Bab 236: An Underdog Appears
As the crowds went silent from the sight, the referee cleared his throat before using his Soul Sense to check on the big man. Once it was confirmed he was still alive, albeit required a lot of medical attention, the referee announced the winner.
"Winner of this match, Lightning Warrior!" Ryker wanted to scream at his past self for choosing such a name. He wanted to not reveal his true name and as such had to pick a nickname, which seemed to be a good idea at the time but clear it wasn't.
He decided to deal with the consequences some other time, opting to just walk away after his victory was determined.
His leaving the stage seemed to be the catalyst as they cheered for the winner, the clear underdog of the match who triumphed over a more powerful cultivator.
-x-
In the high-ranking seat, the Duke let out an amazed sigh, "I don't expect him to win the fight, not to mention he didn't even get a single scratch during the fight," he said, earning nods from the other sitting with him in the same row.
"The child is strong, though, whether he could hold on his own against the peak Genesis Source experts is to be seen," head of the Gul Family, the youngest family of all the Great Families said, observing the man with more interest than before.
"Yes, brother Gul is right. But the other man clearly let out power enough to rival a peak Genesis Source expert, which makes the likelihood of him beating peak Genesis Source experts high," the ancestor of the Lur Family voiced his thought, making the others agree with his words.
After all, all the experts in the first row of the high-ranking seat were Genesis Sea experts, so they could see and understand what happened during the match more clearly compared to the other spectators. They could see that when the big man used 'Battle Boar Body', his power was equal to a newly ascended peak Genesis Source expert.
Yet the young man was able to suppress him with ease, before defeating his attack that almost reached the peak of what Genesis Source expert could do. The Duke even believed, yet didn't voice it out, that the young man was holding back.
Whether it was true or not, he would find out during the tournament.
-x-
For another family, one person seemed to be soured by the attention Ryker received.
"So what he could beat the man? I could do it easily," the young man, the young master of the Mortola Family said, finding the fact a commoner received such attention to be an affront to him.
"Yes young master, you could easily beat him," his retainers all fawn over him, showering praises over his supposed greatness. He smiled receiving the attention he rightfully deserved.
"Of course, this young master is the strongest in his generation. Even the winner of this tournament wouldn't stand a chance against this young master," he proclaimed, his followers nodded alongside him.
"I like to see how far he can get with his meager strength,"
-x-
After leaving the stage, Ryker was surrounded by people, all asking him how strong he was. Before he could beat them up to a bloody pulp, the guard appeared and pushed the crowd away.
He mouthed a quick 'thank you,' to them, the guards merely nodded before going back to their business. Still, he couldn't believe how close the fight could be. Even if he did hold back, he had unleashed strength more than enough to beat a peak Genesis Source expert a few times over.
For a man who only is a 9th Stage Genesis Source to force him to do that, either the standard of the Kilrun Duchy is higher or the man has a deep foundation, allowing him to pull out such a trump card without severe sequelae.
He decided to not focus on it for now, instead opting to watch the rest of the match. He should try to study their weakness, allowing him to defeat them faster.
The next match ended relatively quickly. Despite the champion of the Upper Bracket doing his best, he didn't possess a chance to defeat the peak Genesis Source expert he was up against. The fight was a relative landside though the champion didn't make it easy for his opponent.
The other match was more interesting. Most of them have the same cultivation realm and so the fight lasted longer than expected, partially because of how cautious the fighters are and trying to hide their trump card and the fact there are no time limits, courtesies of a certain Duke, making the fight longer than it is necessary.
When the match of the first day ended, only 8 matches, half of the preliminaries of the tournament, forced the duke to extend the rest of the match until tomorrow.
With that said, it's not like it was unhelpful for him, as he could rest for the night and refresh to see the fight with more vigor as he will not be too tired tomorrow.
After some more announcements from the Duke, he left the place, unaware the tale of his victory had spread across the entire Capital City in one day.
-x-
"A Genesis Core expert beat a Genesis Source expert!? And one at the 9th Stage at that! We should find a way to bring him into our fold,"
"With such a person in our group, he would likely cause us to raise up! Quick, find out everything about him, from where he lives, his family, and whether he could be bought or not!"
"He possesses great potential! If we could make him join our family, we might get a Genesis Lake, no, maybe even a Genesis Sea expert in our family!"
"To be the woman of such a man, whoever gets to be his woman must be really lucky,"
(A group of women sneezed simultaneously, their lover asked them if they were fine,)
"What if he used some tools or some forbidden technique to be this strong?"
"If he was able to do that in front of the entire Genesis Sea experts of the Duchy, then his capabilities were clearly far greater than we assumed. After all, if he could lie to those experts, then he could easily be stronger than any of them,"
-x-
For the evening and night, a lot of gossip and rumors about the young man who triumphed over a person with a cultivation realm far stronger than him.
They talked about a lot of topics, some based on what they saw tonight, some even becoming outrageous, saying something about him being a cultivator who was reincarnated and possessed his old strength, which sounded like some novel plots.
The one in the center of the rumor didn't pay much mind to it, as he had some other important things to do.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone