Shock reigned.

This was the very first time that many here had seen array alchemy on this scale. It suddenly made them wonder… If this level of skill was used on a battle field… Is it really necessary to cheat?

The most glaring point for many wasn’t how powerful Dyon’s attack was. In reality, not only had Dyon held back significantly by choosing not to kill them and by not fusing his wills, etc., because of this, the level of power he used could be comparable to many of the rankers.

However, that wasn’t the point. And Dyon was fully aware that those intelligent enough would understand. What Dyon had done was on a scale very few could reach. So why if you could swing a sword or punch a warrior with the same power output Dyon just displayed. Could you effect thousands of warriors at once? And with such pinpoint accuracy? In most cases, the answer was no.

Dyon had made his point very clear. I am number one.

Suddenly, Dyon’s serious demeanor completely changed back to his usual carefree self.

“Ah, thank you for the money.” Dyon grinned as he poured the still teleporting dao stones into his spatial ring. “Oh, and, my little sister Delia here is taking a nap, but technically she participated. I’m sure that’s just fine. As for how you want to fill in the other 788 spots, that’s up to you. Maybe you can slowmo your playback video and check to see who dropped to their knees last.” A light chuckle escaped Dyon as he floated away, oblivious to the gritting teeth of those he had been referring to.

In the Pakal God Clan section, the red skinned family had quite a lively air of comradery, although Caedlum was a striking contrast.

“Look at that, little brother. It seems you were right about this Dyon kid. It seems you do have competition from those your age after all.”

Caedlum nodded as he analyzed Dyon’s seconds long battle again and again. By every calculation he did, it shouldn’t be possible to draw so many arrays, let alone arrays that powerful, so quickly. What kind of concept was it to draw thousands of master level arrays in an instant? Well, in that fraction of a second, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say Dyon multiplied the number of master level arrays on earth hundreds of times. And he did it on a whim.

“How have the Ragnor been looking this tournament?” Caedlum asked.

“They’ve been coasting. It seems like this year they’ve only allowed Vidar and Thor to participate. I’m not sure of the reason why. Maybe they want quality over quantity.”

“I don’t like it. They’ve been too quiet.”

Caedlum’s elder brother nodded solemnly. Too quiet indeed.

In the Planet Nix section, eyes had turned onto Ulu.

“Why did you not tell us his soul was so powerful?” A dark-skinned woman with short and white afro-style hair and large silver hooped earings looked toward Ulu questioningly.

“Grandmother, you, the other elders, and husband were setting things in place. And, when I originally checked his soul, it was only at the peak of the meridian formation, or the 4th stage. I wasn’t aware that he was hiding it. What kind of fool wants to hide his soul talent at such a high stage?”

If Dyon had heard this, he would have likely reacted by scratching his head in shame. He really hadn’t had any concept of what a proper soul strength was for a sixteen, or fifteen-year-old at the time. So, he made a guess. But, he guessed very wrong. In fact, in this universe, it wasn’t uncommon for even peak saints to be held to this soul cultivation.

“Are you saying that his soul strength is even higher than that?!” Matriarch Lebna, Ulu’s grandmother nearly fell from her chair.

As a soul expert, she was well versed in formations. And, if her memory served her right, the weapon’s hell formation was only a lower practitioner level array which only required a 3rd stage soul. So, when she had seen him make so many, she had already been ridiculously impressed. There were maybe handful of geniuses even from their universe that could do such a thing. But, to hear that she had underestimated this child gave her an odd feeling.

“Grandma, I don’t think you’d believe me but… I can’t get an accurate gauge on his soul. He’s at like the peak of the 5th stage to the 6th stage.”

What Ulu was referring to, unfortunately for her, was when Dyon had unleashed his full soul strength at Chaos Arena. Unlike Connery, Ulu didn’t have a concept of a saint soul, and didn’t know that Dyon had already broken in the 7th stage.

Matriarch Lebna subtly sent a glance toward a quite and stout middle-aged man with seemingly not a lick of hair on his body. But, he too seemed to be studying Dyon’s figure.

“You were right in attaching such importance to him. But, it seems like you’ve failed in your approach. We can only rely on Zabia now.”

Ulu lowered her head, nodding. Her grandmother however, was still in shock. Why? Because she had just read Dyon’s soul as being at the lower 3rd level. And yet, her granddaughter, a genius among soul geniuses, had read it at the 4th just days before – she would never make such a simple mistake. What did that mean? It meant that she… Even as the Matriarch of the Lebna God Clan… Even as a Celestial level expert… Couldn’t see through Dyon’s soul concealment…

‘This child… Is it worth the risk? Or not?’

“Leave it to Zabia for now, Ullah.” A deep and reverberating force entered the mind of the Matriarch, causing her to nod in acceptance – putting Dyon to the back of her mind.

They still had a few more days to work with. This world tournament was just the beginning.

The crowd could only watch as Dyon leisurely waited for all of his winnings to be pooled into in spatial ring. As one might imagine, the equivalent of a hundred billion dao stones takes a while to teleport, especially when much of it will be made up of saint and profound stones.

After what seemed like forever, Dyon tossed the bidding array back to Elder Den’s stunned figure and headed back toward his area, walking by Clarice and Fiora as though they weren’t there.

“Arios, would you like to go back to your family? Technically speaking, I don’t have any plans of leaving Earth until the gates open again. And that’s not for at least another half year. I don’t mind you spending all of that time with them.”

“I’ll take you up on that offer,” Arios nodded, “But, I was also wondering if we could bring my little sister as well. My elder brother Riley is in line to head the Sicarius family, so he can’t leave – even if we asked, he’d be unwilling to. But, Ava’s potential is being stifled here. She has a Heaven level constitution, and yet not only has she not put any effort into awakening it properly, she even ruined much of her cultivation for my sake.”

Dyon smiled, “I owe Ava a lot and she’s been a good friend to me. Even if you said nothing I would have asked her.”

Their mission come the next campaign had nothing to do with rankings anymore. After this world tournament, they would no longer care about such things for a while. What mattered would be climbing the Epistemic Tower and that was an opportunity very few ever got. The fact Dyon was willing to share it warmed Arios’ heart.

“Are you leaving?” Zaltarish looked up from forming yet another plate of food from Mithrandir.

The truth was that Martial Artists had no need for sleep. As long as there were healthy warriors to fight, the tournament should technically go on. But, the problem was that the Cavositas elders were having issues getting the remaining 2298 participants to stop kneeling.

Dyon chuckled, looking back at the situation. “It’s going to take them a while for them to get over my demonic will. In fact, it’ll take them a while to realize that’s even the problem to begin with. Plus, I don’t feel the need to watch the foundation stage and meridian formation competitions.

You guys can stay here and invite whoever else you’d like to invite. I don’t mind.”

With those final words, Dyon extended both of his hands. One toward Ri and the other toward Madeleine. “Wanna go home?”

Although Dyon didn’t imply anything, the giggling of the Elvin girls and Venus sent Madeleine and Ri into a furious blush.

“I think you should spend some time with Big Sister Madeleine alone.” Ri protested. She didn’t want to be selfish. She had had Dyon to herself for a year now, but Madeleine hadn’t seen him in two.

But, Madeleine shook her head, “Don’t be ridiculous. Everything we do, we do together from now on, right?” A radiant smile spread across Madeleine’s face as she took Ri’s hand and walked toward Dyon.

Grinning wildly, Dyon laughed before taking his wives by the waist. He was so large compared to their petite figures that he nearly engulfed them in his embrace.

Madeleine and Ri let out a started screech before Dyon flashed away with speeds he himself didn’t think he had ever reached before.

**

In the depths of space, a powerful collection of people were gathering. But, they seemed more filled with anticipation than anything else.

“Husband, it’s been ten years. Can we really finally go back?” A beautiful Japanese woman spoke lovingly to a tall Elvin man. Her Kimono clung tightly to her curves, embroidered in beautiful flowers and intricate swirls of gold, but there was something decidedly bestial about her aura.

“Compared to others of our cause, we’ve had it easy. Amell and Nora haven’t seen their child since birth. Patia-Neva even lost his entire clan. We have to remain focused.” The tall Elvin man responded.

The beautiful woman pouted, “There are also those of us who’ve been lucky enough to sacrifice nothing at all.”

The Elvin man could only sigh. “You know someone had to remain on Earth. It only makes sense for Little Belmont and Little Red to do so. After all, they’re the heart of a Royal God Clan.”

“I didn’t mean Big Red. He’s even lost his sons before. That said, don’t let him hear you call him Little Red. I can smell that fight coming from a mile away.” She giggled.

Suddenly, a saddened expression colored her features. “Speaking of Amell and Nora, do you think they’ll make it? The day of the world tournament was the day we set to come back, but even we were late, and we were the closest. They’ve been gone for so long and are so far away… Is it possible?”

“Travel without the gates is…” The Elvin man frowned. “It’s nothing short of a suicide mission. But, if anyone could do it, it would be those two. If it wasn’t for them, none of this would be possible and our universe would never rise up again.”

“Our universe? I like the sound of that.” The Japanese woman smiled. Her clan had originated from this universe, before their migration away, when it was the undisputed most powerful in this quadrant. However, a close rival to this universe had always been the old Elvin universe, now known as the Chaos Universe after the Elvin Kingdom’s destruction. Because of that, it had always been the goal of the Elves to make their way back to their universe. So, hearing her husband give up on such a ridiculous and sentimental goal made her happy. Him accepting this meant he finally released the burdens his ancestors had placed on him… He finally wanted to move on.

That aside, traveling through the universes without the gates was a highly dangerous affair. However, what Dyon had realized in his talks with his grand teacher was that the gates had not always existed, nor were they natural. And yet, the very premise that creating the gates allowed meant that people knew there were more than one universe before their creation. After all, why would you create gates if you didn’t know there were two or more things to connect?

So, what did this mean? It meant that before the gates existed, some highly intelligent people had calculated, prepared and schemes their way to break dimensional barriers to explore the unknown.

“Let’s go. Considering they’re there, there’s no need for us to rush. But, I too would like to see the talent Little Belmont and Red choose to lead the conquering of our dormant Epistemic Tower.”

If Dyon had been here, he wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry. These experts had spent years, no, decades planning. Their goal was obviously the rise of this universe to its former glory. But, there was also a deeper purpose. If there wasn’t, they would never sever ties from their families. There were shadows lurking in their former glorious universe… Shadows that destroyed the Celestial Deer Sect and led to the downfall of their universe as they knew it.

But, the irony wasn’t this… One of the most important steps in their plan was raising geniuses capable of conquering the Epistemic Tower as a first step to their rise. They had sacrificed so much not only for retrieving the knowledge of the existence of such a tower, but also in scouring and researching legacies to gift these geniuses, all while also warily avoiding and compiling information on their enemies…

And yet, they were soon to comeback to find that all their hard work was for naught. Why? Because a fifteen-year-old, now sixteen-year-old boy, had done what they couldn’t.