21 Chapter 21: Contest 6

Fu Laun was the first to strike, hoping to quickly crush Ying Yue's vocal chords, that way she would not be able to forfeit later. She ran straight at Ying Yue, reaching out her hand in an attempt to grab her neck.

Fu Laun was hoping to win this fight without revealing her elemental affinity. Although she was promised to marry a prince anyway, who wouldn't want to marry the crown prince? As such, she didn't want any of the other girls who had won so far to know her elemental affinity, so they couldn't strategize against her for later matches. It would be great if she could make it into the final seven, and become one of Fu Longwie's wives.

Of course, Ying Yue was expecting this, and so she simply side-stepped Fu Laun's attack.

Fu Luan was rather surprised to see Ying Yue dodge her attack. Wasn't this girl supposed to be completely useless? With her level of power, she should simply be able to flick this girl and she'd run away crying, so how was it that she couldn't even touch her.

Fu Luan tried over and over again to hit Ying Yue, but it seemed as though Ying Yue was coated in oil or something. Every time she got close enough to where she thought she would be able to grab her, Ying Yue slipped right in between her clutches. This girl was more frustrating to catch than an eel!

Watching the match happening, many people started to get excited. Before this match was started, it was pretty much already decided who would be the winner. After all, in a match of someone who can't cultivate and someone who can, the person who can cultivate always turns out being the winner. However, right now, this appeared to not be the case. Although neither side had an advantage, neither did either side have a disadvantage. As such, many people started to get excited. Who wouldn't want to see the underdog accomplish some heaven-defying feat and win?

Of course, while some people where excited, others were worried.

Yao Xiuying and the Crown Prince were both frustrated and worried.

"Just what is Fu Luan doing?" Yao Xiuying asked. "I thought you said that you bribed her family, and so she would kill Ying Yue. Why is it that she isn't even touching her?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make any sense to me." Fu Longwie really didn't know what was going on. By logic, Ying Yue should be dead by now, and yet she was dancing around Fu Luan on stage, not once taking a hit. It was like Ying Yue was suddenly a ray of light, always visible but not able to be grasped. It was very frustrating. Fu Longwie almost wondered if someone else bribed Fu Luan's family with an even better offer to let Ying Yue win, but that didn't seem likely. After all, who could make a better offer than an engagement to a member of the royal family?

The most conflicted person watching Ying Yue's battle, of course, was General Jiang Won. Watching Ying Yue fight reminded him so much of his wife. Seeing the determination in her eyes was like looking into the eyes of his wife when he first found her.

Not many people knew this, but Won Jiang had found Yu Yuhan half dead lying in a pit. He had been young at the time that he found her, and even though she was badly beaten, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. When he climbed down in the pit to see if she was still alive, she looked up at him, and the steely look of determination to live within her eyes nearly took his breath away. It was like she would kill even the god of death himself if it meant she could live on.

From that moment on, Jiang Won knew she was the woman for him.

He took her home to his family, where she recuperated. When Yu Yuhan was fully healed, she wanted to repay Jiang Won for his kindness, and so when war broke out at the kingdom's border, she followed him into battle to fight. The war was long, lasting 7 years. During that time, Yu Yuhan came to love Jiang Won, and so after the war was won they were wed, and the birth of Ying Yue came not too long after.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck, and his wife died while in labor with their second child, a son. With Ying Yue being unable to cultivate, Jiang Won just couldn't take it, and so he neglected his child. When he learned that she was being bullied, he rarely did anything. He hoped that being beaten would toughen up Ying Yue, but also he sorta blamed her for the death of his wife. It was only after Jiu Niu went and told Yu Yuhan that Ying Yue couldn't cultivate that his wife started having complication in labor, and so he thought hearing the news of their daughter was what caused this. The only time he would ever do anything to help Ying Yue was when she was close to death, as even though he blamed her, he couldn't stand to see the girl that looked so much like his wife perish.

Looking at Ying Yue fight now, however, it was like Yu Yuhan was born again, fighting on the battle field.

Ying Yue was completely unaware of the different myriad of emotions that the crowed around her was experiencing, as she was too focused on the fight at hand. She still hadn't figured out how she could use her void attribute without being caught. She didn't know why Fu Luan wasn't using her elemental ability yet, but she new it wouldn't be long before she did, and so she didn't have much time to come up with a plan.

Ying Yue figured, if she could get close enough to touch her chest, maybe she could open a small void in her chest to swallow Fu Luan's heart, but then how would she be able to explain why her heart was missing if they checked the body? Maybe she could make it look like she broke Fu Luan's bones, by opening up a lot of very small voids all throughout her body to swallow small chunks of bone, but that would still require Ying Yue to be able to touch Fu Luan in order to be convincing.

While Ying Yue was thinking, Fu Luan finally decided to forgo avoiding using her elemental ability. Although she had no clue how Ying Yue was doing it, it was clear that she would not be able to beat Ying Yue at the rate she was going. It was at that moment that Fu Luan started to gather energy into her hand and force it to take the shape she wanted. In a moment, Fu Luan was clutching a whip formed from wind in her hand.

When Ying Yue realized what was happening, the whip was already coming for her face.

"Shit!" Ying Yue cried, as all the crowed could see was a cloud of dust form where Ying Yue was standing.