Aspiring To The Immortal Path

After several days of rest, the list of competitors for the next round was finally released.

In truth, there was no need for a list. Everyone could just calculate their standing from their performance in the first round. After all, the points and rules were all there for everyone to see.

There were sixty people participating in total: seven from the Thousand Passions Sect, seven from Horizon Ocean Pavilion, ten from Godhead Palace, fourteen from the Beast Refining Gate, thirteen from the Basking Moon Sect, and nine from the Seven Absolutions Sect.

It wasn't strange that the Thousand Passions Sect and Horizon Ocean Pavilion had the smallest number of people participating. This Immortal Fortune Conference had inherently put them at a disadvantage.

Among the other four sects, Godhead Palace and the Seven Absolutions Sect had smaller numbers of contestants because they were the mortal foes that had been pitted against each other first. As their battle to the death had taken place on the second day, some of the students had been replaced by substitutes, which wasn't favorable to the following matches. Thus, their total scores had suffered.

As for the Beast Refining Gate and Basking Moon Sect, they had had their grudge match last, and through Tang Jie's plan, the Basking Moon Sect had exchanged victory for life. The result was that the Beast Refining Gate had won the most and also suffered the most deaths. While they had fourteen spots, most of them were substitute students, so in terms of overall strength, they were weaker than the Basking Moon Sect. Alas, even though the Basking Moon Sect had thirteen people, Cai Junyang hadn't qualified, as he had lost too many matches.

But for the major sects, this was irrelevant. After all, only the top ten students were truly important. Thus, so long as the top-ranked students of the major sects were okay, nothing else mattered.

But it wasn't entirely right to say that they didn't care at all.

At least those people who would never be able to enter the top ten could help the others.

In a melee where sixty people were present, while the strength of a single person could be a crucial factor in one's victory, supporting one's friends would also affect the final outcome.

If someone thought that he was the strongest and could ignore the other students, he would be rejected and would find it difficult to get others on his side when the time came.

This was another reason the Wandering Palace had arranged for a melee.

All public appearances were faked. Only this sort of melee could help others see who knew how to work human relations. Unless one had reached the Immortal Platform Realm and was able to freely roam the heavens and ignore all other beings, even the most capable person would end up alone if they didn't know how to manage human relations.

This was precisely why those within the six major sects were privately arranging their own alliances.

This was particularly true for the leading students, like Horizon Ocean Pavilion's Lan Yu, Godhead Palace's Yun Wuji, the Thousand Passions Sect's Deng Xiaoyu, and so on. When they had the free time, they would spend time with other students to establish relationships.

Those students who were fortunate enough to get into the second round but lacked the strength to hope at the top ten instantly became celebrities. Those aloof geniuses who normally didn't even glance in their direction were sending them invitation cards and treating them to meals or inviting them to spar, even giving them pointers. If they had a question, they could just ask their senior brothers, and there would undoubtedly be an answer.

This was the case within sects, and there were also cases where different sects allied with each other.

The six major sects each had friends and enemies. The Thousand Passions Sect and the Basking Moon Sect, Godhead Palace and the Beast Refining Gate, Horizon Ocean Pavilion and the Seven Absolutions Sect—the students of these respective alliances drew closer together, each with their own plans, and all kinds of teams and alliances popped up. And at times, there would be a student in multiple alliances, reaping benefits from multiple parties.

The more extreme would try to recruit from more sects than just their sect's ally.

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Tang Jie had received a private letter from a student of Horizon Ocean Pavilion. He called himself Xu Miaoran's senior brother, and someone of some status in Horizon Ocean Pavilion who had numerous patrons. If Tang Jie wanted to win the affection of his girl, he would have to give this guy a hand in the second round, or else he would definitely ruin a good thing, and so on…

Tang Jie didn't know whether to laugh or to cry as he tore up the letter.

Compared to the other sects, while the Basking Moon Sect students were doing their own recruiting, things were much calmer.

Peng Yaolong, Tang Jie, and Ye Tianshang—this batch of the most outstanding students—were unexpectedly rather quiet. They spent most of their time cultivating alone in their rooms, occasionally coming out to chat with their fellows.

These were the top-ranked students, so their attitude left many students who were waiting for an offer very disappointed.

Of course, this gave a chance for others, like Long Dao, who had also passed, to run around and make connections, promising rich rewards.

The days went by like this, and finally, the day of the second round arrived.

On this morning, sixty students gathered at Red Plum Ridge, and the representatives from the Wandering Palace and the six major sects were seated. Besides that, spectators had come from all around.

On one side of the ridge was a land engulfed in clouds and fog. Tang Jie and the others hadn't seen these clouds here before.

A master of the Wandering Palace stood up and went up to the cloud-covered land. "In the previous round, all the students of the major sects put on sterling performances and brought pride and dignity to the six major sects. After some discussion, it has been decided that in this second round of the tournament, the young geniuses will be given an opportunity, and the match is to proceed within the Langya Blessed Land."

Everyone was in an uproar over this news.

"The Langya Blessed Land! The Langya Blessed Land!"

"I really didn't think that we would be so fortunate as to enter a blessed land. Even if I don't get into the top ten, this trip will still have been worth it."

"Agreed."

The Langya Blessed Land was the Wandering Palace's own blessed land. It had been operated by the Wandering Palace for many years and was home to countless wondrous plants and rare fiend beasts. It was an eight-hundred-year blessed land, and the Wandering Palace's strength was clear from its value. If one excluded the six major sects, it was quite the wealthy sect.

For them to offer the blessed land as the site of the competition was paying a rather hefty price. As the Wandering Palace would no longer be independent after this, there was no harm in being a little generous and building up a good relationship with the other sects. Since the groom, and thus the ultimate winner, had not been decided, they decided to spread the love a little and make everyone happy.

The master said, "I will now announce the rules of the competition. Only participating students are allowed in the blessed land. The palace has already placed ten treasures in various places throughout the blessed land for the students to seek out. Note that all the treasures have had the Treasure Light spell applied to them. When taken, they will let out a radiant glow that will be visible for several dozen kilometers around. A student that has obtained a treasure must hold onto the treasure for twelve hours, regardless of method. Upon completion, they will be teleported out. Remember that the treasures cannot be placed in Mustard Seed Bags, or else the timer will not run."

Everyone immediately understood what was going on.

It was clear that the students not only needed to find the treasure ahead of the others, they also needed to guard the treasure for a day to achieve victory.

A student raised his hand, and the master nodded and said, "What is your question?"

The student said, "Esteemed Master, what happens if one obtains a treasure, puts it in a Mustard Seed Bag, and then takes it out again?"

The master replied, "The timer will restart. Only keeping the treasure at one's side for twelve hours straight will count."

The student asked, "Then what if it leaves your hand in the middle of a fight? Stolen by your opponent?"

"Temporarily being relieved of it is fine, but if it is out of your possession for more than three seconds, the timer will restart. The treasure itself will analyze everything and display the appropriate time."

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Another student asked, "Can you leave early if you find yourself not up to the task?"

"Each student will have an escape jade talisman that will allow them to leave early, which will be considered a concession. If all students are defeated, the last ten remaining will automatically win. If no treasures were obtained in this time, then even if one is a winner, one will not receive a treasure as a reward. In addition, the jade talisman requires time to activate. You cannot attack while escaping, and if you are attacked during this time, the escape will fail."

These final words left everyone alarmed.

In other words, the jade talisman could not be used to escape from battle.

Basking Moon Academy's Tiger Roar Valley didn't have this problem. Was this because Wandering Palace was too incapable, or did it have other motives?

Tang Jie raised his head. "Esteemed Master, what happens if you take more than one treasure?"

The master replied, "If you have the ability to take all ten, then you will be the only candidate."

The crowd exploded.

The master's explanation was different from before. It turned out that ten people weren't needed. There could be even fewer.

"But…" the master added, "if you wish to gain all ten treasures, you must keep them all outside. It is not allowed to try and gain them by hiding some and showing others. The Wandering Palace will take back all the ones that you have hidden."

"This student understands," Tang Jie respectfully said.

Several more students asked questions, clearing up the rules of the competition.

Finally, that master said, "If there are no more questions, the competition can begin. There is danger inherent to this tournament, and all gathered will have to seek out fortune or peril on their own. I wish you all good luck."

He blinked to the side, and a path appeared behind him, leading into the clouds.

An attendant came forward and distributed jade talismans, and the students went in as soon as they received a talisman. This Langya Blessed Land had been set up with random teleportation, so the students didn't know where they would end up once inside. The rest would be left to their own abilities.

Once all the students were inside, that master shouted, "Close the passage!"

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The passage into the clouds disappeared.

At the same time, a giant dome appeared in the sky, displaying the scene within the blessed land and the students within it.

It had to be noted that the master had not mentioned this when answering everyone's questions.

On the contrary, the master from the Wandering Palace had lied, saying that the formation over the Langya Blessed Land prevented outsiders from knowing what was going on inside, with all time being tracked by the treasures themselves.

In reality, unless it was a treasure with a weapon soul, there was no spell art that could keep track of so much complicated information. The ones truly making the calls were the observers on the outside. The various spell arts applied to the treasures were merely used to relay information.

But the six major sects all supported this deception.

Only when they believed they were unobserved would the students show their true personalities and abilities, assisting the various sects in understanding their own students.

This would serve as proof that the various sects would use to decide which students to promote, and it would also serve to assist the Wandering Palace in making its choice.