Soon after the voice sounded, from inside the perfectly manicured grass field, a navy blue tubular-shaped structure made of energy emerged. Three people were sitting inside the structure. From the onlookers' point of view, it looked like a giant pill with three people sitting inside before a large table.
On the left sat a red-haired man in his early forties, he was neither too thin nor bulky. His cheerful smile showed his playful character. On the right side was another man who seemed to be in his early sixties. On the contrary to the red-haired man, this white-haired man had a solemn look on his slightly wrinkled face. Stuck between the two was a young girl in her mid-teens. She had dull orange eyes and her elbow-length, curly, pink hair was neatly braided. The commentator pill was etched with runes that amplified their voice throughout the arena.
"First of all the championship tournament committee likes to convey our deepest apologies for the postponement" the red-haired man spoke in an apologetic tone.
"It's not as if we went on a trip, they all know about the void day. The committee needed to come up with some way to determine the competitors' cultivation level" the white-haired man said without hiding his over the head arrogance.
"Gentleman, I think we first need to introduce ourselves, don't you think?" the girl let out a playful giggle before talking.
"Ladies and gentle, we are your commentators, for both tournaments, Im Ishihara Minako"
"I am James Hall, two times Royal times best commentator award winner," the cheery red-haired man said with a laugh. Everyone could sense the pride behind his laugh.
"I am Darius Russell, former swordmaster of Aragoth"
The audience began to gasp when they heard the man. No one reacted the same way as they did for Russell as they did for James because the position of Swordmaster of Aragoth outclassed the best commentator award by miles. Moreover, anyone who got the Swordmaster title held a highly esteemed position in society as even the kings would show them respect. Hence the reason for Darius's pride.
"Now that we introduced ourselves, let's bring the battle stage up" Darius clapped his hands together. After the runes amplified the clapping sound to the entire arena, everyone heard a loud cracking noise emerging from inside the grass field.
Many people stood up to look at the grass field. They saw the grass field split open in the middle. The two halves of the grass fields slowly retracted sideways as a spacious circular stage emerged from within. In a couple of minutes, the lush green grass field was nowhere to be seen and replaced by a grayish round stage. The stage could easily hold seventy to eighty people without each of them feeling crowded.
"Before we move forward, let us explain the format of the competitions," Ishihara said in a playful voice,
"You ladies and gentlemen may already know, We have two championship tournaments. One for Body Strengthening stage cultivators and one for Core Formation stage cultivators. Both tournaments have the same format, Sword Master Darius" James looked at Darius to explain the format as the swordmaster began to talk in his serious voice.
"The tournaments have 6 rounds, the last three being quarter-final, semi-final, and grand finale respectively. 100 participants will start the tournament and fight in the first round. The second round will have 40 people" Darius said,
"You know what that means ladies and gentle, bye-bye for 60 youngsters after the first round" Hall chuckled as Darius continued,
"Out of 40, only 20 will go to the third round. At the end of the third round, the judges will eliminate 10 participants based on points and votes" Darius paused for a moment to let Hall speak,
"Due to complications during the last couple of tournaments, the tournament committee decided not to disclose any information about the judges. The judges will be anonymous so don't try to find them, or worse, bribe them"
Everyone in the arena knew his words were directed to the powerful noble families. They were the ones who would try to bribe the judges to get the youngsters of their family closer to the championship titles. In the past, the tournament committee had to spend millions of gold coins to ensure the safety of the judges as well as the integrity of the tournaments. Some noble families had even tried to kill the judges who refused to take bribes from them.
"I'm sure nothing terrible will happen this year. Darius, please continue" Ishihara said,
"10 youngsters will enter the quarter-final. It'll be 5 versus 5. Among the 5 winners, one will be eliminated according to the points given by the judges"
"And worry not, although it'll be the end of one's journey, he or she will receive valuable treasures as a prize for reaching or surviving hehehe" Yet again, Hall finished his words with a chuckle
"Semi-final will let only the best two enter the grand final" Darius finished explaining the format. The people let the information sink into their heads for a few moments before Ishihara broke the silence with her sweet melodic voice,
"Now it's time to go over the rules. James" she turned her gaze towards James,
"As the name itself suggest, the participants for the Body Strengthening stage tournament must be at the Body Strengthening stage while Core Formation stage participants must be at the Core Formation stage" James Hall explained as Darius continued,
"Anyone between the age of 10-23 can participate in the Body Strengthening stage tournament. Participants for the Core Formation stage tournament must be below the age of 30. we have arrays placed on the stage to determine one's age, if you're older than 30 and think you can participate with the help of a spell or potion, I recommend you not to unless you really want to end up like a cooked turkey"
"Hahaha," A small portion of the onlookers laughed like he was kidding but the rest of them knew he was serious, deadly serious.
"We'll not bore you with the rules for each round, it'll be more interesting to go over them before the starting of each round"
Boom!
After James spoke, another loud booming sound reverberated the arena. The onlookers looked up at the sky to see several white-robed figures in pairs descending to the stage. Each pair was carrying a six feet mirror with a golden border. The closer the pairs got to the stage, the more the people could see the glowing runes on the mirrors. Unlike the runes, none of them were able to see the gears, nuts, and bolts behind the mirror.
In a couple of minutes, the white-robed people brought six mirrors onto the stage. They gently placed the mirrors on the stage as the people tried to figure out the purpose of the mirrors,
"Participants for the Body Strengthening stage please come to the stage and follow the instructions given by the coordinators' ' While the participants were getting ready to hop onto the stage, each pair of coordinators flicked their wrist as a 12 feet tall pillar beside the mirrors. The pillar was made of 10 black rocks. Each rock was separated by a thick silver lining that glowed in the light.
The onlookers immediately became excited to see the young celebrities make their entrance.
"Can you give us a rundown on how this mirror works Darius? I heard you were in the team that built these wonderful devices that gauge someone's cultivation level" Everyone looked at Darius after hearing James.
"I doubt the people will be interested in knowing how the Bias law works with Mirateen runes to produce a Fusion effect"
"It seems like we have to settle for the short version" James chuckled
"When a participant places his hand on the mirror, the runes will extract a sliver of Arch energy from their body. The mechanism behind the mirror will work with the runes to analyze the sliver of Arch energy and light up the pillar beside the mirror"
"As we can all see, each pillar has 10 separated rocks. I assume each of the rocks will represent a level of one's cultivation stage" Ishihara asked,
"Yes, the level goes from bottom to the top. For instance, if a Body Strengthening stage level 3 cultivator placed his hand on the mirror, the third rock from the bottom would glow in green. The beauty of this device is, it will not only show one's level but also show how pure the Arch energy in his or her body"
After Darius explained, many people gasped in startlement.
"The purer your Arch energy is, the more powerful you are. If two cultivators on the same cultivation stage and level fought with the same spells, the victor will be decided by the Arch energy purity" James Hall explained for the comments who had little knowledge about Arch energy purity. The cultivators knew the importance of keeping their Arch energy pure as that was why nobles would go crazy for potions and pills that cleanse their bodies to make the Arch energy in their body pure. Michael was making a fortune selling Revitalizing pills that cleanse a cultivator's body.
The purity of the Arch energy was the one that separates a normal cultivator from a prodigy. This was also the reason many cultivators avoid eating meat in restaurants and prefer to keep their bodies satiated with only Arch energy instead of food.
"The brightness of the glow will determine one's arch energy purity" Darius finished explaining how the mirror worked as Ishihara asked a question,
"What would happen if someone above the Body Strengthening stage touched the mirror?"
"Instead of the pillar, the mirror will let out a bright red glow and the one touched the mirror will be detained for processing. Believe me, you don't want to violate the rules set by the committee"
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