The tablet vibrated in the sky, and Ruri’s name was announced prominently as the victor. All eyes in the stands turned to the solitary woman in the center. Their hearts raced as they watched her movements, as if they were before a true goddess.
She slowly sheathed her katana, taking deep breaths. The elders watched her attentively, surprised; she was perfectly fine physically, and her Qi had not diminished at all. All that power seemed to come from her influence over celestial laws, as if the heavens themselves were moving to help her.
The high elders and leaders of the four sects clearly understood the meaning of all those phenomena. A celestial manifestation was the pinnacle of an Empyrean’s power; only those who went to divine sects and were very lucky managed to fully form the manifestation. In the sect’s history, there were few records of this, and even the current leaders couldn’t do it themselves.
They had heard rumors about Ruri doing this, from the youngsters who went to the city on the mortal planet, but they had completely ignored it; they thought it was impossible and believed it was just some technique. However, seeing it with their own eyes forced them to believe.
Ruri had only created a subtle solid form of her manifestation, this being the first step. But achieving such a feat on her own after living only a year in the family showed how abnormal she was.
Adding to that... at the same time, was she a candidate for a god? She created her own Dao, with the potential to rise above celestial laws. How could someone so young be so terrifying?
In the center of the arena, Ruri turned and leaped into the stands. Everyone followed her with their eyes until she entered through a window into a private area. Inside were the whale, Kaiyka, and now the unconscious Loeus.
Kaiyka hastily analyzed Ruri, but she just smiled lightly. "I’m fine, just a little tired..." She spoke, her eyes focused only on the round figure.
They were sitting and watching the fights. The whale waved, and Ruri happily approached its side and hugged its arm. She snuggled completely into them and closed her eyes; in a matter of seconds, her consciousness disappeared into a deep sleep. Kaiyka watched this, somewhat shocked; she simply slept as if she were in the safest place in the world.
On the other hand, it seemed that the entire area was witnessing that scene. The gazes fixed on the whale, and quickly a bloody intent arose in the majority.
The leader of the Moonlight family also witnessed everything, his expression turning cold. Before, Ruri was a frightening talent who showed splendid future potential; but now, she had become something thousands of times more valuable. That round figure with mediocre cultivation... was an obstacle that needed to be removed.
He took out a small violet crystal and gently pressed it. ’Prepare for the all-out battles. We have to seize this opportunity.’ His mind sent a message to a nearby location.
The elder in charge of the competition woke up and quickly prepared to proceed; but before that, he saw a dozen Yangtas leap from the stands toward where Loeus and the others were.
The whale just waited indifferently; when they appeared in front of the window, a figure spoke seriously. "He is a member of our family now; we will take him to heal."
"He is in your family because I authorized it, he is still one of mine. Your wife and children are under my guardianship; I will take care of him myself." The whale lazily responded.
A high Yangta elder narrowed his eyes. Loeus had now become an Empyrean awakened on his own, just like the founder of the Yangta family. He had become someone unique and of extreme importance; the whole family would place all their bets on him.
Soon, one of them spoke furiously: "His injuries are severe. If we don’t take him..."
He interrupted his words midway, and all the most powerful in the arena widened their eyes. The whale waved, and a celestial blue energy emerged, circulating around Loeus.
"Celestial law?"
A Yangta murmured strangely. That was the official name of the law that Alm and Bruno called the power of faith.
"Yes. If you know about it, you know that my followers can be healed completely and perfectly. Nothing in your family will be as effective; in one or two days, he will be fully healed and back to you. Now go back, I want to see the other fights." The whale said, waving as if shooing away insects.
The Yangtas snorted dryly; if they were at their home, they would take Loeus anyway. But now they didn’t have a valid reason to do so, this round human was part of the Moonlight and they were all in his house.
The names of the next fight appeared on the violet tablet; Corin against a dwarf. They moved, and the fight began... but at the same time, it ended in the blink of an eye. Corin just shot forward and punched using his physique. The dwarf didn’t have time to activate the runic seals, his armor seemed like it was made of paper, and he flew away, unconscious.
’He managed to complete the training for Strength, Flesh, Viscera, Bones, and Meridians in just a year, using the family’s resources... what a lucky bastard, we had to work miracles and put ourselves in danger to complete them.’ Alm mentally said with clear envy.
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The first five stages of physical cultivation were those trainings. Alm and Bruno had faced problems in the past simply because they didn’t have enough resources. With the cultivation knowledge given by the system, all the theoretical and lengthy parts that common cultivators would have to study were resolved. Thanks to this, all five trainings only required stacking the resources correctly and strengthening the body; Corin benefited greatly from this fact.
After these five came the Condemnation of Vitality. In this one, the amount of resources would multiply hundreds of times, and even having enough, resources alone wouldn’t suffice. Corin quickly completed the easier ones, but now he would need opportunities to break through like the whale.
’The tribulation to enter the divine realm is usually used to refine the soul... we can create a dangerous opportunity for him to improve his physical cultivation. But it will be quite a show; if we do this on an ascending planet, half of the life there will die.’
Bruno reflected quickly. The power of a divine tribulation with them amplifying it was above what life on the Pristine planet could bear. Doing this in the families’ worlds was unfeasible, as they would have to help and reveal their things to them.
The third fight started, it was between two dwarves. One of them was clearly almost out of Qi and had to fight using everything he had before, losing the rune seal for storage and sharpening. He tried to fight, but in a few minutes, he was defeated.
The fourth fight was between two dwarves again and followed the same script. In both fights, even though one of the dwarves had no chance, they still tried hard and didn’t give up until the end; it was a mentality passed down by Vuard taught by the whale to him. This left Alm and Bruno satisfied to see.
The last battle was between the female Yangta and a dwarf. That bestial woman was out of Qi and injured, Loeus was unconscious and couldn’t advise her, so all the Yangta elders advised her to give up. But she just looked at the stands and saw a silent green figure. They just exchanged glances, which made her move to the battle without questioning.
The opposing dwarf saw her approach and sighed; he didn’t want to beat up a defenseless woman like this; much less this Yangta who was an ally connected to Vuard. Soon he proposed an equal duel like Ruri and Loeus.
Both agreed and fought only using their basic techniques. The woman, not being a direct fighter, obviously didn’t train much in this area. Her lack of technique and defeat were evident; but everyone watched her exert herself with all her might, getting hurt even more, and refusing to give up.
Alm and Bruno nodded, and the green figure in the stands was also satisfied. She was weak, but had potential and determination; if trained well, she would be strong in the future. But without surprises, in the end, she lost the fight.
After all five fights, the elder in charge emerged and spoke to the audience. "The top five have been decided!"
The whole stadium applauded, he waited, and then explained. "Now let’s go to the positions of the losers; according to the rules, this is decided by their fight time. The sixth place is the one who fought the longest, Loeus Yangta. Then the second longest fight was also from the Yangta family..."
He announced from sixth to tenth place, then continued, "In all past family competitions, the finals were contested by 14 cultivators. They would then fight in an elimination until two remained, and we’d have a final. But this competition is special, and we could only present ten."
"Out of ten, five remained and in double matches, one would be left, so an extra rule was set up. With five youths, those from the same family should compete against each other. There are three dwarves from the Grimstone family; they fought among themselves until one was eliminated."
So three fights happened, and the three dwarves fought each other twice. They were hard-fought and unpredictable battles, but they didn’t last more than a few minutes. One of the dwarves lost twice, so he was eliminated, finishing in fifth place.
"The four finalists have been decided!" The elder announced quickly.
The fights were decided together for everyone to see, and to no one’s surprise in the arena, the tablet favored the dwarves again. They wouldn’t fight each other, giving a chance for the final to be between two dwarves. Unfortunately, their opponents were Ruri and Corin.
The whale gently woke up Ruri, who had been deeply asleep for two hours. She woke up completely energized and walked out of the window directly into the fight. Ruri yawned a little drowsy when the fight began, but the dwarf didn’t survive even three moves before losing.
Corin ended it in one move... he clearly won brutally and savagely just like in his previous fight. Fortunately, the dwarves weren’t injured and only passed out from a strong impact. Alm and Bruno noticed clearly, Corin was quite irritated and couldn’t hide it.
"THE FINAL HAS BEEN DECIDED!" The elder shouted excitedly, followed by the roar of anticipation from the stands.
"Ruri Moonlight against Corin Litharion!"