When the teleportation energy disappeared and the white light mellowed out, Alex found himself standing alone on top of a giant rock.
In front of him was a vast expanse of sparse trees that went on forever. The place he was on itself was filled with thigh-high grass, that Alex stepped on as he stepped down from the rock.
To his right was a grassland that extended forever, and to his left was the same. There were a lot of rocks along the way, and not a single section of the land he saw seemed even at all.
Everything looked so uneven.
He saw glints of light in the distance as people started appearing far away from him. There was only so much land for so many tens of thousands of people to teleport to without coming across someone else.
"Every one of us has been teleported randomly, huh?" he thought, looking around. He turned around when he felt someone's spiritual sense pass through.
Behind him was a woman in a gray robe, with her hair tied in a ponytail. The moment she saw him, she pulled out a spear, holding it out in front of her with a deep look on her face.
She looked at Alex for a long second before speaking. "You are the King, right?" she asked in a rather roguish tone.
Alex looked at her carefully, seeing no jewelry or expensive artifacts around her. She was what he thought she was. A rogue cultivator who was trying her best.
"I am the king you're thinking of," Alex told her.
"That thing they said outside, is it true?" she asked. "A pill for beating you in a fight."
"That is true," Alex said. "Are you sure you want to fight me though? You won't win and you will only acquire a loss instead. This isn't a fair fight for you."
The girl's cultivation base was only at Saint Foundation's 2nd realm.
"Shut up! When has anything been fair," she said. "If I win, I want a healing pill. King of Southern Continent, do you accept my challenge?"
Alex felt a slight buzz on the talisman that he had kept inside his robes. They knew that a challenge had been thrown at him, and it was his job to accept or reject.
"Very well," Alex said, taking in all of his Qi so none of it remained on him anymore. "I accept."
The buzz from his talisman disappeared. The fight was determined.
The girl was a little surprised to see Alex taking back all of his Qi for some reason, but the reason didn't matter to her. Only victory did.
She rushed with her spear the moment she understood that Alex had accepted her challenge to a duel. She only got halfway in between them before she used an attack.
A large burst of light flew out from the spear, that nearly grazed Alex's neck as he leaned to one side.
He was about to strike back to end it all in a single attack when he stopped himself and thought for a moment. The pause gave the girl time to attack once again, and this time around Alex saw the slight white light around the girl's spear.
'Spear Qi?' he thought. 'Not fully formed.'
Alex took one step back and struck the side of the spear, pointing the energy away from him, which blasted into the sky. He dashed over 10 meters backward after that and let the girl have a moment to get back to her stance.
The girl took no time to do so and immediately returned to attack. However, this time around, there stood a large black cat in front of her.
The girl paused at the last second, before moving backward herself.
"What's this?" she asked.
"My beast," Alex said, petting Pearl's black fur. He crouched on one knee and said something to Pearl, before looking away from the fight to look around at various other things.
He could feel the aura in the air fluctuate every second as numerous duels broke out all around the secret realm. People hadn't even finished coming into the secret realm and so many were about to get handed their first loss.
29 more and they would lose.
In a way, Alex was lucky that this weak girl had been his first opponent of the day. As he had accepted the battle, winning it would mean that his duel of the day where he could gain a 'loss' was gone.
For the next however many hours it took for the duel to reset, he would not get a single loss even if he lost every single one of the next battles.
And from what he could see, he was going to have to fight many of them.
People from all around him who had noticed him had started streaming toward him. Even kilometers away, people were making their way to Alex. Win or lose, they did not care. Everyone just wanted a piece of the pie that was him.
Pearl's cultivation base was low, especially when considering the average cultivation base of the ones that came to this place was in the mid to high Saint Core realm.
At Saint Foundation 8th realm, which he had only just reached 2 months prior, he was considered weaker than most. Still, that was higher than the girl he was currently fighting.
That just went to show just how out of place the girl was.
He brought out Whisker and placed him on his shoulder. "Do you want to fight her? She's only just a little stronger than you," he said.
The little mouse quickly shook his head, frantically refusing to fight at all. Alex just chuckled a little in response. He sat on the grass and watched Pearl fight as people closed in on him.
The girl tried her best to get around Pearl, to use her spear to damage him in any way, but it became quickly apparent to her that she wasn't gonna win. Pearl was just too strong for her.
Just as she was thinking of what to do, Pearl stopped and stepped away from her, giving her some space. At the same time, the girl felt something appear around her stomach.
She reached inside and at the same time, Alex's voice entered her head.
"I admire your courage, but it was stupid to fight me from the start," his voice rang in her head. "Those are some healing pills that I do not need. Give up and take them. You will want to leave this place very soon."
The girl clutched the thing in her robe and realized that it was a pill bottle. Her spiritual sense looked into it and noticed a bunch of pills. Since she had never seen pills Alex made, she didn't understand the distinct lack of pill veins the pills had.
All pills were pills for the girl, and these were the best she had ever received.
She looked up at him, unsure of what to say. She should have been thanking him, but something else came out of her first.
"Why?" she asked.
Alex shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I guess I felt bad for you. Life hasn't been easy for you clearly, so I would like to make it a bit better if I can."
The girl's eyes widened a little. For the first time in a long time, she felt seen. Someone could see that she had been working hard.
"Thank you," she finally said. "I will never forget this."
Alex simply smiled. "You should get away now," he said, looking around at the people who had stopped to watch the two of them.
Pearl was ready to fight too.
The girl's hand clutched around her pills. She couldn't let anyone else get it, so she turned around and ran away, going up the mountain.
Alex felt his talisman buzz a little and he brought it out. Looking at it, he had received 12 points. And since he had won the first match of the day, he had no reason to worry about losses.
Pearl got excited as well. It had been a while since he had got the chance to fight to the best of his capability.
Alex saw a green glint from his right side, as someone rushed toward Alex faster than anyone else. "Your Majesty! I, Kang Bouxian of the Hidden Cloud sect, challenge you to a duel," the man shouted.
A few more people arrived, but everyone regretted being after the man. They feared that after one fight, they wouldn't get the chance to ask him for another fight.
Alex saw the people's disappointment and spoke up. "Please wait around, or maybe consider dueling amongst yourselves. I will get to everyone when I can."
Midnight flew out from his storage ring and he held it in front of him. The man who had challenged him had a cultivation base of Saint Core's 7th realm.
That was just the right cultivation base he wanted from someone to start training his sword. As Sword Intent filled his sword, he looked at the man who had already prepared a saber of his own.
People moved away from the fight, giving space for Alex and his opponent to battle. At the same time, many started finding their opponents to duel with.
Alex took a deep breath and spoke. "I accept."
The moment those words left his mouth, the man showed off his own Saber Intent, giving a white outline to his saber. Then he began attacking.
