The hair receded back into his head as his eyes changed colors and went back to being brown. His facial structure also moved a little and he was back to looking like his real-life self.
"Brother Wan, I've changed face once more, please don't freak out," he told Wan Li. Wan Li seemed pretty trigger happy last time so as to caution he let him know beforehand.
Wan Li looked up from his papers and said, "Oh, you look… different. Why did you change? Aren't you going to take part in the competition?"
"I needed to change my face a little, and master said I can take part despite having a different face, so I did," he said.
"Okay. As long as it is allowed," Wan Li said and no longer bothered him with questions regarding his face.
A knock landed on their door and both of them left the room. Once he walked outside, the various people looked at him weirdly for a second, until he explained to them what was going on.
Ma Rong left her room and asked, "Is everyone here?"
"Yes, we are ready to leave," an elder said.
"Hm, where is— Oh, you changed face already. I didn't recognize you. Let's leave," she said and started walking downstairs.
Down at the ground floor, they met Fatty Xu once more, but this time, he didn't have any remarks for them. Instead, he said, "Congratulations. You guys beat us fair and square," and left with his group.
Han Long was in the group and turned to the few and waved to them. He looked for Alex for a few seconds and left after not finding him.
Ma Rong also took her group and left.
Along the way, Ma Rong called Alex forward and silently asked, "I don't remember seeing anyone in the sect or the Scarlet city with a face like that. Is that a face belonging to someone from the Tiger sect?"
"Uhh… no. You have never seen this person before," Alex said.
"Oh, where is this person from?" Ma Rong asked.
"Uhh, it's my brother's face," Alex said.
"Your brother?" Ma Rong looked at him with a confused face. "I thought you had no siblings," Ma Rong said.
"Um… I have, but he was a mortal, and before I left my village, uh… he died," Alex lied.
Ma Rong looked at him with shock on her face. He controlled herself and said, "I see. It's a good-looking face." Ma Rong no longer asked any question and left him be.
Fan Ruogang then started pestering Alex for more information on why he changed his face and even Zhou Mei started asking some questions.
But these were questions that Alex could not answer so he just gave a random explanation and satiated their curiosity.
Around 7 pm, they finally reached the Coliseum and went straight to the arena where the majority of the sect was gathered.
"Woah," Alex said as he looked at the various sects. "There seem to be a lot more people here today. What's going on?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, there's nearly double. Did new sects get added at the last moment?" Wan Li asked.
"Pfft. You guys are letting your newbie-ness spill out right now," Fan Ruogang said while holding back her laughter.
Alex and Wan Li looked at each other in confusion. "Haha, you do know what today is right?" the Second Elder asked.
"Of course, the combat section of the competition," Alex said.
"And who takes part in the combat section?" the Second Elder asked.
"Who? Isn't it everyone?" Alex asked, but then immediately realized. "Ohhh, I see. So people skipped out on the initial part of the competition because they weren't here for the Production segment of the competition," Alex said.
"Yes, but now that it's combat, everyone including those that took part in combat is here to take part now," the Second Elder said.
"I see. No wonder there are so many people here right now," Alex said.
Fu Zhen walked into a small podium and started speaking.
"Fellow Daoists, welcome back to the competition. Today starts the combat portion of the competition. There is no theme to this competition, but we have set various different competitions, so you can take part in any of it," he said.
"However, the majority of the competition is going to be our main attraction, the single battles. Please send the best of the best from your sect to take part in those. As for the rest, please choose as you want," Fu Zhen said.
Suddenly, a massive blue screen appeared behind him. One that was larger than any of the ones that opened up before in any of the other days.
Alex looked at the competition page and was surprised by the list.
"What? Why is the setup of the competitions like that?" Alex asked.
As Fu Zhen had said, the main attraction of the competition was the single battles. So, the Single battles were what took the majority of the competition.
Surprisingly aside from the very first competition, none of the rest had any time assigned to them. All they had was an order, and the competition would last as long as it possibly could.
Alex started reading some of the competition through the top. The first competition was called the Damage test. It was part of the Single battle apparently and those who took part in that competition had to go through this.
Then came a race between the cultivators using only movement technique, race between the different beasts, race of the cultivators using only artifacts, race with both beasts and cultivators together.
Then the first main event of the day started the Singles battles. After that was over, there were other various competitions.
Then there would be another Singles battle than another competition, then other singles, then another set of battles, and finally another Singles battle would end the competition.
"That is a really weird way to set up a competition," Wan Li made the same comment Alex was about to.
