Chapter 69 - The Preliminary Round of the Competition (1/2)
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Shen Ying’s group arrived at the competition venue just in time. When they entered, the cultivators from the different sects had already congregated there. At a glance it could be seen that there were perhaps about a thousand people there.
Whether by coincidence or not, they did not know, but the disciples of the Venation Sect had arrived one step ahead of them. It just so happened that the cultivators in this sect were also all female. There being fewer female cultivators compared to male cultivators participating in this competition, the addition of nine more from the Invincible Sect to this small pool caused the sudden influx of female cultivators to be particularly conspicuous.
They had initially not been bothered by the attention they attracted until the chattering among the crowd grew louder and louder, and an increasing number of eyes were focused on the nine girls accompanied by more and more pointing fingers.
“Take a look. Those people there have such ruined faces, yet they dare to come out?”
“Yeah, they are all so ugly! I have never seen such ugly cultivators! Could they be Fiendish Cultivators?”
“Yet despite that they chose to stand next to the Venation Sect who are renowned for producing female disciples with angelic beauty.”
“That’s right, which sect that takes in such hideous characters are they from?”
“…”
The commotion in the surrounding grew louder and louder. The nine girls bowed their heads, ashamed and annoyed, subconsciously covering the scars on their faces. Their previous high morale had vanished completely.
Lonemoon’s expression darkened immediately. Yu Hong and her fellow disciples’ Foundation Establishment had been damaged. Although there were spirit herbs growing all around the Invincible Sect, herbs alone could not heal the girls completely, so remnants of old injuries still lingered in their bodies. While these lingering injuries had not posed any great impact to their practice, their scarred faces showed no signs of improvements.
Being Soul Formation cultivators, both Lonemoon and Yi Qing had long lost their attachments to their physical forms. Moreover, there was a chance to reshape the body during Neonate Formation, so few high-level cultivators valued their appearance. Therefore, Lonemoon had never turned his mind to solving this problem and he had also become so used to the girls’ appearances that he had not thought there was anything wrong with how they looked.
But who would have expected that, because of such a trivial matter, they would be looked down upon by some low-level disciples at their first competition debut. He felt angry but could not think of a way to shut everyone up. All he could do was to unleash the suppressive aura of his Soul Formation cultivation as a warning to the people around them, and console the girls by saying, “Concentrate on the competition. Don’t be bothered by other matters.”
“Yes…” The girls nodded, but they showed no signs of lightening up.
Lonemoon sighed, then seeing that the competition was about to start, he said, “We can’t stay here for too long. Don’t worry though. We’ll be watching you guys from outside, so do your best.”
Having said that, Lonemoon motioned for Yi Qing and Shen Ying to leave. However, he had only walked a couple of steps when Shen Ying, who was in front, came to a halt. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
Shen Ying did not reply, but merely turned around suddenly and walked back to face the nine girls. “Regarding what I said yesterday… I made a mistake.”
Surprised, the nine girls raised their heads to look at her.
“In any case, our Invincible Sect has no friends, so don’t bother about what I said about placing friendship first.” The expression in her eyes turned cold and emphasizing every word, she said, “So… don’t give me face. Just thrash them all!”
“…”
“You bunch are definitely no fairies, but you could be nightmares of all these people!”
A moment later…
“Yes! Sect Master!” *9
The girls felt indomitable, their hearts burning with fighting spirit!
Yi Qing: “…” What Master says makes so much sense!
Lonemoon: “…” Yuck, a brain-damaged fan!
——————
Inter-sect competitions were grand events that attracted huge crowds in the Upper Azure World, but the entire competition actually only needed three days to finish. Today was the preliminary rounds which mainly served to select the top 50 in each cultivation divisions. The rules were also simple: each division would be divided into teams of 100 people and those who made it through this round would automatically qualify for the next round.
This being the first day, the various sects who had brought their contingents would all come to watch the proceedings. A towering floating platform was packed with the experts from the different sects. Atop the highest level were the people from the four aristocratic families. The top three contestants of each round were usually from these families, but as their reputations were at stake, the patriarchs from each of these families were all present and the members of their entourage were also all Traveling Immortals.