Chapter 61: Draw, Challenge Board, and Rules (1)

Zemin Yan watched with curious eyes, the Celestial City as described being a cluster of large islands that formed a star and floated high above the clouds. After the Dark Ages, this Heavenly City disappeared without a trace, perhaps afraid of the leaders of the great sects!

Gradually more and more cultivators of all ages approached the center of the square, all wore robes of some first or second-tier sect, some were wandering cultivators and others were just scholars and historians, who were to record the progress of cultivation of that year. 

Yes, since the Age of Sects was a time of relative peace, except for the great sect war that took place many years ago, there are not as many conflicts between humans as in the old days, nor were the Devils as active as in the past, so the Studies on the growth of martial cultivators have been developed in all nations. It can also be considered the "BUM" of objects for martial cultivation, with great development in medicine and alchemy, as well as in the construction and formation of defense and energy concentration of heaven and earth. 

"Well, now everyone be silent !!" Lan Ruan's voice sounded across the square, his power shook everyone, so there was no noise. 

"Hong Yu, you talk with them," said Lan Ruan throwing attention to handsome Hong Yu, yes, he was too lazy to speak. Zhong Liang almost rolled his eyes at this martial elder brother, he was always like that, when it came to things that had nothing to do with women and the martial Dao, this elder brother would be lazy to the core!

It was a miracle that he had fulfilled his social duty to greet and talk pleasantly to these representatives of the Qin Empire and the families of Nam Yang City!

"From that moment, the Heavenly Sword Sect thanks you all for attending this little training event." Hong Yu began to speak gently, giving warmth to everyone's heart. 

Of course, the one responsible for warning about the tournament was the Hu Family, as the tournament would be held on their floating island, but the Huang Family and the Bai Trader Family also helped spread the word, so within a few hours Nam Yang City, which was already full of powerful cultivators competing in the selection of the Great Heavenly Sword Sect, those who failed rushed to this location and those who were not required to participate in the selection also rushed to the floating island.

Everyone knew this would be a golden chance to go to this special training of the junior disciples of this great sect, who knows if they couldn't get an entry pass if they won or took second place?

"I won't prolong it much, I will just explain a little about what this training is. It will be a duel of forces between your volunteer cultivators and our junior disciples. Something very similar there is a tournament. There are 16 participating junior disciples, each of whom is responsible for a tournament key and each key opens a different chest containing different prizes. Twenty volunteer cultivators will be chosen to fight one of the junior disciples and so on. Everyone will be sorted according to their cultivation levels and then there will be a draw, "said Hong Yu slowly, hoping that everyone will absorb the information. 

"What are the prizes?" A 16-year-old asked after raising his hand and Hong Yu asked him to speak.

"It will depend on the opponent who will be drawn to you. It depends on the rank the junior disciple has within the sect. If it is someone who is ranked second because he has an outer sect token on the chest and the winner can immediately be accepted as an external disciple of my great Heavenly Sword sect, "said Hong Yu looking at all the guests cultivators, seeing the eyes gleam brightly joy and greed, some, surprisingly, they didn't feel excited about it. 

"What is being ranked second?" Asked Ping Yan-Tao, who was one of the new disciples who was part of group 5 of the new disciples. He has medium black hair tied in a firm bun, phoenix eyes and dark brown eyes, barely distinguishing the pupil from the iris. His complexion was quite pale which signaled that he was a son of an aristocrat, he is 16 years old, being tall and thin, with a well-marked face, which was attractive to women.

He was one of the people who mocked Shou Zuo after the sect was selected when everyone was entering the new disciples' tent many days ago. On his hip he carried a short, thin sword that was more curved than normal, this was a light-style sword that was designed to be quick and with a clean cut. 

"The disciples will be divided into layers according to the sect's previous tests and observations made throughout the trip. This added assessment will define which layer you will be on. It will be six layers, so it will be three disciples per layer, "said Hong Yu watching the new disciples. Some disciples had their faces full of surprises, others had a look full of pride and others looked just excited, some were between nervous and indifferent. 

"And the disciples who were not on the trip, how will they be judged?" Asked Bai Lin after Hong Yu finished the explanation. Hong Yu frowned a little when looking at Bai Lin, he did not like the other person's black skin or exotic features, inside he felt a little disgusted. However, quickly he returned to normal expression, people did not even notice his rapid change of expression.

Of course, there were people like Zhong Liang, Lan Ruan, Lin Mei-Lan, and Bai Lin himself, who noticed Hong Yu's sudden change of expression, but they said nothing to criticize Hong Yu's rude attitude.

Zhong Liang and Lan Ruan had a simple thought that as long as the other party does not verbalize or attack Bai Lin they should not intrude, after all, it was not good for anyone if there was a lot of protection during this kind of situation, especially for cultivators martial arts. They had to build resilience in a variety of situations, often cultivators had to endure much harder judgments and against even more angry and stronger people than themselves.

Often tolerating was a life-saving feature!