The duo walked right into a verbal battle between two tier 4 cultivators who unknowingly began to flare up with their auras.
"If you think so why didn't you go ahead and do it? There's no need to trample on my pride for such silly matters!" A man who looked no older than thirty-five and sported short red hair yelled at another man.
"Well, you started the whole matter without giving it any thought. And you call yourself a tier 4 existence," the second person who was also a man countered with a snort. The expert had plain black hair, only that it fell to his shoulders. He also looked to be in his mid-thirties but seemed slightly younger than the red-haired man.
"Oi oi...you guys should stop your bickering, you're disturbing the area with your stupid auras," the last person in the group said. The individual was a woman. She floated in the air while she had a big curved pipe which she used for smoking.
Noah and Elder Sarah took a few seconds to inspect the situation. The trio didn't seem to raise their voices, but each word they spoke reverberated through the entire building nonetheless. Their aura's was the reason for that event, but thankfully the necklace given to him by the guild fended those powerful pressures off. Creating an environment where tier 3's and 4's could hang out.
Clearing her throat with the intention of being heard, Elder Sarah looked to have had enough of their argument.
The trio turned their attention to them at that point and their eyes immediately fell on Noah's figure. Making him uncomfortable. Even if their consciousness had long since begun to inspect him.
Immediately after they arrived, Noah immediately checked out the spectacular details of the pagoda, but he still couldn't get enough of it.
The entire place was lit with bright golden lights allowing every detail to be visible to him. Right upon entry, the insides of the pagoda expanded in his eyes.
A few ten meters directly in front of the entry were large stairs that led to the four floors. The stairs were colored red and their handles were golden. The different floors of the pagoda could not be clearly seen from his position so he focused on the ground floor.
Noah could immediately spot numerous red doors lined up around him. The doors shimmered with the light of inscriptions as they generated an air of mystery. Noah desired to know where they led to.
The smooth cream-colored tiles that stood beneath him glimmered in the room's bright light and he could almost see his reflection.
"Is that the young man you spoke of," the red-haired man directed his words at Elder Sarah, seemingly forgetting about the verbal battle he had been in merely a few seconds ago.
Elder Sarah nodded as her eyes followed the man's movement towards Noah.
"I can sense something fundamentally special about him, but for some reason, I'm unable to go further," the red-haired man continued, hovering around Noah like an interesting test subject.
"The same for me..." the second man and the woman said In unison before glancing at each other. A silent interaction happened between the duo and Noah couldn't help but think they were in a relationship.
"Young man what is your name?" the red-haired man asked at some point.
"Aiden. I am Aiden," Noah replied without the slightest hitch.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you. Sarah has told us a lot about you, but we all struggle to believe it. You'll have to wow us to be allowed to register for the tournament of champions this late," the man went straight to the point and was even a bit hostile about it.
Noah glanced at Elder Sarah, and his eyes fell on her smile.
"He's good-looking. That I have to give him," the lady said from her position. Her words caused Noah to recall his looks. He and Elder Sarah had spoken about wielding a mask so as to not catch too much attention, but he would only have used it when the tournament started.
'I guess that's why he seems mad at me,' Noah thought following Sarah's lead into the room.
It seemed the whole ordeal would be quickly taken care of, but he understood that he would have to do things spectacularly to get into it. Lady Sarah had done all she could by getting them to even accept the offer, it was now left to him to take care of the rest.
The red-haired man brought them to the second floor where an even far numerous amount of ed doors lay. He took them towards a particular one and behind the door was a wide green walled room. Noah confirmed that the three cultivators were the only individuals inside the Pagoda.
The room would be totally empty if not for the humanoid figure standing at its very end.
The white floors of the room gave it a pristine look, but all Noah had eyes on was the silver humanoid figure.
The dummy shone with the light of inscriptions and even symbols or different colors.
In merely a few seconds upon their entry, Noah saw transparent walls emerge from the ground to create a box at one edge of the room, where the four experts went into, leaving him alone with the dummy.
"That is Grella. A training dummy. But not any type of training dummy. She's one with an intelligent simulation gotten from the compilation of different martial arts. She evolves in a fight depending on what level I set her to. And to pass the test you have to beat her at level 5," the red-haired man explained from within the box.
His words caused the silver dummy in the distance to emit a mechanical whirl after which a vibrant humming sound emanated from its figure. The event that followed would be considered its awakening since all its inscriptions blazed brightly before dying down. The dummy began to move afterward, and Noah felt shocked to see that it had begun to do light arm and leg stretches.
Noah shot a questioning gaze at Elder Sarah at that scene but she shrugged with a wider smile.
"However, since you are registering late and your master has never stopped talking about you, ill be pushing your requirement one level higher than the standard," the red-haired man announced, and Noah could almost hear his joy.
Noah furrowed his brows after the man's words, he didn't understand how strong those levels were but seeing Lady Sarah's smile grow wider and more confident at the announcement, and it served as a reassurance to him that he would still be capable of defeating it.