazing star phoenix dart. I grinned. "Since you want it back so badly, you can have it back."

I threw the treasure weapon at her. Feng Huang was barely able to spring up and defend herself before she was struck by her own weapon. Flames exploded and engulfed her, swallowing her in a colossal conflagration that blew a hole in the ground. Coughing, she staggered out of the inferno and smoke, her body smoldering.

"You…!" She snarled, fumbling about for her star phoenix dart.

I didn't let her.

My No Shadow Kick caught her in the chest, causing her to fold over and spit out a mouthful of blood. With a jerk of my foot, I sent her flying out of the stage and crashing into the ground almost a hundred meters away, her body buried deep into the dirt. It was going to take quite a lot of work to excavate her out of the human-shaped crater she had furrowed into the ground.

For a few seconds, nobody moved. Everyone watched Feng Huang's unmoving figure that was embedded deep in the ground, blood pooling in the crater underneath her body.

"Um, is the battle over, or do I still need to beat her up?" I asked. That shook the holy maiden out of her shock. She swiftly nodded and raised a hand.

"The Strength Trial is over! The winner is none other than the Lan family! Congratulations to the Lan family for continuing as the next castellan of Azure Cloud City!"

With the announcement, the spectators and citizens of Azure Cloud City broke into delighted cheers and thunderous applause.

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