100 The start of the grand competition. (2/2)

The reason behind this wasn't actually to ensure that the disciples of the clans found the best resources, it was to ensure that the disciples of the clans didn't immediately kill all the competitors who didn't come from a large clan or sect. Seeing that Li Yang didn't show any reaction to his warnings, Huo Guanting started explaining about the format of the competition.

”The competition will follow a very standard format and is technically split into three parts. During the first part of the competition, you must kill Demonic beasts and beat other cultivators to gather points, the points will be automatically counted by the token you received, so take good care of it. After about a year or two, the competition will enter the second part, the center of the hidden realm opening itself. Everyone who has gathered more than a certain number of points must defend their tokens and make their way to the city located at the center of the hidden realm to enter the third part of the competition. If you lose your token or are defeated and lose your points during this second part, you are of course barred from entering the third part. The third part is just as simple as the others, it is a more straight forward series of duels which will be used to decide the exact rankings. All in all, the competition usually takes between two to four years to finish, so don't forget to properly cultivate while in the hidden realm.”

The duels that took place in the third part of the competition usually took just as long to complete as the first part of the competition, as the competitors were given at least a weeks break between each fight, more if they were wounded. They wanted to get an accurate ranking, so they made sure that each competitor was in peak condition before each fight.

Li Yang nodded his head to show that he understood how the competition would take place, Huo Guanting responding with a nod of his own before leaving. He was only in charge of explaining the competition and preparing the lodgings for people like Li Yang, anything after that was no longer his business.

After Huo Guanting left, Li Yang locked himself up in the house he had been provided, taking out all the resources he had bought as well as all the corpses he currently had on him. He only had 13 days left, in these 13 days he would focus fully on his cultivation and do his best to increase his strength as much as possible.

The days continued to move onward without pause, the 13 days passing in what felt like a blink of an eye. Li Yang halted his cultivation and left the house, heading to the center of the city, which was already packed with people. Some of the people had only arrived to check out the people taking part in the competition, but most of the people present were there to take part in the competition.

Li Yang's cultivation had actually improved greatly over these last eight months. His Qi cultivation had reached the middle stage of the Ascending Heaven realm, only a short step away from the late stage. After being baptized with countless Blood Seals, his soul had become corporeal and could even leave his body, meaning that he had reached the Heaven Reaching Soul realm and acquired the soul equivalent of Qi, Vital Essence. Mixing this Vital Essence with the ice element granted to him by Jinwu made it incredibly easy for him to kill people who didn't defend their souls.

His body cultivation had also improved greatly, entering the Heart Rune realm thanks to the large amount of Monarch Runes he had fused into his body. Thanks to this, his body had started creating Dark Star Essence, the body cultivation of Qi. He now had Qi, Vital Essence, and Dark Star Essence at his disposal, his Qi was devastating, his soul was strong, and his body was incredibly tough, he was perfectly well-rounded. All he had to do now was come up with a defensive technique using his law of ice, and then he could be considered truly perfect in all aspects of combat.

His cultivation had improved greatly over the last eight months, his strength increasing by quite a bit. But even so, his cultivation was on the lower end among all the people gathered here, most of them having already entered the Immortal Rebirth realm. But Li Yang was nothing if not confident. He would meet up with Fang Ying again and the two of them would utterly dominate this competition. He would walk side by side with Fang Ying to the top, and he would crush anyone who tried to stand in their path.

The orange-robed elder from the Huo clan arrived at the center of the city and drew up an array on the ground, using it to draw in all the Qi in the surrounding. He then used this Qi to open a new entrance to the hidden realm, a pure white crack appearing in space and sucking in the surrounding Qi at a ferocious pace.

The Huo clan elder waved his hand, signaling that the competitors were to enter the crack. The sea of people waiting in the city swarmed into the crack, each of them sent into a random part of the outer edge of the hidden realm. Li Yang stepped forward at a more leisurely pace, his eyes closed as muttered to himself.

”Just like I said, Ying'er. Through life and death, through time and space, I will chase after you.”

With his eyes closed, he felt like he could already hear the familiar song that she played on her zither and smell the sweet fragrance that he had grown so fond of. So long had passed, but now they would finally meet again.