Ten hours later, fifteen cultivators with varying levels of cultivation were standing on the arena.
Curious, they could not help looking around them, taking in the floating island's breathtaking scenery. That of a pond, a beautiful tree along trimmed vegetation, a peaceful wooden manor, its outer wall non-existent. Giving to them the opportunity to see what laid inside. Just as they all arrived, the floating island started going even higher, breaking past the clouds.
"Is that the expert who auctioned these artifacts?" Looking down at his King-Tier hammer, a middle aged man with brown hair questioned.
On a throne deep within the open manor, a young man with long silver hair, his height over eight meters.
"I am Alexander, a wandering cultivator. You don't need to bother asking the reason for this because I'll answer this question right now. I am bored, that's it. Now onto the tournament! You all will battle with puppets of increasing strength, the last three standing will receive a choice. This choice is about the reward you want, to boost your morale I will now tell you about these rewards. There are three rewards, one for each person within the top three, the higher your position, the earlier your choice, meaning the third one will receive the remaining reward."
"The first reward is an increase in cultivation base, I will increase your cultivation base by a whole major realm and if it cannot be done precisely, I will simply round it up to the higher stage or layer. For the second one, it is an increase in talent, giving you the possibility to reach a higher Martial Dao! As for the last, it is a position of outer disciple in my Grand Palm Sect."
'Even though I don't even remember where the fuck it is. But that's a detail they don't need to be aware of.'
"Seriously? Is this man a god or something? Increasing cultivation, talent? And what's this Grand Palm Sect?" That same talkative middle aged man blurted out without thinking.
"That's right, it's a bit suspicious, but does it matter? I don't think he has any malicious intention." This time, it was the young girl that tagged along the young man who had won the Divine-Tier artifact. She was at the peak of the Saint Realm.
'With my, and brother Wuheng's cultivation base, we are guaranteed a place within the top three each.'
"Since you guys get it, let's get to it." Holding his palm toward the sky, Alexander created a golden orb floating above his palm. Waving his hand, the orb shot forward before landing on the arena. Shortly after, a golden puppet in golden armor formed from the orb, its cultivation at the low stage of the Dao Heart Realm.
Observing the armor clad puppet, many were intrigued. However, they were quickly awoken from their curiosity as Alexander sent fourteen other puppets at the same level of strength before further adding with his voice.
"Now that you all have an opponent, go ahead and destroy this puppet. They have the same weaknesses as humans, so it should not take long."
Starting the fight, Alexander enjoyed the show. While it not last long against seasoned veterans or powerful cultivators, it was still fun to watch.
As such, each time a puppet was destroyed, another would appear with a single layer or stage higher than the previous one.
It did not take long for cultivators to fall, as some were only at the low stage of the Dao Heart Realm.
As soon as the puppets reached the peak stage of the Dao Fusion Realm, only four were standing.
Seeing this, Alexander was stumped.
'Two won't make it past the next stage, only these two kids will. How do I go about this?'
"You two, you won't make it past this stage, so fight each other until one man is left standing!"
Hearing the young man's words, they frowned deeply, looking at their now opponent with fighting intent.
"Old man Gu, you are old and frail, let this junior take the prize and carry the next generation forward!"
"Is the next generation so shameless now? I am also a cultivator, you brat Uscav, I will fight with everything I have!" Releasing his peak Dao Fusion Realm cultivation, he eyed the middle aged man named Uscav with hatred.
"Let's fight!"
Kicking the ground, both of them met in an instant, clashing their newly obtained artifacts with fierce might.
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"Take this you old man! Nineteen Sword Strikes!" Creating 18 illusions of swords all around him, Uscav pierced with his King-Tier sword forward, intending to stab his opponent directly in the heart.
"Hmph! Brat, take this old man's Soaring Dragon Spear Art!" The old man Gu did not let his opponent outclass him, sending his King-Tier spear forward as well, a green dragon of light appearing, orbiting his spear before rushing at the tip, its legendary maw wide open.
As the two collided, an explosion of aura and Dao intent crashed onto the arena before the tattered figure of the middle aged man Uscav was seen flying backward, falling off the island, his body disappearing into the clouds below.
"Alright, now let's have you guys continue with the puppets." Sending another three puppets at the first layer of the Saint Embryonic Realm, old man Gu was defeated almost instantly. As for the other two, it was the complete opposite, crushing the puppets into bits in an instant.
"Let's keep going, since you two are at the peak of the Saint Realm, let's start with that." This time, the puppets were at the twelfth stage of the Saint Realm, on par with the two of them.
'They managed to defeat my puppets, this means that they did not boost their cultivation with shitty pills and whatnot.'
"Congratulation, now, let's go even higher!"
'Is this expert serious? Will he actually create puppets at the Saint King Realm? Even elder Fang took centuries to reach that stage within our home world!' With a serious look on his face, Wuheng prepared himself. Looking behind him at the young girl in blue robes, he opened his mouth.
"Sister Gham, be careful!" But his warning came too late as Alexander's puppets flashed like illusions the moment they touched the arena, before reappearing behind them both, striking their fists at their wide open backs.
In the end, Wuheng had managed to fend the attack off, albeit with broken wrists, all thanks to his quick reaction time and Divine-Tier artifact.
Unfortunately for sister Gham, she was blasted away, her spine shattered into pieces.
"Alright, this young man takes first place, the young girl is second, as for the old man, you will receive the remaining reward."
"What do you choose young man?"
Hesitating for barely a moment, Wuheng gave his choice.
"Increase in talent! There is only so much one can do without it!"
"Good choice young man, here!" Teleporting in front of Wuheng, Alexander placed his hand on the top of his head before modifying his body structure.
A few seconds later, Wuheng felt incredible.
"I forcefully unlocked some of your potential, this means widening your meridian pathways, increasing your durability among a myriad of other details. Reaching the Divine Realm should not be a problem, as a gift I will also give you a piece of advice, to all of you, actually."
Listening closely, none of the trio dared to make a sound.
"If you ever reach the Saint King Realm, know that the higher you go within this realm, the better off you will be. Only by reaching the absolute peak of that realm will you have a chance at unlocking your potential fully. If you don't, however, then you can forget about making it past a certain level, I won't say anything about it, just know that only the peak of the Saint King Realm is worth something! Though to reach it, even that young man whom I increased the potential of, will probably not make it, maybe it won't even be close!"
Letting his words sink in, Alexander looked at the young girl.
"You?"
"Humm... I'll take the increase in cultivation."
Hearing this, Alexander smiled.
"Good choice! For the both of you this was indeed the best choice out of the three options. Since you are at the peak of the Saint Realm, I will boost you the peak of the Saint King Realm, unlocking your potential in the process. You must keep in mind however, that increasing your potential for future cultivation does not mean you will achieve anything, bypassing this part of the journey will be a huge detriment to your growth, as its challenges often gave cultivators a considerable amount of mental growth."
Teleporting in front of her, he placed his hand on her abdomen.
"It's going to take a few moments." Pushing his Star Qi madly, Alexander forcefully upgraded her cultivation base.
As for sister Gham, she could see using her Divine Sense, on her Crystal Core, a white, crystalline mark appear on its surface. She could not fathom its meaning, but she could definitely feel herself getting stronger. This single mark had promoted her to the Saint King Realm already!
But it did not stop there, forming more and more marks, Alexander pushed her cultivation even higher.
She kept breaking through again and again. At the third mark, she reached the second layer, and at the ninth, the third layer.
By the time she had received 243 marks, she had broken through the sixth layer.
Alexander paused for a moment, before combining all 243 marks into one.
"What you saw me doing, young girl, was combine all 243 crystal saint marks into one major crystal saint mark. I will then do it all over again until I form on your Crystal Core twenty-seven major crystal marks, after that, I will then combine them into a single grand crystal saint mark. After making eighty-one of those, I will combine them into a single supreme crystal saint mark. And when I make 108 of these, it will be done!"
"So I would basically need to make 57 395 628 marks in total, well, if I was bored and used a shitty cultivation technique. I'll just skip that and copy them each time."
Doing so, it only took Alexander a few minutes before all 108 supreme crystal saint marks were engraved on sister Gham's Crystal Core, giving her a potential devoid of limitations within this Universe along a cultivation base the peak of the Saint King Realm. Making her a Supreme Rank Saint.
"Now, for the last reward, old man, take this." Sending a faint beam of pale blue light, old man Gu saw an abstract palm shaped tattoo appear on the back of his hand.
"Show this when you find a cultivator from my Grand Palm Sect. Bye!" His figure fading away along the floating island, the three were left falling from the sky. As powerful experts however, it barely took a moment for them to stabilize themselves mid-air. Old man Gu was not feeling great however.
'But... where is it?' Falling with a blank look, the old man realized he had been tricked, this reward was only useful with Heaven defying luck, and that was believing the tattoo to have any actual meaning.