PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

To put it in simple terms, this world was extremely similar to the ancient east where men and women basically lived in separate worlds without interacting with each other until marriage was arranged between them.

This was especially the case for people who were born with some kind of status as their marriages will be decided by their relatives from a young age, because of this in this world there was no real need for romance.

Even with all of the above, it wasn’t as if everything beautiful about love was dead, but broadly speaking public displays of affection or elaborate declarations were rare.

And if one took into account the fact that in this world same-sex romantic relationships were considered deviance worth rejecting, one can imagine that Miao Xiauyue’s obvious declaration of love to Mei Fei Long caused a stir.

Of course, given Mei’s behavior up until now, no one in the audience dared to say anything out loud and instead, the vast majority of the audience simply made their judgments quietly as they waited for the reaction of the higher-ups of the various sects.

But that was where things got strange, one would have expected that the first person to react would be none other than Miao Xiauyue’s father but contrary to popular opinion, Miao Taolong just kept a relaxed expression without trying to intervene at all.

His lack of reaction not only baffled the audience but also left the higher-ups of the other sects confused, but as if everyone had come to a momentary realization, the various sect leaders chose to remain silent.

Needless to say, as smart as these individuals were, it didn’t take long for them to put the puzzle pieces together and come to the conclusion that this was exactly the scenario that was supposed to happen.

.....

After all, except for the Blood Scorpion Sect, the rest of the sect masters already knew about the events that will take place later and how this tournament had faded into the background in comparison.

Of course, even though these people understood what was going on that didn’t mean they were completely satisfied with it as Miao Taolong never went into much detail about what would happen to his daughter’s marriage once the rest of the events took place, this led them to assume that the marriage deal would still stand and any of their disciples would still have a chance to marry Miao Xiauyue; They never expected that from the beginning the winner of the tournament would be the true romantic partner of Miao Xiauyue who also happened to be the only woman participating in the tournament.

In addition to that, many of the characters present still had some opinion regarding seeing how two women declare their love so brazenly in public but with all the interests involved and given the enormous martial potential of said women involved; nobody said anything about it.

With all of the above, the most surprised and at the same time happy people at this moment were none other than the women of the moment, Miao Xiauyue and Mei Fei Long who had never thought that the day would come when they could profess their love in this way.

The rose-colored aura around the adorable couple not only didn’t diminish over time but intensified, that is, until a certain hunter interrupted with a mocking comment, “Do we still need to fight in the finals?”

His statement clearly emphasized how ridiculous it was to still try to compete for Miao Xiauyue’s hand not to mention the painful difference in strength between Desmond and Mei.

Surprisingly, Mei responded quickly, contradicting what Desmond had said with a tone that made it clear that she would not take no for an answer: “You and I will fight one last time... at least grant me that, Desmond.”

The hint of pleading in her voice almost made Desmond’s heartbreak, yet he still responded with a smile, “I won’t make it easy on you.”

To which Mei replied full of battle intent: “I didn’t expect anything else”

As they both looked into each other’s eyes full of battle intent, Miao Xiauyue only watched from the side with a loving smile, in the end, she was well aware that it didn′t matter how close she had become to Desmond; it was Mei who would miss him the most when he was gone.

With all said, Xiauyue gracefully withdrew before the stunned eyes of the crowd and walked up the stairs to her father’s side, a small detail that many overlooked is that even now she was still clutching her ceremonial sword.

Time passed and other small allegorical events took place in the center of the arena waiting for the agreed time for the grand finale, meanwhile, Desmond was focusing on healing the wounds on his arm and chest at the same time as Mei focuses on recovering the enormous amount of Ki that she had spent.

After a couple of hours, the dance performance in the middle of the arena came to an end, giving way to the Roaming Cloud Sect Master to declare the start of the finals of this tournament.

Watching Desmond and Mei walk up on stage, the audience had complicated emotions regarding this battle, on the one hand, the audience knew that Desmond was unlikely to win given the strength he had shown so far and on the other hand the public was also painfully aware that it would be Mei Fei Long who would win this tournament to obtain the hand of the Princess of the Roaming Cloud Sect.

Desmond and Mei for their part didn’t even pay attention to the crowd around them, for them this wasn’t about the tournament or entertaining the spectators, for Desmond and Mei this was about themselves, this was a farewell.

As soon as the bell rang, it was Desmond who took the initiative to charge at Mei with a flurry of incessant slashes using his gauntlets in combination with his technique trying to use the sheer lethality of this skill to force Mei to take a defensive position.

But Desmond had underestimated the ridiculous defensive power Mei possessed once she entered her draconic state, sparks flying every time Desmond’s slashes collided with Mei’s silver-scaled arms.

Mei however was not pressured at all by Desmond’s strong offense nor when the latter started channeling at full power.

Instead, using forceful defense in conjunction with her enormous physical power, Mei began to drive Desmond back, no matter how cunning the blow was or from what angle it came; Mei deflected each attack with great ease.

This couldn’t be helped, the gap between Desmond’s strength and Mei’s strength was simply too great, it wasn’t something that Desmond could overcome only by relying on

Still, Mei also didn’t take the initiative to fight back, which led to the exchange of blows dragging on greatly, making it seem more like a friendly exchange of techniques than a battle.

But Desmond wasn’t satisfied, he knew he couldn’t beat a monster as strong and talented as Mei Fei Long but he still wanted to say a big goodbye.

As if agreed upon beforehand, both Mei and Desmond exchanged a powerful blow before they both stepped back a few meters at the same time, briefly stopping the exchange.

Sensing Desmond’s intentions with his sharp instincts, he didn’t hesitate to comment: “Come on Desmond, show me what you’ve learned in these two months”

Smiling wryly, Desmond realized that there was no way he was going to be able to go toe-to-toe with Mei and retain any of his dignity if he didn’t use every last one of his cards up his sleeve.

Barely a split second later, the smile on Desmond’s face faded into a serious and intense expression.

Mei barely caught the change of expression on Desmond’s face just before Desmond completely disappeared from her field of vision. For a moment Mei was unable to process how the hell she lost sight of Desmond, after all from her understanding, it was impossible for Desmond to reach a speed that would allow him to escape her senses.

What Mei didn’t know is that Desmond hadn’t relied on speed when he developed the technique he just used, likewise Desmond hadn’t escaped Mei’s senses and it would be correct to say that Desmond had tricked Mei’s senses.

Whatever the case, Mei continued to look intently around her for Desmond only to feel a strong presence and a sense of danger right behind her.

“” Mei barely managed to react in time to see Desmond right behind her unleash a mighty blow surrounded by multiple dangerous-looking winds rings at her.

BOOOOM*

“That was close” Mei exclaimed before sighing in relief as her arms gave her a numb feeling, probably only she knew how difficult it had been to block Desmond’s blow just relying on the defensive ability of her silver Ki scales, after all, these scales were not an actual defensive technique and were just a physical manifestation of her bloodline granting her certain benefits.

Desmond for his part could only smile bitterly when he saw that even having only a fraction of a second, Mei was still able to block one of his best punches with just her physical body prompting him to comment, “Looks like I’m going to have to work hard. even more.”