Yanwei slowly came to his senses on the waiting room bench. Beside him, Jinshen sat silently, an approving smirk tugging at his lips despite his best attempts to remain stoic. His voice cut the thick silence that had settled inside of the the room.
"You did good." He began with a faint approval in his voice. "Let me run you down on the next opponents of Lord Yuxan."
He paused for a moment, his expression turning stoic.
"Since you've passed out there have been 18 other fights, mostly male disciples have gone first."
Yanwei rubbed his eyes, his body felt healed, light, like nothing had ever happened. Which surprised him but he remained silent about that fact since there was just one thing that gnawed at him more.
"Opponents? Not one?"
He asked as his eyes darted around, searching for Jinhai and Ruoxue but they were nowhere to be seen.
"Where the hell were the others?" he asked once more, a knot of unease tightening in his chest.
Jinshen smirked slightly, his expression showed that he wasn't worried at all about Jinhai and Ruoxue.
"Well... They're Lord Yuxan's opponents." His voice was dripping with confidence that Yanwei did not understand at all
Yanwei's eyes widened for a moment before he took a deep breath, calming himself down, he groaned softly.
"Well... Their absolutely screwed..." He muttered under his breath before running his hand through his hair.
In the arena Jinhai and Ruoxue stood together, their clothes were a vast contrast to each other.
On one side there was Jinhai, wearing his black and crimson robe, holding his daggers on either hand, sporting a completely stoic and focused expression of silent determination.
Meanwhile, Ruoxue was wearing a near complete white robe, the edges embroidered with gold and the design of blue lightning on his shoulders was prominent.
In front of them was Yuxan who was now shirtless after the many fights he had gone through in the trial, except that. There was not even a scratch on him.
"I chose the two of you since I wanted to see something." He paused, cracking his knuckles. "I was informed that my younger brother has allied himself with three other people."
Jinhai clicked his tongue in annoyance, readying his daggers as they got coated in a fiery Demonic Qi that glowed white with occasional flickers of black
"Shut up. At least I have friends. You're a lonely man brother."
Ruoxue felt a bit uncomfortable in the sibling banter as he readied his own bow, which was now much more different from the previous one which he had used in the Trial of the Labyrinth.
"Uh.. Just so you know I do not share his opinions, Lord Yuxan." He spoke nervously, a small polite smile on his face.
The body of the bow was white, not like the chalky white of bones, but one that seemed similar to ice, when the light hit it just right, the pale blue veins of blue that were inside the body were visible, making the weapon seem alive.
Yuxan raised an eyebrow at the bow in intrigue before it slowly melted back into his stoic and distant expression before he spoke.
"Oh? That bow. It is from the treasury, it once belonged to the Heavenly Ice Pavilion Sect... Before I burnt it down." He said in a completely casual way before tilting his head. "I suppose that my brother snuck that out for you. So use it well in our fight. Young man."
Jinhai scoffed in response, annoyance and competitiveness was evident in his expression, but Ruoxue still held that polite and still immensely intimidated expression.
Yuxan took a step towards them before he suddenly disappeared, covering the distance in between them near instantly.
"We will fight head on. I have played games with the previous few disciples."
But Jinhai was prepared for the suddenness of the attack as he blocked the small flick from Yuxan but he was still sent flying towards the edge of the arena but he caught himself just in time.
Damn he hits hard...
Ruoxue narrowed his eyes, his nervous expression completely dropping. He leapt into the air and pulled back the string of the bow, a pale blue Qi arrow with a black center forming as he released it.
Yuxan remained completely unfazed, grabbing the arrow in mid-air and even as the arrow exploded, he remained completely unharmed, but his hand was completely frozen over, covered in thick blue ice.
"Good, you temporarily managed to inhibit my movement just in time for my brother to attack me."
Almost as if on cue he was struck by the flaming hot daggers of Jinhai, but he simply used the ice covered hand to block the stab from Jinhai, both blocking the attack as well as melting the ice to release Yuxan's hand.
"But you must know. That I chose this duo because I wanted to test how well you would do with your elemental Qi clashing together."
Jinhai grunted in annoyance as he jumped away, having now accidentally melted away the ice that was restraining Yuxan from just flicking them both into the ground.
But there was just one thing that both Ruoxue and Jinhai noticed in Yuxan's glowing eyes.
Boredom.
This ticked them both off as Jinhai's expression turned into a bit of a scowl while Ruoxue turned completely stoic, his eyes glowing white as Jinhai's eyes also glowed a bright, vibrant crimson.
Jinhai rolled up his sleeves, revealing his veins that were now a bright, vibrant gold.
"You're not bored are you brother?"
Yuxan looked at them both, not intimidated at all. Instead he seemed a bit amused at the sight before him.
"Oh? What if I am? Will both of you fix that. Brother, Young Man?"
An aura of bright, blood-red Qi resembling flames surrounded Jinhai's body, spiraling around him that seemed to pulsate with a wave of black every breath he took. The air around him becoming hot, the stone of the arena beneath him was now hissing underneath it.
Ruoxue was also enveloped by a flickering yet even brighter aura of a bright, almost blinding Qi that was a mix of both white and electric blue. It not only enveloped his body it surrounded his bow which seemed to evolve under his Qi, now having a silver grip on it and the bow changing to match the color of his aura.
"We'll entertain you. Don't worry." They both exclaimed in unison, their Qi flaring up to even higher levels.
Jinhai lunged at Yuxan whose eyes widened in surprise for the first time in the Trial of Blood.
He's... Faster then before. He thought to himself as he managed to dodge the slash from Jinahi but still, a small trail of crimson was left on his skin.
Blood.
There wasn't any time to recover.
A storm of arrows rained down from above, Ruoxue was high in the air, unleashing a relentless barrage. Each strike exploded with frost, freezing faster than Yuxan could react. Within seconds, he stood buried in ice, a jagged, glacial monument.
The arena's audience stood still.
Had they won? Against the son of The Grand Marshall. That was the only thought that was running through everyone's mind.
The duo felt that they had won, meeting each others gaze for a moment before.
Crack.
The ice shattered completely, getting vaporized as steam rose from Yuxan's body.
"I'm impressed that you managed to push me this far." His voice boomed across the arena, impressed and approving.
He raised his arm, and the temperature in the arena rose to insane levels, like the sun itself had come closer to the world. The flames of black began to coil up his shoulder and neck.
"Now... The real fight starts."