'What idea?'
[You can tell lady Rong to suppress your stats. Someone at her power level can seal your stats easily. So meet her before registering your entry in the tournament].
'Oh, that's good. Alright, I'll contact her, right now. Hope she is available.'
Arkhen took out the comm crystal and contacted lady Rong. From that card she gave him, Arkhen got her contact info and printed it in his comm crystal.
Shortly later, the call connected.
Lady Rong—, "Arkhen?"
Arkhen—, "Yes. Haha, how did you guess so correctly?"
After all, Arkhen never gave his comm crystal contact info to her. Only she gave him her card, which had her contact info in it.
Lady Rong—, "Well, the only calls I am expecting are of you and two others. The other two talked with me yesterday. So only you were left, which allowed me to guess correctly. Anyway, I assume you are already in the Pentarix continent. If you are, then come to Hong-Shen town."
Arkhen—, "I am already in the town."
Lady Rong—, "Then come to the Town Lord's mansion. I am staying there. Just show the guards my card when they ask your purpose for visit."
…
Arkhen contacted Jeizy, and it connected, indicating that he was awake as well.
After telling him that he was going to go somewhere, he left the Inn and arrived at the City Lord's mansion since it was one of the biggest buildings in the city and visible to everyone. Flying was allowed, so Arkhen arrived there by flying.
It was early in the morning, probably a bit over 5 AM.
As Arkhen neared the outer gates of the City Lord's mansion, the guards stopped him, "What business do you have here?"
Arkhen took out the card in response and showed it to the guards.
Seeing the black card with dark gold 'R' carved on it as it faintly glowed, the guards were startled and quickly made a path for Arkhen.
After entering the gates, he walked on the white stone path with open gardens on both sides. Soon, he arrived in front of the wide-open door of the mansion and saw servants and other people sitting at a table in the hall.
One of them was lady Rong. She saw Arkhen at the door and called him before a nearby maid could help Arkhen by asking about his purpose for coming here.
At the table, there were three more people aside from lady Rong. One woman and two men. All three were powerful and wore fancy and exquisite robes.
"Come, sit here," lady Rong said as she pointed at an empty chair beside her. Her eyes hid an astonished look as she sensed Arkhen's powers and was really startled inwardly. 'How come he has an innate physique? It's not even been half a month since I saw him!'
Only she could sense that Arkhen had an innate physique. She didn't know what type of it was, but she knew that he had an innate physique because she was originally from the 4th realm and possessed an innate physique in her.
The other three people were powerful, at the peak of this 1st realm, but they didn't possess physique. So they didn't know about Arkhen's strength.
"Lady Rong, who is he?" asked the middle-aged man with a clean bald head, blue eyes, and sharp sword-like eyebrows.
"He is a new disciple that I just accepted," lady Rong said with a smile. She didn't need to test Arkhen anymore to let him enter her sect.
"Oh? Your personal disciple? Didn't you accept two just a while ago?" said the woman with long light brown silky hair combed into a large long braid that was wide and thick near her back head but shrank in wideness as it went down. There was a chain ornament with an emerald butterfly on her head as well, enhancing her beauty as the ornament matched the big emerald earrings.
"Not personal disciple," lady Rong shook her head as she said, "I don't have time to make planning for one more. Moreover-" Pausing there, lady Rong looked at Arkhen with an amused expression before continuing, "-he doesn't need any master to look after his way of getting stronger."
Arkhen could only wry smile as he was certain that lady Rong already found out about him having an innate physique. 'Velshi, did she find out?'
[Indeed, she did].
"You three can leave now. The meeting is already over, anyway."
Hearing lady Rong's words, the woman and two men at the table stood up and left after nodding.
After the three of them left, lady Rong created another barrier around the table to prevent their talk to leak. The barrier was also there previously but was removed after those three left before lady Rong renewed it.
"Interesting. Did you already have a legacy seed or an inheritance? I guess you got your physique from either of those two, which means that you must have some connection in some upper realm," Lady Rong said with a curious light in her eyes.
"Yeah, something like that. But I don't know what connection I have in the upper realm. I don't know anyone in the upper realm as I was just born a normal human in the Gravel Realm," Arkhen said with a dry laugh.
"Fine. Then we'll move to the main topic. I don't need to test you now since what I saw is sufficient to let you enter my sect," lady Rong said after lightly waving her hand with a smile.
"But I still want to enter the tournament," Arkhen said before he fake coughed once and continued, "Ahem, so… I know my current situation won't allow me to participate in the tournament."
"Yep," lady Rong nodded with a smile.
"However, if you can suppress my stats using some means, then I can participate," Arkhen said with a serious expression as he continued, "I want to participate in the tournament and gain more experience in battle while also absorbing knowledge by watching other peoples' fight and their powers."
Lady Rong was surprised by Arkhen's decision, but she didn't mind it. Nodding her head with a faint smile, she pointed her right hand's index finger at Arkhen and said, "Alright. But here's a handicap, you will participate in the 2nd-class section, but I will limit your stats to the bare minimum of a 2nd-class powerhouse. Do you agree?"
"Haha, that's perfect. I agree," Arkhen laughed and nodded with a fearless grin.
Hearing his response, Lady Rong's index finger that was pointed at Arkhen started producing faint black threads with a light gray border as they began swirling around Arkhen.
After two seconds, the threads glued to Arkhen's body after they passed through his clothes and disappeared into his body.
Arkhen started feeling weakness as his body was rapidly becoming weak! He looked at this status panel and saw the numbers decreasing quickly before they finally stopped.
Except for his stamina, which remained infinite. The other stats aside from Charm got capped at 201!
As lady Rong said, she indeed made Arkhen's power at the bare minimum of a 2nd class powerhouse. Of course, his EP remained exactly the same, at 275,000, because it was well within a 2nd class powerhouse's EP. The physique boost given to his EP was suppressed, however. Otherwise, his EP would be 550,000.
"I have formed the suppression seal in you with those threads. Your suppression will be easily removed if you exerted strength beyond your current stats," lady Rong said with an amused smile as she continued, "So if you exerted more strength by mistake, your cover will blow up and you will be disqualified."
"Wait, that…" Arkhen was speechless.
"Yep. That would be difficult to do in battle. That's why you have exactly ten days to gain absolute control over your bodily prowess. Consider this my free training regime to you," lady Rong said with a smile. There were numerous benefits after one gained mastery over their bodily prowess.
"After registering your entry, you can start practicing controlling your strength by sparring with someone. If you break the seal, you can close your eyes and sense a black triangle shape seal in your body. Infuse a bit of energy in it to activate the seal again. However, I will remove my formation from the seal once the tournament starts, so you won't be able to renew it after breaking it."
Arkhen was surprised by this arrangement of lady Rong. But he liked this challenge.
[My lord. This is actually a brilliant move by her. If you can indeed gain absolute control over your bodily prowess, you can do a lot of things, and your fighting potential will increase as well].
"Thank you very much," Arkhen said with a determined expression and nodded before speaking, "I will definitely gain absolute control over my bodily prowess before the tournament starts!"
"Good. Honestly, with how you gained such a level of power this fast and the skills you already possess, I truly expect you to master the bodily prowess control before the tournament starts," lady Rong said with a plain smile as she continued, "If you failed to do it and broke the seal in the tournament, I will be truly disappointed and it will only mean that you don't have what it takes."
Arkhen was fired up by her remarks and took a deep breath before nodding his head somberly. Standing up, he said, "Then I shall leave now. After registering my entry, I'll start training right away."
"All the best," lady Rong said as she waved her hand twice very quickly while smiling.
After nodding his head again in response, Arkhen left the mansion and returned to his room in the Inn.
An hour later, Jeizy and Arkhen went to register their entries in the tournament. After that, Jeizy took Arkhen to the best sparring place in the town, which he promised Arkhen.
A training club at the periphery of the town called Hidden Dragon Den.