The Wine Shop of Eternity
Chapter 197 The Competition Begins
“Wine Master Jiu, I prepared this area for your group. What do you think of this place?” Emperor Elyk smiled as he glanced at Jiu Shen.
Jiu Shen looked at the emperor calmly and replied. “Thank you.”
Emperor Elyk felt a little uncomfortable with his casual answer, but he did not take this heart. He simply smiled wryly at Jiu Shen as he said. “Sama-sama, Jiu Wine Master. After all, I won't stay here much longer because the competition is about to start. Good luck to your students!”
Jiu Shen nodded his head calmly at the emperor. Emperor Elyk regarded 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 indeed like that and he could not blame him for this. He also wanted to ask Jiu Shen about Long Meili's identity, but it seemed that Jiu Shen did not want to talk about it, so he wisely chose to remain silent as he walked away with his group. However, the emperor was still curious about this as he thought to himself. ‘I want to know who the young lady is... Also, the little girl who is in her arms... Could it be that they are really the wife and daughter of Wine Master Jiu? I don't think he is the type of person who will have his own family. Then who are they for him?’
Long Meili sat beside Jiu Shen without further ado, while Lu Sulan sat by his other side.
Lu Sulan looked at the purple-haired beauty sitting beside his master. This was not the first time he had seen this young lady, but he still did not understand about her identity. His master did not tell them anything about him and he only said that he was his subordinate.
Lu Sulan had knowledge of the top experts of the Profound Dragon Continent, but he could not remember anyone who looked like Long Meili.
Long Meili could feel the gaze directed at her, but she chose to ignore it. He is reluctant to care about the thoughts of others. All he cared about was Jiu Shen and nothing else mattered to him.
Jiu Shen was unaware of what everyone was thinking because his attention was focused on the young disciples participating in the competition today. He was confident about Yang Zenke and the others, but he wanted to know if there would be anyone who could give them a hard fight.
In his opinion, the only one who could make Yang Zenke and the others use all of their skills was a disciple of the three great noble families, but upon closer inspection, he said, he was able to find some talented youths who were not part of it. The three great noble families. Some of them are even ordinary people. This discovery made him a little interested in the later battles.
‘It looks like Yang Zenke will have trouble getting first place, but ten of them should have no problem getting into the top fifty. Yang Zenke and Han Sen should be able to enter the top ten if there are no accidents.’ Jiu Shen thought to himself.
The pair for the fight was randomly chosen by the organizers and no one objected to this arrangement because that was how the annual competition was conducted back then. Of course, the organizers were part of the Silveria Imperial Family, and no one dared to question their impartiality.
While the organizers paired up the participants, an elder from the Silveria Imperial Family floated in the air using a flying carpet. It was a flying treasure, but its quality was not very high compared to the Liuli flying boat.
“Everything! Welcome to the Annual Martial Arts Contest of our young elite Silver Wing Kingdom! Today, the best young generation of our kingdom will fight to find out who among them is the best of the best!…” The elder continued his speech with an excited tone that managed to attract the attention of everyone. The crowd was infected by the older excitement and they all cheered in unison, making the entire place explode into a loud and joyous cry.
The elder standing on the flying carpet announced in a loud voice. “Alright! There were a hundred battle platforms and each of them had at least two hundred participants. Now, I want all participants to go to their respective battle platforms to prepare for the first part of the competition!”
Everyone hold their breath. They know what will happen in the first part of this contest.
The participants grouped in the same battle platform would fight in a battle royale until only 128 people remained. The remaining ones will then proceed to the next part of the next contest.
Yang Zenke and the others stood up and bowed to Jiu Shen before they went towards the assigned battle platform. They were happy and nervous about this as this was the first martial arts competition they entered. However, they secretly told themselves not to disappoint Jiu Shen.
Fortunately, the ten of them were separated into different groups, so it was impossible for them to fight in the first round.
It took over twenty minutes before the participants could go to their respective battle platforms, but everyone waited patiently.
The elder on the flying carpet cleared his throat and said. “I assume all participants already know about the first part of the competition, but for those who do not know yet, I will explain it again. Look at the people around you, they are all your opponents. You will be up against a battle royale and only the last 128 defending participants can move on to the next round. Let me remind you guys. No one is allowed to kill! No one was allowed to cripple anyone's cultivation! And no one is allowed to use poison and rampage pills!”
The elder paused for a moment before continuing.
“There are elite imperial guards who witnessed every fighting platform, and anyone who was seen breaking the rules, they will be immediately disqualified and they will also be punished, he said, so I hope no one is stupid enough to break the rules. I'll give each of you ten minutes to prepare. After ten minutes are up, the battle royale will start!”
The elder pressed down on something in his sleeve and a pale blue light flashed across the sky, letting everyone see the giant timer.
The crowd watching the event burst into loud cheers after the elder's announcement. They also looked at the participants with excited expressions.
“Do you think Liu Mengdi will survive this battle royale? I mean, he's just an early stage 3rd rank Crusader. In his battle platform, he would fight against the early stage 4th rank Knight Crusader of the Xue Family. I don't think Liu Mengdi can even survive a single attack from that person.”
“Who knows? Maybe a miracle will happen and he will come out victorious. Hahaha!”