Spirit Cultivation

"Liena, he is single handedly ruining the Monthly Arena Day. Are you going to let that happen?" The judge called out annoyed, seeing the mess on the arena's stages from one of the private rooms. "They are also basically stealing from us. The made a Betting House a joke. We have to close it before we go bankrupt. They already won eight million Fate Stones." 

Despite the losses, Liena was calm, staring at the arena with a slight smile. "Don't worry, our foundation can't be broken by just that. Just let him be. I'm interested in him," Liena assured him, not mad at the attitude he showed her. 

The truth was, he was much stronger and more senior than her so she could only calm him down. 

"But look at what they are doing." The judge pointed at the arena and tried to convince her, "Listen to me as your Senior. He won't help you even if you do all that. I know people like him. They would never submit to someone else." 

On the Arena, Xuefeng's group has taken a few of the stages for himself. Each of his girls had a bounty on their head and challengers tried to beat them one by one. In the meantime, Xuefeng was going back and forth between the stage and Betting House until all of his members' odds were so high it was not profitable anymore. 

Liena stood silent so the judge asked curiously, "Tell me, if his Spirit is so important, why can't we just group together and kill him? There is no way you didn't think about it." 

Liena finally turned to him and said honestly, "I did think about it but there is no point. We won't be able to kill him even if the two of us group." 

"Huh? Is it because of the method he used to break my shield? He told me you know about it." the judge questioned confused. "I did fight with his Spirit for a moment and I'm confident I can beat him." 

"He somehow has Drakos with him," Liena replied simply, looking back to watching the battles. 

"..." The Judge was left speechless, not expecting such answer. "Drakos the Fate Nemesis? Isn't he locked down in the Heavenly Prison?"

"It seems he escaped and to avoid punishment, they didn't tell anyone. I suspect he was also the one stole one of ten Godly Treasures. Elemental Bracelet from the God Realm. Did you notice that Xuefeng's right wrist is thicker than his left one under his jacket? Drakos must have given it to Xuefeng too," Liena relayed what she knew. 

That news alone shocked the judge as he cried out, "He also has the Godly Treasure?! Damn, no wonder you are interested in him." 

Now everything was clear to him. 

"Yes. He knows my goal. Even if he doesn't want to help me, its fine. I can bet he will want to explore the Fate Kingdom himself in the future. Once he opens it, I will just tag along," Liena explained her plans, finally revealing why she was so calm. 

"Won't you make an enemy of the God Realm while hanging around with him? Once they find out he has the bracelet, they will definitely try to hunt both him and Drakos down. Only by killing him will they recover the bracelet." The judge suddenly got worried about her, knowing the power of the God Realm cultivators. 

"I know. This is why I will only support him from the shadows. If he dies to the God Realm cultivators then I will try to trade with them to get Ling. They respect the Fate Organisation enough to accept it," Liena admitted with straight face, not feeling bad for using Xuefeng. "No matter what happens, it should be my win."

Life in this world was exactly like that. 

Brutal. Unfair. Selfish. 

One could only fight back and stand victorious or die like a bug. 

"I wish him good luck then. We should really stay away from him. Once he enters the Heaven Realm, the real trial will start for him," the judge commented to which Liena simply nodded, not saying anything else. 

——— 

"Princess Shan is doing well, same with Yi, Wuying and Nuwa. I'm only worried about Tianshi," Xiao Wen commented as she hugged Yiren who didn't want to battle yet, deciding to bond with her new Fate Spirit instead. 

They were watching the battles from the side, praising them after each battle. Only Nuwa was the one who still played around with her first opponent. She liked to take her time in torturing people. 

Wuying's Blood Manipulation and assassin instinct gave her enough edge to battle her first opponents but on her third battle she was forced to use her Shackles of Doom as her trump card. With the amount of different abilities, not every battle was the same, giving them one of the best battle experience. 

Yi was battling while using her Star Shaper and Princess Shan decided to perfect her Ice Domain. They didn't even try to save on Qi, using everything they got which was one of the main reasons they could win. With their resources, they could burn money to recover quickly and continue training. Not everyone could create endless Elemental Qi like them. 

"Me too, but I believe in her," Xuefeng agreed as his eyes followed Tianshi's movements. "I still gave the same treatment to everyone like I did to you but I hope none of them will need it." 

Tianshi was currently running and dodging all of her opponent skills as if he knew exactly what will happen. Her heavenly steps were perfect for such manoeuvres, helping her bounce off any spot in the air. Since the last time she used it, Tianshi got even more proficient while using it, making Xuefeng impressed. 

Her enemy was also battling with a sword but she was definitely more experienced with it compared to Tianshi. To beat her, Tianshi had to use her foretelling. 

Just as they thought that, Tianshi turned around, starting her offence. She dodged the sword that was aimed at her back with a jump before bouncing off a fluffy cloud, suddenly appearing behind her opponent. The lady was quick, swiftly turning around to dodge but Tianshi launched herself from the clouds once again, aiming at one undefended spot with her sword. 

"She did it!" Xiao Wen cried out as the sword entered the female's chest and Xuefeng nodded happily. 

"Tianshi has potential. She just need a bit more training and abilities she can use. You all will improve with time," Xuefeng complimented, seeing a bright future ahead of them. 

Even though there were bounties on their heads, the battles were still treated as normal arena challenges. Tianshi was allowed to pick one ability from her opponent. Even though they weren't powerful, the more she gathered the more useful they could get in connection with others. 

"Once everyone's battles are over, we will leave. We need to test the new abilities and settle one more thing," Xuefeng decided, knowing three battles in a row were already a good score. He could already see Nuwa walking up to them from her own battle, naturally winning it without a sweat. 

"Hahaha, that was fun. That idiot got so mad he swung his hammer aimlessly," Nuwa commented in laughter and threw a golden ball to Xuefeng. "I won this from him. You can have it."