That same Tang Zen, the girl no one was paying attention to, had hers fully focused on her opponent. It was standing right in front of the forest from which it emerged, its lotus petals slowly revolving around it.
The first thing she did was to enter the Standing Lotus stance, heightening her senses to the limit.
Her sword, which was almost acting as an antenna, allowed her to sense even the slightest movements of the lotus petals and her opponent itself. So when she noticed the twitching of its fingers, she immediately used Fleeting Lotus, causing water jets to stream out from her feet, propelling her backwards.
In the next instant, a cluster of petals came flying straight toward her.
Her backward momentum allowed her more time to react, and using it, she adjusted her speed, letting the petals catch up, before suddenly rotating her thrusters, allowing her to narrowly avoid her opponent’s Piercing Lotus.
The lotus petals quickly stopped and shot toward her once again, but she timed her retreat just right, causing the petals to miss their mark.
At the same time as she was increasing the distance between herself and her opponent, she was watching its every move, seeing how it responded to her actions.
It appeared they were both probing each other, trying to gather information that could turn the tide of battle in an instant.
Her opponent didn’t step forward to close the distance, and it didn’t apply more pressure with its remaining lotus petals. Instead, it used its single cluster to elicit reactions from her.
This game of cat and mouse continued for a while, with Tang Zen using her heightened senses to avoid the consecutive attacks of her opponent’s lotus petals, further increasing the distance between the two with every exchange.
That was until Tang Zen did something unexpected.
While jumping back to avoid one of the attacks, she swung her sword horizontally at the ground.
She then stood behind the line she created and observed her opponent.
Her opponent did not relent with its attacks, but Tang Zen changed her approach. Instead of simply running away, she began to collect rocks from the ground whenever she had the chance, always staying close to the line she had previously drawn.
Once she had gathered what she thought was a sufficient amount, she infused one of them with her qi before throwing it at her opponent as a projectile weapon.
It was far from enough to perturb a master of the Thousand Lotus stance. Her opponent easily blocked it by forming a wall with its remaining petals, all the while, still applying pressure with that single cluster.
Tang Zen narrowed her eyes.
While avoiding the attacks that were coming toward her, she threw two more rocks, each aimed at a different spot on her opponent’s body. But they too were easily blocked by a wall of lotus petals.
She clenched her fist tightly, pouring her qi into the stones in her hand, then retreated to the edge of the cliff.
Her opponent sent its lotus petals once more, and, instead of avoiding them, Tang Zen swept her leg through the air, water jets streaming out of it, and doused the lotus petals with water, causing them to fall toward the ground.
She stared her opponent down as the petals fell.
To her opponent, it was now clear why she had drawn the line in the ground. She was aware of the limitations of the Thousand Lotus stance.
Every practitioner of the Lotus Series would have a certain distance beyond which their control over their lotus petals would be severely hampered. This was something Tang Zen had learnt from Tianlan during her short time training with him.
Her opponent now knew that she knew, and as such, it had no choice but to move from its original spot, stepping away from the forest and closer to the middle of the field of grass.
Staying where she was would leave her at a disadvantage, so once her opponent was within range of the fallen petals, Tang Zen immediately utilised Piercing Lotus to launch herself forward, rapidly approaching her opponent.
As she expected, it didn’t raise its fallen petals immediately. Instead, it opted to use its main cluster to intercept her approach, splitting the petals into two smaller clusters, one to directly counter Tang Zen, and another to remain by its side.
Tang Zen didn’t slow her speed at all and continued her approach, adjusting her thrusters at the last possible moment to veer right and avoid the brunt of her opponent’s attack. Though she sustained some damage to her left arm, she was largely unharmed, and because of her bold manoeuvre, she was able to get closer to her opponent.
As she rapidly closed the distance, her opponent spread its arms out, causing the second cluster of petals to begin to rotate in a circle around it, threatening to saw Tang Zen in half if she didn’t change her direction. Behind her, the cluster she avoided was already breathing down her neck.
This was when Tang Zen threw the rocks she had previously gathered.
They spread apart and were packed with so much qi that they would explode upon contact with her opponent. Unless her opponent wanted a body riddled with holes, it had no choice but to convert its offence to defence, which it did.
The circular saw disintegrated, and the lotus petals reformed into a wall which protected the entire front of her opponent, such that it completely stopped her rocks, leaving her attack unsuccessful.
That was fine, however, as Tang Zen never expected that attack to work. It was more of a distraction than anything else. And with her opponent’s move of protecting itself, she now had no fear of a frontal assault. Neither did she think that thin wall could ward off against a full-powered Piercing Lotus.
Her opponent agreed, and fearing the might of Tang Zen’s attack, it made its defence smaller, but at the same time thicker. This way, it could handle the force of Tang Zen’s Piercing Lotus, and its other cluster would finish her off from behind.
Tang Zen played right into its hands. She didn’t hesitate in her attack at all, fully pitting her might against its ability to defend.
Or so it thought.
Just as Tang Zen’s sword was about to reach the shield, she rotated her body, causing the sword and herself to pass right by her opponent. She was now at its rear, an incredibly vulnerable spot at this moment.
Her opponent quickly stepped forward and split the approaching cluster of petals in two, sending each half to either side of its body, combining them once more when they had passed, aiming to finish Tang Zen off.
However, Tang Zen didn’t do as expected. When given the chance to strike her opponent’s back, she chose instead, to march forward and into the forest. An incomprehensible decision.
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Except it wasn’t.
Tang Zen was fully aware that she wouldn’t be able to strike before her opponent’s petals reached her, so she decided not to.
She had another idea in mind.
Once in the forest, she immediately rotated her body, sending a horizontal slash toward a nearby tree, cleanly slicing it in two. She immediately stabbed her sword into the ground and clawed her hands into the tree’s thick trunk, pouring massive amounts of her qi into it.
She hoisted the huge tree over her tiny shoulders, aimed it toward her opponent who was cautiously observing her actions, and threw the thing with all her might, sending it rocketing forward.
She then immediately grabbed her sword again and used her water jets to follow behind the tree, leaving only a small amount of space between it and herself.
Her opponent didn’t expect such a simple strategy and smirked as the tree approached. It raised its right hand, sending half of its petals straight toward the tree in a Piercing Lotus attack, intending the destroy the tree and Tang Zen who was behind it.
However, the petals didn’t burrow through the flimsy tree as expected. Instead, they were stopped by its reinforced bark and couldn’t proceed any further. Trying to retrieve them only caused the tree to speed up, so her opponent attempted to use them to redirect the tree such that it would veer off course.
Tang Zen had anticipated this and was already one step ahead.
As soon as she saw the tree slow down, she jumped and rotated her body, landing a kick on the tree’s trunk, causing it to start spinning horizontally.
Left with no other choice, her opponent jumped into the air, bringing the remaining petals with it, and safely avoided the tree’s path. But now that it was in the air, it knew it was vulnerable to attack, and so, it used Stinging Lotus to send its petals shooting down to Tang Zen who had stopped running and was now waiting for her chance to attack.
This was the moment that would decide the outcome of the match, and both parties were aware of it.
As the Stinging Lotus attack approached her, Tang Zen widened her stance and bent her knees. At the same time, she adjusted to a horizontal reverse grip with her right hand and placed her left palm beside the sword's hilt.
As the sword started to glow pink, she rotated her torso and bent her back, entering a stance that made it seem as if she were preparing to launch a Kamehameha wave at the ground.
The glowing pink blade was now pointed straight up at the sky and was vibrating with such force that cracks began to appear on its surface.
As paper-thin slices began to separate from the rest of the blade, Tang Zen tightened her grip and, through her left palm, poured all of her remaining qi into the sword.
“Thousand Lotus!”
The sword exploded.
Lotus petals flew in every direction.
Her opponent’s Stinging Lotus was overwhelmed.
She recalled her petals, reforming her blade, then thrusted it up to the sky.
“Skyward Lotus!”
She couldn’t tell if her attack had landed, nor could she tell if her opponent had been defeated. And as she looked up to the night sky, she couldn’t tell where the moon and stars had gone.
Her arms went slack, and her knees buckled under the weight of her own body. She felt the wind rushing against her face, then a collision, then warmth, then nothing.
***
When she opened her eyes, Tang Zen found herself looking at an unfamiliar ceiling. She sat up from her lying position and looking around at the bed she was sitting on and the curtains surrounding it, she guessed that she was in some kind of infirmary.
Evidently, she had lost consciousness during the combat simulations.
She recalled the final fight she had. The last attacks she performed and the final moments of lucidity.
“I only made it to the first opponent of the third level...”
She knew that such a performance would place her among the lower end of those who had been given the opportunity to enter the combat simulations and was afraid that she hadn’t done well enough to impress Prime Elder Murong.
The main problem was that her first opponent was the master of the Thousand Lotus series. Arguably her worst matchup. If that hadn’t been the case, she felt she would have been able to handle two, maybe three opponents before going down.
But alas.
On the bright side, she performed better than she thought she would. Aside from the unknown conclusion to the fight, whether it was discerning her opponent’s effective range and the fact that it could only control two clusters of petals simultaneously, or making use of her environment to her benefit, she felt she had been in top form.
“Mm. I did my best.”
She got up from the bed and opened the curtains to find herself alone in the room. There wasn’t any medical staff, nor were there other patients. And, through the open door, she could hear the announcer’s voice seemingly calling out names and the cheering of the crowd.
“Have the combat simulations ended already? Why did no one come for me?”
She quickly put her shoes on and rushed to the waiting room, arriving just as her name was called.