Alex saw the group glow up in smiles when Shan Wangjiu accepted the challenge. He took out his large sword and got ready to fight.
The old man stepped forward too and got ready to fight.
Alex watched the fight that never was a fight. It was one man dominating the other with his superior cultivation base. No one was surprised when the old man won in less than a minute.
When Shan Wangjiu had lost and was done with the fight, the old woman walked up front and challenged him.
The young man looked puzzled for a few seconds. "At least let me rest a little," he grumbled before accepting the challenge. The woman was much weaker than the old man, but she was still very much stronger than Wangjiu, and as a result, won her battle against him as well.
She fought for nearly 5 minutes, throwing at him everything she had. Shan Wangjiu came out of the fight breathing heavily. The fight had been short, but he was a little tired and felt drained.
Before he could properly rest, however, the stronger of the younger three, a girl challenged him.
Alex looked at what they were doing with a confused look. Were they trying to force Wangjiu to fight against their weaker ones while tired?
That was the only thing he could think of immediately, seeing the situation. The weakest of the 5 was still quite strong at around Saint Soul's 4th realm, so everyone would have an easy time winning even if they didn't do that.
The fight lasted for nearly 20 minutes, with the girl forcing Wangjiu to pour everything he had out into the battle. Even after he did so, he still lost.
As soon as he lost, just as Alex had expected, the fourth one rushed in and challenged the young man.
"Hell no!" Shan Wangjiu shouted at them. "I won't fight you."
The young man who had stepped forward to challenge with all smiles had his face darkened when he was rejected. He looked confused for a moment before releasing a sigh of understanding.
"We misjudged," he said to the others.
The last girl refused to believe they misjudged. She quickly walked up and challenged him Wangjiu, only to be berated before being rejected. The girl was angry, but she didn't put it out on him.
She turned around, returning to the group.
Wangjiu walked up to Alex, whispering in his ears. "They're mad or something," he said. "What sort of person gets angry after being refused?"
"The kind that doesn't get what they want," Alex said.
"Hmm…" the young man thought. "What do they want."
"As of yet, I'm not sure," Alex said. "But I have a hunch. If it is true, they'll challenge me next."
After talking for a bit, the older man came up to Alex and challenged him. Alex didn't accept or reject. Instead, he asked him a question.
"Do you guys care that I have all 3 of my rejections still left to give out?"
The old man looked at Alex in surprise. "You do?" he asked.
Alex nodded with a smile.
One could only refuse 3 times each day, so Alex had a hypothesis that the stronger people in the group were trying to whittle through the rejections so that the weaker ones could get their points, or even just have a chance to challenge someone weak when they found one.
"But just because I have one doesn't mean I will not accept," he said, drawing out Midnight from his storage. "I haven't met someone as strong as you in a while now. I'm not going to squander away my chances of training. Come on."
Their talisman buzzed and the battle was set.
The old one got ready to fight again, imagining it would be a very quick fight once again. He drew out no weapon of his own and threw out a casual punch that sent out a gust of wind that carried a force with it that didn't feel normal at all.
'Dao?' Alex wondered. He couldn't tell what Dao it was, or if it even was one. If it was, it would be a Wood Dao, and that was his weakest of all the elements.
He had no way of recognizing any of it. His sword flashed, a wave of Sword Qi getting rid of the wind. The old man gave a surprised look before clapping his hands together.
A low hum reverberated throughout the surroundings as it came for Alex. Alex covered his ears with Qi and his mind with spiritual energy.
He felt nothing after doing so. The old man paused again, confused about what was going on. He peered at Alex, trying to search for any sort of artifact that could be helping him, but he didn't recognize any of it.
At this point, the old man didn't know what to do. He pulled out a flat stick with intricate art on it. As if with a snap of a finger, he unfurled it into a beautiful paper fan.
"Oh," Alex said with a surprise. "That looks lovely."
The old man gave no heed to his words and readied an attack. At the same time, Alex put Midnight back into his storage, which confused the old man a little. But he didn't stop.
"I think I'll use this instead," Alex said, bringing out something. "I haven't used it ever in a fight though."
The old man's eyes went wide as Alex unfurled a fan of his own with pictures of clouds drawn upon it. From the fan, the old man could sense quite the intensity.
But beyond that, he could sense his own Dao from it.
"Dao of Wind?" he asked with a look that said he didn't understand what was happening. His eyes became stern and he sent a gust of wind.
Alex made a simple attacking gesture with his fan and winds of green flew out from it, flying toward the old man in the distance.
The two attacks fought each other, one born out of someone with a Dao, and one born out of an artifact that could create the Dao's aura.
In a match of equals, there was no doubt who it would be that would win the fight. There was no way for an artifact to ever be stronger than someone using the might of a Dao they learned.
After all, the heavens would be on their side in that fight.
However, even with the Dao, Alex's attack was stronger than the old man's. And the reason for that was very simple.
This was not a match of equals. Alex was in every way superior from the very start.
The wind of the fan destroyed the winds of the man and flew up to him to attack as well. Having learned the Dao of Wind, the man wasn't as hurt by it as he knew how to protect himself from it.
However, by the time he was ready for another attack, Alex had already taken out his sword once again.
"It's fun using the fan and all," he spoke, giving a gentle smile toward the man. "But I am a swordsman, so I must train with it. And I have much training to do, so don't lose very quickly, old man."
