Qian Feng was in no way inexperienced. In his previous life, he had visited every single famed monument in the world, and experienced such a grand stature that he was regularly exposed to grandiosity. But this was something else.
Reun Arena was, simply put, an immense crystal-shaped spire that tapered off at both ends. Nothing held it up, and it just hovered in the air with the stability of a mountain.
It was made mostly of a pure, white marble, one that positively radiated Qi of all kinds(seriously, he could sense all of his different affinities somewhere in the aura). The caps on both the top and bottom were covered in smooth gold, which flowed like a river of yellow light. At the halfway mark, clouds began to shroud the arena, so densely comprised of Qi that Qian Feng could sense it from there. Windows also peppered the marble bricks at that level, large enough, Qian Feng was sure, but seemingly petite from that distance. The blue-colored glass added another shade of majesty and mystique to the construction. And, topping it all off, small shards of a strange, glittering ruby circled the tower, the array forming a profound pattern to advanced for Qian Feng to understand, but overt in its near-runic placement.
It was amazing.
As the carriage drove away, likely to the place it would stay for the remainder of Qian Feng's residence in this location, the 'country bumpkin' stood there on the street, staring at Reun Arena in wide-eyed wonder. The wonders of Qi were vast: an idea that immediately solidified in Qian Feng's mind and made him desire to reach the pinnacle even more.
He walked numbly into the building directly below the floating obelisk, subtly guided by his mentor.
"Hello. We'd like to register as duelists for Reun Arena." The Iron Fox spoke to the attendant at the front of the building.
"Of course! We'll just need your Nomad Duelist badge and a deposit fee of 50 gold coins." Now that caught Qian Feng's attention for several reasons. Firstly, a deposit usually meant that one could earn money in the first place, hence the price. He'd have to ask the Iron Fox about that later. But more importantly, Qian Feng had never actually come into contact with money in this world before(this could mean drastically different things for different people - either he was extremely poor or such a spoiled brat money was just never one of his worries. Qian Feng was leaning towards the second one), and it was a question he'd actually never thought to ask. How did money work? How much was it worth?
As he wondered, the Iron Fox had already flashed the receptionist the Nomad Duelist badge and placed the gold coins out of the table, which Qian Feng, curious, closely examined. Instead of fifty individual gold coins, it seemed to be one gold coin with a 50 on it. So, it was like the common systems on Earth then?
No matter. Qian Feng could always inquire about it later.
"Please head to the first floor for the duelist's assessment. I trust you already know the rules?" The attendant asked, confirming the badge by placing it in some sort of slot carved into a white stone and handing over a token with a number 1 on it.
"Of course."
Qian Feng and the Iron Fox began walking over to the stairs, Qian Feng following his mentor's lead as he spoke.
"You have no idea what all this is, do you? Well, the system for this is rather simple. As long as you've recovered from your shock, you should have no problems understanding this.
Reun Arena has 9 floors. The higher you get, the stronger your opponents are. At the sixth floor, for example, I believe the contenders are almost expressly peak Martial Kings. The ninth floor, and everyone there is someone you're not even qualified to know.
You can advance floors in two ways: you can be nominated by someone on or above the floor you're going to, and pass a test to get there; or win enough fights to advance. Naturally, you're going to be using the second method.
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There are also rewards for the passing of each floor. The first floor gives you 10 gold, the second 50, the third 100, the fourth 500, and once you reach the fifth floor, you get a thousand gold and your own residence here. But that's for the future.
As of now, we're heading to the first floor. This one's a little different from the others, in that you don't pass based on fighting - well, sort of - it's hard to explain. Here, you fight with a random opponent, and based on your fighting prowess, the judges can either choose to send you to the second floor or keep you here. If you don't pass the judge's assessment, then you can't advance. Even if you lose, though, you can still continue onto the second floor as long as the judge gives their approval. That's pretty much it for now. Simple, huh?" In but six or seven breaths, Qian Feng's teacher spewed out bucketloads of crucial information, proving that his lung capacity was truly the most impressive thing about him that Qian Feng had seen so far.
"Yup..." He was still a little shaken, but that was fading fast. Qian Feng always could adapt to new situations - he was plunged into this whole reincarnation situation and recovered like it was nothing after a bit, after all.
By the time this was done, Qian Feng and his companion had already arrived at the arena floor through the stairs, the warrior shocked once again at the sheer scale of the place.
It was huge, easily several times larger than even the biggest stadiums in Qian Feng's previous life. He felt his knees go soft, before he reaffirmed himself and his pale face returning to its previous state.
"Heh, always a hit, huh. Man, I missed this place..."
Ignoring whatever that last statement meant, Qian Feng mentally prepared himself for the battle ahead. Although he didn't really doubt that he would pass the judge's assessment, it was always wise to be ready for anything. If the applicants for the first floor were around the same level as the cultivators who passed the Duelist Nomad exam, Qian Feng was certainly nowhere near worried.
Telling his student to sit down on one of the benches in the stands around the stadium, the Iron Fox walked over to a man at a desk to the right of the entrance, probably handing over the token he received.
After that, it took about an hour of quiet cultivation before the Iron Fox bumped Qian Feng.
"You're up. Here, take this and put it... somewhere?"
That was especially rude, given that none of the clothes that Qian Feng was provided had pockets, and he very well couldn't use something as valuable as a spatial ring, that even Martial Kings would find rare, in public like that.
Left with no recourse, Qian Feng gritted his teeth as he clenched the caught token, walking towards the arena. Hopefully, the opponent wouldn't be too weak, since he really didn't want to have to place the token inside his teeth.
Thankfully, for once, his prayers were answered, as Qian Feng walked up onto the stage and assessed his opponent - this would be easy.
"Begin!"
Not even a single movement, and his opponent(Qian Feng hadn't bothered to listen to his name) was on the ground, trembling and frothing at the mouth at the sight of the transformation of Qian Feng into a demon. He had forgotten just how powerful he was with that Lu Teng incident.
Even the judge seemed a little scared(it seemed the killing intent spileld over a bit) as he asked for Qian Feng's token, taking it and handing over one with a number 2 on it in return.
2nd floor! Hopefully, the fights would be a bit more exciting.
"Well, that was easy. Where are the stairs for the second floor? I want to see if I can get a fight before nightfall." Having peeked out of the window as he walekd over, Qian Feng realized that he had little time left in the day, having only arrived late in the day and then spent quite the while waiting for his fight.
"Heh, kid, you've got energy. Well, let's try to get the third floor token before heading to where we'll stay, like you said.
Oh yeah, by the way, to advance beyond the second floor, you have to win 5 fights in a row. That means two things: because of the higher difficulty of passing, there will be more people to fight, meaning shorter waiting times, but also that you'll have to fight a lot more."
As Qian Feng soon found out, the quality of combatants on the second floor was similarly poor, though far better than those on the first floor. The first three fights were cinches, with the 4th fight being a little trouble.
His fourth fight, Qian Feng had fought against a Wind-affinity cultivator who had some semblance of skill and was able to withstand the bit of killing intent he let out, forcing the boy to loosen his control a bit as he let more out just before tightening it again, making sure none was let out.
Finally, Qian Feng and his master left the arena with their new tokens, checking out their new residence, which was thankfully a very short walk away from the place they'd be spending most of their time in the day: a relatively high-class inn, but still, thankfully, a rather low-key one - Qian Feng supposed being a descendant of a secret clan that was supposed to be extinct had its perks.