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"Hey Ken, we need to go. The competition starts with the youngest ages, so you\'re fighting in the first bracket."

Rose and Aya were waiting for him to finish dressing up and eating his breakfast. Rose originally didn\'t plan to bring Aya and Dean anymore after finding out Ken\'s real stage, but Aya insisted, so she brought her along.

"You\'re a cultivator, can\'t you survive skipping one meal?"

Rose complained to him as soon as he finished eating and the trio went out.

"I can, but it\'s bad for my growth. I\'m still so young, you shouldn\'t encourage me to do unhealthy things."

"Hmph, kids so young don\'t cut others\' throats. We all heard what you\'ve done."

"Just a small matter, why do you talk about it too much?"

The two bickered while Aya mainly remained silent and supported Ken from time to time. Although Ken didn\'t trust Rose nor planned to rely on her, he understood that sometimes making friends was better than making enemies, and he could use those friendships later.

With his intelligence, it wasn\'t difficult for him to engage in an enjoyable conversation with nearly anyone, and Rose liked talking to him.

The three arrived at the arena of the family. The building was much smaller than the sect\'s and only had one big ring that could be divided into 4 when needed, like now.

"How many brackets are there?"

"There are the brackets for the first 3 age groups in the sect. 10-12, 13-16, and 17-24."

Ken could count around 120 participants. Despite his age group\'s range being the narrowest, it had the biggest number of participants. Around 50 kids were from his bracket.

While one could estimate the results of the other brackets through their ranking in the sect, this bracket was mainly based on foundation, and the disciples didn\'t bother to get a high rank in the sect.

"Everyone, send your contestants from the first age group to the arena for the matching process. As you remember, the top 3 contestants get to manage some of our property to earn additional resources."

Given their age, the ones to likely manage the property are the winners\' parents, but they would give most of their profits to the winning kid.

"My father said that he will take care of the property you win and give you 40% of the profits without you having to do anything."

Rose smiled and described the big favor her father has done for him.

\'So this is their game. They\'d probably cut my profits the same way if I won the Alchemy tournament. Since 70% of the profits go to the faction anyway, it means I only get 12% for winning. Not to mention that the ones who enjoy the resources going to the faction are the same people who take half of my profits.\'

"Thank him in my name."

"Of course."

Ken and Aya entered the arena and noticed that everyone looked at him worriedly.

"Remember, killing family members is prohibited, and punishable by disowning."

Disowning someone from the family would be sentencing them to death; most of them used their family name to step on others in the sect. Without the family\'s protection, they\'d be challenged by both commoners and other elite families to death matches.

There were 48 participants in the bracket, so the format was normal duels until only three were left.

"Draw sticks. The one to draw the stick with the number \'1\' on it will fight the one who drew the number \'2\', and so on."

Everyone chose a stick from a container and checked their numbers. They all looked at Ken, waiting to find out his number.

"Brother Ken, what number did you get?"

One of them eventually approached Ken and asked him directly when they realized he wasn\'t going to announce it for no reason. Since he was trying to fish for information, he addressed Ken in a friendly manner.

"6".

two-thirds of the fighters heaved in relief while the rest had disappointed faces.

"I quit."

"I quit."

"Me too."

Instantly one-third of the participants quit and left the stage. They had one thing in common; they were all fighting Ken in the first phase of the bracket.

The competition for their age merely measured foundation; none of them learned techniques yet. Since they knew Ken\'s stage was higher than theirs, and they had heard about his ruthlessness when beating men and women alike in the arena, they preferred to forfeit.

\'Less trouble for me.\'

Ken just shrugged and left the arena to take his seat next to Rose. Aya wasn\'t fighting him before the finals, so she remained to fight her matches. The arena was divided into 4, so the rounds passed quickly.

Ken just watched the fights without any interest. They were all just using brute force to beat each other, which seemed very inelegant for an elite family.

Soon, the semifinals arrived and Aya was facing a girl from a different faction. This time, when Aya struck the girl, the girl dodged and performed a basic palm technique, sending Aya to the ground.

"Hmph, they trained that girl with a technique just to gain resources. She must be a bastard daughter or something."

Rose grunted when she saw the girl performing a technique. She was close to the truth; this girl\'s parents died, and she was raised by her uncle. The uncle used her to gain resources for his real children.

\'That\'s the cruelty of my family.\'

Ken thought to himself when he heard Rose\'s words. Although he didn\'t know whether Rose was right or wrong, he understood she was probably at least half-right.

Soon, Aya joined them and sat next to Ken with a sad look.

"Don\'t worry about it, it wasn\'t your fault that you lost. Your foundation is better than hers."

Ken comforted her and she smiled in return. He obviously knew she has feelings for him, and he planned to let her nurture them as much as she wanted. He didn\'t know when they\'d come in handy.

"3 remaining contenders, come to the arena for the finals."

"No need, I will take third place."

"I will take second place."

A boy who also won the first phase of the competition forfeited first; he didn\'t have any techniques and didn\'t feel like getting thrashed around by either Ken or the girl who defeated Aya.

Next, the girl who defeated Aya gave up too. She also knew she couldn\'t do anything against Ken.

"Winner, Ken. You have the rights to the family training grounds Xuanwu. They are being rented by other disciples of the sect." (1)

"Thank you, Elder."

Ken received the managing token from the elder and left. He gave it to Rose as soon as he sat by her side so she can pass it to her uncle.

"One of the workers in the training grounds will deliver your share of the profits every month."

"Okay."

He stayed to watch the matches. It was a good opportunity to learn more about his family members. The next competition was Rose\'s bracket, so she went to the arena to take part in the draws.

Rose\'s bracket had 40 fighters. In the last bracket, their rankings were already consolidated, and it rarely changed, so only those who were very close in strength to the expected winners tried their luck.

As for ages 13-16, it was still somewhat unclear as every difference and breakthrough could tilt the results to one side or another.

Rose used a saber as her main weapon. She was ranked second among the Sue family according to the top list of the sect, so everyone expected her to win the second rank as well.

Ken also watched Annie, Krone\'s daughter. There were 4 Sue members with better rankings than her, but she didn\'t have a problem beating the first fighter.

Soon, only five disciples remained. Annie, Rose, another female disciple, and 2 more males. The other three were from different factions. Annie was lucky enough to have one of those ranked higher than her lose to Rose in the first phase of the competition.

The second phase of the tournament was different – there were 3 spots with the numbers 1, 2, or 3 on them, and anyone could occupy one of the three spots. When the sign was given, the 5 rushed toward the three spots.

Rose caught the second one while the third female disciple, Tina, assumed the first spot. As for the third spot, it was held by a male disciple named Reynar.

"Those who took over a spot in the top 3 may challenge others once. Those who didn\'t may challenge others twice."

Annie wisely chose to wait for the other disciple to make his choice, and he challenged the other male disciple. The female who took first place was ranked 4 in the sect, and Rose was ranked significantly higher than him as well.

Unfortunately, he lost, and the other got to keep his spot. Annie challenged him next; she also wasn\'t confident in defeating the other two girls.

Annie stuck to the family\'s specialty; her expertise was with swords and darkness techniques.

As soon as their fight began, she defended against her opponent\'s club technique with her sword and was sent a few steps back. When he charged forward again, she didn\'t lose balance.

She jumped backward to dodge it and used her movement technique to dash forward right back. With a swift stabbing motion, she almost pierced the disciple\'s chest, but he deflected it with his club at the last moment, making her sword only graze his shoulder.

(1) Xuánwǔ is the black tortoise, one of the four symbols of the Chinese constellations.