Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Long Huan returned after his competition with a foolish grin on his face.

”I thought I was going to win all the way through, but they had to throw a Divinity at me to stop me from reaching the finals,” he said with a slight laugh.

”You’re lucky you didn’t fight someone who had a strong mental attack,” the man in the golden robe said. ”Had they realized you were weak against it, they might have hit you.”

”I had an artifact against that, but yeah, if they kept trying, I would’ve lost, no doubt,” Long Huan said as he sat down beside the group.

”Still, congratulations. You made it quite far,” Alex said.

”Thanks.”

A man from their group left next, as he was in a group above Long Huan’s. He lasted a fair bit until he lost in the quarterfinal match. The rest of the matches went accordingly, with excited screams sounding from the crowd around the arena as they watched the matches with great enthusiasm.

The battles around the arena were moving at an almost equal pace, with each arena holding a fight from a group of similar strength. At the moment, people from Group 7 or the equivalent were fighting, meaning Alex’s turn was next.

He looked around the group and noticed that, other than his father and himself, there were three more who hadn’t gone yet. From what Alex had heard, two of those people were like his father, meaning that they were Body Cultivators. However, unlike his father, they were in Group 49. They would go much later than Alex.

As for Alex, his turn was coming up soon, and he would go to the arena along with the man in the golden robe.

While Alex waited, he looked around the hall. The number of people in the hall had lowered significantly since the start. At this point, there were only a scant few remaining, since most of the others had chosen to watch alongside the crowd outside.

Alex turned to look toward the Fire Sage, who hadn’t left the room at all. The woman looked toward one of the projected screens, but her senses were always around him, watching him.

He couldn’t help but wonder what she was going to do when it was her turn to fight in her match.

It would be much later than his, but she had to worry that he would do something while she was busy if that had been his intention from the start. For that reason alone, Alex had a thought.

This woman wasn’t going to participate at all.

She was there to watch him, so her choice would be to forfeit her battles. Many had forfeited or simply not shown up to their fights, so it was obvious she would do the same.

The next group’s battles ended, and Alex’s group was asked to prepare.

”Finally,” the man in the golden robe said before standing up and turning toward Alex. ”Let’s go.”

Alex nodded and stood up as well. ”I’ll be back soon.”

He left the hall and arrived outside, where he was sent to one of the two arenas where the fights were going to take place. The battle arenas were in different sections of the building, so Group 38 had been split in half, with the two sides keeping to one arena and fighting until the end of the group before converging for the final battle in one of the two.

Once everyone was gathered, the announcer went over the rules of the battles that were going to take place soon.

There were only two rules.

The fighters could never come into physical contact with their opponents.

And the fighters could never use their Qi or mental attacks in the slightest.

The tiniest hint that either of the rules had been broken would mean instant disqualification.

Alex could see various artifacts and formations placed around the battle arena, all likely for this purpose alone. He was fine with both of the rules, so neither bothered him at all.

He found a seat for himself and sat down, waiting for his turn to come. The man in the golden robe had just sat down beside him when he was called over for the very first match.

Alex watched the man go down before turning to look in the direction of a Spiritual sense that seemed to touch him momentarily.

He looked for the person who had just sensed him, only to find a black-haired woman he had never seen before.

She smiled at him momentarily before walking away, disappearing back into the hallway.

Alex was left confused, wondering who that person was. So far as he was aware, he had never seen her at all.

At the same time, he searched for the Fire Sage but was unable to find her. She had disappeared as well.

The only person keeping an eye on him at that point, as far as he could tell, was Sunflare, who remained close by and never let him out of his sight.

Alex gave a faint smile toward the old man before turning back toward the arena, where he watched the man in the golden robe fight.

The man was a swordsman, just as he had said, and his opponent was a woman using a saber. The fight lasted approximately 20 seconds before the man used his powerful Sword Aura to utterly defeat the woman. She turned out to be among the weaker candidates in the group.

The man came back and sat beside Alex with a smug smile on his face.

”That’s how you defeat your opponent,” he said. ”This is your first time in the tournament, so take my advice. Most people tend to test things out at the start, so their attacks are weaker. Take advantage of that and defeat them instantly. Don’t give them time to realize that you’re not as strong as they think you are.”

Alex nodded slowly. ”Thank you for the advice, senior. I shall do just that.”