5 days after leaving the academy, the group of folks from the Five Professions academy reached the location of the competition, the Scarlet Oasis.
By now, the group of students was all tired of sitting down and were incredibly bored because of the monotonous journey through the central continent.
After Ning left, Ely had stopped using her vehicle and moved onto the boat to look after Artifact wing's students as well.
"We've arrived," Yola said to the group.
The many students were suddenly energized and immediately walked up to the front of looked down at the new scenery.
Ely too looked down at the massive oasis, always surprised how big it was. 'Can you ever call that thing an oasis?' she wondered.
The Scarlet Oasis was a massive oasis that spanned nearly a hundred kilometers in diameter. It was more of a sea than it was an oasis. The water there was fully red and the surrounding area was also fully inhabited.
No one knew why the water was red there, but they knew it was harmless and lived there without any worry.
In the middle of the oasis was a massive island that was about a dozen or so kilometers wide. That was home to the Bright Red Academy.
There were multiple ferries at the port that went to and from the academy, but most of the people coming here today didn't need one.
Ely could see hundreds of people flying towards the academy. Given how important the next couple of weeks were going to be for these young ones, there were bound to be millions upon millions of people coming over just to watch the competition.
'Not all of them should be going in,' Ely thought. 'Still, there should be hundreds of thousands of people that come in. I wonder how the folks over at the academy are going to handle these many people,' Ely wondered.
"Look at all those disciples," Yola said from the front of the boat. "It seems they've gotten the security quite strict this time."
Ely looked a bit further ahead in the sky and saw a line of people blocking the others from entering. "They must have some sort of requirements to enter this time. I wonder what that is," Ely thought.
"Let's move," Yola said and continued the boat towards the academy. The few different boats all moved towards the academy and were soon stopped by the security of the academy.
"Oh," the person said when they saw the group. "Welcome, Principal Yola. We're glad to see that you've made it. We're sorry that our principal can't come to accompany you this time. It's… just been way too hectic around here."
"Oh, it's okay. Has the Saint Alchemist arrived by now?" Yola asked.
"Yes. He arrived a few days ago, and has been settling fine," the person said.
"Oh, is Tsado looking after him?" she asked.
"Uh, no. The Saint Alchemist has gone into closed cultivation for a few days until the Alchemy competition starts," the person says.
"Oh, and even then Tasdo isn't coming here? That's weird. He used to always come by and escort us. Is he that busy this time?" Yola asked.
"Uh, yeah. I believe Principal Tsado is looking after some very important guests right now," the person said.
"Even more important than us?" Yola asked jokingly.
The person looked at her unable to immediately answer. However, in the end, he did speak and said, "I mean no disrespect senior, but yes."
Yola was surprised. The entire boat full of people was surprised as well.
"You're serious?" Yola asked with a serious face herself.
"Yes, senior," the person said.
"How important?" Yola asked. She was surprised that there was someone other than the emperor who she learned was coming later on, or the Saint Alchemist who was in closed cultivation.
"Uh…" the person deliberated for a bit and finally answered. "Perhaps… even more, important than the Saint Alchemist himself."
"What?" Yola's eyes went wide when she heard that. All the teachers and students in the boat gave a similar reaction too.
"Who is it?" Yola asked.
"I don't know, senior. They were a big group of people, and one of them was very strong. I have never seen such a high cultivation base before," the person said.
"Oh, were they from a different continent?" Yola asked.
"I believe so. But they didn't say which, so we don't know for sure," the person said.
"I see. I will ask Tsado later," Yola said. "For now, let's move. We don't want to create a pause in your work."
"Yes, please follow me," the person said and took them with him.
The disciples forgot about the giant red body of water down below them and started talking about the different people from the other continent.
'Hmm, Ning said Anya wasn't coming, so that leaves senior Hyesi and his family. But they don't have anything to do with Alchemy? Did they come here?' Ely wondered.
'However, if it wasn't them, who else could be so important to the principal?' Ely started wondering. She had visited the southern continent on her own for a few years, and she knew that continent didn't have that many strong people in it.
Event the northern continent only had a handful of people that could be considered strong, and half of that was due to Ning's influence.
The ones that were strong on their own didn't have anything to do with Alchemy as far as Ely could remember. 'So… it's senior Hyesi's group, right?' Ely thought.
'Whatever, I will find out soon,' she thought and stopped caring about it.
The person from the academy took them to the island and showed them the newly built buildings. The massive deserted island was now full of buildings and stuff.
"You guys did this in just a year huh? That's very impressive," Yola said.
"Thank you, senior," the person said.
They landed down in front of a rather large building.
"Please enter, Senior. This is the place you will be staying for the next 30 days."
