Chapter 7: -7- Thea

Chapter 7: -7- Thea Charles, being the great-grandfather of both Silas and Emmitt, didn't care who the position fell to, so he quickly ended his son's argument and asked his grandson, "Alexander, are you certain he should enter the battle of the region? At 16 years old, he will likely be the youngest competitor by almost 10 years."

Silas's father stepped forward and confidently said, "Don't worry, Lord Prefect, I'm more than confident that no one in the competition will be strong enough to take my son's life."

This bold statement quickly sent murmurs throughout the crowd.

"Quiet!" Charles raised his voice again.

"Now that we have marked down those who will compete, we will head out. Those of you who are coming, gather your things; we leave in one hour," Charles said as he walked off the stage.

***

Several days later, the Armstrong clan's North Prefecture made it to the Redstone Main Prefecture.

Now all the clans of the Moonvale Mountain region had gathered, and each of the over 1,200 youths who would be participating was standing in the arena, waiting for the first event to start.

Silas, being tall and well-built for his age, didn't get many looks for being 16. Only the men and women from the Armstrong clan's North Prefecture had any idea he was 16 and the youngest person in the competition.

Silas stood there in the crowd of youths, his head held high in confidence, and he wore the new robe his parents had given him for the competition. It was a black robe with hints of red the two main colors of his Armstrong clan. He also held tight to his brand new scythe. His parents had only ever let him use a practice scythe, but now that he was going to enter the battle of the region, they had to get him a real unranked weapon. The scythe, much like his robe, was pure black with red spread across its blade.

(Weapon ranks:

Unranked - Mortal

Ranked - Transcendent

Spiritual - Revolving Core

Earth - Golden Core

Heaven - Sage

Immortal - Earth Immortal

Pure Yang - True Immortal)

Soon, the patriarch of the Redstone clan, the peak 3rd rank and strongest cultivator of Moonvale Mountain, stood up and walked to the front of the Lord Prefect section and officially started the event.

"Welcome all!" he said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Another five years has gone by in the blink of an eye, and here we are once again.

"We are all very busy, and most of us have been through this too many times to count, so I will skip the long and boring speech and start the first event. We all know what it is, but I will briefly explain for those who don't," the Redstone patriarch said as he pulled out a golden treasure.

"This here is a dwelling-type magic treasure. It is something my Redstone clan's founding patriarch brought from the outside world thousands of years ago when he was forced to enter the inheritance realm.

"A dwelling-type magic treasure is essentially a large spatial ring capable of storing beings full of life. As most of you know, the inheritance realm we currently live in is just a large dwelling-type magic treasure. Mine isn't nearly as grand, but it does hold about 40,000 square miles of land (the state of Kentucky is 40,408 square miles).

"It has been fully stocked with beasts at the various ranks of Mortal. Each of you youths will be randomly teleported into my magic treasure, which I have full control over, and your only job is to kill. Kill as many Mortal beasts as you can, and after 12 hours, I'll pull you out. The top 100 of you youths who have killed or gathered the most beasts will then move on to the tournament and will be able to fully represent your clans on the grand stage.

"There is only one rule: do not kill or maim your fellow humans.

"As you might suspect, you can steal other people's beast corpses, as long as you don't kill them.

"Now, this is where I would usually end it, but this year I have a special surprise," the patriarch said as he turned around and welcomed a young woman to his side.

"This here is my great-great-granddaughter, Thea. She is 20 years old this year and likely the youngest youth to enter the competition. I'm not bringing her up here to tell you to go easy on her. I'm here to tell you that for anyone who can defeat her, their clan and the prefecture they belong to will not have to pay taxes to my Redstone clan for the next five years, until the next Battle of the Region." Searᴄh the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

At the sound of this, all the Lord Prefects shifted in their seats and began to send looks to their most talented youths, clearly saying what should be done.

The patriarch of the Redstone clan, seeing this, smiled with excitement. This is exactly what he wanted to happen. His great-great-granddaughter was extremely talented, even more than him, but she was like a greenhouse flower, never being put under any real pressure. This was meant to be a tempering session for her, and he had now set a clear target on her back.

Silas watched as Thea then jumped down from the arena and, with a calm look as none of this fazed her, walked into the mix of the 1,200 gathered youths.

'She's gorgeous,' Silas couldn't help but think. From the first moment he saw her, he was enamored with her beauty.

She was tall, and her eyes were sharp and brown. Her nose was small, and her lush brown hair was tied up in a bun not to impede her movement. She wore a blue robe, but even through the robe, one couldn't help but notice her plentiful twin peaks and various curves in all the right places.

Xander quickly snapped out of his daydreams and focused on the event to come.

He looked up at the Redstone clan patriarch, who was ending his speech.

"Now, I'm going to come down there and pull you all into my magic treasure. Don't resist, and the second your feet hit the ground, the event begins." The Redstone patriarch then jumped down into the arena, and seconds later, Silas felt his surroundings change. He was now standing in a mountainous region with large trees all around.

Silas was only here to temper himself, but that didn't mean he didn't want to win, so he quickly set off searching for the first Mortal beast he could find.

Soon he came across a large cave, and he quickly entered it.

After about 20 seconds, he came across his first beast.

[Azure Snake (Fierce Beast) - Qi Cultivation: Peak Mortal - Body Cultivation: Peak Mortal]

"Hiss!" the snake hissed at him, clearly not happy it was being disturbed.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Shing!"

It only took him three hits to kill the beast.

'1 down,' he thought. He didn't know how many beasts he needed to kill to be in the top 100, so he was going to kill as many as he could as quickly as possible. He knew that this magic treasure only had Mortal beasts in it, so there likely wouldn't be a challenge strong enough to temper him here. He had to make it to the tournament portion of the event, and more specifically, he needed to make it to the later portions of the tournament to go up against the strongest youths of Moonvale Mountain.

After collecting the beast inside his spatial ring, he was quick to leave the cave in search of more beasts.

***

11 hours quickly went by, and Silas had managed to collect 12 Mortal beasts, 3 of which he stole from someone else.

'I hope this is enough to be in the top 100,' he thought. He had wanted to kill much more than this, but after the first two hours of the event, finding beasts became much harder, and while he was more than willing to steal the beast corpses of those weaker than him, he had only managed to run into one person so far.

He was currently running through the woods. There were only about 10 minutes left before the end of this event, and he didn't think he would run into any more beasts or another person, but he wasn't willing to give up hope. In his mind, the next beast he found might very well be what pushed him into the top 100.

He was looking around when he suddenly heard the sound of battle off in the distance. Without a second thought, he planted his feet and exploded toward the sound of battle.

It took him one minute running at his full speed to reach the battle, and he was both surprised and happy at what he saw.

[Human - Qi Cultivation: Late Mortal - Body Cultivation: Mid Mortal]

[Human - Qi Cultivation: Late Mortal - Body Cultivation: Late Mortal]

[Human - Qi Cultivation: Peak Mortal - Body Cultivation: Late Mortal]

[Human - Qi Cultivation: Peak Mortal - Body Cultivation: Peak Mortal]

[Human - Qi Cultivation: Peak Mortal - Body Cultivation: Peak Mortal]

[Human - Qi Cultivation: Peak Mortal - Body Cultivation: Peak Mortal]

There were somehow six humans here, seven if you counted him.

And while at first he thought it was just a battle royale of the six competitors, he quickly realized that it was actually a 5 versus 1.

'What are the odds I ran into her?' Silas thought with a smile, not at all unhappy with running into Thea. Not only was she drop-dead gorgeous, but if he could beat her, his Armstrong clan wouldn't have to pay taxes to the Redstone hegemon for the next five years.

***

***

[A/n: I changed some of the ranks it now goes:

1. Mortal

2. Transcendent

3. Revolving Core

4. Golden Core]