113 Challenged

After a short walk, Alex reached the sect crater and got into the line at the Fighting hall. For the first fight, he challenged someone with the 250th badge.

According to the info on the board back in his room, the person was in their home. So, he decided to wait for the person to arrive. When his number was called, he responded. Another person also responded at the same time after hearing their number. Realizing his opponent had come, Alex walked up to the stage.

Alex had decided to hide his cultivation entirely so that people wouldn't realize how strong he was, or how fast he broke through. His opponent this time was an older girl with a simple ponytail. She was shorter than him, but not by much.

Alex took out his common rank sword and got ready to fight. 'Should I show off my Elusive Heavenly Sword so early?' he wondered. He looked at the girl and realized she hadn't taken out any weapons.

He was surprised. 'Elemental techniques user or close combat fighter?' he started guessing as to how the girl fought. However, seeing as she was only at Muscle tempering 6th realm, he wasn't very worried.

As soon as the elder gave the go, the girl immediately started pouring out her Qi and created a fireball that she shot towards Alex. Alex was surprised, but that was the extent of his reaction. He immediately used Flame Mastery Scripture to control the incoming fire. It showed a little resistance but instantly obeyed his commands. So, he basically killed the flame and made it disappear.

The girl was surprised at what just happened. 'Is my opponent very strong?' she thought. She took out another fireball and threw it towards Alex. This time, however, Alex didn't destroy it. Instead, he controlled it and sent it back to her with a bigger size and higher intensity.

BOOM

The girl was hit directly in the chest and thrown the ground a few meters back. She wasn't sent out of the stage but was really close to it.

Alex was about to charge at her and push her over when she suddenly shouted, "I give up."

"Huh?" Alex nearly stumbled where he stood. He balanced himself and looked towards the elder. The elder nodded and declared the fight over.

Alex took his new badge, numbered at 250, and turned around to walk back to the fighting hall. As he was about to leave the stage, however, he heard the elder call out numbers 275 and 367.

'Hmm… is that me? Or the girl now?' he wondered. The girl was surprised and responded to the call. Alex looked at her walk up to the stage and found that her opponent was one of the lackeys from this morning.

"Hahaha, did they make a mistake? They probably didn't expect me to have won already, huh." The lackeys had only taken his house number, so they couldn't request a fight based on the person, and instead did it based on the badge. And the poor girl fell into a fight once more.

Except for this time, she wasn't so hopeless. The same thing that happened between him and the girl, happened between the girl and the poor lackey.

'Why would they target me with such a weak opponent? Is it really just to bother me?' he wondered. He thought for a moment and said, "They must be checking how strong I am. Like I will every give it them straight." He turned around and walked back to the fighting hall. However, before he could sit in a line, his badge buzzed.

"Hmm…" this was the first time he had seen the badge do anything other than unlock his doors and that wooden tv.

He sent his consciousness into the badge and realized he had a fight in Stage 42 with someone at 312th ranking. Alex sighed with disappointment as this was going to be too easy. He didn't want to waste time with such a useless fight and just reach 194th by the end of the day. But if they were to continue harassing him with the useless fights, he wouldn't have enough time to challenge all those other people.

Reluctantly, he walked over to stage 42. Once his number was called, he walked up to the stage. When his opponent came out, he sighed. 'An outer sect disciple really is too weak,' he thought. His opponent was barely at the 3rd stage of Muscle tempering. He was way too weak to be challenging him right now.

As soon as the elder gave the go, the outer sect disciple ran towards Alex with a small dagger. In response, Alex just put out his hand and used Qi manipulation. Suddenly, the outer sect disciple stopped where he was and started struggling to get out of his clutch.

Alex simply floated him up and tossed him out of the stage. The match was over. Alex took his badge back and walked down the stage.

He could hear the numerous disciples murmur as they started wondering how he did that. Alex on the other hand started realizing what he had just done.

"Urgh… I shouldn't have done that. I got a little angry and forgot you could use Qi manipulation of that order only when you are near the True realm. Whatever, I'll just say it's a technique if someone asks."

He walked back to the fighting hall and finally registered another battle with someone numbered 236. He had to wait for a while before they arrived.

"Number 250 and 236" The elder shouted.

"Here"

"Here"

Two voiced came out from the crowd. Alex walked up onto the stage and looked at his opponent. He was a generic-looking man with long hair. The man took out a weird weapon to fight with, A sickle.

Alex was surprised at first. He hadn't seen a sickle anywhere other than back at his farm. 'You can use a sickle as a weapon too? Master did say people used various weapons, but I didn't expect they would even use something this unorthodox.'

From the side, the elder working as the referee shouted, "Start".