61 Backwater Region

"No… don't!" Adolf Gary shouted. Kael injected spiritual energy into his finger. The inscription then began fizzling into nothingness.

The next thing that happened shocked everyone. The Spirit Array stopped humming and it lost its vibrant colors. Then, bits and pieces of inscriptions and patterns began disappearing. Finally, the whole skeletal structure of the Spirit Array vanished into thin air.

In just one try, Kael had dispelled Adolf Gary's Spirit Array!

What did this mean? Kael had won the first challenge!

The whole crowd was instantly sent into an uproar.

"Heavens! What did I just see? Did he just dispel the Spirit Array in 5 seconds?!"

"You got to be kidding me. I have heard of Adolf Gary's exploits in Spirit Arrays. This defensive Spirit Array must be one of the most high tiered ones in his arsenal. How could Kael just dispel it so easily?"

"Oh my Three Gods. He didn't even scrutinize the Spirit Array in detail…"

There was a tinge of confusion and a huge sense of disbelief amongst the crowd about what just happened. Basically, without even going through the proper procedure of scrutinizing the Spirit Array, Kael had found out the weak point of the Spirit Array and crushed it in one try.

Such a feat was unheard of and deemed an impossible one in the Myriad Lower Region. In everyone's minds, they had started to truly view Kael as a monster that didn't originate from this region of the Hundred Realms.

Perhaps he was from the Myriad Upper Region, sent by one of the Five Great Academies to have a 'vacation' or 'internship' in this region? Or maybe… he didn't belong to the Myriad Domain at all in the first place…

The people at seat here were not privy to the confidential information of the details of the battle that happened during the demonic beast horde invasion. All they knew was that Kael was pivotal in the battle against the Venomancer which led to the victory and repulsion of the demonic beast horde.

As such, many of them, including the three youths who challenged Kael, thought that he was just some lucky dude who happened to know a few tricks up his sleeves and managed to pull off some feign at the most appropriate of times, repelling the Venomancer using dirty tricks.

The first challenge had proved the crowd to be sorely wrong.

First, he managed to conjure a reflective defensive Spirit Array. Of the many different defensive Spirit Arrays, those with reflective properties were too rare to find and was basically non-existent in this part of the world. Yet, Kael had shown through Adolf Gary's actions that it was possible.

Secondly, notwithstanding his own Spirit Array, Kael even managed to dispel Adolf Gary's Spirit Array with such ease. Maybe if he spent ten to 20 minutes scrutinizing the Spirit Array, and then using up both of his chances, it was more acceptable of an outcome that he had barely won Adolf Gary. However, Kael didn't do that. In 5 seconds, just taking a glance, he managed to break the Spirit Array in one try.

That was an absolute thrashing!

Adolf Gary stood there dumbfounded. He couldn't believe his eyes as he saw his own Spirit Array which he took pride in crumble in front of him. Neither could his ears register the words that Wallie Dawson spoke as he proclaimed that Kael was the winner of the first challenge.

To Adolf Gary, such an outcome was inconceivable in the first place. Initially, after he failed to break Kael's Spirit Array, he thought that they would be tied. This Spirit Array was a treasure which the City Lord of Anchorage City painstakingly obtained through several underground networks which extended to the Myriad Middle Region.

Granted, Kael had a defensive Spirit Array which was impossibly crafty. However, it would never occur to Adolf Gary that it was Kael's own invention instead of a lucky encounter in some ruin. Thus, Adolf Gary had absolute confidence that Kael didn't have the knowledge and ability to break his own defensive Spirit Array, which was actually something from a higher region.

The truth took a long time to register with Adolf Gary. It was only after a long while when the crowd had started to quieten down that Adolf Gary's senses came back to him.

"What… what did I just see? Is that an illusion? My Spirit Array is still there right? Tell me… TELL ME!!! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! HOW DID HE MANAGE TO ****ING BREAK MY SPIRIT ARRAY!" Adolf Gary started acting hysterically, unwilling to accept this version of facts laid out in front of him.

"Enough. Stop acting like a child. A loss is a loss Young Master." Finally, a representative from Anchorage City came out of the crowd and reined in the crazy Adolf Gary.

"Apologies Young Master Kael. We will stick to our end of the deal and join in for the production of the hybrid cores." The representative continued.

"Good. We welcome your partnership." Kael nodded in assent.

In actuality, Kael already knew what Spirit Array Adolf Gary was crafting. On his path to be the Invoker, he had memorized and practiced inscribing and creating countless Spirit Arrays of different functions and patterns.

The Spirit Array Adolf Gary crafted was a spin-off of one of the major branches of defensive Spirit Arrays Kael had seen before. Thus, according to Spirit Array building logic, it was as easy as counting numbers for Kael to see through the weak point of the Spirit Array.

Having won the first match, Kael felt somewhat relieved. At the very least, he didn't wrongly estimate the level of the cultivators in the Myriad Lower Region. They were indeed a backwater region as compared to the entirety of the Hundred Realms. That was the reason why it was so easy for Kael to control the situation here.

If this was the level of the cultivators, then, winning the second and even the third match wouldn't be a problem to Kael.

"Now… who's next?"