"5 spirit stones on the red robe guy with the horse."
"Cheapskate put in more. 62 spirit stones on the blue-robed girl with the red bird."
"I'm going 70 spirit stones on the green-robed girl with the jaguar. You guys are picking some stupid monsters really. Jaguars are very fast. Ah, MeiMei, Wanwan, you guys come to put in spirit stones too."
"You skipped out on the last one, but not this one," Fan Ruogang shouted at the 3 who were staying away from gambling away their money.
"I… don't really know who will win Fanfan, So I will stay out of it. I don't want to lose my money," Zhou Mei said.
"I— I don't like gambling," Wan Li said.
"I am low on money, sister Fan. So I will stay out of it," Alex said when he was called to gamble.
"What? You all are cowards. Elders, you guys wanna bet?" she asked the elders to bid on the winning beast for the Beast race.
"Fanfan, stop being so rowdy. It doesn't reflect well on the sect," Ma Rong scolded her for standing out too much in the audience.
"Oh, sorry sect leader," she said and tried to get quiet when the race started. "Oh, it has begun," she immediately started screaming again.
"Go Jaguar," she cried out.
The bird, the jaguar, and the horse were the main 3 beasts that everyone expected to win. However, when the beasts did reach the other side, a result that nobody expected occurred.
The winner for the beast's race was actually a tiny little squirrel.
"What? I lost again" Fan Ruogang couldn't believe it. She had lost during the cultivator's race just before this as well. The rest of the disciples who bet were also disappointed. The lucky guy who started the bid now took all of their money.
"Hey, don't keep that yet. The next race is happening right now," Ma Rong said as she pointed the various disciple who came out with their own artifacts.
Ning simply shook his head and looked at the stage. 'I wonder how well I would've done on the cultivator's race,' he thought. His cultivation wasn't very high, so he couldn't really tell how good he was compared to them, but if he had taken part in the race, he would've lost without a doubt.
'Those guys were so fast,' he thought and subconsciously looked towards the southern side of the coliseum where the big shot was staying. Suddenly, his eyes got cold and a hint of anger appeared in them.
But then he controlled himself and looked away from them. The artifact race was starting. Everyone sat on some kind of a small boat and once the horn was blown, they flew away. The stage was expanded to be around a kilometer long in length, but it was no time for the participants.
In a matter of seconds, they all crossed that distance. "Woah, that is so fast," Alex said. Ma Rong's boat was a little faster, but that was because she was in the True Realm. These Self Tempering realm cultivators reaching close to her speed was already very amazing.
More races occurred after that some of which were the Beast and Cultivator riding race, Puppet race, and a flying race where the cultivators had to fly the whole way through.
Once this competition ended, it was around 2 pm in the day.
"This is taking a lot longer than I had expected. How long does it usually last, Master?" he asked.
"Hmm… they should end it by 5 pm, regardless of if the competition ends or not. Either way, this is the last event of the day," Ma Rong said as she stood up.
"Come with me," she said as she walked away from the seating area. Alex didn't understand what was going on, so he followed her.
Surprisingly, she had taken him to the seating area of the Tiger sect.
Wen noticed Ma Rong walking and looked back. "Why are you guys here?" he asked.
"You are better at the upcoming stuff. Teach him," Ma Rong said and pushed Alex forward. "Learn something," she said and turned back.
"Come, sit Yu Ming," Wen Cheng said and made him sit beside him.
"Where's senior sister? Did she leave for the competition already?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, the 3 of them already went down," Wen Cheng said. "By the way, why did you change your face?" he asked.
Alex thought for a second and decided to tell Wen Cheng the whole story. "What? You will be staying with me now. I will see what that troublemaker can do after this," Wen Cheng said.
Alex smiled and said, "It's a fine master. With my face changed he shouldn't be able to recognize me."
"Yeah I guess that is true," Wen Cheng said.
Fu Zhen walked onto the stage and started speaking.
"We will now begin Single Battles. There are a few rules the contestants have to follow before taking part in this competition."
"First of all, you cannot use anything that is above the Common Rank. No weapons, armors, artifacts, formations, nothing."
"Secondly, you are considered to have lost the battle in 3 scenarios. Either if you forfeit the battle, if you faint, or you get thrown out of the stage, you will lose the battle."
"If you fail to show up to the battle in the first place within 2 minutes of me calling, you will automatically fail as well."
"So, please everyone come down up to the stage, we will choose your opponents now," Fu Zhen said.
Everyone walked up to the stage and was made to draw numbers from a box in secret.
"Keep that number with you. That will be what chooses who you are going to fight. There are 2 pairs of the same card for a total of 128 pairs."
"For the first match, we will start with numbers 1 through 4. Everyone else, please return back to the waiting room," Fu Zhen said and made the others leave.
"Come, the stage will be set for you soon."
