The calm restored in the crowd as the devil path disciples entered the barrier. The only difference being the additional large flying devices which were now landed on one side of the original gathering.

It seemed that the senior disciples of the various sects have rounded up a large number of Foundation stage and below monster beasts and placed them inside the barrier. There were a lot of monster beasts and battles between cultivators and monster beasts could be seen on all twenty screens.

After a few hours, the devil path disciples also caught up to the monster beast infested areas of the forest and started their own respective battles.

Over the two days, there were also battles between disciples, however, no fatal injury was incurred. It would not be good to answer to respective sects if a disciple was killed after all.

Many of the confrontations were between correct path and devil path to no one’s surprise. Quite a few of the weaker disciples used the tokens to call for rescue upon encountering life-threatening danger.

Shen and Xue’er watched the competition peacefully, occasionally chatting with the surrounding rogue cultivators.

It was difficult for a rogue cultivator with no affiliation to improve one’s cultivation, since resources were hard to come by. There were only a few False Immortal seniors who came to escort their disciples or relatives to enter the competition.

Seeing that Shen and Xue’er had good cultivation, they were able to get along with a number of Nascent Soul and Soul Formation cultivators.

***

“Big Brother Shen, it’s not as fun as I thought it’d be. Thank heavens that it only goes for two days.” Xue’er was lazily half lying on the table as she sat watching the screens.

The time was nearing to the end of the first stage where the barrier would expel those who held tokens.

There was a subtle loophole that could be used to endanger someone at the end of the competition period, however the risks of getting caught were too high, therefore no sect would instruct its disciples to exploit it.

Shen was still sipping on a bottle of wine as he watched on. One would have to wonder the amount of wine he consumed over the last few days. He drank an average bottle in a couple of hours.

“Haha, it’s going to end soon. In half hour at most. We’ll see who gets in the top 100 then we can leave on our journey.” Shen wasn’t too worried. He had spent countless star cycles merely observing other beings.

This mere two days was nothing to him. Xue’er was really bored on the other hand as seeing Foundation stage cultivators battling was of no interest to her after the first few battles.

“I want to take the flying ship!”

“Haha, ok we’ll take the flying ship.”

There was a service provided by the cultivator cities that operated a large flying device akin to the ones the devil path alliance rode on.

The ships were a good way for weaker cultivators to travel between cities as the distance was vast and filled with dangerous monster beasts and rogue evil cultivators.

With Shen and Xue’er’s strength, it would have been no problem for them to travel between each city personally. However, Xue’er wanted to try riding a large flying device.

After a bit of time, the barrier enveloping the forest entrance started pulsating.

The Earth Immortals who had been sitting down for the past 48 hours cancelled the screens and stood up. Each of them went back to their respective sects.

This signalled the end of the first stage. Soon, junior disciples and rogue cultivators started to appear outside the barrier.

It took about another half hour for all participants to be exited. The barrier finally dispersed fully after everyone had come out.

The middle-aged Sky Immortal who was sitting on the stage with eyes closed stood up and walked forward a few steps.

“You will now hand over the tokens to us five elders. One hundred names with the highest scores will be displayed on this board. The elder gestured to the tall black stone board that was on the stage.

It took another hour or so to complete the collection of the tokens from the now over one thousand participants. The leader board had the prominent young juniors from the correct path as well as the devil path spread out in between, albeit in less numbers. There were also a few dark horses from the rogue cultivators.

“Ok, the first stage of the competition has come to an end. The second and final stage will be held in the cultivator city ‘Second Heaven’ in three months’ time. The one hundred names on the list will be narrowed down to ten.

That is all. Everyone can disperse.”

The middle-aged man and the four Sky Immortals all flew up after the speech towards the city.

The crowd started getting noisy. The one hundred people who had gotten into the list were surrounded by their sects and families, while the others were naturally ignored.

“How anticlimactic.” Shen mused as he watched over the proceedings.

“Well, this happens every ten years. And despite the chance to enter the Enlightenment Tower, almost no one gets any of the inheritance left behind after all.” A cultivator that was in Shen’s circle of new acquaintances over the last two days commented.

Eventually, the various sects and families started taking off into the air in groups or took out their flying devices. The devil path alliance also left towards the way they came on their eight large flying devices.

Shen and Xue’er stored the table the chairs and headed back to the city after bidding goodbye to the people they came to know.

“Well, Xue’er, let us get some more wine – I mean supplies and catch the flight to the nearest cultivator city. I heard it is going to take off tomorrow morning.”

“Ok, Big Brother Shen.” Xue’er sweetly smiled flying alongside Shen.

“I should try breaking through Soul Formation after we get to the next city. That way we’ll have the same cultivation.” Shen happily chuckled. He had become rather fond of the quiet beauty that he had only met for less than one month.

The couple entered the city from the gate. There were a lot of traffic due to the competition. It took over two hours to get inside.

They went and bought some wine and Xue’er visited more clothing shops before heading to Green Bamboo Manor once more.

Shen and Xue’er stayed the night in a random inn since the period for their cave mansion had ended and they did not extend the time. Xue’er had gotten used to having Shen around to the point that it did not occur to her to get two separate rooms.

As usual the couple slept on the same bed and as usual Shen would wake up tangled up by Xue’er.

In the morning, Xiao Yan and Little White were on the table inside their room, having breakfast.

“Xiao Yan, do you have a way to recede your flames? You are way to eye catching with those around.”

[Of course, master, I can control flames naturally.]

‘Why did you never mention it!’ Shen shouted in his head as he watched Xiao Yan become a slightly red four-legged creature without flames dancing around it all the time.

“Wow, now Xiao Yan can stay outside all the time!” Xue’er was happy to have one more companion on their journey. It was not unusual for a Soul Formation cultivator to have a Core Formation spirit beast.

After checking out, the couple and two magic beasts walked towards the outskirt of the city to board the flying ship.