Death... and me

With the fight over, Fabio threw the token that Roan got back at Gulia. "Make sure you continue improving."

"Yes, Senior Fabio."

Gulia then looked at Roan after that. "Seems like I owe you one."

Roan shook his head, though. "Owe you what? That guy didn't take me seriously at all, so it was an extremely easy win. Even you wouldn't feel like someone owed you anything after such a poor performance like my opponent's."

"That's true." Gulia nodded in response, not minding to agree at all.

Naturally, Roan's performance caught a lot of eyes. However, there were also those who thought the same as Roan.

"Indeed, Clihol only lost that quickly because he underestimated his opponent."

"When he noticed that his opponent was much stronger than shown on the surface, it was already late to build up a meaningful defense."

"Trian can only curse his own luck now."

In any case, it wouldn't be possible to test him anymore as each person could only fight once. Otherwise, it would be seen as taking advantage of someone tired...not that Roan got tired, though. It was quite unfortunate that this rule couldn't be changed.

After a few more fights, it was time for Fabio to be challenged first instead of the other way around. It just so happened to be his oldest sister, Haera. "Fabio, that boy of yours has truly impressed me. How about I send my own Soul Transformation Realm cultivator to challenge yours?"

Fabio smiled back at her in response. "Definitely, eldest sister." He then looked at his group away from the table. "Regio, would you like to take up the challenge?"

Regio, as always, was a guy of few words, so he just nodded.

Haera also called her cultivator. "Sinbie, you're also in the Peak of the Soul Transformation Realm. Go ahead and show them that you aren't a member of the Royal Family branch for nothing."

"You can leave it to me, Aunt Haera." Sinbie was a female cultivator of a different race. Then again, one must remember that most humanoid races had no issues reproducing with other races. Sinbie just so happened to be one of those examples.

Regio looked at the girl and narrowed his eyes. 'Hass Race, huh?' he thought. Regio then looked at Rean and Roan, who had sparred with him many times, and nodded before focusing on his opponent. 'I refuse to believe she's a monster like those two.'

When the twins were two stages below him, he could still barely win. But now that they had improved by a stage, it wasn't possible anymore. Let alone that Rean forged Golden Initial-level weapons for them to use in the place of their old Silver Middle-level ones.

The battle quickly started, and both sides were evenly matched, much to the people's surprise. Everyone knew that when a member of the Royal Family took part, even if from a branch family, they would easily have the upper hand. It was rare for an even match to happen unless the opponent was also part of the Royal Family. However, that situation was exactly happening...for a short while.

*Clang, clang, clang...*

*Boom!*

*Arrgh!*

Suddenly, Sinbie left an opening that even she didn't know was possible to be exploited. Regio immediately took the chance in that fraction of a moment and hit Sinbie with great force, making the girl collide with the protection formation.

Immediately, all the people's eyes widened in surprise. The fight was so even just a moment ago, so how did it suddenly change so fast? In fact, even Regio was surprised by that. 'So... easy...'

Well, that was basically because Rean, and especially Roan, pushed him much further during these last two months. First of all, Regio was a rare talent of the country. It made sense that he absorbed all the things from his fights against the twins. How many times did he get defeated because of these unbelievably small openings? He already lost count.

"Winner, Regio!"

Sinbie got up with some difficulty and asked, "How did you do that?"

Regio looked at her in response and told her, "I suffered a lot."

Suffered a lot? Only a few, like Gulia and Colen, understood the real meaning behind it.

Fabio smiled brightly at Haera after Regio won, asking her, "Sister, my token. Would you mind?"

Haera didn't seem to mind it as she passed the token forward. "You found a good seed from our country, brother."

"I sure did."

There was still Rean to be selected. However, after what happened with Roan and Regio, the other princes and princesses didn't want to try their luck. Besides, Rean was obviously Roan's brother. They were identical, except for their hair colors.

Fabio could challenge Haera back, but he felt that if he did that, Haera maybe would send one of her Middle Stage Saint Realm cultivators. After all, Roan showed enough to prove that his proteges weren't simple. After all the tokens had been redistributed, some princes and princesses had more, while others had less. As no one else wanted to try Rean on Fabio's side, he ended up with one extra token other than the five he had at first.

Eventually, the show of the young generations fighting was over, and everyone went back to talks about businesses and partying. After all, this was the main objective of this gathering to start with. Nonetheless, this was also an influential gathering, and one could say that Fabio benefited the most from it.

Later that day, in Fabio's residence, he and his family were laughing a lot. Fabio's rise meant that they were rising, so it was a reason to celebrate. "Where are Rean and Roan? They must be rewarded together with Regio and Gulia. They all gave me a lot of face today. Father was especially impressed with their performances."

Colen sighed as he answered, "I told them you would want to reward them, but they didn't seem to care about it. Both of them went back to their rooms to cultivate again. Gulia went back to train, and Regio...well, you know Regio."

Fabio didn't mind, though. "Is that so? It's fine, it's fine. Let them cultivate, train, or whatever. I can talk to them later."