Chapter 51.1: Mercilessly Cruel Competition
[The Three Great Sects have each sent a heavyweight as a representative to attend, could you have used some underhanded methods to squeeze out the Carefree Valley’s people?]
That was what Qing Ye Li thought in his heart, but did not know that that fella had merely simply given the Carefree Valley’s people a brutal beating, and just tied them up in the wilderness, leaving them to their own demise.
Since things had already turned ugly anyway, he would just do whatever pleased his heart.
And this time, he had just assumed the Carefree Valley’s Young Lord’s identity to come in here, which was highly provocative and attention grabbing. With his young and outstandingly handsome looks, compared to the Faint Mist Sect’s imposing looking forty or fifty year old middle aged uncle or the Limitless Sect’s ordinary looking Commandment Hall’s Elder who was silent and reticent, he was the most attention grabbing of them all.
Behind the judges’ panel, there were quite a number of the Three Great Sect’s disciples, all of them young men and women, all of them carrying an extraordinary air.
Everyone has basically all arrived, and the Green Wave Emperor was just appearing from the back of the hall at that moment before he went to sit down upon the leading main seat. Except for the people from the Three Great Sects, everyone else all stood up to bow in greeting, “Respects to Your Majesty!”
The Green Wave Emperor’s face was handsomely joyous, the expression on his face filled with delight. “Dispense with the formalities! Today is a joyous day for the people, where everyone celebrates. On this momentous day, I am looking forward to witness and see the new male and female saint for this year’s All Saint Day!”
“Thank you Your Majesty and for Your Majesty’s brilliance!”
After the greetings were over, the centre of the enormous round arena platform sunk inwards and then slowly rose back up.
Upon it, stood a curvy figure, a purple clothed young lady with an exquisite countenance. Looking upon the stage it seemed as if a cloudy mist swirled around her, mystical and divine. She bowed fully in greeting to the crowd and her clear sweet sounding voice like a yellow oriole rang out: “Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming. I am the host for this year’s competition, Xian Xin Zi!”
“What! ? It’s really Xian Xin Zi! ?”
“Oh my Heavens! This year’s All Saint Day festival is really just too good! They had even managed to get her to come host the event!”
“It is said that Xian Xin Zi is already thirty or forty years old! This young girl here looks to be in her prime and barely twenty eight! Could it be they just have the same name?”
“Then you do not know this. The skill method that Xian Xin Zi cultivates has an Eternal Youth Technique imbued within, and even if she is several hundred years old, she will still look no different from a sixteen or seventeen year old.”
“So I see, with such exquisite beauty and able to maintain eternal youth. She must be the envy of countless women!”
There were some who did not know about that and the asked curiously: “Eh? Just who is that young lady up there? Why is everyone so shocked to see her?”
People then told them. “You don’t even know Xian Xin Zi? That is the Limitless Sect Sect Leader’s daughter, and our Emperor His Majesty’s little junior disciple. It is rumoured that she is a prodigious five element wielder, and she has shunned the world and gone in seclusion for quite a long time.”
The man then nodded in understanding. “I see, I see…..”
After Xian Xin Zi introduced herself, she swept her gaze all around her. Seeming to see someone she recognized, the corners of her lips lifted slightly before she got back on topic. “The competition will be split into ten rounds this time, and the most outstanding five will be selected in each round, two to a duel where the winner advances. After the initial ten rounds, the fifty people who have advanced will then carry out duels two at a time, till the final male and female contestants is determined, who will then become the male and female saints of this All Saints Day festival whom everyone is watching out for, where they will go on to receive great rewards bestowed upon them by His Majesty, and a personal pledge made to them.”
“Ten rounds of contests, literary and martial arts five rounds each. All of you are holding a number token in your hand, will the contestants with the same numbers please stand upon the corresponding arenas, to carry out the elimination rounds.”
After a short and simple explanation by Xian Xin Zi, the curtains for the competition were officially raised.
Chapter 51.2: Mercilessly Cruel Competition
“First team, number four, number nine, number eighteen, number twenty six, number fifty three…..”
Qing Yu lowered her eyes to glance at the number token she had been given when she had just come in. Three hundred and sixty eight.
It was said that there was originally almost a thousand contestants taking part but after the strict initial selection round, they had filtered out many people who had sought to deceive their way through, and there were only five hundred people who made it through smoothly.
Her number token was a little further back and if they were drawn out by sequence, it would be a long time before her number would be called out.
There were about forty to fifty people standing upon the arena platform at that moment, and with the slight ring of a bell, the huge isolation barrier rose up from the ground abruptly, to surround everyone inside completely. Many text characters then appeared right at the top, packed densely together, flashing at a very fast speed.
“This round will mainly test you on your memory and level of tolerance. What we have here before your eyes is a long lost swordplay manual created by one of the ancient powers. You are required to memorize and recite it within an incense stick’s time before you can come out. Once an incense stick’s time has passed, the space in there will shrink by half, and the air inside will grow thinner and thinner. Unless you choose to give up and forfeit, otherwise you will suffocate and die in there.”
Xian Xin Zi’s clear and sweet sounding voice slowly grew louder, and they then saw that the text characters were flashing faster and faster.
Once those words came out, everyone was all equally stunned with shock for a moment.
[What is going on here?]
[The first round’s contest is….. mem….. memorizing a book? ?]
[And they are only given an incense stick’s time! ?]
The young men and women who had only cared to cultivate with swords and sabres almost went mad with astoundment at that moment.
[What in Hell! ? Why must the test be on memorizing a book! ?]
[When they had been playing truant from classes like anything back then? Asking them to be like those feeble and pathetic scholars who memorized books and recited poetry, they would very much rather suffer a couple of sword slashes than that!]
While those schooled in both literary and martial arts who had a little literary talents in their tummies were much calmer. [It is just memorizing a book. It couldn’t be any easier than that.]
Qing Yu looked at the stunned and flabbergasted bunch of people on the arena platform, and she could not help but laugh. “This competition is actually rather interesting.”
Among the several tens of people, there were actually a few familiar faces. One of them was Yu Xiao Ning whom she had had the affinity to meet once back at the cave the other day, and the sisters Yan Xi Wu and Yan Xi Ruo were also inside.
As the Green Wave Kingdom’s most talented lady, Yu Xiao Ning not only possessed outstanding talents, her cultivation level was not all that low as well.
She merely stood there to stare quietly at the characters rolling past very quickly, and then collected her thoughts for a moment before her lips parted to recite: “At the dawn of time, Yin and Yang were locked in incessant battle, cleaving the Heavens and split the Earth, to morph into one sword. Those not righteous of heart shall not practice, those with clear spirits roots do not understand, one’s sword cleaves metal like mud, hair like silk, drinks the blood of depraved evil…..”
Without a doubt, Yu Xiao Ning came right out, leaving the looks of envy, jealousy and hatred from everyone behind her, as the one incense stick burned out by a third.
“Heh heh heh, Ning Ning is indeed our Green Wave Kingdom’s most talented lady. That was really fast!” Yu Jing Zhuo said with a highly proud expression on his face. That was his younger sister and there was no need to say how much face he had gained from that.
And the remaining bunch of people on the arena platform were wringing their brains dry to forcefully memorize it. Time ticked by bit by bit, and a good half of the incense stick has burned out, seemingly like it was burning at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.
When Yu Xiao Ning was coming off the stage, Yu Jing Zhuo immediately went over to her with a face smiling in delight. “Ning Ning, you’ve got a rather good memory there! Looks like you’ve been working rather hard!”
Yu Xiao Ning raised up an eyebrow. “Do I need to work hard for this? If Third Brother doesn’t put all his thoughts solely on all those pretty ladies, you will be able to do it too.”
As she said that, she was even giving him such a sincere and earnest look.
Chapter 51.3: Mercilessly Cruel Competition
Yu Jing Zhuo was speechless. “…..” [Fine, I won’t ask anymore. Will that do?]
Up on the arena stage, the space inside the isolation barrier was slowly beginning to shrink, and those who had a slightly lower level of tolerance were finding it hard to breathe, their faces turning an ugly shade.
“Sis, do you think that any one of those people will be able to walk out from there?” Qing Yu turned to look at the young lady beside him to ask.
Qing Yu curled up the corners of her lips and said: “There are still some among those people with rather good aptitude. I think at least another five people might be able to come out from there.”
Qing Yu was a little surprised. “Really?”
He had not expected Qing Yu to give such a high estimation, as he himself was thinking only about another two people would make it.
“Just wait and see. It’s only a matter of time.” Qing Yu smiled and did not say anymore, her phoenix like eyes looking indifferently at the incense stick that was about to burn out. It would be another ten breath’s time before an incense stick’s time would be up.
The center of the platform flashed twice and a man and a woman came walking out from there, their faces a little pale, but overall, they still seemed to be in a rather good state.
After that, another man came out right behind them, walking through the isolation barrier.
Qing Bei blinked his eyes in surprise. [That was already the third person. Would there really be five who will make it?]
As that thought was going through his mind, he then saw the sisters Yan Xi Ruo and Yan Xi Wu coming out from there as well, while the rest of the people stuck in that tiny cramped space were all under great agony, wailing endlessly. Finally, they could no longer withstand it any longer and they all chose to give up.
Hence, among the fifty people in the first round, including Yu Xiao Ning who was the first person to come off the platform, there were a total of six people.
Qing Bei cast an admiring glance towards his sister beside him. [She said there would be five and it turned out to be exactly that number. That’s just too accurate isn’t it?]
And down below, the people who had not yet been called then could not help but started whispering in low voices.
“Out of fifty people, not even ten had passed. It is rather unexpected.”
“But no one could have thought that they would come up with such a strange topic. Testing one’s memory, and it was a swordplay manual left behind from ancient times. With the speed those words were flashing at, it was hard for anyone to even see it clearly, much less memorize.”
“Ha, if I am to say, all of them must have only single mindedly concentrated on acting tough and playing vicious and do not possess enough intelligence to even keep up. Hahaha!”
“That’s right, can’t even do something like memorizing a book which is just child’s play. How useless.”
It seemed like the host of the competition Xian Xin Zi had not expected such a result as well and her exquisite little face seemed to look a little disappointed. But she quelled the expression on her face very quickly and then went on to announce: “There are a total of six people who got through the first round and they are, Yu Xiao Ning, Qi Mo, Yin Si Si, Ji Yun Fei, Yan Xi Wu and Yan Xi Ruo. The six of you can have some rest for now and prepare yourself for the next round.”
The second round had another fifty people go up. This time, it wasn’t a test of memory by a straight contest of martial skills. Who ever was able to throw their opponent of the platform would win. Up on the arena platform, there was no distinction between a commoner or nobility, no differentiation in their status or position. Here, whoever’s fist was harder would reign.
This round was a lot more interesting, and the first number that was drawn was number one hundred and fifty.
There wasn’t anything wrong with the number itself, but the owner of that number token was the Martial Land Kingdom’s prince, Mu Qian Shang.
The pair of twins from the Martial Land Kingdom did not only possess outstanding looks, they also held highly powerful cultivation. Especially the Seventh Prince Mu Qian Shang, it was rumoured that his powers were quite a lot higher than the Sixth Prince Mu Qian Chen, strength that came close to the killing machine, the Duke of Vast Seas.
Hence when that tall and slender figure got up from his seat and came up to the arena stage one step at a time, the entire great hall suddenly had a rare moment of silence.
Mu Qian Chen was beaming with a brilliant smile on his face, and if you looked closely, you would find that the smile was tinged with a sense of gloating.
Wondering who would be the unlucky one to meet that crazy Qian Shang!
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