After several rounds, the first phase of the competition came to an end. From the Djinn continent, all 50 of their Sky Will level youths advanced. Surprisingly, out of the ten at the Sacred Will level, two were actually defeated and didn’t make it through. The culprits behind this upset were none other than those two completely abnormal golems.
The five seemingly mediocre contestants from the Tarrasque continent turned out to display an incredibly unconventional level of power. Everyone who had mocked them before now felt their faces burn in embarrassment—they had judged those youths through their narrow worldviews. However, since everyone had thought the same, the sting of their embarrassment wasn’t as sharp.
Apart from these surprises, the Caipora continent also stood out. Out of their 11 Sky Will level participants, nine advanced to the second phase. From the Thunderbird continent, only one youth moved forward, three from the Fenrir continent, and 24 from the Qilin continent. Altogether, this made up the top 100.
These 100 contenders were given three hours to rest. Meanwhile, those who didn’t secure top spots in their groups had to engage in brutal battles to determine who could remain on the continent.
The Tarrasque sat deep in thought while watching these matches. He had initially just hoped his youths would make it this far, but now he found all of them in the second phase. Caipora approached him with a teasing remark, but he replied sharply, prompting a burst of laughter from her.
The relationship between the two was close, but Alm and Bruno sensed something off about it. Only someone with a celestial soul could perceive such a subtle fluctuation; not even Tarrasque himself, despite knowing her well, noticed it. It was clear that Caipora was acting this way to keep her mind clear, as if something significant and difficult was about to happen.
Finally, the time came for the sacred tournament to continue. All participants would fight twice, with a single loss resulting in elimination. The first match of the second phase was announced to the audience.
Carod was set to face a woman from the Thunderbird continent, the sole participant from her region to make it to the second phase.
By now, no one dared underestimate any of the five from the Tarrasque continent. As soon as the duel began, the woman activated her cloak, which carried the Thunderbird bloodline and primordial runes.
As the name suggests, this primordial beast controls terrifying lightning laws. These were Yin lightning, the opposite of the Yang those laws were naturally supposed to represent.
Being a woman, the cultivator was far more skilled at controlling these lightning laws. Her destructive power was immense, but when Carod activated his primordial runes, everyone swallowed hard.
The earth laws, aligned more with the Yin aspect of Tarrasque, formed the ultimate defense against such lightning. Even the balanced earth laws of Behemoth might not have been as effective. The lightning’s power was completely nullified.
However, the key factor was Carod’s terrifying control over these laws. All the spectators were stunned, though no one noticed that much of it was due to the high-grade, modified cloak he wore.
With the opponent’s power neutralized, the fight turned into a direct combat skills showdown. And in this, Carod was clearly superior, having spent much time fighting near death and undergoing training from Ruri.
The woman still had the power of her eyes and used it. Alm and Bruno analyzed her use of it, but not everyone was creative or talented in manipulating such a gift. Hers was simple, designed to distort space and give her more offensive power and mobility.
Combined with Yin lightning, it was a decent setup. But on its own, it was too straightforward, and Carod simply forced her to fight until she burned through all her Qi.
"I... I won..." Carod muttered in disbelief after the judge declared his victory. When the battle began, his mind had completely focused on the fight, entering a flow state developed from countless battles. Only after winning did he realize what had happened.
He returned to his group, still in disbelief, looking at that couple with trembling eyes while clenching his fists. What kind of terrifying magic had they done? He should have died pathetically in that forest, and no one would have ever known what happened to him. Yet he had been saved by the two of them, and in just a few months, he had achieved this. Was this divine intervention?
As he thought about it, Ruri seemed to read his mind and smiled in satisfaction. The conversion of new believers was always in progress, and it was going smoothly.
Florien was up next; her opponent was a man from the Caipora continent. Everyone already knew her chances of advancing were slim, but she wouldn’t lose without giving it her all.
When the match started, Florien proved to be as tough as ever. She wasn’t exceptionally agile, offensively powerful, or defensively sturdy. She simply had an instinct and talent for straightforward combat and avoided fatal mistakes. Her opponent, knowing she lacked sufficient strength, didn’t use his primordial runes.
In the end, after a long battle, Florien lost. But everyone who watched the duel took a deep breath, impressed by the techniques of this young woman.
After nine other uneventful fights, it was Ruri’s turn. Her opponent was another woman from the Caipora continent.
’Push her to the limit and don’t win quickly. Make it seem like you’re weaker than before, and that your crushing victory came at a high cost,’ Alm instructed Ruri through the array, and she nodded.
After her victory against the Sacred Will level opponent, everyone assumed only another Sacred Will could match her. But Ruri struck first with her sword as soon as the match began. She didn’t do anything flashy, which made everyone feel something was off.
In just a few minutes, her opponent started to believe she could win. The woman attacked ferociously, putting everything she had into it. Defeating Ruri would be such an absurd achievement that she could brag about it for the rest of her life. After all, this young woman had defeated a Sacred Will.
Alm, Bruno, and Ruri skillfully manipulated her ego, making it seem effortless. Meanwhile, they focused covertly on Caipora, who was watching the fight.
As Ruri was being "pressured" but not defeated, her opponent kept intensifying her attacks. At some point, though, it became clear that this alone wouldn’t be enough to secure a win. Then...
Alm and Bruno noticed something with their Celestial Souls. It was a fluctuation in the Heavenly Laws, something impossible for others to detect. It came from the fighter, but Caipora had activated some kind of divine Dao, causing a shift in the cultivator mid-battle.
After that, the opponent could no longer apply the same level of pressure, as if something was preventing her from fighting at full strength. Ruri dragged the fight out for a while longer, but seeing nothing else would come of it, she ended the match.
Meanwhile, having picked up on the fluctuations of that divine Dao, Alm and Bruno began paying close attention to the fights of the youth from Caipora’s continent. Now that they had detected it once, they could notice similar phenomena connecting all of them. Clearly, this was a secret Caipora wasn’t allowing her fighters to reveal.
Whether she was hiding it just from the audience in the arena or from everyone on the planet remained a mystery. Considering that she carried the Queen’s dominion within her, much like the Ice Phoenix, it was hard to believe this was anything beyond the usual power struggles between continents.
Alm and Bruno, however, sensed it might go deeper and decided to investigate at the first opportunity. Yet, as soon as they made this decision, both instinctively realized they wouldn’t have enough time. Even so, the lack of information made them serious and alert.
After a few more matches, Emppu’s name was announced. His opponent would be a Sacred Will cultivator from the Djinn continent.
Emppu let out a deep sigh. He knew his luck had been terrible. Despite his confidence in his strength, defeating this opponent was, at this stage, impossible. Still, he resolved to fight with everything he had and lose honorably.
His opponent’s name was Muham. The moment Muham rose from among the eight Sacred Wills of his continent, it became obvious he was the most outstanding of them. Everyone from his continent regarded him as a leader… or, it almost felt like there was something more hidden there.
Alm and Bruno, closely observing the figure, finally noticed something strange.
’His fluctuations are odd. But it’s hard to fully analyze with his soul almost completely consumed by that bitch’s power,’ Alm thought, intrigued. Observing these Sacred Wills was like looking at heroes, their influence so deeply tied to her that many details were obscured.
The two opponents met at the center of the arena and stared each other down. A sinister smile crept across Muham’s lips.
With the judge’s signal, Emppu spread his wings, his golden eyes gleaming with full intensity. His physique pushed to its maximum, all his primordial runes activated, and the Tarrasque bloodline imbued in his tunic became palpable to everyone in the arena.
The crowd swallowed hard at this display of power. But...
A subtle gleam appeared in Muham’s eyes. At that moment, Alm and Bruno’s eyes widened as they finally understood what was off.
’He has a Divine Soul?!’ Bruno muttered in disbelief.
They already knew that on this planet, heroes reincarnated into carefully nurtured bodies to cultivate and ascend to the immortal realms. However, these heroes were typically placed on the Crown continent, as confirmed by Huying herself. Finding a Divine Soul outside that continent made no sense. Why reincarnate someone of this level into a body that hadn’t been meticulously prepared?
The answer didn’t take long to emerge. Muham raised his hand, and without activating any primordial runes or using the power of his tunic, an overwhelming primordial force filled the arena.
’This… this is coming from his body. And his own bloodline. He’s the son of the Djinn…’ Bruno concluded, mentally stunned.
Had the primordial beast actually fathered a legitimate child? What were the odds of something like this happening? Yinou, in the past, had attempted to have a child but failed even after millions of years of trying. In her case, the other partner was also a primordial beast, which only made it harder.
If the Djinn had tried with a mortal, even one as compatible as the Leviathan, the chances would have doubled, but mortals don’t live long enough for such attempts to succeed. Leviathan’s case was a miracle, one Alm and Bruno were certain had been manipulated by Heaven’s Will.
Moreover, Muham wasn’t just the son of the Djinn; he also belonged to the Charming Eyes race. Even though his mother was from that race, the birth of a child was already extraordinary—being born as a member of the same race was nearly impossible.
’A miraculous aberration,’ Bruno concluded.
Alm scoffed. ’This body may not have been carefully prepared by the Queen, but it’s so terrifying and unique that it’s worth being used by the heroes.’
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on ƒreewebɳovel.com.
At that moment, the two noticed the malice radiating from Muham’s eyes, confirming that he was indeed a reincarnated hero, cultivating and wielding that body. Simultaneously, Muham’s golden eyes began to glow intensely.
*Whoosh!*
Dark purple flames engulfed the stage. They were darker and denser than anything seen before. Within them, Alm and Bruno detected something unique, blended into the fiery power.
Muham had created a technique of his own, merging the capabilities of his primordial bloodline with the peak heroic power. In doing so, he conceived something new and supreme—something that could even be considered superior to the Djinn itself.
To others, those might have seemed like the Djinn’s usual purple flames. But Alm and Bruno could clearly see the fuel behind them.
’That’s his own technique, mixed with the power of his eyes. He refined the three vital energies of other people and created an internal rune that can be nurtured to produce this effortlessly,’ Alm concluded coldly.
Bruno frowned. That explained the overwhelming power and the dark karma surrounding that continent. Those powerful youths emanated a sinister aura, and Muham’s technique seemed to have been shared with all of them. The mutant beasts that arrived every century… they were probably the sacrifices for their cultivation.
On top of that, as a hero, Muham must have recruited those he deemed talented to be his partners and taught them how to absorb the "sacred power" more effectively.
At that moment, agonized screams echoed through the arena.
Muham’s flames struck Emppu, and his physique and primordial runes were completely ineffective against the opponent’s power.
Muham laughed darkly, relishing the slow torture he was inflicting on Emppu with the flames. He could have ended the fight whenever he wanted, but he chose to burn him bit by bit, sadistically.
Emppu’s body turned completely black, and his wings were utterly destroyed. Everyone in the arena watched the scene with twisted expressions. This wasn’t a fight—it was a scene of macabre torture.
The Tarrasque and his group bore expressions of hatred and pain. It didn’t take long for the Tarrasque to step forward, but Caipora quickly intercepted him, stopping him firmly.
"Don’t do it! He can’t kill him! Get a grip!" Caipora growled, blocking the Tarrasque’s movements as he radiated intense rage.
Meanwhile, Alm and Bruno were also holding Ruri back, as she was about to use spatial laws to intervene before the Tarrasque could.
Shortly after, Emppu’s screams ceased. But unfortunately, it wasn’t because he’d run out of strength. The torture continued, and now Muham wasn’t allowing him to pass out or scream.
Muham’s eyes gleamed as his sacred power invaded Emppu’s body, keeping him conscious through the torment while paralyzing his body completely.
"Enjoying the warm-up? Try something even more indescribable," Muham mocked, his dark voice echoing throughout the arena.
Emppu’s eyes widened in horror. He was clearly feeling even greater pain than before but was no longer able to scream.
Alm and Bruno took deep breaths as they closely monitored Emppu’s life force. If he were truly on the verge of dying, they’d have a valid reason to intervene in the arena. But Muham, being a reincarnated hero, knew exactly how to inflict extreme pain without crossing the fatal threshold.
"Hehehe, excellent, excellent," Muham chuckled sinisterly. "Unfortunately, we don’t have much time left to keep playing."
After nearly half an hour, with everyone in the stands sweating bullets and their faces tense, Muham finally ended it. Emppu collapsed in the arena, unconscious.
The judge rushed over to check and confirmed that he was still alive, though it was hard to believe he would ever wake up after suffering such deep internal and external damage.