On the summit of Red Plum Ridge, various cultivators from all around had gathered.
On the martial arts stage, the representative of the host, the Wandering Palace, sat at the highest seat, and at their side were Celestial Heart True Persons from the six major sects.
The overseer was an elder of the Wandering Palace.
This man sat upright at the front of the stage, and he spoke with a booming voice—a sign that he was using a voice transmission spell art. But his words were quite standard, going on about how this was a rare grand affair for the Wandering Palace, thanking all the sects for showing their respect and the numerous Immortals for attending. Cultivators became Immortals and prostitution became a grand occasion. The last bid made before the dancing girl had her virginity taken was also the last moment of glory she had on the stage.
After giving a long and reluctant speech, the elder finally returned to his seat. What came next was the dancing and singing.
It appeared that there had to be some song and dance before the official battle for the bride could begin.
The Rosecloud Domain was very advanced when it came to dancing, with the dancers easily being capable of moves that would have been unthinkable back in Tang Jie’s old world.
A group of fairies flew on a cloud and descended from the sky. As their long skirts unfolded, flowers filled the air. As they gaily danced around, heavenly songs emerged from their cherry lips.
This music bored straight into the marrow, and the fairy dancing was so dazzling to the eye that even Tang Jie was somewhat entranced.
Fortunately, after a momentary daze, he cleared his mind. He knew that this probably wasn’t a simple song and dance, but that there was probably some sort of bewitching spell art mixed in. It was no wonder that so many people were intoxicated by a mere performance.
As he looked around, he saw that most people were staring blankly at the dancing girls on the stage, and only a few people were unmoved. Tang Jie inspected them, marking down the faces of those who had managed to keep their senses. The people able to resist the dancers were all people with hardy wills. Regardless of their actual strength, they needed to be handled cautiously.
Of course, this didn’t include the Celestial Heart True Persons. Other people had to control their senses in order to resist temptation, focusing their minds to resist, but the True Persons were able to fully enjoy the music and dance, even converse with each other. The enchanting dance and bewitching music were nothing but a light breeze to them, so insignificant that they paid it no attention.
Tang Jie didn’t find this strange. Celestial Heart True Persons had been through the Heart Demon Tribulation, and anyone who could reach this step possessed a firm resolve and would not be distracted by a little illusion dance.
As he observed these people, he was observed in turn.
For the major figures on the stage, the conclusions obtained from these observations were perhaps even more valuable than the conclusions drawn from the official matches. As they sat on the stage, they looked around and observed the students with an objective eye, commenting as they would on the scenery.
“This kid’s pretty good, and he possesses impressive focus. The music does not enter his ears and the dancing does not affect his heart.”
“Focusing on resistance is ultimately the inferior choice. I think that kid is pretty good. He appeared to be entranced, but his eyes are actually clear and unmoved. This is an embodiment of ‘ten thousand flowers land upon the heart, but not even a petal remains’.”
“Tsk, what’s even the point in pretending? Oh? Look at that kid. He still has the mind to observe his surroundings.”
“To maintain one’s composure in the middle of a land of pleasure is not easy. To observe one’s surroundings amid decadent music, determining who is strong and weak, is truly impressive focus, a heart like a bright mirror. Who is this child?”
“His name is Tang Jie.”
“Tang Jie? This name is quite familiar.”
“The incident between the Basking Moon Sect and Godhead Palace two years ago…”
“I see…”
Once the song was over, the dancing and music stopped in unison. Most of the crowd only now broke free of the illusion, cold sweat forming on their foreheads. This was particularly true for the students who were official participants. They knew that they had been taken by the song and dance and lost control of themselves. If the little palace lord was around, then they had probably lost a point.
The Wandering Palace elder said, “The Mortal Blossom Dance of the Rainbow Butterfly Fairy is known throughout the world. My Wandering Palace is honored by your presence.”
The lead dancer on the stage bowed to the Wandering Palace elder before leading the other dancing girls into the air, where they vanished into the clouds.
Sure enough, they left in just as extraordinary a fashion as they had come.
Another few performances followed before it was finally time for the main event.
The Wandering Palace elder announced that the Immortal Fortune Conference’s martial arts tournament would officially begin, and he began to read the rules.
Liu Hongyan had been completely on the mark yesterday. Sure enough, the Wandering Palace had divided the tournament into two parts.
Firstly, the 120 students would pull lots, and then those with the same number would fight on stage.
Every person fought five matches, and the sixty with the most points would advance.
The tournament would go on for five days, and the matches would proceed from Number 1 to Number 20.
There would be a total of three hundred matches in this segment, and sixty matches every day. Each sect would have twenty matches per day, and every person would have one match per day.
The Wandering Palace had arranged for the five days of matches to proceed as follows:
Day 1: Godhead versus Thousand Passions; Basking Moon versus Horizon Ocean; Beast Refining versus Seven Absolutions.
Day 2: Godhead versus Seven Absolutions; Thousand Passions versus Basking Moon; Horizon Ocean versus Beast Refining.
Day 3: Godhead versus Beast Refining; Thousand Passions versus Horizon Ocean; Basking Moon versus Seven Absolutions.
Day 4: Godhead versus Basking Moon; Thousand Passions versus Beast Refining; Horizon Ocean versus Seven Absolutions.
Day 5: Godhead versus Horizon Ocean; Thousand Passions versus Seven Absolutions; Basking Moon versus Beast Refining.
In reality, this was a contest between the various major sects.
Once the match-ups had been announced, it was now time for all the competitors to draw lots. The results of the drawing were recorded directly on a Heart Mirror Stone and could not be traded.
Those with the same number would fight, which meant that so long as one did not get the same number as the various experts from the other sects, one still had a very high chance of going through into the next round. Not being able to trade numbers meant not being able to choose opponents, and the rest was left to luck and strength.
Tang Jie and Wei Tianchong came up together to pull lots. As they went up to the tube, Tang Jie waved his hand at Wei Tianchong. “You go first.”
“Tsk, what’s so good about going first?” Wei Tianchong pouted. He went up and grabbed a lot. “Number 12. Your turn.”
Tang Jie came up and pulled a lot. After looking at it, he smiled. “Number 18.”
They went back, and on the martial arts stage, six Heart Mirror Stones were already beginning to display the names and numbers of those who had pulled lots for all to see.
As expected of Great Brother Peng Yaolong, he had even managed to get Number 1. Qi Shaoming was Number 3, Cai Junyang was Number 6, Ye Tianshang was Number 9, and Long Dao was Number 15.
After checking the numbers of everyone he was familiar with, Tang Jie went to look at who in the other five sects had his number.
Horizon Ocean Pavilion’s Min Dong, the Thousand Passions Sect’s Yan Baibing, the Seven Absolutions Sect’s Luo Hong, Godhead Palace’s Wei Zifeng, and the Beast Refining Gate’s Jiang Qingsong.
In other words, these five would be his opponents for the next five days.
But none of the five was particularly famous. Wei Zifeng of Godhead Palace was probably the only one with some reputation, but he was far from being the most famous in the Godhead Palace group.
As everyone had had nothing else to do in all this time, had dined together, and even fought matches with each other, and considering that the six major sects all had spies and the True Persons all sought to get the palace for themselves, basically everyone had a set of information covering all 120 competitors.
Let alone the official participants, information had even been provided for people who weren’t participating.
For this reason, Tang Jie knew after seeing those five names that he had gotten the weak ones.
Even without having to add a qualifier like “barring any mishaps”, Tang Jie knew that he could use only one hand and still get into the next round.
As Tang Jie was growing satisfied with his own luck, Wei Tianchong shouted, “I have to fight that bastard Yun Wuji.”
Tang Jie looked over and saw that Godhead Palace’s Number 12 on the Heart Mirror Stone really was Yun Wuji.
Yun Wuji was one of the three talents that Godhead Palace had sent this time, and considering that he was also handsome, many people thought that he would get the first prize. Wei Tianchong was rather unfortunate to get him.
Tang Jie helped him look and found that the other four sect challengers weren’t particularly strong. It was just Jiang Bin from Horizon Ocean Pavilion who presented somewhat of a problem. But if Wei Tianchong used all his strength, he might be able to win. Thus, Tang Jie patted him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t panic. You still have a chance. At worst, you just lose against him and have to win against the others.”
“Mm.” Wei Tianchong could clearly tell that while he was extremely unlucky to get Yun Wuji, he wasn’t the unluckiest.
As for Cai Junyang, his face had gone completely glum.
Wei Tianchong and Tang Jie looked at Number 6.
Lan Yu of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, Li Zhiping of the Thousand Passions Sect, Liu Jin of the Seven Absolutions Sect, Feng Rudong of Godhead Palace, and Helian Hu of the Beast Refining Gate.
Tang Jie and Wei Tianchong were dumbfounded upon seeing these five names, and then they began to laugh.
They couldn’t help it. Cai Junyang had just been too unlucky.
Lan Yu was the current top-ranked student of Horizon Ocean Pavilion, top-ranked across the entire sect and not just among the male students of Horizon Ocean Pavilion. He was considered the best genius in the past nearly one hundred years of Horizon Ocean Pavilion and was at the Hundred Refinement Period of the Mortal Shedding Realm.
Helian Hu was also ranked first in the Beast Refining Gate, and he was also at Hundred Refinement.
Li Zhiping was ranked third among the students the Thousand Passions Sect had sent, and while he was only third, it was still a strength that could not be underestimated. He had recently entered Mortal Shedding.
Liu Jin was ranked fourth in the Seven Absolutions Sect students, and he had also recently entered Mortal Shedding.
Probably the only weak one was Godhead Palace’s Feng Rudong, who was at the Spirit Sea Tier.
Five opponents, two being ranked first, one ranked third, and one ranked fourth. It was a classic group of death.
Only a truly unfortunate soul could have ended up in this group, and Cai Junyang had basically no hope of getting out. How could Tang Jie and Wei Tianchong not laugh?
Cai Junyang’s face hardened as he asked, “Are you very happy that I can’t get into the next round?”
Tang Jie patted him on the shoulder. “Of course not, of course not. But there are only ten spots available for 120 students to fight for. Junyang, given your strength, do you think you have any hope?”
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Cai Junyang froze, and then he shook his head.
In terms of strength, all he had was that Divine Firmament secret art. This truly wasn’t enough to be considered one of the strongest ten among the six major sects.
“Then isn’t it fine? Since you can’t get in anyway, wouldn’t it be better for your pride if you lost to the likes of Lan Yu and Helian Hu?”
Cai Junyang found this rather reasonable, but just when he was about to nod, he realized that something was wrong and angrily said, “Why do you think my loss is guaranteed? Maybe Lan Yu doesn’t live up to his reputation and ends up being a silk pillowcase over a bundle of straw, and I send him flying with one wave of the 19 Star Sword.”
“A dreaming fool,” someone suddenly said.
Tang Jie and Cai Junyang turned their heads and found a short man, dark and thin, standing nearby and looking at them with disdain.
Cai Junyang furiously said, “What did you say just now?”
“I’m saying that you’re dreaming,” the short man said, refusing to back down. “Don’t you know that Lan Yu fought against a Mind Opening fiend two years ago? He had yet to reach Mortal Shedding then, being only at peak Spirit Sea, but he managed to kill two lower-grade Mind Opening fiends. Can you do that?”
Cai Junyang was startled. Given his strength, he could perhaps take on one lower-grade Mind Opening fiend, but two at once was certain defeat, and this was Lan Yu’s strength from two years ago.
Let alone Cai Junyang, even Tang Jie couldn’t help but inwardly frown.
Although he had killed the upper-grade fiend fox, he had never been one to underestimate the power of Mind Opening fiends. For instance, the black bull had only been at the lower grade, but if he had to fight two at once without any allies, he would have lost without any suspense.
If Lan Yu had fought against two lower-grades like the lynx, then it was nothing to brag about. If they had been on the level of the black bull, then he was simply terrifying. Of course, the fiends had probably been closer to the level of the red eagle and gray wolf.
But Tang Jie was more focused on the man in front of him.
For some reason, he found this person rather familiar, but he couldn’t say why.
The dark man sneered, “As for now, not too long ago, Lan Yu went to the Soulbreak Mountains. With his Hundred Refinement body, he fought against the Phantomsky Wolf and won. Could you do that?”
The Phantomsky Wolf?
Tang Jie was slightly shaken. This fiend was similar to the fiend fox, a fiend that wasn’t particularly skilled in battle. In other words, it was a weakling among those of its grade.
For this battle that was above his level, Lan Yu had chosen a weakling. From this, one could see that he wasn’t confident in his ability to beat a real Mind Opening fiend.
Of course, this Lan Yu was definitely stronger than him. After all, he had beaten the fiend fox with a gang and had even used the Devil Crushing Fist. The two simply weren’t on the same level.
These two questions left Cai Junyang speechless.
Feeling ashamed, he decided to drop the matter entirely. Pointing at the dark and thin man, he asked, “Who are you? What are you trying to do, coming over to the Basking Moon Sect’s side?”
But the man looked away and ignored him.
This somewhat feminine action left Tang Jie surprised, and he felt like he had seen it somewhere before.
He carefully examined that person’s throat and then the shape of the face. He finally realized something and faintly smiled.
He said, “What about you? How do you compare to your Senior Brother Lan?”
“Huh?” The man was clearly surprised, and instinctively stepped back, his flashing eyes glaring at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie laughed as he approached. “If you keep acting, I’ll spank you!”
He grabbed the little man’s wrist and pulled him into his embrace.
The man blushed and shrieked, “Stop that! Let me go!”
But Tang Jie didn’t let go, chuckling, “You came so early but you didn’t come to see me and even tried to trick me! You deserve punishment!”
Several Basking Moon Sect students were aghast at this scene of two men embracing each other, thinking to themselves, So this is how Tang Jie swings…
It was, in the end, Wei Tianchong who realized what was going on. Slapping his thigh and jumping, he said, “Xu Miaoran? You’re Xu Miaoran?”