As the battle in the arena finished and the victor was teleported to the next floor, Xuan stepped up to the employees right before they could call up the next set of contestants.
Then, he secretly slid a handful of Spirit Crystals into one of them's hands, and leaned in close.
"Let me go first, will you? Number 389. Pair me with an easy opponent, if possible."
"…"
The guard was silent for a moment, then discretely took the crystals into his sleeve and announced the next two numbers.
"Contestant 389 versus 94. Please come onto the stage."
With a smile, Xuan walked onto the stage, much to everyone in the crowd's dismay.
"Hey, didn't that guy just get here?"
"How come he gets to go before us?"
"Yeah, what's going on here?"
"Please calm down. The numbers are selected randomly, not based on who came first," the employee lied with a perfectly straight face. It was good to see that bribery still worked, even in this world—in fact, it probably worked better here, since ultimately, the path of cultivation was a lonely one, causing most people to be far more selfish than on Earth. Xuan knew this very well, from his past experience—all he had to do was take advantage of it.
He was, after all, abundant in terms of Spirit Crystals right now, after robbing Zhou He. Quickly, he finished his match, and ascended to the next floor. It was barely a fight.
<Floor Cleared!>
<Advance: 2 -> 3>
<Obtained Health Restoration Pill x1.>
<Obtained Qi Restoration Pill x1.>
<Obtained 200 Spirit Crystals.>
'Okay… still pretty underwhelming,' Xuan thought, looking at the reward notifications.
But that was fine—his goal had changed now. He still wanted the Sealed World Pearl, but he also had to race across the floors to get the attention of Huo Fei. That was the only way he could contact her right now, since he didn't want to spend Credits on a communication artifact unless absolutely necessary. His current balance was only 13,598, which was far more than what most other players had right now, but still low in Xuan's eyes.
In the same manner as before, he approached the waiters, discretely bribed them, and met the weakest opponent possible to quickly ascend to the next stage. This was possible because Xuan noticed that the employees on every floor were, in fact, all the same person—just many different copies of himself. Xuan didn't know what kind of technique the man used to do something like this, but it wasn't unheard of before.
Still, this was a good thing for Xuan—after all, it was what enabled his plan to work in the first place. Easily, he breezed through the floors, all the way until Floor 15—where the difficulties truly began to rise. But as the stakes increased, so did the rewards.
The first fifteen levels were easy—anyone with decent combat experience could make it out eventually, regardless of however many attempts it took them. More people were flooding into the restaurant back down on the first floor as well, so there was a constant intake of new competitors that could be both a blessing or a curse to current contestants. Naturally, the rewards that came with these early floors were also not that great—just an increasing amount of Spirit Crystals for every floor you ascended.
But starting from here on out, combat took on a new definition.
Xuan looked around. Each and every person here had a good cultivation base of at least Qi Transformation stage, and they all looked to be quite experienced with fighting. Clearly, this wasn't their first rodeo. What was strange, however, was that no one seemed to be complaining about not receiving their rewards. Instead, some of them seemed to be rummaging through their Space Rings… which reminded Xuan of the conclusion that the System, in fact, had automatically sent the rewards to the cultivators' Space Rings.
'Looks like what I've been doing thus far was useless from the start…'
Well, not completely. The grand prize would be handed to whoever won the battle on the final floor, so the first two people to reach there would be able to contest it.
As such, Xuan continued to do the same thing he had for the past few floors—walking up to the employee clone and handing him some money. As expected, he was called up next, but his opponent who walked onto the stage opposite from him could not quite be called weak, either. There was nothing the employee could do about that—everyone here was, in some shape, way or form, strong.
But the question was—were they strong enough to defeat Xuan?
"Hao Tianyi. Ninth-Layer Qi Transformation," his opponent said, making a respectful martial greeting hand gesture. Naturally, Xuan replied in the same way.
"Xuan. Ninth-Layer Core Formation."
This was the standard form of greeting between two martial artists before exchanging pointers. As soon as the words left Xuan's mouth, however, Hao Tianyi dashed towards him with his sword, expression dead-cold and serious.
'Trying to catch me off guard?'
With a snort, Xuan used the Rabbit's Zodiac Technique to dodge to the side with speed fast enough to cause his opponent's eyes to widen a bit, and jump back in caution.
"Was that… the Zodiac Techniques? Impossible… a technique of that level couldn't possibly evade my sword strike."
What he said wasn't false—but Xuan's cheat-like Soul power broke common sense and made this possible. Even an Earth-Grade technique would have at least the power of a Heaven-Grade one in his hands.
"There are many things you don't know, fellow brother," Xuan said with a smile, and Hao Tianyi grunted.
"Hmph. If you won't tell me, then I will just have to find out for myself!"
Drawing his sword back, Hao Tianyi charged towards Xuan once more, this time with more intensity and speed.
'Sword Qi?'
Unable to simply dodge any longer, Xuan summoned his own sword from his inventory—Scarlet Passion—and met the incoming blade with his own.
CLANG!
The sound of metal clashing against metal rang out in the air, but the two swordsmen weren't finished yet. Quickly, they exchanged stabs and parries, each with great expertise and skill.
But alas, Xuan was one step on top.
"…"
"…"
The two men backed away from another momentarily, and Hao Tianyi narrowed his eyes as he brought his hand up to his cheek. There, a cut had been made, dripping blood—by none other than Xuan, who stood on the other end of the arena, completely unharmed.
"… I concede."
To everyone's surprise, Hao Tianyi said those words quietly, and turned around, back turned to Xuan.
"This brother, I know not who you learned your swordsmanship from, and I will not ask either. But you have opened my eyes today, and as gratitude, I will concede this battle. The next time we meet, the outcome may not be the same."
With that, a white light enveloped him, and he was sent to the previous floor. Those who lost moved down, while those who won moved up. At his words, however, the other competitors watching outside the ring began murmuring.
"That guy… achieved enlightenment by fighting a mere Core Formation stage…?"
"Didn't you see that young man's bladework? He is not simple. If my guess is not wrong, he should be from the Thousand Sword Sect…"
"Damn… no wonder his Sword Qi is so pure despite having such a low cultivation…"
As the lights focused on Xuan once more, he took a deep breath, wondering what rewards he was going to obtain this time. And as soon as he saw the notifications…
… His eyes widened in surprise.
<Floor Cleared!>
<Advance: 15 -> 16>
<Obtained Health Restoration Pill x1.>
<Obtained Qi Restoration Pill x1.>
<Obtained 15,000 Spirit Crystals.>
<Obtained Eon Ginseng x1.>
———
<Sword Duel Enlightenment>
<Sword Intent +2,000>
<Current Intent EXP needed for next level: 4,300/10,000>
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