Stella seemed proud on the outside, but she was fearful on the inside. She had known the Sect Master for a long time, and she knew that the Sect Master enjoyed being in control. Whenever she was in control, she showed it to everyone.
However, she would never show what her actual hand was. She obviously knew something, but no one could guess what her actual plan was.
"You and you."
And like this, the next round started.
It was Gravis versus the last remaining High-Rank Sect Disciple.
Gravis frowned slightly. 'She obviously knows something about me, but she is still sending me against someone from a High-Rank Sect instead of someone from a Peak Sect. What's her plan?'
Gravis fought with his opponent, and it took around five minutes before a winner could be seen.
In the end, it seemed like Gravis had barely won.
With that, all the High-Rank Sect Disciples had vanished.
The last High-Rank Sect disciple didn't feel bad about losing to Gravis. Gravis was genuinely powerful, and he felt like he had lost honestly against Gravis. He thanked Gravis for the match and left the palace.
'Not everyone in this world is an arrogant ass,' Gravis thought with a smile.
The next match was between two Peak Sect Disciples, and the match took over ten minutes. However, the match lacked a certain feeling of desperation and conviction. It was more like a casual sparring match between them.
Yet, even such a casual sparring match was already beyond any disciple from a High-Rank Sect.
The one from the Life Sect lost in the end and left with a smile on his face. Obviously, he didn't take that loss seriously.
The last match was between the Holy Son Candidate of the All-Matter Sect and the remaining member of the Life Sect.
Surprisingly, the disciple from the Life Sect conceded without even fighting.
What was even the point of fighting? He had been paid to let the All-Matter Sect win, and on top of that, even if he tried to fight the Holy Son Candidate, he would lose anyway.
The power of different Peak Sects was distributed over different Cultivation Realms.
At the Peak Immortal Emperor Realm, every Peak Sect was about equally powerful. Maybe the Purist Sect was a slight bit more powerful, but there wasn't much difference.
However, before one reached the absolute peak of the world, there were two Sects that stood out in terms of individual power. One was obviously the Purist Sect, while the other was the All-Matter Sect.
Why were the people of the All-Matter Sect so powerful in these Cultivation Realms?
Materials.
The All-Matter Sect was all about equipment, and as long as they had access to higher-ranked materials, they could create equipment out of them.
This was the same thing that Gravis was doing. Gravis always created weapons out of ore a couple of levels above his actual Realm. The All-Matter Sect could obviously do the same thing, and they also had a lot of ore.
When one reached the peak of the world, there were no more stronger materials left. Peak Immortal Emperors could only create equipment with Peak Immortal Emperor Rank Materials, but before that, there were always more powerful materials.
A Holy Son Candidate of the All-Matter Sect would have mighty equipment.
So, because of all these reasons, the disciple of the Life Sect simply conceded without a fight.
And with that, only three people were left.
One was a Disciple of the Primordial Force Sect.
One was the Holy Son Candidate of the All-Matter Sect.
One was Gravis.
When the old Vice-Sect Master saw that Gravis was still in the tournament, he almost couldn't believe it.
What Holy Son Candidate?
Gravis could just directly become their Holy Son!
By now, a lot of people had forgotten that Gravis was actually two levels below the other contestants. Yet, he had managed to beat so many peak geniuses with a level disadvantage.
Gravis could directly become their Holy Son after Stella left.
The two Vice-Sect Masters became excited when they realized that they were about to welcome a nearly peerless Cultivator into their Sect.
However, the Sect Master only smirked knowingly.
She knew that Gravis would not join the Nine Elements Sect.
What's such a genius worth when they didn't belong to one's own Sect?
Nothing.
"The next match will be an everyone versus everyone match," the old Vice-Sect Master announced.
"That's not necessary," the disciple of the Primordial Force Sect said. "I concede. There's no point in fighting against the Holy Son Candidate of the All-Matter Sect."
Everyone that had been put up against the Holy Son Candidate had given up, but no one was surprised. Even if the other disciples hadn't been paid off, he would have still won in a fight.
This was also a big reason why every other member of the Peak Sects accepted the bribe.
They would lose anyway. So, why not make some extra money while losing?
The main reason why everyone was paid off, even though it was really not necessary, was to keep the trump card of the Holy Son Candidate secret.
One shouldn't forget that winning the tournament didn't mean that one had won the last fight.
No, there was one more opponent after winning the tournament.
That was Stella.
Stella had postponed the whole marriage business by stating that she would only consider someone with a higher Battle-Strength than herself. This meant that the winner of the tournament would need to fight a Holy Daughter of a Peak Sect on the same level.
One could imagine how difficult that was.
Even worse, Stella always fought with everything she had. It was like her life was on the line.
In the first couple of tournaments, the other Sects had sent some powerful Cultivators, but Stella had always barely won.
Even worse, with every win, Stella became even more powerful. It was like she was tempering herself.
Yet, how could that be!?
These were not life and death fights, but Stella still managed to become more powerful. Even worse, even her Will-Aura had increased from these fights.
Something like that shouldn't be possible.
Sadly, what the others didn't know was that taking away the freedom of someone that knew the Law of Freedom was not much different from killing them. If Stella lost, she would lose all her freedom. This was enough pressure to temper her Will-Aura.
When Gravis had first gotten the Law of Freedom, it had appeared rather underwhelming. Yes, it was useful to ignore every kind of suppression, but was that enough?
But then, Gravis also managed to comprehend the level six Law of Divine Lightning thanks to his Law of Freedom.
Then, Gravis received the ability to ignore help from others. Help from others would no longer negatively impact his Will-Aura.
Lastly, Stella demonstrated that the Law of Freedom could also be used to temper oneself in a different way.
In short, the Law of Freedom helped in cultivating one's Will-Aura in multiple ways.
"And you?" the old Vice-Sect Master asked Gravis.
"I intend to fight," Gravis said.
The two Vice-Sect Masters furrowed their brows. Did Gravis honestly think that he had a chance?
"Fine, then regenerate your Energy over the next two hours. In two hours, the finals will start," the Vice-Sect Master said.
Gravis sat down and closed his eyes. He was acting like he was regenerating his Energy.
After around an hour, something happened.
"I would like to invite my brother to watch," Stella said to the Sect Master.
Only the upper echelon of the Sect was allowed to watch this tournament. Liam was a Core Disciple, but his standing was still not high enough to watch this tournament.
The Sect Master smiled kindly. The entire decision was on her. If she said no, Liam wouldn't be allowed to come here.
Stella was nervous, and Gravis covertly paid attention to their discussion. No participant dared to stretch their Spirit Sense to the upper echelon. Something like this would be disrespectful.
Of course, Gravis didn't care. They wouldn't notice his Spirit Sense anyway as long as he manipulated it correctly.
'Wonder what her plan is,' Gravis thought as he glanced at the Sect Master.
"Sure. You can call him," the Sect Master said with a kind smile.
Stella was shocked that the Sect Master had agreed so readily. Why would the Sect Master allow something like that when she obviously knew that something was going on with Gravis?
If Stella had needed to convince the Sect Master, she would have felt calmer. However, the Sect Master immediately agreed without even putting up a fight.
What was her assurance?
Had she done something to Liam?
"Thank you, Sect Master," Stella said.
After that, Stella left the hall in search of her brother.
Ten minutes later, she came back with him.
During their entire walk, they were under the scrutiny of the Sect Master's Spirit Sense. Even more, the Sect Master was not hiding her Spirit Sense. She was basically telling the two of them that they shouldn't think about doing anything funny.
Because of that, Stella had only been able to talk with Liam. As soon as she sent a voice transmission, the Sect Master would feel it.
Liam was confused when Stella told him that an interesting match would take place. Why would he care?
However, he saw the hidden urgency in Stella's gaze.
Because of that, he came with her.
Stella was pulling Liam on the arm while going into the hall, an action that wasn't suitable for the Holy Maiden of a Peak Sect. It was more like a child.
Liam also became confused, but Stella purposefully grabbed his arm with a lot of power. In addition, her hand was shaking.
The shaking intensified when they just opened the door.
Liam realized that this was a signal to him.
Liam guessed that he should probably not show any outward reaction to anything when entering.
After entering, he looked around the room.
And spotted Gravis.
Liam's body shook.
