Chương 19: Enter the Tournament: Competitive Spirits Ignite!

About two weeks before the inter-sect tournament was set to begin a ferocious and wild looking Vulpis entered through the gate of the city. This Vulpis was obviously young, but had a light in its eyes that put fear into the hearts of lower level cultivators. This was a pressure brought on by the spirit, and without a greater strength you would be unable to resist the suppression. Walking through the gate with nothing in hand, this young fox disappeared down an alleyway shortly inside the gate.

Of course, this was Yun, and after spending nearly a month and a half in the wild wood she had fought a great many creatures. Her ring, which contained a space that was two kilometers across in every dimension, was nearly full to bursting with the flesh of her prey.

Among all the vicious beasts she had fought there were still a few she had never been able to conquer. One was the vicious Starmetal Mantis. This creature was an insectoid that specialized in ambushes and lightning fast strikes with its incredibly powerful scythe arms. Each one of its scythes was worth a fortune and could be turned into a fitting weapon for even an upper level Houtian fighter. Considering this, she had dueled with the Mantis more than once over the past month, but still failed to get any decisive hits in against it.

She was quite disappointed with this, but she also was happy with some of the other beasts she had defeated. All in all she had acquired materials that would last a lifetime for an ordinary refiner, but more importantly she had gathered materials that could be made into extremely high level battle equipment for a Body Forging martial artist. This was an excellent position to be in right before the tournament.

After returning to the sect the first thing Yun did was go to visit Zhu Cai's workspace. Opening the door she was astounded to see her friend hard at work making various things as if she had never taken a break since she gave her the materials. Clearing her throat loudly to get the attention of Zhu Cai, Yun stood jauntily in the doorway with a smirk on her face. "Hey, have you even rested since i left? It's been a month and a half you crazy cat!"

"What do you mean, calling me a crazy cat? Have you no face? You monster wolf, nobody your age should be going out hunting for two months straight! Let me guess, you've brought back another massive pile of materials? I figured you would, so i asked the Elders if they would provide some more storage artifacts to deal with it. I've already had to promise in return that i would share the materials with other disciples so they can have some good practice too!"

Indignant, Zhu Cai waved her hand at a small shelf holding four more of the small storage artifacts. Each of these had significantly less space within them than either Zhu Cai's primary artifact or Yun's bracelet artifact, but since they were for the excess materials to be shared that was irrelevant. Smiling, Yun put her hand on her friend's shoulder, "Let this fox show you what I brought back before you just tell me to drop it all off."

With this she whispered a few things secretly in Zhu Cai's ear, so closely that the words tickled her sensitive ears, making them twitch. As she spoke, Zhu Cai first stiffened, then her tail started twitching excitedly and she nearly began to drool. These were top quality materials! She felt that she had enough experience to deal with most of the things that Yun wanted done, but there were two things she was not comfortable being the one to create.

The first was another new spear, the materials were just far too advanced for her and she was not willing to attempt it in such a short time. The second was a replacement for the runic bracers that Yun had obtained when she went to the Weapons desk and received her two items. She had learned over the past two months that these were a great set of auxiliary equipment that actually increased her arm and leg strength passively while decreasing her fatigue rate. She really desired to have a better pair that weren't quite as eye-catching, maybe something like her bracelet where the stabilizing gem stones were not outwardly visible.

Zhu Cai directly told her off on these two items, but suggested she contact the Bone Tool Sect and request the item from them. If anyone had both the refiner and the gem master to complete this task, it would definitely be there. The Three Sects of Myhrrwar were actually just the three major powers in the city and its surrounding region. There were certainly other sects, but none could compare with this triad that supported each other and did not compete for prestige in the other's specialty.

The Bone Tool Sect was a sect dedicated to crafting professions among cultivators, the Iron Warriors Sect was dedicated to open warfare and mercenary work, and the Hunting Hall Sect was dedicated to individual skills such as scouting, assassination, and solitary tasks that a warrior might perform. This information was certainly not publicly available, instead only those within these three organizations knew what their true specialties were, and only the Elders knew the source of their power.

A few days passed without much event for Yun. She had made contact with the Bone Tool Sect's responsible parties and they had given her a response that made her fairly dissatisfied; "We are not currently taking on any crafting jobs due to the pending tournament. If you wish to have something crafted please contact us again afterwards."

Like this two uneventful weeks passed for Yun within the Sect, but finally it was time for the long-awaited tournament to begin. With her spirit boiling over from excitement Yun stepped into the Gathering Hall and joined the Core Disciples in the front row of the gathered youth. Looking up, she saw three of the Elders who had assisted with her elemental affinity test standing by Elder Lei as he announced the orders for the tournament from the sect.

"The sect's orders for all tournament-competing disciples are as follows:" He unrolled a scroll and began to read the orders.

"All disciples will first and foremost remember that their lives are most precious, do not kill or be killed for any reason."

"Second, disciples are permitted to take very limited equipment with them to the first stage of competition. Be mindful of what you take with you and that a competition judge may audit your items."

"Third, each of the three major sects will be providing personnel for this event, from Elder rank, down to Disciples that will be recording and operating different things. If you are issued a command by someone in such position it is required that you follow it."

"Fourth, there is no limit on participation, but disciples below Neidan Forging are not likely to succeed and are encouraged to find other opportunities to grow. Should they like to participate anyways they may do so with an Elder's blessing."

"Finally, rewards will be given by the event as well as the sect to those who cross certain milestones in this competition. The first place, top three, top five, top ten, top fifty, top one hundred, top two hundred fifty, and top five hundred places will be rewarded. By this you can see that there will be a large number of disciples competing, do your best."