Dual Cultivation

After they finished giving advice to the disciples, Liu Lanzhi said, "Although the tournament starts tomorrow, we might not have to participate on the same day depending on the time of our matches. The Sect Masters will gather early in the morning tomorrow to receive a few words from the Xie Family. We should also learn the identity of our opponents while we are there."

"This is all I have for today. Prepare yourselves until we return with more news tomorrow."

The group dispersed soon later, and the disciples all went to prepare themselves mentally.

The following day, Su Yang and Liu Lanzhi left the hotel early in the morning and headed to the place where the tournament will take place — the Snowfall Colosseum that was in the center of the city.

The Snowfall Colosseum was a massive place that could fit millions of people with ease, and in the center of this place was a large arena that alone could fit over a thousand people.

And currently gathered on this large arena are the Sect Masters from all of the Sects that will be participating in this year's Regional Tournament, and there were over 200 of them. In other words, over 200 Sects were participating in this year's tournament, which is twice as much as the previous tournament that only had 100 Sects participating.

This sudden rise in participants was probably caused by Xie Xingfang, who was rumored to be appearing to see if there will be any prominent young men that might catch her interest.

"Su Yang, don't look to the right, the Sect Master of the Million Snakes Sect is glaring at us." Liu Lanzhi whispered to him after she noticed his gaze that was filled with disdain.

However, Su Yang ignored her advice and turned to look at Fu Kuan directly in the eyes with a smile on his face. He even waved at him and said, "How's the Million Snakes Sect coping with that old man's death? I hope they are doing fine."

Su Yang directly provoked Fu Kuan with Great Elder Ren's death, immediately flaring Fu Kuan's eyes with killing intent.

"Thank you all for coming here today and for participating in the Regional Tournament this year." Lord Xie suddenly appeared before them.

"Your Majesty!"

All of the Sect Masters there immediately bowed to greet his presence after noticing his figure — all except one young man, who was casually standing there with a calm expression.

But luckily for Su Yang, because everybody there had their heads lowered, they didn't notice him, except for Lord Xie, who merely ignored him.

"Raise your heads. I will now explain a few things regarding this year's tournament. Take a look to your right at the lottery box." Lord Xie said as he pointed to the box standing in the open a few meters away from them.

"Each Sect will pick a piece of paper in there, and whoever has the same number shall fight in the first rounds today. And since there's an odd number of participants, there will be one blank piece of paper inside, which will waver your Sect from participating in the first round."

"You can pick your numbers later. For now, allow me to explain the rules and rewards ahead of time."

"First of all, each Sect will only be able to send a maximum of ten disciples onto the stage. If you have more than ten disciples participating, the rest will be benched until the next round."

"Once you have picked your ten disciples, they will be sent onto the stage one at a time until one side no longer has anyone left to fight. Of course, as long as they can still fight, they may participate in more than one fight, even fighting all ten opponents alone."

"Now I shouldn't have to mention this but killing is obviously prohibited during the tournament, as every disciple participating are geniuses among geniuses. It would be a loss for everyone if even one of these talented individuals were to perish over some competition. Even if it's an accident, if your Sect causes another's death, there will be a penalty for 10 million Spirit Stones."

"We have to pay 10 million Spirit Stones even for an accident?!"

The Sect Masters there were dumbfounded after hearing Lord Xie's words, as such a rule has never existed before today. Why would he suddenly make such a rule?

'Che…' Fu Kuan coldly snorted inwardly. He had a feeling that Lord Xie created this rule just in case the Million Snakes Sect gets matched up with the Profound Blossom Sect and starts killing them by 'accident'.

Of course, little did Fu Kuan expect that Lord Xie had the opposite intentions, as this rule and penalty was created to protect the Million Snakes Sect just in case they run into Su Yang, who might slaughter all of their disciples by 'accident'.

As for Su Yang, he merely shook his head after hearing this rule. 'Do you really believe that I would indiscriminately kill their disciples just because of our situation?'

"Now onto the reward for this year's Regional Tournament." Lord Xie continued a moment later. "If your Sect places in the 4th to the 10th place, the Xie Family will award you each with 500,000 Spirit Stones, 5 Spirit-grade Spiritual Treasures of your choosing, and allow your Sect to borrow 1 Earth-grade Cultivation Technique of your choosing from my Xie Family's treasury for 10 years."

"For the third place, you shall be awarded 2 million Spirit Stones, 2 Earth-grade Spiritual Treasures of your choosing, and borrow 3 Earth-grade Cultivation Technique of your choosing for 10 years."

"For the second place, you shall be awarded 5 million Spirit Stones, 1 Heaven-grade Spiritual Treasure of your choosing, and borrow 1 Heaven-grade Cultivation Technique for 10 years."

"As for the first place… you shall be awarded 10 million Spirit Stones, 2 Heaven-grade Spiritual Treasures of your choosing, borrow 2 Heaven-grade Cultivation techniques for 10 years, and will have the privilege to send up to three disciples from your Sect to Cultivate in the Celestial Pond for seven days!"

"The Celestial Pond!"

Most of the Sect Masters there expressed a shocked expression after hearing the name 'Celestial Pond', almost as though they couldn't even believe their ears.

"Celestial Pond? What's that?"

However, neither Liu Lanzhi or Su Yang have heard of this place before, so they only raised their eyebrows slightly, silently wondering why the other Sect Masters were acting so surprised.