Chapter 23: Tournament Selection
At noon, the next day.
The sun was high up in the sky.
Su Yun had cleaned up the formation he created and moved the Spring Crystal Furnace back inside his spatial ring. He put on some clean clothes and headed out the door.
Along the bronze roadway, one could see many family households and their disciples walking together.
These young disciples of the outer sect were dressed cleanly; many of their swords were either being gripped in their hands or in their respective hilts. Everyone seemed excited.
The parents had told their children that the rankings were not important. But who could believe them? Everyone could understand its importance and would fight with everything they had in the tournament.
Because parents could not enter, people were beginning to gather outside of the square. The tournament square was only open to those disciples of the Su Family.
“I must not miss my opportunity this time. My talent is poor and I will certainly not break through intermediate spirit realm before twenty years old. Therefore, I pray that I can reach the top two hundred ranking! I won’t ask for any more, I just want to qualify into the ranking list.”
“I do not want to fail my the ancestors. That is why I must be allowed to join the inner sect.”
“I am seeking a good place. Please god!”
In the square, many people were praying in groups for good fortune.
Su Yun’s eyes began to sweep through the square. As he did he saw that many people with luxurious clothing were seated outside the stage. Each of these young men and women were equipped with a magical weapon.
These people were the inner disciples that would be participating in the tournament.
They numbered about a hundred people. Although this could be considered few in number, ever since the beginning, these disciples would be guaranteed to fill the top two hundred ranks of the tournament.
The greatest fear of the outer sect disciples was to encounter an inner sect disciple in the tournament, because they would almost surely lose.
“Huh? Look, isn’t that Su Yun!?”
“What did he come here for? Is…is he also going to participate in the tournament?”
“No way, right? He actually has the guts to participate in this tournament? Wasn’t he kicked out of the inner sect and left in the outer sect?”
“What is this guy thinking of doing? He is so shameless.”
Several male and female disciples were whispering with each other. There was surprise, confusion, contempt and disregard in the eyes that were gazing at Su Yun.
However, the disciples began to turn away. Although Su Yun’s appearance gave some topic to discuss, they were not really interested in Su Yun. After all, the most important thing was to pay attention to the tournament.
“Big brother Su!”
Just then, a clear and sharp voice sounded near Su Yun’s ear.
Su Yun turned around and gazed in the direction of the call.
He was surprised to find a young man and woman trotting towards him from the plaza.
The young man and a woman were dressed in plain clothes; But despite this, they were pretty good-looking. Especially the female, with soft skin the color of wheat, dark, ink-black hair that was braided into a ponytail, and a pair of vivid dark eyes. A fair-skinned female that could only be considered a remarkable beauty.
As Su Yun saw the two people, his heart was startled.
“Xin Yue and Xing Yang?”
These two disciples were from the outer sect of the Su Family, and they were brother and sister. In the past, their parents had died, and they became orphans. Su Yun happened to meet them at the time and decided to help them by providing them shelter, since at the time, he was still in the inner sect.
That day, the brother and sisters were very lucky to receive some tasks to work at the inner sect, instead of having to suffering, alone, in the outer sect. Unlike the outer sect, the families in the inner sect were not poor, and even though they did not have it easy, they were well paid.
However, their luck did not last. Later, Xin Yue lost a precious spirit hairpin from the the treasury, which was said to be a treasure that belonged to one of the female elders. Although an investigation was held to find the culprit of this matter, when they could not determine the culprit, the maidservants of the Su Family blamed Xin Yue. This terrified Xin Yue and made the chief steward furious. Xing Yang tried to beg for forgiveness, but to no avail. When all seemed lost, Su Yun appeared and asked the chief steward to dismiss the charges. At this time, Su Yun had only lost his talent for three years, and many people believed he just needed time to regain his ability. Because of this, the chief steward dismissed the charges to avoid offending him.
In fact, Su Yun was just helping on the whim, since he was in a good mood at the time. He had just came to cultivate his spirit power at the time and was now even happier that he managed to regain some of his ability. The two sibling were forever grateful to Su Yun. So when they saw him pass the main hall, they decided to say a few words to him.
After the time of the incident, his talent never recovered, so it was futile. However, the kindness he had shown them was never forgotten.
Su Yun remembered that after he was kicked out of the inner sect, he had not even worked. He only relied on Qing Er’s measly allowance to keep him alive but even her money was limited. When he did not have enough money to eat, Xin Yue and Xing Yang helped him get some food for free.
After he completely cut ties off from the Su Family, he never saw the two again.
Seeing that the cute girl had become beautiful, and the bright boy had become handsome, his heart was thrown into ripples.
People that knew to repay favors, were people that was worthy of being called a friends in Su Yun’s heart.
The girl, Xin Yue, eagerly ran over and stopped right in front of Su Yun. She gazed at Su Yun with her black eyes and inspected Su Yun from top to bottom. Then a brilliant smile appeared, “Brother Su Yun, are you okay? We were really worried!”
“Ah? About what?”
“Obviously about the matter of you leaving your home…well…the thing is, that you went outside to accomplish a task and disappeared for a month. You had just come back yesterday, so I went back to see you. However, the door was locked, and when I knocked on the door no one answered either. Nevertheless, now that I see brother Su Yun is alive and well, so I am relieved!” Xin Yue laughed.
“You worried that I had an accident,” Su Yun asked.
Xin Yue hesitated, not knowing how to answer.
“Yes, big brother Su Yun. Although saying this is uncomfortable, we were still really worried about you.”
The other tall dark-skinned boy, Xing Yang, came over and said with a slightly rough voice.
Xing Yang’s voice was very rough, and coupled with his tall dark-skinned figure and thick muscles, it emitted an aura of machoness.
Xin Yue was afraid of mentioning that Su Yun had been kicked out of the inner sect, for the fear of making Su Yun uncomfortable. However, her brother just blurted out the words that came from his head.
Xin Yue was angered to the point that steam was forming around her.
Su Yun just smiled. “That small matter? Ha ha, no big deal, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
After Xin Yue saw this, she immediately decided to change the subject. “Brother Su Yun, do you also intend to participate in the tournament?”
“Correct.”
“But you…you are only spirit novice realm six stage, right?” Xin Yue asked this cautiously.
“Ah, yes. Big brother Su Yun, with only sixth stage cultivation, if you participate in the tournament, you can only get beaten! I think that you should just go home and abandon this tournament!”
Xing Yang blurted out what was on his mind.
“Fool, what are you talking about?”
Xin Yue could not control herself and gave Xing Yang a kick in the knee.
Xing Yang immediately felt the pain all over his knee and quickly rubbed it. He took a moment to collect himself and apologized, “ Big brother Su Yun- I did not mean it, I mean, that…uh…I…”
Su Yun understood Xing Yang’s intentions were good. Therefore, Su Yun was not angry and admittedly said, “I am not six stage spirit novice stage anymore.”
“Not spirit cultivation six stage anymore?” Both the brother and sister stared each other and blinked. They could feel the spirit energy that Su Yun had.
Su Yun was deliberately concealing his spirit aura.
After the two felt his actual aura, they were suddenly startled.
“A solid aura of the spirit novice realm.” Xing Yang was speechless.
“Big brother Su Yun, you…you finally managed to make a breakthrough?” Xin Yue cried, as if she had broken through herself.
“Look at this. It seems that the aura is even more than the seventh stage of the spirit novice rank, I’m amazed…that you seemed to have managed to break through the eighth stage of the spirit novice realm! Great, big brother Su Yun, your talent is finally restored!”
Watching the two sibling smile at his success, his heart could not help but warm up.
Perhaps with the exception of Qing Er, in this world, there was nobody else really care about him.
“With eighth stage cultivation, we can all strive to get into the top two hundred rankings. Then we can enter the inner sect of the Su Family! Elder brother Su Yun, you have the opportunity to regain your former glory!”
Su Yun chuckled.
“Do not worry, we’ll be able to get into the top two hundred rankings for sure.” Just then, Xin Yang pumped up his fist and vowed that they would get into the rankings.
“I hope we do not encounter the inner sect disciples of the Su family!” Xin Yue closed her eyes and prayed silently.
Peng! Peng!(Tl: bell sounds in chinese)
At this time, the bells was sounding from the central square.
Everyone’s eyes turned to look at the centre field of the tournament.
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