The first fight ended with the lion woman's opponent surrendering before she managed to reach him. It was something I only managed to notice at the edge of my awareness though, as I concentrated on my customer's fight.

She was in the first realm as far as I could see, not actually remembering her myself. She wasn't using any flashy techniques like her opponent though. Well, not that those techniques were doing him any good, considering he didn't hit with any of them.

It looked quite impressive, seeing her weave around all of his attacks. Well, not all of them, some, those without qi augmenting them, were allowed to hit her, but only on the most protected part of the robe, and traded for an attack herself.

It seemed attacks that did not have any qi augmenting them were useless against the qi I stuffed into the cloth. Good to know. Though evolving your fighting style to rely on external means didn't seem all that smart to me. Sure it was an unexpected way of fighting - as proven by the frustrated look on her enemies face.

It worked even better against cultivators, who only used flashy attacks, but also made her predictable.

If a cultivator could augment their attack fast enough she'd be too slow to dodge that attack.

And I had yet to see how my robes held up against a qi augmented attack, though I guessed they would do quite well so long as the qi within wasn't overwhelmed.

I needed to hire a cultivator or two to do some real stress testing. And I didn't even have to wait for that, after all the town was still filled with lots of cultivators, recently having lost in the tournament.

Why didn't I think of this earlier?

Well, something I could regret later.

For now I returned my focus on the fight in front of me, seeing it nearly finished. My customer had her opponent in a corner, his robes held together by threads, and he was swaying unsteadily.

Well, it appeared he got hit by several good hits while I was musing about the future. "I surrender." He said.

My customer nodded, did a slight bow and jumped off the stage, unsteadily followed by her previous opponent.

I turned my head to another fight, watching as the twk just hit each others arms over and over again. Boring, next.

As my head turned I had an idea, and looked back. Indeed. They were purposefully using their arms to block all attacks aimed at them. Well this would explain the reason all my destroyed robes came back with completely ripped sleeves. People didn't want to get hit in the core of their body.

Noted.

I moved on, silently thanking the two cultivators for their contribution to my work. A flash drew my eyes to another fight, and I saw two cultivators standing at the edge of their arena, throwing balls of fire at each other.

It looked so silly I couldn't help but grin for a moment. They were clinically insane. After all the fireballs moved too slow to hit them, and would be quite useless even if they did hit - the short explosion of fire wouldn't even sear the hair from their bodies!

But both were too proud to admit that, continuously doing the same thing over and over again.

And somehow expecting a different result.

Insane.

As the two idiots continued their 'fight' I moved on, they'd eventually run out of active qi, and turn towards plummeting each other with their fists.

All other fights were already finished though, so I reluctantly returned my attention to the last fight. It played out just like I expected. The two even ran out of qi at the same time.

In the end one managed to win by a lucky hit, as the other seemed to have some qi left still, and moved in a way that surprised his opponent. The winner helped the loser up, they laughed, and moved from the stage in a moment.

The eleven rounds of the day went just as fast, with me noting a dozen improvements I could do to my work in the process. None of the fights were really memorable, or worth watching to be honest, but to a total novice like me it was an eye opener.

My whole work would have to be revised for maximum effectiveness. Everyone using ranged qi techniques was using things similar to the weak fireballs of the first turn.

So until I started getting more powerful cliente I could completely ignore their existence, as the material I used was strong enough to withstand them on its own. In total seventeen of my customers fought on that first day, with only one losing dje to the difference of power between his opponent and himself.

The rest won their fights, usually by exhausting the qi of their opponents and striking when they were weak.

Good. Using their brains then.

Still, I sold far more than seventeen robes over the course of the last three years. Sure, I only did two robes per month at first, until I started getting qi filled materials that could be used instead of my own qi, but I knew I sold a couple of hundred robes.

Some were destroyed already for sure, all my work of the first year or two at least, but still. My output had been more like five to six robes a month for that last year, meaning over fifty of my robes should still be out there somewhere.

Stolen novel; please report.

If someone sold the stuff I was going to be cross … Well, no, not really. But I was definitely going to increase my prices. After all better work and quality called for higher prices. And none of the cultivators that bought my stuff looked all that stricken to part with their stuff.

I practically dashed out of the lodge when the last fight finished. After all the best time to hire someone just as they lost, and were still depressed.

Of course I had asked the mayor where to find the fighters in this massive building, and learned the losers weren't all that far from me. So I had to be fast, and reach them before they left for the day.

The more recent the lose the better.

Soon enough I came upon the first cultivator whose face I made sure to remember, one of those that shot fireballs at each other. He wasn't likely to agree, seeing as he didn't seem all that sad about the loss, but still worth a try.

"Say, you wouldn't be interested in some work, would you?" I asked.

His eyes, previously closed while he cultivated, shot open and focused on me.

"What kind of work." He asked.

"Well, I need someone to stress test my work. In essence I would pay you to shoot your fireball at my stuff and let me observe how it reacts. You can also use any other techniques you may know to try." I explained. "If you go a further step, and suggest how I can improve the protection of my robes you can even earn a bonus."

"Hmmm. I don't know. I would have to talk about it with my brother. What do you pay? And where would I find you?" He asked.

"Just ask about Triss, everyone knows where I live." I answered. "And I can pay in both cultivation resources and money. Whatever you prefer."

"Well Triss. Nice to meet you. I will be sure to think about your offer. Can I return to my cultivation now please? As you surely know cultivating while your qi is exhausted is the most effective and I don't want to lose a single second of it." He said.

"Of course. May the heavens be kind with you." I said.

It was the same phrase i heard when I told people I was going to cultivate, so it seemed appropriate. Anyways, cultivation was more efficient when your qi was exhausted? That did sound like something to test, though I wasn't sure it still counted once you had your qi intent. After all if I were to cultivate with just qi intent and free pure qi - like the cultivators of this world seemed to do - then just extending my aura to the maximum and running at top speed seemed like the best way to cultivate the moment you got your qi intent.

Perhaps qi intent only reacted that way once you reached sufficient understanding of your intent? Nothing I could test out without help, so it was on the back burner for now. Once I officially reached the second realm perhaps.

I continued on my way, my eyes scanning the present cultivators for the faces I remembered. All of them didn't seem all that beaten down about losing though, and every single one of them was digillenty cultivating.

By now I had passed about half of the one hundred and twenty cultivators that lost today, and only found another single one of my targets. He declined immediately, not even pausing to hear my offer. How rude.

I started hearing voices as I continued on, someone was yelling. Well, it looked like not everyone was as content to lose as those guys. Or they were just idiots. I followed the voices, right until I came upon another chamber. Three cultivators were in there, two of then cultivating like the rest, with a third hitting the wall over and over again, muttering something to himself. I scanned the room, saw none of my targets were there, and contemplated weather to approach the angry young man or not when he noticed me.

"Perhaps it's my lucky day still." He muttered to himself.

What was it today? Two creeps on a single day?

"Hello there, what can I, the great Wolf, do for you my flower?" He said.

As the man swaggered over to me my brain stopped working for a moment. He thought that would work? Nope, I was so outta here.

My aura expanded, until I could feel gravity affecting him. A short flare of my qi later, and the creep lay on the ground, unconscious where the sudden downwards acceleration left him. I looked the the sprawled form in disgust, checked the two cultivators with us - they were still dead to the world - and marched out of the room.

I continued searching the rooms, finding the last eight of my targets near each other. One declined, being from a clan meant he didn't need any money, while the other seven all asked for time to think about it too. Good enough. I had another week to find more people, as all that lost today were only first realm cultivators.

After another night of cultivating - exhausted qi really did increase the effectiveness of cultivation - I returned to the arena again.

The second day of the second round went like the first. All those that showed promise in the first round got an easy matchup, advancing into the third round while the rest fought desperately.

This looked rigged. Well, the mayor never said it was going to be a fair tournament, and the crowd loved those stomps.

I had no real stakes in this tournament, so I wasn't outraged. And all those powerful cultivators would have a go at each other later on anyways, so it wasn't like we missed out on anything.

Still, I tried to see all of the ten fights at once, and even asked Lady Chela who of those that lost was the best. With that another twenty one cultivators joined my list of potential employees, and working through them was quite a bit more successful than yesterday. I had three outright agree, and told them to come meet me after the tournament. Ten of them seemed ecstatic to be given the chance, but asked for some time to think nonetheless, with the rest declining outright. Still, it was a very productive day for me, even though I did not learn all that much.

There was only so much gained from watching from afar after all.

After the day was over, I used some of my time to make several new robes, this time thinking about everything I had learnt so far.

There were several ways to implement the new ideas and information, which meant my work for the next days was cut out. Sewing robes, even if only those made out of prepared cloth, took some time if I wanted the additional qi to settle into them.

"Ohhh." A whisper passed through the crowd. The third round had started a few hours ago, and the lion lady was currently facing a cultivator clad in wooden robes.

The lady was mad with rage, her roars nearly shaking the arena as she lay into my work. The cultivator she was facing was objectively weaker, but only her most powerful attacks managed to penetrate through all the layers of protection I wove into the robes.

Still, the man was forced to attack and defend himself actively, or he would lose in time. He didn't have any qi intent, so his attacks were only augmented with qi - a simple tactic, but the woman's previous opponents slash victims had shown everything else was too slow to hit her.

The guy would still lose though. I knew him, and he didn't have the qi to keep up with someone that cultivated long enough to form a meridian network and open their dantian. Even if it was in a suboptimal location. It was fun to watch though, seeing her having to work for her win for the first time.

In the end my prediction proved true, though the woman looked quite battered after she finally shredded my robes. Her opponent didn't look all that healthy, he was pale from blood loss and had large, bloody gashes all over his body. But he was grinning like a madman, and insisted on bowing towards the woman before collapsing and being taken off the stage. She inclined her head a little, and marched off the stage herself.

After that amusing little interlude the tourney continued on with little surprises, though some of the wins I saw looked suspicious - like someone held back, to barely winning. Those suspicions were confirmed by the knowing looks the people around me had, and the sudden acceleration at the end of the fights.

Some people were here to win, not to show off.