There wasn't much known about the Martial Soul. Everyone just knew that it was the source of limitless power for martial artists.
It was known that the Martial Soul could tell when a person was ready to advance—it required the person to have strength, determination, and unwavering belief in themselves.
Everyone believed that strength was the most important part. Without strength, one couldn't advance to the next level to gain even greater strength.
That's what everyone believed.
Kiernan, almost mockingly, tore off the layer of the soul with nothing more than his willpower.
In the past month, his strength has increased at a rapid rate. The Martial Soul would often reach a bottleneck to stop the rapid advancements. The body needed time to adapt to the new power before it could continue growing.
It was also the reason for Kiernan's sudden transformation—he had advanced basically at a weekly pace, which was ridiculous. Now, after giving his body time to adapt, his body was finally able to finish the transformation.
However, immediately after, Kiernan broke through two bottlenecks in a span of a few seconds. It was unheard of. Double advancement was supposed to be impossible.
That's why Jin and Madigan were worried. They wondered what kind of side effects it might cause.
It wasn't an unfounded worry, as it could have everlasting effects, but they didn't know about one thing—Kiernan was a reincarnator.
His newly born Martial Soul had difficulty understanding Kiernan's level of strength because he possessed an unfathomable level of strength back on Earth, and some of that strength traveled here alongside his vast experience.
His Martial Soul was slowly maturing, trying to catch up to Kiernan. Once it has, his progress will definitely slow down drastically.
However, the scariest part was that Kiernan hadn't even entered the Age of Growth. This wasn't his maximum potential.
…
Swoosh—balls of fire flew towards the dark sky and exploded into fiery fireworks.
Underneath the fireworks, the stadium was packed to the brim, with hundreds of thousands of spectators clapping and cheering for the fireworks.
At that moment, the chairman of New Rakuya's branch of WMAF appeared on the stage, holding a microphone and smiling proudly at the crowd.
"Welcome to the 222nd annual Martial Arts Tournament of our very own, New Rakuya!" The chairman announced enthusiastically.
With that, more fireworks exploded in the dark sky. In that same moment, several entrances opened up, and participants from all over New Rakuya swarmed the arena while holding the banners of their very own school.
In the audience, thousands of cheerleaders and supporters from their schools had gathered to witness the highly anticipated event and support their respective teams.
In the VIP room at the tallest point of the stadium, many important figures had gathered to watch the tournament's opening ceremony.
Alongside them, Godfred sat on the loftiest chair as if he were the most important person around; Cadell sat left of him; and Muriel was on the right.
"So will the chairman join us?" Godfred asked in a lazy manner. "After he is done with his speech, of course."
"He'll come to greet you, of course, and he'll sit with you to watch tomorrow's matches." The chairman's assistant said with a humble look.
While the position of chairman was important, being a professor at Martial Academia was still higher. After all, he was only the chairman of a branch from a Tier 4 country.
The ceremony soon ended, and the teams started to head back to their respective housing.
While walking down the hallway, Nath exclaimed. "This stadium sure is big. It puts Irio's stadiums to shame."
"This is now New Rakuya's biggest stadium." Jin said. "I heard that in the future, the university and some adult leagues will be fighting here. While this was the opening ceremony for this tournament, it was also the opening of this majestic stadium."
Klaus looked around the stadium in awe. It was even more glorious than he expected. It was his dream to fight in a stadium like this. Even though he wasn't fighting per se, it was still a great honor to be a part of it all.
At that moment, someone bumped shoulders with him, and Klaus immediately fell to the ground.
"Klaus!" Jin shouted, rushing to help him up, and at that moment, he saw a team wearing purple and black jerseys walking past them with an aura so strong it seemed like they were invincible.
'Klaus got knocked down so easily; I haven't seen anything like that.' Ryan thought with a serious look.
"Oh, my bad."
The one who bumped shoulders with Klaus apologized. He was an incredibly tall man, pretty much the same height as Kang, with a muscular build, buzzcut, and a stern expression that made him seem intimidating.
"That's…" Madigan frowned.
"Yves, you're so blind sometimes!" A beautiful, hazel-haired young woman came and tugged the tall man away. She was way shorter, barely reaching his chest, but she held herself with a confident air that matched his.
She also wore the same jersey as Yves, with black and purple stripes. In the back, they had their school's name: Tiamut High.
'That's Yves Rechermen and Kara Rousseau…' Jin recognized them in a heartbeat. 'Yves is Tiamut High's vanguard, and Kara is their second fighter. Only if a team has defeated both of these monsters can they face Johan, their ace.
'However, it is unlikely that anyone in the tournament manages to beat these two!'
At that moment, a cold-looking young man walked past them with his hands inside his pockets. Wherever he walked, everyone turned their heads to look at him.
It was a person that's been on multiple magazines and morning shows lately—the great genius of Tiamut, Johan Yeager!
'And he is here…' Jin sweatdropped. 'The monster himself…'
'I can sense it…' Ryan thought as he looked at Johan. 'He is another Natural Fighter. However, we are in completely different leagues…'
At that moment, Johan, Kara, and Yves sensed something strange—they turned their heads and saw a black-haired young man standing still while waiting for others.
He was just standing, not moving an inch, but their extremely heightened senses were able to sense that something was odd.
Martial artists, who have reached Martial Fighter and above, could "sense" people's current martial arts rank just by looking at them.
They could tell that the young man was only at the Low Stage of Martial Fighter—it was nothing compared to theirs rank—but he felt much more dangerous than that.
'That's him?' Johan frowned. 'No, that can't be him. He looks completely different, and he was only a Low Stage Martial Soldier when I met him at the beach.
'There's no way he jumped a whole rank.'
"Kiernan, are you alright?" Jin saw that he stood absentmindedly. "We're about to leave."
"Mm, let's go." Kiernan nodded, and as he walked away with the rest of Karuza High's team, a powerful aura attacked him like a tidal wave.
It was Johan's aura. He looked like a beast, with eyes that looked like those of a predator. This aura would be enough to put any other student to their knees, but not Kiernan.
Kiernan walked away, not even turning his head to look back. Soon, he and the rest of the Karuza High team had left.
"Johan, is everything alright?" Tiamut High's coach came after noticing that he was missing his fighters. Other students were already waiting outside with their buses.
"Yeah." Johan scoffed and walked in the opposite direction from Kiernan. It was clear that he was dissatisfied with something.
Yves and Kara were also confused. They could almost swear that they felt an aura that could rival Johan's, but they saw no one expect Low Stage Martial Fighter.
They didn't think much of it, and then, hand-in-hand, like a couple, they walked away.