Long Tian was surprised to see that he encountered someone he knew so early in the tournament.
After all, there were very few people that in the shelter.
But seeing the short-haired woman in military clothing with the two silver lines on her left shoulder, Long Tian had no doubt and immediately recognized her from the first time he set foot in the first ring.
It was Jiang Xue, the Sergeant First Class that had been carrying Qin Ling back in the first ring.
She was on one side of the platform, on the other, there was a large man wielding a battle hammer.
Long Tian had seen him with Han Fen back in Chen Ning's group, and he seemed to be at least as strong as Han Fen.
The three of them stood in a triangular formation, each one in a corner.
Long Tian saw that the man and Jiang Xue seemed wary of each other but also of him, as their guards were at their maximum and their eyes darted between him and the other person.
Long Tian did not say anything, as he did not plan to communicate in the tournament, lest people recognize his voice later.
The three just stood there for a few seconds before the hammer guy spoke.
"Hey, newcomer. I don't know where you got that Super armor, but if you help me kill her I can invite you to the gang. What do you say?"
He spoke in a bit of a condescending tone.
After all, just having a Super Armor did not necessarily mean someone had killed a Super beast, it only proved that they were at the very least rich and influent.
Also, there had been no mentions of people with a Green Beetle Super Soul recently in the shelter. So he thought Long Tian was either from another shelter or had bought the armor in the alliance after entering the shelter recently.
Of course, that was his speculation, but he had analyzed the names in his box and did not recognize anyone worth mentioning except Jiang Xue.
After the man finished talking, Jiang Xue became even more alert and said.
"Don't fall for his tricks, you are going to be tortured out of your armor if you trust him."
The hammer guy was about to respond when Long Tian shook his head and summoned a Super Sword from a sacred blood White Lion he had hunted when he was training.
He lifted the sword and pointed it at the man.
The man became angry and was about to say something when Long Tian vanished from his vision.
The last thing he saw was a blur passing by his side and then his vision started rotating, seeing a headless body before darkening forever.
Some people had been watching their platform. After all, there were two strong people in it, and a direct battle between two important people from the two main gangs was about to happen.
But then they saw the green figure they had disregarded before suddenly move at a speed they could not see and decapitate someone they considered strong with a single move.
To say they were shocked would be an understatement.
Particularly, the military and the Shelter gangs, who had been watching their direct confrontation in the tournament, were all shocked by Long Tian.
Suddenly, Qin Ling shouted, a little desperately.
"JIANG XUE, RETURN!"
The shout made Jiang Xue react to the absurd she had just watched, and she decisively jumped back with all force, falling out of the platform and returning to the participant's area.
Five seconds later, Long Tian also returned to the participant's area, that had less than half of the original people by now.
He left the armor on, as people would be paying attention to him from here onwards.
Less than a second later, there was a commotion from the Shelter Gang and Han Fen together with five other people started walking in his direction, anger in their eyes.
Chen Ning did not make a move, but he now looked at Long Tian with narrowed eyes.
Long Tian did not care for what these people would say or do, at worst, he would just beat them up now and then kill them in the tournament itself.
As the six people approached him, Long Tian lifted his sword once again, pointing in their directions.
This caused all of them to stop in their tracks.
The man leading them, who was slightly shorter than Han Fen, spoke.
"Hey, you fucker, you just killed Jiao Su. You better come with us, or you'll never see the alliance again."
The man said, looking at him angrily.
Long Tian just ignored him, but the sword was still raised. If these guys tried to attack him, they would be in for a world of pain.
Just as they were about to attack him, a voice came from behind them.
"Leave it. Return."
Immediately, the six stopped in their tracks and could only curse him and turn back.
It was Chen Ning who spoke.
He was looking at him fixedly, his eyes containing a certain amount of caution.
The Fitness that Long Tian had demonstrated when killing the hammer guy was about 35, already contending with the strongest ones here.
But what caused Chen Ning to be truly wary of him was that he was sure Long Tian had not used his full power when attacking earlier.
Long Tian continued ignoring them. But he now felt many stares in his direction.
Particularly from the military gang, and specially Qin Ling, who looked a little angry at him.
She probably thought that if Jiang Xue had not jumped away immediately, he would have attacked her too.
Well, he was going to attack her, but not with the sword, he was just going to punch her out.
Although the military were not a bastion of morality, they certainly were better than Chen Ning's gang.
Who in the few hours he knew of their existence, had killed thousands of people.
And also, he did not have any reason to attack either Qin Ling or Jiang Xue. After all, why would he save someone just to kill them later for no reason.
So, although he hoped to not become enemies with them, he would prove who was his enemies with his actions in the tournament, not with words.
The tournament continued, with people dying and the two gangs clashing at every opportunity.
Over an hour later, there was only one small arena with people in it.
Curiously, it was Qin Ling and the captain that was trying to attack Han Fen earlier.
They stood twenty meters from each other. Qin Ling was just staring at him, looking relaxed, but he held his sword and looked like he was facing a great enemy.
Then, Qin Ling sighed and shook her head.
"Reng Xiu, you know you can't win, let me continue, I don't want to hurt you."
The man, Reng Xiu, became angry at these words, and gave out a shout before dashing at her with full speed.
Qin Ling just parried his strike and overpowered him, breaking his stance, and gave a kick at his side, sending him flying back.
She dashed after him and even before he reached the ground, she kicked him again and sent him out of the arena.
Five seconds later, she returned to the participants area while Reng Xiu appeared in the spectator area.
He looked in Qin Ling's direction with hatred, but she did not even look at him.
Then, the voice of the sanctuary came again.
{First stage concluded. The Second Stage will begin in one hour.}
The massive screen in the participants area changed and now showed a clock counting down.
Long Tian continued sitting down and waiting for the second stage.
Now that the battle royale stage had concluded, there were far less people in the participants area.
At the start, there were over a quarter million people, all siting in the stands waiting for their turn. But now, there were only 274.
Some were injured, after all, being the last standing among 1000 people, unless you are overwhelmingly strong, is not an easy task.
It is considered that the tournament of the first sanctuary is the least reliable in showing who is the strongest in the whole sanctuary.
First because the rewards are not enticing enough for the people at the top.
Second because it is generally frowned upon for those people that decided, for many reasons, to stay in the first sanctuary for decades to participate. And these people are the truly strongest.
With both the fitness, martial arts and experience to dominate others.
For example, Long Rue had told Long Tian that she had been the overseer of the Dragon Test for his father and grandfather. Which showed how old she is.
Not that he had the courage to call her old to her face.
But she was only one example of people that stay behind in the first sanctuary. Most stay because of orders, where they have to administrate and protect the property of alliance forces inside the sanctuary.
And you can't have geniuses doing these jobs, after all, their objective is to ascend as soon as possible with the maximum amount of fitness and points.
So these people, that are talented, have a bright future, but that will have difficulties finding resources to continue their journey in the future.
They accept to stay in a lower sanctuary, managing or protecting things, for a period of time, so that in the future they will be capable of advancing more easily.
It is not everyone that does it, and many times it can be sort of forced upon them. But it happens, and it is considered an unspoken agreement for them not to participate in the tournament. After all, they don't have anything to prove to anyone in the first sanctuary.
So the actual strength of the participants of the tournament is not the highest present in the sanctuary. However, they are the ones with the highest potential.
Every year, a genius that will go on to shock the alliance wins the tournament, normally ascending right after and smoothly continuing their Gene Journey.
So the First Sanctuary Tournament became a place not to find the strongest in the sanctuary, but to find the most promising. As most people that win are under 20 years old.
But even then, just the people that participate are already incredible.
For example, as Long Tian sat there, he observed the people that managed to advance, the top 0.1% of the participants.
The majority had a fitness of over 10, with less than a dozen having less.
People with 15 or even 20 were also common. Long Tian based these estimates purely on instinct, something that becomes stronger and more accurate as one advances.
The strongest person here was undoubtedly Chen Ning. Long Tian estimated him to have about 40 of fitness, which is an absurd, as the second place, Qin Ling, only has 35.
Long Tian actually did not know why Chen Ning was participating, as he knew from Long Rue that the people that took over the shelters were oriented to not participate in the first place.
So the more Long Tian thought about it, the more he became sure that Chen Ning was probably on his way to betray the clan, if he had not already.
Considering what he saw today, with the unnecessary conflict with the military, the brutal massacres of random people and the bully-like behavior of his gang. Power had probably gone up his head.
Long Tian turned to look towards his direction as he thought about this.
'Maybe the shelter could return to the military's hands.'
Now, don't get it wrong, although Long Tian did not have much feelings towards the Long Clan, he still knew that he was stuck with it, at least for now.
But losing one shelter, and one agent, in the first sanctuary, even if people would know it was him that caused it, would not damage neither his nor the clan's reputation.
That was his analysis.
So, he decided to kill Chen Ning, and any other member of his gang that he saw.
Long Tian decided to kill easily just like that. This was because that Jiao Su guy had not been his first kill. No, that had happened in the start of his training.
It was just the third day into the training when Long Rue decided that he should make his first kill before the tournament.
Long Tian strongly opposed, but she did not listen, even telling him that he should be prepared as the Young Master of the Long Clan, a clan that practices martial arts and holds onto power with force, to take as many lives as necessary.
Long Tian accepted that but would not do it to someone innocent. Long Rue naturally agreed and had him kill some robbers that stayed on the outermost mountains of the ten rings.
He had felt bad, but he did not vomit when he killed the first guy. But that had been in battle. When came the time to execute the people that had surrendered after he overpowered them, Long Tian almost couldn't do it.
In the end, it was the vision of that black figure with a scimitar taking Bian Mei's head that made him remember that there was no option.
From that point, Long Rue would have him go searching for bandits everyday for an entire month. During that time, he had killed over 300 people, and had become used to it, although he still forced himself to feel bad and to find a reason for his actions, even if they were hypocritical.
At that moment, Chen Ning realized that Long Tian was looking at him. Neither looked away, entering a sort of contest. After a few seconds, Chen Ning smiled and made a cutting motion on his neck.
'His true personality is slipping out.'
Someone that allows their subordinates to do what they had been doing could not be as calm as he had been portraying himself. Even in his battle he had acted calm.
He did not know who he was trying to fool but it did not matter.
That only made Long Tian more sure of what he should do.
Then, as the people of the gang started to realize that someone was basically challenging their leader, the sanctuary voice sounded again.
{The period of rest has ended. The second stage will start now.}
{Generating the matches for the second stage.}