The Nightmare Of Cultivation

By the end of the first stage, Desper felt tired.

 For an hour, he had to fight again and again with no rest at all. But he was delighted when he looked at the number on his pendant.

'Haha, I wonder what Eland would say about that.' Desper laughed inwardly.

Suddenly, Desper noticed his pendant glowed with golden light.

He was surprised.

He stood up and realized that not only was his pendant glowing, but his entire body had also started to radiate a faint golden light.

Desper was confused, but when he looked around, he found out that he wasn't the only one experiencing that.

On the same platform, Soren was emitting a golden light as well.

He was angry, looking at Desper. The number on his pendant was 19, and to everyone's surprise, one of the indentations glowed with red light.

'I think someone defeated him while he was still stunned by my escape.' Desper chuckled inwardly.

On each of the other platforms, two disciples were shining with golden light.

Desper assumed they were the winners of the first stage with the largest number on their neck.

Sure enough, one of them was Alric Teryn, the Third Elder's son.

The crowd was full of excitement.

"As expected, Alric has passed the first stage easily," one of the spectators said.

"Look at his pendant! 25 wins with no losses!"

"That is amazing and sad at the same time. He needed two more wins to reach Darek's record, and if he had won three more fights, he would have set a new sect record."

"I guess no one will beat Darek's record."

"Wait! Look there!" one of them screamed as he pointed at the third platform.

"What is there?" someone asked, following his finger.

When he looked at where the man was pointing, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"3- 35?!! Is that real? I'm not dreaming, am I?" He pinched himself to wake up, but it didn't work.

"Who is this guy? He doesn't seem like a half-disciple."

"There must be an error in the formation."

"Yes, you are right. How could he win 35 fights in only one hour, without even being a half-disciple?"

The spectators were caught between confusion, amazement, anger, and excitement.

On the first platform stood a short teenager with blue hair and brown eyes.

He clenched his spear tightly; it looked as if he wanted to break it. He looked at Desper with burning eyes. The veins were visible on his forehead from anger.

He was Alric Teryn.

'How dare you ruin my day.' Alric growled, clenching his teeth.

It was his day to shine. Since the day he awakened his Origin when he was 12 years old, he had dreamed of this day.

Despite not breaking Darek's record, he still achieved an amazing score.

When he had seen the number on his neck by the end of the first stage, he thought that the sect would talk about his amazing score for days, but out of nowhere, this unknown person came and stole all the spotlight.

Outside the platform, the Third Elder looked at his son with a worried expression.

He didn't care about his son showing off, but the fact that his son's body had started to show strong resistance.

That meant his son's cultivation was coming to a halt. If he didn't take the Purifying Pill, he might not even be able to become an organ cultivator.

He looked at Desper with an angry face. No one knew what he was thinking of.

The Sect Leader was observing the situation. He sighed and shook his head in silence.

"PoHahaah... Look at this, he didn't just break your record, he destroyed it. Tell me how you feel about that, Darek?" Eland was overjoyed as he talked to Darek.

"He really did surprise me. But he did it with fake power," Darek sighed as he spoke.

"Who cares? He still did it." Eland was still happy.

"Yeah, he did it. Now you have to complete your promise with him." Darek looked at Eland.

Eland stopped celebrating and frowned.

"What do you think of it?" Eland asked.

" He remembered the Village Chief, but didn't remember anything about her. He seems more stable than he was a month ago. But you still must be careful," Darek warned.

Eland didn't say anything and looked back at the arena.

…

"Other than the two who are glowing, everyone else is eliminated. Step out of the platform," the Fifth Elder declared as he got on the third platform.

He walked toward Desper and stood in front of him.

"What is your name, kid?" he asked with a firm face.

"Desper." Desper looked him in the eyes and replied.

"Desper, hmm... I will remember that." The Fifth Elder nodded at him.

After that, the Fifth Elder waited until the eliminated disciples left the platform.

"Now, we will start the second stage. The two winners of the first stage will fight each other. The winner will be rewarded with the Concentrated Red Stones Liquid," the Fifth Elder declared.

Desper felt a vibration come from the necklace, followed by the appearance of a blue circle on the floor underneath him. It was larger than that of the first stage.

Soren was also within the circle.

"Same rules: you will lose if you get killed or step out of the circle," the Fifth Elder added. "Now, fight."

Soren looked at Desper with fierce eyes.

"Won't you run again?" Soren asked with an angry smile on his face.

"Hah? Why would I?" Desper sneered.

"I will expose your cheating right now." Soren said as he lunged at Desper with his gauntlets.

"I hope you won't cry after this fight." Desper smiled at him.

On the stands, the spectators could hear their conversation.

"Did he say cheating?"

"He must be cheating, or how could he get that huge score?"

"You might be right, but how could he possibly cheat under the eyes of the three Elders and the Sect Leader?"

"I don't know, we might find out during this fight."

…

Desper observed the teenager who was rushing at him. Soren's weapon was a pair of gauntlets. Desper didn't have any experience against them. He only trained with Darek and Eland on fighting with a sword and against a spear.

'I guess if I try to block them with the sword, they would slip past and still hit me.'

'Above all that, Soren was a low-muscle cultivator, so he was faster and stronger than anyone I fought in the first stage.'

'But I think I can beat him now.'

Desper wasn't afraid. With a smile, he looked at the sweat soaking Soren's clothes, his shaking hands, and the rise and fall of his chest.

He was exhausted. He had been fighting for an entire hour without any rest.

Of course, Desper was also tired, but the tiny Channels in his organs, especially in his heart and lungs, made his recovery faster than any muscle cultivator.

That was his plan against the muscle cultivators: wait until they became exhausted.

That was why he had escaped from Soren during the first stage, because he wasn't tired enough yet.

As Desper was thinking, Soren closed the distance between them. He threw a punch with his right hand toward Desper's head.

Desper was ready, and he just tilted his head to the left, letting the punch miss.

Desper thought it was easier than he had expected. All he had to do was raise his sword and end the fight, since Soren was so close.

But he didn't expect to see another punch coming from the second hand, while the first was still beside his head.

Desper was surprised. He raised his sword to block it. But as he had expected, it slipped past and continued toward his head.

The sword slowed it down, giving Desper enough time to lean backward, preventing the punch from reaching him by a few centimeters.

Desper didn't think anymore and stepped backward.

'That was close.' Desper murmured inwardly.

"Why did you dodge it? Aren't you so strong?" Soren grinned at him.

'It was my mistake to consider the gauntlets as a single weapon,' Desper thought 'I reckon he might even use his legs as well. I must be careful'.

"That was a nice attack, but you need to be faster than that to hit me." Desper provoked.

"Just don't run again." Soren charged at Desper.

Desper didn't run. He was focused on Soren's shoulders, anticipating the direction of his next attacks so he could evade them.

Desper didn't try to block any of his attacks with his hands. On strike was enough break his weak bones. Instead, he chose to evade every punch at the last moment, trying to make Soren more exhausted.

Desper raised his sword and was about to strike when he suddenly noticed something happening on the first platform.

Above it, Alric was facing his opponent with a spear in his hand.

Once the Third Elder gave the signal to start the fight, Alric charged at his opponent with astonishing speed.

His opponent raised his sword to block Alric's slash, but it was in vain.

Once their weapons clashed, as if the sword wasn't there at all, the spear didn't stop. It continued toward his opponent.

The opponent was stunned. The spear struck him, sending him flying five meters away.

The blue circle beneath them faded.

Desper was shocked by his speed.

 'That is going to be a problem.' He thought.

Soren didn't stop attacking Desper, but Desper could avoid all of his punches.

"Stop... run..ning." Soren was gasping for breath.

Desper didn't hear him. He was thinking about something else.

Desper retreated a few steps and observed Soren.

'He is so exhausted. I can end the fight now, but...'

Suddenly, Desper raised his sword and slashed downward, but the strike wasn't aimed at Soren.

The jaws of everyone watching dropped, and their eyes widened in absolute shock.

Even the Elders weren't an exception. Only the Sect Leader narrowed his eyes.

"Wh- what is he doing?" Eland stuttered.

Darek's lips curled into a growing smile.

"HahaHahaha... Desper, you really didn't disappoint me."

On the platform, Soren was so stunned that he forgot to attack.

"Arghhhh..." Desper screamed in agony, holding his left arm, the arm he had struck with his sword.