"Welcome everybody to the first Tournament of Champions in the last 20 years!"
A man stood up on a giant stage that was perhaps kilometers wide in both length and width. Only cultivators could clearly see him from that distance away.
The space on the stage was clearly expanded using formations and the real space was perhaps a fourth of what was being shown at the moment.
The host continued talking, welcoming everyone to the competition, while the rest of the people got onto their own thing.
"I can't keep Pearl?" Helen asked from the audience space.
"No, I need him for the battles. Just keep these storage bags of mine, mother," Alex said and handed over everything except for precisely what he needed.
"Alright, but make sure he doesn't take get hurt. You're stronger than him, so you need to be the one to fight," Helen said.
"Don't worry, mother. I know what I'm doing," Alex said and left the place to go over to where the contestants would be gathered.
The host started explaining the rules of the tournament.
The rules were mostly there to give no external advantage to a cultivator that they didn't gain themselves or to protect them.
Since there were no Saint realm cultivators in this tournament, the usage of Saint artifacts was banned. Anyone found using it would be immediately disqualified.
They were also allowed only 5 different items, in general, to take with them to every battle that would be checked beforehand.
That would include any not artifact items such as formation flags and talismans as well, both of which could also not be of Saint rank.
Taking pills to enhance oneself before a match was also banned, and if found out, one could be disqualified depending on what pill one ate.
For people that fought with beasts and puppets, they could not have more than 2 of those on the stage at the same time. The rules allowed for interchanging them, but up to 4 beasts or puppets at max.
Finally, there was the general rule of not harming someone deliberately, but this wasn't that intense of a rule as Saint realms would act as referees for these matches.
Alex arrived in a room that looked familiar yet different. The competition was taking place in the same place where the Alchemy competition was held, but somehow due to the changes done to the stage and room, it felt different.
He walked in and saw a bunch of people all looking around the walls at something that Alex couldn't see properly due to the many people that crowded it.
He went on to check what one of those was and saw that it was a bunch of information about who would fight who.
'It's just a bunch of numbers though,' he thought. 'Except that one.'
Guo Chiang was written on the top right of the match bracket and he would be fighting someone who was number 84.
'Guo Chiang, I've seen this guy before, haven't I?' Alex thought. He remembered back to those group of elites in front of the House of Undying, and recalled a young man with a ghostly face wearing a robe of green and blue.
He tried searching for him in the room, but it was way too crowded to find without using his Spiritual sense.
'The top disciple from the Broken Ravine sect. So he must be one of the seeded people huh? It's surprising they're letting their names be known so easily while everyone else's names are hidden behind a number.'
Alex looked around and saw there were about 16 of these things, each with 64 different numbers on them.
'Each of those must have one of the 16 seeded participants,' Alex thought. 'Which one is mine?'
Alex walked around for a bit before finding a registration-type area that was handing out numbers to the people that came up to them.
"Hello, I'm looking for my number," Alex went up to them.
The people there asked for his name and affiliation, which Alex gave them.
The man that heard his name gave a weird look. "Are you the miracle alchemist?" he asked.
"Um, I believe people are calling me that," Alex said.
"I didn't know you would be taking part in the tournament," the man said.
Alex gave a small smile and said, "Yes, I am. Can you please help me find my number?"
"Oh right," the man went back to searching for his number and soon came up with it.
"Number 746, huh? Let's see which group I'm in."
Alex walked around the room for a bit before coming across Group 12 which contained players from 705 to 768.
Before viewing anything else, his eyes immediately went to the top right of the bracket to look at the person that was seeded in his group.
"He Liwei," Alex read his name. He didn't remember this man clearly, but he did know that the Glory's Edge sect wore a black and gold robes, so that made it easier to pick him out from the elite group that imprinted onto his head.
'Is it that young man?' he thought as he recalled his memory from nearly a decade ago.
He would have to see on his own later on. Fortunately, he wasn't the one fighting against that young man. He wouldn't want to fight a seeded fighter, at least not this early in the competition.
However, given that he was on the same side of the bracket, if both he and Alex continued winning, the man would be Alex's 4th opponent.
'For now, I have nothing to do but wait huh?' he thought and walked around.
Just then, someone tapped his shoulders. Alex turned around and saw a familiar face, that he would rather not see today.
"Brother Yu, you really are here," Zhou Ren spoke to him from behind.
"Brother Zhou, it's been a while." Alex looked at his cultivation base and realized he was in the True Emperor realm. That too at quite a high place.
'True Emperor 6th realm, huh? That's not bad,' Alex thought.
"When I heard that you were not only alive but also taking part in the tournament, I thought they were playing some kind of prank on me. However, it seems they weren't lying at all," Zhou Ren said. "What group are you in?"
"12," Alex said simply.
"Great, I'm in 8. That means we won't fight until the top 16 or actually top 8," Zhou Ren said. "Although, I doubt you will make it that far. But hey, who knows right? Maybe you will end up beating that snobby little He Liwei somehow."
"Well, it will feel good to be better than you at fighting at least," Zhou Ren said as he felt great about himself.
Alex couldn't believe how self-centered this man was.
"I will go look around the place now," Alex said and turned to leave.
"Nonsense," Zhou Ren put an arm around his shoulders. "Come, since you are one of the most popular younger generation people, you should hang out with your own peers."
Zhou Ren took him over to the corner of the room where the crowd had parted giving space for the people that were hanging out there.
Alex was now going to finally meet with most of the elites of the younger generation.
