During the third ranking exam, Alice and I met again, but this time, I just nodded at her and left her with the Luna sisters.
As I was now one of the possible suitors of 'Goddess Alice', the sight of me talking too much with her or her enjoying herself with me could result in the fanatics taking things to the extreme.
Also, whenever I saw Alice, I would remember the beautiful, blushing face that enraptured me during the fake confession, and I would feel my heartbeat increase. Thus, for safety and my sanity, I left the girls alone.
My sister pouted in displeasure but partially understood my intentions and accepted them.
This time, too, I kept my winning streak in the 8th stage bracket and fought against the winner of the 9th stage bracket and then the 10th stage bracket, who was unsurprisingly Elfie.
Elfie was a persistent and hard-working girl. Thus, she retained the top spot in her bracket since the first quarterly ranking exam.
But she played according to the script this time, and we had a long and arduous fight.
After a long time, showing great exhaustion, I conceded. Still, keeping up with a cultivator one stage higher than me increased my prestige and bolstered my position as one of Alice's top suitors.
After the completion of the exam, the moment I had been waiting for had come. A guy with core disciple attire came up on the exam platform.
He had light brown hair and black eyes. He had a fair complexion and was undoubtedly a handsome male.
Many female disciples swooned as if they fell in love at first sight. Seeing his entry, I smiled as there would be the start of a fantastic show.
That guy was Callum Regin, the persistent cockroach harassing my sister. As soon as he stood at the centre of the platform, his eyes locked onto mine, and with a sly smile, he said.
"Looks like you really have trained hard and raised your cultivation. But to be worthy enough for Alice, you must also be talented.
I had reached the 10th stage of Body Tempering by the age of 15 and was said to be a talented disciple. Thus, you would compete in the 10th stage bracket for the yearly exam held after three months.
And if you came first, I would challenge you to a duel to decide which of us is more worthy for Alice?"
Hearing this roach call Alice by her name made me wish to rush up to him and knock his teeth out, but hearing about his condition internally made me sneer at him.
He would probably exhaust me to death by sending his lackeys to pester me for duels in the upcoming days to prevent me from cultivating properly.
And on the examination day, he would challenge me only when my strength had run dry after the competition.
Thus, he would get the chance to humiliate me in front of everyone, especially Alice, sealing his position as her suitor.
"I agree to those conditions but would like to add something. Recently, I have a shortage of origin stones, so I would like to change the wager for my duels to 300 instead of the original 100.
I hope you wouldn't mind as I am destitute and have to make do with every opportunity presented."
Callum gritted his teeth but agreed to my conditions to show his magnanimity. Taking his leave, I left in the direction of my courtyard after glancing slightly in Alice's direction.
She was clearly happy seeing the frustrated cockroach. With a little skip in my steps, I entered my courtyard to continue my cultivation.
Callum, being wealthy, sent his lackeys every couple of days. At first, it took a long time, and I was barely able to win the duels for the first month.
So, he happily sent his lackeys for the next month, too. But I gradually shortened the duel time and started to one-hit KO my opponents.
By the start of the first month, either he understood that I swindled the origin stones out of his pocket, or his savings had already dried up, and no more challengers came.
Still, by that time, I had already won about 6000 origin stones.
As there were no more hindrances, I focused all my time on cultivation.
By the time of the ranking exams, by absorbing the pure energy from the origin stones and directly from the cosmos, I had already consolidated my cultivation at the 3rd stage of River Consolidation, with the fake cultivation at the 10th stage of Body Tempering.
On the day of the examination, instead of looking for my sister, I directly went and joined the disciples in the 10th stage of the Body Tempering bracket.
By then, Alice had already entered the 4th stage of River Consolidation, so now her surface cultivation was the 1st stage of River Consolidation. So, she would be having a different examination on another day.
Similarly, Elfie had also broken through into that realm. So, this time, they were in the audience stand. Seline had entered the 10th stage, too, so she came to me and wished me luck for the upcoming duel.
She also informed me that the line of suitors for Alice had decreased a lot. Even Callum only came to try to woo her occasionally.
This time, I didn't hide my strength and steamrolled my way to being the winner of the bracket, with each fight ending in a few moves. Naturally, with her talent and strength, Seline came second.
After the completion of exams for all the cultivation brackets, Callum walked up to the platform, clasped his hands behind his back, lifted his head and tapped his foot rhythmically.
His every action was filled with arrogance. Seeing as he had already set the stage for his downfall, I gladly climbed onto the platform. An elder also appeared there to supervise our duel.
Before the start of the duel, I taunted Callum.
"Senior brother, why don't we bet on our duel too? I say the loser gives 3000 origin stones to the winner. I have saved up some from my past bets."
My words hit the soft spot of Callum as many of these stones were his own, which his lackeys lost to me.
And now he could reclaim some of his loss and win the duel, which he was confident of. He agreed to the conditions immediately.
And so, with our bets placed, the duel started.