Way of the Knights

action

---

Raven woke up the next day, feeling somewhat okay but still relatively exhausted. 

He ate a hearty meal to recover some of his energy and began restoring his missing ones through meditation. Raven was basically running on fumes at this point, a price he had to pay for his miscalculation of time. He basically has to restore 99% of his total Cosmic Energy this time around, and judging with how much energy his current body could hold, he'll have to endure a painstaking conversion for at least a week. 

Raven had thought of turning this room into a time chamber but he ultimately decided against it. 

Even if he was severely weakened, Raven was still as alert as ever. He knew that he's still being monitored through various arrays hidden within this room. Although he isn't sure whether it was the Envoys of Ancient Elysium Sect who placed this or the Twin Star Academy, he still maintained his alertness and wouldn't casually expose his secrets that easily. 

He could even endure not going inside the Crown Space during the entirety of his Smelting Trial turned into a seclusion, so there's no way that he wouldn't be able to endure for a couple more days. 

As for not joining the Tournament, Raven really couldn't care less about Spiritual Treasures. 

With how Henry explained it, he estimated that the lowest rank would of course get the lowest ranked Spiritual Treasure while the first place gets the best quality. 

Raven had no need to compete for those. 

Back in the Martial Emperor Sect, Raven got not only one but two Spiritual Treasures. One of them was an Immortal-ranked Spiritual Treasure which could calm one's soul and strengthen it - well, in Raven's case, could help his soul recover. While the other one, was a Perfected Deity Ranked Spiritual Treasure gloves which could turn into an Empyrean Ranked treasure once he got the necessary supplements for it.

Up until now, the spiritual mat is still helpful for his soul recovery. It could even accelerate his learning speed and his senses, similar to the effects of Moonshine.

On the other hand, the Crimson Dragon Emperor's Glove was already something that Raven considers as one of his trump cards. Because he mainly uses his fists and legs to fight, the gloves raises the strength of his punches to the next level. And with how much Raven's strength has grown during this recent seclusion, the effect of the gloves became even more noticeable. 

In fact, Raven used it pretty often during his seclusion. During that time, he formed a solid link with the gloves and gained the recognition of the Spiritual Treasure itself, allowing him to use it more naturally. Due to the spiritual treasure syncing with him, its effects became even more pronounced during the times he used it. It's even safe to say that the gloves and Raven are almost inseparable already. 

With this two treasures on hand, is there really a need for him to participate with the Tournament? And although the Ancient Elysium Sect's treasury would surely be greater compared to the one that Martial Emperor Sect has, it's not like he'll never get the chance to acquire them. Additionally, due to the Highlander Clan's gratitude for him given them a chance to take over the sect, he got these treasures for free. 

With this in mind, Raven's decision of not joining the tournament would make sense. But of course, that's not entirely the reason why Raven decided not to join. 

Had Henry said that there will be Merit Points to gain for this tournament, Raven would've agreed to join without batting an eyelid. However, during his announcement yesterday, Henry didn't mention it even once. Which of course led to Raven thinking that there will be no merit points rewarded for this tournament.

In Raven's mind, there's no way that a man of such caliber would forget to mention such a simple thing, therefore he was confident that his guesses were correct. 

And because there was no Merit Point reward, there were no essence behind this Tournament at all, therefore Raven didn't want to join since it's just unnecessary. 

With his experience, Sects who established a system that has something to do with rendering meritorious services would definitely be the focal point of the sect itself. He would know since he established the same system back at the kingdom. With such a system, the value of ordinary currency would drop by a large degree, at some point it would even be useless altogether. 

Additionally, after seeing the items that the Ancient Elysium Sect could offer and could be exchanged using Merit Points, even Raven who had experienced two lifetimes were left in awe. He wasn't even a disciple during that time yet he could already tell just how important Merit Points will be within the Sect. Therefore, he was already thinking about forming a plan that could allow him to earn tons of merit points. 

Although it was unfortunate that the tournament doesn't offer any merit point reward, he was satisfied to not be forced to join such meaningless chore. Therefore, he could spend all of his remaining time in recovering his energies. 

***

A week passed by in a blink of an eye. 

The Tournament held by the Ancient Elysium Sect was already on its second day. The venue of the tournament was on the largest stadium within the Twin Star Academy. 

This stadium could hold at least a hundred thousand people, commoners and VIP's alike. Though even with how big this stadium was, it was completely incapable of holding everyone who wanted to watch the official disciples competed with each other. By initial estimations of the staffs, there's at least a million people who wanted to watch it, yet the stadium couldn't hold that many people. 

Therefore, even though it was a shame, they could only filter the people who'll be invited within the stadium. People who were with the disciples were given priority alongside of some guests personally invited by the Twin Star Academy. Next would be those who were insightful enough to visit the Twin Star Academy even before the tournament began. Those people were able to receive tickets to enter the stadium and had the opportunity to watch. Next would be those who waited outside and expressed their desire to watch the tournament. The list went on until the Stadium was packed full with people. 

As for the unfortunate ones who didn't get to watch, the Twin Star Academy was generous enough to set up a monitoring array which will allow them to watch the events during the Tournament outside. 

Sufficed to say, whether it was the people within the stadium or those who were watching outside, everyone was satisfied with how the tournament went on. 

Within one of the VIP rooms of the stadium, a group of people were gathered and was currently watching the current match. 

These people were Raul and Albert Highlander along with their entourage. The father and son from the Martial Emperor Sect was watching the intense match closely, in fact even the people who came with them were watching the match very closely, so much to the point where they weren't even aware that someone entered the room and were watching their concentrated faced with an amused expression. 

The invader wore maroon colored robes. He had an aqua-marine colored hair which almost reached his buttocks and were gathered using a rubber band. His skin was as fair as a pearl, he was handsome and radiated a calm and elegant aura. 

This was of course, none other than Raven who just recently exited his seclusion. Even though he hadn't fully recovered his Cosmic Energy, he was already fine enough to exit his seclusion and catch up with these people. Unfortunately, the father and son wasn't even aware of his presence at all. 

Raven simply smiled and walked beside them, he sat beside Albert who's focused on the match and decided to see what caught their attention. 

Albert felt the couch sinking beside him, which somehow irritated him since it disturbed his concentration on the match. However, when he smelled a foreign scent beside him, it caused him to sharply turn his head, realizing that someone actually sat beside him. 

It was then that he saw Raven who's watching the match with them while calmly sipping on his tea. Albert was so startled that his soul almost jumped out of his body. 

"Dude! What the fuck! You scared the shit out of me! When did you appear? No scratch that! Why are you here?"

Albert's exclamation pulled the attention of the rest, causing them to feel surprised as well. The guards were alerted so much that they unconsciously drew out their weapons, but before they could aim it at Raven, Raul's voice already echoed within the room.

"Stand by you fools. It's Nephew Raven, couldn't you tell? We went with him here!" 

The panic caused by Raven's 'sudden' appearance caused Raven himself to laugh loudly. Albert pulled him in for a hug and Raven returned it. He then turned to Raul and bowed while saying:

"I'm back Uncle, thank you for waiting for me."