Alex felt refreshed on the day the tournament was set to begin.

“Are you ready, brother?” Pearl asked.

Alex nodded. “I’ve been preparing for this for so many decades now,” he said. “I’m more than ready.”

They walked out and met up with Silvermist and Grimsight. “Do not be nervous. You will do fine,” Silvermist said, fixing Alex’s robe, even though it didn’t need any fixing. It was clear that he was the one nervous here.

“We should get moving. Might find a better place to stay if we go there early,” he said.

“I don’t believe we will be entering at all, brother Grimsight,” Silvermist said. “With the amount of participants I see, we will have to stay outside while the tournament takes place inside.”

Grimsight supposed that was correct. “They have managed to keep under wraps everything about the tournament, huh?”

“Yes,” Silvermist said. “Although, I am surprised one of the things that was discussed during our meetings might have been decided. I look forward to seeing how it will be handled.”

Alex was curious but knew he couldn’t ask his master what it was. His master was under oath and could not speak. “Let’s leave,” Silvermist said and they walked out.

The streets were filled with people making their way toward the large square where Alex had been the other day. The sheer number astonished even Grimsight.

“I haven’t seen numbers like this since the war,” he said softly.

They had to walk shoulder to shoulder with the others who made their way to where the tournament was being held. As they arrived, there was a barricade all around, only allowing people who were registered to go in.

Alex realized that his master couldn’t move past this point. “It seems I will have to go alone, master,” he said.

“That’s alright, go on,” Silvermist said. “I doubt there will be any actual contests today.”

Alex once again couldn’t help but be curious about what was going to happen today. If there was no actual contest going on today, then… would it just be some speech and then be over?

That didn’t feel right.

“Brother, they aren’t letting us beasts go,” Pearl said. “I think you need to take me with you instead.”

Alex looked at where the group of Divinities were checking through and nodded. “It appears so,” he said. “I’ll see you later then.”

Pearl nodded and flew into his Beast Space. Instead of going into Soul Space, Alex had Pearl go into his Beast Space since they were not allowed to use Soul Space during the tournament. He wasn’t sure how they would notice if he did, but he couldn’t rely on his lack of knowledge.

He had to play everything as close to normal as possible. That meant no placing beasts into and out of Soul Space.

There was also the case of Whisker, who was inside of his Soul Space. He had contemplated for the past 3 days on whether Whisker should be in his Soul Space or his Beast Space, and after deep contemplation, he had decided that he could only let Whisker remain in the Soul Space.

Depending on how long the tournament was going to last, he couldn’t access his Soul Space for that period of time, and he had plants and beasts to take care of within the Soul Space.

Whisker was the only one who could do that.

Alex was next in line to enter and at that point, Silvermist patted him on his shoulders. “Do not force yourself to do anything in there,” he said. “Whatever the result, you have already made me proud with your progress. Even if you fail in the tournament, you will make a great alchemist in real life. Just remember that.”

Alex nodded. “Still, I won’t disappoint you, master,” he said.

Silvermist grinned. “Of course. You wouldn’t be my disciple if you did.”

Grimsight gave a slight nod. “The best of luck to you, young man. May fate be on your side this day.”

Alex thanked the two and turned around as his turn came. He showed his talisman and was allowed inside the barricade.

Past the barricade, he followed the flow of the other participants and made his way to the green park where people were working previously. There was a teleportation formation set up since that day, ready to take them into the secret realm.

Alex wondered what the secret realm would be like. Would there be large platforms where they would perform Alchemy? Would there be massive formations? Was there an alchemy garden inside, perhaps?

Alex could only see once he was in. He stepped onto the teleportation formation with a bunch of people and was directly teleported to the secret realm. They arrived in a burst of light and…

“Huh?” Alex looked around, confused.

They were in the middle of a forest, one that had recently been cleared from what he could see. There used to be trees here, but they had been cut away. The marks of where they were on the ground were still visible.

The clearing was wide and there was enough space for tens of thousands of people to stand side by side. Still, for a tournament that brought in so many alchemists, to have the tournament be set in such a place felt… wrong.

He wasn’t the only one confused. The majority of the people around him talked about their feelings in the secret realm. Even low-tier sects had better secret realms than this.

Not a single person there didn’t wonder if something had gone wrong for this to be the case.

Alex couldn’t find anything else weird about the place, so he focused on the people around him. Their cultivation ranged from Saint Foundation realm cultivators to Immortal Transcendent realm cultivators.

There were young people and old people, Beasts and plants. Not to mention the sheer difference in how they appeared visually. There were younger folks who appeared to be in their middle ages, while there were also some older folks who looked no different than a teenager.

Alex wondered which one of these was going to be the stronger of his rivals. Despite the spectacular amount of people, he felt an odd sense of superiority in this situation. He knew he was better than most of the people around here.

The tournament was for him to change that from most people to everyone.

Alex only knew of 2 people in total from everyone participating, so he searched for them. Shao Humin wasn’t the person he wanted to really find, but he would accept any company he could have at the moment. Besides, there was a good chance that he may have to work with others in the tournament, so he wanted some friends he could immediately find. He didn’t wish to be left alone with others who might not have the same work ethic as him.

Before he could approach the woman, however, he heard a cry of relief from a bit to his left.

Alex turned around and saw a widely grinning young man who was happy to see him.

“I have been looking for someone I knew,” the young man said. “I’m thankful I got to meet you, brother Dawnblade.” ƒгeewёbnovel.com

“Brother Aethersage,” Alex said in relief as well. “I’m glad I found you this quickly.”