Chapter 209 - 209: Second Stage

"Father said that he is willing to give you that pill if you agree to join our sect. You should know that every Earth Grade pill is miraculous… especially the Meridian strengthening pill. It will be rare to find even in the Empires. It can strengthen your meridians and increase your cultivation speed. So what do you say?" The woman said with a seductive smile on her face.

"Wait! You don't have to be in a hurry to choose, little friend." Another voice interrupted Long Chen's thoughts as another man walked towards him.

He looked at the guy, only to find a yellow-robed man. The man looked slightly older than Yu Tianhao.

"My last name is Ray... You can call me senior brother Ray. I'm the Elder in charge of the Mission Hall in the Floating Cloud Sect. I wish to invite Junior brother Shen to our sect. You will be the head disciple of our Sect and will get all the resources that you desire. Furthermore, our Sect Master has said that he will fulfill your every wish as long as it's not too overboard. Also, he is willing to give you our sect's treasured 'Blood Swallowing Saber'. The weapon is said to be as strong as an Earth Grade artifact." The man said with a pleasant smile as he gazed at Long Chen.

"Hoh... Do you need treasures or real strength, little friend? Cause our Earthly Mountain Sect can provide you with both. What's with the 'Almost as strong as the Earth Grade' saber that the floating Cloud Sect is offering you? We will give you a real Earth Grade Sword!"A loud voice came that attracted Long Chen's attention again. He recognized the 4th person as someone from Earthly Mountain Sect from his robes and words.

"That's not all! You will be allowed to cultivate our Earth Grade Body Cultivation Technique. If you cultivate your body using our body cultivation technique, I'm 200 percent sure that your strength will double at the least." That person continued.

Long Chen was starting to get annoyed at being interrupted again and again. Just as he was about to speak, another person came running.

"Let me guess... You are someone from the Striking Sword Sect and you are here to invite me to join your sect?" Long Chen let out before the 5th person could even speak anything.

"Ahh....yes! I'm Mu Qing. I'm the Core Elder of the Striking Sword Sect. I'm here to invite you to our Striking Sword Sect." The girl responded.

"Yea I guessed as much. And what offer did you come up with?" Long Chen asked casually.

"Our Sect Master wants to take you as his Personal Disciple! You will have the highest status in the sect and will be allowed to use any resources and skills that you may need. Furthermore, Our Sect Master wants to give you his Spirit Cutting Sword as a gift if you choose to join the Sect." The Elder of the Striking Sword Sect continued. 

As soon as words escaped her mouth, a loud commotion started in the entire place.

"What? Spirit Cutting Sword? Isn't that his personal weapon?"

"Yea... The weapon that is considered the strongest Weapon in the Xuan Kingdom"

"He must really want that kid to join! For him to give up on his cherished sword! I never could have thought that it was possible!" 

Even the Elders present in the place kept talking as shock was clearly visible on their faces.

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"That's not fair!" Sect Master of the West Warriors sect let out as he gazed at the Sect Master of Striking Sword Sect.

"You can offer your weapons as well. Too bad that there can only be one strongest offensive weapon in the kingdom." Sect Master of the Striking Sword Sect smirked as he gazed at the sword in his hand.

"It's still not over! It all depends on him now." Sect Master of Glorious Blossom Sect responded in a casual manner though on the inside, he was worrying.

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"Although I'm sure that you would join the strongest sect, I'll still ask again. Which Sect do you wish to join, little friend?" Yu Tianhao said with a bright smile.

The other participants couldn't help but gaze at Long Chen with jealousy, while the elders looked hopeful that it will be their sect that he decides to join

"I... I wish to join no sect as of now. Right now, I only want to go through the trials to test myself. I will take the decision on it later." Long Chen said in a carefree manner as if he wasn't worried about anything.

"Ah..." Yu Tianhao looked at him with a blank look on his face.

"You can still go through the trial if you wish to have fun. If you join our sect, we can take care of that." Yu Tianhao recovered as he continued trying to get Long Chen to join their sect.

"We can do that too!" The other 4 representatives said at the same time.

"I said what I had to..." Long Chen said with an annoyed tone as he ignored them and left using the gap in between them.

"Where is the next part of the exam?" He showed the guard his badge and asked.

"Ah...ah..." the guard stuttered as he looked at Yu Tianhao.

"If he wishes to take part in further trials, then respect his wishes. We can wait for his decision at the end of the exam. Take him to the "Formation Trial Hall" for the next section of the trials.

"Yes Elder!" The guard said as he personally escorted Long Chen. Although Long Chen wished to gaze at Long Xue Ying once before leaving, he didn't look back in order to not make anyone suspicious.

Although Long Chen left, everyone was still awed and shocked by his performance.

The registration continued and the remaining people in the line got tested. Unsurprisingly, after Long Chen, no Grade 7 appeared again.

There was one more grade 6 talent that appeared during the Sect Entrance Exam. She was a blue-haired girl. She was called Yue Fei. After a short while, people managed to find out that she was from a 2nd rank kingdom, the kingdom of Shui.

In total, there were 1724 grade two talents, 470 grade 3 talents, 102 grade four talents,19 grade five talents,2 grade six talents and 1 grade seven talent that was selected for the next stage of the selection.

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All the selected participants stood at a large hall. The hall was so big that it could easily accommodate all the participants. There were 50 doors on the front wall of the large hall. All the doors looked the same and there were no signs on them to differentiate between them.

"This hall is known as the Formation Trial Hall. As you all might guess by its name, this place utilizes formations. More importantly Illusion Formations. Our sect's disciples use this place to train their battle skills and test themselves against other disciples."

"As you know, Talent is important, but strength is just as important! If you don't have the strength to defend yourself, you will die and your talent won't be able to help you! Thus the second part of the exam is to test your strength!" 

"All of you will enter the doors and go through the Illusions. In the Illusions, you will face strong beasts. First, you will face a beast in the same cultivation realm as you! Next, you will face ten beasts with the same cultivation as you."

"After that, a beast with one minor cultivation stage higher than you, then 10 such beasts...then a beast with 2 Cultivation stages higher than you, then 10 such beasts and so on until you are killed in the Illusions. You will be pushed out of that illusion as soon as that happens."

"Your participation badge will record how many beasts you killed in that illusion and you will gain points accordingly. A beast at the same cultivation realm will give you 1 point. A beast at one stage higher will give you 5 points.2 stages higher will give you 10 points. A 3 stage higher beast will give you 15 points and so on!"

"Only the top 500 people in this test will move on to the next trial." The Elder in charge of the second stage explained to everyone.

"Does that mean the registration at the entrance and talents play no importance here?" 

"It looks like that..."

A chatter started as people with lower talent regained their excitement.

"Amazing! I can definitely leave him behind now! Although my Cultivation isn't higher than him, my battle strength is definitely the best amongst everyone here! I'll definitely take the first spot and shock everyone." Prince Lu finally smiled as he gazed towards the masked boy in the crowd.

"Oh right! I forgot to mention one thing. Some of you received special badges during the registration process! Those badges are useful to you in this round!" 

"Those who received a silver one-star badge will start with an additional 10 points. Those with a gold 2-star badge will start with an additional 30 points."

"Those with a platinum moon badge will have an additional 100 points at the start." The Elder further continued causing an even bigger commotion. He couldn't help but glance at Long Chen as he said it.

'So he's 70 points ahead of me! I'll still leave him behind and show everyone that I'm the best!' Prince Lu thought with a serious look on his face.