Alex went up to a seating area that was reserved for the 500 or so fighters that would be winning today.
He arrived and was immediately called up to sit near the seeded folks by Liang Qiu and the others.
"You did good," Liang Qiu said.
"Got an easy first match, that's all," Alex said. At the same time, his eyes fell on the purple-robed figure that he remembered seeing from time to time in the garden of the royal family.
"Your highness," Alex greeted him.
"Sir alchemist, I haven't seen you in a while," the man said. This was one of the princes of the empire, a cousin to the princess.
From what Alex remembered, this man was called Wei Taiwu. Alex sensed his cultivation base and was happy to find that he was only in the 7th True Emperor realm.
At the same time, Alex's eyes fell on 4 different people that he hadn't seen before. However, given that most of the elites were around them and were speaking to them, he could figure out who they were.
If not for that, their cultivation base alone would've given him the answer. After all, they were up in the upper True Emperor realm.
'The remaining 4 seeds, huh?' Alex thought when he saw them.
2 of them were girls while the other 2 were boys. Liang Qiu told him their names, and apparently one of the boys was quite famous for attacking a mid-grade sect on his own to take revenge for his father's death, but Alex had never heard of him so he didn't care.
Most of them simply focused on the matches that were happening 16 at a time, and so did Alex.
The competition ended a few hours later and Alex stood up to leave. However, Liang Qiu stopped him.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Back to my hotel, why?" Alex looked at her curiously.
"Do you not know that we will be staying here in the arena?" Liang Qiu's face was one crack away from full-on laughter. In fact, her eyes were already laughing.
"We stay in the arena?" Alex was surprised.
"Yeah, they will let us know very soon."
Just as they had talked, a staff member came and explained the situation to the 512 participants that were there.
To make sure that the participants got the best treatment and facility during the tournament and to make sure that none of them got in any harm, whether that be accidental or intentional by other parties trying to keep them off the tournament, they were made to stay in the arena under the supervision of the staff.
Given that the staff consisted of elders and Saints from all the different families, sects, and some even from the military, it was hard to cause problems for the participants.
"Why now? Why not from the start?" Alex asked Liang Qiu.
"Well, for one there wasn't any need to be concerned about the participants, especially from being attacked by someone else given that no one really knew who they were fighting in the first round," Liang Qiu said.
Alex nodded. That made sense.
"However, now they know, huh?" he asked.
"Yes. Since we know who we are fighting, there is a chance of misconduct, so they are trying to avoid that," she said. "Aside from that, I think the more important reason is that there just isn't that much space in the arena."
"For all the different competitions this place has seen, it has always been 512 contestants at the start. However, with what happened just before the last tournament, no one wanted to hold a tournament anymore and we had to cancel."
"That was why they decided to make it big and start with 1024 people. Which also meant, they didn't have a place to keep those people," Liang Qiu said.
"And now they do," Alex finished her sentence. "I should let my mother know."
"I don't think there's any need for that. Most already know about it. Those that don't will find out soon."
Alex looked around the place and saw a disciple from the Flowing Brush sect. 'Sect master Qin should let her know even if she doesn't,' Alex thought. 'I might've learned if I didn't leave a week earlier either.'
Alex shook his head and started following the staff as they handed a key to every person that walked through it.
Alex went to his room and sat down. He looked around the small 5 by 5 meters room that was mostly empty. However, he could feel the rich Qi environment that he was in and understood that there was a formation either in the room or over the whole building.
There was a talisman on the bed and he quickly read what was written on it.
The facility the staff had mentioned included a private or joint training area, as well as places where you could buy pills to improve your cultivation or heal yourself if you got injured.
Alex thought he didn't need that, but then he remembered he no longer had his items with him, so maybe he would need to use them.
Anyway, today wasn't the day.
Pearl came out and sat by him as they started cultivating.
Soon, time went by and the next day was here.
The staff members went around waking everyone up and took them to the watching area in the arena from where they would be viewing the matches today.
Alex was a bit surprised to learn that only Group 1 and 2 would be fighting on this day.
"Eh? It's a single match the whole way through?" Alex asked.
"That's what it is," Hand Daiyu explained.
"Who is in Groups 1 and 2?" Alex asked.
"Umm… I think it's sister Lu Yan and that Feng Xueshin girl," Liang Qiu said.
Alex nodded and watched as the first two fighters went onto the stage.
A swordsman vs a puppet master. The fight was surprisingly quick as the puppet master was nearly 3 realms higher than the swordsman.
With his strong puppets, the puppet master had no problem winning the fight at all.
The next two fighters went up and then the next two.
Alex watched the fighters with interest for a while but soon realized that there wasn't much point to learning how these people fought.
His group was so far away from these that it simply made no sense to care about these people.
At some point, he only watched for the sake of watching.
Lu Yan went up to fight at some point, and while her opponent tried to fight, there was simply no way for them to win.
Group 1's battles were over and the tournament went on a small break.
Alex went to meet his mother during this time and took back his storage bags and ring from her.
Once he returned, the 2nd half of the day's tournament began with another 16 different fights before the day concluded.
The original 512 people were now down 32 people, and the same would happen tomorrow and the day after that until all 16 groups will have 16 people each remaining.
Alex returned back to his room. Now all he could do was wait for his turn to come again.
