The dark venue turned bright again.
When the crowd saw the end of the intro clip, some people sighed, others felt enlightened, and still more were lost in deep thought.
What kind of experience was that?
To be the strongest, yet unaware of it, and searching for it everywhere for decades?
While in their own thoughts, the commentator spoke,
[Alright, the intro clip has ended. How about we start the first match of the men's category?]
The crowd took a deep breath and remembered that they were in a competition...
So they nodded to show their agreement.
Snow Goddess sighed and said,
"After a hundred years... I wonder if he still remembers me?"
Elder Sun said,
"He was only 3 when he left... After 100 years..."
Elder Elvis finished his sentence,
"I'm sure he remembers us, even if he is a grown man now."
Elder Leta snorted, as if she remembered the memory of 100 years ago when he sold them out before leaving!
Charm Goddess closed her eyes,
"It was like yesterday that he came to me and asked, 'How can I become the strongest?'..."
Fourth Brother shook his head in confusion,
"Yesterday?
It was like this morning..."
And Lady Butterfly said,
"Time flies..."
The commentator's excited voice sounded in the venue again,
[Alright!
Let's welcome our first competitor!
You know him, you love him, you can't have this competition without him!
Please welcome,
The man who lost his left hand to save his assistant,
But didn't use his divine technique to regenerate it,
So other creatures on the face of this earth may have a chance against him!
The man who sealed 99.99999999999% of his power prohibited himself from using his only hand or his strongest spirit root in the competition, so his juniors might have a chance against him.
The one and only senior brother of the Demoness Sect,
Sect Master!]
The crowd, bewitched by the story, and still stuck inside the non-existent illusion of Senior Brother Sect Master,
Became excited!
"He is finally coming back!"
"After a century, Senior Brother is finally here!"
"How much I missed him all these years..."
"The long-awaited reunion..."
"How strong has he become to seal 99.99999999999% of his power just to make it fair for us?"
"And he won't even use his only hand!"
"His strongest spirit root too!"
"If he uses that spirit root of his, wouldn't we all be on our knees just from his aura alone?"
In the midst of the discussion, you could even hear some of the more emotional female disciples start crying.
At this moment, a booming sound came from far away!
Then a domineering voice sounded that made everyone's hearts tremble in their chest,
"HAHAHA, WHERE ARE YOU, MY FOLLOWERS?
YOUR SECT MASTER IS BACK!"
The moment his voice sounded, the crowd looked around in confusion.
Indeed, where are the followers?
It's impossible for them not to be here, at this sensitive moment, right?
Then a little girl suddenly ran out of the nearby farmland.
"Breaking news! Breaking news!
The evil Sect Master is back!
Breaking news, breaking news!
The evil-"
And a lady who ran after her, covering her mouth, which was obviously too late, and ran back to the farmland.
Before anyone could figure out who these two were?
And why no one could sense them after they went back to the farmland,
The whole farm area exploded with a wave of strong auras!
BOOM
The plants that had already been harvested all turned to dust!
The whole farmland became flat ground without a single plant left!
Ten thousand people appeared in rows in its place.
On one side, all ladies, from old to young, in red robes.
On one side, all men, from old to young, in dark blue robes.
Then they moved to the silver platform, all together in an orderly manner, like military soldiers, turned around, cupped their hands, bowed towards the same direction as the 'booming' sound, and shouted all together,
"WELCOME BACK, SECT MASTER!"
Just the sound of greetings from so many strong people made everyone's hearts tremble again.
Ten thousand people, all one step away from the Mahayana realm!
Some weaker disciples almost wet themselves and thought the sect was under attack!
The only thing out of place was a kid in the children's row, with an unconscious Snow White on his back, and a black-robed lady that you could only think of one word while looking at her!
[Expert.]
But before anyone found the time to think about these anomalies,
A black dot appeared in the sky far away in the direction the followers were bowing to!
The 'camera' zoomed in on the target, and a middle-aged man in the air appeared on the screen, who was moving towards them in the sky!
Black hair, a horseshoe mustache, a black headband,
His right hand at the tip of his mustache, playing with it, his right sleeve, empty, dancing in the wind.
The corner of his mouth was slightly curled up!
You could see only one word in this man's eyes!
[Confidence.]
While coming down from the sky, opposite of what everyone thought, his speed didn't slow down!
The 'dot' far away was close to the platform the next moment, and it landed the moment after that!
'BOOM'
When he landed on the ground,
The disciples felt the whole venue tremble!
The elders felt the whole sect trembling!
The sect masters felt the whole mountain range tremble!
And the old manager in the sky felt the whole planet tremble under this man's feet!
As if it were shivering from fear of being destroyed under the impact!
The followers were speechless!
How far away did this evil boss who can't fly jump from?
The old manager thought, How heavy is he?
The crowd gulped down nervously...
The eldest senior brother, whom none of them knew, was finally here!
The audience and the only disciple on the 'rule breaker seat', still in the non-existent illusion, all stood up together, cupped their fists, and shouted,
"WELCOME BACK, SECT MASTER!"
And delivered the second wave of greetings to him!
All the elders, including the referee, the two sect masters, and even three of the 'actors' from the intro clip with the supreme elder and the black-robed immortal, all stood up, cupped their hands, and shouted,
"WELCOME BACK, SECT MASTER!"
And delivered the third wave of greetings!
Far high in the sky, the old manager stood up, cupped his hands, and bowed slightly,
"Welcome back, Sect Master!"
And delivered the last greeting that only he himself heard...
The eldest senior brother looked at everyone, put his only hand that was left for him on his chest, bowed a little, and said,
"Greetings, everyone, it's good to be back."
Then he turned to his followers,
"Go back to your seats; I will catch up with you later."
The followers said together,
"As you order."
And walked to the row of empty seats that no one until now knew who they belonged to!
Now they have the answer.
The crowd sat down at the same time as the followers.
The commentator started speaking again,
[And now the second participant,
Number 2, please enter the competition area.]
And a picture of a guy appeared.
No one dared to question him for calling him by number and not calling his name!
With the eldest senior brother here, whose name was important anymore?
The man on the screen stood up nervously and entered the arena.
The commentator spoke again,
[For all the participants to have the chance of fighting the eldest senior brother and gain all kinds of valuable experience, we thought of adding a new rule.]
Everyone looked at the commentator with curious eyes and thought,
'There is a chance for everyone to fight him?'
The commentator continued,
[If you all agree, the eldest senior brother will be in the arena and fight everyone until he loses.]
The disciples and elders were taken aback for a moment, but nodded the next moment.
It made sense.
He is going to be the first anyway, so this way, at least everyone could fight him and learn something.
The commentator said,
[Please raise your hand if you agree.]
Everyone, even the immortal in the black robe, raised his hand to show their agreement...
It was at this moment that the eldest senior brother's opponent reached a spot in front of him.
"???"
Question marks appeared above everyone's head when the screen locked onto them.
One was nearly 2 meters tall, and the other one was not even 1 meter!
They rubbed their eyes to be sure the one with the 1-meter height was the one they thought...
And sure enough, it was 'eldest senior brother' who was the short one, not the disciple who just entered the competition area...
*Shatter*
Everyone heard something like glass breaking!
The non-existent illusion broke at this moment of facing the undeniable truth!
The crowd looked at their hands that were raised, and all kinds of different signs of anger appeared on their faces!
In the elders' seat, with a trembling voice, one of the elders asked,
"How long were we in?"
Another answered,
"I was dragged in the moment he went to bid his farewell to the sect masters..."
The rest of them nodded,
"Same here!"
The two sect masters and the immortals didn't say anything and pretended that nothing had happened.
It was too embarrassing for them to accept it...
They were lucky to come out a second sooner than the rest and lowered their hands as fast as they could!
What a terrifying ability!
The audience, however, felt a senior had made a move on them!
How else could they be fooled like this?
If it wasn't an illusion, how could those followers' auras be equal to the peak of Tribulation Transcendence!
How could even those little kids be so strong?
It was all an illusion made by an expert in the dark!
Because the followers were absorbing solar power again and had become like mortals once more, they appeared like mortals.
At the center of the platform, the referee and the opponent's hand were both still in the air, like everybody else.
The lady referee felt awkward.
The opponent who had a sword on his back was instead angry now at how scared he was just a moment ago and slowly lowered his hand.
The lady referee looked at the angry guy from her sect, and then at the little sect master down there who smiled at her and nodded.
As if he was saying, we can start anytime...
So she thought of a way to dodge this embarrassing situation, and while lowering her hand, she said,
"Begin!"
As if her hand was raised all this time to come down as the sign for starting the fight!
The next moment, the guy, who had been doing his best not to attack before the start, threw a random kick at the kid to send him off the platform and end this ridiculous show.
And then his vision faded away.
The crowd only saw him turn from a vertical to a horizontal position, then roll on the ground for around ten meters, and lie there motionless...
Another row of question marks appeared above their heads!
The referee looked confused...
She saw exactly what happened.
It wasn't some fast movement or anything.
The only word to describe it was,
Simple.
She just wondered why the disciple from her sect didn't react to it or defend himself.
The commentator at this moment started speaking,
[Alright, the first match is finished with the sect master's victory.
Let's watch the record in slow motion.
Sect master, please explain the move so everyone can understand the process of your flawless victory.]
A little microphone appeared on the little sect master's collar while he started explaining as the slow motion was playing.
The audience watched with interest.
'What just happened?'
By now, they had already tested him and his followers and knew all of them were mortals.
So how?
On the screen, the two, one short with a confident face, and the other tall with an angry face, appeared.
The tall one threw a kick.
The short one stepped forward,
Dropped into a deep squat,
Sweep kicked the support leg of the tall guy,
And the guy who was standing a moment ago,
Was now in a horizontal state in front of him, who was already standing up again with his hand still playing with his mustache...
The little Set master then kicked his opponent's face the same way he was going to kick him, and he started spinning horizontally.
At the end, when he hit the ground, he started rolling away...
The little sect master explained what happened.
"As you can see, this friend was too impatient,
Underestimated his opponent, overestimated himself,
And attacked without thinking.
The only thing I needed to do was to step forward and deliver a sweep kick and a front kick.
As you can see,
No fancy technique and no spiritual power have been used.
Next junior brother, please pay attention and don't make the same mistakes."
The slow-motion playback indeed showed everything as best as anyone could see...
The referee raised her hand,
"S-sect master is the winner of the first match."
The moment she announced the winner, the followers, who were basically on plant mode, suddenly shouted all at once,
"THAT'S ONE!"
The audience's heart almost jumped out of their throat!
"Holy -"
"What's wrong with these people!"
"That scared me!"
"That's 'strength in number' I heard about!?"
"I even forgot they exist until a moment ago!"
"Fellow Daoist, look at their faces!
All blank and serious at the same time!"
"Yeah, there is no doubt about it..."
"These people are all cult members!"
After a brief chaos, the scared audience calmed down.
They looked at the center of the platform to see who the following two participants were, but the little guy was still there...
The crowd thought he was going to leave so the referee could start the next match, but he just stood there, smiling at them!
The commentator spoke again,
[As everyone agreed, the sect master will be there until a lucky junior defeats him.]
The audience just remembered that they raised their hands a moment ago and agreed to this new condition.
They didn't know what to say...
Another face appeared on the screen, and the commentator said,
[Number 3, it's your turn.]
The first time, no one cared when he called one of them just by number, because they were in that illusion by some unknown senior!
But this time they felt offended!
"Senior brother number 3, beat him up so he never forgets your number!"
"Senior brother, I want to see him run if he saw number 3 on a wall or a paper!"
Under the angry voices of the crowd, number 3 jumped up and landed in front of the little boy!
Another sword cultivator from the sword sect.
The referee raised her hand like last time and brought it down to show everyone she was going to start the match, just as she had last time, too, and wasn't fooled by him to vote for some new rule.
"Begin!"
And the next moment, Number 3, who tried to bring his sword out of its scabbard, dropped to the ground, unconscious.
"???"
The crowd was dumbfounded again!
"How are they losing so easily?"
"Commentator shows the slow motion!
I want to see what happened!"
"Fellow Daoist, the commentator is pre-recorded, and I think he is the same person as the one on the platform..."
"What?"
"Now that you mentioned it!
Even the previous referee was him, I think!"
The crowd who were out of the non-existent illusion now, found out the new truth...
The commentator appeared on the screen again,
And said a line similar to the one he just said,
[Alright, the second match is finished with the sect master's victory.
Let's watch the slow motion.
Sect master, please explain the move so everyone can understand the process of your flawless victory.]
The screen replayed the fight in slow motion.
The moment the sword sect member was going to take out his sword,
The little sect master stepped forward again, raised his right leg, and brought it down like an axe, hitting the handle of the sword that the opponent was about to unsheathe.
After the hit, the opponent's left hand holding the scabbard was pushed backward!
The force was enough to force the guy to lean forward to prevent his shoulder from being dislocated!
But that forced his head to naturally come down towards the ground.
At this moment,
The little sect master was leaning forward too, and it seemed that the same right leg that had hit the sword handle didn't stop after going down, but came back up from behind him and hit the guy's face with the soles of his feet as he performed a front flip!
He already predicted the position his head is going to be after leaning forward!
The whole movement was so smooth that if you didn't know, you might have thought it was planned already!
"As you can see, this was another leg attack.
What you need to pay attention to is the first step.
You should be at the correct distance so the kick can move exactly on a 'circle'."
Then the kick, from its starting point, when he raised his leg like a pillar, to when it hits the handle of the sword and continued its path and hit his opponent's face while it was straight like a pillar again, made a perfect circle movement that was shown with a bright line on the screen.
The crowd admitted that it was indeed a perfect distance and kick, but...
Why was it so simple?
Why are these people getting knocked out by these kicks without defending themselves?
In the elders' seats, Sword god turned to his master,
"Master, how are they getting knocked out so easily?"
It was indeed a question that everyone had, even those with a higher level of cultivation, who found it impossible to understand the reason.
Fourth brother smiled and said,
"Look at his opponent's eyes, and focus on their spiritual energy at the time they are getting hit."
Charm goddess chuckled,
"At first, I thought he was cheating and using 'that'...
If I didn't know about his 'abilities', I could never guess how he is doing it!"
Hearing what she said, Lady Butterfly shivered from remembering some memories of when she was under this little guy's control to assassinate him at the inn...
The rest, who didn't know 'that' was referring to Coach Assistant technique, focused on the next match to see what the former sword god meant by 'eyes and spiritual energy' of his opponent.
The referee announced the winner again.
"S-sect master is the winner of the second match."
The silent followers shouted all together again,
"THAT'S TWO!"
The audience who forgot about them, again, felt their heart jump into their throat, again!
"Can someone tell these people to stop!"
"Are they going to keep counting?"
"Fellow Daoist number 4, please go beat up this kid and end our suffering..."
The commentator appeared on the screen,
[Number 4, it's your turn.]
At this point, the participants found out about another fact, too.
The picture on the screen was them, but the numbers weren't.
This little guy not only didn't care about their name, he didn't even care about their registered number...
While annoyed and confused as to how this little sect master is knocking out his opponents, number 4 stepped onto the platform.
But this new participant, who was from the demoness sect this time, didn't get close to him when the match started.
When the referee said, "Begin.", he jumped back, his whole body covered in a layer of rock, and a treasure knife appeared out of nowhere that was thrown towards the little boy's head!
The crowd gasped when they saw him going all out in defense, facing a little kid and attacking so mercilessly!
But he was from a demonic sect, and it wasn't that strange!
Either way, he didn't retreat much before he dropped to the ground, too.
His rock defense just crumbled as if it was deactivated...
The referee, who was going to catch the knife before it made a hole in this little troublemaker's forehead, was speechless....
The crowd was now questioning reality...
The elders who were focused on the eyes and spiritual energy were all furrowing their brows.
"The eyes closed just a moment before the hit..."
"And the spiritual energy in his body completely disappeared?"
Sword god turned to his master,
"Is someone helping him?"
Hearing his question, Fourth brother glared at him and said in a serious tone,
"It's all him."
They were going to ask how it works, but the commentator appeared on the screen,
[Alright, the third match is finished with the sect master's victory.
Let's watch the slow motion.
Sect master, please explain the move so everyone can understand the process of your flawless victory.]