Void Cultivation

Once they were now in the middle of the stage, the playful young man spoke casually. "Here I come!" Sylvia nodded seriously and in the next second there was a flash of light.

The young man rushed out, he was so fast that the participants could hardly see him. A red light shone from Sylvia's eyes at that moment. She activated Dragon eyes!

The young man was affected by Dragon eyes as his inadvertently slowed down to a speed which everyone could follow with their eyes. After the red glow in her eyes died out, Sylvia clenched her hand a lotus flower tattoo appeared on her wrist.

As the lotus tattoo appeared, the air in the stage seemed to distort a bit as a lotus flower, similar to the tattoo on Sylvia's hand appeared. This lotus flower let out invisible pollen that drifted to all corners of the arena.

As soon as the tattoo appeared, the youth's speed reduced even further. The youth had a look of surprise, but there was no fear on his face. Instead, he let out a low roar and the spirit energy in his body condensed into his hands and legs. His speed tripled even under the suppression of Sylvia's Dragon eyes and the lotus flower.

'This cultivator must be practicing a speed type cultivator art that greatly boosts and speed and agility! But I am not sure if it also boosts his strength as well. How would my Sky Mist art contend against him?' Grey thought inwardly. It was now he just noticed that the Sky Mist art did not lean towards brute force or speed. Instead, it seemed to affect the internal structures of the human body.

Seeing the youth still rushing forth with great speed and rapidly closing down the distance, Sylvia bit down on her lip and spat out a mouthful of blood unto the lotus flower.

The lotus flower seemed to have taken on a dull red color and a red mist came out of it. The youth, with a smile still on his face, suddenly stopped and started creating hand seals.

After creating several hands seals, he let out a low roar. "Derisive strike!!" His body seemed to turn illusionary as his speed suddenly increased once more. A ghost like dagger that looked to be disappearing appeared in his hand.

This dagger was not actually disappearing, it was just that his speed was reaching a frightening level. Grey raised his eyebrows. Even with Dragon eyes, he could not discern the youths movement. He seemed to be moving even faster.

With a cold snort, Sylvia raised her hand. A red glow appeared in his fingertips before the red glow covered ther entire hand.

In silence, she dashed forward towards the youth who had already crossed the distance to Sylvia. His dagger, flickering between an illusionary and corporeal state. Very soon, both of them clashed and a muffled boom rang out.

Sylvia flew out and coughed out a mouthful of blood. She rolled a couple of times before regaining her balance. Her face was pale and there was a long blood red line on her hand. It was clear that they were not in the same power level. With Sylvia being in the eighth level of Qi accumulation, while the youth being at least in the ninth level, their levels of strength was sure go differ.

The youthful boy only retreated back by two steps. He raised his hand and gave a thumbs up to Sylvia before rushing out again. His speed was so fast that everyone could barely follow with their eyes. M!|*V|LEM*+P.YR is the h#o%m^e! of t!his ch^a.pt-e-r#

They clashed shortly after with Sylvia being at a disadvantage, but she didn't seem to be faxed. She just cleaned the blood that was on the side of her lips.

This happened for an unknown amount of time until the ten minutes time limit had elapsed. After ten minutes, Sylvia was in a pathetic state, her clothes soaked in her own blood and several scratches appeared on her skin. She was panting heavily while the playful youth on the under hand was spotless.

He gave a small smile before walking off the stage. All through the match, neither of them had said anything. Sylvia took a quick glance at their team.

Zayne waved awkwardly but Sylvia ignored him. Soon, a bright silver light descended and she was teleported out from the stage.

After Sylvia's battle, Grey did not watch any more battles and instead decided to sit down and think. 'Miss Tyler said I should give it all, but this trial is just too much. I cannot reveal everything about me! So I will only use my strength and skills.' He said to himself as he thought of a strategy to use against his opponent.

Sylvia was the first participant to pass this test, so she quickly gained some attention. But because she wasn't here, the attention soon died down.

Soon, the fourth participant went up but was soon crushed. Although none of them were killed, they were gravely injured. And their opponents didn't seem to have any killing intent towards them. But that didn't make Grey any less wary. He noticed that their opponents were random, and most of them being youngsters like themselves. But it was clear that they had been in the Sky Mist academy for some time, so they had improved themselves tremendously.

'So in order to pass this test, you must defeat your opponent from Sky Mist academy, or last ten minutes long.' Grey said inwardly, hoping his opponent wouldn't be so tough that he would have to showcase too much of his abilities. He could afford to show his comprehensive ability, but he couldn't show his abnormal healing abilities. Or the sword art he had comprehended.

During the days they were flying on the magic ship, the Captain told him not to show off too much of his abilities. Especially his sword art! It was just too rare and hard to comprehend a sword art, the amount of luck needed was... At the very least he could gain some unwanted attention from unwanted people.

After all, Sky Mist city was still a city. Cultivation in the old times was always a tricky affair. You could get yourself killed just because someone else feels jealous of you. So the best way to avoid that was to put yourself out of the spotlight as much as possible.

As all this was going on in his head, the fourth participant was already knocked out of the ring. His opponent, on the other hand was barely covered in dust.

He shook off the drops of blood on his hand with a disgusted expression and walked off the stage with indifference.

Grey watched all this in silence. The Sky Mist cultivators were way stronger than normal cultivators. A cultivator from the Sky Mist academy in the seventh level of Qi accumulation, could fight against a sect elder from the shadow sect which was in the perfected level of Qi accumulation.

The reason for this being the level of cultivation art. In the second Continent, cultivation arts had four tiers. Cultivation arts that could only be practiced by certain individuals in particular realms were within the first to second tier. For a example, the Sky Mist academy art, 'Sky Mist art' which could be practiced by Qi accumulation cultivators, was in the third tier because it could be continued even in the Foundation Establishment realm.

The art name was then changed from Sky Mist art to Sky Freezing art. The Shadow sect art was only tiered in the second level because after the Qi accumulation realm, there was no continuation for Foundation Establishment cultivators. This did not apply to the Shadow sect secret art though. Secret arts were special because they did not directly affect the cultivators level and instead just focused on one particular characteristics.

Anyone could learn a special art! It just needed patience and a lot of comprehensive ability. Something most youths did not have. Grey was able to learn the sword art back in the corroded zone ony because he focused on it a lot and even practiced that single sword slash everytime. Most youths did not have that type of patience, but they would have malicious intent fueled by jealousy. So to avoid any future problems, he decided to put a limit for himself.

Besides, he also wanted to see how strong he was now that he was in the sixth level of Qi accumulation. From the beginning, he noticed that his strength as a cultivator was always higher than his level. He didn't know if it was because of the art he practiced, or any other unknown factors. He just knew that this was a fact. He could probably fight cultivators in the eight level of Qi accumulation without his powerful techniques. Relying on skill alone.

'Let's just wait and see'

The fifth match also followed a predetermined route. The participant was knocked out rather aggressively. Not even having the chance to put up a fight.

When the sixth person went up, he employed a tactic similar to Sylvia and waited for the ten minutes to run out. His opponent was very frustrated but you could see that the sixth participant was trying his best to stay away from his opponent.

When the ten minutes finally elasped, Grey calmly walked up to the stage. As he was slowly walking up, some people that were in the same batch with him during the talent test and comprehension test whispered subtly.

"It's him, he's the one who walked one hundred steps in the talent test!"

"Are you sure? Wait, he looks familiar! Wasn't he also the one who nearly comprehended one hundred percent of Dragon eyes?"

"Are you crazy? Does that look like him?... Wait, he does look a bit familiar."

Grey heard these whispers but decided to ignore them. They did not anything to pose a threat to him... yet. But if he finds a malicious intent, he would kill immediately. Yes, he was that desicive!