Chapter 60 – Increased proficiency of arrays
The second round began with far more scrutiny.
Dozens of cultivators who had breezed through the first stage now found themselves stumbling, realizing too late that the realm was no longer choosing random matchups. It was now testing compatibility, weakness, strength.
Jin stood silently as the golden light approached once again. This time, he welcomed it with an almost bored expression.
When it deposited him into a hovering coliseum high above the ground, the crowd buzzed with speculation. But instead of preparing for battle, Jin lifted a hand.
A twisting ripple of qi and space unfurled beside him, and with a brief flash, **Gorr** appeared, stretching lazily.
Jin smiled. "Go wild if you need to."
The beast snorted. "Don't worry, I will."
Jin took several steps back from the central platform and retrieved a plain talisman from his sleeve. Then, calmly, he began drawing.
The runes that formed were faint at first, etched in air with flame essence and guided by his soul. Simple stabilizing glyphs, the kind found in standard barrier arrays. But Jin wasn't trying to win this fight.
He was experimenting.
His opponent appeared with a thunderous arrival. A man in dark armor, eyes glinting with the water element surging behind him. He was mid-stage Adept Realm, just like Jin.
But instead of facing Jin, he looked up to see Gorr's massive frame grinning down at him.
"What is this?! You're sending a pet to fight me?" the man growled.
Jin didn't answer. He was already three glyphs into a stabilizing sequence.
The man shouted and launched a flurry of water spears at Gorr. The beast barely moved, letting the projectiles crash against his skin with little effect.
Then Gorr vanished.
*Crack!*
He reappeared behind the man using a casual ripple in space, slamming him into the arena floor with a lazy paw swipe.
The crowd gasped. A space element?
Jin sighed softly. "Well, there goes keeping that secret."
Back in the coliseum, Jin's opponent roared and surged upward, madness growing in his eyes.
"YOU DARE USE ME AS A TOY?!"
The man's qi began spiraling wildly. Water vaporized into steam as he drew in his core.
Gorr blinked. "Oh. One of those."
"He's going to self-destruct," Jin said without looking up, finishing the seventh rune.
The man howled and exploded with water-charged spiritual force. It would have been enough to level a mountain.
But Gorr casually lifted a claw, etched a crescent in the air—and tore space open.
The explosion, energy, and all, was sucked through the gash like a vortex, disappearing into some distant point in the void.
Silence followed.
Jin finished his final rune and nodded in satisfaction.
"Better. Half the time I needed in the forest."
A chime echoed.
"Winner: Jin."
The platform dissolved, and he descended gently back into the waiting area.
---
Elsewhere in the Realm
Lyra had won her second match with elegance and a glimmer of cruelty. Her light and fire elements had become more refined, radiant with intent. She didn't just burn her opponents—she blinded them, disoriented them, then struck fast and deep.
But something was changing in the realm.
A pulse moved beneath the ground. Ancient, almost seismic. More than one contestant paused mid-battle, sensing it. But the realm didn't answer. Not yet.
---
Southern Continent Coliseum
At the very top pavilion, the elders and sect heads continued their silent calculations. But many now had eyes only for Jin and Lyra.
"Fire and earth," one muttered again, watching replays of Jin's supposed array testing. "But that beast… it moved through space without distortion."
"Could be a bloodline technique. Some ancient ones mimic space."
"Perhaps."
The Sect Head of the Blazing Phoenix Sect leaned forward. "If the boy truly controls arrays, he's more dangerous than his elements suggest."
They still had no clue that Jin had four elements.
Or that his soul cultivation surpassed anything they'd measured.
Vael of Luminous Peak said nothing.
Reivan's absence still echoed louder than anything.
And no one had yet figured out why none of their divinations worked.
---
Back in the Realm
Jin sat cross-legged beneath a twisted pillar of stone, drawing runes in the air, eyes half-lidded.
Gorr was asleep beside him.
Lyra arrived, flicking a bit of dried blood off her sleeve.
"Did I see someone explode on your side?" she asked, amused.
Jin smirked. "Only a little."
She knelt beside him and whispered, "The realm is reacting to something."
He nodded. "I felt it too."
Then, far in the distance, a ruin erupted from the ground.
A tower of black stone, veined with shifting light.
A new trial had begun.
And for those still standing—
The true tournament was awakening, an inheritance since ancient times.