Everyone settled down as Lin Liang spoke. Even the bald man who Huǒ Shuchang mocked had gone silent. The man before them seemed to invoke the respect of the entire group. Wu Jian didn’t know why, but he also couldn’t feel this man’s cultivation base. That didn’t mean much since Wu Jian had the lowest cultivation here. However, he was certain the man before them was stronger than every person in this room.

“The most important rule of this tournament is that there are no rules. You are allowed to defeat your opponent through any means necessary. You win if someone forfeits, is knocked unconscious, or is launched out of the ring. Be sure to note that while we do allow killing, I recommend you hold back if possible. This is for your own safety. Quite a few of our participants are important people with powerful backers. There’s no sense in winning if it gets you killed in the process.”

Wu Jian frowned when he heard killing was allowed. All the other tournaments he took part in did not allow killing. This tournament embodied what it meant to live in the desert. Survival of the fittest.

“You’re all here because you want to enter the White Tiger Sect Ruins, but we only have fifty slots, so only the top fifty members who participate will be given the opportunity to enter. Now, because we have over five hundred participants, the first part of this tournament will be group elimination rounds. We will randomly select five people to participate in each elimination round. Our staff has already set up four stages, named A through D, so there will be four battles taking place. Head outside when I call your name.”

Wu Jian listened as the names were called, but he eventually stopped paying attention when his wasn’t. Twenty people left the room. They existed through the backdoor, which presumably led to the Colosseum’s arena.

With nothing to do, Wu Jian contemplated ways to break through his bottleneck. The first step was to loosen it. That could be achieved by pushing himself in battle. If he could break past his current limitations in a fight, the bottleneck would loosen enough for him to break through. This method wasn’t recommended since breaking through during combat was a bad idea.

The other method was to simply keep pushing. He would eventually break through so long as he continued to gather chi. This method was slow, however, and he really wanted to grow stronger as quickly as possible.

As Wu Jian pondered his dilemma, an altercation took place on the other side of the room and forced him to divert his attention.

Liao Hai stood before the woman Wu Jian had seen the day before. His women weren’t with him. They weren’t allowed in here since they were not participating. The man held a fan in one hand and used it to hide his mouth as he smiled at the woman.

“So, you’re the infamous Shā Ying Yue I’ve heard so much about. I had heard rumors of your beauty, but I see they were greatly exaggerated.”

Shā Ying Yue stared at the young man with a look of loathing. It was like she had seen a bug.

“What do you want? Spit it out quick. I dislike empty platitudes.”

Liao Hai grimaced, but then plastered a smile on his face. “I am in no way giving you empty platitudes. Your beauty is like the moon. Dark and mysterious. I merely wanted to introduce myself in the hopes we might share a drink after the group elimination round ends.”

“I have no interest in sharing drinks with a fop. Go bother someone else.”

Liao Hai’s expression stiffened and the fan in his hand creaked as though about to snap. He took several deep breaths to calm himself. Then he smiled again.

It was a very unpleasant smile.

“Very well. Since it seems you cannot appreciate my kindness, I won’t bother you anymore. I hope you don’t regret snubbing me like this. I have never been one to allow those who humiliate me to go unpunished.”

Liao Hai quickly turned around and stocked off, leaving Shā Ying Yue alone. She stared at the man’s back as he disappeared into the crowd, then snorted and turned away. Just before she did, however, her eyes caught Wu Jian’s. She looked at him curiously for a moment, but then dismissed him.

Wu Jian breathed a sigh of relief.

The group who had gone out to participate came back. Several of them were bruised or bleeding. There was also one less person entering the room, meaning one of the participants must have died.

Several more groups came and went, and each time, at least one less person returned. It seemed this tournament was quite violent.

“Jian Wu, Deng Jingyi, Mo Zemin, Han Peng, and Tan My! You’re fighting on stage A!”

Wu Jian left with the other four people who had been called. There were three men and one woman. All the men were the rough and rugged type, with thick chests, beards, and scars. The woman also looked quite rugged. She had tan skin, short dark hair, and wore a sleeveless gi that showed solid arms littered with scars. She wielded an axe.

More names were called. Wu Jian noticed Huǒ Shuchang had also been called and was moving off to one of the other stages. He stopped paying attention to his friend and climbed onto stage A with the others.

Everyone stood an equal distance apart from each other, eyeing the other people warily. It seemed no one here was an ally, which was actually allowed since the man had said anything went. Wu Jian had been positive that at least some people would decide to team up and eliminate the competition.

An announcer from somewhere in the stands spoke up. “Ladies and gentlemen! Are you all ready for the next round of bloodshed?!” The crowd cheered. “Good, good! There’s a lot of violence to be had here. Now, let’s see who is participating this time! On Stage A, we have Jian Wu, Deng Jingyi, Mo Zemin, Han Peng, and Tan My! And what’s this?! It says here that Jian Wu is only sixteen years old and at the seventh subrealm of the Anima Realm! I can’t believe someone so weak is planning to participate in this tournament, can you?!”

While Wu Jian could not hear what the people in the stands were saying, the mocking laughter from many still reached him. He looked around to find several people pointing at him as they guffawed. Fools, every one of them. They believed a person’s cultivation was everything and therefore couldn’t fathom how someone like him could win, but he would render them all speachless.

He would just have to let his fists do the talking.

A referee stood off to the side, hand raised. Wu Jian took a deep breath. Everyone here had a higher cultivation than him, which meant he should strike fast and hard before they had time to prepare themselves.

“Ready? Fight!”

The referee swung his hand down.

Wu Jian struck before anyone else, launching four punches in rapid succession. It should not have been possible for him to hit his opponents. Yet even though he was too far away, each punch still hit their target. Three screams of surprise rang out and three bodies were launched clear off the sage. Only the woman with the axe had not been launched off her feet. She had used her weapon to block his punch. The attack was still powerful enough that she skidded across the ground.

“You are quite strong for someone with such a low cultivation,” she said at last. “I am very impressed, so I’m going to give you a chance to surrender. It would be a shame to kill you.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I decline. I’m here to win the tournament,” Wu Jian said.

The woman furrowed her brow in anger. “Listen here, kid. You might be strong, but the only reason you were able to defeat those three so easily is because they didn’t put you in their eyes. You caught them off guard. That’s not gonna happen with me. I never underestimated my opponent. Fists have no eyes. If you don’t want to die, I suggest you surrender.”

“You only think I’ll lose because your cultivation is higher than mine. You don’t know if I’ll actually lose, though.” Wu Jian set himself in a fighting stance. “I’m not giving up.”

“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance,” the woman said through narrowed eyes.

Chi ran along her axe, bright green in color. Loud howling reached Wu Jian’s ears as sharp wind blades swirled around the weapon. The woman brought the axe down, releasing a powerful wind blade.

Wu Jian dodged it.

The woman didn’t stop at just one wind blade and soon unleashed another, then another, and another. Each blade came at a slightly different angle, making it hard to dodge them all. Her timing was also good. Wu Jian was only able to avoid the first three. The next one sliced into his arm, though it was a shallow cut, and the last one bit into his leg. Neither wound was debilitating, so he ignored them.

Wu Jian reached out as though to grab the woman. His hand seemed to flicker as space folded around it.

“What the--?!”

The woman’s eyes widened as Wu Jian grabbed her axe and yanked. Not only was the woman surprised, but his strength was such that she was lifted clean off her feet. She flipped through the air. However, it looked like this wouldn’t be enough to knock the woman off the stage.

Wu Jian brought his foot up, then down. His heel did not stomp into the ground, however, but instead slammed into the back of the woman’s head. She crashed onto the stage floor, her head cracking against the hard stone. He thought that would be enough to beat her. He was mistaken. The woman stood up, grimacing as blood trickled down her scalp.

“What strange magic are you using? How can you attack me from so far away?”

Wu Jian shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Tch. Fine. Keep your secrets. I’ll just pry them out of you after I beat you!”

The woman once more raised her axe and prepared to swing it down, but Wu Jian folded space around his hand once more, grabbed her ear, and yanked.

“Aaah?!”

The woman screamed as she was pulled off balance. She still swung her axe, but the attack went wide, missing Wu Jian by a large margin.

Wu Jian rushed forward faster than the woman could recover, stomped on the ground, spun on the balls of his foot, and threw a kick that caught her cleanly in the midsection. The woman was launched clear off the stage this time. She landed on her feet and looked up at the stage, where Wu Jian stared down at her.

“It seems… I am the one who underestimated you,” she said with a sigh. She smiled slightly before placing her right fist in the palm of her left hand and bowed. “You’ve shown me something incredible today. Thank you for giving me some pointers.”

Wu Jian scratched the back of his head before returning her gesture. “And you. I am sure you went easy on me.”

“What’s this?! Wu Jian just won?! A mere boy with an Anima Realm cultivation has come out victorious against people an entire realm above him! Did anyone see that coming?! Because I sure didn’t! What sort of mysterious cultivation does this boy use!”

Wu Jian ignored the announcer and looked over toward Stage D, where Huǒ Shuchang was dominating his own opponents. Unlike Wu Jian’s battle, which had been mysterious due to his unique abilities, the one on Stage D was flashy. Huǒ Shuchang launched fire from his fists like confetti at a festival. Not a single person could get close to him. Their cultivation must not have been nearly high enough to contend with Huǒ Shuchang’s flames.

Needless to say, they both won their group elimination matches.