C

The Ximen Family Meet Tournament finally started...

All the people who came to watch the tournament was sitting on the sides of the training grounds. They surrounded the training grounds in a box formation. Inside this box was four huge stages(just imagine like in D-ball Z tournament, but four of them).

A middle-aged man then arrived while flying in a huge green sword in the air. He then jumped down to one of the stages then said

"I welcome everyone in our Ximen Family Meet tournament, I'm gonna explain the rules for this tournament" he then explained the tournament rules.

Each of the villages could send five of their youths to join this tournament. But since there were a lot of competitors joining this time, they are gonna separate the competitors in four blocks. The tournament is just simple, if you threw your enemy outside the stage, or if they surrendered, you'll advanced to the next round.

"Now I'm gonna tell you the rewards in this tournament, the top 20 youths will have their resources given to their villages doubled during this year. The top 3 could have a chance to learn our middle earth-grade martial skills, and the winner of the tournament could have a chance to learn a heaven-grade martial skill" the middle-aged man then said with his smile full of glee.

After he finished saying his words, the people in the stands gasped, even the guests from the other respected Sacred families exclaimed. They really didn't expect that the rumors said was true. They could only regret that they couldn't join the tournament and watch the competitors with envy.

The middle-aged man then continued to say that the competition would be divided into four blocks. In each block, the competitors would battle a one on one match. Once you lose, you'll be kicked out right away, since there were too many competitors this time and they needed to finish this event today. So there was no losers bracket. The sole winner of each block then would proceed to the finals battling the winners in the other blocks.

The tournament was quite simple and easy this time around, so the audience and competitors easily understood it. The tournament then started and the staffs went to the competitors to let them draw their blocks.

Kyle had drawn the block D, whilst Chi had drawn the block A. Kyle then went to the stage of block D. standing around the stage, Kyle could see the youths around it. They were ranging from 8th to 9th stage in cultivation. Kyle already knew that he would have no competition in this tournament, so he was quite bored.

But he wanted to get, or at least see that so-called 'Heaven grade martial skill', so he aimed to win this competition. But he was in a dilemma since the Ximen family would never hand it over a stranger. He knew the Ximen Family was only using it for something dangerous. like a big poisonous cake, waiting to be eaten. But Kyle wanted a piece of that cake despite being poisoned.

Since he doesn't know what they are scheming, and since he was confident with his strength. 'For starters, ill take the championship and see how they react.' Kyle thought while contemplating his decisions.

The battle was now ongoing, the youths were trying their very best. Kyle's turn to battle hasn't still arrived so he was calmly observing the stage while thinking about his future plans.

While observing the stage at block D, Kyle suddenly heard a commotion at the block A's area. So he looked towards it.

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Block A

Tang Chi was now called by the referee to walked up to the stage. His first enemy was a 9th stage genius from one of the ten intermediate villages. When the audience saw this, they felt pity for the youth. But when the middle-aged man and the other elders around them saw him, were shocked. They didn't expect another genius to hail from one of the villages under him.

"Who is that youth, what's his background?" The middle-aged man asked the people around them.

Another middle-aged man stepped in and said, "Head, He is Tang Chi from a small village situated in the west. He is now 18 years old and the grandson of their village head. Their village is very weak and small, but luckily... A genius was born from them. It is also said that two years ago... four 8th stage beasts attack them, but they said that they defeated two of them and the others retreated." He said while kneeling towards the Head.

"Ohw, he's younger than Long'er, still only 18, yet he already broke through the Xiantian Realm. Hmmm, this could be dangerous for the future... but this is good too. Long'er could use a good rival, especially now with his newly acquired legacies. The middle-aged man whispered.

Tang Chi drew his sword and prepared for battle, his enemy was only a 9th stage cultivator so he wasn't so fazed about him, but he didn't wanna underestimate him, so he readied himself.

The enemy youth was a blade user so he drew his blade. The two of them started to battle. But what the spectators didn't expect was that after the two of them clashed once. The enemy youth's blade had already been thrown away. The youth couldn't even defend one blow against Chi and Chi's sword was now aiming at the youth's throat.

"Surrender", Chi said to his enemy. The youth could only surrender and he went to take his blade on the ground. When the crowd saw this, they couldn't help but applaud. Even the spectators at the respected sacred families area were astounded with Chi's performance.

"Winner, Tang Chi" the referee then said. The crowds shocked expression was stopped by the referee's announcement and they gave large applause. Kyle just looked for a bit and he went back to observing the surroundings. He was just curious for a bit, he already knew how strong Chi is so he already expected Chi to have no problems reaching the finals.

Similarly, a youth with a bored looking face at the Block B was observing Chi. This was Ximen Tiaolong, the genius who survived after venturing the forbidden ruins. Tiaolong was surprised at the speed of Chi's cultivation. He remembered the kid who was from a small village, who had already stepped into *one with the sword*. He was quite disappointed when they last battle since he was expecting a much better battle when battling against someone who stepped in to *one with the sword*. But looking at him now, he felt quite excited.

Ximen Tiaolong wasn't entirely expecting something out of this tournament. He was already sure that he would take the championship of this tournament, so he didn't complain when the leaders of the Ximen Village had decided to use his newly found martial skill as a prize for this tournament. But seeing the growth of Tang Chi made him a little bit excited.

True... He only used his 8th stage energy while battling Tang Chi last time, but it still wasn't such a fair fight since the body of a 9th stage Houtian is a lot better than the body of the 8th stage. But now that the two of them had the same cultivation. They could now fight for real... fair and square.

Of Course, he also had his pride as a genius. He doesn't want himself to be overtaken by a younger youth, so he wanted to battle Chi to made sure who is stronger than who.

While he was staring at Chi, Chi could also felt someone staring at him so he looked towards Ximen Tialong. The two eyes met, no words were spoken, but both of them knew what the other wanted to say 'Let's have a rematch!'

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Block D

After a series of fights, Kyle was finally called upon the stage. His enemy was only an 8th stage cultivator. Kyle walked towards the stage and both of them introduced their selves.

"Kyle, from Tang Village", he said.

"Shi Fu, from Shi Village", the youth said.

The two then started to fight, Shi Fu charged towards Kyle and threw a punch. Kyle wasn't scared of the village or anyone in here at the Ximen Village. but he was wary of the village's atmosphere and the rewards, he felt that a scheme was brewing, so he wanted to be discreet first and observe the situation. So he decided to not use his full strength and just use basic attacks to silently reach the finals.

So when the youth threw a punch he only parried it gently. The youth and the audience could feel that Kyle had an 8th stage cultivation. So they weren't really surprised about Kyle parrying the punch. Luckily, He was only a Xiantian in his body... This made him able to suppressed his Xiantian Cultivation in his body. So the elders from the Ximen Family hasn't noticed his Xiantian Cultivation.

The fight continued for another minute, he dodged magnificently and hit his opponent a few times, until his opponent finally gave in. "Winner, Kyle." The referee then said.

Only a few applause could be heard, the spectators were quite amazed by Kyle's combat ability. But they only dubbed him as a veteran fighter, since there wasn't anything eye-catching to him except for his looks and his martial arts. They then soon forgot about Kyle and the fights went on.