27. Great fight

The moment the fight started, Alice dashed at full speed at Ace.

*CLANG*

Feng barely managed to stop her sword with his.

'Shit, she's way faster than I thought!'

Alice was a beautiful tanned woman with ash-coloured hair.

As you'd guess with her name and skin colour, she doesn't come from the Emerald Empire, but actually from another continent, the southern continent.

There, it is really hot, so most of the people have darker or tanned skin.

Anyway, back to the fight.

"Ho? You managed to block, colour me impressed!" Alice said.

Since Alice was faster than even him using the speed part, he decided to try to overpower her.

With their swords clashing each other, Ace started pushing her back as she was more oriented on speed over strength.

*SKREE*

The swords sounded as Alice was pushed back a couple of steps from Ace.

While she was surprised by being pushed back by a martial grandmaster, Ace used the speed attack and tried hitting her.

Alice, still faster than him quickly came back to herself and parried the attack, and started pressuring him.

Ace was under a lot of pressure.

He was his turn being pushed back as he could only barely stop her strikes with his speed, and the moment he's try to attack with strength, his speed would decrease enough for Alice to manage to cut him without him being able to parry.

He was in a tight spot, and couldn't do much.

But this was exactly why he wanted to fight her.

She was the worst match possible, allowing him to learn under pressure, but it wasn't the whole reason.

He wanted to break through.

Breaking through during a fight is dangerous if the opponent is actually after your life, but since it is just a duel, he knows that she would stop to allow him to break through.

And breaking through during a fight allows your foundation to polish itself from fighting, allowing you to not waste time polishing it at a later date.

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After ten minutes since the fight started, Ace was drenched in sweat, from being continuously getting pushed back.

Most of the girls were whistling, and admiring Ace's perfect body which was on full display from his drenched clothes sticking to his skin.

But at this moment, a wave of pressure hit everyone there, especially affecting the disciples under the martial lord realm.

Watching the platform where the duel was taking place, they could see that the pressure was being emitted from Ace.

He was breaking through.

Everyone turned silent, and Alice stopped attacking to let Ace concentrate on his breakthrough.

So much qi from Ace's two dantians was being purified, that an ethereal aura which was pure qi spread around the arena, making those who were too used to it remember that they were watching the rise of a monster that was fated to shake the empire.

After a couple of minutes, the phenomenon stopped, and Ace stood up, stretched, and clenched his right hand.

"Wow, such power!"

He looked at Alice and dashed at her.

He was now as fast as her and wasn't as pressured.

Lots of people thought that he would win, but he was still defeated in the end by Alice.

The fourteen more years of experience, and her stable realm, compared to his unstable foundation from just breaking through made her win without the possibility of saying otherwise.

"Haaa, haaa, haaa... I'm spent." Ace said, laying down on the platform panting and still drenched in sweat.

"You were way stronger than I expected, plus you even broke through. Forget years, in months you'll be stronger than me!" Alice said shocked.

"Winner, core disciple Alice Del Costa!" the elder said out loud before the whole stadium exploded in cheers.

It was such a great fight that every disciple want to become stronger to be like those two.

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A couple of days, later, Ace solidified his foundation, properly landing at the start of the marital lord realm.

He now has a better chance during the martial completion which is in 5 months.

He left his room and went to see his girls which he hasn't seen in days while being secluded.

They all of course made love for the whole day.

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Ace went outside to hunt beast, to continue getting more experience and improving his sword techniques.

But while he was out, a convoy from one of the other two hegemons arrived at the Red Rose Sect.

It was a convoy of the Howling Beast Sect, a sect that focuses on body cultivation, basically cultivating the strength of the body.

The thing is that it is known that the arrogant sect leader of this sect is obsessed in the sect master of the Red Rose Sect.

The only reason he never managed to get her is because she is stronger than him.

While he is in the early martial saint realm, she is at the late stage of it.

Their disciples aren't far off either.

From how arrogant the sect master is, it isn't a surprise that the disciples are too.

And it is clear to everyone that the convoy is just an excuse for the disciples of the sect to fight the girls of the red rose sect and cause trouble before the competition of the sects so that the Howling BEast sect can rise above the res rose sect which is one place higher, placing them at the 16th place.