The days went by slowly, and in no time it was the 29th day. Throughout this time, Nero never left his room. Aito ordered no one to disturb him, even Amaya was held back from seeing him. This was to prevent any interruption that might lead to Nero losing focus in his meditation as this might cause a backlash in his training.
Nero's training in question was nothing more than attending to his injuries, especially his core. Nero's core had deep cracks on it that slowly expanded. Just like if a bucket of water has cracks or holes on its body, the water slowly leaks out. This applied to Nero's current condition. His spirit core had many cracks that slowly expanded, causing the Qi in his body to dissipate whilst making the cracks more vivid.
Nero's main motive was to slow down this process by absorbing the heaven and earth Qi to supplement the Qi he had lost. However, this process was very tedious because the heaven and earth Qi here was rather thin. The heaven and earth Qi wasn't necessarily so thin. It was rich enough for these martial artists to continuously advance to the Divine Sea Realm. After that, it would be a painstaking process to go up any further even up to the Grand cultivation Realm. This was why there were many Foundation Establishment Realm martial artists and fewer Divine Sea Realm martial artists, and even fewer Grand cultivation Realm masters.
Nero might be at the Late-stage Foundation Establishment Realm, but his combat strength was comparable to a Grand cultivation Realm expert. This was why he needed more heaven and earth Qi to supplement his core; this process was rather long and frustrating for him.
This was the 30th day, the day of the proposed battle had finally come!
Before today, many preparations had been made. The stage was set and many formations were laid up to support it. Another formation was also laid up to protect the spectators from the shockwaves that might erupt from the battle. Surrounding the arena were five stone towers, where the State masters and Grand patriarchs of the ruling powers would reside to watch the battle. By dawn, the arena was almost packed full of people who came to witness this battle. This battle can be described as a battle between one man and four top powerhouses. In other words, one man versus four gruesome tigers!
No one had heard of one person taking on this many opponents before. This was an event that would be remembered for a long time to come. To outsiders, this was a fight to prove who was stronger amongst the younger generation, however, to those main powerhouses, this was a battle to establish the strength of the forces behind them and gain full dominance over the others.
When the sun had fully risen in the sky, the other ruling powers started to make their way into the arena. The arena was a large square platform in the State Master's villa. Of course, the royal family private guards stood watch, forming a long line leading directly to the arena. Anyone who came would follow this line to the arena without stopping or diverging. As the saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The Gandor kingdom wouldn't want what happened before to happen again. Not only the royal family guards but even the regular guards were all galvanized to completely oversee the security of everyone here to avoid funny stories later.
The first ones to arrive were the Siel family challengers led by their Grand Patriarch Makenna. He had a lofty appearance like he could already see the results of today's battle with him emerging as the victor.
"The Siel family is here! Although they are the weakest of the five ruling powers, their forces are still powerful! How will this fellow deal with them alone?"
"Humph! That fellow thinks that because he rescued the Princess that he can challenge just about anyone? He has eaten more than he can chew!"
"Shhhh… didn't you hear? Some people say that he couldn't have rescued the Princess. Some even say that there's a chance that he might be working for those barbarians and all this was the rob the State Master of the rewards he placed out…"
The nearby spectators whispered as they saw the Siel family walk into the arena.
The rumors had spread to different corners of the Western Earth Kingdom, and with every passing day, a new one would be formed. No one knew what to believe anymore, but isn't that why they were here? Strength mattered a lot in the martial world and it could earn people's respect. Whoever emerged victorious in this battle would not only be the winner, but also their version of the 'truth' would spread like wildfire.
Some people even heard that there was a hidden reward, and that was Princess Amaya's hand in marriage! But that was only what they were… rumors. No one knew this for sure, but no one believed that the Princess would willingly give herself up in this battle. One had to know that before now, many influential people had come to seek her hand in marriage but got turned down instantly. Even with their influence accompanied with many gifts, they still couldn't avoid biting the dust. However, what everyone was fully aware of was that whoever would win would strengthen their chances of obtaining the Princess's hand in marriage.
As Makenna heard these whisperings, a wide smile spread across his face; this was his chance to not only rob the Gandor kingdom of their wealth but to also gain influence. If the story that a small family clan was able to defeat the forces of a kingdom, then the uproar it would cause could only be imagined.
However, they didn't consider one thing, and that was… their opponent was Nero! Although the fight didn't seem fair to begin with, it was still something to think about if someone was to casually and fearlessly challenge the combined forces of the four ruling powers. Many people thought it was insane and Nero was being overly arrogant. Even if he was strong enough to jump realms to fight, who among these young martial artists weren't the proud sons of heaven? Some of them might even be able to jump realms and fight too thereby furthering the gap between them. If this was to happen, then what would Nero's next move be?