The Sect Leader System-Chapter 346: Top Four

Kang Lin was so anxious that she didn’t sleep more than an hour the night before her next tournament round—not that she needed much more than that but she’d tried and ended up tossing and turning for hours—and the reason had nothing to do with her opponent. In fact, she hadn’t even bothered to check who she’d be fighting.

It simply didn’t matter. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

For one thing, making top eight already exceeded her expectations. She should have lost to Yang Ru and was positive that, no matter who her opponent was in the next round, she’d be outmatched.

More importantly, though, she couldn’t get her inescapable fate out of her mind. As soon as the tournament was over, the sect leader would announce the end of her discipleship. Everyone would know her shame, that her behavior was so reprehensible that she was being forcibly removed from her position as a disciple.

Her reputation would take an unrecoverable hit. No matter how many hundreds of years she lived or how high her cultivation reached, the stigma of her failure would stick with her. Absolutely no one would ever again take a chance on putting her in an elevated position. She’d only ever be able to take in the lowest of low as students to learn from her.

She would be ruined.

And all because … why? It was hard for her to put into words, though it had made so much sense at the time. Yang Ru had been on track to become a legend until her dreadful actions had endangered his chances. Who was she to attach herself to such a rising star?

Her talent was midrange, after all. She would benefit from their marriage. He wouldn’t. Thus, it seemed obvious to her that separating from him was the right thing to do.

From one perspective, anyway.

The match would benefit her family and her sect. She’d been taught practically from birth about her responsibility to those two entities. Advancing either or both of those should have been primary in her considerations. Instead, she worried about him. She put him ahead of her family and her sect.

Why?

Because she’d come to care about him.

That wasn’t easy for her to admit for some reason, but it was true. That situation was actually what most cultivators hoped for in an arranged marriage, and finding such wasn’t impossible. It was what she had wished for herself.

Why, then, did she throw it away when it happened?

Worse, the result of her caring about him and considering him over herself, her family, and her sect was him being miserable and possibly suffering a qi deviation.

None of it made sense. How could doing what she felt was right end up being so wrong for literally everyone?

No matter how much she went over it in her mind, however, she kept coming back to the same basic fact—it was not right for someone as inferior as her to glom herself onto someone with as bright a future as him. Besides, he was part of the Rising Tide Sect. A qi deviation wasn’t a setback. Instead, he and his sect leader would turn it into a huge advantage somehow.

Yeah. She was sure of it. Both Yang Ru and Yang Xiu would end up with some kind of huge boost because of it.

Even if they turned the negative into a positive, though, Kang Lin still felt guilty. Even if the end result turned out to be good, it didn’t excuse the pain she’d caused them.

She blew out a breath.

The only thing she could do was to resolve not to hurt them ever again, which she could do simply by avoiding them as much as possible. After the tournament was over, she’d be removed as the sect leader’s disciple, making it easy to cut ties completely. She’d go to the Poison Claw Sect’s main grounds and fade into obscurity.

Decision made, she got ready for the day and made her way to the tournament grounds where she finally checked the bracket. There were four matches to be held that day. The first was Yang Xiu versus the Jade Chameleon’s second best entrant. Next, Kang Lin would be fighting her own sect’s number two rated participant. The final two matches pitted the top Poison Claw versus the second best Swift Blizzard and the top Jade Chameleon versus the top remaining Swift Blizzard.

Eventually, the round started. It was hard to watch Yang Xiu fight. Knowing she had gone from best friend to hating Kang Lin made her want to avoid even the sight of the girl, but it was difficult not to pay some attention. Luckily, the bout didn’t last long, with Yang Xiu destroying her opponent quickly and efficiently.

With that match completed, Kang Lin made her way to the arena floor for her last fight of the tournament. Her opponent, Tan Long, was a renowned martial arts genius in her sect. There was no way for her to beat him even if her cultivation was one minor realm more advanced than his.

Not that losing was a bad thing. She’d already achieved much more than she’d ever believed possible. Top Eight hadn’t even been something she’d dreamed of. If not for the fact that she was destined to lose all her status when the sect leader made his announcement, her making it so far would have given her reputation an amazing foundation. A future as a sect elder would have been the least of her expectations.

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Would have been.

Regardless, she’d try her best against Tan Long.

After entering the arena, she bowed deeply to him, showing her respect for a fellow sect member with such a high stature. To her surprise, he returned her bow, going to the same depth.

He’d given her much face, more than she deserved.

Of course, he didn’t know that she would be losing her discipleship soon. If he had, he wouldn’t have even nodded his head.

Like many of the preeminent cultivators in the Poison Claw Sect, Tan Long used a sword. Besides his talent, A-, and his genius at martial arts, another factor that made him stand out was his use of the sect’s eponymous qi aspect—Poison. Taking a small cut from him was the equivalent of another cultivator’s deep slash or full stab.

Going against an opponent with his skills and the ability to make every strike count made her choose one of two paths. Option A, she could do as she’d done against Fan Tao and use Path of Lightning to avoid Tan Long’s blows. That would be great, except that the technique used so, so much qi. And once her pool ran dry, she’d basically have to surrender.

Option B was to use her shield to, as the sect leader called it, tank Tan Long’s blows. With her talent so much lower than the twins’, she hadn’t gotten her lightning shield to Mastery yet, meaning it didn’t activate automatically and only in the area where she was about to be hit. Still, though, it was a top heaven grade technique and, as such, was much more qi efficient than the shield any participant other than the twins used. Even better, it discharged a small bolt of lightning upon every hit.

Her qi pool wasn’t strong enough to keep the shield active continuously, however. She’d have to trigger it when she expected to be hit. If she missed an activation, she’d be done for.

Her decision came down either to using speed to overwhelm Tan Long or using the efficiency of her qi shield to outlast him.

Neither choice was likely to lead to a win given his superior talent—an entire rank higher than hers­—and more advanced weapon skill.

That he was so much better than her actually made her feel better. There was no shame in losing. She could basically do whatever she wanted.

Kang Lin decided on Option B—using her shield. She’d used Path of Lightning to win her first major fight and knew that relying on a technique she hadn’t previously shown would give her a small tactical advantage. Any plans he’d made to counter her speed would be wasted.

Besides, though his martial arts skills made him fast, her Qi Gathering realm Lightning Dash technique was a cut above what he could do. Lightning, after all, gave two fundamental advantages—speed and power.

Just before it was time for the match to begin, Tan Long pulled his weapon from his ring. Or rather, weapons. He held a jian in his right hand and a dagger in his left.

That meant he was taking the fight seriously. To the best of her knowledge, it was the first time he’d dual welded during the tournament.

His action didn’t faze her, though. Yes, the dagger was just as dangerous as a sword in the hands of a Poison user. Yes, the fight would have been easier if he’d shown himself to be underestimating her.

On the other hand, she simply didn’t care. She fully expected to lose, after all.

The announcer started the fight, and she remained firmly in place. She wasn’t depending on her speed but on qi efficiency. Using a technique to reach Tan Long would have cost qi, and walking to him would have revealed her strategy. Thus, waiting was the call.

He stared at her doubtfully, obviously expecting her to have rushed at him. After a moment, he grinned and charged at her instead. She supposed that going on the offensive did give him a lot of choices, considering his martial ability.

As he neared, she became hyperaware of his two blades. Either touching her would end the fight even more quickly than she anticipated.

The spear did have a big advantage over the sword, however—range. Before he could get within the reach of his longest blade, she struck. He blocked, of course, but she still delivering a bolt of Lightning. Qi traveled down the blade. Most of it was absorbed by his hilt, but since he hadn’t engaged his shield, some made it to his hand.

It was a trivial jolt, really. Worst case, he was feeling a little numbness in his fingers. But she hadn’t used any more qi than she’d regenerate in a minute. And she’d taught him he had to be careful even in blocking. After all, her spear technique was also top heaven grade. Not every Lightning user could efficiently deliver qi strikes while being blocked.

He moved in for his own strikes, of course. She blocked his sword, delivering more qi to his hand and, at the last moment, triggering her shield. Even him “winning” by getting a hit in with the dagger delivered a small bolt to him.

Tan Long took a step back.

Interesting. He probably hadn’t expected to take damage with every offensive and defensive blow and wanted to regroup. Since it was almost never a good idea to let an opponent do what they wanted, she stepped forward as he moved back, thrusting her spear.

He tried to dodge but probably hadn’t realized that she didn’t need to stab him, only to touch him. Even more qi than the previous three bolts discharged into the side of his stomach.

Tan Long visibly winced.

Good. At least he’d remember fighting her as he advanced in the tournament.

Finally, he activated his shield just before his counterattack. And it worked perfectly, preventing the qi bolt from her spear tip from traveling down his sword to hit him. And he kept it up as she triggered her own shield, preventing himself from taking another bolt as he tried stabbing her with the dagger.

The fight continued in a similar manner for the next several exchanges. He kept his shield active as he went on the offensive and when he blocked her spear.

There was a reason for his reputation, though. He was good. Really good. His sword found ways around her spear for the majority of their exchanges, and she had no answer for his dagger. The end result was that she activated her shield much more often than she wanted to.

Still, he kept trying to disengage, and she didn’t let him. Every time he took a step back, she thrust forward, letting her shield lapse to save qi.

Tan Long feinted a retreat, trying to take advantage of her predictable pattern, but she wasn’t stupid. If she’d ever been susceptible to such trickery, innumerable spars with Yang Xiu and Yang Ru had beaten the trait out of her.

She got in a nice hit on his shield while getting hers up in plenty of time to stop his ambush.

Finally, after a couple of minutes of vigorous exchanges, he dropped his shield, and she prepared to thrust.

Instead, he held up his hands. “Your match. I’m out of qi.”

Kang Lin halted her attack automatically at the sign of his surrender, but the ramifications took a moment to sink in.

She’d won? She’d reached the top four?

Huh?