Tournament Begins

In front of the mountain rock building.

After arriving at the gates of the sect, Ciemnosc, Valeria, and Mosto went through them as if they owned them. More than anything due to the type of vehicle that Ciemnosc's armored car was and with how several advertising has been made within the sect for those armored cars in general, seeing Ciemnosc's armored car, which was much larger and 'advanced', it made the guards envious as they watched it come and go alike.

But also because Valeria’s Identification Token popped up from the array below them, detecting it and showing it to the guards’ Identification Token. In any case, they went through the streets of the sect unobstructed and made their way to elder Apegos at noon. While the tournament itself had already begun, Valeria’s turn to participate would only start in the afternoon.

Hence, as Ciemnosc and Mosto came out of the commanding vehicle, Valeria was already on her motorcycle outside of it. Ciemnosc kept his armored car in his Covert Space bag, barely fitting in one of them before starting to walk towards the mountain-rock building.

“You could participate if you want, you know?” Valeria said, stopping in her tracks with her motorcycle ceasing all of its starting power to zoom in the distance, somewhat feeling sad that only her motorcycle was the one slower vehicle than Ciemnosc’s commanding vehicle.

“Oh…” Ciemnosc semi-turned around and gazed at her face. Which was behind her helmet now, before saying as he fully turned around. “I’m not interested. It’s enough with the arenas.”

Showing her a ravishing smile, Ciemnosc then turned around and continued his walk to see his teacher. Valeria, on the other hand, was looking at Ciemnosc’s back without really looking at his back but at his smile just now within her most recent memories.

When she saw him get inside the mountain-rock building, she sighed softly as a beloved’s face appeared in her mind, though it was a more complicated sensation that, which she felt…

…After entering the mountain building, Ciemnosc saw no one in the small study so he directly went over to behind the desk and quickly went down the stairs where he could tell the ‘trapdoor’ had been opened recently, and his teacher was below but idle.

Step, step, step, step…

“...You’re here at last, boy?” Barely coming down the stairs, Ciemnosc heard the familiar, old voice he hadn’t heard for almost 40 days. He didn’t even need to look around as he saw elder Apegos in front of a lot of wooden materials behind him and surrounded by a ton of items to draw on.

“Teacher, sorry to be coming back so late.” Ciemnosc bowed slightly at the one-eyed old man in the wheelchair. Elder Apegos lifted his left hand and shook it at Ciemnosc before turning around, the wheelchair moving on its own with elder Apegos’s Spirit Sense at work.

“...These, what do you think of them?” Elder Apegos spoke as he slowly flung his arms up into the air and spread them sideways. The tons of materials and items to write or draw moved as paper flipped and pens levitated, so to speak.

“These? Mmmm…” Ciemnosc stepped over, not bothered about there not being any greeting back from his teacher, and began looking around the things in front and to the sides of him with scrutiny. When he was done giving them a glance, he turned his head to his teacher, “Elder Apegos, are these…uh…from the Sect Master or so?”

“Hmph, ‘or so’? Have you become so used to their presence?” Elder Apegos said, quietly and somewhat absentmindedly. Ciemnosc didn’t comment on it and instead heard his teacher add another set of words. “These are just in case you feel like showing them what you’ll be making for them; the port, ships, weapons, armor, bombs…whatever.”

“Oh…” Ciemnosc exclaimed softly, calmly, and quietly. Without delving any further into such words, them being so…obvious. Ciemnosc then began looking for a certain book he caught on with his Spirit Sense. Picking it up from below with quite a few layers of papers and materials covering its top, Ciemnosc uncovered a book with its cover showing an actual ship!

“Sigh…” As elder Apegos sighed, Ciemnosc looked through the book, realizing that this wasn’t a book for the market, commercialized and ‘trendy’; namely, this was a learning-study type of book that only the most high-end people, be it Craftspeople or ‘simply’ upper echelons of the sect, could have and make use of to teach or learn.

Ciemnosc quickly flipped through its pages, not a single bout of information escaping his eyes nor Spirit Sense as he cluelessly began to fall into a neat and comfortable reading time after so long of simply devising new things and crafting them back at the stronghold. It wasn’t until a long while that he finally ‘woke up’ from this state and looked at the time on his cell phone, which is semi-abandoned how he never uses it.

“Oh, I gotta leave in a few more minutes… Teacher?” Ciemnosc closed the book and put it on a nearby table, looking around for his teacher. He saw him with his back facing himself and about 200 meters away, almost in the dark.

“Hmm?” After 3 seconds passed from Ciemnosc’s words being spoken, elder Apegos replied at last, Ciemnosc walked over to his teacher elder Apegos to show a quick sketch he had just made for the fun of it.

As Ciemnosc walked towards his teacher, he noticed that his teacher’s back was seemingly shadowed, with darkness from the lack of lights in his immediate surroundings also covering part of his teacher’s back and shoulders, especially his white hair that seemed to have been stimulated by a lightning strike or electric shock of sorts.

“I made this just now, just to see if I could make something out of it,” Ciemnosc said before walking a few steps more towards elder Apegos and then leaning over a table with his sketch in his right hand and presenting it towards the side that elder Apegos was coming from with a neutral face and noncommittal pair of eyes.

“You made this?” Elder Apegos slightly grabbed the sketch with his right-handed index finger and thumb, moving it a bit to see the dimensions of the sketch and asked. Ciemnosc nodded almost indiscernible. He pointed at certain parts with his left index finger, elaborating, ”Here. These parts. I still don’t know what to put there because I don’t know ‘ships’ well. Teacher, could you help me in this regard?”

“... Sure, you’re going to stay for the banquet, too?” Elder Apegos let the sketch have one last glance for a second before he raised it to Ciemnosc’s face, said with a neutral tone, and asked his student with his eyes finally opening wider a little and showing curiosity.

“What banquet?” Ciemnosc asked but with a clear, curious interest in it; elder Apegos turned around as if sighing but he didn’t sigh and simply made a 5 meters distance from Ciemnosc, who was still looking at his own sketch, then said with an almost equally neutral tone as the rest.

“Okay, I can help you. Just make sure to come here whenever you’re not needed or see that girly from before fighting. She might win this year’s tournament, perhaps.” Elder Apegos’s words made Ciemnosc feel glad. He stood up straight and faced his teacher. The latter then continued, “The banquet is going to be held by all of the sect’s upper echelon and some elders too.”

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“Like in the tournament, there will be people from all the other major organizations participating as well. Though you are a unique case since those sent for the Litte Lake of all other major organizations… Because you are the only one allowed to return, even with your mission still not completed.”

“It will be 2 weeks from now, but in that one, there might be a show between all the major organizations. There, you might find some of those who you might have or not seen on the battlefield, though I doubt it has gotten to that point yet.” Elder Apegos took out a cup of something from his Covert Space bag, he gestured with his left hand for Ciemnosc to come before moving towards a different area also filled with items and materials for drawing or writing.

“These are all yours. Just take them when you have the time to do it. Maybe when you are done building the port, and proving that cultivators can finally rule the waters of the Little Lake you will be called back. To take another mission and possibly soon to be designated as a true commander or something once you have cultivated long and hard enough.”

“Ummm, thanks, teacher. Well, I have to leave now. I will come here during the nights too since Valeria will be preparing herself these days, I’ll be going then.” Ciemnosc stepped back from the items and said to his teacher. Elder Apegos looked at him noncommittally still and said bluntly with only a flick of his right hand towards Ciemnosc, “Leave then.”

Step step step…

Ciemnosc then left the basement study. Elder Apegos remained below there and mostly unmoving while Ciemnosc casually stepped out. Mosto finally went back to his side and followed him closely as well.

“...” When he arrived at the grass outside on the other side of the door, he looked up ahead to the sky unobstructed by buildings, which was a first or a rare sight. With his gaze, demeanor, and surroundings being silent, he quietly took his commanding vehicle out and drove it towards one of the many stadiums around. Though now they were packed to the brim even outside and there seemed to be new floors than before which were greater and leaving a wider space in between…When Ciemnosc passed over the Outer Sect Disciple enclave, he seemingly stopped to take a look at it. He did not come out of the car, with Mosto seated around the back of the armored car, changing seats from time to time as if analyzing every little thing.

While Ciemnosc was looking from the driver’s seat to the enclave, remembering his times there from the past, which wasn’t even that long nor active and for even less time within it, he instead received a message from his Identification Token to the utter ignorance of Mosto.

It was from none other than Taldes, which read: ‘...there have been many situations arising lately. Grand Elder can’t even move out of her post to defend the borders of our sect’s organizational territory. She can’t even go back to her room where she is staying. It’s been a couple of days like this already, and it doesn’t seem to be possible for it to ever slow down soon, let alone stop. For now, it seems like the Preferential Light Justice Sect has no qualms about their elders dying one after the other every few days, and with the cut of personnel at the northern borders, it’s becoming rather difficult for grand elder to free herself for the sake of the sect.’.

Ciemnosc remained on the spot for a bit more, before suddenly driving off as he slowly turned his head to the front. Finally moving exactly towards where Valeria would fight her first preliminary battles, Ciemnosc drove off for just a couple of minutes whereas a very large crowd became astounded and even fearful when seeing such a large behemoth of a seemingly ‘armored’ car appearing out of nowhere and towards the stadium with cannons atop its roof.

Ciemnosc got close enough, put his commanding vehicle away, and entered the stadium by just showing his Identification Token to the clerks, guards, and some security arrays all on his way to the arena where Valeria would be fighting in.

…When passing through the already cheering, loud, and somewhat unbridled crowd, Ciemnosc was already expecting such scenarios both in terms of experience and expecting such a grand event that involved the 4 major organizations’ elite cultivators to have this kind of tremendous fanbase in a way.

There were separate sections for each arena, with the arenas from the top of the newly built being the widest, they could hold even up to 8 arenas at the same time. That was how wide they fucking were.

In each arena, there was a 10-meter separation to allow 5 fights to go at it at the same time, and from which batches of people would fight their battles in accordance to the order they were assigned to. One could only fight when it was their time, and after every fight, they would have to step down the arena and wait for their next turn to fight.

It was at the top floor that Valeria was already waiting for the next turn to come as the cultivators at the arenas had just started fighting. Ciemnosc saw her but didn’t go over towards her. Instead, he moved towards a spot at the topmost and joined the rest at the bleachers.

Sitting on a spot after giving a glare towards a Phrenic realm 2nd stage cultivator, enough for the cultivator in question to become afraid and pale to fall off the spot. As someone tried to steal Ciemnosc’s seat, Ciemnosc pushed them away with a little bit of force. The incoming Phrenic realm 5-stage cultivator went flying for dozens of meters with his head hitting a nearby pole, and from which many cheers loudly clamored instead of growing terrified.

Of course, there was security and such things wouldn’t be allowed, it was just that some little fun was completely alright, and seemingly as long as it didn’t grow from one offense to various, it should be fine to be a little reckless without heavily damaging stuff. As for people, they could just take some days to rest.

“...HUOOUOOOUUUUUGGHH~~!!”

When Ciemnosc seated at last, a sudden cheer sounded out, and Ciemnosc could only slowly lift his head to see one of the arenas where blood was splashing in a half moon towards the left, a body cut in half by someone’s arrow made his left eyebrow jump and remained up there for a few seconds…as he pushed down the pair of idiots who almost stood up and obstructed his view.

While Ciemnosc was sitting and slowly moved his head to look at the arena just now, the entire stadium from this part of the floor became extremely loud and stood up, dozens of different shouts, screeches, and screams overlapping to the point that it was just unrecognizable by now.

Naturally, he had to break the shoulders of those 2 who looked back at him with furious eyes, only to be amazed like shit when seeing a 7th stage Link Consolidation realm kid making an easy paste out of their Phrenic realm 4th stage cultivation base, even more, when one of them noticed who Ciemnosc really was and went back to sit obediently with his view obstructed instead.

“Woah, that was amazing! Such a powerful arrow, our core disciples are the best. Did you see that little idiot spewing flames from its shitty nails? Haha!” - “Language.” - “You didn’t say that when my dick was down your throat.” - “Bro, we’re both male friends, chill out ok-” - “Suck it bitch!”

“...” Ciemnosc was pretty entertained by the arena’s fights already, unlike in the Phrenic realm where a cultivator could barely use skills of their own and move their Power Energy in the way that they can gain so much more than just 1,000 kg+ raw strength; Spirit Gathering realm cultivators were using tools, their weapons, and even ordinary armor to pierce, destroy their rival or resist the most sneaky and casually moving but deathly strikes of their opponent.

With just a little bit of Power Energy flowing into said wearable items, they could already make them so powerful or resistant, and seeing just that made Ciemnosc think of what the result would be if he was the one empowering his tools or gear. After all, he was someone with a flow of energy inside his body that no one nor nothing he has seen, even from that beauty before, could compare to.

“WAAAAAAHH!!...” - “YEAH, LET’S FUCKING GOOOOO!...” - “Whiiiiiistleee!! Damn her clothes were torn off, so goddamn seexy!”

The fights slowly went on and on until the last one finally finalized with a young woman showing her underboobs after almost having them cut off by a last attempt of a swords-young-man before ultimately being chopped into cubes by the young woman’s whip. Giving Ciemnosc many ideas on how he could use his own special whip ah.

But after this one woman was victorious, with blood running down her ears as she walked down from the arena and got immediate support and medical attention. The next batch of cultivators had arrived and there was a voice rumbling through the entire floor, calling for them to step on!

At once, Ciemnosc saw Valeria stand up along with Fu Lan, who was sitting right beside her to her right; Ciemnosc didn’t feel worried about her though as even when these fights are just preliminary and yet are so bloody that one can even get rid of one opponent which would end up shortening the preliminaries - Valeria’s first and only fight he saw her in was already too telling of her strength.

As for those who were around, in the same arena now, except for Fu Lan who was at the 10th stage, the other core disciples and believers were around the 9th or 8th stage. Even though Ciemnosc’s Spirit Sense could not reach that far off, his eyes could discern this kind of thing when he has already deciphered all realms of the First Step.

Summing it all up, the only ones who could battle Valeria for real weren’t even those in her same stage unless they were someone like Fu Lan, who has the experience in combat, a hard and solid cultivation base and foundations, and the Mortal graded arsenal to accompany her status as one of the 3 incredible geniuses of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect.

And even then, while being at the 9th stage, Ciemnosc…believed that Valeria could fight the current Fu Lan even when she was a stage higher than herself…

…