"This…" Arthur was hesitant about this. "This will cause many problems I suppose."
'Ding! You can't advance with an impure soul. You need to deal with this first.'
"Sigh," Arthur shook his head before closing his eyes again, "I have little time left for the competition. Let me train and see if I can reach stage seven before the contest," he paused as he was reminded by something, "Gege, how is the absorption of that original world going?"
'I'm still absorbing it,' she replied before adding, 'it will take more time to finish.'
"Sigh," Arthur didn't say anymore before returning to his cultivation again.
Time passed fast and before he could reach the seventh base, Doaf came to interrupt his training.
"It's time," he simply stated.
"So soon," Arthur bitterly smiled.
"Six days have passed since coming here. It's almost time for us to go and attend the initial opening."
"Any news?" Arthur stood up as he asked.
And Doaf simply shook his head in response.
"Sigh, alright lead the way," Arthur then followed him to find his team was waiting for him along with the five other teams of the academy.
"?Are you ready?" he asked as he went ahead towards the gate.
"We are," Amelia said before pausing with a dignified face.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"This ceremony will have a competition for weak academies to prove their worth in joining," she said and didn't add anymore.
Arthur nodded in understanding. "Looking down on us?" he muttered.
"But they chose a strange academy we never heard of before," one of the five teams spoke. He was in his late twentieth, seemingly one of those rank nine at the academy.
"Not from around here?" Arthur muttered before asking, "did you collect any info about them?"
"We did," Doaf was the one to speak this time, "we tried to investigate it but have nothing in return. No team knew about this academy before."
"Interesting," Arthur realized it was a dark clan or academy. "Have you gathered any info about their teams?" he asked.
"Just a little info about some of their teams," Doaf answered again, "they have six teams like us."
"Trying to crush us on the first encounter," Arthur muttered before asking, "what are the rules?"
"Each team for himself," Amelia said before adding, "and the themes of the contest are the same like the themes in the main one."
"Which are?"
"Forging, potion and pill making, arrays, abilities, and fight," Amelia said before adding, "and fight is divided into personal fight and group fight, with personal fight preceding the first and at least half of the initial team must be alive before the group fight."
"They are aiming to kill us all," Arthur laughed before glancing at the five teams as he added, "if you can't do it, just surrender and don't endanger yourselves."
He didn't see anything bad from them during the short dealing with these teams. This was simply a sincere advice as he didn't want them to throw themselves for nothing.
"We will compete," another disciple said in a prideful tone, "we won't accept such injustice. These rules are new, never been before in any contest."
"They did this specifically for us," another disciple complained.
"The reason doesn't matter, only focus on winning," Arthur sighed before turning his gaze up front.
The road to the place of the competition was easily recognized as everyone was heading there. Arthur and his academy teams moved towards the forefront, penetrating a large audience that crowded around large platforms that floated in the air.
And beside this, there were five towers representing the five great powers observing this contest. The towers reminded him of the pillars, grand and majestic.
And they floated in air too, while their peaks were linked to the sky, creating five portals there.
"Do you recognize any of these five powers?" Arthur whispered to Doaf while passing through the crowd.
"None is considered a friend to grandmaster or his clan."
"So we can't infiltrate these towers," Arthur asked to confirm.
"We might try," Doaf said before adding, "but I doubt we can do anything."
"Then don't," Arthur sighed before reaching the front with others.
There was an empty region marking the area of the contest. There he was checked by some of the disciples of the Locek academy under the supervision of many masters.
"They seem to hate us," Deem muttered as they stood now in wait for all teams to assemble and the ceremony to start.
"Don't mind them," Arthur said, "we are here to crush them all, not to make friends."
Arthur's words made everyone change their mindset. He was right to state this, as they were all stressed before by the cold shoulder they all received and gazes filled with hatred.
They didn't wait for so long before all the teams assembled. "There are many," Arthur muttered, yet before anyone could answer him a group of flying masters appeared from far.
They wore golden capes and looked dignified. The moment they appeared, a cheer erupted from most of the audience here stating clearly their high status in the academy.
"Welcome to our humble academy everyone," the eldest man spoke as he stood in the middle of the air without any help from any pet. "I'm happy to announce that the third thousand and two hundred and fifty-three tournament to start now."
The man waved his hand and fireworks appeared around the hanged platform in the air before adding, "as you all have been informed, the contest this year is slightly different.
We received many unknown teams from many academies in our world and worlds around us. So, we will do a vetting competition first to filter all these numbers under the eyes and witness of our venerable guests."
The dean of the academy bowed in respect to the towers around. "Now each team participating in this vetting will have a number.. These numbers will be randomly shuffled and picked by our esteemed guests to ensure the fairness of this."
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