In the Ten Rings Mountain Nest.
The first ring.
Life here was something extremely fragile.
If you were a weak beast, something stronger could appear and eat you at any moment.
Even mutants are not guaranteed to survive here, there are simply too many strong beasts close to each other.
Sacred-Blood beasts are generally safer, but even they can die if they are careless or unlucky.
Super beasts can appear at any time, or another sacred blood might come and attack them, resulting in injuries that can lead to weakness.
And weakness is a sin. Even more so in the first ring.
But even in a place where things can change so fast for the beasts, the forest itself rarely changes.
Beasts come, beasts go, but the forest continues the same.
The trees are too tall, the land too large, for sacred bloods to be able to change it.
Sometimes, things like a massive Dragon might appear, but even they can't cause much destruction in the grand scheme of things.
And there was something special about the Ten Rings Mountain Nest. Every day, it regenerated back to its original state.
So no matter what type or amount of damage was done to the place, it would return to being this massive primeval forest.
However, at this moment, there was a large area where the land was changed profoundly.
The massive trees were mere trunks on the ground, creating an uneven and difficult terrain.
There were so many of them that the ground was not visible.
And this extended for more than a kilometer in all directions, almost forming a small mountain of fallen trees in the middle of the forest.
In this area, there were two people.
One was a tall figure in all-green armor, its surface gleaming in the light.
The other was a beautiful mature woman. Her red pupils and long black hair as eye-catching as her impressive body that was visible under her skin-tight black suit.
Both stood on opposing sides of this massive clearing, looking at each other.
Suddenly, the figure in green armor changed.
The armor rapidly started disappearing, revealing a tall young man that was in black clothes.
This young man was Long Tian.
He and Long Rue had been training non-stop for the last three months.
At first, she just explained and corrected every move that was in the Martial Arts Essentials. But later, they started to spar, so he would gain combat experience.
About a month ago, it had reached a point where the trees were getting in the way, so she ordered him to clear the forest with his Supreme Beast Soul Sword before they sparred.
Every single day.
So this caused a massive area of the forest to be destroyed every day. A cycle of restoration and destruction that ended up being a form of training in itself for Long Tian.
He had changed a lot due to this intensive program.
First, he had grown taller.
Before, he was 185cm tall. But now, he had surpassed 190cm.
This was due to his body slowly adapting to his increase in fitness and the training that promoted his cells to work overtime, fully extracting his genetic potential.
He also had grown some slight muscles. Nothing too crazy, but his legs were a bit thicker, and his upper body had also grown slightly.
His core muscles were the ones that benefited the most, with his body naturally changing to wield a sword more effectively.
Besides that, he also gained an impressive amount of experience. Having trained non-stop for almost three months straight, he was tuned for battle, his body reacting before his mind to any threat.
At that moment, seeing Long Tian removing his armor, Long Rue lowered her sword.
He was panting slightly and even sweating a little, but she was completely fine, as if she had not fought with him for five hours straight.
"Alright, that's it for today. Tomorrow the Tournament starts, you must rest well tonight."
She said, marking the end of their last training session before the tournament.
"Remember to train in the Dragon Foundation Art and to be careful."
"Also, good luck."
Long Rue said before disappearing.
During these three months, Long Tian had started to understand her personality.
She was a no-nonsense person, extremely focused on her tasks and missions. She did not like to speak if she felt there was no need and was also a bit brutal.
Yeah, just thinking about when she cut through his armor, just to prove she could and that he had to defend himself, caused him to shudder, his stomach still feeling the phantom pain.
Long Tian summoned the white armor and the wings and took off towards the shelter.
They had talked a lot during these months, planning how he would act in the tournament and the weapons he would use.
Long Rue had to forge a lot of reports about Long Tian hunting in the ten rings, gradually killing sacred blood and then super beasts, just so that it would be believable when he appeared with Super Beast Souls.
They had decided that Long Tian would use the Green Beetle armor, as the white one could connect him to LT.
He had received more than one beating disguised as training for using his initials as his 'secret identity'.
Also, during this time, Long Rue had been summoned by the patriarch so that she could inform Long Tian of the new milestones system that the clan decided to create for him, where if he reached those milestones, the clan would reward him.
The first one, and the only one that she was told actually, was to win the sanctuary tournament before turning 18.
She had felt that it was absurd. To become one of the strongest people in the sanctuary in less than one and a half years.
Apparently, the patriarch put even more faith in Long Tian's potential than she did, which surprised her a lot, as she herself felt she was overestimating him.
But seeing his growth during these months had convinced her somewhat.
His strength was still not exactly at the level she wanted, but there was still some time before he would have to face people with the same level or higher of fitness.
Twenty minutes of flying later.
He was entering the shelter by foot after removing his armor and wings.
Once inside, Long Tian headed straight to the center of the shelter.
The sky was already darkening, and the lights of the shelter produced a beautiful futuristic scene.
There were more people than usual the deeper he went. This was all due to the excitement around the Sanctuary Tournament.
With it starting tomorrow, people that would participate or watch it were already inside the shelter.
With more people, there is more opportunity for trading and meeting. This generates a virtuous cycle that would continue to bring even more people inside the shelter while the tournament continued.
With this amount of people together, even the thieves and the gangsters benefited.
But almost no one is crazy enough to steal or kill inside the shelter, at least not in a shelter where the owner has prohibited it.
Doing these things is also considered a crime in the alliance, with the difference that they fall under the sanctuary laws, all of which can lead to the death penalty.
After walking for almost 30km, passing through increasingly taller rectangular buildings, Long Tian reached the largest structure in the shelter. The Arena.
It was a massive building.
It was in the same shapes of all other buildings, a large rectangular building that was more than 1km long and a few hundred meters across.
It is normally open, revealing a massive open space with grandstands surrounding it.
People can come and do whatever they want. In most shelters, it is normally either occupied by someone or becomes a trading area.
But during the tournament, it stays closed, with only a single small area open where people can enter to sign up to participate in it.
The conditions to participate are very simple. One must have consumed at least 1 Gene Point, and they must be ready to die. That's it.
Long Tian entered the registration area of the arena after waiting in a line and heard a voice in his head.
{Do you wish to participate in the Sanctuary Tournament?}
It was the sanctuary's voice, if he did not qualify, the voice would have stayed silent.
"Yes."
He said simply.
{What name do you wish to use?}
"Long Tian."
He and Long Rue had decided to use his real name so the clan could see that he was really training the last three months and was participating in the tournament.
If he was to win next year, he would have to make it believable. Having a history of going far in the tournament the year before would make it more believable.
{The arena will open in 10 hours.}
{You must be inside the arena before the tournament starts.}
{The tournament will start 2 hours after the opening of the arena.}
Then it went quiet.
Long Tian then simply walked out of the registration area, giving space for other people to register.
He then took 30 minutes to return back to his apartment, going back the way he came.
On the way, he bought a small primitive creature for a couple thousand credits.
His money had decreased a lot in these three months, but this did not matter for him right now. Anything he wanted inside the first sanctuary; he could get by hunting.
Once inside his apartment, he cooked the meat, ate, put his clothes to wash, took a shower and went to bed.
Long Tian made sure to turn off the alarm clock he had bought at the start of the training with Long Rue.
He woke up late one time and decided he never wanted to experience what she did with him again.
That even caused him to start second-guessing his promise with her, but he couldn't change that anymore.
But her training had worked, so he could accept the suffering.
That night, Long Tian slept for more than 3 hours for the first time in months.
After months of this routine, he had got used to it. But more sleep was always good, and he felt reinvigorated by it.
Waking up, he did his morning routine and stood in the middle of his apartment.
He decided to check the results of his months of training before going to the arena.
'Status.'
*Ding*
[Status]
Name: Long Tian (Victor Smith)
Rank: Non-Evolver (First Sanctuary)
Age: 16(20)
Fitness: 47.5 (40)
Gene Points -
Ordinary: 100/100
Primitive: 100/100
Mutant: 100/100
Sacred Blood: 100/100
Super: 100/100
Beast Souls: [Supreme Giant Black Dragon - Transformation];
[Supreme White Lion - Weapon: Sword];
[Supreme Wood Spider - Weapon: Web Crossbow]
[Supreme Forest Deer - Weapon: Staff]
...
Gene Arts: [Supreme Space Sword Gene Art – Supreme Grade (1/5 Levels)];
[Supreme Refinement Art - Supreme Grade (1/1 Levels)];
[Dragon Foundation Cultivation Art - S Grade Basic Rank (12/20 Levels)];
[Martial Arts Essentials Martial Art - S Grade Low Rank (3/3 Levels)];
[Draconic Sword Martial Art - S Grade Intermediate Rank (0/7 Levels)]
Supreme Evolution Points: 254.2]
Although his status was not massively different, his current self could easily defeat ten of his previous self from before the training.
And this had little to do with fitness.
It's because he has truly mastered the martial arts of the Long Clan.
Martial Arts in the alliance were ranked according to what sanctuary one must be in to use them and the number of levels they have.
The higher the number of levels a Gene Art has, the higher their Grade, which signifies their power inside the same rank.
The Martial Arts Essentials Gene Art is Low Rank, meaning that it can be used by non-evolvers. And it is also of the S Grade, meaning that it has the highest number possible of levels, and the overall quality of the art is at the top of the rank.
Such a martial art is the crystallization of what is called 'Normal Combat', a form of combat that only uses the body and weapons, not using the crazy powers that those in the higher ranks have access to.
Having fully mastered such a pristine martial art, Long Tian could fully use his fitness.
Besides that, he also tested the Supreme Dragon beast soul.
The transformation was extremely incredible, and he had been able to force Long Rue to retreat with it.
But he could only maintain it for a few seconds before exhaustion consumed him. He would need much higher fitness to use it effectively in combat.
He also killed a Super Forest Deer that appeared from the nest in these almost three months.
Long Rue had never let him enter the nest, saying that it would be a waste of time, and that there would be at best some sacred bloods inside, less than even in the first ring.
The increase in SEP was due to the deer and the few beasts that he managed to refine after training every day.
He had not bought anything from the system as he wanted to first accumulate SEPs as fast as possible to buy the full Supreme Deception Art, as he knew he would have to return to the clan at some point.
He had avoided returning by saying he was in a moment of rapid advancement and training alone in the sanctuary for the tournament, but some day that excuse would stop working.
He had barely trained in the Supreme Space Sword and the Dragon Foundation Art, with Long Rue thinking he had already reached the last levels of the Dragon Foundation Art, due to his absurd fitness.
He had not corrected her, as he also thought that learning to fight would be more important than increasing his fitness.
Besides, he would not have wanted to use more than 50 fitness in the tournament even if he had it. So increasing his fitness to much would generate more problems than it would resolve.
Having finished admiring the result of his last three months of training, Long Tian left the apartment and headed towards the arena.
Upong reaching it, he saw that a massive gate had opened on its wall. Inside, there were hundreds of thousands of people.
All of them were participants, as the gate for the audience would open later.
There was a slightly transparent light barrier on the gate, but he passed it with no problems.
He had timed things just right, as not even 5 minutes after he entered the arena, the sanctuary voice sounded again.
{Tournament Starting, the gates will be close.}
{Teleporting in 3, 2, 1…}