26 The Keeper of Hell III

Amon had a confused look in his face as he heard the door being knocked. No one knocked on that door for years, except for Daniel. Could it be?

Amon's eyes lit up as he hurriedly dropped his sword on the bed and rushed to the door, almost ripping it off from the wall as he opened it violently.

"Daniel!" He almost shouted as the warm sunlight entered the living room.

However, his excitement was soon gone. The standing on the grass on the other side of his door was not Daniel, but a complete stranger.

It was a short woman wearing purple clothes. Her blond hair looked like molten gold under the sun, and her delicate face had a healthy glow and she looked very pretty.

She looked at Amon strangely for a second, but her expression soon turned gentle.

"Excuse me, is this the residence of the Skollers?" She asked politely as she gave a smile.

"Yes, madam. Why do you ask?" Amon answered as his brow rose. The purple clothing meant she worked for the sect. He turned apprehensive as he looked at her carefully.

"I am here to give you your invitation to the Promotion Competition that will be held in six months." The woman smiled again as she retrieved a small silver token and passed it to Amon.

"Just present it together with your identification card in the arena in six months and you will be qualified to take part on the Promotion Competition."

"What Promotion Competition?" Amon was confused.

"You didn't know?" The woman was taken aback. The news had been spreading like wildfire since the last few days.

"I'm sorry madam, but I've been very busy at home lately." He said with a wry smile. All of his body was still sore from the beating he took from Lya.

"Very well, I'll explain." The woman didn't seem bothered as she started talking. "In six months' time, a Promotion Competition will be held in Hell's Keeper City. Every member of the Outer Sect is allowed to participate as long as he has this invitation in your hands."

"You will all take part in a tournament, and the ones that are placed in the top ten by the end of the tournament will be promoted to the Inner Sect." Her expression never faltered, as if it had been extensively trained.

"Also, all the Elders of the sect will be present. They might choose anyone participating as their disciples, so not only ten fighters will be granted entrance to the Inner Sect."

"What?" Amon couldn't believe what he heard. These were definitely great news. He looked at her and asked, "Will it be a single tournament?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"How are Qi Gathering cultivators going to stand a chance?" Amon felt it was a strange way to choose disciples when it was guaranteed that most of them didn't stand a single chance of winning, even if counting on luck.

"They can only rely on themselves and maybe catch the eye of one of the Elders. That is my honest opinion." The woman looked seriously at Amon as she spoke.

"That seems unfair." He was not convinced.

"Is it? They are getting the chance to go to the Inner Sect before fulfilling the requisites. The only ones allowed to do so are the families of Elders and Protectors." She shook her head. Even if it seemed unfair, a small chance was better than nothing.

Amon thought for a while. If he entered the Inner Sect, he would receive resources from the sect, as well as access to manuals from higher floors in the Divine Arts Palace and to other facilities. He would also be able to take his home with him to take residence in Hell's Keeper City.

"Very well. I will participate." He said after a while. It was a great chance that he couldn't waste. If his father's name would give him any sort of trouble, he wouldn't have been invited on the first place.

"Good. Also, there is an invitation to the other member of the house…" The woman said as she offered a second silver token to Amon.

"There is no need. She can't take part on it." His face turned sour as he denied the woman.

"I see. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." She said, seemingly bothered. "I'll be taking my leave."

She turned away and left, her golden hair waving in the air, ablaze at the sun.

Amon returned to his room and saw Lya looking at him with a gigantic smile. Her blue eyes shone with excitement and she could barely contain herself.

"A tournament!" She said, full of energy. "It will be a great place for you to truly understand about combat!"

"Six months… It will be tough, but it is possible to get you ready by them." She looked at him with those eyes full of expectance. Somehow, they made Amon feel more fear than when she was mad. He felt he was going to have a bad time.

"W-well, the best part is the place in the Inner Sect…" He said, trying to hide the trembling in his voice.

"Is there a place in this sect were you can train combat?" Lya asked as she cocked her head, looking at Amon.

"I think the Warrior Hall had something like that." Amon said, stroking his chin as he thought. "If I am not wrong, there should be an arena there were we can challenge other cultivators, and also a few sparring puppets controlled by an array formation."

"That is perfect!" Lya nodded nonstop as a big smile showed in her face. Amon remembered that the only time she seemed so excited was when he first went to Hell's Keeper City.

"A tournament! It has been an eternity." She said as she floated in the air. "We have much to do! If we speed things up you can reach the middle stages of Body Tempering! You must also properly learn about Movement Techniques after you grasp the basic of the sword…."

"I think I'll need to be a bit more rigid from now on, just to guarantee that our time will be optimized and you won't slack." She started nodding to herself, as Amon turned pale.

"Lya, it is only a tournament." He couldn't help but say.

"Only a tournament? What do you know?" She looked at him with an annoyed expression.

"Do you think you stand a chance against the scions of wealthy families that have been training with the best resources from the Outer Sect the moment they were able to first sense Qi?"

"You've barely trained for a month. You only have six more to get ready to face people that have been training for years, or even decades!" She didn't avert her blue eyes from him for a single moment as she approached his face. "Do you think I should go easy on you?"

"No." Amon shook his head. She was absolutely right. But he still shuddered thinking in the future. It would certainly be hell.

"This will be a great chance for you Amon, I am sure you will learn many things participating in this tournament." She said as she thought for a moment.

"Like properly using Sword Qi? Applying Movement Techniques to their maximum effect? Learning to observe my surrounding and opponents as you spoke before?" He asked what came to mind. Lya had told him before that only with actual experience he would grasp all of these things.

"Well, yeah, but something comes before all of that." She waved her hands, dismissing his opinion.

"What?" He cocked his head.

"You will learn to properly take a beating." She said with a bright smile as her blue eyes shone with an evil glint.