"My god! He really can do it," the old man from yesterday watched the result at the different puppets that were before them.
He had suspected that one of them might have been broken and had asked for more, but to his surprise, they all showed the same result.
As such, he was no longer able to keep Alex held back at all and would have to let him go.
"Come with me," the old man said and took Alex along with him.
Alex followed him and soon realized he was being taken out of the arena, back to the stage area.
He arrived outside and watched the fight that was taking place in front of him.
'That's… group 9?' he thought when he saw Xue Meirong on stage. She was the seeded fighter of that group.
Flowers grew from the stage of many types that soon started filling the place with their sweet smell.
Her opponent tried to swing his sword, but the smell of the flower was getting to him.
Alex wondered how he would fight if he were in there, but it was soon apparent what he had to do.
As soon as the man on the stage held his breath, he no longer had to breathe at all. A cultivator could hold his breath for a lot of time, but not forever.
The fight became a battle of attrition as Xue Meirong kept up the flower field while her opponent tried to force him to breathe.
Slowly, parts that he did already inhale were getting to him, so the man lost in the end.
Once Xue Meirong was announced victor, the staff walked onto the stage to fix it. When it was fixed, the next set of fighters was about to be called.
However, before that could happen, the old man walked onto the stage and called Alex along with him.
Alex walked behind him and looked onto the seating area to see He Liwei still sitting amidst the people.
'I guess he still hadn't lost yet, technically,' he thought.
"I have something to announce," the old man said. "Regarding yesterday's match from Group 12 where participant Yu Ming fought against He Liwei and won, we had to postpone the results until further investigation and we are finally done with that."
The crowd looked at them curiously as they waited for the verdict. He Liwei leaned in as well as this concerned him too.
"And the result is that participant Yu Ming had not broken any rules, and this is the winner of yesterday's match. Young man He, I'm afraid to say that you will have to leave the contestant area," the old man said.
"You can go sit and wait for your turn," the old man told Alex.
Alex nodded and walked towards the seating area.
He Liwei left as Alex reached and even managed to glare at him. Alex simply nodded towards him and went along his way.
As he entered the area, all eyes fell on him. However, he was quite surprised to see just how few people there were.
Half the people from yesterday were already missing, while a third of these were still left to go today.
Compared to the original 512 that stayed here, this area felt very… vacant.
Alex searched amongst the crowd and found a dark-skinned, muscular man with short-sleeved, brown robes.
'So he passed yesterday, huh?' he thought as he analyzed his opponent for today.
Alex ignored everyone's eyes and sat down in an empty spot. Surprisingly for him, no one came to ask about it at all.
Out of nowhere, people were starting to understand that he wasn't just a random fighter in their path. He had beat the seed of the 12th group.
It was safe to say that he was now the 12th group's seed himself.
One after another, the fights went on until it was finally time for Alex to fight again.
Alex was a little bummed out that he didn't get to see his opponent's fight, but realizing that he was from the Han family, Alex knew how he would fight.
Alex walked off the seating area and went onto the stage. He stood on one end of the stage while his big opponent stood on the other.
Alex felt the man's cultivation base. He was simply at the 5th True Emperor realm. This wasn't even going to be a fight.
The man brought out a hammer to fight while Alex brought out nothing. The referee considered them both ready and started to fight.
Alex waited for his opponent to make the first move and he did. The man had analyzed Alex's match with He Liwei and had understood that Alex's advantage lay in his fighting style where he always ran to his opponent and struck them before they were aware of what had happened.
So he decided to take that advantage of himself and charged at Alex.
Alex watched the man run up to him and took a single step forward.
The man used a hammer technique that caused a lion's head to form on top of the hammer as it fell with increased force.
Considering the man likely had his physique active, this attack would do quite some harm to even people that were in the True Emperor 6th realm.
For Alex however, this was nothing. He made a fist as he twisted his entire waist to put his weight into the punch.
The punch broke the sound barrier as it made its way onto the hammer and struck it directly in the center.
The man felt pain between his thumb and his index finger as the hammer rebounded back away from him.
"Argh!" he cried out in pain and tried to grab the hammer with all he could from leaving his arm.
However, that wouldn't help him at all as Alex's left arm moved and punched him in the chest.
The man felt what he thought was the force of mountain land on him as he was sent flying back onto the edge of the stage, directly next to the boundary.
He quickly got up and tried to get out of the way but Alex was already next to him.
The man hurriedly used all of his defensive skills while also activating his armor.
As he did, Alex's golden fist landed on his body.
At first, the man smiled when he realized that his defense that stopped the attack, however just after that the golden light around Alex's arm suddenly expanded, turning into a delayed attack that sent the man hurtling back.
By the time the man tried to gain control of his body, he had already struck the barrier behind him.
He slowly got up and saw the boundary before him that he had crossed. He understood that he had lost.
What he could not understand was why it had been so quick, and just why… Alex was so strong.
The referee checked on the man and then turned towards Alex to announce his victory.
The crowd cheered as Alex walked back onto the seating area.
Another hurdle was passed. Alex managed to defeat his opponent with ease.
Now, he had entered the Top 32. Which meant the next battle he fought would result in the victor of Group 12.
