Chapter 3938: Before Dawn

Before dawn, when night still veiled the sky on the day of the duel, Bladedance arrived at Alex’s courtyard along with the Sky God.

They walked inside and found the place already active, with more than a few people there. Everyone was nervous for the day, unsure of what could happen today. Everyone had hopes, but they also had fear.

"The place looks quite alive," Bladedance said as she walked in. She looked at Alex, who was in the middle of the group. "You must be ready."

"I’ve been ready for quite some time, Master," Alex said before turning toward the Sky God. "I did not think you would come visit me, senior."

"I had thought of calling you over to me, but everyone would be watching out for you, so I decided it was better to come meet you myself," she said. "How are you feeling? Nervous? Afraid? Maybe even excited?"

"I can’t say I’m excited. I am nervous, perhaps even afraid. But I also have trust in myself and all the preparations I’ve done until now. I know they won’t let me down."

The Sky God nodded along. She looked around at the group as everyone sat in silence. "Don’t worry. At the very least, we will ensure that he won’t die."

Helen gave a thankful nod.

"I’ve tried Divining a bit, but I can’t tell what I am looking at," Liz said. "Every Divination returns with a bunch of fire and Yang and sun. And it’s impossible to parse what they mean."

Bladedance looked toward her. "Is there Divination for after today? If he survives, that should tell you, right?"

"I think there is, but I’m not strong enough to tell the difference," Liz said. "Let me try Divining again."

She closed her eyes and focused all of her understanding toward looking into the future through space and time. Slowly, she began speaking some words outside of her control.

"Fire meets Fire. Yang meets Yang. The Sun rises and the Sun sets. Darkness fills the sky. God against God. A Great Loss."

Liz opened her eyes again, slightly grunting as it had taken a lot out of her. When she rested for a bit, she quickly went through her Divination once again.

"A Great Loss?" she said out loud.

"That’s strange," Helen said. "You didn’t talk about who wins previously."

Alex took in a deep breath. It appeared that since they were closer to the duel now, Liz’s Divinations had gotten much better. She could even see who won and who didn’t.

"I guess I’m bound to lose then," he said.

"Don’t trust those Divinations," Bladedance quickly said. "You should know better than to believe them."

"I don’t really, but it’s hard to ignore it when I’m more or less certain that will be the case," Alex said.

"It won’t be an obvious loss, at least," the Sky God said. "We should chat in private. I came to tell you a few things."

Alex nodded and took the two Celestials deeper into the house, asking Sunflare to remain outside for the moment. Once inside, they sat around the couches, and Alex gestured for the Sky God to start.

"I imagine you haven’t been explicitly told how the duel will be handled," Newheaven asked. "So, I came to try and help you understand."

"Oh, yeah. I have a general idea, but nothing specific," Alex said. "Please explain it to me in as much detail as you can, senior."

The Sky God nodded and began. "Generally, the battle between two Gods involves them fighting each other in the specific area they are the God of. Normally, their cultivation bases will be close enough that it wouldn’t matter if they actually fought each other in most cases, which would mean allowing them full usage of their cultivation bases. However, that doesn’t necessarily need to be the case."

Alex nodded and kept listening.

"Precisely speaking, each side is allowed to present their own way to test each other and see how much better they are. This can include almost anything they want. And at the same time, you can refuse any tests as well. In fact, you are allowed to refuse to take part in the entire thing. Which, of course, means you lose by default."

Alex crossed his arms. "But I have no plans on doing that."

"I understand. But in situations where the chances are obviously against you, you should refuse," the Sky God said. "However, your goal during this duel is to prove to others that you are worthy of being a God. So you cannot simply refuse. You must give reasons for why you chose to refuse battles."

"Say the Fire God asks you for a direct battle. You need to explain that your cultivation base difference would mean he will win without a doubt, but that won’t prove to anyone that he is more suited to being the God of Fire. That sort of argument."

Alex understood.

"I have heard that the Fire God will be sending the Fire Sage to test me first. I suppose I am allowed to refuse that too, but doing so would make me look scared. They might consider me not suited to being the God of Fire and Yang."

The Sky God gave an affirming nod. "Each time you refuse a test or showcase of skills, you need to explain to everyone precisely why you are doing so. That is easily the biggest thing you can do in today’s duel. Knowing what sort of matches to accept and what to refuse will be your greatest strength today."

Alex took in all of that. "And how does the duel end?"

"Three ways. First, whenever one of you is unable to continue. This could be anything from dying, being crippled, running out of Qi. Anything. As long as you can’t continue, you lose, and the duel ends."

"The second is when you give up. That should be obvious."

"And the third is when the audience says it’s over. Once over two-thirds of the main audience proclaims that they have decided on the winner, it will end."