"Welcome to the Noble Family Tournament of this year!"
A male announcer dressed in a red suit stood on a stage and started the Tournament with a speech.
"Today, all of the noble families young talents shall shine like a diamond! Every one of the family is a powerhouse on its own, the young people shall represent the families today! Let's see the growth of them!"
The NFT is held inside a large stadium in the Capital of Esperia and today, many powerful families, clan, and tribes came here to compete against each other.
The main reason, which makes the event so popular, is partly because of the prizes. Mainly because there are some geniuses of some families who are infamous for their skills and looks.
"This year, the tournament is sponsored by the Iceheart family.", the presenter said.
...
"Oh, did you hear? The boy of the Howson family is coming today?", a noble girl said to her friend next to her.
"Really? I love him! Hope to see him perform today!", her friend answered.
"Oi, dude! The Icequeen!!! She's going to participate as well, right?", a random guy asked his seat neighbor.
"Bro, I know your feelings. Rest assured, we'll get to cheer for her...", the guy answered him.
In fact, every youth in the station are there because the "King" and the "Queen" are most likely to participate in this tournament.
There are heated discussions about them everywhere. Everyone is excited for the matches to come.
...
In the preparations room, away from all the chattering of the spectators, Sun calmly thought about how to use his abilities.
It has been a day since he returned and noticed that only two months had passed.
The time in that Cultivation Realm flows differently than in the Mortal Realm.
This change had made him advance to the peak of Intermediate Rank in just two months!
Normally, a human would need much longer than Ethers to cultivate, so Sun was lacking behind in the Rank of Cultivation.
The reason that Sun could defeat all the people up til now was because of the power boost he received from Lucifer.
A humanoid Soul Origin is already considered a Sacred Class Soul, but the powers of Lucifer makes the Soul Origin a Godly Class Soul, much stronger than other Soul Origins in the terms of power.
Therefore, even with Beginner 3 Rank, he accumulated the strength of someone at the peak of Intermediate Rank.
But now he's in the Intermediate Rank and his Body had been cleansed and purified during his stay in the temple, he may be able to beat someone of the Advanced Rank.
Sun felt much calmer and stronger than before, everyone around him noticed the change in him since yesterday.
His mother and friends worried that he was in danger or something since he couldn't be contracted for two months.
Nobody saw or knew where he was, so Sun said he went to training in the mountains, which is actually partly true.
Rea said that he doesn't need to worry about missing school as long as he passes the exams in four months.
*Beep*
An incoming call from Minerva.
"Yes?", Sun answered.
"Sun? You're alright?", she asked worriedly.
"Ah, no problem. I just went to the mountains to train. You know my cultivation rank isn't that high compared to my friends. I have a human body after all, not the very best body to cultivate! Hehe.", Sun said.
The human body is filled with lots of impurities and by eating hamburger and drinking cola made it worse than ever.
That's the reason why humans can't really cultivate very fast, so human cultivators on earth have advanced to higher Ranks when they were 60 or 70 years old.
"Is that so? Then okay.", she said a bit coldly but was relieved to see Sun healthy.
"You must have called me for a reason.", Sun said. He knew that Minerva would never call him randoms without a reason or whatsoever.
"You're right. I called you to give you some information about your first opponent - Radal Slaw. An Intermediate Rank boy of the Slaw family.", she said.
"Don't need it.", Sun answered calmly.
"What? It's important to research your opponent ahead of the battle in order to work out some tactics against his abilities and Soul Origin.", she said and was actually surprised by Sun's answer.
"Hehe. Don't worry. In real live battles, you don't know your opponent thus not able to know his abilities. Just trying to gain some experience out of this tournament and get the first prize.", Sun said, not arrogantly, but with a determined voice.
"Ha, if you say so. But I want to warn you: This tournament is not an easy walkthrough - there are even some geniuses who have reached the Advanced Rank! You are just at the point of breakthrough into the Intermediate Rank, how are you going to win against them? The power gap between Beginner and Advances is really deep.", she said out of concern for her disciple.
"No need to worry. I got some new techniques.", Sun said and waved her off.
"Seriously. Then surprise me! If you won't and lose in the first round, I'm going to give you a real beating.", she said with an annoyed face.
"Haha. Then watch me closely.", Sun said and hung up.
"Nine Heaven Arts", Sun said to himself and looked up to the ceiling.
"It's been two years...no, two months...", his mind drifted to somewhere else.
...
"Sun Reed, prepare to enter the stage.", a male knocked on the door of Sun's room.
Sun was still in daydreaming about his training of the last two years and woke up after the call.
"I'm coming."
__
"Sun Reed. Are you ready?", an artificial voice asked him.
"Yes."
"Prepare translocating participant...
Spell complete: Press button to enter the stage"
Sun saw a red button appearing on a pillar five meters in front of him.
He walked the short distance and pressed the red button.
"Translocating participant - complete.
Good luck."
"Good luck coming from a machine will surely jinx my luck..."