17 Chapter 017 - Multi-round, Elimination tournamen

The morning of the annual martial art competition is finally here. The Ba family starts off their day with their huge (I mean healthy) breakfast as usual. After finishing their breakfast, they got into the horse carriage and is on their way to the competition ground.

The location for the competition ground is located in the main stadium just right outside of the town. The stadium was specially built for the use of annual martial art competitions since long ago.

Once arrived at the stadium, they noticed that there are already lots of people here. They will have to go to the registration area to register to join the competition. After registering, they will each receive a number that represents them.

The format for the competition are:

*The competition is a multi-round, elimination tournament.

*In each round, two competitors will fight each other.

*The competitors will fight until one side admitted defeat or lose consciousness

*The winner progresses to the next round. The losers are eliminated.

The registration number received by the Ba's sibling is #36 for Ba Zi, #37 for Ba Jing, and #38 for Ba Yue.

After receiving their number, they have to wait until the competition starts. Their number will be randomly drawn by the competition staff member and will be announced. The person with the number called will then go up to the stage to fight.

The Ba Family went to the saved seat area to sit down. The competition committee has set up seats for the competitor and guests the day before. Usually, the influential families and the royal members will have someone come the day before the competition to save seats for them. Regular folks usually have to sit in the back row seats.

"Where's Lok Son, I don't see him at the saved seat section for the royal member. Is he coming today? I didn't even see him last night either," said Ba Jing as he looks around.

"I don't know, it's better he's not here today. Otherwise, it's going get noisy here, says Ba Yue with an uncaring tone of voice.

He's probably training somewhere now since Ah Yue told him to yesterday, though Ba Shao Ten.

As Ba Yue sits there and looked around, she spotted Lin Dong Man. He's actually sitting with Tang Wen Yi, it'll be fun if those two join the competition and got drawn to fight each other, though Ba Yue.

She then spotted another couple that she hates, Mu Huang and Lee SanSan. They were sitting on the seats at the saved section for the Mu family. Mu Huang is over the age limit, so he can't join the competition. As for Lee San San, she's also over the age limit and she's not a Mu even though she married one, so she can't join either. I wonder who will represent the Mu family.

Mu Huang was confused to why Ba Yue was staring at him, but he didn't mind a beautiful woman looking at him at all. He knows that the woman that was looking at him is Ba Yue since he was at the emperor banquet too that night.

He actually wanted to marry Ba Yui before because she's the only daughter of the Ba family and the Ba family is more well off then the Li family. But due to Ba Yue's young age at the time and her look, he has given up that idea and went for Li Hei Yi instead.

Even though Li SanSan is also a young miss of the Li family and the one that he likes more. Her father was not the one in charge of the Li family at the time.

The old master of the Li family has 2 sons, the older son is Li Hei Yi's father named Li Zong and Li SanSan's father is the younger son named Li Qiang. The old master Li has always favored the older son for his intelligent and have made him the vice head of the family when he went into long-term cultivation.

The old master told his son that it might take a few years for him to cultivate since he wanted to advance to a higher level. But after 3 years of cultivating, there was still no sign of the old master coming out. The younger son starts to get impatient. He can't stand to see his older brother acted as the head of the family, not even if it's just a vice head position.

After he found out about the secret relationship between Mu Huang and his daughter, Li SanSan. He has requested the help from Mu Huang to plot and to kill his own brother.

He thinks that his older brother has stolen the family head position from him. He also thinks that if he were the family head, Mu Huang would have belonged to his daughter. His older brother stolen the family head position from him, and his brother's daughter also stolen his daughter's man.

Mu Huang and Li Xiang have a similar goal, so they got together to plot how to kill Li Zong. Their plan was very successful! Not only did they killed Li Zong, but also his wife.

Soon, Li Xiang used the excuse of his older brother has passed away and his daughter is already married so she cannot take over the family head position. Li Hei Yi didn't think much of it at that time since she was so sad and also because her grandfather was still cultivating, so there's nothing much she can do about it.

But she did have a suspicion about her parent's death especially when their bodies were never found. She tries to talk to Mu Huang about it but he always bushes it off as she thinks too much.

Mu Huang worried about Li Hei Yi suspecting him so he plotted once again with Li Xiang to kill Li Hei Yi and have promised to marry Li San San as the main wife after Li Hei Yi dies.

Mu Huang uses the trust Li Hei Yi had for him and told her that he might know something regarding her parent's death and told her to come with him to confront her uncle.

When they got to the Li residence, she was surrounded by many high-level martial artists that were ordered by Li Xiang. The high-level martial artist works for the Li residence and since Li Xiang is the current family head, they have to listen to his orders.

She wouldn't have been so easily captured if there weren't so many high-level martial artists there. They can't kill her immediately because her parents have just recently passed away and if she dies now too, it will be too suspicious.

So after some discussion, they have decided to bring her back to the Mu residence to chain her up in the underground cell in secret. They then told the outsiders that Li Hei Yi has gotten so upset about her parent's death that she ends up getting sick.

A little more than a year later, news of Li Hei Yi has passed away came out. It was said that before her death, she "begged" her cousin Li SanSan to marry her husband. That way she can take care of her husband after she passes away. She also told her husband to marry and accept Li San San and have a good life, because it is what she wishes for him. Her husband also accepted it since it was her final wish.

Of course, no one knows those were lies made up by Mu Huang and Li SanSan to keep up with their reputation. Mu Huang didn't want others to know about his prior relationship with Li SanSan, because to outsiders, he's the good upright man. But Li SanSan is pregnant, so he can't wait a few years to marry her. That's why they got to get rid Li Hei Yi quick!

Back to the present, the competition is about to begin. The competition committee member and the emperor both made a long boring speech. The same speech they made every year at the beginner of the competition about trying your best, etc.

After the speech, the competition finally begins and the two competitors that went up was someone that she doesn't know. It was boring watching them fight since they were both so weak. After 5 more set of competitor gone up to fight, the 6th round begins. And this time the two competitors that gone up is someone Ba Yue knows.

It was her brother, Ba Jing and Lin Dong Man!

"Little Yue, cheer for me, okay?" says Ba Jing as he happily goes up to the stage. He thought how lucky is he to have gotten Li Dong Man as an opponent. He can go teach him a lesson for little Yue!

The fight between Ba Jing and Li Dong Man was quick since Ba Jing is a lot stronger than Li Dong Man. After getting knock around a few times by Ba Jing, Lin Dong Man admits defeat. Li Dong Man admitted defeat way to quick, Ba Jong didn't get to play with him long enough so he is sulking about it afterward.

Another couple of boring rounds finished, it was time for the next round. This time, the competitors were her older brother, Ba Zi and Mu Ling!

Mu Ling is Mu Huang younger sister. Their relationship isn't so good because Mu Ling's older brother is supposed to be the next head of the Mu family but the position was taken away by Mu Huang!

Mu Ling and her older brother, Mu Long have the same mother. Their mother was the main wife of the past Master Mu. But she has passed away long ago when they were still very young. Mu Huang's mother was the 2nd wife of the past Master Mu, and she has not been promoted to the main wife position even after the main wife has passed away due to her low background.

Even thought Mu Huang's mother is the 2nd wife, he is the eldest son. Mu Long is a year younger than Mu Huang, but he was born by the main wife. Only children of the main wife can be registered in the family registry and can inherit the family head position.

Due to that reason, Mu Huang was desperate to find a strong backing for himself so he can overthrow Mu Long and take over the family head position.

The Mu family is the weakest of the four big families. So in order to stay as one of the four big families and not easily be overtaken by any other family is to have relationships with one of the four big families and work together to stay in the top.

The past Master Mu has received an injury from many years ago which causes his body to be very weak. Everyone knows he doesn't have much longer to live, that's why Mu Huang was in a hurry to marry Li Hei Yi. If the past Master Mu has passed away without selecting an heir for the head position, the position will automatically fall onto the first son born by the main wife.

Mu Huang married Li Hei Yi, who's the only daughter of the vice head of the Li family and would eventually be the official head. The Li family is one of the four big families and they can be the Mu family huge backing. Knowing that the past Master Mu actually promoted Mu Huang's mother to be the main wife and have him register in the main family registry. He then selected Mu Huang for the family head position.

Mu Ling is the youngest of the 3 siblings and since she's a girl, inheriting the family head position has nothing to do with her. But she still feels bad for her own brother and blames Li Hei Yi for all of this to happen. So her relationship with the past Li Hei Yi wasn't that good either because of that.

Back to the present, Mu Ling and Ba Zi got up to the stage. Before the referee can say "Begin", Mu Ling raised her arm and admits defeat. She then quickly got off the stage and left, with a sly smile in her face.

On the saved seat area for the Mu family, Mu Huang has black clouds over his head. His face is all black, he's mad and embarrassed by Mu Ling's action. It's like she did it purposely to embarrass him and the Mu family.

Sitting not too far from him is Mu Long, he was laughing so much after seeing what his younger sister did and also seeing Mu Huang's face. He then got up and left the competition to look for his sister.

Since Mu Ling admits defeat without fighting, Ba Zi automatically win!