The announcement came in the middle of the next day. Rieren was sitting cross-legged in her glen, trying to get a feel for the Essence within her new elixir field. It was still just as the manual had said. Frozen. She knew it was there, she just couldn’t actively cycle with it. Couldn’t channel it through her meridians, couldn’t even make it move a hairsbreadth.

She probably would have been frustrated by that in the past, but she couldn’t summon anything close to that kind of annoyance now. Eventually, her futile attempts were interrupted by the announcement.

One of those glowing orbs Rieren had seen during the first round had arrived at her glen. Perhaps she should have been concerned that it had unerringly found her at a location she had never disclosed to anyone specifically.

Then again, the monsters had found her, hadn’t they? Besides, Rieren had never found out how exactly the orbs worked. Probably the product of some advanced runic formation.

“The time has come to announce the matchups of the second round of the Trials of Ascendance,” the voice from within the shining orb said. Rieren narrowed her eyes. That sounded suspiciously like the man who had given all the competitors their instructions on the first day. “Gather around, surviving competitors. It is time you learned who your opponent will be.”

Rieren listened intently. It appeared they were going to broadcast all matchups to everyone in attendance. No secrets about who would be fighting who. Interesting.

“For our first match,” the announcer said. “We have Kalvia Zhouven, the self-proclaimed Empress of the Elderlands, facing off against Ledorne Marcial, the second-ranking disciple of the Auburn Mist Sect.”

Rieren blinked. So much information packed into one statement.

Kalvia was going first, before anyone else in the tournament. Rieren couldn’t recall if she had ever heard Kalvia’s full name, but clearly, she had changed it. Zhouven was the epithet of the imperial clan. Likely something she had done to increase the legitimacy of the claim to the throne. They wouldn’t have announced her with that name if it had been fake.

When had she adopted it, though? Rieren racked her mind but couldn’t come up with any memories that shed any light on the matter. It had to have been recent.

And then there was Ledorne. Rieren wasn’t as interested in Kalvia’s opponent, but it made sense Ledorne was such a powerful disciple in her Sect. Rieren’s fight with the woman had showed just how strong she was.

Interesting that the Auburn Mist Sect kept a ranking system for all its disciples. Many Sects, including Lionshard, had never adopted intra-Sect ranks. It fostered competition, but it also led to divides within the Sect, and many had chosen to eschew the more archaic ranks with a “modern” system of solidarity.

“Amalyse Arraihos, sole scion of the ancient Arraihos clan, will be facing Octalis Orn,” the announcer said. “The famed Eagle of the East.”

Rieren had no idea who Octalis was, not even from her previous life. Perhaps someone who had risen in the current timeline, but had fallen early in the past.

More importantly, it was a strange coincidence that Amalyse had come second, right after Kalvia.

She was almost expecting own name to come next, but she was proven wrong. What followed were the names of several other competitors who she didn’t recognize, apart from one or two from her previous life. But the curious thing was the inclusion of monsters. The Abyssals, Aetherians, and Arisen were finally being seeded against their opponents.

Human opponents.

The pairings were interesting too. Olis and Morel would both be fighting against Arisen.

Just as she had thought. The tournament organizers were hoping that the human competitors could cull the monsters’ participation in one fell swoop.

“Rieren Vallorne,” the announcer said. If Rieren’s heart could still beat, it probably would have started pounding hard. “The monstrous convert, will take a stand against the up-and-coming imperial scion, the Avatar-in-training, Zhalen!”

Ah. Zhalen. She would have taken a second to recall where exactly she had heard that name before, but all those little facts about him had already brought up the recollection. Rieren had heard him talking with Kalvia through Batcat’s memory.

It appeared he was a brat from the imperial clan. No wonder he had called Kalvia a cousin.

As the list had to be drawing closer to its end, the announcer went on with the names in quick succession.

“Serace Alder, Anachron-eater, will be facing off against Ceraline Selvier,” the announcer said, making Rieren’s ears perk up.

Serace was fighting her. The paper-user. The girl who hadn’t been given a single epithet, despite nearly everyone else getting some sort of descriptor.

Rieren tutted. Poor Serace. There was no way he was surviving his match against Ceraline.

“Essalina Arteroth, scion of the Archnoble Arteroth clan and the First Fury of the North, will take on the great and vaunted Darkstalker.”

“Cerill Astor, second scion of the ancient Astor clan, will be facing Delvian, the first-ranked disciple of the Crimson Leaf Sect.”

“Rollo Karlosyne, the second scion of the Archnoble Karlosyne clan, will fight against Silvas Frale, the Sword Saint of the East.”

“And finally, our greatest battle—Rykion Karlosyne, the Karlosyne clan’s first scion and the vaunted Light Bearer, will be facing Oromin Tarciel, the scion of the great Tarciel clan and the Mirrorer of the Shatterlands!”

With the matchups announced, the organizer went on to quickly state when exactly the bouts would occur. There were far too many for Rieren to note them all, but she paid attention until hers was called. Ten days. Her fight was in ten days. Plenty of time to prepare.

It was good that the announcer would be calling upon the competitors when their time came. A small blessing. Rieren’s memory had never failed her, but she wasn’t certain if turning into an Arisen had made her more forgetful. Best not to take any chances.

The little orb blinked, signalling the end of the announcement. Then it floated away as suddenly as it had come.

Rieren sat in place for a while. Those last matchups were interesting in their own right. Cerill’s fight against the top disciple of the Crimson Leaf would be intriguing, considering his history as one of the more high-achieving disciples of Lionshard Sect.

Then there was Rollo. His fate was the same as that of Serace. No way was he surviving against Silvas. Another cultivator Rieren knew of from the previous timeline, someone as powerful as Ceraline. Rollo might have the might of his Archnoble clan behind him, but barring a miracle, that wasn’t going to be enough.

It was rather interesting that the announcer had specified the final fight, that of Rykion Karlosyne and Oromin Tarciel, was going to be the main attraction of the first round. Maybe the organizers had something special planned for it.

Batcat meowed softly, nudging itself against her leg.

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She reached down and scratched its fluffy head. “Yes, kitten. I will need to consider how best I ought to prepare.”

The idea on how best to get ready for her bout didn’t come to her all day. That was fine. Rieren had ten days before she had to fight Zhalen. There was time for her to figure things out. Besides, she could always rely on Batcat to carry out some discreet spying.

More importantly, she had other matches to attend. Kalvia was taking on her opponent on the first day. Rieren had to be present.

The tournament area had been prepared well beforehand for the occasion. That they had repurposed a small town in the middle of a marsh for a competition that had all the greatest cultivators of the Elderlands present in one form or another said a great deal about the sheer effort the organizers had gone to.

One would never think the little settlement of Cardazon had had been a backwater town in a swamp.

Of course, no one had uprooted the entire town to replace it with the tournament grounds. No, the organizers had simply flattened a great deal of land next to Cardazon. Stands had been erected to hold the audience, bounding a wide arena where the competitors would be proving their mettle.

One of the stands had been specially set aside for the non-humans. Rieren and the rest of the participating monsters were all herded to a short, compact stand, kept well away from the other normal attendees.

The sounds of fanfare and the murmur of the crowd greeted Rieren as she took her place with the other monsters. Drummers, trumpeters, and whatnot. Excitement blazed in the air.

Despite all of them being stuffed into one small section of the stands, Rieren didn’t have to squeeze in. The monsters still respected her enough to make space for her. Rieren was able to squeeze between them without difficulty until she was standing at the front with an unobstructed view of the entire arena of packed dirt.

“Today, we have all gathered for the inaugural bout of the Trials of Ascendance,” the announcer said with a booming voice. His words signalled the fanfare to die down, and the noise faded so he could be heard better across the arena. “The day you’ve all been waiting for. The moment where we finally get the true Trials underway.”

Rieren looked around. The source of the commentary wasn’t hard to find. At the exact opposite end of the arena, a richer-looking stand held all the important dignitaries in the tournament.

The Clanmasters and Clanmistresses of the different attending clans, some of the Sect Leaders and powerful Elders who had chosen to journey over, and the gauzy members of the imperial court were all arrayed on plush seats with servants and attendants swerving between them to see to their needs.

Chief of them all was the Forborne Emperor, of course. Astern’s face was hidden behind the imperial veil. Wouldn’t do to show the vaunted face of the most powerful cultivator in the Elderlands to lowly mortals.

Rieren wondered how many of them knew the Emperor had changed.

The nearby stands were filled with affiliated members of said dignitaries. Cultivators who had accompanied the leaders of their clans, Sect disciples corralled by their chaperoning Elders, and some high-ranking or noble mortal here and there. They also held the other competitors, here to watch the fight and scout out a potential opponent for the next rounds.

Farther back, at the very top of the stands, a gaggle of Masked Avatars were keeping watch over the entire arena and its audience.

The rest of the stands, which consisted of the vast majority of the audience, were filled with all the mortals who had come to attend. This little town was certainly fit to burst with how many people had arrived to spectate this historic event. That was one little advantage of being a monster—Rieren could enjoy some privacy away from the hubbub of all the regular people.

Rieren stared at them all. She was too far away to make out the face of any single person—which was pointless in the case of the Avatars since they were masked anyway—but some bits and pieces were familiar enough even at this distance.

The shimmering scales of Clanmistress Avathene’s robes drew in a lot of eyes, not just Rieren’s. Then there was the massive Aryoventos Clanmaster, dressed in the furred robes of the famed Thousand-horned Bull. A dozen lanterns floated on their own around the Karlosyne Clanmaster’s seat, while the Emperor himself reclined on a throne grown out of a tree.

Show-offs.

“Please welcome our competitors for the day,” the announcer said to a growing rumble from the gathered crowd. “Kalvia Zhouven, the self-declared Empress of the Elderlands, and Ledorne Marcial, the second-ranking disciple of the Auburn Mist Sect!”

The crowd cheered as the competitors took the field. Despite herself, Rieren leaned forward over the railing to get a better look.

Neither of the cultivators approaching from opposite ends of the arena had dressed any differently from the first round. Kalvia had a new set of rich robes, white trimmed with golden leaves and black branches. Besides those, all she had was her knife with the strange, curved blade.

Similarly. Ledorne had donned no armour nor brought any new weapons. She was still wearing the robes of her Sect, a silken one the colour of burnished copper and adorned with silver clouds. The sword Rieren spotted was the same Ledorne had used in the first round to bash Rieren around when they had fought.

A cultivator dressed in bright red robes had appeared in the centre of the field. The match official. Someone to make sure the two women didn’t end up killing each other.

Well, not too quickly, at least. They were here to serve up some entertainment, after all.

There was something familiar about the man, but Rieren couldn’t place what it was. He said some quick words to both competitors. Rieren momentarily wished they could have heard what exactly Kalvia and Ledorne said to each other as they prepared to begin.

The red-robed match official took several steps back. He raised his hand as he retreated.

“Who do you think will win, Destroyer?”

Rieren turned briefly to find the Darkstalker had come to the front of the gathering. She turned back to the fight. “I would put my money on Kalvia.”

“Do you have this thing called money?”

She considered for a heartbeat. “I have system Credits?”

The Darkstalker made a disgusted face. “System Credits.”

It was surprisingly expressive. A noise from the battlefield pulled Rieren’s attention back to the main attraction. The match official had dropped his hand. His “Begin!” rolled out over the entire arena with surprising volume.

With a roar from the crowd, the first fight of the Trials of Ascendance was underway.

It went much as Rieren had foreseen it would. Ledorne used the same tricks she had displayed in the first round. The same swordplay with her blade sheathed in rocks. The same aggressive, no-nonsense fighting style, that gave no space or time for her opponent to counter. The same manic look and posture as though the fight was making her go insane.

For her part, Kalvia did surprisingly well to not let Ledorne corner her. It seemed she had done her homework. She did her best to keep moving, to keep just enough distance that Ledorne’s big, heavy sword couldn’t crush her.

At the same time, her Domain was coming into play. Grass had sprouted wherever she had stepped. Some of the blades grew into larger plants, all of which attempted to impede Ledorne’s movement.

The Auburn Mist disciple wasn’t slowed down much. Her power made Kalvia’s attempts to slow her pointless. She tore away from the plants with ease.

At times, she even got close enough to land a vicious blow on Kalvia. Thankfully, quick deflects with the strange knife allowed Kalvia to survive the moments the competitors met head-to-head. Rieren leaned forward some more. In fact, by the way those momentary clashes went, she was starting to suspect that Kalvia had a deflecting skill similar to Earthfall Blade.

Or, it was some power of her knife that she knew how to use well. Either way, even when Ledorne did catch her, she never managed to land a significant blow.

Except for when Kalvia faltered.

It turned out Kalvia had never been intending to use the plants as a way of slowing down her opponent. Not really. That had just been a byproduct of her true intention—calling out her Domain summon.

The gigantic tree materialized in a matter of heartbeats. Kalvia had already performed most of the legwork to bring up the tree quickly. Much of her Domain had already been brought forward. As such, her summoned tree had all the nutrients and power it needed to grow tall and mighty in barely a breath or two, taking Kalvia along with it.

But Ledorne wasn’t going to be daunted by a simple plant, no matter how big it grew. She had powerful skills to rely on, after all.

Rieren’s eyes widened as Ledorne raised her sword high. Essence gathered around the blade with such a concentration that she could see it glow a burning auburn even from this distance.

Then Ledorne slammed her sword down.

A rippling, vertical arc of energy shot out with the force and fury of a cannon blast. If Kalvia had any defence against it, she never got the chance to summon it.

The arc shattered the tree in one blow. So much power. If Rieren had been capable of feeling surprise, she certainly would have. Even now, she couldn’t help but gawk a little. Ledorne had been holding back. Back in their first-round fight, the Auburn Mist disciple hadn’t used her full power.

A skill. Something told Rieren that it was a skill that Ledorne had upgraded to something like A- or S-Grade. Rieren had already deduced that Ledorne must have raised her stats to a very high level. It would make sense that she’d have powerful skills to unleash when needed.

Kalvia had leaped off her tree before the rippling arc had destroyed the whole thing. The only problem was that Ledorne had tracked her movement, fast though it had been.

Which meant that just as Kalvia landed, Ledorne arrived to take advantage of her lack of aerial mobility.

The curved knife swung around to block the hammering blow from Ledorne, but it didn’t work. Kalvia was slammed hard, sent flying so fast that when she struck the ground about a hundred paces away, a great gout of dirt and dust went flying everywhere.

The ferocious grin on Ledorne’s face, visible even from where Rieren stood in the stands only confirmed one thing. Kalvia was not getting out unscathed from that.

If she was even getting out in the first place.