By defeating the team from Blackblade Hall, we had secured our promotion to First-Class, Eight-Star Sect. All that remained was one final match to decide what prizes we would be walking away with.

However, we still had one last battle ahead of us. So, while Meng LuYao and JiuLi went about retrieving the scattered fragments of their broken weapons, Kan and YuLong sat down and started cultivating to restore their energy. A few hours later, once everyone had recovered as much qi as was feasible, Kan stepped onto the stage to speak with the leader of the team from the Square Sky Sect, our final opponents.

He returned only a few seconds later, wearing a worried frown.

“They want a wheel battle. The members of each team will step on stage one at a time, and they will stay there until they are either defeated or exhausted. Whoever lasts the longest wins.” Kan looked at me, concerned. “They were willing to give up whatever concessions were necessary to make this happen—no weapons above Rank 1, no blessings. And, these restrictions only apply to them. Not us. We can do whatever we want. Their leader even encouraged us to show off our blessings. It was… strange.”

Everyone glanced at each other, confused. Then, their eyes all landed on me.

“It’s probably not a trick,” I said, with a soft, wry laugh. “They want the best fight possible. There might be a prize waiting for them if they win, but I doubt that’s their focus. They want a challenge, and imposing these restrictions on themselves is how they’ll get it.”

“So, what do we do?” asked JiuLi.

“Don’t overthink it. Let’s just give them the fight they want.”

Decision made, JiuLi took the stage for the first bout.

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JiuLi’s fight was difficult.

Her twisting, serpent-like weapon let her strike from odd angles that her opponent wasn’t entirely prepared for, but the woman across from her wielded a ji with consummate precision. Whenever JiuLi left even the slightest of openings, her opponent’s blade slid through the gap like water seeking a crack in stone. By flaring her qi, JiuLi was able to whip her weapon around at impossible speeds, catching each thrust a hair’s breadth before it sliced through her robes. However, each clash drained her of ever more energy, wearing her down.

As the fight dragged on, several gaps appeared in JiuLi’s defense, but the ji wielder chose not to capitalize on them. Instead, she pulled back and reset her stance, treating this more like a successful exchange in a spar than a final match of an important tournament.

One minute bled into the next, and both combatants began to gain a better understanding of the fight that was taking place. During this process, though, they were exhausting their qi at a prodigious rate.

Eventually, JiuLi faltered, unable to maintain her twisting weapon any longer. In a single, smooth step, her opponent closed the distance and rested the tip of her ji against JiuLi’s throat, giving the Square Sky Sect the win.

That said, although the Square Sky Sect had emerged victorious, their fighter was completely spent. Unable to continue fighting, she was forced to step down from the stage, leaving both teams one member down, with four remaining. JiuLi had technically lost that first bout, but because our opponents insisted on a wheel battle, the result was, effectively, a tie.

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Based on the order we had used previously, the next person to step forward should have been Meng LuYao. However, when we looked at her, she shook her head.

“I’m not suited for this kind of fighting. I can throw a few splinters around, and I might be able to steal a win, but it wouldn’t be a satisfying fight. I’ll step back and let you guys take care of things.”

Nodding once in acknowledgment, Kan rolled his shoulders, then stepped forward to take her place.

Kan’s opponent, like all the fighters from the Square Sky Sect, was an expert with the ji. Clinical and patient, he didn’t wave his weapon around in flourishes or flashy moves. He just waited patiently for an opening and attacked with full force whenever he found one.

Unfortunately, Kan was full of openings.

While Kan’s saber-like guandao did have a few advantages, it had a lot of downsides that the boy had yet to fully compensate for. The biggest problem was that guandao qi had certain tendencies. It wanted to move and flow in specific ways. So, while Kan could theoretically move his weapon like a normal saber, he couldn’t use guandao qi to activate techniques while doing so. Because of this, Kan tended to use the long sweeping strikes that were more common with a guandao, but without that weapon's range, he left himself open to any number of counters.

Thankfully, Kan had lightning.

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Each time Kan performed a broad, sweeping arc, his opponent waited for the weapon to pass, then lunged forward with a qi-empowered strike, not giving Kan any chance to raise his weapon and block.

Kan responded by shooting bolts of lightning at the man’s face.

Like with JiuLi, this led to a situation where neither fighter had any real advantages. Kan’s opponent was more skilled, but none of his attacks could land because Kan disrupted them with his lightning. And, with each lightning bolt to the face, the ji wielder became more reckless, doing his best to end the fight as quickly as possible.

Frustration caused the ji wielder to burn through his qi at a rapid pace, and in the end, he spent himself dry, allowing Kan to claim victory. The bout had been grueling, though, and Kan was forced to step down.

The score remained even, with three fighters left on each side.

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Our third fighter was YuLong.

JiuLi and Kan had faced opponents who clearly outmatched them in both skill and experience. They had only managed to hold their ground because their opponents couldn’t adapt to their unpredictable fighting styles.

YuLong, however, was different.

YuLong fought with a basic guandao, and his opponent fought with a basic ji. No blessings. No special tricks. Just clean attacks and parries. This third bout was a match of pure skill.

At first, neither fighter used any qi, each side working to conserve energy while probing their opponent for weaknesses. As the exchanges deepened, the ji wielder began weaving techniques into his attacks as he attempted to create openings in YuLong’s defense. YuLong was forced to use his own qi to counteract this, but he did so as economically as possible, never sparing a drop more than necessary.

When YuLong finished off his first opponent, his muscles were still brimming with power, so he stayed on stage to accept a second fight.

Again, YuLong fought conservatively, carefully rationing every strand of qi in his body, but the members of the Square Sky Sect weren't like the inexperienced youths that we had faced in previous rounds. They were seasoned fighters with decades of combat behind them. YuLong was still able to eke out a victory in this fourth bout, but by the time it was over, he was in no condition to continue any further.

This left Meng LuYao and me to take out the leader of the team from the Square Sky Sect.

For a moment, I considered nudging Meng LuYao forward, but having watched the previous bouts, I knew she wouldn’t be able to win. She would only be wasting the man’s energy. The Square Sky Sect had treated us with fairness and respect, so I decided to step up and return this gesture.

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Our fight began just as YuLong’s had, with both of us using basic attacks and parries to test each other. Two things became immediately clear. First, my opponent was far more skilled than his teammates. Second, I didn’t have anywhere near YuLong’s proficiency with a guandao.

I did have plenty of other advantages that I could use, but wanting to keep this fight honest, I tapped into my metal qi and shifted the material of my weapon, moving a large amount of its mass to the butt end, where I created a heavy spike. This completely changed the balance of the weapon and reduced its effective range, but it allowed me to treat my ‘guandao’ more like the crescent moon spade.

This change came with plenty of drawbacks. Guandao qi didn’t want to move the way moon spade qi did, so I couldn’t use guandao qi to activate any moon spade techniques. This wasn’t too much of a problem, though. It just meant that I needed to use metal qi for attacking while reserving my guandao qi for movement techniques.

This shift in my fighting style caught my opponent off guard, and when I then began using metal qi to wave the head of my weapon around in mimicry of JiuLi, he struggled to adjust. He leaned harder into qi techniques, but the more the fight shifted away from physical combat, the more it fell under my control.

After five minutes, the fight was entirely under my control, and my opponent knew it.

Jumping away from me, the man let out a weary sigh and shook his head. “I didn’t want to do this, but you’ve left me no choice. If I lose to a sixteen-year-old Disciple, I’ll never hear the end of it. My master will make sure of that.”

His eyes flashed ominously. “Prepare yourself.”

Then, he charged.

As the man slashed at me, I raised my weapon to parry, but it froze mid-swing. This only lasted a split second, but that was enough to break my rhythm and force me to scramble to the side, dodging in a rather ungainly fashion.

My opponent didn’t let up. He struck again, and again, when I tried to block, my weapon froze as I tried to move it into position, leaving me no choice but to twist away. This time, however, I wasn’t quick enough, and the blade of my opponent’s ji cut a deep gash into my right arm.

When the man’s third attack came, I knew what he was doing, and I was prepared for it. This time, when I raised my weapon to block, I felt the man’s will-lock envelop a small section of my blade, trapping it in place. I could have fought this with my spatial affinity, but I didn’t. Instead, I wrapped my metal qi around the haft of my guandao, peeled off three thin needles, and sent them flying. One knocked away my opponent’s ji, while the other two buried themselves deep within his shoulders.

Meng LuYao had been able to use her wooden spikes rather skillfully, but her lacking close-combat skills meant they weren’t nearly as effective as they could have been. So, I decided to put on a little showcase of what was possible while also countering my opponent’s will-locks.

Each time I blocked or attacked, I sent shards of metal flying from random places along the haft of my weapon. At such close range, and with the attacks coming from odd angles, my opponent didn’t have any way to dodge. He could only use will-locks and heavy bursts of qi to bat away my attacks at the last instant. Eventually, though, this high level of energy consumption took its toll, and I was able to slip through his guard, placing my weapon firmly against his chest and ending the fight.

Smiling ruefully, my opponent cupped his fists and bowed to me. “If you ever decide to abandon this dream of a First-Class Sect, you should consider joining us at the Square Sky Sect. You might need to switch up the type of qi you’re cultivating, but something tells me that wouldn’t be much of a problem. With a few people like you, securing our promotion to Three-Star Sect would be a breeze.”

I responded with a simple martial salute, then returned to my team.

With this victory, our Heavenly Ascension was complete. We had won all five matches. It was time to see what reward the Saint of Heroes had prepared for us.