98 Start Praying

Elder Holt chuckled. Without answering Elder J's question, he flicked his eyes quickly to the side. At that signal, the two young men behind Holt stepped up and bowed their necks.

"This disciple inconvenienced the Cedar Sect the other day. It is our hope that there will no bad blood between our sects."

Elder J blinked slowly. The Boulder Sect had inconvenienced the other day?

When?

Who?

What?

Why?

He had so many questions!

Despite this, Elder J decided to accept the apology. He did not know exactly what event triggered it, but the Boulder Sect was obviously offering them an olive branch. They were announcing a cooling of the animosity between the two sects.

[Can it be then…? If they are warming to us, it may mean that their allegiance to the Star-Cutting Sword Sect is weaker. This is a good thing for us.]

It was only natural that Elder J did not know of Van's heroic status within the sect. Not only was he a bit of an eccentric, he was also not popular among disciples. As the main vector for gossip were chatterbox disciples, sect gossip was simply unable to reach the elder's ears.

It was slightly different for Madam Sophia. As a lofty elder in the Sea Establishment realm, she spent most of her time training her direct disciples and less time concerned about the outside world. And although Van's antics were hot news in the outer and inner courts of the Cedar Sect and Boulder Sect, in the Zephyr Sect it was restricted to about a quarter of the outer disciples. After all, the Zephyr Sect was second to only the Star-Cutting Sword Sect in Dragon City. The quarrels of the two bottom feeders was less interesting than the top-secret news that not only had Yun Hai of the Star-Cutting Sword Sect recently broken through to the 8th level of Qi Distillation, he had also gained a unique insight from an Apex-level martial art.

Van was pleasantly surprised by this scene, but you could hardly tell from his face.

At that moment, Viggo and Rhogar made eye contact with Van. Slightly shamefully they nodded; a slight and furtive moment. Unless you were paying close attention, you would not have noticed.

But Madam Sophia did. She flicked her eyes over to the red-haired youth. With hooded eyes, she gave him a brief once-over but could not see what the fuss was about. He was slightly young to be in the 7th rank, but then her twins were in the peak of the 7th rank! There did not seem to be anything special about his constitution either. For a moment she entertained the thought that this youth was involved with incident that caused the Boulder Sect to come over and apologise – but she quickly dismissed it. It was far more likely that they were simply acknowledging an acquaintance.

______

[Five hours later.]

A dark spot appeared in the arena. Gloomy rays shot out from each of the five doors and coalesced into the spot at the centre. The shape of a ghostly mausoleum appeared, but the dark mists surrounding it made it hard to see what it looked like exactly.

A deep foreboding feeling settled into Van's gut. That building was a place of death.

"The doors are opening!"

A huge cheer emanated from the crowd sitting in the stands.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Mausoleum of Monsters will open soon! To those who have come to watch this thrilling spectacle for the first time, we would like to remind you of the rules:

Firstly, all sects or groups will compete in teams of 10, helmed by a battalion captain. As each battalion enters, they will be randomly allocated to one of five different areas of the mausoleum. It does not matter which gate you enter in! Which battlefield they enter, and which teams from the other sect they face are completely up to chance. Within this battlefield, each team's goal is to accumulate points for their sect by killing as many monsters as possible. A tip – use your surroundings to your advantage!

Though you may be tempted to eliminate your competitors early, you will need numbers to survive as the monster hordes are vast and never ending. If you eliminate your competition early, you may be able to monopolise the points from the early rounds but miss out on the monster's with higher point value in the later rounds!

Finally, the most important thing: Only ONE sect or group in each battlefield can claim the 'Last Standing' medallion! This medallion will multiply all points earned by that sect within that gate by 20 times! This is the goal every sect wishes to achieve!

There are fifteen waves of monsters, or fifteen rounds. No sect in historical record has survived past the ninth round! Will we see a change of history today? Will we!?"

The announcer incited the crowd, causing roaring cheers to emit from the stands.

"As per usual, the points a sect accumulates allows them to withdraw various treasures from the Monster Mausoleum when the battle ends. However, this year we have even higher stakes, as the points accumulated in the Monster Mausoleum are also going to be used to determine the number of inner disciples allowed into the Secret Realm at the end of the year!"

"Now make some noise, the gates are opening!"

The audience cheered and stomped their feet. The disciples standing in the pit felt tension build in their bellies. This was it.

For their pride!

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"Take your places!"

With a shudder, the runes on the fives gates lit up.

Teng! Teng! Teng!

The disciples of the various sects rushed in.

The crowd chattered excitedly as the mirages in the sky shimmered. They were preparing to transmit images from within the Mausoleum. As they waited for the images to appear, they gossiped excitedly with one another.

"Who are you rooting for?"

"The Star-Cutting Sword Sect, of course! Whichever battlefield Yun Hai is in will surely be dominated one-sidedly by them. Not only that, I believe he can break the record and make it to the 10th wave!"

"Yun Hai is way too cool!"

"What about the twin girls from the Zephyr Sect? Both the twins going up against Yun Hai - That would be a showdown worth seeing!"

"Hm, but with the random battlefield selection chances are that Cordelia and Daphne will be separated."

"True. The Star-Cutting Sword Sect is basically guaranteed at least one Last Standing Medallion."

"Their 2nd and 3rd ranked disciples are really fearsome too. In any other sect, they would be first-ranked!"

"Oh, you're talking about Tetsuya and Sinclair, right? Tetsuya specialises in illusions and misdirection… he scares the crap outta me…"

"Hah, I just pity for whoever else lands in the same battlefield as any of them…"

"Right? Not only will their sect lose the chance to gain the 'Last Standing' medallion, but those geniuses' prides will also be totally crushed too. Hahaha!"

"But what about the Boulder Sect and the Cedar Sect? Have they got anything up their sleeves?"

"Hm, the only one I would watch for is Wang Hao. Apart from Yun Hai, he's the only other disciple in the 8th level of Qi Distillation."

"Wow, the Cedar Sect might actually be able to win one battlefield then. That's surprising. With their reputation, I wouldn't have been surprised if they were totally suppressed in the Mausoleum-!"

"Hm, they just better hope that Wang Hao doesn't have to go up against Yun Hai. Otherwise, the Cedar Sect's only chance to gain a Last Standing Medallion is obliterated.

At that moment –

WENG WENG WENG

The mirages began flashing. The dark interior of the mausoleum could be seen. Within the gloom, several hundred disciples could be seen within each battlefield.

"Oh shit!"

The crowds went frantically discussed as they saw the battlefield configurations for the first time.

"Incredible!" The MC's booming voice exclaimed, "It seems like the Star-Cutting Sword Sect will experience overwhelming victory today!"

"If all goes to plan, they stand to walk out with at least three Last Standing Medallions, with the Zephyr Sect and Boulder Sect set up perfectly to gain one medallion each. Things are looking dire for the Cedar Sect. They better pray to the Gods above, although I don't think that will help. Ha-ha!"

Far down below, Elder J was looking up at the mirages with a strained expression his face.