Barden turned to John and patted him on the back. "Up you go. I'll be in the stands with the rest of the clan. Good luck."
John nodded his head and watched his father and most of the clan walk off towards the stands before he turned around and joined the rest of his clan's juniors in walking up to the stage. The other powers followed suit, and soon over eighty juniors were on the stage.
Waylon looked at the crowd of boys and girls for a bit before he continued.
"There are eighty four participants. Since this is the case, we will be using a seeded format to decide which bottom twenty participants get eliminated. The bottom forty seeded participants will fight each other, and the twenty losers will be eliminated. That will leave us with sixty four participants, at which point we can proceed without any bye rounds until a victor is crowned. Any questions?"
A Flowing River Sect junior raised her hand and asked a question. "How are we to be seeded?"
"An excellent question" responded Waylon and pointed to the ten foot tall stone tablet behind him before continuing. "This stone tablet behind me is a Qi Formation Tablet. By placing your palm on the tablet and sending your strongest burst of Qi into it, it will measure how powerful your Qi surge is at its peak, and we will sort according to those rankings. Qi power doesn't necessarily equal fighting power, as fighting techniques and battle instincts can allow for someone weaker to win against someone with stronger Qi, but it is a good approximation for this tournament."
The girl nodded her head after Waylon described the seeding process.
"Any other questions?"
No one had any further questions, and so Waylon Varis proceeded with the seeding process.
"We will start with the Varis Clan, then the Flowing River Sect, the Ronan Clan, the Fenix Clan, and finally the Crimson Valley Sect."
Waylon Varis turned to his daughter Ella Varis who was on the stage and urged her forward to begin the proceedings. Ella was almost fifteen years old like John, and had entered the late Mist Creation Realm just recently. Ryan looked at Ella with an infatuated look as she walked towards the stone tablet, an action not unnoticed by John.
"Are you finally going to properly talk to her today?" John asked Ryan.
Ryan snapped out of his trance and looked towards John with a sheepish smile. "Uhhh, maybe. We'll see."
John rolled his eyes at Ryan's lack of confidence but said nothing. They both watched as Ella Varis walked up to the tablet and placed her hand on a circular engraving at the center of the tablet. After a few seconds of focusing, Ella urged Qi from her dantian and into the stone tablet as explosively as she could.
The engravings and marks on the tablet started to glow a dazzlingly beautiful blue color for several seconds before the color faded and the tablet returned to normal. A blue number soon appeared at the top of the tablet.
A smile broke out on Waylon's face as he looked at the number that his daughter produced.
"Hey, not bad. Six Hundred. Looks like Ella might have a chance at qualifying for the pocket realm." In the crowd, Cade and his three sons, Orenn, Rodi, and Barden were conversing regarding the results of the Qi test.
Barden nodded his head at his fathers words. "Waylon can truly be proud. His son Miko is an absolute genius, and his daughter is quite talented herself."
"I just hope someone from this group of ours can put on a good performance like Parker." Orenn piped up regarding his son's performance, and Parker, who was sitting closely to the site, had a large smile appear on his face.
Barden looked towards his brother Orenn and smiled before replying. "Oh, I think you'll be quite surprised today."
Orenn looked at his brother and then towards the crowd of Fenix youths. "I still don't know what your son is thinking of participating in this tournament. With his middle Mist Creation cultivation, the only thing he will do is embarrass both himself and our clan."
Barden looked at his brother Orenn from the side of his eye and remained silent for some time before answering. "Just wait and watch."
Back on the stage, Ella Varis had finished up her tests and so had the rest of the Varis Clan. The highest score achieved was six hundred and thirty by a sixteen year old boy. Ella Varis came in third for her clan, while the lowest score was three hundred.
Waylon Varis nodded his head in satisfaction at the results before he turned towards the Flowing River Sect group and urged them forwards. Several participants scored between three hundred and five hundred before excited murmurs broke out throughout the crowd. A tall, muscular boy was standing before the stone tablet, his long brown hair flowing behind him.
"Six hundred and fifty, that's the new high score."
"Who is that?" asked another in the crowd.
"That's Dalton. He's the number one genius for this group from the Flowing River Sect. I heard he's still fourteen, which is amazing."
"Wow, he might be a favorite to win."
Dalton looked at his number on the tablet as a large satisfied smile appeared on his face. He walked back to his group and was welcomed with happy cheers. The rest of the Flowing River Sect then tested themselves, but none of them equaled the number of Dalton.
Waylon once again nodded his head in recognition at the impressive group of youths before he turned to the Ronan Clan and urged them to test. For the Ronan Clan, the highest tested number was also six hundred and fifty, and belonged to a young girl by the name of Joy Ronan. She had a petite frame and a fair face, and her long blonde hair fell down to her shoulders, making her quite a popular with many of the boys in the crowd.
After the Ronan Clan was done with their tests, Waylon turned to the Fenix Clan youths and urged them forward. Ryan was the first one to walk up to the tablet. He took a deep breath at the tablet before he put his hand on the center circle and urged his Qi into it.
Dazzling blue lights started to flicker off the tablet before they eventually died down.
"Six hundred. Good job." Waylon Varis said to Ryan as he recorded the number.
Ryan smiled happily as he turned back towards the Fenix Clan group.
"Haha, not bad. Your number is well within the top twenty so far. You really do have a shot at the pocket realm!" John congratulated Ryan when he returned to the group.
"It's not bad" responded Ryan with a nonchalant comment, but the slight smile on his face betrayed his emotions.
John shook his head at Ryan's actions and watched as several more Fenix Clan youths went up to be tested. The highest number in the group so far was six hundred and twenty five from Grant Fenix. Grant Fenix smiled at his score and proudly walked back towards the group.
Ryan scoffed at his proud antics and whispered to John. "He acts so proud but he's already sixteen. If we were his age we would be in the Qi Condensation Realm already."
John laughed lightly at Ryan's comments but said nothing, as the matter had nothing to do with him.
John waited until it was eventually his turn, at which point he started walking towards the stone tablet.
He felt several divine senses pass over him, at which point loud laughter broke out throughout the crowd.