Southern City, Southern Academy, Main Assembly Hall.

In this assembly hall, all the instructors, elders, the 5 vice-headmasters, everyone was gathered. They were currently holding a meeting.

The main discussion of the meeting was the Grand Academy Tournament. Old Summer, the principal, was in the middle of explaining the situation to everyone.

"As I've said. We've just got notice that this year, the four great academy tournaments will be held as an even bigger event. The 100 countries under the Grand Sky Empire has decided to have a grand tournament as a showcase of power for each nation. According to the Royal Court, every country will be sending a team of five members consisted of their best students. From all the 100 countries, one team with five members will participate per country. Which means, there will be a total of hundred teams. But before the team of five can be gathered, there will be preliminaries within each country.", Old summer explained to everyone."

"But if the Royal Family is going to select the best 5 from this country, does this even concern us? We don't have any student strong enough to take a spot.", an elder asked.

"Well, we actually have two.", Old Summer said with a smile.

"Two? Who?", some of the elders asked. They were shocked to hear that they had not one, but two such students.

"One of them is called Robert Brown, the young master of the Brown Family."

"Robert? But he is too young! Last time I saw him, he was a B rank student. Even if he has managed to reach A rank by now, that won't be good enough. Even our S rank students are nothing in front of the students of the Royal Academy. I believe all five spots will be taken by students from the Royal Academy.", an Elder said as he shook his head in disappointment.

"Well, Robert is an incredible talent and has a strong martial heart. He is fully dedicated to martial arts. With proper training and guidance, he is now at the Sixth level of the Shell Shattering Realm, and from what I've heard, he is growing stronger."

"How could that be? He's so strong now?", everyone present in the meeting exclaimed in shock at the same time.

"Well, I believe it is because he has a good friend to help him grow stronger.", Old Summer said.

"A good friend?", everyone looked at each other's faces but realized that none of them had any idea who the principal was talking about.

"Didn't I say we have two students strong enough to participate in the Grand Academy Tournament? This good friend of Robert is the other one. I believe he is the best student our academy has ever had, and will ever have."

"Who is it?", everyone asked at the same time, full of curiosity.

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"His name is Edward Alexander. As for his strength, he is at the Third Level of Qi Accumulation Realm. I believe he is not much weaker than me, and he will be surpassing me very soon.", Old Summer said with a smile.

All the instructors, elders, and vice-headmasters were speechless. To think that there was a student so powerful that he was stronger than all of them, nearly as strong as the principal!

"Edward Alexander! It's... It's that brat! It's him!", suddenly, one of the elders, Elder Norman, shouted like he went crazy.

Everyone turned to look at him at the same time, full of curiosity.

"Elder Norman, do you know this student?", An elder asked.

"Yes. Yes. I.. I have never seen someone being so brave, daring, brutal, and insane at the same time!", Elder Norman Shievered as he remembered that scene he saw. He remembered Edward slowly walking out of the academy forest in heavy footsteps, with a body drenched in blood, dragging the corpse of the grade 2 wolf beast. As he remembered the scene, his whole body shook.

Seeing Elder Norman's reaction, everyone got even more curious.

"What happened? Tell us?", this time, it was one of the vice-headmasters who asked, not being able to hold back his curiosity.

Elder Norman finally took a deep breath and started to talk.

"I was the one handling the selection exams when he participated. When he entered the forest in the second round of the exam, he was only at the Seventh Level of the Physical Essence Realm. On the last day of the second round, during the night, he was attacked by the Grade 2 Wolf-beast of the forest, a beast with a special bloodline. He could've run out of the forest to save himself, but this boy has an unbreakable pride. Fearing that he would be disqualified if he left the forest, he decided to fight the beast due to his pride. According to the other participants, the fight went on for the whole night. A large portion of the forest was ravaged. During the morning, after all the students came out but he didn't, we thought he was dead, but right when we were about to announce the results, he came out of the forest in heavy footsteps, with his whole body drenched in blood, as if he bathed in blood. As he walked, he was dragging the corpse of that grade 2 wolf beast. He had broken through to the 3rd Level of the Body Metamorphosis realm during that battle. I couldn't believe my eyes and ears back then, and even now, it sends shivers down my spine when I remember the look in his eyes back then. He looked like he was an invincible paragon, able to take down anything and everything. And now that I hear that he has broken through to the Qi Accumulation realm already, I truly understand what kind of fighter he was. A fighter with an unbreakable martial heart. ", Elder Norman was still shaking as he spoke.

Everyone took a deep breath after listening to Elder Norman's story. They looked at each other faces, confirming that every one of them was shaken to the core after hearing about this boy named Edward Alexander.

"How old is he?", one of the vice-headmasters asked.

"He will be turning 18 tomorrow, on the 3rd of December.", Old Summer said.

"What?", once again, everyone exclaimed in shock, except elder Norman who already knew.

"He is only 18 and he's that strong? It is totally unheard of!", one of them said.

"Well, there is nothing impossible in the true grand stage of martial arts. His stage is not here, his stage is in the true world of martial arts, where the legends we look up to are just ordinary facts, where realms we don't know exist. It is beyond the scope of our imagination. But I do know this, he is someone with a big heart. He will not forget this academy, and when he wins the world at the end of his journey, our academy will have his blessings.", Old Summer said.

Finally, Old Summer decided to draw the conclusion of this meeting as he said a few more words:

"At least, I am glad that me, and this academy, could become a footstep in his grand journey. I believe, soon, we will be hearing his name everywhere. So everyone, remember the name. His name is Edward Alexander!",