Hei Gou was attractive. His hair was long and flowed like silk; the color was black like a raven's wing. His eyes were also black and resembled the darkest night where no stars shone.
His skin was fair and porcelain white; even a woman would envy him for his skin. His build was perfect in every way. He was taller than the average man, and his entire features seemed as if chiseled from a stone.
When one looked at him, one would have the feeling that he was a god that had descended to the mortal world. When one looked at him, they instantly thought that he was the male version of Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion.
Even Xue Wei was astonished by the attention that Hei Gou was getting. He knew that his friend was attractive, but was there any reason to make such a big deal out of it?
They were all martial artists, so what mattered was your strength, not your appearance. Still, all of these experts looked at Hei Gou as if they had seen their most fearsome foe to date.
Xue Wei was at a loss for what to do, but then he chuckled. It was human nature to be jealous, and his friend’s appearance was indeed worthy of such jealousy.
Even though Xue Wei’s true looks were not ugly, he was not as attractive as Hei Gou. And now that he was wearing the mask, he was as dull as one could be.
Xue Wei and Hei Gou conversed through compressed voice transmission. Sometimes, they would joke about the other experts, other times they would exclaim in surprise when they saw a strong expert. And from time to time, they would discuss what exactly could be the prize that brought so many geniuses together.
"Do you think you can win?" Hei Gou asked curiously, taking Xue Wei by surprise. "I don't think I can," the latter replied honestly. "Although I am now a first layer Sky Warrior, I am still a far cry from being even your opponent due to your Heavenly Warrior-level physical strength."
"I am not participating," Hei Gou said seriously. "You are not?" Xue Wei was surprised, but he quickly understood why. Hei Gou could easily fool people into thinking that he was human when he just walked around, light battles included, but if he had to engage in a real struggle, then it was likely that he would have to use his innate talents. At that point, he would be forced to reveal his real self.
"Well, I will fight," Xue Wei said after thinking about Hei Gou's situation. "Our future might very well depend on this. We are still laying the foundation for our cultivation. We need to get some medicinal herbs and plants to help us, but we cannot afford them right now."
"We need to get some proper clothes too, but we cannot afford even that. Everything we need, we cannot afford. For that reason, I will go all out in this tournament."
"I will use Tianyi. I will use my overwhelming soul and Mind Infestation. I will not use my transformation yet though. I don't think they know about transformations here in the Skyward Empire, and I am not keen on finding out," Xue Wei said while grimacing.
Hei Gou nodded his head seriously. "It is rather troublesome, but we cannot change it. It is for the best that you do not use the dragon claws in this tournament."
Having decided on using every other means than the transformation, Xue Wei could not help but feel rather eager to see what his enemies were like. He wanted to battle them all as soon as possible.
Since he had reached the Sky Warrior rank, he had been incapable of finding any opponents amongst the experts that had ambushed them on the way to the Skyward Empire. This made it so that he did not know his limitations. He only knew that a lot of energy was running through his body, a current of strength many times stronger than when he was an Earth Warrior. In fact, it would be no lie to say that he was at least fifty times stronger now.
This increase in power had shocked Xue Wei drastically. When he was an Earth Warrior, he was still capable of defeating a Sky Warrior, but now, as a Sky Warrior himself, just how many layers above him would he be able to overcome?
He was keen to find out.
They resumed their journey for a full day and night before a large structure appeared in the distance. All the youths around them traveling to the same destination seemed to be eager when they saw this massive cluster of buildings. They all started rushing towards it.
It was indeed a fortress that met Xue Wei and Hei Gou. A fort made solely from Black Iron. It was glistening in the sun's rays, and many small palaces and castles made up the entirety of the fortress, which was surrounded by a massive wall that was at least fifty meters tall.
There was one entrance into the fort. Xue Wei and Hei Gou were quite eager to enter, but the sight of this massive fort caused them to hesitate.
None of the other youngsters hesitated and rushed into the fort, but Xue Wei frowned when he saw it. His experiences so far had drilled a sense of caution deeply into his bones. This was the perfect death trap if the fortmasters had something planned.
"Well, fortune goes hand in hand with danger," Xue Wei said through gritted teeth. If he did not take risks, how would he ever be able to achieve greatness?
"Don't forget that this is a high-profile event," Hei Gou reminded him. "If every person participating in this vanishes, then there will be an uproar in the entire Skyward Empire that the Black Iron Fort won't be able to handle."
Xue Wei nodded his head. It was indeed the case. Experts appeared from all over the entire empire, and these experts came from both poor and influential families.
The Black Iron Fortress had spread the news far and wide; everyone knew that these experts were here for the tournament. If something were to happen, then they might not be able to deal with the aftermath.
Thinking of this, Xue Wei nodded his head and headed into the fortress closely followed by Hei Gou.
The two were on high alert, but the guards let them in without any problems. They even pointed them towards the location of the counter where they could sign up for the tournament, all of them acting incredibly polite and friendly.
The area around and in front of the castle of the fort made up a very large city with around seven million inhabitants and a wide variety of stores, which was currently teeming with youths from all walks of life.
The majority of these youths were either ninth layer Earth Warriors or first layer Sky Warriors.
There were a few people who had a cultivation base above this, and the ones who were stronger also seemed to have a whole group of followers behind them.
These experts instantly noticed Hei Gou when he entered. Although Xue Wei was with him, he was immediately regarded as Hei Gou's lackey, someone who followed Hei Gou for the sake of sucking up to him and gaining benefits.
Seeing this, Xue Wei could not help but shake his head helplessly. It was wholly inaccurate. These two friends considered each other brothers, but neither saw any reason to put effort into changing their opinions. They could think what they want. Xue Wei and Hei Gou knew the truth, and that was all that mattered.
Xue Wei and Hei Gou headed towards the location where they were told to sign up. When they reached it, they found a table surrounded by youths standing in queue, all of which were trying their hardest to push forward.
Xue Wei and Hei Gou just stood and waited for it to be their turn. They weren’t in a rush. They observed their surroundings and found that a lot of experts were also watching them.
It was natural that Hei Gou would draw attention with his cultivation base that looked to be in the fifth layer of the Sky Warrior rank. Even Xue Wei caused some of them to look at him curiously, but he was only a one layer Sky Warrior, so he was not their main focus.
When it was their turn to sign up, many were curious as to their ages. There was an age testing orb to ensure that these experts were not older than thirty-seven. They were curious as to how old they were to have already reached the rank of Sky Warrior.
To their disappointment, Hei Gou just smiled and stepped aside, allowing Xue Wei to sign up instead.
"Is he saying that this tournament is below his attention?"
"Do you think that he is the guard of that kid maybe?"
"No way, is he trying to see the strength of his servant instead of signing up himself?"
Many murmurs could be heard at that point, but most of them were puzzled. Many thought that Hei Gou saw himself above a competition like this since he already had such a high cultivation base.
And seeing that the Black Iron Fortress did not force anyone to sign up, they could only sigh in disappointment.
Although Xue Wei had reached the Sky Warrior rank, he was only at the peak of the first layer. For him to win the competition seemed utterly impossible.
"Name?" the guard that was responsible for sign-ups finally looked at Xue Wei. "Ye Xiao," Xue Wei came up with a random name in a moment's time.
"Where are you from?"
"We came through the Flowing Blood Prairie," Xue Wei said. Once more it was no lie, but he did not elaborate on their origins either. No one caught on, and the man nodded his head.
"That makes sense for why you look so young!" he said. "Place your hand on this age testing orb," he said and beckoned towards a large glass bead that seemed to have a lot of white mist within it on the table.
Xue Wei placed his hand on it as requested. The man’s jaw dropped to the floor when he saw the answer. "S-Seventeen years old?" he asked, stunned. A seventeen-year-old Sky Warrior was indeed a real genius, even in their Skyward Empire.
Although it could not compare to the geniuses from the center of the continent, it was indeed the best within their kingdom. The guard could not help but lament. If the contest was held a few years later, to what heights would he have grown then?
"Seventeen? Should he not be in the army?" a jealous man in the crowd around asked with a snort. Another cut in, "He said he's from the Flowing Blood Prairie. Don't you know that their younger generation members aren’t part of any kingdom’s army?"
"Everyone can say they are from the Flowing Blood Prairie if they are a deserter, then!" the first man continued, but the others just snorted at him. Was it that simple to lie about your identity?
"Oh look!" someone exclaimed. "The fairies from the Argent Moon Sect have arrived!"
Hearing this, Xue Wei was curious. The ripples of the Argent Moon Sect’s fame had even reached the distant Heping Kingdom. They had branches in every kingdom within the center of the continent, and apparently also had a branch in the Skyward Empire.
When Xue Wei lifted his head to look at them, he was indeed stunned. Eighteen young women were walking together towards the sign-up counter.
They were all wearing white dresses with silver and light blue embroideries. They had veils covering their faces, revealing only intelligent and gorgeous eyes.
The leading woman was as cold as ice; even her aura caused many of the experts present to shiver as if they had been dropped into a bucket full of ice water.
Xue Wei, on the other hand, was completely unaffected. After glancing at the women, he returned his attention to the guard, patiently waiting for his application to be processed.