311 Leader

"What is the matter, Yi Yun?" Seeing Yi Yun stop for a while, Chu Xiaoran asked.

"No matter, it's just that some people are focusing on me." Yi Yun said without much thought to it.

"Focusing on you is understandable. The people from the Yun Long Divine Kingdom probably know about your performance at last year's rookie ranking competition."

The main opponent of the Tai Ah Divine City was the Yun Long Kingdom’s 72 Pagodas. As for the Southern 10 countries, they were mainly facing off against the other smaller factions.

Yi Yun and Chu Xiaoran walked to their seats and sat down. All the relevant Tai Ah Divine City's cultivators were gathered together, filling four large tables.

And Elder Cang Yan was sitting amongst them.

Yi Yun glanced at the people around the tables and he noticed Wen Yu, Qiuniu, Yang Qian and Yao Dao...

There were also Yi Yun's rivals, Li Hong, Yang Dingkun and Yang Haoran.

Yang Haoran may have lost an arm, but his strength was still ranked near the top of the the Tai Ah Divine City’s cultivators, so he was naturally selected.

But Yi Yun did not see Luo Huo'er...

"Oh? Luo Huo'er did not come?" From Yi Yun's point of view, with Luo Huo'er's absolute talent in the Desolate Heaven technique, her strength should not be too bad.

"Luo Huo'er said that she lacks talent in fighting, so she would not embarrass herself for the Tai Ah Divine City." Someone in the know said by the side.

Yi Yun was shocked when he heard this. Were these words that a girl like Luo Huo'er would say?

Yi Yun did not have time to think too carefully about it before Cang Yan started speaking at that moment, "Everyone listen up. I will be mentioning the rules of the big battle ahead."

"All the people fighting in our battle with the Yun Long Divine Kingdom will be split into eight groups. There will be four groups for those below the age of fifteen, and another four groups for those above the age of fifteen. A leader will be chosen for each group, while the remaining group members are forerunners."

"Each group's leader will hold on to two seats. Once the leader is defeated, the seats will be taken! Therefore, the leader's position is of utmost importance. As for the forerunners… their main role is to protect the leader. They are to take on challenges for the leader or used to probe the opponents' strength."

"Everyone can only fail once. Once defeated, they will not be able to fight again."

"Besides defeating the opponent’s leader and obtaining the seats, if you obtain first place in the under-fifteen groups, above-fifteen groups, and the overall group by defeating all opponents, then we will obtain additional seats!" Cang Yan finishing explaining the rules in a few words. Everyone could tell that only the leader could easily make meritorious contributions.

The others, although called "forerunners" euphemistically, they were, in actual fact, cannon fodder or stones used to scout ahead.

"First, I will announce the people who are leaders!" Cang Yan took out a scroll while the young elites present held their breaths.

The matches ahead meant a lot to them. It was far greater importance than challenging the Heaven or Earth rolls of honor.

"For the under-fifteen groups, the leaders are, Chu Xiaoran! Qiuniu! Yi Yun! And Li Hong!"

Cang Yan paused briefly after mentioning each name. When Yi Yun's name was mentioned, Yang Haoran clenched his fist. That kid was made a leader!

Although he hated Yi Yun, he knew that Yi Yun becoming a leader was a reasonable decision.

Amongst the four leaders, Li Hong was the weakest. But they really had no one else to choose from. They could not get Wen Yu or Lu Jie to be leaders.

Li Hong was after all, the best person amongst the Tai Ah Divine City's third year cultivators.

"Next will the above-fifteen groups' leaders, Yao Dao! Hua Yue! Fang Hai! And Yang Haoran!"

When Cang Yan announced the four leaders' names, everyone was shocked. What was going on?

Yang Qian's strength was just slightly inferior to Yao Dao and he was outstanding in the Earth roll of honor. It was surprising that he was not made a leader.

What was the reason behind Hua Yue, Fang Hai and Yang Haoran?

"I'm a leader, haha, I'm also a leader!" Yang Haoran was ecstatic. He felt that if he had not lost his arm, it would have been no problem becoming a leader. But after he lost an arm, it was impossible to become a leader.

Now, Cang Yan had chosen Yang Haoran to be a leader, allowing him, who felt gloom in his life, to finally gain some spirit.

As everyone was still trying to understand the reasoning behind the leader selection, Cang Yan took out another bunch of scrolls, "The leaders have been decided. Now, I will announceeach group's forerunners..."

After Yang Haoran took his subordinate name list, he was dumbfounded.

There was no other reason. The people on his list were weaker than any of the other groups’!

They were practically people with average talent and they only managed to enter the top 30-40 of the Earth roll of honor with difficulty due to their age advantage.

These people were in other words, cannon fodder!

He, as a leader, was leading a group of cannon fodder?

Then wasn't he also cannon fodder?

After Yang Haoran looked at the other name lists, he realized that the strongest people amongst the Tai Ah Divine City’s above-fifteen cultivators such as Yang Qian were all in Yao Dao's group.

The other groups were all given cannon fodder. And even though they were considered cannon fodder, the cannon fodder given to him were the worst!

He suddenly realized that he had been given up.

The upper echelons of the Tai Ah Divine City had placed all their bets on Yao Dao's group. Yang Qian and company may not have obtained the position of leaders, but they were able to guarantee Yao Dao's group a victory.

As for the rest, due to the rules, they were only here to make up the numbers...

"Actually treating me like cannon fodder!"

Yang Haoran clenched his fist, as the veins on his forehead went taut. The hate for Yi Yun became stronger after receiving this name list. If it wasn’t for his missing arm, how could he have ended up as cannon fodder!?

He swallowed his anger because with Cang Yan here, he didn’t dare show it. He was only hoping that the two people he found the other day would be able to cripple Yi Yun or even kill him.

While at that moment, Yi Yun had also obtained the name list of his group. The four forerunners were all first year cultivators. Besides Wen Yu being not that bad, the rest were only there to make up the numbers.

Cang Yan had purposely placed the stronger people under the age of fifteen with Qiuniu and Chu Xiaoran, strengthening their group's strength.

As for Li Hong, his group's strength was also not that great, it was on par with Yi Yun's. Clearly, it was another of those groups that had been given up.

As for why the slight stronger ones were placed in Li Hong's group, it was probably due to the Tai Ah Divine City's upper echelons fear of the Yun Long Divine Kingdom using similar tactics. If they were all cannon fodder, then if their own cannon fodder was too weak, losing to the opponent's average weak cannon fodder would be a huge waste.

In general, the upper echelons of the Tai Ah Divine City were confident in the under-fifteen groups, so they hoped that they would win more seats this way.

As for the above-fifteen groups, they only wished for one group to win. As for the other groups, they were completely given up on them without a second thought.

Li Hong felt gloomy seeing the names he had. He looked at Yi Yun's name list and his subordinates were not that great either.

But Li Hong did not gain any satisfaction from that. He had guessed the intentions of the Tai Ah Divine City's upper echelons. They probably trusted Yi Yun, so they sent weaker forerunners to Yi Yun, hoping that Yi Yun could turn the tide just by himself.

Li Hong gritted his teeth. "Those old fools sure look down on people! To treat us as cannon fodder and let Yi Yun be the hero. Heh! It's not so easy to be a hero!"

Li Hong looked at the Yun Long Divine Kingdom's side.

There, the snake youth was discussing something with people and looked to be talking jovially.

Seeing the calm snake youth, Li Hong insidiously laughed twice. "The Tai Ah Divine City's arrangements suit my wishes. Now my plan will be even easier to be carried out. Yi Yun, just you wait..."

After the groups were formed, the birthday banquet began.

The Tai Ah Divine City's City Lord was dressed in a blue shirt and he was seated beside the Seven Star Pagoda Owner in the seats of honor. He looked with a smile at the youths from the various factions.

The Seven Star Pagoda Owner was already informed of the Tai Ah Divine City's grouping methods and laughed, saying,"City Lord Yang sure has a strong nerve. You can still smile so naturally even at that moment."

"Same to you." The Tai Ah Divine City's City Lord responded.

"It seems City Lord Yang has gathered all the experts in one group. This method sure is clever."

The Seven Star Pagoda Owner's words sounded like praise, but it was clearly mocking the City Lord.

This tactic was not considered honorable.

The City Lord faintly smiled as if he never heard the Seven Star Pagoda Owner's mockery, and simply went with the flow by saying, "Thank you for your compliments. Everything is for victory, so there has to be some strategy in the assignment of troops."

"Unfortunately, against absolute power, any strategy is useless." The Seven Star Pagoda Owner's smile turned cold. "You will see my Yun Long 72 Pagodas' disciples sweeping the arena."

"Oh? Then I look forward to that!"

...

The atmosphere in the arena was all set for a showdown. The birthday banquet only had some symbolic dishes. Not many people actually used their chopsticks as all their thoughts were on the alliance competition.

Yi Yun took his group's four people to sit on the participant's benches.

The Yun Long Divine Kingdom's people were sitting next to them.

At that moment, a youth whose body was filled with tattoos and had a snake wrapped around him walked towards Yi Yun.

"Yi Yun, right!? You are the leader, and so am I. This will be fun. I will be taking the 2 seats you have!"

Both sides could freely challenge each other in the match. The decision to accept the match was decided by the leaders from both sides.

If there was no agreement, then the opponents would be decided by drawing lots.

Yi Yun had already expected that the snake youth would challenge him, as for who to fight, he did not care.

Since someone had challenged him, he accepted it.

"Oh? Then let's see if you have the ability to take it over!"

When Yi Yun said this, Wen Yu, who was behind him, jumped up. Her expression looked bitter. You sure accepted the challenge too easily!

"That...Senior Yi, do you know who that is?"

As they were to fight in an alliance battle, people like Wen Yu had long did their preparatory work. They had sought information on their opponents.

This tattooed youth was nicknamed Viper. He was ruthless and very strong.

He had just reached the age of fifteen and his cultivation level had broken through to the Yuan Foundation realm. He was one of the toughest guys under the age of fifteen from the Yun Long Divine Kingdom.

Wen Yu did not want to fight a sinister-like person like him as she felt that in front of him, she was like a mouse in front of a venomous snake. But her leader had agreed immediately to Viper's challenge.

This made Wen Yu sad enough that she couldn’t shed tears.