”Your majesty, our disciple has been wronged here, I hope you will do something,” the husband spoke. “That kid is clearly cheating.”

The Emperor frowned a little. He too thought something was wrong, but the committee had no reason to help Alex in any regard.

”Call Wei Tianshan,” the Emperor ordered some of his guards. One of them nodded and left.

The husband and wife waited patiently for a little while before the old man that was the head of organizing this tournament arrived in the room.

It wasn’t just him, however. Both Xue Mufan and Zhou Zirong also came along.

”You called for me, your majesty?” the old man asked.

”You should know why I’m calling you, right?” the Emperor asked.

”I believe I do,” the old man said. “This is in regards to the young man Yu Ming’s victory today.”

”Yes, so what happened? Why is he still in the tournament?” the Emperor asked.

”Well, we have no reason to suspect he’s cheating, your majesty. We thoroughly checked him and even had the two Saint Alchemists give him a pill to get rid of whatever he might have eaten. We even looked after him for an entire day, yet his power never diminished.”

”Whatever that junior is doing to gain this much ability, it’s not cheating,” the old man said.

”You checked everything?” the Emperor asked.

”Well, he didn’t allow us to check his storage bag, but since we took him directly after his fight with Junior He Liwei, he didn’t have his storage bags on him either.”

”What he did have would be checked before he walked onto the stage, and as far as that’s concerned, it was only filled with swords,” the old man said.

The Emperor frowned. “So he really did not cheat?” he asked.

”Not by the definition that can be given using the tournament rules,” the old man said.

”Really?” the Emperor was now amused. He couldn’t have possibly imagined that Alex was this strong with his own strength.

”You saw it today your majesty, how easily he beat the kid from the Han family despite being under supervision the entire day earlier. Please believe me, that kid is not cheating,” the old man said.

”We can give our words too, your majesty,” Xue Mufan spoke up. “I saw the young man eat our pill. His strength does not come from any pills he might have taken.”

The Emperor thought for a moment. ‘Did that senior do something to him? Is he this strong because of his help?’ the emperor wondered.

He hadn’t thought of it before as cheating had been the obvious answer at that time. However, now that he was convinced that Alex wasn’t cheating, the other obvious answer was that Shen Jing helped him gain this ability somehow.

’That must be it,’ the Emperor thought.

”Well, you have your answer, don’t you? Your disciple lost legitimately,” the Emperor told the husband and wife.

The two of them looked at each other and talked between themselves using their spiritual sense. After a few seconds, they turned towards the Emperor.

”Your majesty, if… if our disciple truly lost and that young man didn’t cheat at all to win then… do you think we should call him here and ask him to explain how he did it? Learning to be that powerful with that low of a cultivation base… that would be incredible, wouldn’t it?” the wife asked.

”We should do that, your majesty,” the husband nodded. “Brother Tianshen, please call the young man here so we can—”

”No!” the Emperor said with a stern face.

”Your majesty?” the two of them were surprised.

”You will do no such thing,” the Emperor said with a serious face. “I told you all before, that kid has a backing that we cannot offend. Leave him be.”

”But we can just ask—”

”No buts,” the Emperor said as he stood up. “We’re done here.”

The husband and wife weren’t happy with the response but there wasn’t anything they could do.

”Yes, your majesty.”

The two of them left the area and went back to their seating area with the other heads and leaders.

They had given up on the fact that their disciple had been cheated. However, they now had a newfound reason to look for Alex. If he could help them become strong the same way he was, they would do whatever they needed to get it.

* * * * *

Alex stood before his final opponent. This woman with her 3 different beasts was all that stood against him and becoming the sole victor of Group 16.

Alex looked at the woman and then at her beast. The 3 beasts were all in the True Emperor 6th realm. She truly deserved to be where she was.

Her cultivation itself was around True Emperor 7th realm. If He Liwei wasn’t as popular as he was, being the sole disciple of the sect masters of the Glory’s Edge sect and all, this girl would have most likely been made the seed.

Alex wondered why she wasn’t with all of these beasts, but he realized it could’ve been the same reason as his.

She had been hiding her skills as well. There was a good chance that the girl would’ve entered the Top 16, and maybe even the top 8 with the potential she had shown to everyone in the tournament.

Unfortunately for her, she was pitted against Alex.

Alex looked at the salamander, eagle, and rhino beast. He knew their names and their description.

’Poison, sharp talons, high defense,’ he thought as he looked through the beasts.

”Begin!”

As soon as the match began, Alex dashed forward.

The salamander tried to spit out some poison along his way but Alex had faster than it.

A golden fist flew in the direction of the salamander and hit the poison along with the beast, sending it hurtling back.

At the same time, a flying palm landed on the rhino, pushing it back as well.

Before the Eagle could even do anything, it fell unconscious.

The match had barely begun and the girl found all 3 of her beasts incapacitated already.

The girl was scared, but not so much that she forgot to fight. After all, she too was a fighter here and a strong one at that.

A blue whip emerged from her storage bag as she quickly unfurled it and swung it at Alex.

Alex tried to dodge and succeeded, but a rather loud noise appeared right next to him as it sent his ears ringing.

This was like multiple explosions happening at the same time right next to his ear.

While he was slightly disoriented, the girl swung her whip again and struck Alex directly on the head.

Alex stumbled backward but he wasn’t hurt much at all.

The girl looked at him in surprise. ‘How is he not bleeding?’ she thought. There wasn’t even a wound on him.

’How is he so strong?’ the girl realized that if she didn’t capitalize on her advantage, she would lose.

However, before she could attack again, a golden fist flew at her.

The girl moved to the side with her movement technique, leaving behind a blur of her afterimages that slowly faded.

At the same time, the hairpin on her head grew bright and hot. ‘Mental attacks? When?’ the girl was surprised. She couldn’t see Alex use any attacks other than the punch, but somehow her hairpin had stopped something.

Alex ran forward at the same time, but not towards the girl.

”Where— My beasts!” she realized and ran towards them as well.

Alex reached them first and grabbed the rhino before tossing it towards her.

The girl stopped mid-run and focused on the rhino to take it back to her beast space. However, just as she tried to do that, Alex suddenly appeared in front of her, using the shadow of the rhino, and punched her in the chest.

Her armor stopped as much as it could, but the girl was still sent flying until she was out of bounds.

The referee quickly checked up on her and announced the victor.

Alex sighed. The fight didn’t go as he expected it to, but he won in the end anyhow.

He became the victor amongst the 64 people that were in Group 12.