Chapter 30- Inner Sect Tournament

For the past 5 weeks Maxwell had practiced as usual. He broke through to the 15th stage using some of the seeds from the Lightning gourd. His knowledge sea had expanded and become stronger. After He broke through to the 15th stage, he felt the difficulty to breakthrough into the next stage increase exponentially. It was like he would need the same amount of qi required to reach the 15th stage from the 1st stage to breakthrough. He had the option to create his core and advance to Core Formation Realm if he ever needed to.

After breaking through, he felt that he could use spiritual sense, which was a weaker form of divine sense. It didn't have much range, but its options were on par with divine sense.

Maxwell was ready for the tournament to become a Core Disciple. He was confident he could win against anyone in the inner sect. He had researched into all the top participants strengths and fighting style.

'If Hamilton is as spoiled and arrogant as I've seen him to be I'll face some interference. He probably will give someone pills to use. After all he won't care about breaking the rules.'

For the tournament, there was a grand arena prepared with a Level 5 Protective Formation. It would prevent outside interference, and it would protect the audience. The fighting platform was a 400 square meter arena of stone. It could come out without as much as a scratch against the strongest move of a Core Formation Realm cultivator.

The seating around the arena was packed with Inner disciples and a few Core disciples. The core disciples usually were here to recruit the winners to their factions and occasionally they were here for entertainment.

A betting booth had been set up which was sure to get increasingly busier as the rounds progressed. Maxwell would have placed bets on himself, but it was not allowed. The tournament was a knockout style battle with everyone getting only one chance. There were only 200 participants out of the 1000 Inner disciples. Some were not confident in their strength and others were in seclusion, cultivating.

Maxwell's first opponent was a swordsman. He was 20 years old and slightly taller than Maxwell, about 5 foot 7 inches tall. He had a weapon of average quality, and he had an affinity for fire qi. He was in Core Formation Realm, like everyone else participating. If Maxwell had participated in the tournament after a new batch of inner disciples had arrived, he would have come against some in Foundation Establishment who felt that they could cross the gap between the realms. Usually, they would get a rude awakening.

When Maxwell walked on stage, he heard a lot of laughter among the audience. They were ready to watch another arrogant genius get violently put in place after getting overconfident.

"Start."

"I don't want to dash your dreams to the ground, but I have to if I want to advance." His opponent spoke while running at Maxwell. Flames were blazing from the back of his foot, propelling him forward. It wasn't as fast as wind qi, but it was an excellent alternative. His blade glowed red with fire qi. It seemed like he wasn't planning to go easy on Maxwell.

Maxwell attacked first before he swung his sword. It interrupted the flow of his movements and caused him to block the spearhead with his sword blade.

Maxwell could feel the heat from his flaming aura. It was an uncomfortable heat, but it didn't burn him at all. He attacked with a flurry of blows at his torso, causing his opponent to go on the defensive. His opponent blocked half and dodged those he couldn't block.

'Time to attack faster.'

Maxwell attacked even faster, all his stabs blurring together. The non-lethal attacks went through and cut his opponent up in many places. His opponent retreated and started to use a technique. His blade almost started melting because of the fire qi that was accumulated. Maxwell leaped forward to interrupt it, but he performed the technique in time. He swung his sword around, unleashing large flames everywhere. Maxwell was forced to retreat and the ground around his opponent was covered in blazing flames.

He slashed at the air with extreme ferocity, creating a gust of wind that extinguished a path through the fire. His opponent went defensive, ready to stop Maxwell's spear. To his surprise Maxwell used his spear intent and threw him against the barrier created by the formation of the arena, knocking him out with the blow to his stomach and the impact.

"Maxwell Windsor wins with 15th stage of Foundation Establishment against his opponent of 1st Stage of Core Formation." The announcer shouted.

"What a talent! He's at Stage 15 already at his age. I heard he was at Stage 8 when he entered the sect 2 months ago."

"What! He must have hidden his cultivation with some technique, it took me a year and a half to reach Stage 9 from Stage 8."

The announcer was the only one who had a divine sense so he was the only one who could make out that Maxwell had reached Stage 15. Maxwell rolled through his next 3 opponents. They progressively got stronger, but Maxwell still defeated them with a combination of his skills, weapon, and qi.

Nobody could complain that they unfairly lost as there was a massive gap even with excellent equipment. Even if they tried, they would be seen as shameless in everyone's eyes who couldn't accept their defeat. The betting odds were against him largely in the first match, but by his 4th match they were much closer. Every match he was expected to lose, but he won again.

In the audience a core disciple was shocked at his strength. He had come here for some entertainment, but he never expected to see such a genius. He shuddered at the thought of imagining Maxwell's strength as a Soul Transformation Realm Cultivator. It wouldn't be surprising if Maxwell could beat someone 2 stages above him, but 5 stages was more than enough for him to get the title of a genius.

Maxwell's final opponent was Silas, a muscular man who wasn't bulky but still looked strong. He noticed that Hamilton had spoken to him before their match. Maxwell was sure that something had been given to him to boost his strength. He had dark brown hair and a scar on his lips. He wielded a giant broadsword that looked plain but was a Mystic Rank weapon.

Maxwell could feel his hostility as soon as they were in the barrier. As soon as the final match started, he unleashed his killing intent. The audience was surprised as murder was strictly forbidden and any violator would receive harsh punishment.

Maxwell had researched quite a bit about him as he was one of the potential winners. He was at the 8th Stage of Core Formation Realm. He had a Medium Affinity for Earth. He cultivated his body quite a bit and he was deemed to have the strongest body in the inner sect.

He unleashed a heavy slash at Maxwell. It was slow, but hard to evade with him stomping the ground with his foot to shake the ground with earth qi. It was one of his techniques that he used a lot, earthshaker.

Maxwell expected this to happen, so he used his space qi to appear behind him and attack. With no proper footing, Maxwell couldn't exert much force, so he only left a small cut on his shoulder.

'He has a very strong body for sure.'

Silas couldn't turn fast enough to land an attack on Maxwell, so he resorted to creating a barrier of earth qi.

'That's troublesome. Earth qi barriers have very high durability.'

Maxwell used Instant Transmission to appear at the other end of the arena. He had no advantage in reach, so his only option was to use his strongest attack techniques.

'Let me go with the 8th Stance of Dragon Devouring Spear.'

While Maxwell was performing the movement to use it, he charged forward with his broadsword held up. Maxwell's movements were like a dance. Once Silas realized he wouldn't stop Maxwell in time, he dropped his heavy sword and brought out a small black ball. It looked like some sort of artifact.

He threw it at Maxwell, and it expanded into a giant net with weights at the edges. The rope had qi of different elements, except space.

'Is that a hidden weapon? I'm not sure how I will fare against it.'

Maxwell unleashed the 8th Stance and unleashed a 60 percent opaque dragon. In the center, not seen by anybody, was the purple dragon from Maxwell's dantian. The net was sent flying backwards and it hit the ground with a loud impact. Silas froze in shock. He wasn't holding his weapon and he spent a lot of his qi in activating the trap. His earth qi shield was standing sturdy as the dragon flew at him.