After a moment of silence, the crowd erupted into an uproar of conversation.
"What did he just say? Did he say he's actually going to challenge Alix?"
"No way, he must be joking. Otherwise, that would just be signing his own death wish."
"Even if he isn't going to challenge Alix, he's as good as dead now. There's no way Alix will let him off the hook for what he just did."
"John got one lucky victory and now he thinks he's on the same level as the Three Emperors? What an idiot."
The crowd buzzed with conversation, while Three Emperors stood there for a moment. Thraks was smiling with an amused smile at Alix, as if mocking him. Azalea was looking at John's figure, which disappeared into the arena.
For some reason, she felt John to be familiar, although she couldn't put her finger on why. She had never seen or talked with John's identity, and so couldn't place why she felt the familiarity.
Alix, who had been completely ignored by John, was frowning in displeasure. He brushed aside Thrak's jeers, and began to walk towards the arena entrance. The other two Emperors followed as well, and the three of them disappeared from the crowd's view.
The crowd quickly followed behind, and a steady stream of disciples, Elder's and various other sect members entered the grand arena. The Bi-Annual Placement Battles were quite the spectacle, and drew a huge crowd every time it was carried out.
Upon entering the arena, John swiveled his head in all directions, taking in the grand sight.
'So many already? There must be one hundred thousand people in the stands already, with more streaming in every second. This event seems to be far more popular than the monthly life and death battles.'
John walked up the stands and found an empty spot towards the top of the stadium.
The arena grounds were divided into seven martial platforms, with six smaller platforms surrounding the largest one in the middle of them all. Each of the smaller platforms were several hundred yards across, while the largest was close to a thousand yards across.
The stadium stands circled around all the fighting platforms, stretching back dozens and dozens of rows. At maximum capacity, it would most likely be able to hold several hundred thousand people easily.
From his seat high above, he was able to easily see all six martial arena's, as well as the bustling crowd below. He sat there in silence for the next hour while the crowd continued to stream in. A hand suddenly rested on his shoulder, catching his attention.
"Hey there," a familiar voice sounded out.
John turned his head towards the voice and smiled in greeting. "Hey there Chase."
Chase sat down next to John, and turned his eyes to glance down at the bustling scene below.
"Are you going to participate in these battles?" Chase asked while looking forward.
John glanced at Chase, before looking down to the arenas below once more.
"Yep."
"Why am I not surprised?" Chase replied. "How far do you intend on going?"
John opened his mouth to answer, but a loud shout, backed by a powerful cultivation, suddenly filled the arena, silencing all those within.
"Silence!" the voice commanded, and the crowd quickly quieted down.
A middle aged man with a thin moustache walked onto the middle fighting platform, his cultivation shrouded as expected. John had never seen this Elder before, but he could tell that he was incredibly powerful.
"I will now explain the rules, at which point the Bi-Annual Placement Battles will begin," the Elder addressed the crowd.
"Those wishing to do battle and raise their status within the sect can only challenge the tier above them. So outer disciples can only challenge inner disciples, inner disciples can only challenge core disciples, and so on."
John listened closely to the instructions, as he wanted to be sure on how to approach the battles today. There was no room for failure.
"If the challenger wins their battle, they will replace the person they challenged. If they lose, then they will remain at their current discipleship level. When challenging, one can directly challenge a specific individual, or request an opponent at random.
We will begin the battles starting with outer disciples. Once all the outer disciple vs inner disciple battles are complete, we will move to the inner disciple vs core disciple battles, and so on. Registration for the battles will take place at the tables you see before you," the Elder explained.
John glanced to where the Elder was gesturing, and noticed a group of twenty tables on the perimeter of the arena grounds, just before the stands started. Each table had an Elder sitting at it, ready to register whoever wanted to battle.
"As for the battles themselves, there are no rules, other than one's own strength must be used. All outer disciples wishing to participate, step forward and register now."
As the Elder said this, an excited uproar swept through the crowd, as hundreds and hundreds of outer disciples stood up and moved forward to participate. Each was seeking to raise their status to inner disciples, and flourish further within the Bloodfiend Sect.
While they knew the battles were dangerous, and could result in their deaths, each moved forward with determined passion, thinking only of elevating their status and wealth.
Before long, over a thousand outer disciples had stood up and walked to the registration tables, surprising John slightly.
"So many battles? How long is this going to take? Are we going to be here for days?" John asked Chase.
Chase shook his head. "No. I'm sure you know there is quite a disparity in power between disciple levels. Most of these battles should take less than a minute to end. At the same time, seven battles will take place at the same time. It shouldn't take more than half a day for these battles to end and the next round start," Chase replied.
John nodded his head in agreement at Chase's assessment. Without saying another word, he stood up and began to walk down the stands to the arena grounds below.
The registration portion of all the participants took quite some time, but eventually all those who desired to participate were enrolled. John had requested a random opponent for his battle, as he didn't know the names of any inner disciples, nor did he care who he battled.
He returned to his seat next to Chase, and began to talk with him regarding the battles to come.
The Elder from before walked onto the main martial platform once more, and silenced the crowd. After the crowd was fully silenced, his voice boomed out once more.
"All participants are registered. I now announce the start of the Bi-Annual Placement Battles."
