Protective senior

While the two were distracted and unsure of how to continue the conversation, Alexander signalled with his eyes for everyone to retreat into the fortress.

The fortress was huge and to their surprise, the cultivation speed in the fortress was actually even faster than their cultivation speed at the sect with the boost.

Not only that, the fortress had hundreds of rooms which meant that they would have a resting spot everyday and a personal room to themselves when they aren't out finding treasures.

"Chole, how have you been this entire time?"

After a few minutes of silence with them staring into each other's eyes, Ray was the first person to break the awkward silence.

The invisible barrier between them prevented them from taking another step forward, but Ray willed himself to walk towards Chloe despite the wrenching pain which was twisting his heart with each step he took.

"Ray...I…"

Chloe opened her mouth to speak, but the only voice that leaked from her heart was the sobbing sound and sorrowful tears of joy which she was drowning in.

"It's fine, I'm here. I promise that I'll never let you go again for the rest of my life, one day, I'll bring you back, just give me some more time."

Ray advanced towards Chloe and pulled her frail body into his embrace, breathing in the natural fragrance from her body as he brushed her hair with his hand, just like how it took place in their last meeting.

"Let that last meeting be the end to a new start, will you?"

Ray asked as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

Chloe was lacking the strength to speak, but she still snuggled into a comfortable position in Ray's embrace to give him an answer.

"Alexander, do you have any plans for now? While it's true that you have the three other sects to help us gather points right now, I'm afraid that your efforts would be far from enough once the hidden rules kick in and the clouds get dark."

Lancelot initiated the meeting after they located the largest room in the fortress which was suitable as a meeting room to hold any discussions for the next three months.

"For tonight, we'll just wait until the next day. It's just a hunch, but I have a feeling that the actual competition only starts from tomorrow onwards, today is the only day for all cultivation forces to gather in their respective groups."

"The calm before the storm huh? As expected from the organisers who are bent on promoting competition between the younger generation to promote our growth on the path of cultivation."

Max commented with Ruby sitting beside him without any intention of partaking in this conversation, but none of the guys here held any grudge towards her since she was active in helping out most of the time.

Alexander couldn't help but think of Abby and how the Azure Dragon Army was doing out there without him, but on second thought, he shook that scene off his mind and focused on the current situation.

Abby might have been discreet in concealing her actual cultivation so as to not hurt his pride, but having spent the bulk of their time together, how could Alexander not know Abby's intention?

This was a secret buried deep in his heart, his source of motivation to gain more strength.

"It seems that I had no need to locate the fortress since we managed to locate one by a stroke of luck without expending any effort. For now, I'll just scout around and think about future developments we can take, I'll update everyone tomorrow."

"That will work out for now."

Lancelot agreed after pondering for a short moment before standing up to return to his room.

"All of you should just seize this time to cultivate as well while Garen is out scouting information for us."

Lancelot suggested before taking his leave which ended the meeting before it was officially over.

"It's fine, we should just trust Garen on this."

Seeing that Alexander was taking his leave as well, everyone decided that they should just conclude here for today while Garen was out mapping out potential paths they could take."

"Garen, we'll be trusting you on this."

Max motivated before holding Ruby's hand as they took their leave whereas Luke just left the room silently without the slightest intention of saying goodbye.

"Emperor's eye, open."

*The situation right now*

In just the span of a few hours, there were countless cultivators falling in battle, but what surprised the organisers most was the death of four Martial Spirits in just the first hour.

Also, excluding the fortress occupied by the Nirvana Sect, there was another fortress which was occupied by one of the strongest Tiger Tier cultivation forces, the Absolute Sword Sect.

The sword where the strongest sect masters hail from, also, rumour has it that they have dispatched three teams of Martial Spirits. Not only that, the main team was being led by one of the few Martial Lords in this dimension at the moment.

The Martial Lord from the Absolute Sword Sect was ranked seventh on the Galaxy Rankings.

Sora: Twenty years old Martial Lord third realm with combat strength comparable to seventh grade Martial Lords, cultivator of the Dominant Sword Law, one of the advanced sword laws beneath the three divine laws.

One had to know that the difference in between every three realms of the Martial Lord realm, was also known as a difference between each major realm. As for the difference between a Martial Lord and a Martial King, it was the difference between heaven and earth.

Which is why those Martial Lords who defeat or even stay undefeated against a Martial King are expected to be a future Martial Ancestor at the very least.

This is the strength Sora possessed as one of the youngest and strongest Martial Lords recognised by all.

Which was also why the Absolute Sword Sect was determined to have all their members promoted to the next segment of the competition, or in the worst case scenario, they were prepared to sacrifice two teams just to protect Sora and his team.

The others in the main team might have their glamour dimmed by Sora, but for those who understood their strength well, all of them were half-demon sword geniuses not weaker than any Martial Lords below the fourth realm.

Without a doubt, the Absolute Sword Sect was kicking in strong and was going to stir up a storm and cause commotion in this dimension.

As for the other Tiger Tier forces, they were currently going in different directions just to locate a fortress while seizing any cultivation resource they could find along the way.

*North of the fortress occupied by the Nirvana Sect*

When Garen made it this far, he sensed danger and pulled back immediately, finding himself a vantage point on top of one of the trees to scout ahead.

Garen was backed that he pulled out when he sensed danger, what he was seeing right now was a complete nightmare.

It was a true battlefield whereby skeleton warriors were waiting for the next opponent who steps past the safety line.

Garen wasn't afraid of a fight, but picking a fight with hundreds and maybe even thousands of Martial Lords was suicidal with the amount of strength he had.

To be more exact, no one in this dimension would be a match for these skeleton warriors unless they cooperated with each other.

It's a pity that Garen failed to notice this fact, but this didn't stop him from expanding the map he was drawing on as he headed the east from here, gathering information from all four cardinal directions with the fortress as the center point.

"What are you doing by being separated from your sect?"

Suddenly, a voice filled with hostile intent was questioning him from behind as the sound of a projectile piercing through the air made Garen evade to the side, dodging the hook by a hair's breadth.

"You wanna pick a fight now?"

Garen retorted back fiercely as he activated his emperor eyes and got himself ready for battle.

Crackling his bones to warm his body up, Garen got ready for the upcoming fight.

It might have been months since I last fought personally, but I guess that testing my strength out with the universal projectiles law will be fun. A sly smile formed on Garen's face.

His Emperor eyes allowed him to foresee his opponent movements, giving him the advantage of making the movement at the final opportunity in order to catch his opponent off guard.

Not only that, his projectiles would be able to change directions infinitely with just his eyes alone and one day, he would be able to control his weapons mentally without the effort of trying to accomplish the chore himself.

At that point of time, he would also be able to kill any opponents located on his map or in the worst case scenario, just destroy the entire area by hailing blades on that particular area.

He wasn't being merciless, he was just fulfilling his obligation as both a disciple and prince by doing so.

"With your strength, why waste your time on my juniors, why don't we have a battle?"

A domineering aura came from the front as Garen watched the young man stand before his juniors to take the challenge on for himself.

From his aura alone, Garen could deduce that this man has only just promoted into the Martial Lord realm.

"If you still want to live, you should just turn back right now."

Garen gave the young man a chance considering that he was taking the risk for his juniors.

"Thank you for the chance, but I still believe that I must protect my juniors as their senior."