Fang Yimu had a cultivation base of Saint Soul 3rd realm and was one of the stronger individuals in the lounge area at the moment. She was strong enough to become the strongest with just her cultivation base alone, and that made her strong with her spiritual sense too.
She stood proud in front of Alex, but not haughty. "Your Majesty must be looking forward to the competition. With your cultivation base, you should last quite a bit," she said.
"I naturally plan on being the last one to leave if possible," Alex said.
"I see," the girl said. "Then I must assume you as my rival in the match today. I was going to give you some suggestions, but it seems I shouldn't now."
"I guess that's my loss then," Alex replied.
The girl smiled. "By the way, I hear it didn't work out between you and sister Talia. I'm genuinely mortified to think you did not end up liking her. She's one of our sect's precious jewels," she said.
"That's life," Alex asked. "You could want things to go one way, but there is never any way to tell."
The girl nodded and Talia quickly reprimanded her with her spiritual sense.
"Oh, do you wish to meet the others here, your majesty? I'm sure people would love to talk to you," she said.
Alex looked around and saw the few people around him. "Who is important here?" he asked, staring at the many people. As he did, his eyes fell on a girl in the distance.
'That's…' he got a little serious when seeing her.
Fang Yimu seemed to have seen him notice her as well. "Does your majesty recognize Lady Su?" the girl asked.
"I see, so it is her," Alex said. "That's Su Railin, isn't it?"
Su Railin was another one of the girls from his list of 4 that he had been given. She wore a dark blue robe that looked masculine, but she herself looked feminine, aside from her ponytail.
"How do you know her, your majesty?" Fang Yimu asked.
"Oh no, I don't really know her. I have just heard of her name, that's all," Alex said. He did not want to meet her when it wasn't time yet. He was going to turn her down as a Queen as well, so there was no point in him trying for anything else just yet.
He would deal with her when he met her officially.
As he stood there, talking with Talia and Fang Yimu, a few other people came and tried to strike up a conversation with him. Alex talked with them for a while, but he never showed that he was interested in the talk or anything.
A couple of them even tried to give him tips on what he should do inside the abyss. However, Alex had read up on anything and everything that was available in the Royal libraries, so he didn't feel like he would need to.
Even Su Railin came and spoke a few words, but more than that she did not say anything. It seemed that she wasn't even aware of the arrangements that the Crown Prince had made just yet.
As they were talking, the island shook a bit, making everyone alert. "It's about to start," one of the youths in that room said.
"Let's go, your majesty," Fang Yimu was the one to speak to Alex at that moment and started walking. Talia followed her sect disciple sister and Alex followed the two of them.
They quickly made their way out of the building, going toward the center of the island where there stood a small well that was uncovered. Around the well was a large stone platform on top of which one could see formation lines.
This was the formation that sent people into the abyss.
A man flew on top of the well, wearing an azure uniform. This was the man that took care of the secret realm and was ordered by the empire to do so.
Taking care of the secret realm was a task that was passed to members of the royal family, so this man was most certainly someone from the extended royal family. He continued flying in his regal pose and looked around before speaking up.
"In case there are newcomers amongst you, let me go over the rules very quickly. Do not attack someone else inside of the abyss. If we find out that you broke this one rule, we will deal to you the same punishment that you deal to someone else. Also, we will ban you from every other secret realm in the continent."
The punishment for misbehaving was quite severe, so the newcomers who didn't know about it were a little surprised. There were surprisingly quite of them in the 40 thousand people that had gathered there.
"When you enter the abyss, you will find a piece of paper attached to your back. If you are found to have hidden or removed that piece of paper or are involved in taking someone else's paper out, you will immediately be disqualified for this year's opening of the Endless Shadow Abyss."
"To win, you will have to search for artifacts where you can write in the unique combination of numbers you find on your opponent's back. It will disqualify them."
"When everyone is gone, you will win."
The crowd looked at the man silently as they all got ready to enter.
"Last but not least, you won't be able to bring anything from your storage bag out inside of the abyss, so take out anything you might need right now."
The crowd rustled as many people started pulling out talismans and formations as well as artifacts from their storage bags. Alex thought of what he could bring from his storage ring, but he couldn't find anything important that he wanted to bring along.
As a result, he chose to bring nothing, unlike most people who at least had a talisman or two.
"Did you not prepare anything, your majesty?" Talia asked, as she too held a talisman and a formation plate.
"No, I didn't," Alex said. "But don't worry, I don't think I will need anything."
"If you think so," Fang Yimu spoke. "Good luck, your Majesty."
He bowed a little and walked away from the two, walking onto the stone platform. The man in the azure robes saw and nodded. "You may all come now."
As soon as he finished speaking, the people ran into the massive stone platform in droves. Then, once enough of it was filled, a blinding white light covered them all and suddenly, they vanished from where they were.
Barely any had been teleported away, so more joined, and they too were teleported away.
"Let us go then," Alex said and walked with Talia, stepping onto the stone platform. He was pushed a little forward by the people that joined after him, and then he sensed the teleportation aura capturing him.
It seemed to capture each person individually, and then at the next moment, a flash of light came that took him away.
When Alex arrived on the other side, he opened his eyes to see where he was. However, all that he could see here was pitch-black darkness.
