“Feel like wasting any more of your men?”

A deadly hush fell over the crowd, more than a few staring at Alex in horrified fascination, like one would a train wreck in his previous life, whispering about the Ruidian who actually had the audacity to insult the master of far, far more than a single school.

“That he would dare to say such things aloud. A mere Silver!”

“True, though. Hong set up that fight to kill the boy, and we all know it.”

“Yes, but we’re not stupid enough to challenge the man directly. He’s made it damn clear what happens to those who cross him!”

Faint whispers Alex heard only by chance and the whims of fortune, for all that he sensed that such breathless, exchanges were far more common than the far louder shouts of outrage.

“How dare that foreigner insult the Headmaster! He should be exiled from the games at once!”

“After making a mockery of Dongfang Hong’s lapdogs? Ha. Let him fight on, I say. This farce of a competition is finally getting interesting!” Alex couldn’t quite hold back a smirk at that, for all that the voice was one he recognized all too well. And it seemed thateven the Red Prince wasn’t so arrogant as to dismiss the crowd’s mixed sentiments. Even if, for some unfortunate souls who didn’t realize just how vindictive that bastard was, there would be hell to pay later.

But for now… an infinitesimal nod even Alex barely registered was all it took for the five surviving Silvers to slam down their weapons.

“We concede before this murderous monster!” The second largest soldier declared, his eyes filled with an odd mixture of desperation and seething hate.

Alex smirked. “Your forfeiture is accepted.” he glanced at the ring announcer all but quivering with outrage in his silk robes.

“All righteous contestants have deferred to the monster soaked in an honorable man’s blood! The Ruidian has officially won the Silver bout, showing us all just how ruthless and bloodthirsty a path the unworthy will walk in their desperate attempts to achieve rank and privilege that will forever be denied to them!”

Alex rolled his eyes and smirked at the man, giving the roaring audience a highly exaggerated series of mocking bows, earning both derisive laughter and the glares of future enemies alike. Not that Alex cared, at this point. Any man who dared look his way with such disdain after he had so clearly been set up for death was a shameless bootlicker for a would-be tyrant, and he had nothing but contempt for them all.

“Well done, Alex,” said a smiling Jidihu from the shadows the moment he left the arena sands, quietly leading him back to their box seats in the cloak of shadow, as they had agreed to do for all their fights from the very beginning, the former JiangHu head’s control so exquisite that it was as much casual disinterest as anything like invisibility, allowing him to slip past dozens of attendees already roaring and cheering for the next fight between a pair of muscle bound strength Titans who could have effortlesly pounded any number of Silvers to a pulp without breaking a sweat.

Alex couldn’t help but grin in approval when Jidihu finished leading him back to their private viewing quarters, well appointed with filigreed hardwood and minor wards allowing for the excitement of the crowd to fill the room while muting it just enough for comfort, wards that would also protect against at least one stray Silver Tier attack, showcased the school’s wealth and its ability to host distinguished guests like nothing else.

Alex frowned, gazing out at other boxed seating areas scattered around the grand arena, still amazed that he hadn’t made note of this coliseum-like structure during his initial stay. But to be fair, he had been sequestered with other novices in the opposite side of the school, and had been too busy trying to progress, then just survive, to worry about a proper tour. He was surprised to find that he could only see into a few of the other royalty areas, more because it implied Shadow Qi in the ward’s construction than that visiting royals and Golds would of course want privacy.

Within moments he found himself wrapped in the warm embrace of the dancer who had struck such a cord with his heart when he had only taken the first steps along his perilous path, shivering with worry, crackling with potency.

“When first I sensed the spiritual energy radiating from their weapons… I was terrified you’d play the fool, Alex. And then when I saw the smile on your face...” She shook her head and smiled. “Of course you did just that, before proving yourself wiser than me by far, knowing just when and how to slip past their strikes and counter their deadliest attacks, honing our art against their killing intent. And you did it all for us, did you not, sensei?”

“Just Alex, alright, Hao Chan?” he insisted with a warm smile.

Her lips curved in a teasing grin before passing him a flagon of ice-cold river water Panheu himself had filled some time ago. Which meant that their food and drink would be safe, no matter that his Biochemical mastery would keep him protected regardless, he was almost positive.

Still, their box seats with the silk lined padded cushions and finely lacquered tables covered with a spread of figs, nuts, meat-filled pastries, and multiple carafe’s filled with chilled wine made it clear that Dongfang Hong wasn’t stinting on treating his Gold tiered guests with grandeur. Always one for the carrot and stick in equal measure, Alex thought, taking advantage of the increased time between Gold tier matches to gaze down at the competition and enjoy the fights for both the insights they gave him, and the glorious spectacles that they were.

Wujen with eyes that crackled like lightning as they unleashed storms of ice and flame while darting through the air, facing off against warrior hybrids who weren’t afraid to unleash swarms of razor sharp daggers of metal that would have obliterated entire platoons before slamming into dazed opponents almost as fast as Alex’s Bullrush, even if the burst of Qi they released were an obvious tell to anyone with Qi Perception, and the techniques they used ranged from near instantly cast and clearly mastered Bronze fundamentals to complex summonings of deepest Silver, Panheu’s guesses about the true rarity of Gold tier techniques playing out just as they had suspected. Yet that storms of Ice, explosions of Fire, and avalanches of Stone showcased just how devastating Silver techniques could truly be, under the masterful control of those who had already achieved Gold.

One thing he couldn’t help but note was how quick Dongfang Hong’s lackeys were to concede a match when losing ground against any of the Golds that had left the palace early the night before. Golds Dongfang Hong had failed to conveniently drown, thanks to Alex’s timely intervention. Yet when the Red Prince’s lackeys held the advantage, they seemed to grow just as deaf as the referees to any cries for quarter or surrender. And Alex thought it no coincidence that the survivors of the treachery of the night before more often than not found themselves paired against opponents their affinities and techniques were weakest against, more often than not trapped in devastating chokes, blitzkrieg assaults, or simply bombarded by storms of liquid flame. Their cries for yield came out as desperate screams or choked off gurgles, and it was damn clear from the way Dongfang Hong was gazing down at the proceedings with glittering eyes that the attacks were deliberate, calculated, and he had absolutely no qualms about using this excuse for a competition to cut down any possible resistance to his conquest of CuiJing Province.

Not that Alex could entirely blame the man for being in a sore mood today. He had just lost over 500 of his elite troops, along with a commander who could actually bend the wills of others. And considering what Alex knew of Dongfang Hong… the terrible secret that made it impossible for him to ever get too close to Xian Hong, no matter his intention to rescue her still. The secret that had allowed him to compel her brother to cross the silver bridge and get Xian Hong to safety, instantly shattering the pain, despair, and weakness that awful bridge had inspire. Alex couldn’t help but wonder if maybe that brilliant, deadly tactician was actually aware of his own weakness, and had perhaps been using captain Tong as a crucible of sorts.

A way to harden his own mind.

Alex stole a quick glance the Red Prince’s way, chilled by the fury and determination he saw in the man’s gaze as he glared down at the match below.

Alex turned his own attention back down to the match as a Gold Titan strength cultivator was sent hurtling and spinning through the air, hurtled completely out of the arena by a massive hybrid warrior radiating fearsomely intense spiritual energy, now raising his arms in triumph to the roars and cheers of the crowd, for all that he was visibly dizzy with exhaustion, so hard had those latest two warriors pushed each other.

But still… Alex turned to Jidihu, who’s eyes twinkled with bemusement as she took a sip of her wine. “Beginning to appreciate the vast chasm between Silver and Gold, Alex?”

He winced and bowed his head. “I’m humbled to realize just how lucky I’ve been, up to now. If I hadn’t been so badly underestimated, if I hadn’t fought with desperate killing intent the instant that Gold tier monster struck my Hao Chan...” Alex swallowed and suppressed a shudder, cold sweat breaking out along his back, still horrified by the memory of just how close his angel had come to death, surprised to find tears prickling in the corner of his eyes when suddenly the light of his life was smiling and holding him tight.

“Thank you, love,” Hao Chan whispered, giving him the softest kiss and daring no more as she pulled away with a squeeze.

Alex gazed down sadly in the direction that the Gold who had been sent flying through the air had tumbled. “I can’t help but note that of all the matches, all those our own group won had resulted in a smooth concession, retreating from the field of battle relatively free of serious injury. Yet every time Dongfang Hong’s lackeys won…

“They did their utmost to maim our acquaintances before they could even scream surrender, and we all know why,” Panheu grimly noted, hard eyes glaring up in Dongfang Hong’s direction which their foe had no way to sense, guarded as they all were by Jidihu’s Shadow Qi.

“I’m taking steps,” Jidihu assured, her fingers flashing. “One of my associates is keeping close tabs on our associates in the infirmary. Another is already racing for Chu Zhao’s trajectory. Assuming he survived, he will at least be spared an assassin’s dagger in the eye for his trouble, cloaked in shadow and friendship as he will be.”

“And the friendship of a fellow Gold is no small thing to earn,” Panheu declared with a bemused smile as the ring master announced the next match.

“The just and noble Wei Gang against Lord Xu of JiuDushi.”

Alex furrowed his brow, feeling a certain chill when he saw the tense expression on the Gold titan he had thought safely fled with his wife. His eyes widened when he saw the size of the massive opponent banging his fists together with a cold, hard smile. Only now realizing just how deep Dongfong Hong’s pockets, and significant resources truly were. Finally seeing, perhaps for the first time, a cultivator who hadn’t just broken through to the glorious ranks of Gold but who had taken at least several steps along that path. If the scowling Lord Xu, just barely 7 feet, had achieved Tier 1 Gold Strength, perhaps Vitality as well, radiating a bright golden potency like a distant star in his core, this monstrous eight foot tall Wei Gang blazed like a miniature sun. Power that was soon evident for the entire world to see when a piercing whistle echoed through the auditorium and the massive, near eight foot tall cultivator built like a bull roared and charged forward for his prey without using a single Qi Attack. Because he didn’t need to.

There was nothing graceful or elegant about it, and Lord Xu’s savvy gaze, also that of an experienced warrior of countless battlefields, summoned forth enchanted spear and shimmering ghostly armor covering him from head to toe as he readied himself like any good hunter bracing himself before a charging bull. So it was shocking how little good it did when the eight foot monster of a Gold freely allowed the spear to plunge into his belly, before snagging the shaft with one hand and ripping it completely free of Lord Xu’s grip.

Before the smaller cultivator could do more than widen his eyes in dismay, the roaring Wei Gang had already charged forward, only a few drops of blood splattering the sands from his superficial injury before his massive hammer fists began pounding into a suddenly desperately backpedaling Lord Xu. A man who was clearly no slouch as he desperately weaved and dodged past multiple skull-shattering blows, angle kicks furiously working Wei Gang’s thighs and ankles to absolutely no avail. The monster just laughed off any amount of percussive force the early Gold could bring to bear, before his smirk turned to a wild-eyed roar.

“Pathetic!” the monster roared before abruptly snatching out with arms that were almost as fast as Alex’s own, Rank 4 Silver at the very least as he pivoted with surprising grace, his hip throw sending Lord Xu tumbling through the air, helpless before inertia and gravity, the monstrous Titan slamming into him a second later. And before Lord Xu had any hope of twisting around, the much larger titan had already seized Xu’s left forearm before twisting it and wrenching back with a savage snarl, the entire crowd hearing the awful pop of essence-enhanced bones being forced from their joints as the air rang with a mindless scream.

“Xu Hun!” A woman’s desperate cry rang through the air.

And before Lord Xu could cry for mercy or concede the fight, the Deep Gold had snaked his arms around his opponent’s throat in a modified Hadake Jime, the smaller gold’s eyes bulging in sudden panic as he writhed and struggled and fought for his life. Alex exchanged a horrified look with Jidihu and his former master, Wei Gang’s furious wrench and desperate effort’s to torque the neck and snap it before a Gold’s miraculous vitality could possibly save Xu’s life face making it clear that this was no submission match. This was an execution, sanctioned by Wei Gang’s lord and master, glaring down at them all from above.

“My husband yields! My husband yields! Stop the match now!” Lady Xu raced across the sands, Alex sensing the sharp discharge of an extremely powerful talisman. Perhaps the only way she had managed to break through the protective Wujen wards keeping everyone else at bay. Ostensibly to protect the audience. Yet its true purpose was clear enough to Alex.

Divide and conquer. Use any pretext to disarm, disorient, and neutralize your foes, then kill them without mercy.

It was only because of Lady Xu’s desperate cry that the match was finally broken. Wei Gang glared down at the comparatively tiny woman now surrounded by an absolute whirlwind of razor sharp ice before the giant laughed, grabbed her comatose husband, and threw him right into her icy field.

“Pathetic! Needing his woman to keep his sorry ass from joining everyone else who dared to cross my lord!” sneered the Deep Gold as he gazed into the stands, nodded, and stomped off through a far exit.

The crowd gazed in speechless shock as Lady Su sobbed over her painfully still husband, desperately trying to place healing talismans on his distended neck, and Alex noted that absolutely no break or recess was called, and the woman’s cries for a healer went completely unanswered.

Instead, a smirking man wearing the same boots countless scouts had warn flew silently from the entrance the Titan had just left from, cracked his knuckles and savored the look of dismay in Lady Xu’s eyes when he shouted for all the audience to hear. “It’s our turn, bitch. Now you see what happens to those who dare to refuse our master’s gifts!”

Lady Xu twisted around in wide-eyed dismay, countenance twisting into horrified fury. “I have no interest in...” Her eyes widened when no sound slipped past her lips at all. The only sound could be heard from the coldly smiling ring announcer at the edge of the ring gazing up into the stands.

“The next match is between Commander Fu Lan and Lady Xu! Commander Fu Lan has graciously conceded to Lord and Lady Xu taking him on in tandem! Lord Xu, please rise. The match begins in 4… 3… 2… 1.”

Lady Xu’s desperate cry that she was in no way interested in fighting, that she conceded and that her husband needed a healer immediately were met by nothing but cold smirks from the very few who could read lips, like Alex. For not a whisper of her plea made it past the sands. Yet the announcer had still been savvy enough to retreat back behind the wards before desperation could turn to fury.

Lady Xu, instantly understanding her peril, grabbed her partner with surprising strength for a Wujen and dragged him toward the far exit, screaming for them to open. Or so Alex read from her muffled lips as the gates remained shut, shimmering wards protecting them from even a Gold’s desperate attempt to blast them open with a storm of ice that could have obliterated an entire regiment in another time and place, Alex only now sensing the trio of cloaked Golds who were using flag formations of an entirely different sort than what they had dared with him, just the other day.

Before she spun around, sensing laughing death fast approaching, putting up a desperate ward of ice as the entire arena floor filled with flame.

Alex’s eyes filled with reflected fire when he saw the petite administrator he knew was only there because she had had no choice but to show, or risk Dongfang Hong putting all his resources into taking her and her husband out, personally. Alex shared a pain-filled look with Jidihu, knowing without a word being said that if they had known what the Red Prince had planned for them, Jidihu would have escorted all the Golds right out the city, even if they had to flee the nation entirely to stay out of the Dodge the Red Prince’s wrath. But instead, they had all made what they thought was the smart play, only proving how foolish they all truly were. And now poor Lady Xu was forced to fight for her life against a wild-eyed wujen wearing the same military insignias as Dongfang Hong’s elite aerial units. A monster who cackled like a madman when she began to scream, Fu Lan unleashing such a firestorm that they shimmered against Lady Xu’s wards for long awful minutes. For a while it seemed like it would be a draw, and even the false headmaster would be forced to call the fight lest he was finally willing to shred even the slightest pretext that this was anything but an execution.

Then, with a blatant smile, the Gold fire wujen popped a spirit pearl and his inner cauldron blazed anew. Giving a triumphant roar as the exhausted Xu’s icy dome finally gave out, and then she and her husband were writhing in liquid flame.

Alex clenched his fists. Tactics and timing be damned, he was not going to let this continue. If that meant blowing his cover and having the whole world chasing after him? So be it. No matter what move he made, he already knew that all hands would eventually be turned against him. The gods who despised him above always made damned sure of that.

“Don’t, Alex! There is nothing we can do!” Jidihu hissed. “Multiple Gold tier flag formations are muffling that girl! And if you strike at a perfectly warded Dongfang Hong now, Alex, in the heart of his power with a half dozen elite killers by his side, you’ll be playing right into his trap! A Gold tier general’s trap! You’d doom us all!”

Yinzi paled, gazing at her mother in disbelief. “Their flag formations are stronger than your Shadows, Mother?”

“We have to stop the fight!” Hao Chan screamed, Alex feeling her panic as if it were his own.

“Stop the match!” Alex roared, ignoring Panheu’s angry glare to keep his cool. Realizing he was only feeding into his enemy’s pleasure, even if the man couldn’t quite spot Alex’s location or identity, thanks to a scowling Jidihu who could at least keep them cloaked… Dongfang Hong’s coldly glittering eyes delighted in the flame.

So Alex squeezed tight his prize and glared at the wujen, so clearly Dongfang Hong’s pawn, radiating such fearsome power that no one dared to say a word in protest. All pretext of a fair match and a just headmaster was now popped like a fever dream. The terrified audience now forced to bear witness to the Red Prince’s molten steel behind a silken veneer of civility, as his pawn did his best to burn his opponents alive.

Because the message was clear.

Not even independent Golds could expect mercy or fair play if they dared to cross the ruler of an entire nation who just so happened to have his eyes on annexing this entire province, choosing CuiJing’s prize jewel, adjoining the Province’s capital city, to make his stand.

“STOP THE MATCH!”

The murderous Gold’s eyes widened in surprise when the entire arena rumbled with Alex’s words.

“Who dares interrupt this just and honorable duel?” Roared Fu Lan.

He turned to glare down at the terrified looking Lady Xu, who any fool could see was trying to scream and plead, for all that she was muffled still, snarling as he realized that his moment had past. Striking now would make it clear that murder was the only thing on Fu Lan’s mind.

Yet seeing the way the man gazed at the crowd with sneering contempt, Alex wouldn’t put that or anything else past either that psychotic monster or Dongfang Hong.

Alex knew he needed to take steps, and take them now, grateful that he and Jidihu had already analyzed all the hidden spots in the corridors and chambers underneath the seats during the first day of their investigation. Because his true status as headmaster of this school, along with his Interface, now allowing him to sense exactly where a certain trio of flag-wielding reds were hidden. And he could link his gates to any location he had ever glimpsed before, no matter how briefly.

You have successfully summoned nine gates within your territory. You may manipulate gates as if they were within your line-of-sight.

Three tetrahedral structures formed!

Rank 2 Gold attempts to burst Half-Step Jade Barrier. (Gold does not think of burrowing through granite flooring.) Gold has failed to pierce wards!

Rank 1 Gold attempts to burst Half-Step Jade Barrier. Barrier wins skill check.

You have successfully linked all gates to: The Sea of Ghosts!

3 Gold Wujen have been successfully washed free of tetrahedral gates!

Your opponents have been banished to The Sea of Ghosts! (1000 miles beyond Yidushi’s shores!)

You have closed all 9 gates.

You have successfully formed 3 gates leading to World Seed surrounding Lady Xu on all sides. This gate may only be accessed by those you designate Green. This gate can only be seen by those you have designated green.

“Jidihu!” She instantly understood his desperate gaze.

When Alex spoke, his voice could clearly be heard by the burned shell of a woman, completely blind and screaming in agony and desperation, hovering desperately over the body of her fallen partner who might or might not be alive.

“Lady Xu! The Fox offers his bounty! Grab your beloved and race forward in any direction as fast as you can!”

The woman’s huddled form shook, a sight which made all those witnessing cringe back in dismay, so disfiguring were her fourth degree burns that had turned her exquisite beauty to a nightmare of charred flesh, cooked, partially melted, cracked and bleeding.

She trembled, clearly in so much shock and pain that she could hardly move.

“You have to move now! Before that wujen strikes again!” Alex screamed, not caring who saw him at this point, though it seemed that Jidihu’s arts had at least muffled his location, as Dongfang Hong was glaring sheer hate into the crowds, but not at their shadowy box.

By some miracle, the living corpse of burnt flesh understood, somehow finding the strength tho grab her painfully still husband who wasn’t charred nearly as badly as she was, thanks to Gold tier Vitality and whatever body strengthening techniques he used. And much to the wide-eyed disbelief of multiple audience members and a furious-looking Fu Lan who immediately pummeled the transparent pyramid of gates with liquid flame before crying out and gazing at his own hands with pained disbelief, husband and wife had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Just as Alex felt the impossibly deadly weight of an imperial cultivator peering his way.

You have successfully closed all 3 arena gates leading to world seed!

“Seneschal Dong Xiao!”

“Yes, Child of the Heavens?”

“I just ported in two friends. Both are suffering extreme burns, one also has a broken neck, perhaps other Qi injuries as well. Please see if you can save them. I would be grateful.”

“At once, Child of the Heavens.”

And the calm reassurance of his seneschal’s soothing voiced sent tears of relief in the corner of his eyes as he slumped to the floor of their viewing room while the arena crowd roared with either excitement or outrage.