23 Chapter 19 - Masked cultivator takes the stage again

After all of this the saber man felt the pill with his fingers in his pocket, he bow and left quickly. Still the other cultivators in the room was shocked what was transpired. One of the shocked ones was Takahara Che. Filled with questions like,

Why would waste your precious time with someone that has lost everything? Don't you know that might make right? Why did he look so grateful at the end even when we heard he wouldn't help? Did you know who he was? Who was his Pill master?

Even if Takahara Che had a lot of questions she understood that Alex had kindness which many would not have in this type of world, but he wasn't naively kind.

What transpired here would leak soon and when it did, Alex mysteriousness would increase several fold. As with the pill master he had spoken of, anyone could only guess who it might be. Some would of course believe the masked cultivator was just lying about the so called pill master in order to protect himself.

After a minute or so the judge walk up to the arena again

"Contestant Token number ... and Token number.... please come to the stage! "

As it turned out it was Alex turn and again it was the staff user turn. Most people at this point would be nervous as his opponent showed no mercy previously, as with Alex he didn't feel anything in particular, all that was on his mind was if he should use a technique called golden reinforcements. This technique was very hard to grasp for normal life form yet for Alex it took a mere fraction of a second. It allowed you to protect any body part of your choosing by gathering all of your Qi to where you wanted it protect, hence creating shield. Even so the more qi you put in on the said specific spot the stronger it would be. Of course you could use only half of your Qi to protect the selected body part yet doing so would result in many weaknesses to crop up, such as others would notice your manipulation of your Qi, less protection as you would use less Qi on the other body parts. This is also why he could survive that incredible strong attack in the previous tower area.

Lucky for Alex all of these draw back was neglected as he had vastly more control of his Qi making it almost impossible for others to notice something was amiss and with his superior primordial Qi he wouldn't lose out on the protection by much, 5 % to be accurate. So with all of this was the technique unbeatable with the usage of Alex? Hell no... As with everything even if u master it, with enough force you could destroy it. As with any known material or Qi it has a tensile strength limit (1) ... cross that limit and it would break. This is why Cultivators with deeper cultivation should be stronger and have better defense against someone with lower cultivation.

Coming up to the stage just as before Alex took a bow to show his respect. Many believed he did this for fear that if he didn't, the same thing would play out again.

"At least you have honor and shows respect " "As such you may call me young master Lou Ren "

A loud commotion happened after they heard his name... many had speculated that it was Ren from the Lou clan but didn't dare to believe it.

Someone from the audience couldn't help ask, who is he?

He is the next in line to become the clan leader you fool, an old man answered.

The judge put his hand up signifying that he would announce the beginning of the match so the crowd and the opponents would get ready.

Alex stepped back and got in a ready position while his opponent stood at the same spot with his pole behind his back.

Go!!! Yelled the judge.

Alex bend his knees and sprang forth like a ball shooting from a pitching machine. His opponent still didn't make any moments. Alex at this point only focus on his breathing and all other noise and distractions faded away. He moved his hand up ready to strike when he notice his opponent finally moved his staff ready to counter his attack. He couldn't help feeling a rush seeing this and e few mil seconds later a strong heart beat could be felt. Lou Ren weapon moved fast and was just about to reach Alex unguarded hand, he couldn't help showing an glee face as he knew as soon as it hit Alex it would cause him great pain.

Alex exhaled

[Golden reinforcement]

Alex split up his qi and guarded his whole arms and hands.

Bam!

The sound wasn't too loud but Ren whole arm shook from the rebound. As he had not held back any of his power all the fingers in his right hand twisted and his wrist snapped. This happened so quickly that his eyes had only the time to show a shocked expression instead of pain. Moment later a blood curdling scream came from his mouth.

My hand!!!! Ah!!!

Alex stepped back with a confused expression under his mask which begged an answer for why Ren didn't hold back, as it was a common practice to gauge the opponent's power and defense capability's before going all out"

The judge on the stage couldn't help shrink back and then draw a deep cold breath with the audience at this horrific scene. Many strong masters sneered at Ren's foolishness as they also though the same as Alex had.

He dropped his staff on the stage and kept on screaming. Now some totally expected this to happen, as the contestant's age and experience hadn't fully developed, still losing your weapon is a fatal flaw leaving you defenseless. At this though Alex couldn't help say fool insides his head and push forward. He clinched his fist and hit the staff user hard under his chin making him pass out. After Ren laid there unmoving for a few seconds the judge declared.

Alex won the battle yet he felt like a man that was about to reach climax yet something took it away leaving only frustration in the end.