Alex registered for the fight. As for who he registered the fight as the elders couldn't guess at all.
His choice had been a middle-aged man who didn't stand out much, and with thousands of people that participated in the tests at the same time, the elders couldn't possibly remember him.
He freely moved in the crowd with a new face and clothes and went somewhere to spend time while the competition started.
'How many participated? 490?' he stared at the number where the fighters had registered. That was less than he would have expected to join, but still significant enough that there were going to be multiple rounds for sure.
'I might actually be kicked before I can go through all the rounds,' Alex thought.
He had taken up a disguise because he didn't want people to hesitate when they fought him. Neither the elders nor the fighters would ever give it their all to the match if they thought their match included the King of the continent.
However, as a result of taking up a disguise, he couldn't reveal that it was him either. Meaning, he couldn't use his signature skills or show strong daos and various other things just to be safe.
He was going to have to use his less useful skills to fight.
'This is either going to be very fun, or I'm going to regret even doing this,' he thought as he stretched while he waited.
A while later, the competition finally began. A few numbers were called out at the start to freely pass them over to the next round without fighting. They did it so due to the irregular number of participants, so they had to give free wins to a few to make the numbers even out for the competition.
They called the numbers randomly to create suspense and tension.
4 fights took place at the same time so as to get things moving. The crowd could choose to view any of the 4 matches as they pleased.
The first 8 fighters went onto the stage and started fighting.
Alex watched the atmosphere change as everyone cheered for the fighters. He smiled seeing the people happy.
The fighters on stage weren't fairly chosen, so most of them had a large gap in their cultivation base, causing the fights to end rather early.
Within an hour, over a hundred people went through their fights, surprising Alex. The swiftness of the competition was something he hadn't expected at all.
Of course, there were some battles that lasted minutes upon minutes, but those were rare. Even when they did last that long, a victor would be determined rather quickly.
As the fights continued, his number was finally called.
He walked onto the stage, along with his opponent. He looked at his opponent and realized it was a Saint Condensation 8th realm cultivator.
The girl looked like she was the 40s and seemed rather nervous about the fight. She could already sense Alex's cultivation base and was determined that she was going to lose.
Still, she would give it her all.
The battle started with the woman sending a saber slash in Alex's direction. Alex dodged the attack with barely any effort and created metal lines from his fingers that he sent in the girl's direction.
The entrapment wires didn't hit the woman, so she wasn't captured by his skill at all.
Alex then created metal daggers which he sent flying in the girl's direction.
Since he was making techniques on the go with his Supreme Metal roots and his Metal dao, the techniques could never reach the potency that a normal technique would have if it was perfected over a long period of time.
Still, those attacks were currently too strong for the woman in front of him.
The daggers flew through the air with surprising speed, catching the woman off guard. The woman stopped all the daggers with her saber, but she was pushed backward with each attack.
Any more and she would go out of bounds.
The woman stopped the last dagger and immediately moved forward. Her saber glowed bright white with Saber Intent, which she used the moment she saw that Alex wasn't attacking.
Alex dashed when he saw it too. He didn't dodge the attack, but rather dashed into it.
The saber slash flew at him with incredible ferocity, but he didn't show any fear. Instead, he coated his hand in metal Qi and punched the incoming attack.
The Saber Intent was destroyed at once, sending the light scattering in all directions. At the same time, Alex punched once more.
The punch created a fist-shaped metal energy that flew through the air toward the woman who hadn't expected another attack to be coming her way.
She couldn't even dodge the attack as it was very swift. The only thing she could do was hold up her saber to block it, but that wasn't enough at all.
The blast sent her flying through the air until she landed outside the boundary.
Alex stood straight and bowed toward the elder after his victory was announced. He walked down the stage and went to one corner to wait for his next fight to come around.
'That was easy,' he thought. He wondered if the others would be the same. 'They didn't realize it was me, did they?'
From the looks of it, they weren't aware at all. But who could tell really?
The remaining fighters fought over the course of the next 4 hours, and finally, the next set of fighters was determined.
They took a small break to look over everything before starting the next fights.
Alex waited for his turn, and by the time he was called, the sun was already shining brightly in the sky to the east.
He walked onto the stage to find his next opponent was a Saint Foundation 8th realm fighter.
The man looked young in the face and seemed to use a spear.
Alex stood in front of him with a slight frown on his face. He was sure the elders couldn't tell exactly what his cultivation base was right now, but it should definitely not appear as strong as the man in front of him.
He couldn't help but wonder if he could win this match, while not appearing suspicious at all.
The battle started at once, but neither of the two attacked.
Alex didn't attack because he wanted his opponent to take the first move. Since he was definitely not going to be defeated, he wanted to see how he would approach.
As for his opponent, he couldn't figure out Alex's cultivation base, so he was just being cautious.
In the end, the two of them ended up doing nothing. So, the two of them attacked at the same moment they realized they might have an opening.
Alex used his Iron Fist Punch at his opponent who had used a spear attack. The two attacks clashed in midair, creating a momentary explosion, the shockwaves of which hit both of them.
Neither of them could get the upper hand in the clash at all.
Alex sneaked a glance a the elder that was refereeing the match. 'He hasn't suspected anything,' he thought.
His opponent stabbed in the air 15 times, sending 15 different illusory spears flying in his direction.
Alex put his two palms in front of him, both of which touched the wrist. Water energy swirled around his palm like a ball which he quickly spun in front of him.
The blob of water energy spun out to become a thin mass of swirling Qi that was in fact a barrier technique of great defense.
Alex's Water Spiritual root had become good enough now that he could rely on Water techniques too, just as much as he could rely on Metal and Yang techniques.
The 15 illusory spears landed on the swirling barrier and were sent flying in random directions instead of simply being blocked. So, even after the attacks had landed, the barrier was still active and strong enough to block many more attacks,
'Nice,' Alex thought. This was one of the techniques he had picked in the treasury that he had managed to learn. He had guessed how useful it could be at the time, but he didn't expect the result to be better than he imagined.
His opponent realized that his attacks were blocked and were surprised. He showed some anger and attacked again, this time using Spear Qi with his attacks.
Right around the same time, water Qi gathered all around Alex, forming small blobs of water that froze immediately. There were over 20 such ice blobs that floated around him. The ice grew to become icicles that pointed in his opponent's direction.
The moment his opponent attacked, he sent the icicles flying as well.
With so many icicles, the attacks easily destroyed his opponents' attacks and forced him to use his defensive techniques.
He felt the force behind the ice spears and was surprised. However, this was not the time for that. When he looked back up, he saw many of the same ice spears in the air around Alex
The Infinite Heavenly Ice Spear art wasn't named as such for nothing. As long as he had Qi and the ability to do so, Alex could keep sending icicles at his opponent without ever stopping.
The ice spears sprayed through the battlefield, forcing his opponent to use every single skill and treasure he had on him, and even then he couldn't see a way to victory at all.
In the end, he was forced to give up as he had been thoroughly beaten.
Having passed another match, Alex was sent through to the next round.
