Chapter 350 - 350. Battle
The Chasing demon sect was filled by excited rumors in the following days.
Perry, the strongest disciple in the residential area of the rank 2 cultivators, had challenged Noah, the new honorary disciple of the sect.
The rumors, as per their nature, didn't tell the exact events that led Perry to issue the challenge.
"I heard that Zach was so disrespectful that he refused to even look at Perry!"
"No. I heard that Senior Perry was forced to challenge Zach because he wouldn't accept his honest pointers."
"I actually heard that Zach refused Perry's challenge until he offered him merit points. I even heard that Zach accused Perry of being more suitable for the orthodox sects."
'Words run faster than light, how did I even end in this situation.'
Noah thought as he heard the many voices coming from the stages around him.
He was in one of the training areas of the sect, the purple terrain was filled by inscriptions and many seats were placed all around the battle area.
Only seventy percent of the seats were filled, the audience was mostly made of rank 1 and 2 cultivators with only a few rank 3 disciples that had connections with Perry.
Of course, Noah was unaware of Perry's title as the strongest disciple in the second rank and didn't also know about his connections with the rank 3 cultivators that were on the stages.
Perry was on the other side of the arena, his tight gray robe coupled with his burly body gave him a heroic aura, a few women in the audience found themselves unable to move their gazes away from him.
Noah, on the other hand, seemed incredibly plain.
He wore his usual black suit and his short but messy hair conflicted with his cold expression.
Also, his body was slender rather than bulgy and he was shorter than Perry, if looks could decide the outcome of a battle, Noah would have lost already.
However, some spectators didn't have the same thoughts as the rest of the audience.
Noah didn't radiate any kind of aura, not even a whiff of his cultivation level could be discerned by the inspections of the cultivators in the second rank.
Those in the third rank, instead, stared at him with surprised expressions and even with traces of interest, they seemed to have picked up some clues about Noah's power.
Roy walked from behind Noah and neared his mouth to his ear as he whispered a few words.
"The rules of the sect are laxer when it comes to official challenges but try to go easy on him, he is a promising disciple."
After those warnings, Roy moved toward the stages, bows were performed by the cultivators that he passed by.
'As I suspected, he knows about my unusual situation.'
Noah thought.
He knew that Roy was stronger than him so there was a high chance that he had understood his power.
Also, he had made Noah stop on the first floor of the mission's building, meaning that he knew that he was still a rank 2 cultivator.
'Even Elder Iris has laid her eyes on me, it was impossible to hide this information after all.'
The information Noah was thinking about was, of course, his rank 3 sea of consciousness!
He had initially hoped to hide that quality until he became rank 3 cultivator but he had met cultivators far stronger than him as soon as he entered the sect, he simply couldn't hide his power from them.
However, Noah soon accepted that outcome, he was a proper member of the sect, the information about his power could only be divulged to other disciples but never to outsiders.
'Let's see, how should I approach this?'
Noa began to think about the imminent battle.
He was completely confident in his capability to defeat Perry but he had to limit himself in the battle.
That wasn't a fight to the death after all, it was only a simple spar to decide who was the stronger between the two of them.
'The Demonic form is an absolute no, it's better to not use the Demonic swords either. The Mental tremor is another no, Perry's sea of consciousness would just shatter under that spell. Warp and martial arts then.'
Noah set the fighting style in his mind and begun to walk toward Perry.
The audience was silenced by that gesture and they raised their concentration, waiting for the battle to begin.
Perry didn't waste time, as soon as he saw Noah's near him, he did the same, wielding a short sword as he jumped at the man in front of him.
Two white sabers appeared in Noah's hands and four additional arms materialized as he prepared himself for the imminent clash.
Then, the six sabers met the short sword.
Noah found himself forced to use three weapons to defend from the explosive power behind the sword, it seemed that Perry's body had the strength of a giant as he slashed vertically.
However, even if he was sent back, Noah managed to defend and his other sabers were able to land on Perry's body.
The first clash ended quickly, Noah was pushed back for a few meters but he was unharmed.
Perry, instead, remained still in his position as he stared at the three cuts on his robe.
The skin behind the robe showed some light wounds, a few drops of blood came out of them before the regenerative proprieties of his body healed them.
'Strange. His body is clearly oriented toward strength and defense but he uses such an unsuitable weapon, maybe his martial art will be different.'
Noah analyzed the clash and found something amiss in Perry's fighting style.
"Shall we get serious?"
Perry asked with a smile but Noah only answered with a shrug of his shoulders.
Perry then charged again, his massive body resembled a horned bull pouncing at Noah as he stretched the short sword right in front of him.
The tip of the sword began to shine with a brown light and his body accelerated, releasing a gray smoke due to the friction force with the air.
Staring at the incoming horned fuming figure, Noah knew that he had to dodge.