Senior disciple Atlas? Isn’t that the one who tagged along with Elena?
Spencer hurriedly ran along with the students, tagging behind the female outer disciple who had bumped into him. The person didn’t pay any attention to him but was focused on simply heading to the location.
Probably because he hadn’t yet embarked upon the path of cultivation, he was finding it difficult to keep up with their speed. It didn’t help that he wasn’t inherently athletic either.
Spencer had a slender build, moderately tall at around 6’1, a handsome face and short hair which were black like his eyes. He didn’t have any feature that particularly stood out, except for maybe his perseverance was better than average. If an orphan had to carve out a place for themselves on Earth, it was obvious they would have to try much harder. Giving up wasn’t an option if one wanted to live, so persevere they did.
He struggled and pushed himself to increase his speed so as to catch up to the female outer disciple.
Was senior brother Atlas an inner disciple? Else why would she call him senior brother? Or was his seniority among outer sect disciples very high?
Spencer asked the female disciple while panting like a dog himself. He wanted to see what the fights in the cultivation world were like with his own eyes.
“Is this senior brother Atlas you spoke of very powerful?”
The female disciple clearly showed consideration once she saw his state by slowing down. From Spencer’s question she already knew that he was a newbie who had just joined. No one wouldn't not know of the most famous outer disciple Atlas unless they were living under a rock. Well, they all were technically living under a mountain of rocks but this wasn’t the time to go into details. She had a proud expression on her face as she explained.
“Senior brother Atlas is an outer disciple but he is extremely famous and also powerful, so we all call him senior brother or senior disciple instead of fellow brother or fellow disciple. He has been an outer disciple ever since I’ve joined the sect. Although he long since had the prowess to be promoted to inner disciple he has refused to do so. He has deliberately stayed behind as the outer sect disciple for some reason.
“There were even Elders who had asked him to be their personal disciple, this one time even Grand Elder Morris asked him if he wanted to be his personal disciple. Guess what? He rejected all of them. Senior brother Atlas is most fond of stirring up trouble, but he also has the strength to back it up. He keeps fighting inner disciples and even provokes personal disciples. It's beneficial for us since he always insists on fighting in the public battle ring. C’mon we don’t want to be late.”
The day was setting in as surroundings began growing dimmer. His stomach protested once again, rumbling loudly. The female disciple who was running beside smiled at him and handed a pill.
“It’s compressed food, gives all the necessary nutrients to the body and fills the stomach. There is no restaurant near the battle ring, I don’t want a newbie to fall unconscious somewhere due to not eating food in time.”
Spencer stared at the pill with a cautious expression and looked back at her face, not taking the pill.
The female disciple still had a smile on her face, “Do you think I’ll need to resort to poison to deal with you? And even if I did use poison it wouldn’t be so blatant c’mon. How about paying me 1 spirit stone if you don’t want free things? You get two of these things in 1 spirit stone, I’ll add one more.”
Spencer considered for a minute and nodded. He quickly took one and popped it in his mouth. The pill dissolved as soon as it came in contact with his tongue, already working to erase the hunger. In under five seconds, he no longer felt hungry.
Now that he had a better look at the female disciple after running by her side, she had a rather pleasing look. With long black hair tied together by a hair band, it flowed gracefully down the back of her white robe.
She was somehow faster than him even though she was in a robe. Spencer resolved to speed up his progress in cultivation?
2 pills for a spirit stone was it? Time to buy those in bulk and lock myself in, After all I need to have some strength before I start taking missions.
The two of them soon reached the place where senior disciple Atlas was about to fight. Spencer’s mouth gaped open as he witnessed the massive colosseum. Large screens situated all across the outside walls were displaying the inside of the colosseum, with people flowing in at all the times. When he looked back, a large number of people were gathering from all sides.
“C’mon, run, we are early, but we won’t get a seat in the colosseum if you keep dawdling. Screen won’t be able to replicate the feeling of watching the real thing. By the way, my name is Clara. Don’t hey me when I leave you behind.”
Just as she said that, Clara indeed sped up. Spencer grit his teeth and followed after her even though his legs were aching. There were no guards or any kind of management during the entrance to the colosseum. Everyone pushed each other, thankful no one used excess force.
It might be a rule of this place. If they used their full power I would’ve been a paste by now.
Spencer sat himself in the colosseum in one of the seats in the front rows beside Clara and looked at the main stage. It seemed they were indeed the early batch to enter.
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There, the man he met on Earth stood, with no change in his clothes whatsoever. He held a sword in his hand, swinging it around in the air without a hint of seriousness. But his eyes were closed, Spencer had no idea what Atla— senior brother Atlas was up to.
There wasn’t anyone else on the stage.
“Where is the inner sect disciple he challenged?”
He asked Clara. He wasn’t familiar with the sect rules, so his only choice was asking someone who was. The lady had taken out her phone, texting her friends and notifying them about the battle. Spencer noticed how her phone was so different from the one people on Earth and him used. It was small, and almost looked like a brick.
Specialized for cultivation? There might not be any distraction in that phone, used only for communication and other important things. But would that not be possible on the normal phone? Just delete all the useless apps.
Although he thought that, Spencer knew things weren’t so simple. There were some apps which were inbuilt in the phone, the inbuilt distractions. You couldn’t delete those even if you wanted to.
The lady looked at him after hearing her question.
“Senior brother Atlas has only issued a challenge. It’s up to that inner sect disciple if he wants to accept it or not. But in publicly issued challenges like this, it’s almost a given that the one who got issued a challenge has to accept or else they’ll lose a lot of reputation. I mean, it isn’t a compulsion, you just need to think upon it yourself how much you care about reputation.
“Of course, it’s only because it is senior brother Atlas that such a large crowd has gathered. For normal battles, there are multiple other small battle rings the committee will assign you where you can battle with much less audience. They calculate how many people are likely to come to spectate your battle and assign battle rings accordingly.”
Spencer nodded and asked. “Is it not sure when he’ll arrive?”
Clara chuckled. “You need to be patient, you know. You can always do some cultivation but chances to witness such battles are rare, you can learn a lot from them.”
“Heyyy. Glad I made it in time.”
Before Spencer could reply, a beautiful young lady spoke excitedly after taking a seat beside Clara. If Alice could be considered on the cute side of beautiful faces, the new arrival was clearly on the hot side of it. She obviously didn’t invoke any feelings in Spencer but he knew to give credit where due.
Similar to senior brother Atlas’ outfit, she was in tracksuits, with her long white hair flowing freely behind her back, unlike Clara who had tied it together. Her straight nose, high cheekbones and blemish-free face only added to her charm and intimidation factor as she spoke.
My girlfriend definitely looks better.
Spencer thought, and began listening in as the new arrival began talking.
“I was sleeping when Atlas texted me to come watch his battle. He was excited when he was explaining to me his new cultivation art a few days ago, so I thought it would take him some more time to properly develop it but lo and behold, just as I was taking my beauty sleep today, his text woke me up.”
The new lady puffed up her cheeks but the pride in her tone couldn’t be concealed. Clara smiled and replied. “Isn’t that exactly what he is like? No one can beat him when it comes to making new cultivation arts.”
Probably because Spencer was listening to their conversation or the lady had seen him talking to Clara, she teased her. “Who is this by the way? You got a boyfriend too now huh?”
Clara was quick to admonish her and explained how she and Spencer met. Grabbing the chance, Spencer quickly introduced himself.
“I am indeed new here, my name is Spencer. Senior sister Elena picked me up today from Earth, and senior brother Atlas happened to be tagging along. We exchanged a few words, and he was immensely helpful to me when I was uh… not feeling well.”
Clara raised her eyebrows. “You didn’t tell any of this to me. Is it because Sofia is here? I am telling you, don’t have any thoughts about her. She is senior brother Atlas’ girlfriend. He’ll beat you to a pulp even if you had a talk with him.”
Spencer chuckled bitterly. “Why would you think of that? I simply didn’t have the chance to introduce myself.”
The beautiful girl, Sophia, didn’t mind any of it. Instead, she focused on what Clara overlooked. “You said you were picked up from Earth. Does that mean you have talent? You were scouted by one of our elders? What talent do you have?”
Clara’s eyes widened as she heard Sophia. Indeed, she completely missed that. Spencer confirmed her questions but spread his hands for the last one. “I don’t know what my talent is either. Lord Lysander scouted me, and he didn’t know either.”
Sophia nodded thoughtfully. “Lord Lysander was in the sect? I didn’t even know, I guess that’s to be expected. He has been quiet ever since the demon world opened up a portal here. Also, maybe you’ll know of your talent once you take the first step to cultivation. It might take some time, you only just arrived today after all. Most of the people who come from Earth have difficulty adapting to focusing everything on one thing with no distraction. You’ll get used to it over time.”
Spencer only politely indeed, not wanting to expose himself just yet. The colosseum had long since been filled to the brim with noise of conversation all around.
Suddenly, a wave of cheer erupted from one side of the colosseum as a man with curly hair walked up to the stage. He carried with him a greatsword as he slowly dragged it behind him. His tall and ball stature was a sharp contrast to Atlas’ physique, who looked tiny in comparison, but no one would underestimate him either.
Clara spoke from beside him. “That’s inner disciple Gonath from 3rd peak. He is famous for his extraordinary techniques and his talent. His talent might be ordinary but he has made full use of it by learning techniques to complement it. Both senior brother Atlas and inner disciple Gonath are at Golden core sixth stage, it will be extremely beneficial for us, especially you.”
When Atlas opened his eyes, a round of cheer erupted from the stands of the colosseum, one far louder than the previous one. The thunderous voices felt it would burst his ears apart any time now, it made his heart beat faster.
Gradually though, he felt a warm current around his body as the sound died down considerably.
“You’ll seriously die if you were exposed to the sounds any longer. Your body hasn’t yet entered the path of cultivation, it can’t handle such stuff. Especially when some daring disciples go ahead and use qi to amplify their voice even when it is banned in here.”
Spencer thanked her, extremely grateful for her help or he would’ve died an extremely embarrassing death here. Drown to death not by spit but simply by sound. How embarrassing was that?
When a referee entered the battle stage, Clara turned to Sophia and asked. “By the way, what did senior brother Atlas talk to you about? What is his new cultivation art based on?”
Sophia tilted her head to the side and answered.
“Location superposition.”