The tournament starts

Nicola then threw a small bag with 1500 high quality mana crystals.

"High Quality Mana Crystal!" It was supposed to be 15,000 medium quality mana crystals. However, the high quality Spiritual crystals were worth 10 times more. That's why Nicola gave them the high quality ones... Or was what it should be. The higher the mana crystal's rating, the harder it is to obtain. Although a high quality mana crystal carried about ten times the amount of mana than a medium quality one, the fact is, it was much better. Also, it was much harder to get high quality ones.

Naturally, receiving high-quality mana crystals as payment was much better. "That should be enough for all twenty tons of Ivory Sand. I'll go to your clan in a week or so to get it. After that, we'll set a deadline for them to deliver the Ivory Sand. Is that good enough?"

"Don't worry. As soon as we get back, I'll make our clan increase the extraction rate of Sand Ivory. If you can pay us in high quality crystals, I'll do my best to extract at least a hundred tons a month."

Nicola nodded, satisfied. "Perfect. As long as there's a hundred tons per month, I'll pay for it with high quality crystals."

Kriass and Marten were delighted to hear this. The two parties talked a little more about other issues before separating.

Night soon came and was quickly replaced by day as Nicola cultivated silently in his room. The tournament was to be held in arenas downtown, the pairs draw was being held and Nicola was patiently waiting for his name to be called. In the end there were 128 participants competing, many were people from out of town who came looking for the prize. While another part were the veterans of the clans of the city.

Nicola was drawn to fight another wandering cultivator in his first match. He didn't intend to reveal his trump cards anytime soon and was still covered in his cloak, hiding his secrets. Kills were allowed, but leaving the arena and knocking out the opponent would be considered a victory as well.

The tournament would have seven rounds until reaching the finals, Nicola's first battle was much easier than he imagined, as many interested in the prize, the skills they possessed were related to thunder. His first opponent was a lone cultivator a descendant of a magical beast similar to an electric squirrel, his speed was superb and allied to the element he dominated could cause a lot of damage before he was even noticed approaching.

His speed was even slower than Nicola's, however he didn't need to show one of his trump cards against such a weak opponent, he just held his ground as the man-squirrel whipped around the arena causing slashes around Nicola trying to strike some damage.

But in front of great power only strength could overcome, Nicola activated his sin of pride, assimilating the cloak as a layer of defense, rendering the opponent's attacks useless against him. Additionally, Nicola activated his Earth Heavenly Essence abilities and maintained the unshakable stance without moving a step since the start of the fight.

After a few minutes of friction he got bored and just sent his opponent flying out of the arena with a big bang.

The next three rounds went relatively the same way, opponents were just fries who signed up for the tournament just to build up opponents, the real prize candidates would find themselves closer to the end of the tournament.

In the fifth round there were only eight players left when the first noteworthy opponent appeared, it was chosen to represent the Bat Ape clan, the opponent was a strong and huge man twice the size of Nicola. His body was very muscular and covered in black and gray hairs that flashed electrical discharges eventually.