"Anyone knows who the guy was? I don't think I have ever seen him before."
"I think I have seen him fight a few times before, but I don't know his name."
"I believe, he too is like Adam, someone who joined recently and is gaining ranks very fast."
"Can you tell what his cultivation base was? I didn't see it."
"He must have a high cultivation base, his attack was so strong."
Even after he was gone, Alex was the talk among the people watching below the stage. His display of power was too great for him to not leave a lasting impression.
Alex, on the other hand, was himself shocked at what he had done in the match. 'How did my punch become so strong?' he couldn't help but wonder. Iron Fist Punch wasn't supposed to be very strong, a realm or 2 above his own. However, the display of power that he had just shown was far above that.
If his punch had been on the same level as the other guy's defensive wall, they would have most likely cancel out each other. If it had been a few realms higher, then the punch would have caused a big explosion where most of his attack would've hit the other guy. But, simply breaking the defense like it was a sheet of glass, that meant that his attack was very strong.
'How did I get so strong?' he couldn't come up with a reason at all. He gave the problem a bit more thought and finally ended up with a reason why that might have happened.
'Does it have something to do with the blood essence from last night?' he wondered. He was still confused as to what had happened to him last night. The most he could assume is that his body had to somehow fend off or absorb the blood essence, and that was what had knocked him out.
He decided to ignore the thought for now. "So, do I fight some more, or do I go to the library?" he was in a dilemma.
'Can I tell my master that I need to learn about beast companions and fight for now? Oh, or maybe master even knows a lot about them. Pearl should be fine for today. I will ask master about him later tonight.'
He went on to register some more fights. He fought around 3 more times and realized that he had gotten a lot stronger. Every single battle, he was able to overwhelm his opponents, and as such managed to win the 156th badge by 9 pm.
If he hadn't had to log out for dinner or his 2nd opponent hadn't taken forever to arrive, he might have reached a much higher ranking.
'Doesn't core disciples start from 50th ranking? I wonder how many of them are truly in the Meridian realm and above. The difficulty level will only get higher, so I will have to level up as fast as possible as well. I wonder when I can do my next breakthrough.'
Alex was on his way to his master's place. It took him a dozen or so minutes to go from the sect crater all the way to the training hall.
"You are here, finally." Wen Cheng said as he sensed Alex coming his way.
"Good Evening master," he greeted as soon as he saw his master.
"Why didn't you come yesterday? I kept waiting for you and you didn't come at all. Were you busy with alchemy or something?" he asked.
"No, uh… something happened yesterday and I fainted for the entire night. I only gained consciousness this morning." Alex replied.
"Lost consciousness? Did something happen? I didn't bother calling you yesterday because I thought you were exhausted from the day's alchemy and needed a break. Was I wrong?" Wen Cheng asked.
Alex thought for a bit about how exactly to explain the issue.
"We should go inside the first master," he said. Both master and disciple then walked into the soundproof training hall.
"Come out, Pearl."
With a bright shine, Pearl came out from his arm and landed between him and his master. Wen Cheng was surprised when he saw the little guy. Pearl was barely any bigger than his palm and that small size made him look quite cute.
Wen Cheng squatted down on one knee and started petting Pearl, who happily let him pet him. "Did you get a beast companion yesterday? Is that why you were absent?"
"Actually, no. But he is part of the reason." Alex said.
Wen Cheng looked at him with a curious face and said, "Explain,"
Alex went into detail about what happened yesterday, but still kept some of the happenings vague. He didn't tell about the Saint Monster core and kept a pretty vague explanation for how he came to acquire that ball of the essence. But everything else, he told his master without hesitation.
Wen Cheng was shocked for a while, so much information that just seemed so ridiculous that he had a hard time believing it, but he couldn't deny it since it was his disciple. While his disciple could also lie, he didn't see why he would decide to.
He then looked down to see the cat he was still petting. "So this is the child of the cat monster you talked about back in that crater?" he asked.
"Yes, master. The reason we couldn't find him back then was because he was bonded with me and had already come inside my arm to live with me." Alex felt better after informing what had happened to master. Finally, he didn't have to suffer the burden alone.
Wen Cheng's face lost any sort of emotion as he got very serious for a moment. "Have you told anyone about the cat yet?" he asked.
"Yes, I did take him to the beast care to see what he needed, so elder Xian knows about him," Alex replied.
"If it's only him, then that is fine for now. Remember, never let anyone know about the origin of your beast companion. That will only bring trouble to you."