The young man before Pearl had a cultivation base in the Immortal Origin realm. It was early enough that if Alex were to fight him, he could easily win.

But for Pearl, who had barely managed to break through to the Immortal Ascendant 3rd realm after nearly 25 years of first breaking into the Immortal realm, this was a tough battle.

His cultivation speed was quite fast when compared to everyone else, but because he didn’t receive as many resources for his cultivation as his brother did, he lagged behind.

Pearl cleared his mind and focused on his opponent, putting all of his mind into this battle. This was not just training. This was an actual battle. To get the best out of this, he had to treat this as an actual life-or-death battle.

When the battle began, Pearl was a step late in acting. The cultivation base difference also affected their speed as well, so Pearl was much slower.

Pearl stabbed forward, letting out a sharp attack, targeted directly toward his opponent. His opponent did the same, and because Pearl acted later, the clash between the two attacks happened closer to him, forcing him to deal with the remnant force.

Not only that but because Pearl’s attack was clearly weaker than the two due to their cultivation base, most of the force was blown in his direction.

Pearl’s body glowed golden for a moment as he used the White Tiger’s Dominating Body technique to take on the remnant of the attack. Once it went away, he retaliated.

Grimsight had taught him two very important things to Pearl among many others. First, if Pearl was fighting someone within the same cultivation range as him, he should immediately get close and take advantage of his superior body to fight a battle where one could only defend and never dodge.

However, if the opponent was too strong, he had to stay away and dodge while also retaliating with his own attacks. If running away was not an option, he needed to stay away at least and fight back with Spear aura.

Pearl wasn’t sure which situation was this. His opponent was strong enough for him to not get too close as he would get hurt. But he was also not so strong that he needed to be on the defensive the entire time.

In the end, Pearl didn’t have Spear Aura, so staying away wouldn’t help him as much. Thus, he got closer.

His Spear flashed brightly, covered in Spear Qi, as he fought against the young man. The young man accepted Pearl’s challenge and got into a close combat fight with Pearl where he could easily dominate against Pearl with his cultivation base.

But to his utter surprise, he found it quite difficult to suppress Pearl. Pearl was like a snake, slithering his way around the combat, his spear finding opportunities that the young man hadn’t even known were there.

Pearl had trained with Grimsight enough that he could see the flaws in his opponent’s spear. His opponent was strong, but compared to Grimsight, he was a mere infant playing with a stick.

Pearl dominated the close combat so quickly, that his opponent couldn’t fight back with just skills alone and had to begin using techniques. His spear glowed bright red suddenly, forcing Pearl back.

Pearl quickly created space and spun his spear before him. It remained spinning in front of him as the energy he put into it created a barrier of sorts from the circular spin.

It was one of the 5 spear techniques he had learned from Grimsight.

The man released his fire attack which struck Pearl’s spear barrier, destroying it at once, throwing both Pearl and the spear backward.

Pearl rolled on the ground and came to a stop before quickly getting back up. He pulled his spear back up and readied for the next attacks.

Grimsight watched the battle from the side, frowning internally as he did so. It was clear that Pearl had the talent for battle and even some battle experience, but for some reason, he wasn’t taking this battle seriously enough.

Either that or he was so focused on fighting with his Spear alone that he forgot that this was a serious battle. The opponent hadn’t entirely brought out his best as well, but that was understandable. He was stronger and he was clearly holding back not to hurt Pearl.

Even so, he was using enough power to overwhelm Pearl, and yet, Pearl didn’t fight back in the same manner.

“STOP!” Grimsight shouted, and both the fighters stopped at once.

Both of them looked toward Grimsight with a puzzled look.

Grimsight gestured Pearl toward him and waited until Pearl was right before him.

“Yes, senior?” Pearl asked.

“Do you not understand that this is supposed to be a serious fight?” Grimsight asked.

Pearl gave a confused look. “I do,” he said. “I am fighting seriously.”

“You are fighting seriously with a Spear. That is not the same as you fighting seriously,” Grimsight explained. “I taught you the spear to master it and incorporate it into your own fighting style, not to entirely fight with it alone. It is never one or the other. It’s always together.”

“Mix together what you know with what you are learning. Bring out the best in both. That is the only way for you to improve further.”

Pearl paused, only now realizing his own flaw. This wasn’t just a spear battle. This was a battle with everything in it. He turned toward his opponent, watching him with a confused look. Hadn’t he used just his Spear too? Pearl hadn’t noticed him using anything else. As he thought along that line, Pearl finally realized where he had mistaken.

It was not that the young man hadn’t brought out everything he had, but rather what he was brought out was already everything he had. He was an alchemist. He didn’t have intense knowledge when it came to fighting.

What he knew right now was all he knew.

‘I was unintentionally holding myself back,’ Pearl thought. ‘I need to incorporate everything I know into my fight.’

A realization dawned on him that he had known in the back of his head but had never said it out loud. For the past 20-plus years that he had been training, he had been focusing entirely on the Spear aspect of his battle alone. He had always known that in a real battle, he would use everything he could use. And yet, when it came to it, he was still holding back.

‘Use everything I have,’ Pearl thought, taking a few steps back as he prepared.

“Are you two ready?” Grimsight asked, and the both of them nodded. “And this time, don’t hold back. Go for the kill. I will be here to protect you.”

The both of them nodded.

“Alright, begin.”

Immediately, Pearl’s body duplicated into 5 different clones, each one giving off the same aura as the other ones. Not a single person could tell which was real.

Grimsight looked at the 5 clones with his eye to see the truth, but to his shock, he couldn’t tell any of them apart.

‘Not even the Divine realm White Tigers I saw in the war were this good with their technique,’ he thought. ‘Just how talented is this kid?’