Alex opened his eyes in the capsule. He waited for a few more seconds to make sure he was properly logged out and then decided to go back in.
"Wait," he said to himself. "It might be better if I use that helmet instead. It will also help me with my body," he thought and opened the lid.
He then laid down on his comfy bed and put on the helmet. After that, he logged back in.
Alex was still in the Qi gathering formation and nobody had disturbed him. However…
"Tsk. It's still here," he said when he felt that the feeling didn't leave him. He was very curious as to what it was. However, just then, it disappeared.
"Oh, it's gone," he thought.
With nothing else to do, he stood up and left the formation. He couldn't even absorb Qi actively, so there was no point in staying here in the first place.
Besides, he had barely lost anything. The most he lost was in the fight against the gorilla and that by no means was a lot.
He made his way over to the Hong Wu sect. Suddenly, someone attacked him. Alex immediately got ready to fight but stopped when he saw what attacked him was a pair of hands.
It immediately wrapped around him and confined him. It was a hug.
"Aah! I'm so happy Mingming, thank you so much. Thank you." It was Fan Ruogang who had decided to hug him out of nowhere.
MWAH
Not only was Alex surprise attacked with a hug, but with a kiss on the cheek as well. His face got a little red and he started blushing a little.
"Wh— why did you suddenly hug me? I nearly thought you were an enemy and hit you," he said bashfully.
"Fanfan, you can't jump on him like that just because you made 200 True spirit stones," Zhou Mei said.
"What?" Alex's red face slowly went back to being a little less colorful, and just showed a general confusion towards the situation.
"Sigh, when the match started, Mingming went around gathering people for bidding on the winner. She bid 400 spirit stones on you and got a 50 times higher return from it and made 200 True spirit stones," Zhou Mei explained, with a hint of envy in her eyes.
"Haha, you wish you bid along with me, don't you? Look how much I made," Fan Ruogang teased Zhou Mei by showing the handful of True Spirit stones. Even Alex got a little jealous when he saw that.
"Good work, brother Yu."
"Great job, junior."
"That was an outstanding result. How did you do that?"
Alex briefly explained what had happened. Multiple compliments rained down as he made his way through the sect members to go sit next to Ma Rong.
"Congratulations on the first place, Brother Yu. You now officially have 300 points, the highest possible in this competition," Wan Li said.
"Oh, I didn't realize that," Alex said with a gentle smile. "Thank you, Brother Li."
He then looked towards his master and waited for her to speak. Ma Rong kept quiet for a few seconds and then finally spoke.
"Were you using your sense a lot?" she practically whispered.
"Yes," Alex said and nodded.
"I thought that was what was happening. If not for me especially looking for you, I wouldn't have noticed at all."
"Good job. You did great," she finally smiled and said. Alex smiled too.
"Thank you, master," he replied.
"Alright, now leave," she said.
"Huh?… oh, right. Ok, I will see you guys later after this competition ends," Alex said and went to the front of the seating area where the Tiger sect was located.
"Hey, good job, Yu-Ming. I am proud of you," Wen Cheng said the moment he reached there.
"I am honestly so surprised at the result, Junior brother. What happened out there?" Luo Mei asked.
Alex thanked them and explained everything.
"Oh, I see. So everyone who flew over the beasts got doomed huh?" Luo Mei said.
"Not really, as that second-ranked, you could just be fast. But I think, Yu Ming is genuinely an extreme case in this competition," Wen Cheng said.
"That is true too," Luo Mei said.
"Sister, aren't you going to leave now?" Alex asked. The top 16 was going to start soon and it was time for her to leave.
"I will go down after the stage is fixed," she said as she gestured towards the stage.
The opaque barrier had returned and Alex could tell that they were destroying the stage inside there. He had a pretty good guess that most of them were just formations, but he was still surprised how well it was.
So, while the stage was getting ready, they all waited.
******
"Did you like that, father?" the second price asked.
"Yes, Yes, that was very fun to watch. It's truly amazing how the last person flipped the points around so much that it went below zero. This is truly the first time I have seen something like this happen," the Emperor said.
"Truly well said, dear. It was the most fun I have had watching a competition in a long time. Not only were the different Maze fun to watch them go through, but the final result was also equally as fun to see," the Empress said.
"That was great of you, dear Nephew. I enjoyed it very much too," Zexi said with a burst of loud laughter.
The rest of the four looked at him with surprise. "You liked it?" the second prince asked.
"Of course, it was very entertaining to watch," Zexi said with a smile.
"You know what daddy," the Princess intervened, "that's actually the same robe as the boy I met," she said.
"Is it?" the Emperor asked in surprise.
"Yes, but that wasn't him. The one I met had long hair," the Princess said.
"Well, that's very unfortunate," the Emperor said.
Zexi had a smirk on his face as he looked down at the seating areas of the different sects and said, "Truly unfortunate, indeed."
