The Core Disciple Exhibition (2)

Thanks to the commotion that Kate had raised, elders soon appeared on the scene. However, the group stubbornly denied anything happening, and though Kate was slightly pale, there wasn't enough evidence for the elders to pressure talents like them. Furthermore, once Reinhart brought up the fact that Shui had to participate in the Core Disciple Exhibition, the elders reluctantly let them go. 

As the group left the area, Shui took another look at the ground. Before Kate appeared, he had touched upon a secret so enticing that it distracted him from the flow of time. It was too profound for him to decipher in short time, but the insights he had obtained made him eager to take another look. This time with better preparation, of course. 

'I might need to stick around the region for a while longer.'

Upon arriving at the main sparring area, Kate left with the other core disciples in their group while Fatty and Serina stuck with Shui. No one had any doubt in Shui's victory, but they still looked forward to seeing his battles. 

Shortly after Shui arrived, the tournament's opening ceremony began. The only rule regarding where the new core disciples stood was that they had to be at the front of the spectator area, but they all ended up at a distance from each other with their factions behind them. Shui was the last of the six to arrive, but he took his time leisurely looking them over. As expected, Clyde and Lionel were among them, along with two disciples who had been part of the original seeded ten. There was a young man who had made his way up from the preliminaries, but he was clearly the weakest though he still possessed a higher cultivation than Shui.

The High elder oversaw the event, but the opening speech was done by Core Elder Ren in his position as Head of the Resources Department. Usually this would be done by his deputy, but to ensure that the promise made behind the scenes was kept, he decided to be present. At the end of the day, the event was all about having the fresh core disciples fight each other, so the formalities wrapped up quickly and the rules were explained. 

The tournament would have a round-robin format, so there would be a maximum of 15 battles, and whoever won the most battles would be the final victor. These battles were to be considered friendly spars, so no lethal or crippling techniques could be used, and the victor would be declared through the opponent being unable to continue the battle, leaving the ring, or surrendering. Though it was considered optimal for everyone to walk out of this with minimal injuries, there had never been a case where all 15 battles could be held as participants would end up unfit for battle midway through.

Shui didn't see himself losing regardless of what format was used and would gladly welcome a free-for-all so that he could defeat them all at once. However, he was also interested in seeing what skills his competitors had. To ensure that they did their best, it was announced that the victor of the tournament would be allowed the great privilege of staying inside the Spirit Nest for the maximum time. Few inner section disciples knew anything about the Spirit Nest, but the new core disciples all had their sources.

"Hah, I feel sorry for them."

"What do you mean, Fatty?"

"They all look so eager after hearing about the prize, but beating Boss is like stopping a natural disaster. They're just being fed false hope."

"I'm not sure what to say about being compared to a calamity, but you're not wrong."

Although Shui couldn't say that he was omnipotent, there was no way he would lose in a fair fight against any of the five. And while he might tolerate a bit of cheating, if they went too far in an attempt to beat him, then he wouldn't hesitate to flip the table.

"By the way, Boss, can you lend me some spirit gems?" I'll pay you back with extra."

"I don't mind, but what are you going to use them for?"

"I'm gonna bet on you winning this. The last time I checked, the odds of you being the final victor were 3:1, so I should get back triple the amount. I hear there's also bets on the individual battles, but after your first match, I don't think there'll be a point in betting on you anymore."

"Oh, in that case, how much is the maximum bet?"

"I hear it's being managed by some young masters of wealthy families, so they should be fine as long as the payout doesn't reach a thousand high-quality spirit gems."

A thousand high-quality spirit gems would easily be enough to buy a couple tesora-rank artifacts so it made sense that they weren't willing to spend that much on a single payout.

"Here."

Shui then handed Fatty a space expansion bag with three hundred high-quality spirit gems. He wasn't lacking in spirit gems, so this was mostly just a gift to Fatty.

"Woah! Thanks, Boss!"

"Don't mention it. Here, you should bet too, Serina."

Shui gave a bag with the same amount to Serina, but she hesitated.

"But..."

"There's no need to worry. Unless you don't believe that I'll win."

"Of course not! There's no way you could lose to ordinary people!"

"Ordinary people? Well anyways, then that's your answer."

With that argument from Shui, Serina found it hard to maintain her stance and accepted the betting funds. As the betting window would soon close, the two quickly left while the match-ups were being decided. To ensure fairness, the selections were random, but they were restricted so that no one had to fight two battles consecutively, though that would change depending on how many of them could keep fighting. These were the first three matches:

Clyde vs. Tora

Shui vs. Homa

Lionel vs. Deidre

It was customary for the first round to have the top three go up against the bottom three, and since Homa was weaker than Deidre and Tora rose up from the preliminaries, it appeared that the unofficial stance of the elders was that Shui was part of the top three. Clyde agreed with the decision, and albeit reluctantly, Lionel did as well. However, the other three, especially Homa, were critical. They didn't directly protest to the elders, but their suspicious and disdainful eyes were locked on Shui. 

There wasn't much anticipation for the first match as the result seemed obvious, and Clyde ensured that there were no changes to that prediction. Clyde waited for Tora to make the first move, and then with just a single wind spell, he knocked Tora off the stage and won the match. He also revealed his first level in the Earth Realm cultivation to emphasise that his victory was due to no trick or fluke.

Shui had already noticed Clyde's new cultivation when they fought before going off on missions. Initially he had tried to keep his new strength hidden, but his best efforts weren't nearly enough to deceive Shui's senses. The audience also wasn't too surprised, as it had long been rumoured that Clyde was just one half-step away from reaching the Earth Realm. No one thought less of Tora given the enormous gap between late Soul Realm and early Earth Realm, but this result confirmed that he had basically no chance of becoming the final victor.