Chapter 77: Battle start (1)
“Calm down.” Ye Hua stared at Li Xin, “All the talents from the entire Temple Alliance will gather here to participate in the Demon Hunt Selection. Why are you surprised that there are a few Earth Knights appearing here and there? There may be at least one person for each Earth Knight rank. Do not forget, the Knight Temple is the strongest out of the Six Grand Temples. Furthermore, it’s not only our Knight Temple that sent knights at the fifth step, the five other temples also sent their own fifth step powerhouses. In the previous Demon Hunt Selection, the final rounds of the top tens were full of contestants with fifth step vocations. You should not be arrogant about being strong here even if you were strong within Hao Yue City. With your current status, your task is to finish in the top 10 of the qualification, before trying your best during the final stage, aiming to join a Demon Hunt Squad.”
Even though a lot of formidable youths were participating in the current Demon Hunt Squad’s Tournament, Ye Hua wasn’t anxious. Long Hao Chen is only fourteen years old, he can participate in two more Demon Hunt Selections. This time, our main goal is to let him experience it once. As for his ranking, we will see that in the next tournament. In five more years, Long Hao Chen should be able to reach the step of Earth Knight, right? Hmpf, he will probably be at least a peaked Earth Knight.
Of course, Ye Hua would not say those words to Long Hao Chen now, as he did not wish to make his apprentice lose his fighting spirit.
“Apparently, the fights in the preliminary round are even more brutal than those in the final rounds. It will be a knockout tournament. However, competitors at the fifth step or above will not have to fight for the first two rounds. Furthermore, the Temple will arrange for them to have the opportunity to be in top 10. This is to ensure that our Knight Temple will have better rankings in the final round. So, you two will have to prepare yourselves, do not make any mistakes. Otherwise, it is very likely that you will be eliminated in the first round.”
“Yes.” Long Hao Chen and Li Xin respectfully replied.
Ye Hua said: “Good, now you should return to your rooms to rest. Before the tournament starts, do not go out; if you can increase your spiritual power by even a little bit, you will have better odds of winning against your opponents.”
Long Hao Chen returned to his room; when he was about to start his practice, Ye Hua arrived.
“Teacher.” Long Hao Chen respectfully saluted Ye Hua.
Ye Hua waved, meaning to tell him to sit down: “Tell me what you have been going through since the trials started.”
Naturally, Long Hao Chen did not hide anything. He reported everything in detail., including the fact that their team had successfully hunted down members of the Luke Clan, the Dyke Clan, and finally a Dark-Green Dual-Bladed Demon. He also did not hide either the fact he ran into Lin Xin and Sima Xian the violent priest, after these events.
When he heard Long Hao Chen say that they had successfully killed a Dark Green Dual Bladed Demon, Ye Hua could not help but crack a smile. But this smile quickly turned into anger.
“You fool, why did you agree to make this promise? You’ve been tricked!”
Long Hao Chen was surprised for a moment, then said: “Teacher, Lin Xin looked quite sincere, and in addition, he gave me some pretty good pills!”
Ye Hua patted on his own forehead, sighed loudly and said: “You little kid, you are still too naive. You thought that your chance of entering the top three was not high, so this promise was no big deal, didn’t you?”
Long Hao Chen did not say anything but at that time he had indeed that thought.
“You, ah, you, let me tell you what happened. He had definitely used the [Identification Method], so he could see through your age and spiritual level. You’re only fourteen, so even if you don’t succeed this time, will it still be that difficult for you to get in the top three next time? I’m pretty sure that this kid is not be at most twenty years old, so he will be able to participate in the next tournament. Moreover, his magic skills should not be that simple.”
Long Hao Chen bowed his head: “I am sorry, Teacher. I was wrong.”
Ye Hua sighed heavily: “Well, you can’t take back your promise, since you already gave it. A real man keeps his promises 1 after all. Let me take a look at the medicine he gave you.”
Long Hao Chen quickly took out the three types of special pills and the energy pills from ‘forget-me-not’, and handed them to Ye Hua.
“Hmph, that little bastard still had some conscience. All of them are fourth tier pills. If you are to sell these bottles, ten thousand gold coins may not even be enough to buy all of them. If he was really the one who cooked these medicines, even if he is a bit lacking at magic, he should still be qualified to become your teammate. Keep these well, you’ll need to try your best during these days. I’ll give you a simple goal: to enter the final round.”
There was no audience during the Demon Hunt Selections because in the future, members of the Demon Hunt Squads had to fight against the demon race. Their informations had to be kept confidential. Thus, to ordinary people, even though they were aware that the event happened, they had no knowledge of its process or result.
Long Hao Chen’s plate number was 97, the same as his innate spiritual power, Li Xin’s plate number was 98.
The day of the competition arrived. Early in the morning, Ye Hua took the two to the Alliance’s Great Stadium.
The whole Great Stadium was built while taking the Six Temples into account. Therefore, inside the stadium, there were six smaller trial grounds belonging to each of the Six Temples. Long Hao Chen and Li Xin, using their number plates, directly reported to their arrival to the Knight Stadium. Ye Hua, as their teacher, presented an introduction letter written by Hao Yue City’s consulate, allowing him to accompany them. Of course, there could only be a single representative teacher for each vocations of a city.
Since they had completed the bone age test the day before, they only needed to check in using their number plates starting from today.
“Brother Ye Hua, we meet again.” Gui Ying and Gui Wu, father and son, happened to arrive as Long Hao Chen was checking in.
Ye Hua lightly said, with cold eyes, “You better pray that your son does not run into Long Hao Chen.” Finishing the sentence, he then went inside with Long Hao Chen and Li Xin.
Gui Ying coldly said: “The one who should be worried is you.”
Ye Hua came to a halt, and without looking back, he said: “Also, go wash your face so as not to dirty my hands when the moment comes.”
“You……” Gui Ying’s face contorted with anger, almost starting to attack. But Ye Hua had already gone in alongside Long Hao Chen and Li Xin.
The Alliance’s Great Stadium was not in the open, each of the 66 square meters long sub-stadiums were under a huge dome, measured at 300 meters in diameter, and covering the whole stadium. If one was to look at the stadium from above, he could see that on its ground, there were six huge semi-circular projections.
Entering the Knight’s Arena, there was blast coming from the fluctuations of powerful elemental magic. Here, the elemental magic almost seemed to materialize. Although it didn’t have offensive purposes, it still produced some kind of invisible pressure.
Above the dome, huge magic symbols could be vaguely seen. There were different complex magic spells everywhere; they clearly had their own unique functions.
In the middle of the stadium stood an enormous plaza with a diameter of 200 meters. The ground was covered by a layer of sandy soil. Reportedly, a powerful magic was cast below the ground, so that no matter how badly this sandy soil was destroyed, it could be restored in a short time.
There were audience stands around the plaza; in the middle of those, a location stood out prominently: it was the stadium’s podium.
“What strong fluctuations of elemental magic!” Li Xin exclaimed.
1. this idiom (一诺千金) literally means ‘a promise is worth a thousand gold coins’.