Sam is done with checking the device. Now, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes, and started meditating. It is not for cultivation. There is not even a single strand of energy. In fact, he sealed his own cultivation at this point and started thinking.
Now it is time for him to process all the new information he received. With the talk he had with the god and also the battle he had with the two candidates, he gained a lot of information.
For starters, he came to know about the blood arts they are using and why they are similar. He even stayed his hand to see what that technique exactly is and let them finish the technique. Since he wanted to flex his own body for a bit, then it turned out well. Otherwise, he would have already made a move and stopped them using any form of a secret art, by any cost if it was a real battle.
Apart from that, he also came to know that every other player except for him have these blood arts and are all tailor-made by the gods.
The selection of candidates has something more depth than he thought.
At first, he thought he was picked out at random and so were the rest of the candidates and it seemed to be true with the rest of the Gods except the Gambler.
Sam drew this conjecture from what Kartikeya said about the so-called disadvantages of Sam. At that moment, what he said might have been what he thought on his feet, but it really does seem true.
The Gambler must have actively sought out for him and already made all kinds of preparations including sending Yanwu, the divine dimension, the collection of the cultivation techniques, knowledge, and pill recipes.
As Kartikeya said, they already have enough pressure with competing with each other as they need to get to the Palace of Inheritance every three years. And not only do they have to compete against themselves, they would also have to transverse the dimensions and compete with the locals of their respective areas.
This is already hard enough. That is why the gods made a decision to give these special techniques and the Dimensional Crosser to these guys.
But The Gambler seemed to have risked everything related to this game. After all, if the selected party is not capable of utilizing the current situation properly and doesn't know how to take advantage of what he was given, The Gambler would have lost.
And one more thing, he got is that this thing really is a game. But instead of the game pieces, the players, are used and they will work independently not even knowing that their steps are being manipulated by the gods that sent them here.
Now after thinking about all of this, there is one question, what is the objective of the game?
What are the gods expecting from these twelve players? From the three palaces of inheritances, the first one mostly tested the overall talent in many aspects, the second one that belonged to the Monkey King tested the combat prowess and the third one tested the commanding skills and battle acumen.
And in each Palace, and every test have corresponded with the gods that are good at these things. They are giving the rewards away that are far too valuable for the world they are currently in.
Even though, Kartikeya said that this was merely entertainment, what sort of person would use those out-of-the-world arts, the resources, and the hassle of sending avatars to different dimensions all by themselves just for the sake of entertainment?
Sam had a really bad feeling about this.
He stopped his train of thoughts and opened his eyes. It is stupid to think too much about the things you cannot change.
He has to think about what to do in present.
At this moment, he has already sent orders to all the mines within the Nation and the nearby friendly nations. But it would take some time, for him to get the required materials.
Apart from that, he also has to place orders for the herbs and other crops that are special here along with a way to get the resources from the nations that are not friendly to Mov Empire.
Actually, he can use the Dimensional Drifter, but it wouldn't be economical at all. The cost is too big for just buying some metal, no matter how large the quantity is. In fact, he could get a decent load of these things with just the travel expenses if he used the Dimensional Drifter.
He wanted to ask Yodha if he can do anything about it and came out of his cottage.
Meanwhile, in the realms that are too far from any other being in the universe, there are twelve people sitting around a table as they discussed.
Indra is the first one to speak.
"Three Palaces are completed, it is about time we activate another part of the test. But we haven't even decided on what kind of test we are going to use. So, today I called all of you here to make decisions regarding this.
Currently, there are two proposals, I propose voting."
After he finished, the voting commenced and it was quite a disappointing result because the vote is equal.
And two people are neutral to any of the two proposals. They are Gambler and Kartikeya.
For some reason, Kartikeya is intently observing Gambler since the start of the meeting. After his talk with Sam, he felt like there is something wrong with the game this time.
As the decision is once again conflicted, Gambler spoke.
"I don't know why we are even fighting regarding this. I would say use both methods, one for now and the other one after the fourth palace, in fact, go on and make more proposals. We can use a different one every time.
What is all this unnecessary fuss about?"
He said so in an impatient voice. Everyone was stunned. It is not like they didn't think of it, but they are too bored to think intricately and create challenges. They don't want to that time and again and decided to keep only one format, and since the format is going to be there, they wanted it to be something they selected themselves so that they can feel better about themselves.
Who said gods are beyond regular vanity, here they are trying to fight over glory that as minute as this.
As if he could read their mind, Gambler said.
"It's not like you can only feel better with having only your format. Using different formats proposed by different people can allow you to compare and you can feel smug as much as you want if you can create a better test.
Anyway, we can add an extra gamble in this so that we can also get super goodies from each other."
Everyone rolled their eyes, this is so like The Gambler, he can include gambling in everything, but the person in question didn't even care and said.
"We will use proposal number one this time and we have to select a single candidate to be on one side and the rest of the eleven on the other side, so I think it is better to start voting regarding this."
"Let us call the single candidate the Black Horse. Now, let us started voting for Black horse candidate."
Kartikeya proposed and at this moment, almost half of them followed by Indra gave the same name.
"Sam."
"Sam."
"Sam."
.
.
Gambler and the remaining six were dumbfounded. These are the people who supported proposal one. They didn't know why they tried so hard to push the proposal given by Indra so strongly. After all, everyone on the team knows that no one can get along with Indra. Among the gods of the same level, Indra has the least friends, but he was still able to get this much support, this really made them think.
But now they understood. This is all a petty trick to get back at Sam. After all, everyone knew what happened in the first Palace. Indra felt his fragile ego got hurt because Sam rejected his enlightenment and tried to teach him a lesson and pressured him.
Sam didn't take it lying down, after enduring the pressure, not only he didn't kneel, he took a sword and used all his strength to cut down the statue of Indra into two. From that day on, Indra was a butt of jokes in this circle.
And this guy even employed a trick of setting his thunder prison in the second-ranked treasure of the palace so that his candidate could have less competition.
But his candidate is stupid enough to realize it and Sam got a hold of it. From then on, this guy must have plotted against Sam and used something to persuade these guys. The gambler didn't care though. He looked even more excited and said.
"Okay, since you guys are making him the black horse, it is me against the remaining eleven. Come one take out what you want to bet. I am waiting for it."
