Ave Xia Rem Y-Chapter 297: Order

~~~

“Finally! You sure took your time getting here!”

Bei Hong’s loud voice greets Liu Jin upon entering the room reserved for the delegation of the Eternal Flame Clan within their Imperial Cloud City Branch. The floor is covered in thick red carpet, and there are multiple amenities for them to entertain themselves with. Bei Hong and Huang Shing are arm-wrestling in the center of the room. Huang Shing glances up and waves at him, but his attention is quickly forced back to the contest when Bei Hong starts getting an edge.

“You will have to forgive me,” Liu Jin says, embracing Lu Mei as she walks over to his side and kisses him on the cheek. “The past few weeks have been busy.”

“One dares not imagine what being busy means for someone like you,” Feng Zhi says. He is sharing a sofa with Yi Jiao. Both of them have playing cards in their hands.

“Jealousy suits you a little too well, cousin. You should do something about that,” Lu Mei teases him. “It is well-known that important men have too little time for their own good.”

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Yi Jiao glares at her for that but knows better than to get into an argument with Lu Mei. Off to the side, Fan Bingbing is adjusting her instrument. She looks up at Liu Jin and gives him a slight, barely perceptible nod before returning to her task.

“You could have relied on us more,” Ten Zichun says. The disciple of the Armory almost looks like he is fighting the urge to bow. “We’d have gladly helped.”

“Can you even be called a member of the Eternal Flame Clan anymore?” wonders Gan Nanfeng, looking not at Liu Jin but at Ten Zichun. She is a disciple from the Apothecary who helped Liu Jin in the Dead Plains. That she has been chosen to represent the Eternal Flame Clan speaks well of her successes since they last met. “Your loyalty is clearly elsewhere.”

“I have no idea what you could possibly mean,” Ten Zichun says, avoiding her gaze. Liu Jin chuckles. His eyes seek the last member of the delegation.

He stares.

“You?” Liu Jin asks, unable to hide his surprise. Obviously, Feng Hao was never going to be exposed to the tournament at such a young age, and Senior Brother Khong Hu is too old.

However…

“Shut up!” Pan Qiu says, trying to hide his face behind a cushion. “Don’t look at me! Ignore me! Do you think I want to be here?!”

“After the incident in the Dead Plains, he went back to hiding in the Apothecary like the coward he is,” Gan Nanfeng says, explaining the obvious anomaly in the room for his benefit. “It somehow ended up working as isolation training for him.”

One that apparently made him strong enough to be chosen to represent the Eternal Flame Clan. Unbelievable. Liu Jin can almost imagine Elder Xue dragging the cowardly disciple out of his hiding spot. She probably enjoyed it.

“If only I was a year older,” Pan Qiu says, biting his thumb.

“You could surrender in the first rounds if you’re so scared,” Ten Zichun points out, crossing his heavily muscled arms.

“Why would I pass on a chance to bully weaklings?” Pan Qiu asks, looking at Ten Zichun as though he had said something very stupid. “Besides, shaming the Eternal Flame Clan by losing on purpose is way too dangerous! You have no concept of proper cowardice!”

“Don’t say that like it’s a defect!”

Putting the arguing Pan Qiu and Ten Zichun behind them, Liu Jin and Lu Mei walk to Huang Shing and Bei Hong. The two are still locked in their arm-wrestling match, sweat shining on their faces and veins bulging on their biceps.

“How long has this been going on?” Liu Jin asks Lu Mei.

“Probably an hour,” she says. “They’re dreadfully stubborn.”

“Determined,” Huang Shing says. “We’re very determined!”

“I rather like how dreadful sounds,” Bei Hong adds, face red. “Can we be dreadfully determined?”

“You’re not using much Qi,” Liu Jin notes, mentally agreeing with Bei Hong that dreadfully determined did sound rather nice.

“We’re saving it for the tournament,” Huang Shing says. “No need to tire ourselves out before the big events.”

“Yeah, besides, you promised something good. You better not disappoint,” Bei Hong warns him.

“I wish I could,” Liu Jin says, “Unfortunately, it will be impossible with how things are going.”

“Excellent!”

“I really do not like the sound of any of what you are saying,” Feng Zhi says, glowering at him from his sofa. Lu Mei smiles at him.

“Cousin, if you do not like it, you only need but to keep your nose out of it. Bad things happen when you don’t. Have you forgotten what happened when you went to the Third Storage and–” ŕãＮÔ𐌱ĚṦ

“How could you possibly know that?” Feng Zhi yells as he stands up, his playing cards scattering to the floor. His face is as red as Liu Jin has ever seen it.

“Brother tells me things,” Lu Mei replies, smirking. “He has no embarrassing memories of himself to share, so he shares those of others.”

“Damn him!”

Liu Jin clears his throat. “Elder Xue is busy attending to other matters with the tournament committee and will take a while to join us. She said that we should organize ourselves without her. Young Master Feng Zhi, I take it you will be in charge of the delegation once the tournament begins?”

“Are you stupid?”

Liu Jin blinks. Feng Zhi looks at him with complete seriousness.

“Nearly everyone in this room is yours or favors you enough that they might as well be,” Feng Zhi says, gesturing at the others with a wave of his arm. “Do you really expect me to stand up and say I am in charge? I will not take part in such foolish theater.”

Liu Jin frowns and turns to Lu Mei. Unfortunately, he finds no support there.

“He is right,” she says, shrugging her shoulders.

“People will talk if the Emperor of the Storm Dragon Empire is in charge of the delegation over the Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan,” Liu Jin tries to argue with Feng Zhi.

“You mean people will make up rumors about you, which they already do, and talk about how disappointing I am compared to my brother, cousin, father, and uncle, which they also already do,” Feng Zhi crosses his arms. “You will find I have no issues with this.”

“Shh!” Yi Jiao says, lightly hitting his shoulder. “I told you not to put yourself down.”

“I am undeniably superlative. That is not the issue,” Feng Zhi says. “Besides, it’ll annoy him.”

Once again, Feng Zhi is right. Liu Jin should be happy that the Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan is more at ease with himself, but he can’t help but think he has grown in a very annoying direction.

“I suppose I could take charge for the duration of the tournament,” Liu Jin looks around. In a hopeful voice, he adds, “Unless anyone has a problem with it…?”

“How could anyone have a problem?!”

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“I don’t really care since I’m bad at following orders.”

“I’ll follow your lead, Brother Jin!”

“Based on our respective abilities, I believe you are the most qualified.”

They do not even need to think about it. Some hold their voices, but no one in the room even thinks to object. Liu Jin cannot quite hide his annoyance, which makes the smile on Feng Zhi’s face grow.

“Very well,” Liu Jin says, resigned. “In that case, we should discuss the tournament first. Huang Shing, Bei Hong, stop doing that and pay attention.”

“Just a minute,” Bei Hong says.

“A second, really,” Huang Shing adds. His and Bei Hong’s arms are vibrating from the strain. The table under their elbows is dangerously close to cracking in half. “Maybe five.”

“Confident, are you?”

“Should you be speaking? You look a little pale, Brother Hong.”

“Your vision must be failing, Brother Shing. My skin is refreshingly golden.”

Liu Jin looks at them for five seconds, sighs, and has his snakes bite their ankles, infusing a no-more-than-friendly amount of poison into them.

“What the…!” Bei Hong barely has time to shout as he and Huang Shing fall over to the floor, paralyzed from their necks down.

“Brother Jin!”

“He’s become a tyrant. It must be all the time he’s spent around Lu Mei.”

Liu Jin’s eyebrow twitches. Lu Mei giggles.

“If that is all the interruptions,” Liu Jin says as most of the disciples assemble before him, “I suppose we should go over the tournament’s structure first. As you all know, the tournament is divided into three stages, the last of which will take place in the Crimson Cloud Arena floating above the palace.”

“I know we were all told about it, but it’s hard to believe it is real,” Gan Nanfeng says, looking at the Imperial Palace through the window. A magnificent crimson arena floats above it. Sometimes, it looks soft like cotton. Others, impenetrable like stone.

It is the Crimson Cloud of the Crimson Cloud Empire

The other half of the Eternal Flame.

When a divinity dies, they can choose to leave behind an Inheritance. However, for some reason, it happened that this Inheritance was broken in two. The power stayed in one half, and the mind stayed in the other. Unable to truly choose an Inheritor, the two halves could only continue to exist in an incomplete state. The power for the Eternal Flame Clan. The mind for the royal bloodline of the Crimson Cloud Empire.

The Eternal Flame and the Crimson Cloud.

For thousands of years, the two halves have been kept separate. No one knows what will happen when they are reunited. Thus, the Eternal Flame Clan kept its distance from most court matters. Overall, most people can agree it has been the most correct decision.

However, Lord Feng Gui thinks differently.

“That is not for us to worry about beyond its role in the tournament,” Liu Jin says. “It is a stadium for the third stage, and in the second stage…No, I am getting ahead of myself. The first stage is what we need to discuss.”

“Why bother?” Bei Hong says from his position on the ground. “It is not as if we are actually going to fight anyone.”

He is not wrong.

In the first round of the tournament, all the delegations will be sorted into four groups: Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. The Eternal Flame Clan is automatically placed in the Red Group, the Divine Frozen Palace in the Blue Group, the Endlessly Raging Valley in the Green Group, and the Infinite Mountain Sect in the Yellow Group. That way, it is impossible for members of the Four Great Sects to potentially eliminate each other in the preliminary rounds.

For the next few days, every member of the Red Group will fight against every other member of the Red Group in one-on-one matches, every member of the Blue Group will fight against every other member of the Blue Group in one-on-one matches, and so on. The participants will be ranked according to their win-loss record, and the top two hundred and fifty members from each group will pass to the second stage.

In a way, the first stage is an endurance contest where those who pace themselves properly succeed, while those who push themselves too much will quickly tire and become unable to perform. Knowing when to fight and when to surrender is crucial.

Of course, none of that applies to the Four Great Sects. Every contestant matched against them will most likely forfeit the match. Even those who believe themselves strong enough are unlikely to fight them in the first round as that would demand far too much of them. Besides, while the sorting is allegedly random for all but the Four Great Sects, the truth is that the Four Great Sects usually arrange for their subordinates to be sorted into their group, thus protecting them from sabotage.

The second favor Xiao Fang asked of him, innocuous though it may seem, was for his team to be placed in the Blue Group, preventing the Endlessly Raging Valley from interfering with his placement. It is something he could have asked of the Divine Frozen Palace, but Liu Jin doing it on his behalf puts him in a better position.

However, that is not really important right now.

“The other challengers will not fight us. That is true enough,” Liu Jin says. “However, we will be matched against ourselves, and fighting each other would be a pointless effort. As such, we must decide who will surrender in each of our matches.”

There is a moment of silence. Of perfect peace. Of oneness and tranquility.

“Well, I think-”

“Obviously, I have made enough merits-”

“I only don’t want to lose to that guy!”

“We’ll settle this with arm-wrestling.”

“That’s stupid! Rock, paper, and scissors should work just fine!”

“We can use cards.”

“Those are marked, Yi Jiao! I know you! You always did that to me when we were kids!”

“Supposedly, this is one of our brightest generations,” Feng Zhi says, moving to stand beside Liu Jin. “I weep.”

Liu Jin’s face meets his palm.

~~~

“I believe that should do it,” Xiao Shuang says as the Divine Frozen Palace’s delegation finishes deciding the order in which they will be ranked. “Still, are you sure about this, Sister Shen Mi? You are letting yourself be ranked tenth. By cultivation level, you should be-”

“It is fine. It’s fine,” Shen Mi says. Unlike the others, she’s lying on a long couch with her back to them. “The order doesn’t matter. Besides, we cannot fight in the first round… No matter how much we might wish to...”

Xiao Shuang blinks. The dark aura around her fellow disciple is impossible to miss.

“Are you… Are you okay?”

“Men are the worst,” Shen Mi says without any explanation. “The absolute worst. They are beasts, and just like beasts, you should be able to put a yoke on their backs so you might decide where they go. Letting them make their own choices is clearly too much.”

Xiao Shuang is not sure how to reply to such vehemence. Thankfully, she does not have to.

“She’s right! She’s right!” says another member of their delegation. “Sister Shuang, we all heard what happened to you with that rude disciple of the Eternal Flame Clan. You should have told us right away! We’d have gone and sorted her out! And to think your husband keeps someone like that around! That cannot be! You deserve much better than a man like that.”

“Even if he’s really handsome.”

“Scary, but handsome,” the other disciple says, nodding seriously. “But that’s no excuse!”

Xiao Shuang laughs nervously.

~~~

“I can’t believe we missed the banquet! It is all your Master’s fault! We should have been in Imperial Cloud City days ago!”

“You could have left with the rest of the delegation. I would have left with the rest of the delegation if I could.”

“And make an inferior entrance? Preposterous!”

“...I begin to think I must have done something deeply wrong in a past life.”

~~~

“You will be in charge of the delegation,” Xiao Yifan says.

Li Boqin blinks.

He’d feared the worst when Xiao Yifan summoned him after the banquet. However, while his treachery seems to be yet undiscovered, this situation is far from ideal. It should be Xiao Yifan who heads the Xiao Sect’s delegation. Failing that, one of the Elders. There is no reason to pick him.

“I… you do me a great honor by making me worthy of your attention, Matriarch. However, this privilege is not one I believe I deserve,” he says while trying to think of a way to get out of this situation.

“Naturally, you do not deserve it,” she says. “You shame our Sect with your repeated whoring and gambling.”

Li Boqin keeps his head down. It is not the first time his debauchery draws attention. When it began, some of the Elders tried talking to him. When that didn’t work, they reprimanded him and punished him. That didn’t work either, so they gave up on him.

“And yet,” Xiao Yifan continues, “I am told you were once one of our most promising disciples. As much as I do not want to believe someone like you is among the best our Sect can produce, your cultivation cannot be denied. Everyone else has been content to let you squander your potential so far. That will no longer be the case. Disciple Li, you will take my place representing the Xiao Sect, motivate the delegation, and ensure their placement among the Top One Hundred.”

“Surely, the Matriarch would do a much better job than I could. There is no reason to risk the Xiao Sect’s reput-Argh!”

Xiao Yifan’s aura slams on his back like a hammer.

“You have no right to speak of the Xiao Sect’s reputation,” she tells him coldly. “My reasons for not attending are my own. Understood?”

“Understood,” Li Boqin says with his face pressed to the ground. “This disciple will do his best.”

“You will succeed. Or else,” Xiao Yifan says, releasing Li Boqin from her aura and leaving him gasping on the floor. “There is one more thing. I have decided to make a slight change to our list. You can enter now.”

Li Boqin freezes. A change means the information he gave Young Master Xiao Fang the other day is no longer accurate, and with Xiao Yifan’s attention suddenly on him, he cannot risk informing him. As he tries to think of who Xiao Yifan could have chosen from among their best disciples, the door opens.

Suddenly, Li Boqin understands.

‘Young Master… please, be safe.’

~~~