1065 Battle Hall
After deciding on what he wanted to do, Alex went to an Alchemy shop to buy a few ingredients. The Alchemy shop was towards the lower level of the mountain, so he had to walk all the way back down.
After buying the required ingredients, he bought himself a place to stay and started making some pills. Over the course of the day and then night, Alex finished making a few high-harmony pills that he would most likely be needing in the Battle Hall.
Once he was done, he took one of the pills and ate it. Within the next moment, his facial muscles started moving. His hair turned slightly browner and a small stubble appeared on his chin.
A few moments later, he looked like a completely different man with absolutely no resemblance to Alex at all. Even his age seemed to be a bit older judging by just his face.
Once he was fully changed, Alex took out a set of clothes and changed to look different.
“Whisker, come out!”
Whisker jumped out of his right shoulder and looked at him with a confused look. He knew that he was looking at him, but for some reason, he couldn’t recognize him at all.
“You changed?” he asked through his bond.
“Temporarily,” Alex said. “I will have to be this person for the next month or so.”
Alex made sure that there was no problem with how he looked by looking at himself through Whisker’s eyes and finally nodded to himself.
“Good, we can go now,” he said.
He walked out of the room after putting Whisker back into his beast space and walked up the mountain toward the plateau again.
This time, he walked directly into the Battle Hall and was surprised at how dark this place was. There were little to no windows after passing through the main door and the inner reception area was massive with tall ceilings and far-apart walls.
Sounds echoed continuously as the many people that were here spoke over each other, creating a cacophony.
Alex ignored everyone and spoke to the receptionist directly. “Hi, I am here to participate in some matches, what should I do?” he asked.
“If you want to participate, please fill up this form and pay the amount written at the bottom,” the girl said and handed over a talisman.
Alex nodded and looked at the talisman. Surprisingly, the talisman didn’t ask for much information. All it wanted was his name and his cultivation base. There was other information to fill up too, but they weren’t necessary to fill so Alex left them blank.
At the bottom, he saw the price.
Every single cultivation base realm had a price attached to it. For Alex’s case, a Saint Foundation realm cultivator had to pay 25 thousand True Spirit stones.
Alex frowned a bit when he saw the amount it wanted. However, he handed over the money anyway since that was what he had come here for. Besides, that much money wasn’t much of a problem to him anyway.
Once he paid the price, the receptionist called someone to take him to another room for some tests.
A middle-aged saint walked out and greeted him. “Greetings, brother. I am Ren Jurong. Will you please come with me?” he asked.
Alex nodded and walked along with him, going away from the hallway that was so full of people.
“You charge quite a lot, don’t you?” Alex asked.
“The fee? That’s nothing. I’m sure you will make it back in a match or two with proper luck,” the man said.
Alex nodded with some new understanding. “So where are we going?” he asked.
“Do you know much about the inner workings of the Battle Hall?” the man asked.
“I’m afraid not. I only heard about it a few days ago,” Alex said.
“I see. Well, either way, I am going to tell you the various rules of this place,” the man said as he reached a room.
Inside the room was a giant formation on the ground which seemed active. Alex tried to look at the formation to see what it did, but before he could get a good look, the man spoke, “Please step on the formation.”
Alex frowned a little. “What is this?” he asked.
“It’s a formation that will record your aura and also check your cultivation base to make sure you didn’t lie,” he said. “We here at the Battle Hall take things very seriously and we can’t let a bad matchup take place due to the other person’s lies.”
“I see,” Alex said and got onto the formation. He could now see that the man wasn’t lying and that it was what he said it was.
He stood on the formation and let it learn about him. A few moments later, the energy was no longer there and he walked off.
The man looked at the new information and nodded. “Your information is correct, brother Yu,” he said. “However, would you reconsider putting in more information? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it would certainly help us.”
“I have nothing else to add,” Alex said. “Although, if possible can I request fighters that are in the Saint Core realm?”
“That’s… not possible. You are too weak,” the man said.
“I’m not,” Alex replied, but the man wouldn’t believe him at all.
“You can’t choose your own opponent, the Hall will do it for you,” the man said. “There are a few other rules that I will now tell you.”
The rules in the Battle Hall were quite simple. Every time he wanted to fight, Alex had to come and notify it to the staff. The staff would then try to find the perfect match for him and would notify him when it was available.
While notifying for a request to battle, the person had to also put some money in advance so that if he ever did miss it, the Hall could pay the winner for not getting to fight that day.
Fighters could also bet some money before the match. Each bet made would be doubled for them by the Hall if they won.
For Saint realm fighters, there would be no audience and no referee. One side would have to stop when they knew they were losing. This was a rule since there weren’t many people that could referee a fight between two Saint realm cultivators without any issue.
The fighters were obviously not allowed to cripple, dismember, or kill their opponent. Any long-lasting injury would require the other person to heal them of it, and if they couldn’t, the Hall would ban them and release their information out to the world.
Alex was surprised at how brutal the place was in regard to breaking rules. He didn’t really mind his information being public, but he could imagine just how devastating it would be for others to know that the sect or the family of the person you hurt was coming after you.
“So only two fighters will be present? No audience at all?” Alex asked.
“No,” the man said. “Most Saint ranked fighters wish to not show their skills in public so it is done in private instead. The Audience will still be notified of your fight half an hour earlier, so they can bet all they want then.”
“I see, that makes sense,” Alex said. “Is that why there are so many people out there?”
“Yes,” the man said. “Most people go watch the fight between the True realm cultivators, but some still remain to bet on the Saint realm matches. That was what you saw outside.”
“I see,” Alex said. “I wish to fight then.”
“Please leave us a method of communication and 20 thousand True spirit stones. We will notify you once we find an opponent for you,” the man said. “Since you are just starting out and we don’t know much about you, your match should be confirmed relatively soon. Please be on the lookout for our notification and don’t leave the city.”
“Sure,” Alex said and brought out a communication talisman as well as the required amount of money. “I’m expecting to hear from you in a few days.”
“You will, brother Yu,” the man said.
Alex nodded and walked away from the place, coming out into the main hall again. He could now hear the crowd again, but this time it didn’t seem as much of a mess as before.
Since he knew that they were betting on some matches, Alex could hear them adding to more bids, or complaining about how bad the bid was. They were even complaining about how some bids didn’t have as good a return on the win.
Alex looked at the board with a lot of lists and information. He could see who was fighting who and when.
The Saint realm side of things was mostly blank, but there were still 3 more matches that were going to take place today.
Alex was slightly curious, so he stayed for two of the 3 matches to see how it went.
pAn,da n<0,>v,e1 He was frustrated very quickly when he realized that he could neither hear nor see their fights in any manner. If not for the ground vibrating from time to time, he would’ve doubted that either of those two was even fighting.
After watching absolutely nothing, Alex left the Battle Hall and went back to his room where he began cultivating.
A day later, he was notified that his first battle had been set. 2 days later, around 10 in the morning would be when he fought his unnamed opponent.