"Simple. I want to fight Sam. If I lose, I will completely admit defeat. But if I win, then I want the first place candidate spot to be turned over to me!"
Oliver suddenly swiveled to Sam and, with provocation in his voice said,
"Sam, do you dare!?"
Before Sam could answer, Elder Xu rose again and said with a smile,
"This idea is good. The truth is that the Martial House examination trials vary, but ultimately are looking for the same attributes. The first is combat skill, the second is talent. Oliver obviously wins when it comes to talent, but if the actual combat skill is also won by him, then the situation in principle should be his, and the first place candidate should belong to Oliver."
The few words Elder Xu said had already blocked Sam's exit and left him nowhere to retreat.
However, Elder Xu felt this was insufficient. He turned to Sam and said with an eerie smile,
"Not only must a martial artist cultivate their body, and fortify the mind, the martial artist must have faith that they can overcome obstacles and win against challenges. If they feel fear and do not fight, then their heart will falter. This type of person would have no great future achievements."
Elder Xu's words were not wrong, but he said them with malicious intent.
Under this type of situation, once someone lost, they would suffer an enormous blow to their self-confidence and psyche, especially considering that Sam was only fifteen.
If he at first place lost to the second-place candidate and the gap was too large, then he might be unable to recover in light of this psychologically.
Elder Xu had already recognized that Sam had the most excellent chance of losing.
After all, Oliver was ahead of Sam by an entire stage, and in the Exquisite Sagol, he did not have any treasures on him, so he could not display the true strength of his family skill 'Nine Paths of Truth'.
Martial skills significantly increased a martial artist's fighting ability.
Sometimes, high-level martial skills could let martial artists fight those who were ranks beyond them.
Sam's inborn divine might was easy to wield against the Exquisite Sagol's sluggish monsters with tremendous defensive power.
However, pure strength was not an easy solution when faced with an actual human.
Under these circumstances, Oliver couldn't lose.
Sam turned a cold eye to Elder Xu and took note of him. He then looked to Oliver and said, "I could fight with you, but in this competition the only one to suffer a loss would be me. If I fight with you, then as the first place candidate, if I win I am still first place and I do not gain any advantage. But if I lose, then I have to just meekly surrender my spot like that? What do you think about this?"
When Oliver heard Sam intended to compete, his heart immediately blossomed with happiness.
'This little fellow is just bargaining back and forth as if he could win just because he reached the fifth floor of the Exquisite Sagol. Humph, he really is an idiot. I will let you know how fierce the 'Nine Paths of Truth' really is.'
Oliver playfully smiled and asked, "What do you want then?"
Sam responded, "If I win then I want you to give me your Golden Snake Scarlet Pill. If I lose, you can take first place candidate and also the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill. How about it?"
"Good! Since you said it then you meant it!"
Oliver felt great happiness in his heart.
This way, he could have both precious pills for himself! It was a dream come true. He impatiently said, "Then let us start our competition!"
"Mm. Sure."
Seeing Sam agree so readily and happily, Elder Sun could only shake his head slightly.
Sam would most certainly lose, or at least he had more than a fifty percent chance of losing.
Undergoing the trials and fighting with a real person was different.
Oliver came from an aristocratic family and had a special master in his youth teach him to fight, and he also had martial skills.
This fight was already a foregone conclusion, and there was nothing left to say.
As soon as Oliver arrived at the center stage of the contest field, he flicked his saber and gave it as he roared,
"Come up!"
Seeing Oliver's long saber, the crowd present was startled, "a rare weapon!"
As long as it was a rare treasure, the value would be several thousand gold.
Even aristocratic family juniors would only receive one after reaching the Fourth Stage of Body Transformation or even the Fifth Stage.
Only then would they be qualified to receive a rare treasure like this. They had not thought that this Oliver, who was only at the Third Stage of Body Transformation, would have one and one that had an inscription on it.
Obviously Oliver had a high position within his family.
The people looked at Sam to see if he could also put out some equally rare weapon. Thinking of his family background, it was just not possible for him to have any rare treasures.
Although this may not seem fair, in the Starlight Haven Kingdom, martial artists' contests had always been like this. It was impossible to trade weapons to use momentarily, and even if possible,, they would be unfamiliar with it.
One's family was also a form of strength. If the weapon is unfair, the pills or other medicines that increase cultivation are also unfair. It would be impossible to prohibit martial artists from assisting their cultivation with pills.
Therefore, Sam could only swallow this disadvantage.
"This Sam probably doesn't have any sort of good weapon."
"Mm. There is no way that he would have something worth several thousand gold. The average person just doesn't have those advantages. Hopefully Sam doesn't pull out something too inferior and is immediately cut down. This way he might have a chance."
As these people talked, Sam took out a weapon from his pouch. This was the deboning knife that he had used to slice meat at the Great Clarity Pavilion.
Seeing this scrappy deboning knife, everyone's eyes immediately widened. This was… was this… a pig butchering knife?
Though no one had thought that Sam would have a good weapon, they did not think he would pull out such an inferior weapon.
It was only a foot in length. As the saying goes, one inch longer, one inch stronger.
This one-foot deboning knife, compared to a three-foot-long saber, was at a bit more than just a disadvantage.
Moreover, could a knife used to kill pigs even be sturdy? What would happen if it were to be cut in half by the opposition's sword?
Oliver saw this deboning knife and laughed. " Haha ! you would use that to challenge me? That's just a knife for killing pigs! You really are a daft idiot!"
Sam appeared slightly surprised.
He said, "I didn't notice it but it seems you were right, this really is a knife for killing pigs. I usually do use it to kill pigs, so for today, killing you is just right."
Sam's scolding words insinuated that Oliver was just a pig.
This made Oliver furious. He shouted, "You don't know the meaning of death!"
As Sam slowly stepped on stage in the contest field, and Oliver had drawn his saber, he had already been using an inscription master's soul force to study the sword's strength and inscription.
In this, Sam was an expert.
Oliver's saber looked powerful and impressive, but it could only be considered common goods in Sam's eyes.
Even that inscription would not usually grab his attention.
As long as an inscription master knew the proper technique, they could use the soul law formula to seep their soul force into the treasure and judge whether its quality was good or bad.
Sam had learned his inscription skills from the memories of an elder who came from the Realm of the Gods; thus, he also naturally knew a viewing technique.
Although he had only studied this technique a bit, it was already far more than enough to look at Oliver's saber.
The saber significantly enhanced a martial artist's combat strength, but Oliver was only at the early Third Stage of Body Transformation and had not reached Altering Muscle or Bone Forging.
Thus, Sam was not worried, as he could only display a minimal effect of the saber.
Of course, even if Oliver could not display the saber's true strength, compared to Sam's deboning knife in hand, it would immediately cut apart if Sam used it to receive a strike.
Although this was a good and trusted knife he had used for countless hours, it was made of regular iron from an ordinary blacksmith.
But this did not matter to Sam. Sam had not planned on using this deboning knife initially; he would rely on the strength of his fists.
'Infinite Chaos Battle Forms' was an unsurpassed almighty Body Transformation skill manual that was the essence of light.
For those who practiced this, their muscles and bones were themselves the best weapons!
With Sam's peak Second Stage cultivation, his fist strength reached 2700 jins.
He could punch straight through a thick iron wood tree with this strength.
If this fist directly hit a person's body, even a master at the Altering Muscle or Bone Forging stage could not necessarily withstand it!