Explosive Progress

"Qing Shan wins!"

After a moment of silence, the audience roared. Their claps shook the arena. This was amazing, especially considering that all of them were cultivators. Even the other Origin Soul cultivators were cheering along with everyone else. It seemed like his fight had been a spectacle.

Qing Shan was also enraptured by the battle. Although the whole fight had only taken around a minute and a half, it had felt longer than a normal day. His full attention had been on the fight, and Qing Shan had only used his own power. He had not tried to rely on the runes of Sky Bane, nor had he been trying to establish a battle rhythm. Because he had not been trying to rouse either of these powers during the fight, he had been able to concentrate on only what was in front of him.

Qing Shan was quite proud of his performance. He had been hit by an attack exactly once, in a battle where over five hundred attacks were exchanged. It was exactly as Liu Tiansheng had said.

"The easiest place to trip is the last step."

This meant that in battle, the finale blow was by far the easiest to take advantage of. That could not be truer in this battle scenario. Just as Qian Yong had thought she'd won, Qing Shan had turned the situation around in a favorable manner.

'That was exhilarating. In fact… I don't think I want to stop.'

Qing Shan interrupted the loud cheering of the cultivators by raising his hand into the air. As all of their attention was still on him, the effect this had surprised Qing Shan. It was one thing for an authoritative figure to do this, but the fact that the crowd was instantly silent was amazing.

"I Qing Shan, challenge the top ranker of building 16-A!"

"I Qing Shan, challenge the top ranker of building 15-A!"

"I Qing Shan…"

…

"I challenge the top ranker of building 8-A"

Of the fights leading up to this point, all of them, besides Qian Yong, had been against Formation Soul Cultivators. Now, however, he would once again be fighting someone in the Origin Soul Realm. But, compared to the fight with Qian Yong, there was one big difference. Most of the cultivators from sections six to eight had not obtained their status as Origin Soul Cultivators through normal means. These people had used pills and artifacts, and had entirely skipped over the process of filling the Third Eye, Life Root, and Dantian. These pills were excessively expensive, despite having a negative impact on future growth. Even though such nature-defying methods would make one's strength cap at Origin Soul 5th stage, unless the pill was of an unheard of quality, they were still in high demand.

In front of Qing Shan, who had not only cultivated the way that nature intended, but also enhanced his entire body. Not to mention his time perception, these people who tried to skip all of the hard work were nothing but trash. Given time, they would be surpassed by all those they once called friends. It was truly a pity.

That said, Qing Shan fought his way through the ranks, until he decided to settle at being the top-ranker of Building 5-B. From this point forwards, every opponent would be quite the formidable foe, and it would be disrespectful for him to face them while he was tired.

Looking around, Qing Shan noticed Qian Yong, Ming Bai, and Qian Shen. They waved to him, and Qing Shan started to walk over. Based on the look in Qian Yong's eyes, she would not be battling for her rank today. On the other hand, Ming Bai, seemed to be somewhat excited. It was obvious that she wanted to show her worth as well. Even Qian Shen, who had not advanced to the Origin Realm, seemed to be raring to go. However, with the constitution boost from the Garden Keeper's fruit, he should have no problem getting to at least section 10.

Before the crowd dispersed, Ming Bai walked up onto the arena stage and began challenging her opponents. Just like Qing Shan's battles, Ming Bai easily swept the competition before settling for rank two in building 5-B.

The crowd seemed to have gotten bored, after seeing dozens of opponents fall to the ground within only a few seconds. However, everyone recovered their energy upon seeing Qian Shen enter the stage.

The audience collectively let out a sigh of relief. After seeing two Origin Soul cultivators advance past a dozen sections, they were starting to feel somewhat depressed. On the other hand, Qing Shan and Ming Bai's performances were quite inspiring to some, and lit the fire of passion under a few who were willing to put in effort.

Once Qian Shen started battling, he did easily beat his first three opponents, However, from section fourteen and below, the battles started dragging out longer and longer. Qian Shen hit his limit after battling all the way down to the top ranker of building 9-A.

After his performance, which was more of a show for spectators than the previous two challengers, Qian Shen walked back to the group with a sheepish look on his face.

"I guess I still have a lot of catching up to do… What about you sis? Are you going to try to join Qing Shan and Ming Bai in section 5?"

*Sigh*

"Not today."

After the four left the arena area, Qian Yong's mood quickly recovered, and she decided to do some sparring with Ming Bai. On the other hand, Qian Shen had decided to go get himself something extravagant to eat in celebration.

Once again alone, Qing Shan wandered around. Surprisingly, he was not quite sure what to do. Out of curiosity, he decided to do something that he definitely not accustomed to doing.

Qing Shan went to gather some information. Because most of his time was spent training, he had not really learnt that much about the Third Layer. In fact, all he knew was that there were three cities, centered around the Fallen Sky, Scorched Earth, and Dark Sun sects. There were also quite a few little villages and towns sprinkled around.

"Did you hear? The Dark Sun is moving down to the Fourth Layer! Apparently, they are keeping their city up here as a branch…"

Qing Shan's head whipped over in the direction of the people talking, before moving back. If this was a real piece of information, it would be huge! The Dark Sun Sect, which was the most mysterious of the three was moving down to the fourth layer? Just imagine how powerful they had gotten to be able to bring that many people with them! Unfortunately, Qing Shan had no way of confirming this information at the moment. After all, the three major sects were all a great distance from each other. At the southern part of the third layer was Fallen Sky city, and to the northwest was Scorched Earth City. Dark Sun City lies to the northeast. Considering the size of the third layer, it would take Qing Shan at least a three and a half months to get to either of the sects.

"And also, the TST is coming up soon. What is it, four months from now?"

"Something like that. I can't wait to see which sect wins this year! I doubt Dark Sun will have an amazing showing, but I wouldn't mind watching."

Qing Shan watched as one of the speakers lightly chopped the other on the head.

"You wouldn't mind!? Do you know how expensive those tickets are? Selling one would net you a fortune!"

As the conversation had started to spiral into an argument without any important information, he decided to stop for now. he returned to his building and entered his pocket dimension. There was quite a bit to think about now.

The conversation that he had eavesdropped in on had remined Qing Shan of an event that he had forgotten even existed. That was the TST, the Three Sects Tournament. As the name implied, this was a tournament between the three major sects to see which of them was the most powerful. Despite the 'Three' in the name, minor sects and clans in smaller villages were also allowed to participate. Not only would the winning group be granted the title of the Third Layer's strongest, the participants would also be guided down to the Fourth Layer, and receive letters of recommendation to the best sect in the Fourth Layer.

Considering how important this was for Qing Shan, he could not believe that he had forgotten about this event. However, there was a problem.

'How do I ensure that I can become a participant?'

From what Qing Shan knew, the top disciples of the Fallen Sky Sect were the Origin Soul cultivators in the first eight sections of the Inner Ring. However, something was off. First of all, if this event was so close, than why did nobody talk about it. Ming Bai should have been excited about getting to the fifth section if it gave her a chance to face other sects… The only reason that Qing Shan could come up with for the lack of enthusiasm was that no one felt that they would be the ones picked for the TST. Not even those in Building 1-A.

'Whatever. I guess I just have to get to Rank One. I'll worry about the other stuff later. After all, I have four whole months.

Planning out the events of the next couple months, Qing Shan slept through the night. As soon as he woke up he continued his domination of the rankings. Luckily, he did not need to drag any of the people he was challenging out of bed.

Qing Shan managed to obtain the rank of strongest in Building 3-A, before stopping. At this point, it was almost noon, and he had to go to work at the smithy. While he worked, Qing Shan thought about he should tackle the opponents in front of him. Every person in building 2-A was at the second level of the Origin Soul realm. Likewise, everyone in section 1 was also at that level. Not even the top ranker was at Origin Soul level three. While the three fights that he had partaken in today were easier than expected, he did not think that he could take on someone a level above him at his current strength. Of course, this did not mean that Qing Shan would wait until he filled his mind and body, overcoming the requirements to break through. No, Qing Shan had another idea.

After his shift was over, Qing Shan returned to his room, and entered the Primal pocket Dimension. Although it was a passing thought, Qing Shan was very glad that he had no worldly possessions outside of his pocket dimension. Other than the clothes provided by the school, which included loose black pants, a grey tunic, and the stylized red robe of the Fallen Sky Sect, Qing Shan had nothing else that he had to bring with him from building to building as he advanced in rank.

Once Qing Shan entered his pocket dimension, he made his way over to the central island and began rummaging through the only thing that was there, the large chest that he used to store all of his worldly belongings. As of now, all that was in there was his spear, the Fire Fox parts, which had not yet sold, his money, among other things that he had picked up along the way. All in all, it really was not a lot of stuff. However, the animal parts along took up a good cubic meter of space. Luckily the chest was more like a shack, and thus large enough. Qing Shan had built this shack after he got back from is mission during some free time after enhancing his legs.

'Where was it…'

"A-ha!"

Qing Shan pulled something out of the glorified shack.