Besides their immediate family, no one from the outside world knew the true extent of her powers, and thus did not know that she already attained the Peak Innate State! The only information that was known to the public about Ruth was that she was one of the Four Beauties in Springfield City! Her beauty was known far and wide, even more so than her talent in combat! "How strange! Harvey already attained the Initial Supreme State, and he was the first out of this generation to do so. Not even Anson or Theodore are matched for him, so why did the Collins send Ruth to challenge him? What's the meaning of this?" "Who knows? Perhaps Elder Collins is too outraged by the humiliation that he sent his granddaughter to embarrass the Shears. Even if Harvey won, it wouldn't be a righteous victory at all!" The crowd was shocked by this sudden twist of events and exchanged glances of puzzlement. None of them knew of Ruth's true powers, but even if they did, it would not change anything.
"What a gentleman! No wonder Mister Shear is one of the most capable youths in this city!" the crowd could not help but praise Harvey for his courtesy. "Alright, you asked for it! Don't blame me for humiliating you, then!" Ruth smiled and with a quick dart, appeared before Harvey like a flash of lightning. Then, she cocked her fist back and brought it down hard, sending a flash of energy surging toward Harvey's chest. Harvey, who underestimated her before this, offered to let Ruth start first because he did not think she would do much harm, but when he sensed the energy surging through Ruth's body, his face turned pale. "Initial Supreme State!" Harvey was utterly shocked by this. He never thought, not even in his wildest dreams, that Ruth already attained the Initial Supreme State! What was even worse was, since he underestimated Ruth's powers, he failed to dodge her attack, and by the time he realized this, it was too late. Harvey's entire body lurched to one side to dodg
"Miss Collins, I admire your power and strength. It's certainly not easy for a girl to attain the realm of the Supreme Masters. I'm no match for you at all, and I admit defeat." Harvey sighed. "So soon?" Ruth furrowed her brows in disappointment. However, she already attacked Harvey twice, and it was more than enough to help avenge her brother's defeat. Considering Harvey was willing to admit defeat on his grounds, she did not think it appropriate to force him to fight, so she had no choice but to watch as Harvey alighted the stage. Benedict and the rest of the family were utterly dismayed at Harvey's defeat. Not only did he lose by a landslide, but he was defeated by a young girl, which was even more humiliating! Yet at the same time, they had to take it in stride. After all, there was no one else who was a better fighter than Harvey, and even he lost to Ruth, so there was no point trying to one-up her anymore. "Rats!" Cynthia's entire face turned scarlet from rage. She
However, what's most important was that Ruth was a girl; if she was a boy and could thus inherit the family name, he would not even care about Leon's alchemy skills at all! Alchemy was just a useful complement, but could not overcome the importance of nurturing good martial arts! "Come back, Ruth," said George, gesturing for Ruth to return to their side. "Wait a minute, Grandpa. I still have something to do," she replied calmly. "What is it?" George froze at this. The audience was just as stunned, and all turned to stare at Ruth with looks of puzzlement. "I want to take on Leon Wolf!" Ruth pointed in Leon's direction, scowling. "What? Take on me?" Leon was utterly shocked by this. He thought this battle was already over, but he never thought that Ruth would want to challenge him. "That's right! Leon Wolf, you rejected the Collins and humiliated us in front of so many people, so now, I will challenge you to a duel in honor of my family's name!" She said curtly. The
"Tsk, what else could he have done? Miss Collins is the best among the best, and no one could match her! If he accepted her challenge right then and there, wouldn't that just be asking for it?" "Hmm, I guess you're right. It's far better to be a wimp than become the laughingstock of the town for losing to a woman!" Jeers and taunts echoed through the crowd. Everyone witnessed for themselves the extent of Ruth's powers; they did not think Leon could stand a chance against her at all! "Did you hear that, Leon Wolf? Are you peeing your pants right now? so be it, if you don't want to accept my challenge. If you get on your knees and apologize to us right now, I might consider showing you mercy!" Ruth shot Leon a glance of disdain. She hated cowardly men like this, and she felt nothing but contempt for Leon who did not even have the guts to fight her like a real man. "What did you say?" a glimmer of malice flashed through Leon's eyes. "I said, you can either take on my challen
Now, Leon and the Shears were like in a pitch; if Harvey and Leon both lost to Ruth, the Shears and ultimately Cynthion Group would be utterly humiliated! "Don't worry, Cynthia. I'll be fine. She's just attained the Initial Supreme State. I'll be able to handle her!" Leon smiled and patted Cynthia's hand in reassurance. "But-" Cynthia and the Shears were just about to convince Leon otherwise, but before they could finish their sentence, Leon already turned and strode away. He stopped a few feet away from Ruth. "Miss Collins, I accept your challenge! I'll let you take three first. Please feel free to start!" he said calmly. He, like Harvey, thought that since Ruth was a girl, and younger than him, no less, he would allow her three times to initiate her offense out of courtesy. "You, too?" Ruth burst into laughter at this, and even the Collins and the audience followed suit. "Has this fellow gone insane? Just now, Harvey did so to demonstrate his courtesy without knowing t
Someone shrieked from amongst the crowd, which jolted everyone back to reality. One could always sense a martial artist's true energy during combat, but during Leon's dodging, they did not seem even a flicker of his true energy at all! This was unbelievable! Everyone was utterly stunned by this strange phenomenon. However, everyone soon recalled Jacob and Theodore's claims, which was that Leon possessed a special ability to hide or change one's true energy. This seemed to be the explanation; it was nothing special to be able to hide one's true energy, since it provided no use other than hiding the true extent of one's power, and thus no one took notice of it. However, unbeknownst to everyone, this was not what Leon did at all. He did not know how to hide or change one's true energy, and instead, he practiced something that was far more powerful than martial arts—the Sage Arts! If people found out about this, they would not cease to do anything to get their hands on this
None of them expected Leon to dodge the three moves from a Supreme Master like Ruth without any injuries. They finally understood that he was not arrogant or foolish in allowing Ruth to attack, but that he could withstand it."Leon managed to evade all of Miss Collins's attacks. Just what's his power level?""Is he in the Realm of a Supreme Master as well?"...The crowd recovered from the initial shock from witnessing Leon's true strength and muttered to one another."That's not possible! I fought him not long ago and he was only at the Peak Innate State. He can't possibly be at the Realm of a Supreme Master!" Jacob said."Mister Lowe's right! I've fought him before and he wasn't that much stronger than I am! He just got lucky and managed to barely dodge Miss Collins' attack. It doesn’t mean anything!" Theodore snorted.Both Theodore and Jacob fought Leon recently and they knew Leon's strength better than anyone, so they concluded that Leon merely managed to dodge the attack ou