Chapter 149 — Eliminated in Round Two

CHAPTER 149

Eliminated in Round Two

By noon, Sima Yu's violation had been posted at all four arena gates.

The notice carried Lu Yong's seal. Forbidden burst medicine, immediate disqualification, no eligibility for the sect trials or the later placement bracket. The medical report remained private, but the cause of removal didn't.

Shi Feng read the notice outside the eastern gate.

A Great Liang officer stood nearby with two servants. He had brought a prepared explanation about an emergency medicine taken in error. The official clerk pointed to the seal and refused to replace a single line.

The officer folded his explanation and left.

The crowd remembered which way he went.

“Taken in error? He crushed the seal himself!”

“He wanted Golden Core force and got a carrying board!”

Shi Feng checked the stamped result beside his own name. His entry remained valid, with no injury delay requested. Then he moved past the gate.

Sima Yu woke in the medical court with both wrists secured to the bed frame.

One restraint held his injured arm still. The other prevented a second burst of unstable qi from damaging the channels the healer was trying to settle.

Gao Rui stood beside the door with the royal medicine case. A court officer named Jin Jian sat near the window, his fine robe crushed from too many hours on an uncomfortable stool.

The healer, Luo Wen, checked the prince's pulse and frowned.

“Don't circulate qi without instruction,” Luo Wen said.

Sima Yu tried anyway.

Pain drove a sharp breath through his teeth. Something deep in his foundation refused to join the flow. The medicine's backlash had left a fracture he couldn't simply push closed.

“How long?” Sima Yu asked.

“Before I can judge the damage properly?” Luo Wen replied. “Days. Before you can cultivate normally? I won't promise what I don't know.”

Jin Jian looked away from the bed.

“The notice must be removed,” Sima Yu said.

“It bears the presiding official's seal,” Jin Jian replied.

“I am the crown prince,” Sima Yu said.

Luo Wen lifted the prince's uninjured wrist, checked the pulse again and put it down.

“That didn't protect your foundation,” Luo Wen said. “Rest.”

Outside, Sima Lan received a written request to attend her brother.

She read it in the Moon Lake courtyard while the sect's younger disciples ate beside the training steps. The messenger waited with his hands folded.

Sima Lan handed the paper back.

“Tell Jin Jian that the arena has capable healers,” Sima Lan said.

“His Highness asked for family,” the messenger, Gao Rui, replied.

“Then write to Father,” Sima Lan said.

Gao Rui hesitated. She watched him until he understood that no softer answer was coming.

He bowed and left.

Sima Lan returned to her sword practice. The first cut was a little sharper than intended. She stopped, adjusted her grip and repeated it correctly.

Her brother's defeat hadn't won her own match. She still had a second-round opponent waiting that afternoon.

Shi Feng watched Duan Yichen's fight from the candidates' awning.

The sabre user faced an agile swordsman who kept circling toward his left shoulder. Duan Yichen allowed two turns, then shortened his grip and struck across the man's escape path.

The sword bent under the contact. Its owner wisely surrendered before it broke.

Duan Yichen returned with a shallow cut across his upper arm and a pleased expression.

“He made me work for the angle,” Duan Yichen said.

Shi Feng handed him a clean strip of cloth.

“He kept showing you the same step,” Shi Feng said.

“Yes,” Duan Yichen replied. “I was almost grateful by the third time.”

He tied the cloth around the cut without asking Shi Feng to admire his endurance. The wound was shallow and already closing under his qi.

Duan Yichen flexed the bandaged arm and said, “The draw put us in different halves. If one of us goes out first, the other holds his gear, answers the officials' questions about him, and sends word home. No argument after.”

He unwound the oiled cloth from his sabre and held it out. Shi Feng cut a strip from the spare sword wrapping in his bag, the same roll the bandage had come from, and they traded in front of the awning.

“Agreed,” Shi Feng said.

Two candidates at the next bench heard every term and were still repeating them when the next platform was called.

For a few moments, they watched the attendants sweep another platform.

“People are going to ask you about the prince,” Duan Yichen said.

“They can read the notice,” Shi Feng replied.

The betting hall removed Sima Yu's name before the afternoon bell.

A space remained where the gilded characters had been. Yu Cao ordered the board washed rather than leave a blank that every passing customer would point at. Even the wash drew a crowd.

Great Liang's remaining names were Shi Feng and Ling Qingzhu.

Sima Lan appeared beneath Moon Lake, entirely separate from the royal entry. Several onlookers argued that the princess should be counted as a fourth Great Liang representative. The betting clerk told them to argue with the tournament register.

Shi Feng walked past without stopping. He bought a fresh water bottle and returned to the shade.

At the medical court, Jin Jian wrote the report home.

He began with injury, crossed it out, and wrote disqualification. Lu Yong's public notice left no useful way around the word. Royal messengers would arrive before the tournament ended, and the emperor would ask why his son had needed forbidden medicine against a man one substage below him.

Sima Yu watched from the bed.

“Don't send it yet,” Sima Yu said.

Jin Jian looked up.

“The court requires a report,” Jin Jian replied.

“One evening won't change that,” Sima Yu said. “There is someone I need to see first.”

The officer's brush hovered over the page.

Sima Yu closed his eyes. Every attempt to circulate qi brought pain, and the image of Shi Feng's steady hand returned whenever he tried to sleep.

Defeat hadn't made him less angry.

It had only taught him that his own household was no longer strong enough to finish the matter.

He turned toward the open shutters. Beyond them, the evening bells announced another completed match. The sound reached every bed in the medical court, including his.