Chapter 260: Contest I

The students who were spoken to by Alex looked at him with fury in their eyes.

How dare he call himself their grandpa?

While they were looking at him in a scrutinizing manner, trying to guess his level of strength and combat prowess, other people who have met Alex before now, had their eyes glow in awe.

It was just now that they were hit by a realization that Alex was actually Olivia's lover.

'So he is the lover of the Great Holy Daughter of the Immovable Mountain Academy? How wonderful. But I should have known.' One who had seen Alex with Olivia before in the past said within with shock.

This news badly hit some of them that had come across Alex before today's event. Especially Soulstorm, he couldn't believe that the person who he informed about the event, was actually the person that he was going to challenge for the fascinating prizes that would be awarded to any person that could knock him off the stage.

"Aii" He sighed.

But he was still going to climb on that stage to beat Alex and any other opponents that he may face off against so as to get Olivia's hand in marriage.

***

"Wow! The taste of the Great Holy Daughter is truly not bad. Such an astonishingly handsome boy. And very strong too. Look at his chest and abs. Definitely an high-intensity body trainer." A girl from an academy said with adoration in her tone.

"Right. He's tall and so handsome. And he looks very strong too. Her taste is truly excellent. Who wouldn't surrender one's body to such a strong and cute, young boy?" Another asked naughtily.

***

"Is that him? The boy that took your virginity?" Olivia's grandma asked. While the rest of the family looked at her to know.

"Yes, Grandma. That's him. The boy who took my virginity." Olivia proudly said with a radiant smile appearing in her face.

Olivia's mom looked at her wrathfully. She still was not pleased with the embarrassment that Olivia brought to them.

However, although she was angry, she was impressed by Alex's look, stature, and the aura of confidence emanating from him.

He seemed like someone that not even gods or deities would be able to coerce to bow to them.

"What's his name?" Olivia's mom asked.

"Alex, Alex Star. That's his full name" Olivia replied.

"Hmm. What family is he from? Is his family from around here?" Olivia's mom questioned.

"Well, I don't want to tell you that yet. You would find out yourself when the competition is over" Olivia said and smiled.

Olivia's mom looked at her daughter and then back at Alex who was on the stage, continuously emitting the aura of indomitability and unbreakable resoluteness.

"I see that you chose an extremely fine one. Where did you come across him?" She asked softly, gazing at her daughter who was incredibly happy at the way her mother seemed very impressed about Alex's physical features and the aura of formidability that was unceasingly exuding from him.

"Well, at the Red Lotus cave when we were sent by the academy to retrieve a special plant and be rewarded for accomplishing the task that we were assigned to carry out. Then, he was twelve and I was fourteen. Now that I am eighteen, he would be sixteen." Olivia replied.

"Hmm. Not bad. But his cultivation speed is kinda slow. He's a genius and yet he's just at the initial-phase, Earth Adept stage. While the geniuses from the academies that he's going to fight against are at the late-phase and peak-phase cultivation stage. How exactly would he be able to defeat them? He would only struggle to manage to fend off their attacks as the difference in their power levels is large, Daughter" Olivia's mom said.

Her anger was surprisingly, slowly abating.

"True, mom. Their cultivation level is higher than his. But I want you to believe me if I say that anything related to Alex can't be judged or scaled using normal or known standards. His cultivation level is simply, greatly disproportionate to his battle prowess. If a cultivator tries to underestimate his abilities because of his low cultivation stage, that person is surely doomed. So, mom, when the battle begins, you would realize how incredibly strong he is." Olivia said with boundless pride in her tone.

"Hmm." Her mother uttered.

There was simply nothing she could say again as her daughter seemed very confident of Alex's abilities, despite him being at a lower cultivation stage which may then cause him to be greatly disadvantaged in the numerous, upcoming battles.

"Let's watch then" She said.

However, she hoped in her heart that Alex would be able to win.

Surprisingly, she now liked Alex, because of the aura of boldness and valor coming from him, and for his great, heart-stealing attractive look. If they were to become couples, his great handsomeness would compliment that of her daughter's divinely beauty. They would simply appear as matchless, heavenly celestial couples that would invoke great adoration in all men and women, and even creatures of other races.

***

- On the battle stage -

Then sitting at a place in this stadium were the people who were going to oversee the competition. These people were the judges, and there were about five of them.

"Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, the grand competition that we have all been anticipating is going to start now!" Someone that looked forty and was a cultivator at the Heaven Adept stage said with a booming voice as he flew onto the stage.

Then this person when he landed walked towards Alex and asked "What should we call you, young one?"

"Call me The Godly Punisher" Alex said with a smile, but seriousness could be felt in his tone.

The person's eyes shone with awe.

"And why should I call you that?" He asked in a curious tone.

"Well, that's just how I want to be called" Alex replied.

"That's a name that could put you in serious trouble, boy" The man said.

"I know." Alex said.

"So, you still want to be called that? Or you have changed your mind?" The man asked again.

"No. Call me that" Alex replied.

"Hmm. Alright then" The man said with a nod of his head.

Alex would have chosen to be called another name, but because of the smooth and easy execution of one of the plans that he had in his mind, he chose to be called The Godly Punisher. Besides, even if the principals of academies that were here became angered by what he called himself, they would try to touch him, possibly to force him to change what he chose to call himself, but he knew that with the appearance of someone who was exceedingly powerful, one whose shadow could be made to cover the entire continent appeared, and then ruthlessly burnt one of them to a crisp, they would be greatly frightened and immediately leave him alone.

Then with a booming voice again so that everyone that were seated in the stadium could hear, the man said "Now, we have on stage The Godly Punisher. So, every one of you that would want to fight him should gather around. The battle will start now"

Immediately this person said that, everyone that wanted to participate in the battle quickly left where they were seated and went to stand before the enormous platform that the intense battles were going to take place.

Seeing the number of people that stood up, about twenty of them, Alex gave a smile that had a smirk in it and even screamed of mockery.

"Oh really? So these guys really think that they would beat me and then have Olivia? Haha! In their damned fantasies. But my lower cultivation stage really makes cultivators to underestimate my abilities and prowess. Well, you all should have thought of the consequences of doing such a thing if your schemes didn't work out. So, come up here to be disgraced and terribly humiliated by me" Alex said harshly within as he waited for them all to arrive.

...

When the person first said that 'Now, we have on stage, The Godly Punisher', everyone's eyes shone with great surprise.

So young and still weak, but daring to call himself that?

Punisher of what exactly?

With what strength? That flimsy cultivation base that he has?

To what degree is he godlike?

These questions began to rock the minds of everyone that were here. They couldn't believe that the young boy on that huge battle stage could dare to give himself such a powerful alias, one which could attract all sorts of disasters and tribulations unto himself.

The principals of the other academies were laughing hard where they where seated. They laughed and laughed until they started feeling pains in their stomachs like as if they were actually mortals.

Alex whose hearing was powerful could hear their raucous laughter, but he wasn't moved by it.

'They should laugh all they want' He said in his mind.

But he was even more surprised that none of them stood up to challenge him why he would give himself such a name. Then he felt that they would see him as a clown in their minds, and as someone wanting attention. So, they chose to ignore him and not give him that great spotlight that he seemed to be looking for.

Thinking in this direction, Alex smiled inwardly.

'Fools' He said within.

***

Not long, about twenty people appeared before the massive battle platform that Alex stood on.

"So, which of you would like to battle The Godly Punisher first?" The forty-year old cultivator who was the host for the event asked.

Haha!

One of them suddenly laughed.

"I, Sky Sword, would battle The Godly Punisher first" someone who was a sword-cultivating battle genius from the Heaven Soaring Sword academy quickly said.

"Alright. Then climb on stage boy" The man said.

Sky Sword nodded.

Then using his bronze-colored swordforce energy to create a large sword below his leg, and using his mental link to it to lift himself into the air, he glided in the air with the sword towards the platform.

Then when he landed on the stage, he looked at Alex and smirked.

"Hey, The Foolish Punisher of crackheads, you may have a tough body, but it's useless before the swordforce energy that I solely cultivate. Prepare to be greatly wounded by my incredibly powerful sword-shaped attacks, and be knocked off the stage into the distance by it." Sky Sword said and laughed.

"Are you sure about that?" Alex asked with a smile.

"Sure as hell" Sky Sword said.

"Are you boys ready?" The host asked, looking at Alex and Sky Sword.

Both of them nodded.

"Fight!" He commanded and then flew off the stage.

Once the elderly man conducting the event flew down the stage, Sky Sword immediately erupted swordforce energy from his hand, which then turned into swords of myriad forms and shapes that abruptly shot towards Alex at blazing speeds.

Alex's eyes turned bright cyan, then he immediately sent out his two palms which also glowed luminously in cyan. Then the instant that he did so, the air before him actually compacted to form a thick and solid barrier that was as hard as a wall.