The crowd celebrated as they watched the fight between Jin Tengfei and a random beast master.
Jin Teifeng was a master with the sword. The way he slashed in between the beasts and attacked their master left the crowd breathless.
Alex watched the fight while constantly monitoring the time. The 3rd match after this one would be his, and he was starting to get worried that the sun would reach its zenith at that point.
The fight ended not long after and the next set of fighters went up to the stage while Alex waited for his turn to come.
* * * * *
The different family heads and sect leaders were all gathered in a single massive room to watch the competition from the tower that was raised on the northern side of the arena.
"Tengfei is doing quite well, isn't he?" a bloody white-robed old woman asked the yellow-robed old man that was sitting not far away from him.
"He's doing the best he can for his cultivation base," the old man said. "His cousin would've done much better, but alas." The old man shook his head while turning to look at another old man.
The old man in the crimson red robe frowned when he saw the yellow-robed man turned towards him. "Stop looking at me. You all agreed to send your disciples into that realm on your own. Now that they're dead, all you can do is blame me," the Fu old man shouted.
"It's hard not to blame you, brother Fu," Han Huaxian, the family head of the Han family spoke up. "2 times the realm opened, and 2 times people went in. However, in both of those times the only ones that survived have been from your family. It's hard not to see the conspiracy that could exist in all of this."
"Hmph! Its not just my family that survived. Oi, old woman. Tell them that your granddaughter survived too," the Fu old man spoke to an old woman wearing green robes.
"Don't look at me. For all I know, your grandson could've been star-smitten for my granddaughter and decided to save her," the old woman said.
"Urgh!" the old man started getting frustrated and everyone found fun in that.
They all knew that the beast realm was dangerous and that it wasn't the old man's fault. Besides, it was a joint decision. Still, they had all lost something precious at that time. All except for this old man who not only had an unharmed grandson but also found out his brother from over a thousand years ago had actually survived and had an entire family on the other side of the realm.
In fact, he had been the Emperor of the empire on that side. That made these people want to tease him whenever they could. After all, they had to win somewhere.
"I hear it was the miracle alchemist that helped them get back here, is that true?" a man in blue robes asked.
"Tsk! How did you find out?" the old man asked. He had been surprised when he learned that 2 years ago after the alchemy tournament, but hadn't expected the alchemist to just die at the time.
"Apparently, your grandson couldn't keep his mouth shut," the blue-robed man laughed out loud.
The old man grumbled. "Yeah, it's him," he said.
Some of the others looked at the bracket that hung in the sky. "Well, we will have to call him here soon then," one of them said and turned to a husband-wife pair to the side. "Your disciple isn't going to hurt him too bad right?"
"He's just a mere True King. The fight will be over before it even begins," the wife said.
"My disciple knows what to do," the husband said.
"Well, let's send someone to go get him. Finally, we can talk to him like we've been wishing for this entire time."
* * * * * *
Alex walked onto the stage and it was finally his turn. He Liwei walked up next to him with a smile on his face.
"Don't worry, brother. It will be over quickly," he said and walked to one end of the stage.
Alex looked at him for a second before walking to the other side of the stage. Once he was there, he looked at the sky and then to the ground.
As he feared, the sun was directly over them. 'Well, it should still work fine,' he thought and stared towards He Liwei in the distance.
He Liwei stood without taking out any weapon as they were ordered to prepare.
Alex took out the sword he had been using to fight throughout the tournament and stared across the stage at He Liwei.
The sounds of the crowd quietened as the barrier sprung up to block all sounds from outside. Alex felt the world go quiet.
The referee, a woman from the Falling Lotus sect stood between them as her spiritual sense fell on both of them as she waited to see if they were both ready.
She frowned a bit when Alex didn't bring out his beast companion at all. It was hard to tell if he was ready or not.
"Are you ready?" she was forced to ask Alex in the end.
Alex looked away from He Liwei toward the woman. He glanced towards the tower on the left side of his vision and sighed. The people that mattered would all be looking at this fight, evaluating him.
'Here goes nothing,' he thought to himself and nodded.
"I'm ready."
The woman turned to look at He Liwei who nodded his head as well.
"Begin!"
The moment the woman gave the go, Alex moved. As if an arrow that had left the bowstring, he zipped through the entire stage and smashed his sword directly onto He Liwei's chest.
He Liwei's armor lit up to protect him, but even then Alex's attack was too strong for it to completely negate it.
As such, He Liwei was sent flying back close to the boundary.
Vines suddenly appeared around He Liwei's arm and struck the ground to slow him down. He barely managed to keep himself from going out of bounds.
When he looked up, Alex was already there.
An earth wall appeared in between the two of them to stop Alex. However, the wall couldn't stop Alex at all.
From the shadows next to the wall, Alex emerged and swung at He Liwei.
He Liwei was now scared out of his mind. He couldn't imagine why Alex was so strong or how he was doing what he was doing.
Unsurprisingly, he had to use his real strength, something he hadn't done in the tournament before.
A gust of wind pushed Alex back before he could hit He Liwei. The swing went untouched as he was pushed back too fast.
Alex tried to fight back against the wind but it was too strong. A bit too strong.
Alex landed far away from He Liwei and looked back at him. He understood what had happened right now.
'He used his Saint Qi, huh?' Alex thought. A True realm 6th realm cultivator wouldn't have much Saint Qi, but what he did have would make him very strong.
Alex smiled. It had been a while since he had felt the thrills of a true battle.
