Emperor's Reckoning

"Welcome to the Preliminaries!"

A vigorous voice reverberated across the colosseum before the roar of the spectators followed.

A man was standing right at the center of the colosseum. He had a slender figure and wore a mask that covered half of his face.

"Hahaha! I can see that all of you all excited about the preliminaries alone! Don't forget the main attraction later on though."

Some of the audience chuckled at his sarcastic tone.

"It's because we can afford this one!"

"Right! Right!"

"The ticket for the main event is absurd!"

The man shrugged his shoulder, "Hey, don't blame it on me, I'm just here to hype up the situation."

"Though, I don't need to do much anyway," he muttered.

"I'm your host today and I'm going to explain how the preliminaries work!"

One of the audiences immediately replied, "Just get on with it!"

The rest of the audience laughed.

"Yes that is what I wish to do, but we mustn't bully the ones. So I will take your arrow and explain it."

The man with the mask made a caught before the audience died down their noise. He opened his arms, "This is the only preliminaries, which means, after these preliminaries, the main event will start immediately!"

"An open to all preliminaries! Oh, the joy of finding hidden talent! This is what is most special about the preliminary!"

Verdu, Zet's father, shook his head, "They still do this huh, talk about unfairness."

"Father, it's not like we are some prominent figure here. We are just mortal, we might be bigshots at home, but here we are still comparable to a nobody."

Verdu took a glance at his son before he smiled, "Then it's fine, I guess, being famous has its flaws after all."

Porealus nodded, "I agree, I wonder what will the preliminaries this time will be."

He snapped his finger before a huge stone slab started to grow from beneath his feet. It pushed him up to a decent height before he jumped down.

He pointed at the giant erect stone slap whilst looking at the audience, "This is what's going to determine if one is sufficient enough to go for the main event or not!"

Verdu furrowed his eyebrows (A slab of stone?).

"What?!"

"There is only one preliminary?!"

"You just said preliminaries!"

"Oh calm down!" said the host before he continued, "This what you all get for this year's preliminary! If you want to complain, complain to the higher up!" (Bet you won't dare, heh, a bunch of fools).

"Looks like we are being discriminated against again," muttered Porealus as he scowled.

"Probably because the last time older sister Ivy got the eleventh place," muttered Zet.

"Speaking of Ivy, where is she?" asked Porealus before he let out a sigh. "She probably got hit on again, I told her to wear a veil."

"Oh, she actually did, but the man's hand was frozen black," said Zet.

"Oof," Porealus could only give condolences.

The host continued, "This time, the ones that will proceed will account to five!"

"What the hell!" blurted out Porealus before the audience followed.

"What's going on?! The last time it was ten!"

"This is too low!"

Verdu's face turned grimace in which his son caught on.

"Don't worry father, I will get that spot for sure."

"It's not that, this is something major, they blatantly didn't give us enough face anymore, the audacity!"

"Master Verdu, please, hold your temper," said Porealus. "We are all angry at it, but we lack the power to change anything. Unless one of us is sitting at the seat of the higher-ups then we can do something, until then, we must remain calm. Though I admit, I want to spit on their faces so bad."

This is one of the reasons why nobody from the great family brought the elders. The unfairness would definitely incite a riot that ended in their own pulverization. Offending Heaven was not something they could afford.

Only the leaders could handle being calm under the rain of unfairness.

"Being in the top five will grant you that seat."

Porealus furrowed his eyebrows before he turned around, "Ivy?"

The beauty finally revealed herself beside him with crossed arms. She took his advice and put on a veil just like her master did.

Porealus furrowed his eyebrows (Even now, I still don't get her objective of joining this tournament, it seems the prize is not her goal at all, what's with that sense of urgency behind her eyes).

---

Meanwhile, the two patriarchs and the matriarch from the Yuki clan were all standing against the same window, looking down at their champions.

"It's starting soon," said the matriarch.

"This is absurd! It is clear that they want to minimize outsiders as much as they can!" muttered Carius.

"Hmm... five? That's more than enough," said Tael before he continued with a snort, "They probably realized that we pose a threat."

"I wonder if that has any correlation with how we ended up here," muttered the matriarch.

---

"Now, now, let's continue shall we," said the host.

"The rule is very simple, you can use anything you want, magic, sword, fist whatever, just try as hard as you can to destroy the slab," said the host.

"Let me give you some demonstration," said the host before he slap the slab of stone with his hand.

He didn't put any concerning force in that slap of his before the slab of stone floated from the ground and rumbled.

"W-What's going on?"

"Hmmm?"

With a flash of light, the slab of stone changed into bronze.

"Heh? A bronze?" the host raised one of his eyebrows, "Well, that's that the higher the rarity of the stone is the higher your chances of going to the next event. Remember you only get one chance!"

The audience was gawking and awed against what's happening right in front of them. The ordinary slab of stone that was worth a cheap boulder had turned into bronze with the slap of his hand.

"Wow, that's amazing!"

"Imagine if you are a strong person, then you can just turn that stone into something else then sell it!"

"Man must be nice being powerful like that."

The audience was very welcoming of this new method and was immediately thinking of buying that stone for their own profit but another flash of light denied their imagination.

"Well, I know it was too good to be true."

"Figures."

"It returns back to an ordinary stone."

The audience immediately got their mind back.

"Alright, with that settles in, let the preliminary start!" shouted the host before two assistants appeared behind his back with a pen and paper in their hands.

"I will go first!" someone suddenly jumped up and pulled his fist before plunging it forward. The defining boom left the audience astonished.

However, after the first ten minutes, nothing was happening. Not flash not a rumble.

"You, what is your name?" asked one of the assistants.

"Eh? Me? My name is Cui."

"Alright," the assistant nodded before he wrote something on the paper whilst muttering, "Cui, stone level."

"What?!" one from the audience exclaimed.

"The stone didn't change at all then!"

"Next!" one of the assistants shouted.

(Hah, I knew it, this is going to be a long day, I guess the decision to make five outsiders participate is a wise choice, that level of a fist couldn't even destroy a stone, pathetic) thought the host before he let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Hmm," Verdu contemplated.

"What is it, father? Do you recognize this method?"

"I have a hunch, but its hard to say, the host didn't say a thing."

"Please do share with us Master Verdu," said Porealus with a slight bow.

Verdu raised both of his eyebrows before he noticed that Ivy was also looking at her.

"I think whatever power you inflicted against that stone will determine how strong you are. I mean if you manage to bring out the bronze just like what that host did, then the power you just inflicted was enough to destroy a bronze. However this is Heaven, don't compare their bronze against ours."

"Hmmm, if that is true then it will be tricky. If we use our full power, might be exposed to danger even if they cheer our names," said Porealus.

"Then again, if we hit too weak, we are most likely not going to advance," muttered Zet.

"Then we just need to be the last ones to try the test, that way we can measure just enough to pass," said Ivy.

"That's right, that's the best choice you have right now," said Verdu with a nod. (But if that was true, then, just a slap alone could trigger the bronze level, that host is not an ordinary cultivator).

"Ha!" a loud roar was heard.

A loud resounding boom was heard before the stone finally flashed and revealed a bronze level.

"Finally someone triggers the bronze level!" said one of the audience.