It was the day of the tournament and the clan was hustling as the tournament will be starting soon. The venue was a huge area with ten stages. The venue had seats for the clan members. The seats were built step by step so that everyone could see entire stages.
The elders and clan masters sat on the top while members of the clan sat according to their ranks.
More than 100 youngsters were waiting for the tournament. Lloyd was among them. They were the combine young generation of both Phoenix clan.
Just then an old man appeared before and looked the participant carefully as he was measuring them.
"Hello everyone, I am Wade Felix. I am elder of ice phoenix clan and I will be the judge of today's tournament" elder wade said while looking at the participates.
"Today, the top 10 of the tournament will be decided. You see the ten stages here, the one who stay on it when the sunset will be qualified to the next round.
Anyone can enter the stage and occupy it. If others want it, they must challenge that person and defeat them and occupy them. Another participant may challenge you. So, the last person occupying the stage when sunset will be the winner of this round."
The elder explained the rules and he asked if anyone had any doubt. After that, he looked towards Alder and Rodney. With their approval, he turned and said, "now the tournament starts"
The crowd cheered as they heard the start of the tournament.
Even after hearing the start of the tournament, none of the participants moved from their position. One must be on the stage for others to challenge them. The first one who enters the stage will be challenged immediately by a number of participants and he has to defeat the challengers if he wants to continue to stay on the stage.
"since nobody is initiating then I will the first to enter the stage," Derek said while he walked to one of the stages and jumped on it.
"come on," Derek said as he looked back as he taunted rest of the participant to challenge him.
Leland also followed Derek and occupied other stage and after seeing both, another participant also came forward and occupied and with a while, all ten stages were occupied and challenge started.
The one who occupied after Leland was a young man whose age was slightly higher than Derek. He was Malcer Felix, son of Rodney Felix.
Unlike rest of the ice phoenix member, Malcer was bulkier and he had a sharp eye like a sword which caused fear in other who he looked. He carried a sword by his wait.
When Lloyd saw Malcer, he was surprised. Malcer was origin 8th stage and he could also feel sharpness in Malcer's movement as he was a sword. when Lloyd felt it, he thought back about the movement when he was practicing sword qi.
'it looks like Malcer also reached sword intent stage. from the looks of it, he has just entered sword intent stage and didn't know how to control his sword qi' Lloyd thought while looking at Malcer.
Lloyd has also reached sword intent stage but unlike Malcer he could hide his sword qi and look like a normal cultivator. While Malcer's sword qi is continuously releasing from his body.
Normal cultivator couldn't feel it but Alder felt sword qi from Malcer.
"so, your son entered sword intent stage. that's why you are so confident that you can win the bet" Adler turned towards Rodney and said.
"you found out" Rodney was surprised that Alder found out about Malcer but he had an evil smile on his face as he looked at Alder and said, "you better give up on the bet and hand over your sword now"
Hearing Rodney, Alder was annoyed a little and he turned his head to the stages and finally, his eyes fell on Lloyd.
"the winner isn't decided yet," Alder said with an even bigger smile in his face as he looked at Rodney.
Lloyd was standing with the other participants and waited for the start of the challenges. He suddenly felt a chill as he was locked by a pray. He looked and found out that his father was the cause of the chill and he had a big smile on his face as he looked at Lloyd.
Seeing Lloyd looking at him Alder gave him a thump up a sign to motivate him.
"since all the stages are occupied then the challenges start now," elder wade said.