Gacha Sovereign

"Well, since we have touched it, we need to buy it." Alex let out a long sigh while looking at the elder.

"Hmm?!" The elder was confused now. It was a norm to cultivate both element and weapon at the same time, but the woman in front of him was clearly not cultivating them at the same time, especially with how clueless she was about elemental swords. "Do you not train your element?"

"I am training my lightning, but most of them are for body parts. My control is still sloppy because my Martial Arts are a bit unique than the rest and require a huge amount of concentration to keep it up for a long time," Aria answered him.

Like she said, those high-speed movements alone were already hard to control because she moved too fast. That was why she created a program to make her movements easier. However, it wasted the potential to use the Lightning power on her sword, much less a Lightning Element Sword.

Fortunately to her, she met Alex, who taught her and perfected the style, allowing her to slightly grasp the technique easier. If she trained hard enough, dealing with a weapon like this wouldn't be too hard for her.

The elder couldn't understand this but still nodded his head. "Alright. The total price is one hundred seventy thousand points."

Aria handed over Alex's token that had two hundred thousand points on it.

He extracted the points from their token. "Alright. It's sold. Although you won't be able to use the swords' true power due to your current strength, you will still be able to overpower someone who has a Rank 8 Sword. Just make sure that you are careful from revealing it because people might try to take it away from you."

"I understand. Thank you for your advice." Aria stored the weapons inside her Space Ring and clasped her hand politely.

"And take this with you." He gave her a pill. "Take it, and I am sure you will be able to reach the 10-Star Martial Monarch."

"Is this Energy Pill?"

"Yeah. Coming from 10-Star Martial Monarch monster core. It was refined by a Rank 9 Alchemist, so it should be fine for you. Take it as an apology for not knowing you are blind."

"I have heard that the outside world is full of greed and other scary things, but the elders around me are warm and generous." Aria received the pill gently.

"We are generous because this is only a test for all of you and also see the talent in you. When you have entered the sect, you will know how fierce the competition is to the point you will need to gamble with your own life. That's why we allow the talented wannabe disciples to get a bonus, so they could start closing the gap they have with the current disciples. Still, when they are grading you later, they will know about your talent, including the one behind you from the points alone."

"They are grading our points?" Alex narrowed his eyes.

"It's a kind of grading that the elder in the first test's exit uses. He sees whether one has enough talent to immediately rank up to Inner Disciple or not."

"Oh?!" Alex closed his eyes and nodded.

"Are you her protector or something?" The elder asked.

"You can say that."

"Well, whatever, I guess. Just make sure that you prioritize cultivating instead of your l.u.s.t." The elder shrugged. "Anyway, the time limit is only a few minutes left, so you should go now."

"…" The old man certainly misunderstood their relationship, but he already went away, so they couldn't correct him.

"What should we do?" Aria asked.

"Go to the third test, of course."

They nodded and walked toward the center of the town. Due to the time limit, the ones standing here were those who failed. But to his surprise, he only saw around twenty people here.

'If I assume monsters managed to kill some, there should be at least half of the original number remaining. It's quite a big number I guess.' Alex thought while walking beside Aria.

When they arrived, Aria immediately activated the array and sent them to the third test.

In a blink of an eye, they arrived on top of a white platform surrounded by a giant green field. He immediately checked his surroundings with his Spirit Eyes, finding no sign of monsters. Instead, the only thing he found was two groups of people.

The first group was standing in the sky, watching the second group that was sitting in front of a giant stone in the center.

"That is Sword Stone." Aria pointed her finger.

"Should we go then?" Alex asked while using his Spirit Eyes to see the energy inside the Sword Stone.

As he expected, the Sword Stone seemed to have a nourishing effect on their qi, whether it was a Sword Qi or Spear Qi.

He could see there were five giant chunks of energy inside the stone. 'Those are the Martial Arts, I guess?'

When he looked deep inside those, he found a string of Space Element that connected each energy ball with each other, realizing what would happen later. 'I don't see how the Sword Stone will lit up, but I can see there is a trial place where I might need to do something to gain the Sword Art.

'But it also means that I can concentrate on getting inside that place to get one or two Martial Arts from the so-called Peerless Sword God.' Alex thought with a smile.

He and Aria then walked off the platform and headed toward the Sword Stone. They saw around a hundred and fifty people around it. Aria smiled when she saw her brother was there.

When the elders in the sky found the two, they suddenly smiled.

"Elder Rava, I want to brag a bit, those two will go to my peak, you know." The female elder who was in charge of the registration area smiled.

"Ho? Is that so?" The old man only smiled and nodded his head without making any comments. Since he wanted to see what kind of entity Alex would become in the future, he didn't make any suspicious movement this time. "They are both good disciples."

"Indeed." The female elder also didn't want to brag too much because the one who came with her in the registration area might want to snatch them. "Anyway, I think they are qualified to immediately get Inner Disciple Status, right?"

"I guess so. And they seem to be a lover or some sort. Why don't you just give them a single house, so they can bond together?" He giggled while moving his fingers back and forth as if he wanted to grab something perverted.

However, the real reason he wanted them together was to make Alex and Aria increase their relationship. He had seen in Alex's eyes that he didn't really care about the sect, so he wanted to bind him using the one he chose to cover his presence, Aria. This should solve the problem of his intention in the long term. As long as there was no mishap, their relationship would surely continue to grow.

"Since that is your advice, I shall abide then." She nodded politely.

"Wait, the disciple that I have chosen is good too." The one coming with the female elder in the registration area snorted before pointing at a young boy on the ground. Little did he know that his identity was something special.

"Oh! I have seen that boy too. His talent is also superb, but from what I have seen, that boy is the girl's younger brother."

"Wha-?!" The elder opened his mouth wide, never expecting that.

"Fufu, let's get along in the future, Elder Gian." Illevis smiled from ear to ear as if she won this battle.

"Ugh!" Never in his wildest dream that he expected something like this.

"Well, this generation of disciples has many talented people. I am anticipating how many can rise to the top," Elder Ravagera said while stroking his chin.

"That's something I can agree with, I guess." Elder Gian nodded.

"Anyway, let's observe if there is a peerless talent in this generation."

"Yeah.

While the elders were chatting, Alex and Aria had gotten their spots and decided to sit next to each other.

'When you are trying to perceive something, don't focus on the intent. Instead, focus on a different type of energy. It's hard to find, but I am sure you can do it.' Alex reminded her first before closing his eyes.

Listening to Alex's instruction, she also started cultivating.

Alex poked the stone with his energy and controlled everything perfectly as he slipped through people's energy on the outer layer that tried to understand the five lumps of energy before arriving right in front of the Space Element's energy.

He then enveloped that energy as it immediately transferred his consciousness into a special space inside the Sword Stone. Of course, it was only his soul that got sucked to this place as he immediately looked around with his Spirit Eyes.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared in the corner of his eyes as he immediately frowned the moment he saw through this shadow. The strength alone matched his full strength, a Rank 9 God, but he realized that this was not as simple as it seemed.

The man had short black hair with a face that had no excitement as if he was a doll. No, it would be more accurate to the term of boredom.

Still, he found something deep within this man and a sense of danger.

He instinctively summoned a sword from his energy and raised it as he activated his Spirit Eyes to see the movement of his opponent's energy.

It was at that time the man in front of him raised his hand as a sword formed in his hand. He then jumped toward Alex and thrust his sword toward Alex with a speed that Alex had never seen before.

Because of this, Alex clenched his teeth and avoided it. This might be the first time he needed to do something like this, so it was a bit surprising to him. Even so, he focused on his aim right now and slashed his sword forward.

The man glanced at Alex and blocked that attack with the sword's handle, specifically with the sword's butt.

They were moving with Rank 9 God's speed, not Martial Saint. To block that attack precisely like that in this kind of speed was something amazing even for Alex.

Because of Alex's current position, the man kicked his abdomen, albeit got blocked by Alex's sword.

Using the force, Alex stabilized his body and took this fight as if it was a life and death battle. He used his eyes to the limit, trying to read the movement of the energy that would be reflected on his body movement.

With this concentration, he decided to challenge the guy head-on. It wasn't like he would die if the man killed him, so he took this chance to try his best, especially after knowing how refined the movement of the other party was.

"Here I go," Alex muttered and jumped forward.

The man did the same and waved his sword without the use of Divine Energy or other things. It was purely his Sword Technique.

With a clash like this, Alex could understand the power difference between him and the man. With a movement this refined, he could guess who this man was.

It was none other than the Peerless Sword God. However, whether this man was his soul or just a personification, Alex couldn't see it even with his Spirit Eyes.

They then kept changing blows after blows without care before suddenly, the man moved faster than ever.

"This is it." Alex tried to block it with his sword. If he succeeded, he might be able to attack the man with the next attack because of the drawback of a big move like this. To his surprise, the sword managed to pierce the left side of his abdomen as blood started dripping out of the wound.

Alex couldn't believe it and instantly leaped backward before the sword cut him into two while holding the wound with his left hand.

The man, for the first time, laughed and looked down on Alex. "I thought you were capable of following my moves? You insignificant piece of shit!"