When the man hit the walls of the arena, silence returned, the crowd couldn't even make a sound, too shocked by what they had just seen.
It was supposed to be an epic fight between two powerful fighters. How could it end so quickly?
"D-did the young man win?" one of the spectators reluctantly asked, still trying to comprehend what just happened.
"I-It s-seem so," another person replied, still taken aback by the lackluster ending.
-x-
It was not just the crowd that was shocked by the match.
"This ends a little too fast, isn't it?" the head of the Gul Family asked, as even he, a Genesis Sea expert found the stream of events too fast for his liking.
"It seems so, though two of our friends didn't seem to be too shocked about it," the Duke replied, eying the head of his city Adventure Guild, and the president of his city Craftsman Alliance.
"Guilty as charged," the head said, stroking his beard while at it.
"We knew of his strength from the Karbin City branch, and let's just say, what he did there was already impressive enough for someone with his cultivation level," the president continued.
"What happened there?" the ancestor of the Lur Family asked, after all, they had never seen such an amazing junior for a long time, especially with his strength being at the Genesis Core but already capable of handling peak Genesis Source experts.
"Try fighting 50 people way stronger than him, with 10 being a major realm stronger than him. And he ended the fight without trying too much. And he improved by how he easily beat his strongest opponent in the tournament,"
Hearing what he is capable of makes the rest slack-jawed. What they heard was preposterous but it clearly happened and he just kept improving.
"Well, then, l-- what is that?!" the Duke screamed, eying a wave of red that seemed to wash the stage.
-x-
Ryker eyed the man, his body bathed by the red light, his body undergoing some sort of transformation, one that he could guess the origin from. After all, three cultivation Art in his possession, well, maybe two, is closely related to the kind of transformation he undergoes.
On the stand, the crowd screamed and let out a lot of noise, likely finding the current situation disturbing. One person even seemed to screech, making Ryker roll his eyes at the annoying person.
That is probably why he felt something familiar with the man, "Demon Cultivation Art, or is it Demonic Cultivation Art," there are differences between the two despite almost being the same thing.
Demon Cultivation Arts are Cultivation Art specialized for the Demon Race, one of the 8 major races in the world. As for Demonic Cultivation Art, they are art that makes use of demonic energies, often turning its practitioners into monsters wishing for slaughters or something similar.
While both Demonic Aura Mantra and Devil Transforming Scripture are full-blown Demon Cultivation Art, Sin Desire Art is something between a cross of Demon Cultivation Art, Demonic Cultivation Art, and Dual Cultivation Art, which makes him unable to give it a proper classification.
Both Demon and Demonic Cultivation Art could do one thing turning their practitioners into half-demon half whatever race they are before. Though the latter tend to have more adverse effect compared to the former, even if the two types of Cultivation Art could cause some effect on its practitioners that is not a part of the Demon Race.
He eyes the transforming man with some caution. After all, practitioners of Demonic Art tend to be more powerful, in exchange for their morals as they likely perform atrocities like eating one of their kinds or killing innocents in an attempt to gain get stronger.
The Genesis Sea experts must have sensed something was wrong, the powerful experts began to cover the entire stage with their qi.
"Get back, this is too dangerous!" Ryker wished to fight the man, after all, despite the transformation, he was only able to reach the Genesis Spring with a half-formed foundation, which would make him the weakest Genesis Spring expert ever.
But with the Duke already giving him command and he didn't want to antagonize the strongest expert of the Kilrun Duchy, he backed away. However, it seems his target is Ryker, the abomination the man turned into flying towards him.
Despite the flying threat, Ryker didn't even bother to turn around. After all, why should he, as there are more powerful experts in the arena? True to his thought, the Duke manifested a qi barrier around him, making the abomination crash into it.
The creature tried to scratch at the barrier, roaring angrily when it failed to do so. The creature looked up and saw the one that stopping him from reaching the target. It screeched at the man before flying towards him, unaware or uncaring of the massive gap between the two strengths.
The Duke lightly scoffed at the foolish creature, creating a massive hand out of his qi before clenching it, trapping the creature in the hand. The creature writhed and roared, trying to release itself from its confinement yet failed to do so.
The Duke threw the creature to one of his direct subordinates, someone in the Genesis Sea realm too. The subordinates accepted it before heading towards the north, either to imprison the creature or kill it everyone guesses.
The Duke then looked at him before giving him a smile, "The winner of the final match and tournament, Lightning Warrior," the crowd seemed to regain their sense as they cheered his nickname.
While he was smiling, on the inside he was shrinking badly, wishing to dig a hole and stay there for the rest of his life. The nickname will not be spoken more by the time the tournament ends, right?
(Unfortunately, it is still used by the masses even after the tournament ended)
"Now for the prize, " the Duke then flew towards him, followed by his main advisor who brought a small wooden box in his hand.
"As promised, 5 entry tokens to the hidden realm, which will be opened next week. Along with several other prizes," the Duke gave him 5 storage rings, whispering to him of its content.
"There are pills in the first one, several weapons in the second, precious natural treasures in the third, a life-saving talisman in the fourth, and lastly, an energy-gathering amulet, capable of gathering energy around your vicinity with an effect comparable to a Grade 6 Energy Gathering Formation
Also, to prevent some people from trying to rob you during the upcoming week, I invite you to stay in my mansion for the rest of the week,"
.