The participants who were mentioned rushed directly to their stage to begin the battles. Of which, Eleanor, Levi and Amber were the most eye-catching. They were surrounded by a halo of spiritual energy, radiating a boundless and suffocating pressure by just circulating their spiritual energy, a testament of their strength.

The place among the six prodigies easy to reach, so all of them naturally possessed incredible achievements for their age. They not only reached the late stage of Energy Tempering, Energy tempering the inner organs, already having tempered their skin, bones, tendons and blood, they even trained in the best techniques the Azure Dragon Kingdom had to offer.

Each of them was carefully trained only for moments like this, to shine brightly like the stars in the firmament, reigning supreme over everyone. However, in the end, only one of them could be the final winner, and only one could stand at the top of the kingdom's tournament.

In this moment, even the normally shy and all-happy Eleanor, who blushed at every small detail could not hide her pride and sharpness. It was a fundamental part of her, growing together with her. The stronger she got and the more she experienced, the more this “pride“ would be etched into her bones.

However, not only Eleanor faced this evolution, this was the natural development of a cultivators life. For some it was an easy way, barely influencing them, but one ironic joke of fate was enough to change them forever. The hands of fate were omniscient and not to trifle with.

The other prodigies naturally also went through this natural evolution, with Amber executing the most potent and steadfast aura. Part of this was surely thanks to her cultivation method. She was destined to walk down a brightly illuminated path.

Levi was without a doubt the most domineering. It was the same as looking straight into the eyes of an enormous, sleeping dragon. The dragon’s might was not be underestimated.

In contrast to this their opponents seemed unworthy, barely able to shine in their presence. They were by no means weak, having reached the middle part of Energy Tempering, which was already quite the accomplishment in “normal“ times. However, during the kingdoms tournament this was the bare minimum one had to reach in order to reach later rounds.

Senno, Sasara and Gorea faced immense pressure but were not scared. Instead they radiated a fiery intent to battle. This was naturally noticed by the Elders in the VIP lounge, gaining their approval. It would really be too boring if other than the six prodigies no one else would dare to battle.

Without speaking or gossiping, the remaining three entered the stages and waited for the signal to start the battle. In this moment, only silence remained. Under this pressuring quietness, the judge raised his clear voice, “The battles may begin now!“

Immediately various different spiritual energies erupted marking the start of the second round. On stage one, Senno circulated his pale yellow spiritual and channeled it in his arms. Without a doubt, he was skilled to fight without weapons as his spiritual energy possessed a stronger body strengthening effect then spiritual energy of other attributes.

This made him a born fist fighter. His legs left cracks on the stage as he stormed forward with the intention of eliminating Eleanor with one powerful all out attack.

He knew clearly of his weakness. He only tempered his skin and bones, while Eleanor already tempered her skin, bones, tendons, blood and inner organs! She only missed one tempering, the tempering of the heart. So he could not fight a war of attrition and not only that, he was at a technical disadvantage as Eleanor stemmed from a hidden sect. This combined made him realize that he could not fight with her on equal grounds. He needed to knock her out with one swift attack.

Eleanor‘s crystal clear eyes reflected the incoming flood of yellow spiritual energy. Before battle even started, she had already guessed what Senno was up to from watching his other battles during the first round and circulated her spiritual energy beforehand.

Seeing that her guess was correct she used one of her strongest attacks to fight force with force. Since her opponent placed all his hopes on one card, she would just use raw power to destroy this card.

She closed her eyes and focused to control her spiritual energy. When she opened her eyes, she raised her short sword in front of her face.

Eleanor then carefully caressed the blade from the handle up to the tip and murmured some unnoticeable words, while in her mind the word “Myriad Flower Sword“ echoed. Her sword moved again and again in a strange way, it looked slow and fast at the same time. This resulted in more and more flowers blooming out of thin air. Soon enough the whole stage was immersed in a beautiful storm of different colored and shaped flowers.

Seeing this, some Elders in the VIP lounge nearly stood up. Even Old Man Dairo raised his eyebrows, he then turned to Arslan and laughed happily, “So the rumors are true! The old fox of the Moon Flower Sect really accepted a personal disciple and such a talented one. She even passed her own Myriad Flower Scripture to this little girl. Congratulations!“

Hearing this Arslan merely sneered. He knew exactly why Old Man Dairo purposely spoke of the Myriad Flower Scripture. Not many knew of this powerful cultivation method which the master of the Moon Flower Sect cultivated.

Only the masters of the Moon Flower Sect were known to possess this incredible cultivation method. It was not only a simple cultivation method, no, it was a method with a special attribute and was not focused on a mono element like fire or earth, so it was naturally stronger than most others in the Azure Dragon Kingdom.

However, this naturally did not mean that mono elements were weak, as there were many powerful cultivation methods with a mono element, but special attributes were scarce and no special attribute was mediocre, so they were naturally eyed by everyone.

Arslan knew why Old Man Dairo spoke in detail about the Myriad Flower Scripture. He wanted everyone to know that this girl possessed the powerful cultivation method of the Moon Flower Sect, which was eyed by many, but could not get because the sect master was too powerful.

Now, however, they had the possibility to get this special method through Eleanor. And this was the reason why Arslan simply sneered in response, this congratulation was a pure pretense. After Old Man Dairo mentioned the Myriad Flower Scripture, Eleanor would be targeted by the others because of this cultivation method.

You just wait, if I inform the sect master about this, you all can forget to hurt the Little Miss. Arslan thought of a plan and then simply ignored the heated gazes of the old geezers that already imagined holding the Myriad Flower Scripture in their hands.

Back in the arena Senno watched the beautiful flowers emerging out of nothingness. He knew that he would rush straight into his defeat, but his momentum was already unstoppable and made it impossible for him to take back his attack.

The whole point in his attack presupposed that he struck fast enough, so that Eleanor could not react in time. Eleanor, however, was able to react, so he knew that he was completely doomed.

In the next moment he ran straight against the storm of flowers and was nearly sliced into little pieces. Every flower possessed the sharpness of a sword, baring their fangs at anyone that was foolish enough to come close to them.

Shortly after coming in contact with the flowers and petals drifting through the air, his protective spiritual energy was cut like paper. After that they vanished before they could inflict further injuries, making Senno breath a sigh of relief. Even after they faded, the fragrance flowers remained for some time until, eventually, it faded too.

In a real life and death battle, he would have died without a doubt. If Eleanor had not been merciful, Senno would have been crippled or even worse, dead. After this horrific and short encounter, he immediately collapsed on the ground and the flowers slowly drifted back into nothingness.

Standing in the participant area, Yasha watched the fight on stage one being over just after some seconds. Dumbfounded, he could not recognize the mischievous girl from the night at the bonfire. I never imagined that she could be so overbearing, completely crushing her opponent... He was genuinely surprised and happy for her.

However, what happened next left him even more stunned. He saw how Eleanor completely disregarded her opponent and waved at him, giving him an absolutely beautiful smile, which left the male crowd crying.

Feeling all sorts of murderous gazes, Yasha sneered inwards and ignored them. Hmph, if you are unsatisfied then come at me! I am not afraid of all you!

Shortly after this thought, he was shocked. It overflowed with its own unique murderousness and arrogance. Since when did I begin to think that way? That is not how I would usually react...

Even though he posed himself this question, he knew exactly what was going on. However, he did not want to accept it, so he tried to avoid it, because the thing he feared the most began to creep out of the dark.

He already experienced his loss of control more than enough, but outside of this he was still himself, the same he has always been, the introverted and shy little boy.

But now, he realized that the Asura Blood not only changed him when it was active. Now, he increasingly started to act and think according to the way of a real Asura. If this continued, it was inevitable that his personality would twist into that fitting of an Asura. That was one of the things he feared the most. However, some day he had to face this side of him...

Eleanor naturally noticed that Yasha‘s aura was already starting to get chaotic, which worried her. She never expected that her act of waving and smiling at him would force him into a difficult situation and felt bad for doing it, even though she had no idea why this was happening.

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She wanted to leave the arena instantly and ask Yasha what was going on, but she could only leave the stage once all battles were finished, so she could only wait impatiently. However, she was relieved when she saw that Yasha‘s condition was already getting better. Nevertheless, she was determined to ask Yasha about his weird problem.

On the other stages, the battles were also fought with an immense intensity, however, they were not over as fast as Eleanor‘s battle. During the time Eleanor finished her battle, Levi was already rushing to his opponent with his sword in his hands. The sword shone in a sacred azure light.

Even without activating his Azure Dragon blood, his strongest trump card, he already possessed a certain charm of a real Azure Dragon, aside the fact that he could not reveal even one tenth of his bloodline strength, because he was only at the peak of Energy Tempering. His bearing and movement showed his deep connection to the Azure Dragon bloodline and his thorough comprehension of the Azure Dragon Sect’s core techniques.

This charm was already enough to suppress a majority of his opponents. It was the innate advantage he inherited alongside his blood.

Sasara was no exception to this suppression. She found it increasingly harder to circulate her spiritual energy, as her body was impacted by this formless aura. For most spectators, it was impressive enough for her to force Levi to use a sword technique to defeat her.

Sasara was of the Heaven Charm Sect and as the name suggested, she mainly used illusion techniques to charm her enemies and then defeat them when they were defenseless.

This was effective against weak willed persons, but nearly useless against persons who honed their wills along with their cultivation. Levi was a contender for the future successor of the Azure Dragon Sect, the strongest and mightiest sect in the whole kingdom. How could he be a weak willed person?

In order to stop Levi assault, Sasara constantly backed off and cast her illusion techniques, which produced some sort of fog on the stage that smelled sweetly. Weak willed cultivators would be lulled to sleep, where they would be trapped in their most desired dreams.

Levi though stormed through the fog and directly broke through the lulling effect of the fog and broke Sasara’s illusions without a problem. After this, Levi swiftly arrived before Sasara and used the sword handle to strike her in the abdomen.

Feeling the strong force coursing through her body she spat out a mouthful of blood. The rebound force strong enough to throw her of the stage.

Levi on the other hand smoothly sheathed his elegant sword and never looked in her direction again, completely unconcerned about her well being.

Seeing his ice cold expressions, the spectating crowd felt a chill running down their spines. This was simply too coldblooded and arrogant. Levi could have defeated her in a lighter way, but chose this brutal way instead. On the other hand, they also understood that it was a battle and that he had done nothing wrong or overly excessive...

In contrast to the crowd, the Elders in the VIP lounge only praised Levi and congratulated Old Man Dairo for having such a good candidate for inheriting the legacy of the Azure Dragon Sect.

With two battles finished, only the outcome of the third battle had to be decided. This was the battle of Amber and Gorea, with Amber already having the upper-hand, as most had expected.

Right at this moment, the all deciding exchange of blows was about to happen. Looking at the matchups, it was also expected that Gorea was the one to last the longest, as he was a disciple of the Blood Gore Sect, which was infamous for their sinister battle tactics.

The Blood Gore Sect was one of the most powerful sects, aside of the normally hidden sects and already produced countless masters. Their history stretched far back and was even known to have once battled for supremacy with the Azure Dragon Sect on the Four Divine Symbol continent.

Gorea enjoyed great fame, only slightly lower than the six prodigies. Some rumors even suggested that he was too vicious which was why his title of prodigy was stripped off of him. However, it was also a fact that he was only at the third stage of Energy Tempering, while the other prodigies were at the fifth stage of Energy Tempering, a full two small stages above.

Gorea wielded an ugly saber, with the blade being stained by dried blood and being riddled with cracks, creating wretched saw teeth. This made it look more like a saw of a mad killer than the blade of a cultivator.

Many spectators wondered if such a blade could even cut a piece of paper without ripping it apart. However, the ordinary folks did not see the faint scarlet light wriggling around the blade.

The technique Gorea used was similar to one of the sword techniques in the Great Art of Flames of the Hunlua Clan, as it coated the weapon of the user with the power of raging flames.

The difference laid in the element of the cultivation method. Even though Gorea also used fire spiritual energy, his fire was a lot more sinister and impure than the purity granted by the Great Art of Flames.

Amber obviously recognized the scarlet hue around her opponents and felt disgusted by it. She instinctively circulated her spiritual energy and passed it into her spear. She, who cultivated the righteous energy of Heaven and Earth, immediately felt disgusted by the sinister energy emitted by Gorea and pointed her spear at him, “Vile spawn, seeing the blood on your blade I know that you slew countless innocent people. In the name of Heaven I will enact your judgment!“

This sounded extremely arrogant and even heretical, as not even Dantian Grade experts had the right and guts to say they would enact judgment on behalf of the heavens.

Amber obviously did not care and could not wait to throw herself into battle. Not hesitating any longer, she jumped straight into the air, while practically burning through her spiritual energy without any regards.

Waves of dense spiritual energy spread around her as she skyrocketed towards the sky, circulating her spiritual energy through her body.

Masses of silvery spiritual energy cascaded around her, basking her in a righteous and dignified light. After reaching a height of about ten meters, she dove straight down like an unstoppable comet carrying heavenly might and cried out loud, “Righteous Comet of Judgment!“

Surrounded by the blinding lights she closed the gap between Gorea and her in an instant, before Gorea could even react.

He could only watch helplessly, while he was locked down by her powerful spiritual energy and felt like a prisoner beneath her heavenly light, unable to move one centimeter.

Feeling like he awaited his judgment from the heavenly court, he lost complete control over his spiritual energy, once he was locked onto by Amber and could only wait to be struck down by her.

In the next moment, Gorea looked down and saw a silver spear pierced straight through his upper body. After that he only saw darkness.

Even as he fell unconscious he did not understand how he lost, how he could only watch like a lamb to be slaughtered. Just what techniques could render all his techniques and spiritual energy useless?

He was not the only one who could not understand a thing. Contrary to the situation before with Levi and Sasara, the crowd did not criticize Amber for being too heavy handed and seemed delighted about the misfortune of Gorea instead. Someone in the crowd took the lead and laughed, “I thought Gorea was famous for being a mad man! Haha, who could have expected he would end up like this.“

Another man frowned and looked at the man who spoke, “I would be careful of what you say about Gorea. If someone from the Blood Gore Sect heard of what you just said, not only you would die, but even your entire family would be doomed because of you.“

Hearing this, the previously laughing man nearly choked. He missed an important point. The Blood Gore Sect would not hesitate to exterminate his entire clan once angered. That had already happened once or twice in the past to other people because of trivial matters. He gulped and prayed that no one from the Blood Gore Sect heard what he said...

Amber panted heavily as she also nearly lost consciousness. This strike consumed her complete spiritual energy. She gazed at Gorea who was still pierced through by her spear and forcefully pulled.

Blood spattered like a fountain once her spear left Gorea‘s body. Immediately after losing the spear's support, Gorea plummeted to the ground, staining the stage with even more blood.

Amber paid no further attention to him and bowed to the judge, “My apologies for inflicting these heavy wounds. I just happened to try out a new technique and could not control it properly. However, I purposely missed his vital spots, so he should be fine.“

The crowd gasped after these words. Arrogance, pure arrogance! Even though she acted humble, her words and intentions were the complete opposite. She clearly did not put anyone here in her eyes, even the judge was no exception. But it had to be said that she possessed the right to be arrogant.

The judge was completely stunned by her actions, as she nearly killed her opponent. She did it in a clean and fast way, leaving him no opening to intervene in the battle.

He wanted to step in at the last moment and was clearly dissatisfied that she struck him down so viciously. He then recalled her last strike and wondered how she could even do it in a way which left no opening for him, someone in the Energy Overflow stage.

No technique should possess such might at only the Energy Tempering stage. Unless she used a martial intent... He shuddered at this possibility and then he laughed. Haha, how could it be possible? It is difficult even for Dantian Grade experts to comprehend a martial intent. Never in his entire life would he have believed that his guess was entirely correct.

Compared to him, the Elders in the VIP lounge were all Dantian Grade experts and were much more experienced than him. However, even then, what they just witnessed exceeded their expectations. Never in their wildest dreams would they have believed that the kingdom's tournament this year would reach this stage. The only one not surprised right now was Lord Hyan, an important figure of the Ascending Heaven School, who naturally knew of Amber‘s accomplishments.

Old Man Dairo sighed, “It's true. The young will really exceed the old. Too formidable. This lass has already come into contact with a martial intent. And even the Righteous Martial Intent. This time I must really congratulate you Lord Hyan for producing such a prodigy. She seems to be born with the righteous energy of Heaven and Earth, making her the perfect candidate to train the techniques of your Ascending Heaven School!“

Lord Hyan happily laughed in response, shaking the room with only his voice. He was a burly man with a ramrod straight back, seemingly capable of holding mountains without bending. His dark blue eyes glowed with an intelligent light and he possessed the same righteous air around him as Amber, with the only difference being the intensity it.

“You overly praise Amber. Compared to Levi of your Azure Dragon Sect she can only be called mediocre“, responded Lord Hyan humbly.

“You sure know how to joke around, Lord Hyan. Being able to touch an intent at only the Energy Tempering stage is simply marvelous. And we still haven‘t seen all the prodigies yet. The tournament has only started. Let’s see what more surprises are in store for us“. Old Man Dairo spoke very humbly and even mentioned every major power in the lounge, giving great respect to everyone.

This naturally pleased all the Elders. The only exception was the Elder sent by the Blood Gore Sect. Even though he said nothing the whole time, he executed an extremely strong killing intent. This was no surprise, as his disciple had been crippled for a few months at least. He felt like exploding, but could only swallow his resentment bitterly for now.

Compared to the others present, he belonged to the weaker factions and could not afford to offend anyone here. So, he vanished without causing a ruckus..

Once Gorea woke up and was ready to travel, they would return to their sect and think of a plan to take revenge. The Blood Gore Sect would not let this matter rest until the Ascending Heaven School paid a certain price. His departure was barely noticed and so peace quickly returned.

However, regarding the Righteous Martial Intent, the experts were still completely flabbergasted. A martial intent! This was another magical and mysterious realm of cultivation.

Reaching the realm of an intent required insane comprehension and could not be searched after willingly. You needed a lucky encounter to enter the realm of an intent. However, once reached, the cultivator could use it to either suppress enemies or increase the force of his techniques, depending on what kind of intent you comprehended. The sword intent used by Aurelia also belonged into the same category.

After checking the injuries on Gorea and seeing that he was would be fine after resting for a few months, he called a healer and announced the results of the first round and the next battles, “Eleanor, Levi and Amber have won their first battle and now lead their respective groups. In the next battles, on stage one, Lentz of the Hunlua Clan will fight against Nilan a wandering swordsman! On stage two, Areth of the Nameless Sect will fight against Egil from the Northern Swamp! And lastly, on stage three, Yasha of the Hunlua Clan will fight against Akura of the Titan Clan!“