Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Alex looked at the referee for a split second, but the man didn’t seem interested in Alex’s situation at all. Alex had seen other people who had been gravely wounded be immediately announced as losers, so this at least told him that he hadn’t been wounded enough to lose.

He could keep going.

In that case, it was time to put his theory to the test.

Alex swung his sword, releasing a sword slash that flew toward the woman.

The woman looked at the incoming attack and scoffed at it. She pulled on her bow and released it, destroying Alex’s attack. The shockwave reached her, but it could hardly do much to her at all.

”You still haven’t given up, have you?” she asked. ”You can’t reach me, and you still dare to try.”

”Dare is all I can do,” Alex said. ”If you can dare, dare and finish this fight.”

”I would be very much obliged.”

She pulled on her bowstring, forming an arrow out of Bow Qi atop it, before targeting Alex and letting go. The arrow flew straight at him at a speed faster than anyone else had managed in this competition.

It was fast enough that there was no way for Alex’s senses to catch it in the moment it happened. Thankfully, he had his Demon Eyes to help him.

He moved to the left once he saw the trajectory of the arrow, letting it fly past him by less than an inch. He felt the air it pushed aside as it moved, but as for the damage itself, it did nothing at all.

The barrier came alive with golden light behind him, but for Alex alone, nothing happened. He glanced at his side where the arrow had flown past and smiled.

There was nothing.

”Is that all you’ve got, senior?” Alex asked.

The woman frowned, narrowing her gaze. She instantly pulled on her bow, making sure not to telegraph her attack before releasing it again.

The arrow flew straight at Alex’s heart, but he moved aside, dodging it.

The arrow struck the barrier behind him.

Alex smiled at her. ”Why don’t you try again?”

The woman snorted and pulled on her bow.

Twang. Twang. Twang.

She released three arrows back to back.

With his Demon Eyes, Alex saw the trajectories of all the arrows. The first came for his heart again, which he dodged by simply ducking.

However, the second one came for the ground below him, striking it and erupting once again with dirt and debris.

Alex converged his Sword Domain below him at the last moment, using it as a defensive barrier. Since it wasn’t the direct attack, his Sword Domain managed to defend just enough. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

The last one flew over his head, as though the woman had expected him to be blown into the air.

It passed by harmlessly.

”What’s wrong, senior?” Alex asked. ”Is that all you’ve got?”

The more the woman frowned, the more Alex’s smile widened.

His theory had turned out to be true.

He had noticed it at the start when an attack had gone past him, and a few times after that when he blocked the attacks, but there was one thing the arrows had been missing this entire time.

An aura.

Every person he had fought before had some sort of aura in their attacks. That was simply because every single person who had chosen to fight in this tournament had at least reached the third stage of any weapon, which was to form a Weapon Aura.

This woman, however, hadn’t done so at all.

She didn’t have a Bow Aura.

She was still at Bow Qi.

She had likely trained enough to bring her bow’s power to that stage, but had never worked at all to expand it beyond that. Considering she was now the Fire Sage, it was possible she had completely neglected to learn the bow entirely.

Because of that reason alone, since her arrows were formed only of pure Bow Qi, they acted no differently from regular arrows that had no techniques assigned to them.

When they struck something, they acted as though a physical arrow had struck it.

Even when one hit Alex earlier, instead of tearing through his flesh and bones, it had simply caused a flesh wound. An attack with Bow Aura would have done so much more.

That was what had led Alex to realize that so long as he dodged her attacks, she could do absolutely nothing at all.

Her attacks were strong, and they were fast, but if they missed by even half an inch, they did nothing at all.

”You’re strong, Fire Sage,” Alex said. ”But that strength comes from your cultivation base rather than your understanding of a weapon. Every single person you fought to reach this stage was better than you, and yet you ruined it for them all. Had you fought someone of your own strength, you would have lost right away. That’s how bad you are.”

”Shut up!”

Her face was red with fury.

”You do not deserve this stage, Fire Sage. You should leave,” Alex said.

The woman let out an involuntary laugh.

”Hah! Leave? Me? Don’t get so smug just because you’ve found a way to survive for a little longer. Need I remind you that you have no way of attacking me either?” she asked. ”If one of us should leave this stage, it’s you.”

Alex stared at her silently for a few long seconds before smiling.

”Do you really think I have no way of attacking you, Fire Sage?” he asked.

”Of course you don’t,” the woman said. ”If you had, you wouldn’t have wasted all this time doing nothing.”

”Or maybe I did nothing so I could understand more about you,” Alex said. ”But I think I’ve learned enough now. It’s time we end this fight.”

Alex lifted his sword toward her and, for the first time since the beginning of the tournament, openly used his Sword Heart for all to see as he formed a Sword Domain in the distance, at the center of which was the Fire Sage.