Chambord’s Steps

Some wise people saw a lot of information through this opening ceremony.

It was heard that a lot of noble families and high-level ministers voiced their opinions and recommended other people for hosting the competition. However, Emperor Yassin who was really ill went against all recommendations and pointed Dominguez as the person who would be in charge of the whole competition.

This meant that Second Prince Dominguez still held an important position in the emperor's mind; it didn't go down when the war started.

When some people saw Dominguez standing on the stage with unparalleled presence, they became indecisive again; they weren't sure if supporting Arshavin was a good idea anymore.

The opening ceremony as simple. After Dominguez welcomed everyone and went over the rules, the 50 masters each got a number just like the previous rounds of matches. Fei got No.22, a simple number.

After the masters got their number, they entered a draw for their opponents.

Fei got No.1, and it meant that Fei's first battle would be with someone who previously drew the number 1. Fei wondered which battle region and which kingdom his opponent was from.

"Better not be a warrior from Chambord, or it would be a sad story." Fei prayed.

This matchmaking system was full of uncertainty and surprises. There was a chance that warriors from the same kingdom would face each other, and Chambord's chance was extremely high because they had eight warriors in the competition. The empire knew situations like this would happen, but it was necessary to keep the entire competition fair and square. This process won't let the big families and superpowers to control the competition.

As the matches between the masters were taking place, the 25 teams from the five battle regions were also going to participate in the team matches. Each team had 50 elite soldiers and 20 substitute soldiers.

The rules between the master matches and team matches were similar. Each team would draw a number that represented them and a number that determined their opponent. The team that was last standing would win the title of Number One Kingdom. In order to install more fairness, soldiers and warriors who were above three-star weren't allowed to participate.

Chambord's team had 50 most powerful Saint Seiyas and 20 substituting Bylaw Officers.

...

"I didn't expect myself to have such a bad luck. I didn't expect to encounter your majesty in the first battle."

Diego Milito who was from a level 2 affiliated kingdom in western battle region sighed as he stepped on No.1 Sword-Testing Stage.

When this tall and bulky swordsman knew his first opponent would be [Sky Covering Fist], he gave up the idea of winning. However, he didn't surrender. After the first few days of competition, battling with the king of Chambord was the dream of a lot of warriors. Everyone knew that the king of Chambord doesn't kill his opponents, and he would sometime point out his opponents' areas of improvement so they could make progressions.

Fei smiled as he stood on the stage.

He had a good impression of this opponent who looked just and brave.

He recalled his opponent from the booklet that Paris gave him last night. This Diego Milito had a strong sense of justice, and he was simple and straightforward. His fighting style was also simple and straightforward. From what Matt Razi wrote in the booklet, it felt like this man had knightly virtues. Somehow, this man reminded Fei of the main character called Guo Jing in a Wuxia Novel called "The Legend of The Condor Heroes"; Guo Jing was not the smartest of a bunch, but he achieved greatness via hard work and doing the right things.

Fei would always go easy on such opponent and try to teach them a thing or two.

Soon, the blueish water curtain-like magic array lit up, and the first match of the day began with the announcement of the judge and the cheers of the audience.

"Please teach me a thing or two, your majesty." Milito was very sincere, and his expression was very earnest.

"As you wish." Fei smiled.

Blue sword energies dashed out of Milito's sword like the waves in the ocean, and his first strike was completed in the blink of an eye.

Milito's fighting style was really neutral and broad. His strikes were all standard without any creativity; they looked a little rigid. However, such rigid strikes were extremely powerful in the hands of a just person like Milito.

Too bad Milito was facing Fei.

Even an idiot knew that Milito was no match for the king of Chambord. The so-called match was a waste of time.

Fei didn't use all of his strength and defeat his opponent in a split second. Rather, he carefully observed Milito's strikes; he even saw Milito's ultimate technique [Anger of Earth Tiger] twice.

Finally, Milito blushed and surrendered as the people in the crowd booed at him.

However, Fei was not anxious at all.

The king who cherished talent didn't care about the bored and anxious audience. He patiently explained to Milito about the flaws and shortcomings in his techniques. After learning from that mysterious man and reading the foundational notes written by Emperor Yassin these days, the king's theoretical knowledge increased by a lot. Although he wasn't a professor in this area, he could easily instruct a grassroots warrior like Milito who got where he was only through hard work.

This surprised Diego Milito.

He hoped that the king of Chambord would instruct him a little, and that was why he tried his best in the booing noises from the crowd. Now with some brief lecturing from the king of Chambord, he felt like a lot of issues with cultivation that had bothered him for a while were all easily dissected.

Milito memorized everything Fei said, thanked Fei, and jumped off of the stage to end this instructive match.

After the judge announced the winner, Fei also jumped off the stage and returned to the resting area of Chambord.

Just as Fei walked into the temporary tent, he saw Torres, Pierce, Drogba, Oleg, and Cech who were already waiting in the tent. They already finished their matches.

"Eh? Returned? Did you guys win or lose?" Fei asked that with a smile. Without seeing any injuries on his men, he already guessed the outcomes.

"Your majesty, those opponents are just too weak. We easily won the first round! We didn't expect you to take about half an hour to finish your first match." Pierce and Drogba talked and explained what had happened. Most of them defeated their opponents in ten strikes.

But due to the order of the matches, both Inzagi and Elena hadn't started their matches yet.

"Although you guys won, don't be too full of yourselves. The matches you guys will face from now on will be very different; there are a lot of masters. If you guys encounter masters like [One Sword], [Fire and Wind Dual Warriors], [Bloody Duel Blade], and [Silver Armored Vicious Sword], you guys will have headaches."

After seeing the excitement on his men's faces, he had to be a doubles advocate.

Inzagi and Elena's matches were about to begin, so Fei and his men left the tent and squeezed to the No. 8 Sword-Testing Stage.

[Deadly Assassin of Shadow] Philip-Inzagi's match started when Fei and his men got there.

Inside the water-elemental magic array, shadows were everywhere. Metal-colliding noises sounded and sparks appeared. Unlike the opponents that the warriors of Chambord faced so far, Inzagi met a very powerful master. This thin young man was in a hard battle.

Fei saw this coming.

Strength was everything. Inzagi was the weakest of the bunch, and he was the warrior of Chambord that was the most likely to lose.

Although Inzagi worked as a mercenary in Hot Spring Gate, he never experienced real killings that took place on the battlefields; most of the missions he and York completed were simple errand types.

Naturally, Inzagi was thin and his body was inferior to soldiers like Pierce and Drogba; his body was even weaker than Torres who was just a regular civilian before he started training. In addition, Inzagi encountered Fei very late. Although his body was strengthened by the lighter version of [Hulk Potion], not a lot of time had passed. Currently, he was only a mid-tier two-star warrior.

If it wasn't for his terrifying natural talent for going stealth and not leaking any of his scents as well as his luck during the previous matches, this young man who was an assassin wouldn't even make it into the top 50 despite the hard battles he fought.

But his luck ended here in the first round of the match.

His current opponent was a low-tier five-star warrior from a level 3 affiliated in the eastern battle region.

Despite Inzagi's natural super talent for going stealth and his hard work, he was in a terrible situation.

His five-star opponent was wearing a hard armor that his blade couldn't go through, and his opponent had a wind-elemental warrior energy which made the man fast and agile. Although this opponent couldn't detect where Inzagi was, he was able to use his superior reaction and reflex to dodge Inzagi's attacks and successfully counterattack.

[Deadly Assassin of Shadow] was about to lose.

This might be the first loss that Chambord was going to experience in this competition.