After defeating that man and causing him serious injury, no one wanted to challenge me, thus leaving my position uncontested. Because of that, I won first place in the competition.

 

However, the other places had yet to be decided, so I had to sit and wait for the competition to end. I was also not allowed to leave the arena during this time, so I was stuck looking around the place when an interesting fight was not happening. This did mean that I was able to see Yuki sitting behind Mom, nursing a cup of tea.

 

She was looking better than she did earlier, but with the state she was in, I highly doubted that Yuki was able to make it, so it was a good thing that I gave the medicine to Mom instead.

 

Besides that, there was not that much else of interest happening around the place, so I sat there and waited for a few hours as the fights progressed. 

 

Not long after my match, the second place was settled fairly quickly, and it turned out to be the spearwoman that I fought earlier. She definitely deserved this place, given her skill. This was only made more apparent after seeing her fight someone else and noticing that her skills had improved after fighting with me.

 

If I had not been here, she definitely would have been the one considered a monstrous talent, not me.

 

After her was Mo Xia in third place. I did not entirely expect that, but given that he won due to a combat technique and not skill with a blade, it was not as impressive.

 

Or at least that was what I thought until I watched the rest of the top ten get their positions due to the combat techniques that they used. I mean, seriously, if I were up there on stage, I would have taken advantage of the obvious openings that they left to wipe them out of the competition. The only problem with that would be the potential explosions caused by the built-up energy. However, the fix to that was simply breaking up the energy after interrupting their technique.

 

I then went back to watching as we now had to wait for a new tenth place to be decided, thanks to someone no longer being part of the competition.

 

While waiting, I heard the spearwoman beside me mutter, “Why don’t they just strike their obvious openings?”

 

That sparked a light fire in me and I said in return to the question, “I know, right? I mean, I did not know about the energy build-up, but that should be something easy to fix once you know that it’s there.”

 

This caused the spearwoman to look at me for a moment before we both started a conversation about all the mistakes that we kept seeing. I did notice that this conversation caused some people to start staring at us, but I did not care about them, and it seemed like my conversation partner did not care either. It was also thanks to this conversation that the time seemed to fly past, and I even got new ideas to try with my sword.

 

We only ended our conversation when the sect master called for everyone's attention. He then announced, “With the top ten having been found and the fight over, it is now time to tell everyone the winners of this year's competition and announce the rewards.

 

First place goes to Vale Lockheart. As for her reward, it has already been decided and will be handed out later.

 

Second place goes to Brynn Riley, and she is to be awarded one heaven-grade technique manual from the technique hall and a heaven-grade cultivation technique from the library due to her performance.

 

Third place goes to Mo Xia, and he is to be awarded one human-grade technique manual from the technique hall and a human-grade cultivation technique from the library.

 

And with that, this competition is at its end, and we now have ten new Inner sect disciples amongst our ranks. I hope that the rest of you will strive to do what these three have done here today.”

 

After that, the sect elder walked out a door at the back of the balcony he was on, followed by Mom and Yuki. Seeing them leave, I knew that they would come looking for me soon, so I said goodbye to my new friend after inviting her to come spar whenever she would like once more.

 

I then walked out of the arena and was soon met with a system window appearing in my vision.

 

[Quest: Mainline 2: Victory Is Assured] (Completed)

[Task 1: Reach the peak of Qi Gathering] (Completed)

[Task 2: Reach Level 100 in one combat skill field] (Completed)

[Task 3: Achieve first place in the Outer Sect Competition] (Completed)

[Hidden Task 1: Reach the peak of post-mortal body tempering] (Completed)

[Bonus Task 1: Defeat a future son of “Providence” and break his fate] (Complete)

[Rewards: 5 skill points and your choice between (3 tech points) and (a free trip to the divine realm)]

{Please choose your reward within the next few hours}

 

I expected the quest to be completed and even to have gotten one of the bonuses, But I did not expect to be having to choose a reward. One of the options was also insane. 

 

A free trip to the divine realm should not even be something that the system could do. I mean, three tech points would be nice, but a free trip to learn more about the deities was something I would pick over anything else every time.

 

With that thought, the window closed and was replaced with a new one.

 

{[Your reward will be delivered tonight]}

 

This window looked normal at first, but a small spreading dot of black in the corner caught my eye. It then started to slowly spread from its corner, causing what looked like sparking to come from the window. This black also seemed to look fluffy for some reason, and I also had the urge to touch it.

 

It was then that the window flashed and closed on its own, snapping me out of my thoughts.

 

Looking around, I tried to see anything that could have caused that, but there was nothing. The only thing that I saw was Mom and Yuki walking towards me, trailed by the Xia family. They even already had Mo with them.

 

Since they were walking towards me and weird things were happening, I decided sticking to the group would be a better idea. So I ran over to them and immediately latched myself onto Mom.

 

This got her asking what happened, but I did not answer them and only looked around warily. Something was going on, and I did not know what it was. It was also able to affect my system, and the last time that happened, I almost died.

 

Mrs. Xia then brought my mind off of that by asking if we wanted to join them for dinner to celebrate winning the competition. Before Mom could say anything, I nearly shouted my agreement. It was then that I remembered something and congratulated Mo on winning third place.

 

He did not seem that pleased about that and glared at me for a moment before sighing and saying thank you.

 

We then all went over to the Xia mansion to have dinner with a slight bit of sherbet at the end.

 

I did ask how they had sherbet in this world, but apparently, it was not what I thought, and it was very hard to make and store without the use of expensive formations. This was why you did not see things like sherbet in stores or in the market. It was effectively a food for the rich.

 

I also noticed the absence of Silica and Cynthea in the mansion and asked about that as well.

 

Apparently, it was their day off, and they were not in the mansion, but no one knew more, so I let it be.

Of course, after this, it was time to go home, so we left the mansion and started to make our way through the town. It was very festive at the moment thanks to the end of the competition, with many people taking it as an opportunity to celebrate everywhere. There were even people taking the opportunity to stroll through the upper islands of the shrine.

 

It was then that I saw it. On the edge of one of the islands were Silica and Cynthea, sitting with their feet hanging over the edge and kissing each other. Mom apparently saw it, too, as she quickly covered my eyes and pulled me along toward the edge of the town.

 

When we arrived at the edge of the town, I realized how late it was due to how dark the forest got. It was so dark that it felt like there was something out there in that vale of black watching me. Mom then wrapped Yuki and me in her Qi, and we flew back home.

 

When we landed at the house, we all went inside before Mom said that we should head to bed and rest after today. I wanted to disagree or at least stay with Mom for the night, but she said that I would have to go to bed in my own room and rest for the night.

 

Sighing and feeling slightly scared of the dark now, I went to my room and lay down on the bed.

 

The darkness was still giving me that feeling of being watched, so I made a small flame using my Qi and tried to enter a meditative state, even in my unusual position.

 

That did not work, though, as my consciousness soon slipped away from me, and I fell into a deep sleep.