The Trial Spirit had announced, "You have 1 hour to get to know each other before the trial starts…"
"For this trial, it is called the Hungry Games. You will be divided into one of the five teams on an island. The goal is to reach the center of the island and to score points. The top 6 champions with the highest points will naturally be crowned the winning champions…"
"All of you will be given a trial token and the aim is to collect as many of the trial tokens as possible…"
"You will be allowed to slaughter each other from outside your team, earning 3 points. If you kill your own team mate, you will lose 3 points instead…"
"Taking your opponent token will give you 1 Point while losing your own token will cost you 3 Point. Taking your own team token will gain you 0 points…"
"In order to touch the emperor stone in the center of the island, you must have at least 19 points… after that you will be taken to a safe area. No more points can be earned until the 5 days trial duration is over…"
"Also, there are 9 shadow cultivators called the Destroyers on the island too. If they kill you then all the tokens that you are holding will be lost. But if you manage to kill 1 of them, 5 points will be given to you…"
"For this trial, you have 5 days to hunt one another down."
"The 1 hour time grace starts now…"
With that, the arena was quiet again.
Ji Yuan, Zhi Jiugong and the Lovely Empress Lu Jiangsu had turned to the rest of the 8 champions and everyone began to slowly walk to the center.
There were two champions that Ji Yuan had actually recognized and they were Wang Gongzi and Wu Henan.
Wang Gongzi was in his team from the last trial and Wu Henan was from his city-state arena.
"Great Spiritas Hero Ji Yuan, we are in the same team." Wu Henan smiled at him.
Wang Gongzi had raised his hands to bow at Ji Yuan too, "We have met again."
Quite a few of the cultivators were also greeting one another as they were acquainted previously in the last four trials.
Other than Zhi Jiugong and the Lovely Empress Lu Jiangsu, all the other champions were all males and they were all from the Celestial Realm.
And many of the eyes were looking at the Lovely Empress Lu Jiangsu as they were captivated silly by her enchanting lovely smiles.
A cultivator looked at the Lovely Empress and said politely, "Maiden Jiangsu, we have met again…"
But the Lovely Empress flashed her small canines instead and looked away indifferently.
Ji Yuan was frowning; this cultivator was greening him in front of him!
"May I know your name, cultivator brother?"
The same cultivator frowned when he saw Ji Yuan, "I am Great Saint Ai Jueluo. What is your cultivation realm, Great Spiritas Hero Ji Yuan."
Ji Yuan was just too renowned that everyone seems to know that he was the Great Spiritas Hero Ji Yuan and there was simply no need for him to introduce himself.
However, few cultivators know of his cultivation realm and that was why this Great Saint Ai Jueluo was asking him this question.
Ji Yuan casually said, "Great Saint Ji Yuan. I think the majority of you are great saints as well, right? Or it will be hard for you to reach the fifth trial."
The other 3 cultivators that Ji Yuan did not know were nodding.
They promptly introduced themselves as Great Saint Bai Qinghe, Great Saint Song Qingshu and Great Saint Qin Gang.
The other two cultivators were both middle-tier saints and they introduced themselves as Saint Wu Yifan, Saint He Tiandong.
Everyone quickly introduced themselves as they only had one hour to form a team and to select a leader.
Although it was not necessary to select a leader but it was better than becoming a headless team that was like loose sands.
Moreover, they would be fighting against 4 other powerful teams too.
Ai Jueluo quickly volunteered himself as the team leader as he wanted to impress the Lovely Empress, "I may not be as strong as some of you but I can be an impartial leader."
He had purposely given praise to the others for being stronger than he was before pointing out his own merits.
By now saying that he was the strongest cultivator, he was able to avoid a direct confrontation with some of the more aggressive cultivators.
Ji Yuan who was feeling green by his own team because most of the champions were mercilessly staring at the Lovely Empress and Zhi Jiugong who were too revealing in their attires, said. "This won't do. If you want to become a leader then you have to tell us what's your plans are first."I think you should take a look at
Ai Jueluo smirked coldly, "My plan is simple. Stay as a team. Kill the opposing cultivators and take their tokens to maximum our points. Kill any shadow cultivators if we spotted them. Isn't it simple enough or you don't understand the objective of this trial?"
Ji Yuan frowned, "Why do we need to kill the other cultivators when we can take their tokens?"
Ai Jueluo angrily said, "Are you dumb or you did not pay any attention to the Trial Spirit? Killing a cultivator gets you 3 Points while a token only gets you 1 Points. In total we can get 4 Points. If you spare a cultivator, we will lose 3 Points. That's a lot and we need 19 Points to touch the emperor stone in the middle of the island."
Ji Yuan frowned even more when he had heard him; there is no way for him to hunt down Shui Xisi or the Smiling Divine Maiden. They are his beloveds!
"I don't agree with your plan." Ji Yuan said unhappily, "I can hunt for 19 tokens instead or I can kill 4 of the shadow cultivators for my points."
Ai Jueluo laughed softly, "Great Saint Ji Yuan, you seem to have forgotten that there are only a limited number of tokens to be gained and only a limited number of shadow cultivators to be found on the island. The main objective is for us to kill each other. If we don't kill them, then are we waiting for the others to kill us instead?"
When he said that, Great Saint Bai Qinghe, Great Saint Song Qingshu and Saint Wu Yifan were actually nodding; indeed, they cannot allow themselves to be used as points. Only the others deserve to be their points instead.
Song Qingshu who agreed with Ai Jueluo said, "We have no other choice. While 19 points may be the qualifying number of points to enter the safe arena, it actually isn't the final score to be declared as the winning champion. So, we ought to score as many points as possible."
Ji Yuan said unpleasantly, "Have you ever consider that there is a flaw in the points setup?"
Everyone: ?
Ji Yuan explained, "What if someone from the same team were to slaughter everyone and then give their tokens to an enemy member?"
Ai Jueluo laughed coldly, "This is quite unlikely. Why should anyone do that for? Unless…"
He started to look at Ji Yuan up and down, "Unless you are thinking of doing precisely that silly thing?"
Ji Yuan weakly said, "Of course not. But there is a possibility, right?"
Great Saint Bai Qinghe interrupted, "We don't have time to debate all the possibilities. We've only 1 hour to form our team or to split our team. Why don't we vote for our team leader instead?"
Then he smiled at Ai Jueluo, "I vote for Great Saint Ai Jueluo to lead our team."
Much to Ji Yuan's surprise, Ai Jueluo actually got 7 votes.
Only Zhi Jiugong, the Lovely Empress and Wang Gongzi did not cast a vote.
The reason why Wang Gongzi did not cast a vote was because he actually had more faith in Ji Yuan than this Ai Jueluo.
As for Zhi Jiugong and the Lovely Empress, they were actually uninterested in making their votes, especially when they noticed that this Ai Jueluo was targeting Ji Yuan.
Ai Jueluo laughed jovially, "It seems that the majority has voted for me. So enough of your crap already, Great Saint Ji Yuan."
Ji Yuan grinned as he stepped back, "I am forming my own team and away from this team. So who wants to follow me?"
Many of the cultivators were mocking Ji Yuan when they had heard him.
But all of a sudden Zhi Jiugong and the Lovely Empress were smiling as they had suddenly walked behind Ji Yuan!
"We will be following you, Ji Yuan." Zhi Jiugong displayed a faint smile as she looked gently at Ji Yuan.
"That's right," the Lovely Empress chuckled softly and she too, was looking lovingly at Ji Yuan. "We sort of like the no kill plan of Great Saint Ji Yuan."
Ji Yuan laughed aloud, "So that's settled it. Our team shall be split into 2 instead. 3 here and 8 on your side. Haha…"
When he had said that, there were ugly looks on Ai Jueluo and many of the cultivators; it was not because Ji Yuan had formed his own team but because the two beautiful maidens had both joined him instead!
Wang Gongzi was looking a little confused. While he did not vote for Ai Jueluo but he had not thought of joining Ji Yuan because it was safer to remain in a bigger team.
So he did not expect that Ji Yuan would actually have the two beautiful maidens joining him.
He could only silently say: Sorry, Brother Ji Yuan. I don't wish to die by joining you. You are foolish to leave the team and so are the two foolish maidens…
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Author Note:
1. I'd really appreciate it if the readers can contribute power stones to this story as a show of support even if you are reading from other websites. Your spirit stones are crucial for motivations and releases. Also, it means alot me/ story, Many love and thanks! ლ(⌒▽⌒ლ)