Chapter 536 - An Inheritance.
VIP box...
As the time ticked on with only a few minutes left before the one-hour break was over, the Empress finally received the report on the bodies of the dead trio.
Reading through the report, the Empress's lips were upside down in a frown.
When she spoke, her words were directed at her daughter Tanya but as she was not lowering her voice, almost everyone in the VIP box heard her words,
"Exactly what cultivation realm is Hal Doxon at?" She asked and passed the report to Tanya.
She asked her daughter since she was Hal's sponsor and should quite rightly know more about him than even his family members.
A sponsor was not just someone who recommends a participant fit the Royal Academy exams, they are usually also tutor and train their participants and have full confidence in them when sending them off to attempt joining the Royal Academy.
Of course, Tanya and Hal's situation was not as such but it did not mean she could not answer these simple questions.
"The mid-stage of the Cosmic Aurora realm" Tanya said as she read the report with twitching lips.
All three had been at the Cosmic pagoda realm at the time of their death and one of them had actually died by having poison injected directly into her heart.
"And how old is he? I don't want a range, I want his actual age" she said.
"He's nineteen. The Doxon Duchess had him nineteen years ago, just a little while after she became duchess" Tanya said.
The Empress nodded with her face devoid of expressions,
"I would like to speak to him once the exams are over." She said to which Tanya gave a short bow but said nothing in reply.
Meanwhile, many in the VIP box had widened eyes as they wondered how the hell that Doxon brat had done it.
Such quick cultivation was something no one could boast of.
What secrets was the young man hiding?
And could it be that whatever it is, the Danes, despite their hatred of what the Doxons stand for, have a stake in it?
...
The one hour ended and participants finally revealed themselves, returning to the center stage for the second stage of the Royal Academy Entrance exams.
Hal, Melinda, and Nicole walked out as well after having spent ten warped hours indulging in each other's bodies while they were watched by an almost constantly orgasming Sassy who took in as much knowledge as she possibly could.
Soon everyone was present with the seven still present so-called leaders of the younger generation glaring at Hal and Valerie's groups with contempt at them being where they should not have been.
Hal however, focussed his attention on the circle that had been drawn in the center stage.
Then Elsa spoke,
"The final stage of the Exams is an elimination battle. You have all been paired randomly and will battle as you have been paired. The losers are eliminated and lose points while winners win points proceed to be paired again and battle it out.
You win when you are able to repel your opponent out of the circle or your opponent forfeits.
The fixed amount of points to be lost and to be won is fifty.
Feel free to fight to the extent of your abilities. Unlike inside the rundown district, here we have seasoned experts who will accurately gauge when to step in and interfere in your battles because we have no use for your deaths.
We are here for an exam not battles to the death.
Behold; your first opponents..."
The screens became covered with names and Hal's first opponent was Han Doe while Melinda's was another member of Han Doe's group.
The first pair to battle stepped on the stage with their points being displayed on the screens.
One of them had forty points while the other had a hundred.
Their battle ended quickly enough with the one with forty points losing and having to surrender all forty points to his opponent and still be left with a negative ten points.
The winner had his point tally increased to one hundred.
The next to fight was Valerie who stepped on the stage with one of the members in a group led by one of the so-called leaders of the young generation.
The board caused Hal to raise a brow when he saw that Valerie had amassed one thousand points as opposed to her opponent's points which were two hundred.
Clearly, Valerie had been quite active in the first stage of the Exams.
Valerie stretched her hand immediately to summon a four circle ring,
"Fourth-grade skill; Rain of Daggers"
Daggers composed of cosmic energy emerged from the skill ring and all targeted her opponent who sneered and unleashed cosmic energy like a shield around herself so that she could charge right through Valerie's dagger rain and attack her head-on.
Valerie had no issue with it and welcomed her opponent's approach while she stretched her hands and summoned two cosmic armaments in each of her hands.
One was a large green war hammer and the other was a blue broadsword. Both of which she wielded as though they weighed nothing.
Both of which were different from the cosmic armament she had used when she fought Hal in the rundown district.
Needless to say, the appearance of both caused the eyebrows of many in the crowd to rise.
One Armament...
That was what was permitted of every cultivator to create so why was this young woman wielding two clearly distinct Armaments.
Experienced men and women in the VIP box understood what was going on and thanks to Grimoire, Hal did as well,
'She gained an inheritance.
Speedy cultivation like yours is not the only way to spontaneously increase strength. There are techniques, considered forbidden because of their difficulty, which allow experts who are nearing the end of their lifespan to leave a piece of themselves behind. A piece that contains the core of their cultivation. What makes them, at that point in life, powerful and special.
That is an inheritance that can be absorbed and cultivated by a younger fellow that will almost instantaneously grant whoever the inheritor is, the cultivation that has been left behind.
However, while it is a kind of cheat that will speedily increase strength, there are downsides that the inheritor will only discover when they attempt to comprehend Ordinances or Comprehend Dao.
You see, these two things, Ordinance and Dao, have a lot to do with who the inheritor is, who they truly are.
But with the inheritance within them, being a source of strength, there now exists a different entity that will mess up the inheritor's equilibrium and make it impossible to find out what makes them who they are.
In other words, the inheritor loses his or her own individuality'
Grimoire explained and by the time it was done, which was a few seconds at most, Valerie's opponent had arrived in front of her.
Valerie used her large broad sword like a shield to deflect her opponent's weapon while she swung her hammer at her opponent's chest.
The opponent's eyes widened and she made to surround herself with Cosmic energy and while that indeed helped her avoid more serious injuries, it did nothing to keep her rooted to the spot as the hammer swing sent her flying out of the circle and away from the center stage completely.
*Bang!*
Many cheered Valerie on in her win but the lady ignored it, as well as the fifty points increase in her points, with an unsatisfied smile while she walked away from the stage, met Hal's eyes, and sneered as though to say 'I'm coming for you'.
Hal mouthed, 'I'll be waiting for you' to her just as it was Nicole's turn to ascend the stage.
Nicole had 1100 points, the one hundred more than Valerie had been due to the fact that her group had been actively hunting other groups and had taken down the most groups of all surviving ten groups.
Her opponent who was at the Early stage of the Cosmic Aurora realm and had four hundred points, wasted no time tossing a Cosmic Aurora at the Antonov lady who rolled out of the way in an impressive show of speed and reflexes.
After all, her opponent's attacking speed should have surpassed hers to the extent that she would be overwhelmed.
Cosmic auroras and attacks followed after one other as her opponent felt to keep the distance between them and finish it without getting in close contact.
He felt that Nicole being at the Cosmic Phenomenon realm did not deserve an up-close and personal battle with him.
With the disparity of their cultivation, he expected Nicole to want to keep her distance as much as she could which was why it surprised him when Nicole dashed towards him, leaving a trail of sweet-smelling, almost arousing purple streak behind her.
The young man frowned and wrapped his fist in a cosmic Aurora to strike at Nicole who was moving at a speed with which she should not have been able to maneuver well enough to avoid getting hit.
Alas, to his surprise, Nicole leaned to the side, easily evading his hit and reciprocating with a hard and loud punch...
*Bam!*
.... that got her opponent's eyes bugging out in surprise and pain as he sailed away from her and out of the circle.