Chains Of Heaven

It was the day of the competition, I was sitting in the bench waiting for the announcements for the matches. No one was talking to the others so I just stood to the side quietly trying to recover my energy.

Blacksmithing was not an easy process by any means, the contact with the flame was not that hard for me to be honest but the simple fact was that creating a weapon with as few defects as possible was simply hard. In the end I had to use some of my own blood in the process to make sure that everything mixed together in a satisfactory manner and to have the final result acknowledge me.

If I didn't do that the spear would not be usable for me right now nor would it have finished forming a weapon spirit so soon. A weapon, after a certain level, must have a soul of it's own or it simply is not complete, the technique I used was as perfect as I could go with the time restraint I had. In a few months of use it should grow in power and spirituality. I actually am surprised by how well it went overall, but it will still take some time before I can confidently say it is complete.

I close my eyes and look into my library, thanks to yesterday's excursion across the bazaar and the few hundred books I managed to touch I reassembled them into the appropriate volumes in the library before looking at the Heaven's Path Spear Art book.

It was not the most complete book I have at my disposal, swords being much more popular overall, but it was definetly interesting and it was very good. I have to figure out ways to mix it with the Heaven's Path Earth Art and Heaven's Path Wood Art to truly show what I can do but it is still quite interesting.

As I was doing just that a person entered the waiting area. It was, unsurprisingly, an old man with long gray bear. I do have to wonder if people consider long grey bears as a symbol of status or they just don't want to bother with painting.

"Hello to all of you. This will be an important event and I am proud to be able to see all the great youths that represent the best of the best in this continent. My name is Dogu Bo, I will be the judge of the cmain competition.

This battle will have a 'double elimination system'. Those who keep winning their fights will stay in the 'Winner's Group.' The ones who lose once will fall into the 'Losers Group,' and will be then eliminated if they lose again! The opponents of each fight will be randomly decided by the adjudication profound formation.

"Once you lose your consciousness, admit defeat, continuously do something that violates the rules, or are later than fifteen breathes to enter the battlefield, you will be determined to have lost. Once you get struck out of the area of the main stage, you will be determined to have lost in that case, too!

"The participants are not allowed to use contracted beasts or any special profound item, including body protection profound items. It is not allowed to use any sort of medicine that was not made by one self, either, but there is no such restriction on weapons! The medicines one makes by oneself will be considered a part of that person's own strength and thus allowed, an elder of the pill forgers association will have to verify the pills beforehand to make sure it is the participant himself who made them.

"If it becomes impossible to decide the result of a fight in a short period of time due to some special reason, then the respected grand elder of the Master Teacher Association will decide the winner and loser!

"Furthermore, as everyone will be going all out during their fight, it will be hard to avoid getting injured. Thus, no one must complain about it. However, if one side has already admitted defeat, you are not allowed to continue attacking your opponent. Also, you must not attempt to kill your opponent due to personal grudges or malice, if one is found doing such a thing they will not receive any reward and will not be able to get any sort of help from any of the associations for the next 100 years, and considering that the youth is the most important time for any cultivator this would mean a huge impediment for further progress."

As he finished explaining as much I calmed down, it was a good thing that this tournament would give those who lose a chance to win again.

It would be like this:

The first round would be the main competition, the one who win passes through to the second round and the losers would have to fight one another, the process would repeat itself again with the winners fighting amongst themselves and the previous losers and the new losers would fight one another again. It would continue until the finals where the winner of the 'Winners Group' would then fight the Loser's Group winner in a 'best of three' fight where they'd fight three times and if even once the loser lose then that was it.

It was a not so subtle way to show that it is possible to crawl back to victory after a grave loss, but it would not be easy and it would definetly be precarious while also showing that even the one who wins may be overtaken depending on the situation.

"The first match will be Enkidu, the current first place in everything he participated in, versus Chang Seng from the Pure Might Sect."

Well, I guess I might have gone a bit overboard with the taking of first place beforehand so the stares at me are understandable. I just stood up and began to move as another youth came to walk as well. He was huge with bulging muscles and a stern face, he had short light brown hair and his face has some scars that made him look all the fiercer.

He was dressed with a green and white armor that covered ost of his body and his fists were encased on gauntlets that were clearly of supperior quality. He was a 9th Level Earth Profound Realm cultivator but like everyone in this competition now he would certainly be able to fight those above his cultivation realm.

As we entered the stage the cacophony of sounds was disturbingly high and many people were shouting cheers and... is that a bunch of fangirls?

Nope, not thinking of that. No no, I just won't think of that.

Yep, the fight, focus on the fight.

"Ready? GO!" The announcer announced and Chang Seng moved forward, his move fast and his fist covered with powerful energy but his technique was just so sloppy that it made me cringe.

"Take THIS!" He said as he punched at me, I could have sidesteped it but I just extended my hand instead, it took a brownish tint to it as the fist hit my palm but despite the energy dispersed I stood tall.

Not waiting much Chang Seng began punching me again and again but I just avoided most attacks and those who hit were protected by the energy of the Heaven's Path Earth Art.

Earth is the most defense-oriented and most overbearing of the elements, it lacks speed and it is not very destructive, but when it comes to defense or crushing power the other elements cannot match at all. The Heaven's Path Earth Art is what was created from more than 6000 different profound arts and scrolls pertaining to Earth and it's diverse applications from defense, to attack, to even escape and evasion.

Something like creating a defensive energy in my body to defend myself is a child's play.

Of course, purely defending myself is not really an option so I moved to attack the moment the opponent lowered his attack rhythm.

While Earth is great for defense it is a bit lacking in attack, thankfully there is another element I am naturally good at that I can use well for offensive techniques. Focusing on my right hand my energy aligns there with a different element and I concentrate my energy into a blade-like form. With one stroke I cut forth and Chang Seng's armor got a clear cut in it.

Huh? I guess his armor is at least a Emperor Grade weapon, he can't show it's full might but he definetly can still use it for defense as it is quite solid. It it wasn't then it would have been cut through by me already.

The Heaven's Path Metal Art, the union of more than 4 thousand books about Metal Arts, is not to be underestimated and if I were stronger then there would be no problems for me to win without the use of any weapon. My profound energy enough would be sharp enough to cut through mostly anything. Metal is an special element as it is the most unwielding element there is, the defense of it is the most powerful and the attack most extreme, but it lacked in that it is either sharp on attack or unwieding in defense, unnable to transfer and deflect power away.

It complements perfectly any and all weapon-related profound arts.

"Hahahaha, you can forget about injuring me. This is a Mighty Earth Armor, an Emperor Profound Armor, you definetly will not be able to injure me when using it." Chang Seng laughed evily and I stared at him for a moment before speaking.

"Challenged accepted."

As I said that I moved to him, using my fist I covered it in pure Earth power and began to pound him five times for every punch of his, I was using the Heaven's Path Fist Art so my punches were perfect in every way that I could reach considering my power and physique. The result was that by the count of 10 his armor was dented in many places and even if his armor was resilient the crushing power of Earth is still not totally dispersed.

I might be weaker in cultivation and not have used any weapon, but it was not so difficult to crush him using my fists alone.

Whenever he punched I avoided him and used a finger to pierce the joints he exposed in his movements by using Metal energy, beside that I just kept moving about him punching nonstop, my movement art hard to predict but still fast as I continued to circle around him.

I would only use the weapon I crafted if it was absolutely necessary. If not that I will just keep fighting in a way that would ensure I have as much battle experience as I can.

By the end of it I needed about 3 minutes to defeat him, it could have been faster but I would have had to use even more of my techniques if I were to do so and I would rather continue this way as I can refine my use of my techniques better this way.

This might be a tournament, but in the end, I kinda am not the top when it comes to cultivation level here, truth be told in cultivation level of the contestants right now I am at the botton, so I can at least try my best in these battles in how to unite my different knowledges into one comprehensive form.