Book 1 - What Is A Genius - Chapter 36 - The Arena

At the intersection of streets from the four directions was a circular arena.
The area of the arena was not big at all. Having only a diameter of about ten meters, this arena fell into the category of the shortest arenas in the Tian Luo country. On the one meter high arena, two big men stood opposite to each other.
At this moment, they were battling each other with their eyes, while their body language and expression betrayed their nervousness. The crowd below was loudly cheering. Regardless of whether they knew the men on the stage or not, they were excitedly commenting and discussing the two men.
He Yiming and He Yixuan, the two brothers, arrived and solemnly measured the two men on the stage. Subsequently, they exchanged a glance, both showing expressions of not knowing wether to laugh or to cry.
Upon hearing the sounds of drum, they thought that two experts had to be dueling. That was the reason they hurried over. However, they hadn’t expected that after coming here, they would be completely disappointed.
They couldn’t figure out the identity of the two people, and although they could also tell that these two possessed Internal Energy, this Internal Energy was at most around the third or fourth layer.
Such a level of Internal Energy was extremely difficult for an ordinary person to obtain. The fifth layer, which was considered as the most basic layer for the children of influential families, was basically out of the reach of ordinary people. After determining their strength, He Yiming and He Yixuan’s interest diminished by a lot. However, currently, a lot of crowd was present behind them. Thus, leaving would be troublesome as well. So, they decided to stay and watch the battle.
After confronting each other with eyes for quite a while, the two men on the stage eventually moved. Although these two men did not possess formidable Internal Energy, both of them cultivated battle skills. As they began to employ their skills, it seemed quite a sight.
Below the stage, the spectators standing around the stage were mostly all ordinary people. In their eyes, the fists and kicks of the two men on the stage were quite extraordinary and pleasant to watch. After a short while, the cheering increased up to the extent of becoming deafening.
No matter the extent of people’s fanaticism of martial arts, those capable of cultivating Internal Energy and obtain some accomplishments in it were the extreme minority.
The absolute majority could only learn basic body strengthening techniques and a few superficial battle skills. In their opinion, anyone who cultivated Internal Energy was a strong cultivator and was far superior. At this moment, the two cultivators on the stage not only possessed Internal Energy, even their battle skills appeared out of ordinary. Thus, the two men naturally won a deafening applause from the crowd.
As the fight continued, He Yiming and He Yixuan were becoming increasingly astonished. In their opinion, the strength of these two men didn’t even deserve contempt. However, being in such a atmosphere, they couldn’t help but feel their blood boiling, and felt like jumping onto the stage and fight.
Of course, such thinking could only churn in their minds. With their identities, they naturally couldn’t act at such a place.
On the stage, one of the men suddenly roared, and his body trembled as if he’d gone insane. His opponent seemed to have been intimidated by his sudden transformation. Within that instant, the former was resolutely struck in his stomach before he was blasted off the stage.
The entire arena immediately thundered with cheers. The man who won lifted his hands high above, as if an emperor enjoying the cheers of his citizens, while the other man, who had lost, was completely ignored.
He Yiming and He Yixuan, the two brothers, exchanged a glance while smiling, evidently having a good mood. They never expected that the final conclusion would turn out like this.
The truth was that the two men were on par with each other in terms of both Internal Energy and battle skills. The man who was blasted off the stage lost because of his opponent’s abrupt, frantic transformation, which was rather regretful for him. However, the majority of spectators couldn’t see that.
The winner flaunted off for a long time before loudly saying:
“This one, Sponger Xia Leng, from the Cheng family, announce that I am willing to accept challenge from any brother here.” (Tl: Sponger-> Sort of errand boy for noble families)
As his loud voice echoed, the people below began to whisper around, “So he turned out to be Cheng family’s Sponger. No wonder he obtained victory in the end.”
Although the martial strength of the Cheng family was the lowest among the three families, in the county town, they were deeply respected and revered.
The man shouted once again. Seeing that no one had responded, he couldn’t prevent a pleased look emerging on his face. HIs eyebrows rose as his demeanor turned extremely arrogant.
He Yiming coldly snorted before he decided to step forward. However, he was pulled by Yixuan. The latter softly shaked his head before saying:
“It’s not worth.”
He Yiming slightly started before faintly nodding. The two brothers turned around to leave.
However, at this moment, they heard a loud noise. As if lightning, a figure had rushed onto the stage.
Astonished, the two brothers turned their head, only to see a twenty something big, towering man standing on the stage. He was dressed in a skintight warrior outfit as the muscles all over his body bulged out. Even his clothing couldn’t completely conceal this fact. His expression was cold and stern. Any person in front of his gaze felt a scorching feeling and had to avoid it.
“Oh, it’s actually him.” He Yixuan softly said.
“Third brother, you know him?”
“Mmm, he is the ranked second in the Xu family’s third generation, Xu Yucai; a peak sixth layer metal-type Internal Energy expert. Really strange, the aura on his body is a lot stronger than before.”
Abruptly a face flickered in He Yiming’s mind, and at the same time, he recalled something.
During Hubin’s chase, two sixth layer experts of Xu family’s third generation were injured by Hubin. Perhaps that battle allowed Xu Yucai to make a trip back from hell, thereby allowing him to experience some sort of transformation.
Of course, just that brief experience was not enough to let him break through the peak of the sixth layer, but a certain change in his aura and bearing was not strange.
He Yiming suddenly thought of something as he asked:
“Second brother, how did you find out that he’d become stronger than before?”
“I have competed him at the Xu family castle once.” He Yixuan said with a faint smile.
“Who won?”
He Yixuan loftily laughed and didn’t reply. Though looking at his smile, He Yiming need not ask second time.
Xu Yicai was, after all, a cultivator at the peak of the sixth layer. As soon as he ascended the stage, his aura immediately suppressed his opponent all the way.
XIao Leng’s seemed slightly hesitant as he watched Xu Yicai, no longer haughty and domineering as he had been a moment ago. Although he didn’t know the origin of his opponent, ke knew the latter was not something he could deal with.
“This one is Xiao Leng, Cheng family’s Sponger……” Xial Leng cupped his fist and carefully asked, “May I know how your majesty is?”
When he said ‘Cheng family’s Sponger’, his tone intentionally turned emphasizing. It was true that he was not a major character in Tai Cang county, but Cheng family wasn’t just all name. Not everyone had the qualifications to provoke the Cheng family.
Xu Yucai coldly snorted. His face even felt smiling when he was actually not. In an extremely even tone he said, “Xu Yucai.”
Xu Leng blankly stared before his face had a huge transformation. As a Cheng family’s Sponger, he obviously knew the three influential families of the County Town. At the same time he also knew the opponent’s identity, and further knew that the youth in front of him was a sixth layer master, not something he could handle in the least. However, what he didn’t understand was that with the latter’s identity, why would he come up on the stage to trouble a small character like himself.
Xu Yucai’s brows slightly creased as he said:
“Arena is a place to compete martial skills. If you don’t want to fight, just go down.”
Xiao Leng currently resembled a caught convict. He said with a deep bow:
“This one is obviously not Xu young master’s opponent and ask for forgiveness.”
He then immediately went down the stage dejectedly, not even daring to turn his head back.
The people below immediately began to whisper around, all of which was centred around Xu Yucai. Everybody was admiringly looking at Xu Yucai who seemed like a god on the stage.
If their identity were not far apart, perhaps the people would be jealous. However, the identity of the Xu family’s second young master was at the very top in Tai Cang county. As far as these ordinary people were concerned, the latter was a legendary character that they could only admire. Therefore, they just simply couldn’t be envious.
He Yiming suddenly had a bad premonition. He tugged his elder brother and softly said:
“Third brother, we should leave.”
He Yixuan lightly waved his hand and said:
“Wait a moment.”
“Why?”
“It’s quite unclear why second young master of the Xu family went up on the stage. We will take a look.”
His voice had barely died, when the two brothers saw Xu Yucai’s gaze turning in their direction.
Although, down the stage, a lot of heads were moving about, Xu Yucai’s gaze was like a sharp blade which was firmly fixed on He Yixuan.
As expected, Xu Yucai cupped his hands and said in a clear voice:
“Brother Yixuan, we haven’t met for two years. I hope you have been well.”
Everybody’s vision turned towards that direction, while the people who were in that direction split opened like a wave, leaving behind only two people who stood with their heads high, looking extremely lofty and eye-catching in the crowd.
He Yixuan faintly laughed and cupped his hands as well before saying:
“Brother Xu Yucai. Didn’t expect us to meet here after the old days.”
Xu Yucai’s eyes momentarily shined before he said:
“Brother He Yixuan, after the last time, small brother has always longed to see you again. Since we have met today, how about we play a little?”
After a momentary silence, the arena exploded with frantic cheers and applauds.