"Wine Master Jiu, I prepared this area for your group. What do you think about this spot?" Emperor Elyk smiled as glanced at Jiu Shen.
Jiu Shen stared calmly at the emperor and replied. "Thanks."
Emperor Elyk felt slightly uncomfortable by his casual reply, but he did not take this to heart. He merely smiled wryly at Jiu Shen as he said. "You're welcome, Wine Master Jiu. Anyway, I shall not stay here any longer since the competition is about to start. Good luck to your disciples!"
Jiu Shen nodded his head calmly at the emperor. Emperor Elyk took his silence as a signal for him to leave.
The emperor was not offended by Jiu Shen's attitude. He knew that the man was just like that and he could not blame him for this. He also wanted to ask Jiu Shen about the identity of Long Meili, but it seemed like Jiu Shen did not want to speak about it, so he tactfully chose to stay silent as he walked away with his group. However, the emperor was still curious about this as he thought to himself. 'I wonder who that young lady is… Also, that little girl in his arms… Could it be that they are truly Wine Master Jiu's wife and daughter? But… I do not think he is the sort of person who would have a family of his own. In that case, just who are they to him?'
Long Meili sat beside Jiu Shen unceremoniously, while Lu Sulan sat on his other side.
Lu Sulan stared at the purple-haired beauty who was sitting beside her master. This was not the first time she had seen this young lady, but she was still clueless about her identity. Her master did not tell them anything about her and he merely said that she was her subordinate.
Lu Sulan was knowledgeable about the top experts of the Profound Dragon Continent, but she could not recall anyone that looked like Long Meili.
Long Meili could sense the gaze that was directed at her, but she chose to ignore it. She was disinclined to care about anyone else's thoughts. All she cared about was Jiu Shen and nothing else mattered to her.
Jiu Shen was unaware of what everyone was thinking since his attention was focused on the young disciples participating in today's competition. He was confident about Yang Zenke and the others, but he was curious to know if there would be anyone that could give them a hard fight.
In his opinion, the only ones that could make Yang Zenke and the others use all of their skills are the disciples of the three great noble families, but upon closer inspection, he was able to discover a few talented youths that weren't part of the three great noble families. Some of them were even commoners. This discovery made him slightly interested in the battles later.
'Looks like Yang Zenke would have a hard time getting the first place, but all ten of them should have no problem in getting into the top fifty. Yang Zenke and Han Sen should be able to get into the top ten if there are no mishaps.' Jiu Shen thought to himself.
The pairing for the fights was chosen randomly by the organizers and no one objected to this arrangement since this was how the annual competitions were done back then. Of course, the organizers were part of the Silveria Imperial Family, and no one dared to question their impartialness.
While the organizers were pairing the participants, an elder from the Silveria Imperial Family hovered in the air using a flying carpet. It was a flying treasure, but its quality wasn't that high compared to Liuli's flying boat.
"Everyone! Welcome to the Annual Martial Arts Contest of our Silver Wing Empire's young elites! Today, the best of our empire's younger generation would battle it out to find out who among them are the best of the best! The..." The elder continued his speech with an excited tone that managed to garner everyone's attention. The crowd was infected by the elder's excitement and they all cheered in unison, making the entire venue erupt into sonorous and joyous exclamations.
Not long later, the more than tens of thousands of the participants were separated into one hundred groups since there were one hundred battle platforms prepared for this event.
The elder standing on top of the flying carpet announced in a loud voice. "Alright! There are exactly one hundred battle platforms and each of which has at least two hundred participants. Now, I would like all the participants to go to their respective battle platforms to prepare for the first part of the competition!"
Everyone held their breaths. They knew what would happen in the first part of this contest.
The participants that were grouped in the same battle platforms would fight a battle royale until only 128 people are left standing. The remaining ones will then proceed to the next part of the next contest.
Yang Zenke and the others stood up and bowed at Jiu Shen before they went towards their assigned battle platforms. They were excited and nervous about this since this was the first martial arts competition that they had participated in. However, they silently told themselves to not disappoint Jiu Shen.
Luckily, all ten of them were separated into different groups, so there would be no way that they would fight in the first round.
It took more than twenty minutes before the participants were able to go to their respective battle platforms, but everyone waited patiently.
The elder on top of the flying carpet cleared his throat and said. "I assume all the participants already know about the first part of the competition, but for the sake of those who don't know, I will explain it again. Look at the people around you, all of them are your opponents. All of you will fight a battle royale and only the last 128 participants standing would be able to proceed to the next round. Let me remind you guys. No one is allowed to kill! No one is allowed to cripple anyone's cultivation! And no one is allowed to use poisons and berserk pills!"
The elder paused for a moment before he continued.
"There are elite imperial guards spectating each battle platform, and whoever is seen breaking the rules, they would immediately be disqualified and they will also be punished accordingly, so I hope that no one would be stupid enough to break the rules. I will give every one of you ten minutes to prepare. After the ten minutes is up, the battle royale would begin!"
The elder pressed something in his sleeves and a pale blue light flashed through the skies, letting everyone see a gigantic timer.
The crowd spectating the event erupted into loud cheering after the elder's announcement. They were also looking at the participants with excited expressions.
"Do you think that Liu Mengdi would survive this battle royale? I mean, he's only an early stage 3rd-rank Crusader. In his battle platform, he would be fighting against an early stage 4th-rank Knight Crusader from the Xue Family. I don't think Liu Mengdi could even last one strike from that guy."
"Who knows? Maybe a miracle would happen and he would come out as the winner. Hahaha!"