The wild current of Qi continued to slam against the bottleneck. Xue Wei was not impatient and allowed it to slowly press against the bottleneck on its own. He knew that if he tried to force it, it would cause a backlash instead.

Slowly time ticked by. After ten hours, the bottleneck crumbled beneath the constant pressure, propelling Xue Wei into the fourth layer of the Sky Warrior rank. 

He released a breath of foul air before opening his eyes, adjusting his vision for a second. When he looked around, he saw Hei Gou sitting beside him. Hei Gou was still cultivating, having absorbed more than one spiritual fruit up until now, and was sitting with a dense fog of heaven-and-earth essence swirling around him, which strangely attracted the natural energy around him like a magnet. 

Xue Wei looked at the herbs and spiritual fruits in front of him and picked up a fruit that was known as the Sky Reaching Fruit. It was a fruit that was especially effective for experts at the Sky Warrior rank. 

While its effects could not be considered the worth of a year’s duration of cultivation, it was still able to have the same potency as a few months of cultivation added together. When Xue Wei took a bite, he could feel a pulse of energy coursing through his body.

A second bite and even more energy flooded his meridians. After finis.h.i.+ng the fruit fully, not even leaving the pith as he knew that this was filled with energy as well, Xue Wei sat down and started processing the energy within his body. 

Although he had just broken through to the fourth layer of the Sky Warrior rank, he had great expectation of what the fruit could provide him with in terms of energy. 

He did not expect that this fruit would instantly let him step into the fifth layer, but he did know it could help him stabilize his current cultivation base. 

And right he was. After a few hours, Xue Wei could feel how his cultivation base had become stable and flowed naturally. It was as if he had a base Qi that was as stable as a mountain. 

Looking at the remaining spiritual fruits, Xue Wei opted not to consume them right now. If he ate too much in one go, he would end up with a body that could no longer absorb the energy within the herbs, spiritual fruits, and pills. 

Xue Wei was not in a rush. He was quite pleased with how fast his cultivation base had progressed. Already being at the fourth layer of the Sky Warrior rank was indeed not a bad feat. 

With his recent improvements, he felt much more confident in his own ability. And while he had faith in his chances of getting first place, he was not complacent about it. He knew that his challengers, the ones from the three great sects, were not to be trifled with. 

All of them could jump ranks to defeat stronger experts if they were against ordinary cultivators, it was not only Xue Wei who could do this. 

Having reached the rank of a fourth layer Sky Warrior, Xue Wei spent the rest of his time practicing the Windwolf Sword Slash and his other martial arts techniques. 

When it was time for the next part of the tournament, Xue Wei and Hei Gou went to the arena. 

Hei Gou had a ticket and went to the arena's seated areas, while Xue Wei continued into the colosseum’s many stages in the middle, where the rest of the contestants were slowly gathering. 

Xue Wei observed everyone present. The first round of the tournament consisted of fair fights for all of them, as they had been grouped depending on cultivation rank alone. 

As the last few partic.i.p.ants made their way into the arena, Wan Qiang appeared in the air once more. "Welcome to the second round of the tournament! This time, things will be slightly different. We are going to have people fight against one another based on random draws."

"It is the same as before; you can kill your opponent and take their items if you have the strength to do so. No one will be blamed for the deaths happening in this tournament."

Many of the experts were uncomfortable hearing this. These people were supposed to be brothers in arms against the beasts, yet now they were being pitted against one another, unable to hold back even if they wanted to, as holding back meant they might die. 

Xue Wei did not care too much about killing people. It was not his first time, and he knew it would not be his last time either. However, he wondered what thoughts led Wan Qiang to host this kind of merciless tournament. 

Wan Qiang was a Primordial Beast Hunter. He was renowned for killing Primordial Beasts here in the Skyward Empire, and also hailed as the most influential expert in their nation. 

He should be eager to see them work together, grow up, and become outstanding Primordial Beast Hunters like himself, but instead he had set up a tournament that was going to kill quite a few talented geniuses. 

While Xue Wei was in deep thought, the drawing of numbers had already begun. 

There were ten stages in the arena, and these ten stages meant that twenty people could fight at once in single combat. 

Xue Wei was not chosen as one of the first to climb the stage and fight for his life, so he deferred to instead observe his peers that were onstage. 

The leader of the Cerulean Starlight Sect – Lin Yuelong – was fighting against a much weaker expert. But although he could kill his foe in a heartbeat, he showed mercy and just wounded the other, winning his fight gracefully. 

Looking around, Xue Wei found similar scenes playing out on the other stages. No one seemed to go for the kill. They fought splendidly, but they weren't eager to kill. 

Xue Wei's eyes narrowed, and he could not help but feel that something was off. If Wan Qiang had created this tournament in order to reduce the number of human experts, what happened if no one died? He would not change the rules and force them to kill each other, would he? 

This thought made him snicker and shake his head. That was not possible; everyone had the option to forfeit, so the death toll should not be too high. 

After three rounds, it was finally Xue Wei's turn. Up until now, only three experts had died, while the rest had survived. Those who had died were all amongst the weakest contestants. 

One of them had died somewhat comically. The opponent was a fourth layer Sky Warrior, while the dead expert was a one layer Sky Warrior. 

In one attack the one layer Sky Warrior had been beheaded, shocking the fourth layered warrior so much that he got sick on stage, causing the stage to be unable to be used again before it had been cleaned. 

The other two had died because their opponents were stronger and fought with lethal intent. 

In the end, Xue Wei shook his head and stepped onto the stage. He found a second layer Sky Warrior by his side. This expert looked at Xue Wei before remembering him as the coward from the battle royale. 

A relieved smile appeared on his face. Xue Wei raised an eyebrow in surprise. Had he established an image so weak that someone two layers below him thought he could beat him? 

Xue Wei almost started laughing, something very uncharacteristic for him, but it was truly amusing. 

In the end, he held back the majority of his strength and pretended that he had a hard time before ultimately killing his foe.

He did not use the Mind Infestation skill because there was simply no need to do so. He was constantly on the losing end, so the opponent had no reason to give up. At the last moment, Xue Wei’s opponent revealed some flaws due to his haste in putting an end to their fight, in which Xue Wei countered with a Shattering Mountain Palm that blasted his head into thousands of small bits. 

The gory scene caused many experts to feel nauseous. Some of the female experts couldn't stop their faces from going completely pale before they quickly turned their heads away from the sight. 

Xue Wei, on the other hand, was completely indifferent towards the sight of the blood and gore that had been blasted all over the stage. Rather, he moved towards his foe’s headless corpse and rummaged through his pockets to pilfer his valuables.

This person was a roaming cultivator so he had no storage ring. Thus he did not have many items either. There was a bit of gold that Xue Wei quickly swiped away before leaving the corpse on the floor and heading down from the stage. 

Xue Wei was being looked at with many different gazes. Many looked at him as if they had seen an idiot. They did not believe he had much strength and that it was a fortune for him to have won the last battle. They were convinced he had won due to his opponent becoming reckless, but the leaders of the three great sects were different. They were struck with a bad feeling. 

Rather than disdain, like the others, they conveyed almost unspeakable worries on their faces

Xue Wei ignored them all and found a place outside the stages to stand. He quietly cursed in his mind that the opponent only had a bit of gold, but he understood that not everyone could have a storage ring. He understood that it was very rare for just anyone to have one. While close, they were still far from the center of the continent. A storage ring was a luxury item.

"I hope I will be put up against the Crimson Suns.h.i.+ne Sect's members soon," Xue Wei muttered to himself. He knew that they were likely to have a ring each, so they were like walking bags of money in his eyes. 

He had already promised not to kill the members of the Cerulean Starlight Sect, so he obviously hoped not to encounter them. As for the Argent Moon Sect, he just did not want anything to do with them. 

They had no previous grievances, but he took offense to their patronizing behavior in their previous encounter. After careful consideration, Xue Wei reached the conclusion that he was likely to kill them for their items.

Although they were women and beautiful cultivators, they were just humans. As soon as they stepped onto the road of cultivation, they had acknowledged that they would have to kill and were likely to be killed in the end.

Although they expected their killers to end up being Primordial or Fierce Beasts, there were always changes to their situations. 

To show mercy just because they were women was not Xue Wei's style. He was not biased towards women, so him letting them survive based on their gender was an impossibility. 

Having concluded that everyone he met, apart from the ones from the Cerulean Starlight Sect would die at his hands, Xue Wei felt a strong current of bloodl.u.s.t rush through his body once more. 

His eyes flickered with a red color as he tried to suppress it. His urge to ma.s.sacre every single person around him was almost unbearable, but it was still not his turn to go on stage. All he could do was curl his hands into fists so hard that the nails dug into the skin of his palms, and forced himself to calm down.