All the sects walked over to a room inside the coliseum. The sheer number of people in the room was enough to scare anyone away.
‘Just how many cultivators are there in this room alone? And they are the best of the best too,’ Alex thought.
Alex looked around and saw a lot of different people. All of them were from sects he had never heard of before. ‘I only know a handful of sects, to begin with, and even amongst them, I only know Tiger sect and the Hong Wu sect by looking at them,’ he thought.
He looked around and caught sight of someone. It was a lady in a red robe and was surrounded by other cultivators of her own sect.
‘Ah, that’s the lady I saw in the restaurant. Her face still seems so… familiar. Who is she?’ Alex wondered.
He looked at her for a few more moments but could remember nothing. ‘Weird, I am pretty sure I haven’t seen her before,’ he thought. Soon, he forgot about her and focused on what was happening in front of him.
There were multiple stands with people in black robes noting the name of the participants and which competitions they were taking part in.
It was sect wise and the 1st-grade sects got their turn first. The 12 different 1st-grade sects had disciples taking part in nearly all of the tests, so it took quite a while for Alex’s turn to come.
Alex finally saw the group of disciples from the Tiger sect a bit further away getting ready for their registration. However, he didn’t see his senior sister anywhere. ‘She must not be participating until the final day,’ he thought.
Soon, it was Hong Wu Sect’s turn as well.
There were 8 people in total taking part in the competition today, so they all walked forward. Ma Rong gave the black-robed woman working in the registration her card and soon they were ready for registering.
The woman tapped on a metal ball next to her that was being kept on next to her and it sounded a small TING.
“Grab the metal ball and put some Qi into it and put it back,” the woman said.
“Go, Meimei,” Ma Rong said and Zhou Mei walked forward and grabbed the sphere. She then put some Qi into it. The sphere made no denotation of it being filled with Qi, but Zhou Mei was sure that it was.
She slowly put it down on its place in the metal sheet. The woman checked the result and said, “Hmm… 23-year-old, 4th realm of Meridian Tempering. tell me your name and the competition you are participating in?”
“Zhou Mei, for the raw ingredient recognition test at 11 am for Alchemy,” Zhou Mei said.
“Alright, registered. Next,” the woman said.
Fan Ruogang did the same thing. She walked up and grabbed the metal ball before infusing her Qi into it. After she was done, she put it back in its place.
“20 years old, 9th Organ Tempering realm. And your name and competition?” the woman asked.
“Fan Ruogang for Pill ingredients competition for 8 am,” Fan Ruogang said. The woman registered it and called for the next person.
Alex walked forward and picked up the ball and infused his Qi into it. The metal ball glowed a little yellow, but no one noticed it.
Alex put it back on the metal plate and the woman read the information with a little surprise to her voice. “18 years old, 5th Organ Tempering realm. Not bad kid, what competition are you here for?” the woman asked.
“Yu Ming for Raw ingredients recognition for Alchemy. 11 AM,” Alex said.
Next up was Wan Li. Alex hadn’t bothered checking any of their cultivation bases yet and only went by feelings like everyone else did.
Due to his rapid growth and unusual battle prowess, he still hadn’t been able to accurately measure other’s cultivation base yet. He still needed some practice.
However, he could tell that Wan Li was quite weak. Or at least Alex got that impression. ‘He must’ve spent the majority of his time on Alchemy.’ This was the only reason why he would be so weak in cultivation right now.
Wan Li put down the sphere after infusing it with his Qi. “19 years old, M-Mind Tempering 3rd realm, what are you taking part in?” the woman asked.
Alex’s eyes went wide. ‘Mind Tempering realm? But I can’t feel it at all. How is he hiding his cul— Ah, Master must’ve given him the book,’ Alex thought.
The immortal Concealment technique was quite useful, and Alex had learned it fully. Ma Rong was still not used to it and Wan Li from the looks of it was just starting to practice it.
‘No wonder he is just weak and not actually hiding his presence all the way,’ Alex thought. There was no way that the top disciple of the sect who had been in the sect for nearly 9 years was going to be so weak.
Once Wan Li told the woman his competition, he walked back. The other remaining 4 members walked forward and got registered as well. However, they weren’t good enough in Alex’s eyes to hold up to Wan Li’s performance.
“See, Brother Alex. I told you there would be so many people here. I’m starting to get nervous once more,” Wan Li said. However, Alex didn’t bother consoling him this time.
“Honestly, I am kind of nervous too. However… I am confident in my abilities enough to not let this nervousness hamper my performance. You should be better than me Brother Wan, I’m sure you will do well despite the nervousness.”
Wan Li smiled after hearing that. “Yeah, I will do fine,” he said. Once the registrations were done, Ma Rong took the group with her to dedicated seats for the sects in the coliseum’s audience.
Different people were still coming in and the various sects were still getting registered. Only after 20 more minutes of patiently waiting did the people from the different sects finally arrived at their seats and the audience was fully packed.
The competitions were finally going to begin.
