PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Not unlike a fair, people all over the place showed excitement and anticipation on their way to the arena, although if one were observant enough then one would notice that the kind of emotion that covered the males’ faces was different from ladies showed.

This was normal because today’s event was not just any event, not just any martial arts tournament, no, today was different; the prize was different. The prize was the chance to marry the Little Princess of the Roaming Cloud Sect; Miao Xiauyue.

And for many, that prize was hundreds of times more attractive than the essence stones they used to award as a prize in the sect’s annual internal tournament, this couldn’t be helped, Miao Xiauyue was after all a woman whose beauty could cause wars, not to mention that she was also intelligent and highly virtuous.

In the minds of many, Miao Xiauyue was the perfect woman, especially if one took into account her background since marrying her means having a direct connection with the powerful Miao family and the sect master.

Therefore, not only the Roaming Cloud Sect members and the members of the other four invited sects were eager to participate in this tournament but also some independent fighters who were confident enough in their strength to come and compete for Xiauyue’s hand.

Thus by the time the preparations for this afternoon’s battle began and the registration of the fighters began, the sect’s administrative staff had a difficult time managing the crowd.

That was not the only problem, soon the staff had to report in alarm that the number of participants was too high so that the original format that was planned for the battle was no longer feasible.

An even bigger problem was that the staff couldn’t stop accepting registrations as it would be bad for the sect’s reputation. As soon as the sect master heard this news, he almost had the urge to curse the incompetence of his administrative staff for not having the ability to solve their problems and issued the order to change the format of the early stages of the match to a different format that he had observed in some tournaments abroad when he was young.

.....

With the new order and format, the rest of the registrations went fairly smoothly although there was a general slight annoyance when the crowd was informed of the change in a tournament format. Still, after a brief explanation, the crowd understood and were calmer.

Of course, this being a competition where the five sects that firmly ruled the surrounding regions, it was inevitable that individuals of a certain reputation or fame would emerge who drew attention during registration.

“You see, it’s Lao Zo the flashing fist.” An observer pointed in astonishment at a gallant-looking contestant.

And a familiar situation began to repeat itself little by little with some famous names being called causing the people who were recognized by the crowd to be proud of themselves.

“Look, it’s the unstoppable blade, Meng Tao.”

“It’s the evil scorpion Zi”

“Oh my gosh, it’s the holy son of the sacred lotus sect.”

Ironically, it was because of these famous people flaunting their reputations that two inconspicuous-looking individuals came to the registration desk where they were greeted by a disciple who happened to be wearing the Miao family crest and went unnoticed.

“Looks like you have quite a bit of competition, are you ready?” One of the hooded figures asked in a mocking male voice.

“I am more than ready and if I were you I would leave that burlesque tone, you are going to fight against at least half of these idiots and you will not even get the girl in the end” The other figure answered with a female voice full of sarcasm.

Her response seemed to take the male figure by surprise for a moment as he fell silent before replying in a resentful tone, “At least I got a taste of the bride last night.”

But his comment received a brutal look from the other party when an aggressive murmur reached his ears: “What happened last night will remain between the three of us.”

Not daring to challenge the dragon in human form in front of him, the masked man quickly changed the topic of conversation: “Do you know any of those braggarts from the other sects?”

Little did the man know that his question did no more than touch one of the inverse scales of the female dragon beside him who responded with her female voice now having a very slightly guttural tone similar to a low roar: “Most of them are people like Xiauyue and me, they have a special reputation or status in their respective sects; all except for one”

The man didn’t need to ask, there was no need, even if his mate wasn’t looking at her target like a hawk, the individual himself stood out quite a bit mainly due to his age.

Wearing deep dark red robes with a scorpion emblem on the back, a tall, sinister-faced man in his late thirties was accompanied by other Blood Scorpion Sect disciples as he bragged about all the things he would do in bed with the favorite daughter of the Miao family when he won the tournament.

Not to mention his origins and the blood debt between his sect and Mei Fei Long, just based on the comments the man say about Miao Xiauyue was enough for Mei to want him dead.

“Mei you need to calm down, you can’t make a scene here, you will ruin our plans,” The man said with his hands holding the shoulder of the female figure.

“You don’t have to remind me, I have my objectives clear, besides... I can wait a couple of hours” With an overflowing thirst for blood, the woman murmured to her companion.

Sensing the bloodlust directed at him, the devilish scorpion Zi immediately reacted by reaching out from the long sleeves of his robes with both hands that had some sort of gauntlet with a stinger on the ring finger before looking around defensively.

“Brother Zi, did something happen?” One of the surrounding disciples asked in confusion.

Looking around for another couple of seconds finding nothing, in particular, the so-called Brother Zi hid his hands inside his sleeves again before withdrawing his wary expression and replying, “Nothing, in particular, probably some poor bastard I’ve come across in the past”

Little did the man know that as keen as his senses were, they still fell short when compared to Mei Fei Long’s bestial senses who felt the tension build within Zi as he detected her killing intent.

Even before Zi could draw his hands and weapons hidden in his sleeves, Mei Fei Long had already grabbed Desmond by the shoulder before disappearing into the crowd.

With that little incident in the past, it took only a couple of hours for the records to be terminated. Soon the Roaming cloud sect master took command of the event beginning with the introduction of the invited sects as well as a brief talk about how excited he was that his daughter reached the age where she was going to marry; etc.

Seeing the always stoic Miao Taolong act so cheerful and excited, both Mei Fei Long and Desmond had to rub their eyes a couple of times trying to determine if what was in front of them was not some kind of mirage.

Even Desmond, who was quite used to wearing a fake smile and disguising himself with feigned friendliness, had to admit that when it came to acting skills he had been completely beaten by Miao Taolong.

One had only to see the way the sect master spoke kindly even to the high-ranking members of the blood scorpion sect and if Desmond didn’t know better he would almost think that Miao Taolong had no plans to go to war with them anymore.

On the other hand, the surprise of the duo was not only due to the performance of Miao Taolong but also due to the sudden change in the rules of the tournament because although they had been informed before that there would be changes in the event; Neither Desmond nor Mei expected the first round of the tournament to be a free-for-all battle for survival until only sixteen contestants remained.

Needless to say, the moment the rules were announced, all the contestants began to look at each other warily, though soon the advantage of competing while being backed by a sect became apparent.

With four distinct groups led by the best disciples of the invited sects, only the roaming cloud sect didn′t form such an obvious faction since their best disciple was Miao Xiauyue who was the prize in this event, and with her out of the event, there was no one left with enough strength or charisma to form their own group.

Desmond and Mei on the other hand just looked around with interest before sharing a dangerous, combat-hungry grin.