With his hands placed behind him, Nero casually strolled into the arena. His look was simple but with a refined temperament; some people might even find it difficult to believe that he was the one who proposed this battle, and he was to fight all on his own. As Nero walked in, the attention of everyone present unconsciously shifted to him.
"Who is this fellow?"
"Is he the one who proposed this fight?"
Many people present were aware that an unknown fellow had challenged the ruling powers, but they had no way to recognize him. Only those who were present at the banquet were able to quickly recognize him and without hesitation sent him hateful glares. Nero completely disregarded their hateful stares and went up the tower of the Gandor kingdom. When he got there, the hateful glares got many times stronger. They undoubtedly came from the servants that had suffered heavy losses from the oppressive pressure that Nero released. Nero was naturally elusive to this, so he didn't care too much about it. When interrupted during meditation, Nero would unconsciously release a pressure that surged outward from him, regardless of who it was. Even if it was Aito who came to his door, it would still be the same outcome, except that Aito was stronger so he would have a way to deal with the pressure.
"Little brother Nero you finally came! I started to think that you wouldn't show up."
When Aito saw Nero walk into the tower, he quickly called out beckoning on him to sit beside him.
Nero smiled, "As the one who proposed this battle, I wouldn't dare miss it."
"Very good! Come sit." Aito beckoned to Nero.
Nero calmly walked up to his seat beside Amaya and sat down.
"You're never on time!" Amaya immediately scolded.
"I lost track of time while training. If I'm not wrong, you sent these people to me and they suffered a bit."
"They hate you with every fiber of their being." Amaya chuckled softly.
If eyes could kill then Nero would be nothing more than ashes by now. If these people had higher cultivations, then fighting Nero was in order.
"Are we waiting for someone?" Nero asked. A quarter-hour had passed after Nero appeared and nothing had started yet. The formations had been completely laid down and everyone was packed in the arena, so who were they waiting for?
The next moment, the entire arena fell into a deep silence.
"He's here…." Amaya whispered to Nero.
Hearing Amaya's words, Nero had a faint guess of who it was. When he proposed this battle, Aito had seconded it by placing a date for it to take place, being 30 days from then. According to him, it was the estimated time when the State master would come out from seclusion. If his guess wasn't wrong then this 'He' would be none other than the State master!
Apart from where Aito and the rest were, the Gandor tower had an extra upper chamber; this was the State master's chamber and it was linked directly to the State master's private seclusion chamber. As everyone remained silent, a loud clear voice suddenly echoed from the chamber, saying a few casual words.
"If everything is ready, then let us begin."
The State master's chamber was dark so no one was able to see just who said this, but with the commanding aura that followed that voice and the power contained within, everyone was able to discern correctly who said this. This was undoubtedly the Gandor State master! He had personally made an appearance at this battle!
Although the Reinhart kingdom hadn't shown up yet, as the commanding words of the State master fell, an elder of the Gandor kingdom leaped onto the stage; he was to be the official of today's battle.
Aito turned to look at Nero to signal him to go down the stage, but he only saw a shadow of him leaping through the window. Everyone was surprised at first but Nero's next words shocked them even more.
"Let's not delay any longer. Shall we begin?"
Now, the atmosphere in the arena got a lot tenser as the people present started to murmur and whisper.
"Who does he think he is to challenge the ruling powers over and over again? Does he not know what it means to court death?"
"I hope the ruling powers show him no mercy. If possible they should directly execute him here!"
The murmuring got more intense, and in no time they turned into raging chants of which Nero was to be executed. The rumors got to the people first, and after much analysis, everyone found it unbelievable that Nero had the power to save the Princess from the hands of the Black Dragon squad. The Black Dragon squad was after all the number one enemy of the Gandor kingdom, and even the Gandor kingdom wouldn't wantonly move against them, much less this fellow with Late-stage Foundation Establishment Realm cultivation. Everyone who heard this found it ridiculous to believe.
The five ruling powers had many promising young sons of heaven who had both higher cultivation and even higher combat strength than an average martial artist. If these proud sons of heaven quivered with fear at the mere involvement of the Black Dragon squad, how could an ordinary fellow who came out of nowhere claim to have saved the Princess?
Ridiculous!
Everyone turned to the Siel family tower. They were the ones present when the challenge was thrown and they wholeheartedly accepted it. Even if other ruling powers were to participate, they were the main antagonists of today's battle, so they were the ones to start the battle. As expected, a martial artist from the Siel family jumped onto the stage.
"Foreigner, such ugly luck you have for meeting me first. I'll finish this fight in one move!" The martial artist arrogantly spoke. He was surprisingly at the Divine Sea Realm! The Siel family was to go up first and the first martial artist they sent out was a Divine Sea martial artist! Talk about shameless!