Till the End of Time: Asura Blood Saga

As a response to the judge, absolute silence ensued in the arena. The crowd, which was discussing about who would win the tournament and was cheering loudly, now was completely silent. The simple words of the judge were the reason why everybody shut up, listening closely.

Unknowingly to the masses, a tall man, who looked to be around forty years old, appeared on the biggest stage in the middle of the arena. How and when he got there, hardly anyone knew.

The old man wasn’t impressed by the sudden silence and continued his speech, “I will present the rules and regulations only one time, so listen closely. The tournament is split in three phases.”

In response to the judge’s words, many participants became serious. It was clear that they were nervous about the upcoming battles.

The judge on the other side didn’t care at all and continued his words, “The first phase will take place on the ten outer stages. Each one of you will draw a stick with a number on it. The numbers range from one to ten. The number you drew decide the stage you will fight on. It will be a battle royal until only ten remain. Those ten people will advance to the next round.”

After those words a huge commotion broke out in the coliseum. This kind of fierce elimination was just too much. There were a few thousand youngsters from all over the Azure Dragon Kingdom that participated and after the first round, only one hundred would remain.

In the last years, the elimination would not be so severe, but during those tournaments there were also a lot less participants, but still, many were shocked. At the same time, the visitors got only more exited, because the competition would be become fiercer.

In order to advance to the next round, many were determined to give it their all. The reaction on the side of the participants were different.

People like Jiule who firmly believed in their own strength were completely unmoved by those words. But there were also many participants, who barely qualified to even stand here. They also knew their strength. And they knew, that they would not last long.

“The second round will naturally take place in the five middle stages an will consist of one on one battles. After the first round, you will be divided into five groups, where only the first two in each group will advance to the third round, the last round.“

“The last round will take place on the biggest stage and is split in two phases. For the first phase, you are separated into two groups. Only the first two of each group will take part in the second phase to decide the ultimate winner. In the second phase, the first place of group one will fight against the second place of group two and vice versa. The winners will then proceed to fight for the first place.”

The man didn’t stop long. He only paused for a second and then continued with the next important part: the rewards. It was clear that the higher you got in the ranking, the higher the reward you would receive, “Place ten to four may each choose a technique out of the deposit of the Azure Dragon Sect…”

Before the man could continue his words, the crowd and the participants were completely baffled. They could choose a technique from the Azure Dragon Sect?!

Even if you could choose a technique from another, weaker sect, that was already a huge surprise. Normally every sect forbade the spread of their techniques.

But that was the strongest sect in the Azure Dragon Kingdom. It was a sect, which represented the kingdom in the affairs of other kingdoms and already existed since a long time ago.

Even though it was unlikely that they could choose their core techniques, it was still the Azure Dragon Sect. It had many powerful techniques and cultivation arts many would never see in their life at all.

And that was only the reward for the tenth top forth place.

The man still wasn’t moved by the reactions of the crowd and coldly continued to speak, “The third place will be rewarded with one hundred spirit stones and the chance to choose a technique.

The second place will be rewarded with five hundred spirit stones and also the chance to choose a technique and the first place will be rewarded with one thousand spirit stones and the guaranteed chance to enter the tutelage of an elder of the Azure Dragon Sect.”

Silence.

Those words were just too shocking. Who would have guessed that so many spirit stones would be given out? And the first place could even enter the tutelage of an elder of the Azure Dragon Sect! That was a once in a lifetime chance.

The elders of the Azure Dragon Sect were elusive and mostly hidden in seclusion, but they were the biggest force of the whole sect.

They were the pillars and the reason, why the Azure Dragon was so powerful. And the first place this year had the chance to become a disciple of one of those elders. What concept what was that?

Even Yasha was tempted by that for a second. By becoming the disciple of such a strong cultivator, he would rise in power in no time.

But at the same time, he was currently in special situation, not sure if his power would lead to any unforeseen circumstances. Thus, he quickly put that thought in the back of his mind. Not to mention that he would probably not even reach the last round.

Aside of the chance to become the disciple of an esteemed elder of the Azure Dragon Sect, there were also the spirit stones. This kind of stone was one of the most important resources of the cultivation world.

Spirit stones were extremely rare and scarce and most cultivators would never have the luxury to cultivate with them or even lay their sight on them.

Spirit stones contained an immense amount of spiritual energy of heaven and earth, condensed into physical form. Cultivators could absorb the spiritual energy contained in them to speed up their cultivation considerably.

They were also used as a currency in the cultivation world. If one had enough spirit stones, one could buy everything one desired. Powerful techniques, medical pills, weapons and so on…

But spirit stones were rare. Normally, only cultivators, who reached the Energy Overflow stage, the third major cultivation stage, were qualified to possess and use spirit stones.

Frankly speaking, using spirit stones in the stages before Energy Overflow was just a waste of a heavenly treasure. Most of the compressed energy would just be wasted and released to the surroundings, as Energy Tempering stage cultivators hadn’t opened their dantian yet to hold and store such copious amounts of spiritual energy.

The judge then raised his voice again, “Those are the rules for the tournament this year. I hope that everything is clear. I will now distribute the sticks for the first round.”

He waved his sleeves, releasing a nearly endless flow of wooden sticks in the air that flew to all the participants.

Yasha naturally also got one. He caught a flying wooden stick and examined it. It was the number ten! Without much emotions or reaction, he directly went to his assigned stage. As he arrived, he already saw countless people on the stage.

Yasha sighed. The first battle would be really chaotic and if he wasn’t careful, he could be eliminated here.

The problem here was that there were just too many people. If he was entangled with one person, then it was easy for someone to sneak attack him, as he was focused on his battle.

But at the same time, this also meant that one could advance to the next round without fighting. If one was good enough at dodging and evading, then one could simply pass by all the chaotic fighting to advance.

Yasha already thought about this possibility, thinking that he could avoid agitating the Asura blood that way. In a chaotic battle, it was a lot more difficult for him to be calm and control his boiling blood and his fighting spirit.

Losing control during the tournament…He couldn’t imagine the negative repercussions. On the other hand, he did not come here just to watch.

Eventually, he had to fight. And in that case it would be better to take the lead, not giving the Asura blood any chance to act up. He would just see and adapt to the situation.

Meanwhile, the remaining participants all found their respective stage. While all of that happened, the crowd talked about the newest gossip.

“Who do you think will win this time?”

“Pah, why do you even ask? Levi, the prodigy of the Azure Dragon Sect, will win this year! He is only fourteen this year and already reached the peak of Energy Tempering stage. And he also trains in the most famous technique of the Azure Dragon Sect, Journey of the Azure Dragon.”

“Hmpf, don’t blabber nonsense! Jiule will completely dismantle this young lad. I am sure you have heard of him.”

“You guys are right, but you forgot to mention some persons… From what I heard, there will be a mysterious girl from the ancient Moon Flower Sect, who will participate. But that is not all.”

“If you had listened to the rumors, you would know that there should be a guy from the Nameless Sect who will participate. According to the rumors, this disciples of their sect are known to treads an unconventional path.”

“Haha, only some beggar spread this rumor. There is no way the Nameless Sect would care for such a tournament. Forget them, in my heart, there is only one person who will this year: my goddess Amber!”

“Nice joke old pal. Never in your life will an heir of the Ascending Heaven School be “your” goddess. Dream on.”

“You all are right. The competition this year is really great. We will be able to watch a lot of exciting matches. And maybe after the first round, there will be even some dark horses. Who knows?”

Countless similar discussions came up in the whole stadium. But in the end only six names came up repeatedly:

Moon Flower Sect, unknown person,

Azure Dragon Sect, Levi,

Demon Slayer Sword Sect, Jiule,

Ascending Heaven School, Amber,

Nameless Sect, unknown person (according to the rumors) and

Hunlua Clan, Lentz.

The last name was a big surprise. For the Hunlua Clan, it was a huge blessing, that they had a descendant like him.

In the scope of the whole Azure Dragon Kingdom, the Hunlua Clan only belonged to the middle class. Thus it was a huge surprise that they could raise such a talent like Lentz. For the Hunlua Clan that already was an incomparable glory.

And then there were the two mysterious persons, that nobody knew the name of yet. There were only some vague guesses to their identity. It was confirmed that someone of the ancient Moon Flower Sect was here, because a famous elder of their sect was here, watching the tournament.

If Yasha saw him, he would be completely surprised, because he had seen that person before. The famous elder of the Moon Flower Sect was Arslan! It was the guard of the successor of the Moon Flower Sect, Eleanor.

But the other name was unknown. There was only one clue to the existence of this mysterious sect. In the VIP area sat a masked elder, wearing a wide, blood red robe.

On the dark red robe, countless rune like structures were woven into the robe, evoking the feeling that countless small veins were flowing through the robe. It looked strange, but at the same time captivating.

A small fry like Yasha was left unnoticed. Hardly anyone cared about him, with one exception being a middle-aged man in the VIP area.

Right from the start, Arslan had been looking down at the arena, searching for a black clothed person. Aside of Yasha, there were naturally many more youth with with black clothes.

Arslan did not need to search for long though, as he found what he was searching for on the tenth stage. He saw the familiar black robe and a person, with a huge sword strapped on his back, instantly recognizing Yasha and the corners of his usually stern face lifted up.

This scene was seen by an old man who sat right next to Arslan. He turned to him and spoke with a mocking tone, “Arslan, my friend, what is causing you to smile? Usually you are so serious.”

Seeing that Arslan ignored him, he snorted and followed Arslan’s gaze. His gaze halted at the tenth stage. He looked at the whole stage but could not find anything special.

On the tenth stage were no particularly powerful individuals. The most powerful on that stage reached the middle Energy Tempering stage.

That wasn’t anything special. The six prodigies were on different stages and even other powerful persons, who reached the late stages of Energy Tempering, were on other stages.

In the eyes of many, the tenth stage was the easiest group and the least exciting to watch, as there weren’t any powerhouses.

The old man looked at Arslan and was confused, not hiding his confusion he asked Arslan again, “Why are you looking at the tenth stage? What’s so special about that stage? There are only some middle of the pack cultivators.”

In response to the question, Arslan gave a simple, cold answer, “Mind your own business, Old Dragon Dairo.”

“Haha, I see, cold as always, Blood Lotus Arslan…”

With that, the conversation ended abruptly. Dairo didn’t pay any more attention to Arslan and Arslan continued to look at Yasha.

Down in the arena, Yasha didn’t notice anything of that. He just stood on his stage and waited for the battle to begin.

Then the judge’s words echoed through the arena one last time, announcing the first round of the kingdom’s tournament, “The kingdoms tournament starts now!”

The crowd exploded and the battles began!