Shen Yin Wang Zuo
chapter-109

Today was the day of drawing lots for the final stage of the competition. The 60 competitors would be divided into six groups through lots, and a round-robin tournament was going to take place within these six groups.

In other words, within each group, each competitor will undergo nine matches. This way, not only would the possibility of winning by chance decrease, but it would also enable these youths to further increase their combat experience. Then, the best two of each group and four of the six people who ended up third, the ones with the better performances, would enter the top 16, and would participate in a knock-out competition.

This final stage was going to be even longer, but one had to firmly remember that, unlike the preliminaries where there were almost no rewards, during the final stage, there were three spiritual stoves as rewards! To anyone, regardless of his vocation, the meaning of a spiritual stove was great!

During the qualifiers, because matches took place among members of the same temple, the matches would be rather peaceful, but during this final stage, the competitors would try to get rid of their opponent by all means. To fight over these three spiritual stoves, they wouldn’t show the slightest bit of restriction.

The Alliance’s office palace had a dozen of staff members checking each and every competitor’s identities.

During the final stage of the competition, the competitors’ teachers were not authorized to look after them anymore. The Demon Hunt Squads were a secret with a very high status within the Alliance. As such, they were kept strictly confidential, even if it was involving new recruits.

The report time only lasted half an hour, and if it was missed, the opportunity to participate in the finals was lost. The Alliance was extremely strict in regard to time, because if a powerhouse didn’t even have the notion of punctuality, he would be quite likely to make big blunders in his future.

“Haha, we are going to participate the final stage. I’m really full of expectations!” A candid laugh erupted loudly. Two people were headed to the office palace, a male and a female.

The female was wearing a red armor, and was quite tall. Her lovable body was completely covered by her armor, making her look extremely valiant and formidable. Her red hair was loosened at the back of her head and she didn’t wear a helmet. Her face was a quite moving scene to behold: her gracious appearance was quite impressive, and made the degree of cultivation of her internal spiritual energy seemingly come out.

But the youth beside her stuck out even more. Compared to this female, the youth looked slightly shorter, with black hair draping over the back of his head. His limpid golden eyes were faintly shaped like a revolving halo. His handsome and refined appearance was even more impressive than the girl by his side. His pupils looked gentle and ordinary, and from beginning to end, his face was brimming with a faint smile. No matter how one looked at him, they would only see a harmless little cute boy.

Once they arrived at the door of the office palace, these two youths immediately met the staff. In order not to waste the fighting strength of the Six Great Temples, these external officers in service were ordinary people that were hired and didn’t belong to any of the six great vocations.

“Did you two come to participate in the final stage? Show me the number plate you have been given at the beginning of the competition.” This young staff had a respectful attitude toward them. It was because he knew that if they could enter the final stage of the Demon Hunt Selection, within the youngest generation of youths of the Alliance, they would have an excellent future.

This boy and this girl’s number plates were quickly examined and quickly, the staff people had successfully registered them.

“Knight Temple, Long Hao Chen, Li Xin. Please come with me, both of you.”

This boy and this girl were precisely Long Hao Chen and Li Xin, brother and sister who came together.

Suddenly, at this very moment, a pleasantly surprised voice sounded from their back, “Wait! Wait! Wait for me!” With a friendly voice, a clumsy-looking man rushed to their side.

Long Hao Chen and Li Xin turned around, suddenly seeing a familiar handsome face. Deep green hair was draped over his shoulder and swayed past it. With a single movement, he would definitely make people mistake his gender.

Wearing a white mage gown, he still had the same outstanding appearance, and looked even more overjoyed than Long Hao Chen.

“Lin Xin?” Long Hao Chen gave him an astonished look.

Lin Xin laughed and said, “Apparently, my choice to bet on you was the right one! Your luck is really correct, I didn’t expect both of you to really manage to get past the preliminaries. Wah, Sis Li Xin, you are even more beautiful than before, this light armor really does give you a vigorous appearance. Hey, if you seize a place in the top three, how about choosing me? I’ll be supplying you pills.”

Li Xin fell in laughter, and answered, “Do you really believe it is possible for me to seize a place in the top three? Hurry up to report your presence, and let’s enter together.”

Towards Lin Xin, Long Hao Chen immediately had a good impression as soon as he saw him. If not for his encounter with him, he wouldn’t have found the orb that seemed so important to Hao Yue. In addition, the pills that Lin Xin gave him were really outstanding, for what they cost him. Without the bottle of Spiritual Gathering Pills, Long Hao Chen couldn’t have broken through the fifth step so quickly.

Upon hearing Li Xin’s words, Lin Xin hurried to nod in approval, and took out his number plate before handing it to the staff member. These staff members clearly become astonished upon discovering his plate number, giving him an even more respectful look than the one they gave to Long Hao Chen and Li Xin.

“Mage Temple, Lin Xin. You three, please come with me.”

The three youths entered with the staff members, and Long Hao Chen said with a pleased expression, “Brother Lin is indeed powerful, your qualifiers must have gone without a hitch haven’t they?”

Lin Xin proudly answered, “It was okay. Luckily, I ended up as the first competitor in the ranking of these qualifiers.”

First of the qualifiers? Long Hao Chen and Li Xin looked at each other in dismay, completely astonished. They had experienced the qualifiers, so they naturally knew how intense they were. The number of people competing within the Mage Temple weren’t as numerous as in the Knight Temple, but the viciousness of their competition wasn’t a joke.

Lin Xin unexpectedly obtained the first place of these qualifiers. How strong could he be? At least, he was also at the fifth step. It looked like Teacher’s guess wasn’t wrong. What an amazing person!

Long Hao Chen gave him a bewildered look, and said, unconvinced, “Since Brother Lin is so strong, I’m afraid that in the finals, you will be more likely than me to enter the top three.”

Lin Xin shook his head, replying, “Not sure, not sure. The final stage is different from the qualifiers; actually, luck will be quite important.” Hearing Long Hao Chen’s words, he gave a reply that wasn’t completely foolish. If the final stage was like the qualifiers, and he could end up easily entering the top three, wouldn’t he be able to choose the most powerful partner available for his squad? Choosing a partner by himself was of course the most preferable choice possible.

As they were discussing, they had already arrived inside the Alliance’s office palace. Before a wide arched door, serving staff were standing, making a welcoming motion.

Once the door was opened, they saw that there were two warriors included inside, in a wide hall.

This hall was circular-shaped, a 1.65 meter high terrace stood above, with countless chairs arranged circularly. It seemed that roughly 500 people could be accommodated at the same time.

An enormous crystal-clear chandelier hung down from the roof, illuminating the whole hall.

Lin Xin said in a low voice, “This is the little official business hall of the Alliance’s office palace. Today, it should be here that we’ll draw lots.”

Li Xin gave him an unconvinced look, and spoke back, “Are you familiar with this place?”

Lin Xin chuckled, “I have come a few times in the past.”

Long Hao Chen and Li Xin exchanged a glance, finding this friend Lin even more mysterious than before.

At the same time, within the official business hall, several other people arrived. Long Hao Chen unconsciously looked around, and quickly, he came to see Yang Wenzhao. Similarly, Yang Wenzhao also saw him.

Compared to when the qualifiers took place, Yang Wenzhao’s face was a lot paler, and as soon as he saw Long Hao Chen, his complexion changed completely as he displayed a look clearly filled with hostility.

Eh? What’s up with him? His complexion didn’t look very good! Long Hao Chen was secretly thinking this, and moreover, the fighting spirit in him rose consequently; if he had the opportunity to have Yang Wenzhao as his opponent once again, he would definitely challenge him another time. With the experience of the previous combat, Long Hao Chen knew where he was lacking. Teacher was right, why did I just fight him head-on? Can it be that I am just too lacking in terms of technique?

Quickly, he saw another familiar person. Not far ahead, a huge bald head was sparkling because of the crystal clear lighting that shone upon it. Wasn’t it that Sima Xian?

So he also made it past the qualifiers! Recalling his grotesque fighting style, Long Hao Chen couldn’t help but reveal a smile. It was a priest that couldn’t heal!

“Du, du, du.” Hearing a familiar sound behind him, Long Hao Chen had a conditioned reflex and turned around.

It wasn’t only him; but in the whole official business hall, there were at least ten pair of eyes that simultaneously turned around. And the overwhelming majority were people from the Assassin Temple. They wore a black veil that covered their faces, but their -word for expression of eyes- couldn’t conceal their reverent looks.

Yang Wenzhao simultaneously heard this sound that made everyone who recognized it look sluggish. It was her, it was her, IT WAS HER!

Yang Wenzhao didn’t know why the Knight Temple left this matter unpunished; he himself didn’t go to request his grandfather’s help. This loss was a shame for him, so he wanted to get back at her with his own capabilities. Only, as soon as he saw Cai’er again in this place, his heart became incomparably shaken.

The fact she could appear here implied that she was also a participant of the Demon Hunt Selection. As such, her age was definitely below 25 years old.

Recalling their battle of the other day, Yang Wenzhao couldn’t help but sweat; the wounds on his body were already completely healed, but he felt as if his wounds suddenly started to ache. Cai’er’s tyrannical attack had left an unerasable mark in the depth of his mind.

At this very moment, he saw Long Hao Chen’s reaction upon seeing this blind girl using a blue-colored bamboo staff.

“Cai’er, you really came!” Long Hao Chen took quick steps forward. Having not seen her for several days, upon hearing this familiar noise coming from the bamboo cane, he could only feel as if something had been set free in his heart. Almost without a single hesitation, he suddenly took her hand.

The blue bamboo cane hitting the ground, Cai’er looked back slightly, before avoiding Long Hao Chen’s hand and with an extremely shy voice, she sensitively said in his ear, “You know, there are many people here.”

Long Hao Chen felt somewhat awkward as he shook his head, “Sorry, I… Shall we start by sitting on the side?” As he spoke, he didn’t take Cai’er’s hand this time, but still grabbed her blue bamboo cane and walked with her forward to find a place to sit in this direction.

Yang Wenzhao looked at their direction. His heart was completely filled with grief and indignation, naturally directed toward this stinking little brat. What an absurd calamity!

The assassins from the Assassin Temple didn’t think the same way as him though; their eyes filled with grotesque looks were staring at him. It seemed that he was a knight! What kind of relationship did he have with big sister #1? Despite the fact that Cai’er was only ranked 10th at the qualifiers, all the assassins that went through this trial were filled with something akin to worship towards her!