Awakening the Divine Spark

The audience fell silent at Lee’s sudden display of skill, and a thought why couldn’t he fight properly in every match passed through the minds of many. The loss of reputation surely wasn’t worth it.

Lee wasn’t bothered and after nodding to the opponent, went to the side to watch Jian Tianyu’s match.

The guy didn’t have an easy time fighting the taller and physically stronger opponent. It almost felt like his brother had made sure he would face the most difficult challenges, as if intentionally honing skills of his younger sibling. After the first three matches Tianyu had quite a few cuts and bruises, but even before he could face Lee, he had to deal with another challenge.

Lee was up first, though.

This time he fought honestly again, but only because during the last match his opponent was injured in the leg. There was no way for the guy to avoid the expected, but lightning fast thrust, and a few moments after the match started, the junior elder announced Lee to be the winner.

His opponent wasn’t too disheartened – all from the top four would have the chance to prove themselves one more time during the Midsummer Festival. Lee was the only one who didn’t even intend to go to spectate it, much less take a part in the competition.

When finally Lee and Jian Tianyu stood across each other, before the start Tianyu said, "After everything is over, I expect us to have an honest fight!"

Then he turned towards the junior elder, and said, "I must apologize, but my injuries are too serious for me to continue. I have to give up."

Jian Tianyu wasn’t a particularly good actor, and his straightforward character that was similar to his brother forced him to blush at the lie. Fortunately no one questioned him.

Lee becoming a winner was something that displeased and angered the crowd, and no one payed attention to how deep Tianyu’s wounds were or whether they were still bleeding.

"I’d like to issue a challenge." Lee said the moment his win was announced.

His voice was loud and clear, but to him it sounded like he was hearing it from a side. All of the sudden Lee felt like he had become the spectator of the event, but instead of worrying, he enjoyed the sensation.

His action caused the spectators to calm down a quite bit. The winners didn’t always used this right, but there were juniors who wanted to either impress a particular senior, or actually learn.

No one expected Lee to beat an elemental master was he a rogue or not. But everyone was looking forward to a senior giving him pointers – there was no outer disciple here who didn’t want to learn something.

"Speak!" Sect Master Wang said, already guessing where this was going.

He remembered the kid wanted to hide from someone in the inner sect, and apparently he was either going to expose the Edward’s murderer in front of everyone or actually try to kill them. Lee’s third and fourth fights showed that he clearly had prepared for the occasion, but the sect master was sure it wasn’t enough.

If at the time when Jian Wuji came to him with the proposal of the younger disciples taking part in the tournament, Wang Zhen thought the guy was trying to help his brother and agreed. Jian family was influential and there was no harm in doing them a favor.

Turns out the real reason was Lee, and the sect master didn’t like it. There were too many variables that could turn this joyous occasion into a tragedy, but for now he decided to wait and see.

"I’d like to invite Senior Sister Victoria Sunwell to give me some pointers." Lee decisively said, but got confused by the reaction the higher-ups had.

It was obvious that the sect master blanked out for a moment, but the expression of the new elder of the Hall of Ascension turned weird. Even the junior elder presiding over the matches had his jaw dropped in surprise.

It didn’t seem possible that they knew the bitch, much less this well. Lee thought the last hurdle was him inconspicuously replacing Soulcleaver’s replica in his hand with the real sword, but apparently there was something he didn’t know.

"Uhm ... maybe there’s someone else you would like to challenge?" The junior elder in the arena reacted first, "Sist ... I mean, Elder Sunwell left the sect a year ago ... you can’t challenge her."

Lee stared at the guy in disbelief while the words echoed in his ears. He felt like he was struck by a boulder, but survived, and then got struck another time.

’Elder???’ Lee couldn’t believe his ears, and left the arena in daze, under the ridiculing stares of the spectators. Many thought he deserved the humiliation, no matter what his reasons were. Meanwhile the sect master wasn’t sure what to make of the situation.

***

Lee slowly walked through the sect, feeling completely lost.

’A year ago?’ He almost screamed inside, ’Then why the fuck I’ve been torturing myself! What was all of this for? What am I doing with my life?!’

They say that if you want to walk the path of revenge, be prepared to dig two graves. In his case, though, he only kept digging one. All these years, he had been torturing himself, enduring actual pain and suffering – all of that for the so called greater goal of freeing the world from one ruthless bitch.

Lee wasn’t even bothered with the fact whether it was worth it. He found how hilarious his efforts have been all this time, especially during the past year.

Back in Ashland he kept checking if she was still there, in the Artisan district. But for some reason in the Nethermoon sect he always assumed the she was crawled somewhere in the inner sect, intimidated by the true experts of this world.

Suddenly Lee realized why some people turned into alcoholics. He really had an urge to grab a bottle, empty it in one go, and then spend several months drinking himself into abyss.

The situation wasn’t humiliating – it was laughable. And the worst part was – he had crippled himself several times in order to achieve something that turned out to be an illusion.

***

"I didn’t know Brother Lee liked Senior Sister Victoria!" Hushed whispering behind him returned Lee to reality.

"She’s an elder now, more importantly, she’s an elder of the Celestial Abyss sect!" Another voice replied. Lee didn’t need to turn around to know who the two gossiping girls were. Probably Xiao Lian with his sweetheart were right behind as well.

"How do you know?" Ling Xiaotao asked.

"It was a HUGE deal last year!" Shu Ying said. Then realized her voice became too loud, and whispered, "One of our seniors said that she was present when the junior sect master of the Celestial Abyss chose her to become his wife."

"Woaaa!" Ling Xiaotao was clearly shocked, "Brother Lee probably will be very sad. But she’s too old for him anyway. He’ll get over it."

Lee stopped in his tracks, trying to resist the urge to smack the girl’s bottom. He took few deep breaths, but his reaction by the four people following him was interpreted the wrong way.

"Brother Lee, let’s go grab something to eat!" Xiao Lian said and patted Lee’s shoulder, "I always feel better after having lunch."

"Alright." Lee said with a sigh, and turned to the two gossips, "Ying, would you mind telling me everything you know?"

Lee, of course, knew that the Nethermoon Sect was the subsidiary of the Celestial Abyss. He also knew that few other sects were subsidiaries as well, like Azuremist and Moonshadow. He understood the principle, but never payed actual attention what that really meant.

He expected for his sect to be smaller, hence the subsidiary status, but he grew skeptical when he found out that their sect were nobodies compared to the real hegemon. It was supposedly tens of times larger than the Nethermoon sect and even then it was probably an understatement.

Moreover, it turns out that the Celestial Abyss wasn’t even located on the same continent as the Nethermoon sect. In fact, the girls had no clue how one would get there if not going through a rift. According to them, no one traversed the oceans in this world, and the last part was something both Xiao Lian and Qin Yujian confirmed.

The more they spoke, the less sense everything made.

Lee couldn’t figure out how and why would the junior sect master pick a sociopathic monster as his bride. If he ruled over tens, of not hundreds of millions of people, there were surely better candidates. Besides, Ling Xiaotao was surely right in one aspect – the bitch was too old!

Why would anyone fancy someone as old and ugly as Victoria, to not speak about her dreadful character?! What kind of brain damage has the poor person suffered?!

The more Lee listened, the more he came to the conclusion that he had to see everything first to believe it. Indeed, he didn’t decide to drop his revenge plans yet. He had gone too far to give up and if she really hid in a huge place like the Celestial Abyss sect, he’ll find her anyway.

This time, though, he was not going to repeat the stupid mistake and try to directly challenge her. Poisoning or stabbing from behind would do. Enough with the prideful shit.