At daybreak, a ray of sunlight broke the darkness as it shined down onto the earth. Yunwu City was like a pot of boiling water, slowly getting roused.
To the west of Yunwu City was a large sized arena for official fights. Normally it was used for martial arts tournaments, but today, it is exclusively for the Genius Contest.
Able to house thousands of spectators, the arena was already crawling with people.
"Chief Escort Wang, what brings you here today? I heard that the Shunfeng Security Escort just took a huge escort task."
"I will squeeze time out even if I don't have any. My son is participating today."
"Merchant Zhao, your son couldn't be joining this genius fight right?"
"My son isn't old enough yet, but my god son is joining today. Isn't your son already 16, you also don't have a god son, what are you here for?"
"I'm just here to see the shift of power."
All the influential people in Yunwu City were here for the bi-annual genius contest. It was a huge event, and at the same time a good chance to mutually scout one another.
With the result of the contest, if one of the clans has more exceptional disciples, they would try to gain better ties with them. On the contrary, for the past decade, everyone was withdrawing from the Li Clan due to their lack of candidates for the Cang Lan Sect. This year would be their last chance to prove that they are worth the title of a major clan.
"Look! The Yangs are here. Established for nearly a century, they have the longest history among the 4 major clans. Will they create another legend today?"
As the crowd was looking, the Yang Clan streamed in from one of the entrances.
With the largest group among the other major clans, they had a total of 9 contestants participating today.
"I must become a Cang Lan Sect disciple."
Yang Qi clenched his fist tightly, he emitted a killing intent that showed that he was ready to kill even a god if a god obstructed him.
"The Guan Clan is here as well, these years the Guans are as glamorous as they can get. I estimate within a few years, the Guans will surpass the Yangs, even the Shen Tu clan may not be safe either.
In the eyes of everyone, the Guan Clan's rise was too exaggerated. An unknown minor clan 20 years ago; and now 20 years later, they have overtaken the Li Clan and were chasing right after the Yang Clan and Shen Tu Clan.
In the views of some, they had already surpassed the Yang Clan, the reason is because of the advance recruitment of Guan Xue.
Taking the lead, Guan Yue stride in with his head held high, with a smile that reeked of arrogance.
Coincidentally, at the opposite entrance, the Li Clan entered at the same time.
With Li Tianhan at the front; with no hint of hesitation, he looked straight into Guan Yue's eyes.
There wasn't any sense of guilt within the eyes of Guan Yue, instead they were high-spirited and vigorous. In this cruel world, who was right and who was wrong isn't crucial. What's of importance is one's choice of action, and Guan Yue believed he chose the right path. Seeing the declining Li clan was proof that nothing could stop his up and rising Guan Clan.
With a blurred vision, Li Tianhan subtly shifted his line of sight.
"The Li Clan is here, pff pff, only 4 participants. It seems the fall of the Li Clan is destined. I wonder if the Li Clan will have anyone succeed?"
"Don't even go there. I heard within the Yunwu City region, there have been plenty of geniuses appearing. Take for instance, the north's He Ping, south's Si Fei, east's Hong Xiu, and west's Sun Di. Taking into the account the geniuses from the rest of the major clans. It would be easier for pigs to fly than the Li Clan getting one of the top 5 spots."
"If the Li Clan can't make it this time around, they have no hope in making a comeback."
Discussion were going on, one after the next in the stands.
Following closely behind Li Tianhan was Li Fuchen. Sweeping his sight over the crowd, he memorized all the expressions of these people.
"The Li Clan is in a really bad position!"
Li Fuchen's heart sighed.
He didn't blame these people for being self-centered, as the principle of this world, was that the strong reigned supreme. If one couldn't adapt, then they could only wait for destruction. But if one was only concern for one's own interest, and didn't care for their honor or forsake their integrity, then the end result would definitely turn out for the worst.
The law of cause and effect; karma was always just around the corner.
Karma seemed to not exist at times, but it would strike sooner or later.
***
The arena was shaped like a Colosseum. With the stage at the center, surrounded by the spectators. In between the stage and audience was a flat contour where the contestants waited in their groups.
As Li Fuchen did not receive any guidance from Li Shanhe. Li Hongkai and Li Xiangdong stood alongside Li Yunhai and segregated themselves from Li Fuchen.
Li Hongkai shot a glance at Li Fuchen and thought to himself, "Li Fuchen is too arrogant, he assumed that he didn't require any guidance from Uncle Shanhe. He wouldn't have known that after these days, the combat skills of both Xiangdong and mine has improved significantly. We have long left our past selves behind, but he is still remains as he was."
"Greetings to Elder Chen and City Lord."
At the podium, Guan Hong, Guan Yan, Yang Lie, Yang Zhan, Shen Tu Hu, Shen Tu Ba, and Li Shanhe could be seen paying their respects to Chen Zongming and Shen Tu Jianhe.
Shen Tu Jianhe waved his hand, "There is no need to be overly courteous, sit down and enjoy the matches!"
These seven individuals who were Cang Lan inner sect disciples had the qualification to sit on the podium.
Chen Zongming faced Shen Tu Jianhe and advised, "Shen Tu City Lord, the time is right, let the genius contest begin."
"Indeed."
Shen Tu Jianhe raised his voice and began announcing the contest rules and rewards.
The 4 basic rules of the contest:
Any violations will result in the immediate disqualification of the individual, they will then face their punishment accordingly
As for the generous rewards:
6th to 20th place - 1000 gold, 1 bottle of low-tier, yellow class spirit qi pills
4th to 5th place - 2000 gold, 2 bottles of spirit qi pills
3rd place - 3000 gold, 5 bottles of spirit qi pills
2nd place - 5000 gold, 1 bottle of mid-tier, yellow class qi accumulating pills
1st place - 10,000 gold, 2 bottles of qi accumulating pills
Most important of all, on top of the rewards, the top 5 places will enter the Cang Lan Sect as disciples.
Hearing the rewards, Li Fuchen was perturbed. 1 bottle of spirit qi pills cost over 200 gold and 1 bottle of qi accumulating pills was valued at 2000 gold. If he got first place, the reward would well exceed the total of 10,000 gold. It was such an alluring reward that even Origin Stage cultivators would crave.
"Such generous rewards. Just getting into the top 20 is quite the catch, let alone the spot for entering the Cang Lan Sect."
"That is obvious, many are here just for the rewards. It isn't that simple to get into the top 5."
There were tons of envious people among the spectators.
Once Shen Tu Jianhe finished announcing the rules and rewards, the contestants began to draw lots.
This time around, there was a total of 160 contestants who were not more than 16 years of age and had minimum cultivation level at the fifth level of the Qi Stage.
On the stage, Li Fuchen randomly picked the number 37. This would mean he would fight the other youth who picked number 37.
"With the Genius Contest officially started; will the two contestants with lot number 1 please come to the stage."
Finally, the Genius contest had begun.