Duan Ling Tian said to Murong Yin Yue, the Third Young Miss of the Murong clan, and said, “Third Miss, with Hou Qing Ning and your strength, it would’ve been difficult for both of you to pass the entrance examinations for the inner disciples three days ago. The reason both of you passed was due to me asking Dongfang Yan Nian, the White Dragon Elder, to go easy on both of you.”
Murong Yin Yue was stunned by Duan Ling Tian’s words.
Duan Ling Tian continued to say, “Hence, if you don’t want to rank at the bottom of the Latent Dragon Grand Contest, I suggest you borrow a prominent divine artifact from your father.”
When Murong Yin Yue returned to her senses, she replied, “Alright. I’ll borrow a prominent divine artifact from my father for Hou Qing Ning.”
“No. You should borrow it for yourself,” Duan Ling Tian said, feeling slightly speechless by Murong Yin Yue’s response. At the same time, he thought Hou Qing Ning was really blessed to have found someone who cared about him so much.
“However, he’d need a prominent divine artifact as well,” Murong Yin Yue said, “Although we might not be matched for a fight, there’s still a possibility that would happen. It’d be unfair for him if only I have a prominent divine artifact. There are a few high-ranking officials from the clan who came as well. My father’s not the only one with a prominent divine artifact; the elder next to him has a prominent divine artifact as well. It’s just that the elder has lent his prominent divine artifact to Brother Han Lin. I…”
Duan Ling Tian interjected, “Don’t worry about him. I’ve already lent him a prominent divine artifact. You should worry about yourself instead.”
“Then you…” Murong Yin Yue hesitated.
Duan Ling Tian naturally understood Murong Yin Yue’s concerns. He said with a smile, “Have you forgotten the rules of the Latent Dragon Grand Contest? They have a profile of everyone’s strength. They won’t pit strong participants against each other so early on. That’s to say, the first few opponents I face will be weaker than I am. I can easily defeat them without a prominent divine artifact.”
Realization dawned on Murong Yin Yue immediately. “I understand. I’ll borrow a prominent divine artifact from my father now. In fact, my father had said earlier that he would lend me his prominent divine artifact, but he warned me against lending it to Hou Qing Ning. He’s worried we would have to fight each other. He was only willing to lend it to me if I agreed to his condition.”
“Clan Leader Murong’s actions are understandable,” Duan Ling Tian said with a smile, “Just promised him that you won’t lend the prominent divine artifact to Hou Qing Ning now. If he doesn’t believe you, you can tell him that I’ve already lent Hou Qing Ning my prominent divine artifact. If he probes further, just tell him that Supreme Elder Huan lent me that prominent divine artifact.”
With that, Murong Yin Yue left to search for Murong Yun Liu, the Clan Leader of the Murong clan.
After a few minutes, Duan Ling Tian could feel Murong Yun Liu looking at him. To his surprise, Murong Yun Liu sent him a Voice Transmission to confirm that he had indeed lent Hou Qing Ning a prominent divine artifact.
Duan Ling Tian did not know how to react to this. Did Murong Yun Liu truly have such little trust in his daughter?
After receiving Duan Ling Tian’s confirmation, Murong Yun Liu finally handed his spatial ring to Murong Yin Yue after relinquishing his ownership of the spatial ring.
Subsequently, Duan Ling Tian asked Ding Yan through Voice Transmission, “Ding Yan, do you have a prominent divine artifact? You’ll have a greater advantage if you possess a prominent divine artifact during the Latent Dragon Grand Contest. If you don’t have one, I can lend one to you.”
“I do,” Ding Yan replied, “I just asked Hou Qing Ning needed a prominent divine artifact as well. If he didn’t have one, I’d borrow one from Uncle Sikong for him. However, he told me you’d already lent him one.”
After a moment, Ding Yan said worriedly, “Duan Ling Tian, it’s quite risky for you not to have a prominent divine artifact during the contest. Do you need me to borrow one for you?”
“There’s no need for that,” Duan Ling Tian said as he shook his head slightly, “I have one. Even if I don’t, there are three Supreme Elders from the Linghu clan who accompanied me here so I can borrow it from either one of them.”
“Very well,” Ding Yan replied.
At the same time, the battles in the ten battle rings were in full swing.
The twenty outer disciples fought with all their might. They were mostly advanced gods; only two of them were rudimentary Kings of Gods. As a result, the duo easily won their respective fights. As for the other eight fights between the advanced gods, it took some time before they finally ended.
As soon as there was a winner, two names would immediately appear above the battle rings. With that, the next two participants would enter the battle rings.
The audience watched the fights in excitement. However, it only lasted for a while before they grew bored. After all, the participants were only advanced gods so their strength was limited. Many of the spectators even felt they were watching children fight.
It was not until a young man dressed in dark gold robes defeated his opponent with a punch that everyone’s interest was piqued again.
Even Duan Ling Tian was slightly interested. The young man’s explosive punch reminded him of Hou Qing Ning’s performance during the inner disciples’ entrance examinations. He thought to himself, ‘I’m afraid this person isn’t any weaker than Hou Qing Ning.”
The golden-clad young man and his opponent were both rudimentary Kings of Gods. Since he could defeat his opponent who was also a rudimentary King of Gods with just a punch, it proved that he was stronger than the average rudimentary Kings of Gods.
At this time, the crowd began to discuss among themselves again.
“He’s the third disciple of the Sect Leader of the king-rank Heavenly Divine Sect. His name is Zhao Pei. He’s only slightly over 5,000 years old, but he’s already a rudimentary King of Gods. His comprehension skills aren’t bad as well. During the qualifying test, he only lost because his opponent was Ouyang Jian Chen, the Third Young Master of the lord-rank Ouyang clan.”
“That’s right! Zhao Pei was quite unlucky. If he did not meet Ouyang Jian Chen during the qualifying test, he might have passed the entrance examinations. He was seriously injured by Ouyang Jian Chen at that time. Although he consumed a Divine Pill at that time, it took a while for his injuries to heal.”
“I thought he would remain an outer disciple. Now it seems like he has a chance to redeemhimself during the Latent Dragon Grand Contest and become an inner disciple.”
Duan Ling Tian learned a lot from the conversations in his surroundings. Although he had watched the entrance examination, his attention was mostly focused on the Eastern Oriental Sect’s Hua Tian Du, the 10,000 Devils Sect’s Du Po Jun, and the 10,000 Flowers Valley’s Lady Seven. He did not pay much attention to Ouyang Jian Chen at that time.
“Zhao Pei is quite strong,” Hou Qing Ning said with a grave expression. Clearly, he was aware that Zhao Pei was not any weaker than him.
The matches kept going.
There were a few powerful outer disciples who had high chances of becoming inner disciples through the Latent Dragon Grand Contest. Most of them were unlucky and were seriously injured during the qualifying test, which in turn affected their performance during the entrance examinations. Now that they had recovered, they naturally performed better.
Time continued to fly by.
It did not take long before night fell.
At this time, Lan Yu Shan, a Black Dragon Elder of the Flying Dragon Sect, who was the moderator for the Latent Dragon Grand Contest announced that the contest would end now and continue tomorrow.
…
The Latent Dragon Grand Contest continued the next day until the evening before 100 participants were finally selected from the group of more than 800 outer disciples.
Most of the outer disciples who ranked at the bottom were aware of their strength so they were not too disappointed with the results. They knew they were no match for those who were ranked higher. Moreover, the matches were arranged in a rather fair manner.
The ten elders of the Flying Dragon Sect who were in charge of arranging the matches were intermediate Lords of Gods so it was easy for themto see through the participants’ strength. This naturally helped them to arrange the matches. Due to fairness, none of the participants questioned the results.
Before dismissing everyone for the day, Lan Yu Shan said, “The top 100 disciples will join the inner disciples for the next round of the Latent Dragon Grand Contest tomorrow. Over the next three days, we will determine the 100 strongest participants among the 400 participants.
…
The next day arrived in just a blink of an eye.
It was finally time for Duan Ling Tian and the other inner disciples who had been watching the Latent Dragon Grand Contest to fight.
Names after names appeared above the battle rings, but Duan Ling Tian’s name had yet to appear even after Hou Qing Ning had fought twice.
In fact, it was not just Duan Ling Tian. The names of the 10,000 Devils Sect’s Du Po Jun, the Eastern Oriental Sect’s Hua Tian Du, the 10,000 Flowers Valley’s Lady Seven, and the Ouyang clan’s Ouyang Jian Chen had yet to appear as well.
In short, the names of those who performed exceptionally well during the qualifying test and entrance examinationhad yet to appear.
‘Since they’re aware of our strength, it seems like they’ve arranged for us to fight toward the end,’ Duan Ling Tian thought to himself.
During this time, there were a few outstanding participants who had hidden their strength previously. Since they had hidden their strength, they were called out rather early.
For example, there was the Hanchu Sect’s Ji Wu Chang whose strength was on par with Hua Tian Du. Since he did not reveal his strength, he was arranged to fight in the earlier rounds. Once his strength was revealed, his name did not appear again.
‘It seems like it was a good thing that I didn’t hide my strength before this. At least, I can save my energy for my matches later,’ Duan Ling Tian thought to himself with a smile.
“Ding Yan, why aren’t you called to fight yet?” Hou Qing Ning asked.
Hou Qing Ning’s voice pulled Duan Ling Tian back to his senses immediately.
Indeed, Ding Yan’s name did not appear at all. The sun was about to set and the contest was about to come to an end today, but his name still had not appeared above a battle ring.
Hou Qing Ning frowned. “Did they forget about you?”