Chapter 69: The Preliminary Round of the Competition
Shen Ying’s group arrived at the competition venue just in time. When they entered, the cultivators from the different sects had already congregated there. At a glance it could be seen that there were perhaps about a thousand people there.
Whether by coincidence or not, they did not know, but the disciples of the Venation Sect had arrived one step ahead of them. It just so happened that the cultivators in this sect were also all female. There being fewer female cultivators compared to male cultivators participating in this competition, the addition of nine more from the Invincible Sect to this small pool caused the sudden influx of female cultivators to be particularly conspicuous.
They had initially not been bothered by the attention they attracted until the chattering among the crowd grew louder and louder, and an increasing number of eyes were focused on the nine girls accompanied by more and more pointing fingers.
“Take a look. Those people there have such ruined faces, yet they dare to come out?”
“Yeah, they are all so ugly! I have never seen such ugly cultivators! Could they be Fiendish Cultivators?”
“Yet despite that they chose to stand next to the Venation Sect who are renowned for producing female disciples with angelic beauty.”
“That’s right, which sect that takes in such hideous characters are they from?”
“…”
The commotion in the surrounding grew louder and louder. The nine girls bowed their heads, ashamed and annoyed, subconsciously covering the scars on their faces. Their previous high morale had vanished completely.
Lonemoon’s expression darkened immediately. Yu Hong and her fellow disciples’ Foundation Establishment had been damaged. Although there were spirit herbs growing all around the Invincible Sect, herbs alone could not heal the girls completely, so remnants of old injuries still lingered in their bodies. While these lingering injuries had not posed any great impact to their practice, their scarred faces showed no signs of improvements.
Being Soul Formation cultivators, both Lonemoon and Yi Qing had long lost their attachments to their physical forms. Moreover, there was a chance to reshape the body during Neonate Formation, so few high-level cultivators valued their appearance. Therefore, Lonemoon had never turned his mind to solving this problem and he had also become so used to the girls’ appearances that he had not thought there was anything wrong with how they looked.
But who would have expected that, because of such a trivial matter, they would be looked down upon by some low-level disciples at their first competition debut. He felt angry but could not think of a way to shut everyone up. All he could do was to unleash the suppressive aura of his Soul Formation cultivation as a warning to the people around them, and console the girls by saying, “Concentrate on the competition. Don’t be bothered by other matters.”
“Yes…” The girls nodded, but they showed no signs of lightening up.
Lonemoon sighed, then seeing that the competition was about to start, he said, “We can’t stay here for too long. Don’t worry though. We’ll be watching you guys from outside, so do your best.”
Having said that, Lonemoon motioned for Yi Qing and Shen Ying to leave. However, he had only walked a couple of steps when Shen Ying, who was in front, came to a halt. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
Shen Ying did not reply, but merely turned around suddenly and walked back to face the nine girls. “Regarding what I said yesterday… I made a mistake.”
Surprised, the nine girls raised their heads to look at her.
“In any case, our Invincible Sect has no friends, so don’t bother about what I said about placing friendship first.” The expression in her eyes turned cold and emphasizing every word, she said, “So… don’t give me face. Just thrash them all!”
“…”
“You bunch are definitely no fairies, but you could be nightmares of all these people!”
A moment later…
“Yes! Sect Master!” *9
The girls felt indomitable, their hearts burning with fighting spirit!
Yi Qing: “…” What Master says makes so much sense!
Lonemoon: “…” Yuck, a brain-damaged fan!
Inter-sect competitions were grand events that attracted huge crowds in the Upper Azure World, but the entire competition actually only needed three days to finish. Today was the preliminary rounds which mainly served to select the top 50 in each cultivation divisions. The rules were also simple: each division would be divided into teams of 100 people and those who made it through this round would automatically qualify for the next round.
This being the first day, the various sects who had brought their contingents would all come to watch the proceedings. A towering floating platform was packed with the experts from the different sects. Atop the highest level were the people from the four aristocratic families. The top three contestants of each round were usually from these families, but as their reputations were at stake, the patriarchs from each of these families were all present and the members of their entourage were also all Traveling Immortals.
“The number of sects competing this time is much greater than in the previous years.” The Yu Family’s patriarch, Yu Haiheng, commented with a frown as he looked at the huge throng below.
“Of course. I have heard that in recent years, quite a number of new sects have been formed.” The Yi Jia Family’s patriarch, Yi Feng, patted the tenth-stage demon beast lying next to him. He said with a chuckle, “Fortunately, this Yin Skycity is big enough. Even if double the number of people came, it would be no problem. The Yin Family really lives up to its reputation of superior wealth. But why is there no sign of the Yin patriarch?”
Yi Feng had looked around and realized that the Yin patriarch, their host, was nowhere to be found.
“Perhaps he has left to attend to matters of the competition. He must have his hands full, what with so many sects taking part this time.” Frowning even more, Yu Haiheng swept a disdainful glance at the other sects below. He was confident that they stood no chance against his sect. “Each competition is worse than the last. All kinds of downtrodden sects now dare to take part. The Yin Family were amiss in not putting in some form of restriction.”
Yi Feng laughed but did not respond. He had heard about the arrogance of the Yu Family Patriarch, that he never followed the rules of decorum in his speech.
However, Yu Haiheng took his silence for agreement. The expression in his eyes grew increasingly contemptuous. Having suddenly spotted something, he snorted coldly. “Look over there, there are actually people who bring mortals to the viewing platform. What do they think this place is? Any kind of people…”
Bang!…
But before he could complete his sentence, the Xuan Yuan Family Patriarch, Xuan Yuanyu, who had been silently sitting beside him all the while suddenly felt his legs go weak. He slipped from his chair and landed on the ground.
Everyone got a shock.
“Brother Xuan Yuan? What happened to you…” How could a Soul Formation expert fall from a flat surface?
Yi Feng was a little bewildered, but Xuan Yuanyu completely ignored him. He got up immediately and sprinted towards the mortal that Yu Haiheng had been pointing to. Even the Xuan Yuan Family’s Traveling Immortals who had been standing next to Xuan Yuan followed behind immediately. They dashed off with such urgency that it seemed like they were rushing to be reincarnated.
“Great… Immortal, you… what brings you here?” It was not until he had walked up to Shen Ying that Xuan Yuanyu dared to believe his eyes. By the Gods, it was not an illusion. It was really her! All of a sudden, he felt his phantom balls hurting.
“Greetings, Great Immortal!” With great trepidation, Traveling Immortal Xuan Yuanyong also rushed forward to greet Shen Ying.
Surprised at the sudden appearance of these two people, Shen Ying instinctively raised a hand in greeting.
“Oh, good morning. You…” Pausing in mid-speech, she asked, “Who are you?”
The two of them: “…”
“He is the Traveling Immortal from the Xuan Yuan Family that we visited the other time,” Lonemoon explained, his mouth twitching as he pointed to Xuan Yuanyong. He then turned to look at the man next to Xuan Yuanyong. “And you must be the patriarch of the Xuan Yuan Family?”
“Oh…” Suddenly recalling them, Shen Ying exclaimed, “That vegetable family who tried to snatch the radish.”
The two men: “…” What vegetable family? You might as well not have explained to her!
“There were many misunderstandings between us the other time. We are most grateful to Great Immortal for being merciful to us.” Xuan Yuanyu smiled a friendly smile. “May I enquire as to the matter which has brought Great Immortal here?”
“The competition.”
“Competition?” You? Who the hell can beat you?
“We have already formed a sect called the Invincible Sect. We have brought our disciples here to participate in the competition,” Lonemoon explained.
Xuan Yuanyu nodded and quickly turned to lead the way. “In that case, since the competition is about to start, would Great Immortal please sit with us to watch the competition?”
Lonemoon exchanged a look with Yi Qing, and after looking at the packed viewing stands, he replied, “Thank you for your trouble.”
“It’s my duty. Come this way, Great Immortal!”
And so, both the Yu and the Yi Families saw the Xuan Yuan Family Patriarch respectfully leading that mortal, whom Yu Haiheng had been so contemptuous of, to her seat. She sat down on the chair Xuan Yuanyu had sat on earlier without showing any signs of awkwardness, the two Soul Formation cultivators standing at her side. Even Xuan Yuanyu and Xuan Yuanyong stood at attention next to her, showing no intention of sitting down beside her.
The Yu Family Patriarch was shocked, looking at the two men as if they were mad. Had the Xuan Yuan Family gone crazy? But it was none of his business after all, and it would not do for him to ask them about it, so he just snorted coldly and turned his head away.
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