Chapter 316: Moriya, the swordless swordsman
Sam didn't talk much with his friends and only waited for the competition to be over.
He doesn't have much interest in the competition or any rewards that he might get for performing better, one thing he does know is that the Grand realm category was theirs to win.
The seeds of fear are one of the hardest things to remove once planted in the hearts of youth.
Sam's maniacal behaviour and torturous deaths he gave would make them quake in their boots.
The next day, the matches continued, Sam doesn't have anything to do but wait for Moriya's turn, so that he could watch his fight, but he didn't get the chance on the second day too.
On the third day, the finals of the Grand realm cultivator division ended in a rather anti-climactic manner.
There is no exciting intense battle, no deaths and the whole thing was extremely bland.
The Usaine sect who made it to finals just gave up as soon as the match started. The sect doesn't seem to have any intention of losing even a single candidate. Nicholas and the rest couldn't help but feel disappointed.
They came here to challenge their limits, but the only they can do is challenge the limits of their boredom.
The final for the Nascent stage too was a bit disappointing.
Thunder god temple really made it to finals, but all the members of the team are injured and are in no condition to have a battle of high intensity.
In the first two days, the battles they had been fought to the tooth and nail by four members of the team, not letting the final member who is Moriya to take part in it at all.
It is to the point where they would be critically injured than let Moriya take part in it.
The Nascent stage cultivators seemed to be of the same strengths and are equally formidable as they rivalled each other to a great extent.
On the second match, even the reserve team was not spared as they too were injured. Now only three people are left unscathed and Moriya is one of them.
Another final contestant for the finals is actually the Beast Faction.
The Beast faction candidates have relatively fewer injuries because they use their beasts.
And the reserve team is completely full. Those are the things that make the whole beast cultivators advantageous.
There is also a drawback because since they have to ensure the growth of their beasts along with their individual strength, it takes more time and resources.
So, they are always left behind by their peers and as the level grows, the disparity grows, for example, when two cultivators are on the starting line and one of them in a normal cultivator and another is a beast cultivator, they both would be in more or less same pace until they reach Novice stage.
After that, when they break through into the Great realm stage and improving, the beast cultivator would be left behind by a month or two and the in Grand realm stage a few months and in Nascent stage, it might become a year to a few years.
This is the generic situation and most of it comes from the lack of resources to develop. If this generic version is taken into consideration, Sam should have been left behind by years, but he is lack of anything but resources.
The drawback does come with some advantages and one of them is they don't have too much of a bottle-neck when breaking through.
And why did all of this come up? Because these are Sam's thoughts as they observed the faces of the candidates from the beast faction. Although the category is under-50 years old, the thunder god temple people more or less looked around thirty years and Moriya looked like he was in his late twenties.
That is due to their early breakthrough into the Nascent stage while he was still in his twenties, but the Beast faction candidates all looked to be in their late thirties almost ten years older than their counterparts.
As Sam was randomly thinking out of his boredom, he noticed that Moriya has come onto the stage.
He was surprised and excited at the same time.
The opponent also became excited as Moriya who is a legendary figure among the peers.
Getting a chance to defeat him is a dream come true.
But the opponent's fantasies are completely gone under the drain because Moriya's aura completely changed.
All the experts who are around and swordsmen all narrowed their eyes.
As soon as the fight started, Moriya's aura suddenly turned extremely sharp. It is sharp to the point, the wind started whistled around him as he looked at his opponent.
As the opponent was in a daze, Moriya, took a sword stance, without any sword and made a slashing move.
There are no visible sword rays or any other major spiritual energy movements.
They could feel the wind cleaving as a laceration appeared on the body of the opponent.
There is no sword ray, light, spiritual energy visible to the eye.
It is the sheer power of the strike that made the wind in the surroundings turn sharper as it stuck the opponent.
Blood started seeping out of his hand as he knelt on the ground and fainted. The fight was over. The opponent who is a beast warrior couldn't even summon his beast from the beast pouch.
The stage was cleaned up and the next candidate from the beast faction entered the stage.
"I head you got injured, how is it possible for you.." The opponent started speaking but before he could finish his words, he was also sliced.
The same went for the rest of the candidates, just as the remaining powers were about to think that the whole injury was a hoax, Moriya, who just got off the stage and is walking towards the seat, stumbled and puked a mouthful of blood and his face became pale.
He started trembling as he was drenched in a cold sweat. The rest of the powers had a face full of realization. They thought that Moriya might have just endured through the injuries just to fight and now he had paid a price.
Even though, they realized that they didn't feel good, particularly the people who are just defeated. They are still consoling themselves, that Moriya lied about his condition and are cursing him for that.
But now that it was noted that Moriya is indeed injured, they felt worse. It was a huge blow to their confidence and self-esteem.
They couldn't even bring themselves to find any excuses. The younger generation of those powers are looking at the Nascent stage cultivators. But there is no trace of respect and admiration which was once present.
There are hints of pity and even disdain.
Only Sam, Philip and Jack knew that the whole thing is utter bullshit. They knew better than anyone else that Moriya is extremely well.
They don't know why the thunder god temple is causing this whole drama, but he does know that they are using the situation Sam caused for their own benefit.
After that fight he lost interest. But he was already impressed with this Swordless Swordsman. But when he closely observed Moriya's hands after he sat down, he understood that Moriya is indeed a normal sword user, by the calluses on his hands.
Moriya is a normal sword user and one of the most hardworking at that, it is just that the opponent is not worthy of him to wield the sword.
There are another two people who are extremely excited. One of them is Jack, he almost behaved like a lovestruck fool as he marvelled at the swordsmanship and the other one is Nicholas. His battle spirit is raising. If he was a Nascent, he would have already fought it out with Moriya.
After the whole competition is over, Thundergod temple ranked first and they have obtained the major stake in the resources.
They went back to the thunder god temple and so did the rest of the powers.
The Beast faction is the last place when it came to the Grand realm section and second place in the Nascent section.
They are the team which lost the most.
After the beast faction people returned, Sam's killing spree was spread all over the faction and everyone was stunned.
The woman who brought the token to Sam entered the island where Sanjay is training.
"Did you meet him?" Sanjay asked as soon as she came.
"I did. Who is he exactly? Do you know how brutal he is when he dealt with all the candidates? I almost puked in disgust. And the last candidate even died of fear. He killed him without even making a move."
As she spoke, she took out a recording crystal and passed it over to Sanjay, who played over the battle.
Even, he couldn't bear to look at the recording and closed eyes sometimes.
He couldn't help but frown and think, why Sam hates the Beast faction to that extent.
"I heard, he is related to that new guy Watt, what's the matter?"
Sanjay looked at her and said.
"You don't need to know too much."
The lady frowned and yelled at him as she pointed her finger at his face.
"Is that how you should be talking to your elder sister?"
"The only sign that you are older than me is your body. Grow your brains to and I might treat you like an elder sister."
She gritted her teeth and hurled curses at him, before calming down.
"How is Watt doing? Did you control him yet? If he goes on like that more than seventy percent of Grand realm cultivators will lose their will."
Sanjay just stayed silent without answering. She heaved a sigh and said.
"Sam said, he would take down the whole beast faction along with him if he has to if something happens to Watt. Is that why you are not controlling him?"
Sanjay was surprised, but he still stayed silent for a brief second before saying.
"I don't know exactly who he is, but there is a chance that he might be related to us and what our father is saying might actually be true."
"He is really the traitor's son?"
"He is his son, but I am not sure if he is a traitor."