Eternal Cultivation of Alchemy

Alex reached the waiting room and stood around looking at his opponents he would have to fight against.

Honor Sect, Golden Eagle sect, Royal Fu Academy; All the different big sects as well as the small ones had sent in some people to take part in the competition.

Alex was the only one from the Hong Wu sect to come here.

'Maze Run… it can't just be a simple maze clearing game right? Even mortals can do that. The most cultivators would be able to speed up the game. There has to be some other twists to the game,' Alex thought.

"Oh, Brother Yu, you are here too," A voice came from behind him. Alex turned around to see Yang Ma and 2 other disciples of the Tiger sect. Judging from the orange linings on their yellow robe, they were core disciples too.

"I guess we are going to be opponents for now," Alex said.

"Don't be like that, Brother Yu. Just ask us for help if you need it; we will give it to you," Yang Ma said.

"Sure," Alex said.

"Everyone, please gather in front of the stage," Fu Zhen's voice sounded from outside.

One by one, everyone started leaving the waiting room. Alex passed the familiar barrier that checked his participation in the entrance. Once out of it, he stopped where everyone had stopped outside of the stage's opaque barrier.

He thought he would have to wait around a lot, but as soon as the participants gathered, a little space in the barrier opened and Fu Zhen walked out of there.

"Green?" Alex thought when he saw a glimpse of the color behind Fu Zhen.

"Welcome everyone to the Maze run. As this is the final non battle competition, we will try to make it the most fun."

"Before I show you or the audience the maze, I will now relay some of the rules of the competition," Fu Zhen said. A group of people walked from either side of Fu Zhen and made their way towards the participants.

"Please lock away all of your storage bags inside the boxes. You will not be allowed anything other than your clothes inside the stage," Fu Zhen said.

Alex was used to it so he brought out his storage bags and locked them away without hesitation. Within half a minutes, everyone was done locking away their bags.

"The staff will now place 3 talismans on your back. Please do not take them off," Fu Zhen siad.

PAT PAT PAT PAT

Sounds appeared from all over the area as the staff members started slapping on talismans behind their back. Alex also felt 3 light slaps on his back. He reached behind to feel his back and found 3 talismans exposed for the world to see.

Then the staff members handed them another talisman. While the ones on the back were yellowish brown in color, the one they were handed were red talismans.

Everyone was confused.

"The purpose of the competition is to enter the maze and come out of the other side the fastest you can. You are not allowed to fight inside the maze or use your cultivation and abilities to make it hard for others to move. "

"If you attack another competitor, one of your talismans on the back will burn away. If you lose all 3 talismans, you will be disqualified."

Everyone got a little anxious. If a competitor was disqualified based on the talismans lost, then… one could simply steal away other's talismans.

"You are not allowed to touch the talismans of other people. Each talisman you touch will result in the same number of talismans burning on your back."

A lot of people sighed in relief when they heard this.

"However, that is where the red talisman comes in. Any talisman that you touch with the red talisman will fall from the other person's back. At that moment, you can take it. After that, the red talisman will not work for a minute," Fu Zhen said.

"Each talisman you have at the end of the match will result in a 10 second reduction in the final time. There are other random talismans inside the maze that will have up to 1 minutes result time reduced."

Everyone was agitated. If stealing talismans were just to screw with the other person's run they wouldn't worry about it except for a few people that didn't want others to have fun. However, now that it was revealed that stealing would actually help you, everyone was going to do that.

Thus, everyone was your enemy now.

" A few more rules. Flying above 1 meter off of the surface is not allowed. If you don't move for over a minute, you are disqualified."

"Touching another person is allowed only if they've given you permission."

"Also, you can choose one of these Common Mortal grade weapons and armors. Choose wisely," Fu Zhen said.

'Weapon? But we're not allowed to attack others… So why?' Alex wondered.

Everyone else chose something that they liked; Alex chose a sword.

"Alright, now that you are done with this, please come and choose a number from this box. It will help choose the order you will enter in," Fu Zhen said.

Everyone walked up and grabbed a paper. Alex looked at his and saw the number 124; there were around 170 people in this competition.

"Number 1 through 10, please come forward and stand at the marked locations," Fu Zhen said, gathering the 10 people ahead of the opaque barrier.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will now hold the Maze run. However, before that, please lay your eyes on the magnificent Maze we've created," Fu Zhen shouted as he pointed towards the stage.

Suddenly, the barrier slowly got undone and what was inside was finally visible.

Tall green grass walls were staring directly at Alex and the rest. The walls were nearly 10 meters tall and about half a meter thick.

There were 10 paths of entry on the green wall, each for a single participant to enter.

Fu Zhen looked at them and shouted, "Go."