113 Chapter 1271: Caged Battle Royale (1/2)
”Caged battle royale?”
Hearing the theme of the secondary selection, the candidates widened their eyes in astonishment.
They had heard of caged battle royale before, and they understood the significance behind it as well.
In ancient times, when the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe was still the dominant power in the Master Teacher Continent, they would often conduct caged battle royales to entertain themselves.
To put it in simple terms, caged battle royale consisted of placing a group of men in the same cage and leaving them to fight it out amongst themselves. The last one standing would be spared, and the rest would become sacrifices for his survival. It was an extremely brutal event, testing of a human's true nature.
For their own survival, there were those who would even lay their hands on their kin or even their own children… Such practice had been considered to be vile by mankind, spurned by the Master Teacher Pavilion, so why would the Sanctum of Sages use it in their secondary selections?
”Don't worry, the caged battle royale won't be a slaughter but an elimination match!” Noticing that everyone's expression was growing unnatural, Zhao Xingmo waved his hand and explained, ”We'll be placing you in an isolated island, and within three days, you must find and eliminate thirteen amongst you in order to clear the examination. Of course, the method of elimination will not be killing the individual but breaking his allocated jade token. If we were to find that you have willfully killed any one of the candidates, your candidacy will be stripped immediately!”
”Breaking allocated jade tokens?”
”This will be difficult…”
Grave expressions appeared on the faces around.
They were all top-notch geniuses, and while there was some disparity in their strength, each of them wielded exceptional life preservation and escape means. If it was just a normal battle royale, they would still be able to eliminate other candidates through springing surprise assaults and swiftly incapacitating their enemy. However, if they had to break the jade token without endangering the other party's life, the difficulty would be hiked up significantly!
”Of course, you aren't the only ones on the isolated island too. There will be saint beasts, traps prepared in advance, and treacherous terrains… While trying to eliminate others, you will have to try your best to protect yourself as well!”
A glint flashed across Zhao Xingmo's eyes before he continued, ”Just a warning in advance, if you think that you can just hide at one corner and wait for others to be eliminated, let me make this clear right now. You will be forcefully eliminated by me as well. The Sanctum of Sages needs no cowards and escapees! Also, if you all were to fail to eliminate thirteen people within three days, everyone shall lose their candidacy!”
”This…”
”In other words, we have to eliminate others or else we won't be able to get into the Sanctum of Sages even if we were to last till the end?”
”This is too difficult!”
”Well, if it's that easy to enroll into the number one academy of the Master Teacher Continent, it would surely be overflowing with freshmen each year!”
…
After a moment of commotion, everyone fell silent.
While the rules of the caged battle royale may seem simple, it was actually far more demanding than being literally placed into a cage.
It wasn't just a simple battle royale anymore. It was demanding on one's overall capabilities, be it planning, analyzing the situation, tracking, danger sensing, and much more.
As expected of the selection of the Sanctum of Sages, its difficulty was indeed at a different level.
”These are your jade tokens, they represent each of your identities. You can choose to carry it with you, hide it, or anything else. The only condition is that the jade token must remain on the island. As long as your jade token isn't shattered, that would mean that you aren't eliminated yet!” Zhao Xingmo said as he flicked his wrist, and more than thirty jade tokens flew toward the crowd.
”The jade tokens can be hidden as well?”
”In other words… even if we were to successfully capture others, as long as we can't find the other party's jade token, there's nothing we can do at all?”
”As long as we can't find the jade token, there's nothing we can do to eliminate a candidate… But how in the world are we supposed to find a jade token that can be hidden anywhere on an isolated island?”
…
The crowd was stunned once more. They could hardly believe what they were hearing.
If the rules enforced that the jade token must remain on one's body, after defeating an opponent, they would at least be able to search the other party's body and destroy his jade token. On the other hand, if the hiding of jade tokens were to be permitted as well, even if they were to successfully track down and subdue an opponent, there would be nothing they could do to eliminate him if he didn't have his jade token on him!
In the first place, eliminating an opponent through jade tokens had already hiked up the difficulty considerably. Now that the hiding of jade tokens was allowed as well, the difficulty would be increased to at least tenfold of before.
This is also a test of one's state of mind! In contrast to the shocked faces around him, a gleam flashed across Zhang Xuan's eyes.
Perhaps it was because he wasn't as pressured to enter the Sanctum of Sages as compared to the others, from a bystander's point of view, he was able to see through the crux of the rules in an instant.
Zhao Xingmo had intentionally said that they could hide the jade token, but to be honest, where else could be safer than with keeping it with oneself?
To hide one's jade token was as good as leaving one's fate to luck, gambling on whether the others would be able to find his jade token or not. If a person couldn't even trust himself enough to guard his jade token himself, it was likely that he was lacking in certain necessary traits that a leader of mankind should have.
Most likely, such an action would result in a huge penalty of some kind.
But of course, he wouldn't go so far as to remind the others of this matter. Stretching his hand forward, he grabbed the jade token flying toward him lightly.
It was a specially forged black jade. Carved on the back of the jade token was his name whereas the front was inscribed with a peculiar kind of pattern. The pattern seemed to grant the jade token a communication function that would allow Zhao Xingmo to determine whether a candidate had been eliminated or not.
”Zhao shi, if someone were to utilize artifacts beyond our prowess in the secondary selection, wouldn't we stand no chance at all?” a genius from Qianchong Empire, Ma Minghai, asked.
Hearing those words, everyone's sights swiftly turned to Zhang Xuan.
Yesterday, that fellow threw out more than a hundred puppets and pummeled the Half-Grand Dominion realm Pavilion Master Yue with ease. If those puppets were to be used against them, they wouldn't stand a chance at all.
”In the caged battle royale, out of concerns over fairness, no candidate is to use any weapon or artifact to execute any actions that would directly or indirectly lead to the elimination of a candidate. Anyone who flouts this rule will be eliminated without exception!” Zhao Xingmo declared.
”That's good…”
The crowd heaved a sigh of relief.