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“Top of the middle-three sects, the Demon Scheming Sect, receives ten thousand, the Universal Righteous Sect receives five thousand and the Demon Soul Sect three thousand.”
Exalted Bai Mei’s shout echoed in everyone’s ears, shocking them to the core. The middle-three sects had received so little compared to the superior-three sects, only a little over ten thousand in total.
The people that thought Double Dragon Manor was generous changed their thinking.
[They’re so restrained with the sacred stones!]
The rewards for the middle-three sects took a sharp decline. Then what about the lower-three sects?
Some were happy, some were despairing.
The Demon Scheming Sect had only ever got a bunch of scraps of sacred stones whenever it came to Double Dragon Gathering. They hardly had anything to develop when they used most of them in the sect’s defenses.
Only this time, they got a whole ten thousand of them. The fiends were ecstatic. It was something they would never get even in dozens of Double Dragon Gatherings combined. They really won big this time.
The Demon Scheming Sect felt they were loaded all of a sudden. These stones would help develop the sect for the decades to come and finally shed their former lower-three sect self.
All became possible under Zhuo Fan’s leadership. They looked at him with respect and admiration, yet it only made his leaving that much harder to bear.
However, Zhuo Fan did not care about it at all. Ignoring the fact he cleaned Double Dragon Manor’s sacred mine, that had around a million of those glittering baubles, the stuff he got from Kunpeng should last him for lifetimes.
As the Demon Scheming Sect was cheering at their wealth, the Universal Righteous Sect found itself dirt poor.
Five thousand sacred stones were substantial to anyone, but the Universal Righteous Sect had been a superior-three sect and earned thirty thousand in their last spot there.
As a large sect, they were used to having a large treasury to fund their disciples and elders.
But just these scraps now hardly made the cut. Until the next Double Dragon Gathering hundreds of years from now, they’d have to tighten that belt, a lot. Maybe they would weaken so much they would never reach superior-three sects again.
The dark faced Zhao Dezhu felt like crying.
[We lost too much this time.]
How was he to know the greatest underdog, Demon Scheming Sect, along with Sword God Sect, would reach such a level?
If he had known, he’d just fought with all he had and gotten those points instead of falling so much.
[Vile demonic cultivators, it’s all because we saved our strength to deal with you that I fell so much! Just you wait!]
Zhao Dezhu glared at Zhuo Fan, totally forgetting Exalted Bai Mei’s words.
Exalted Bai Mei shook his head and sighed.
[He’s a lost cause…]
The Demon Soul Sect had fallen as well, but just by one spot. They only lost two thousand sacred stones, something they could take.
Unlike the one that had it worse, they were quite calm about it.
The Han brothers looked at Ren Cong to see his dark look as he listened to Exalted Bai Mei’s words, “The top of lower-three sects, Heaven Trailing Sect receives a thousand sacred stones, Mystical Heaven Sect receives five hundred and Beast Taming Sect three hundred. This concludes the Double Dragon Gathering sacred stone distribution.”
“Thank you, Exalted!” Everyone cupped their hands and bowed, even as some were angry, some were happy and some were dejected.
Mystical Heaven Sect’s Elder Yun glanced at Ren Cong and saw his anger, “Young master Ren, that vile Demon Scheming Sect has just got a lot of sacred stones but they don’t have the power of a middle-three sect. They’ll need at least a hundred years to grow into their new status. Plenty of time for our chance…”
“Does Mystical Heaven Sect think so as well?” Ren Cong glanced over with a vague smile as he spoke.
Elder Yun picked up on something and probed, “Young master Ren already has a plan?”
“Humph, not mine. Someone already has his eye on that punk, waiting for the right moment. When the time comes, I hope Mystical Heaven Sect will join us and not run away.”
Elder Yun shook and frowned. He only wanted to comfort the young master of the top-three guardian sects and get them to push down the speedy growth of the Demon Scheming Sect.
However, he never thought the Heaven Trailing Sect already had a plan to deal with him and wanted the Mystical Heaven Sect to join them.
[Just what are they planning? If it gets out of hand, Double Dragon Manor will step in and Heaven Trailing Sect will be finished.]
Mystical Heaven Sect didn’t want to go down as well.
Elder Yun frowned as he pondered.
Ren Cong saw his hesitation and said, “No worries, I know what you’re afraid of. Double Dragon Manor doesn’t want western lands’ power to drop and is on the lookout for any conflict between sects. But you should know not everyone’s house affairs are so easily settled.”
“You mean…” Elder Yun was stunned.
Ren Cong cast a nasty look at Zhuo Fan as he smiled eerily, “Even in Demon Scheming Sect, not everyone took a liking to this punk. When the time comes, the Demon Scheming Sect would fail its duties so much, the Exalted can’t do anything. Unless they don’t want to lead the western lands…”
Elder Yun pondered and nodded.
“Next are the individual scores in the Double Dragon Gathering for the best ten disciples in western lands and their rewards.”
Exalted Bai Mei and Exalted Hei Ran spoke up. The people turned solemn and eager.
Yan Mo, Xie Tianshang and the other competitive ones were looking forward to it as well.
Exalted Hei Ran stood up and spoke, “In this Double Dragon Gathering, the tenth disciple in western lands is third young master Han from Demon Soul Sect! A hundred sacred stones!”
Third young master Han was stunned. He never thought he’d be among the ranking.
Exalted Hei Ran continued, “The ninth place goes to second young master Han, two hundred sacred stones!”
The brothers shouted in joy. They both made it and now had a chance of getting into Double Dragon Manor.
“The eighth place goes to Ren Cong, three hundred sacred stones. 7th place, Xie Tianshang, four hundred. 6th place, Han Yunfeng, five hundred. 5th place, Wen Tao, six hundred. 4th place, Zhao Dezhu, seven hundred. 3rd place, Yan Mo, eight hundred. 2nd place Wu Qingqiu, nine hundred. First place…”
Exalted Hei Ran paused for effect, getting everyone excited.
The two strongest in this Double Dragon Gathering were Zhuo Fan and Ye Lin, but none of their names was among those nine places.
[Did Ye Lin die? Is that why Exalted Hei Ran didn’t announce him?]
The people started looking dejected at this though and sighed.
[So young and so strong. What a shame.]
[Then again, it’s all his bad luck’s fault for meeting one worse than himself. There’s always someone stronger out there…]
Exalted Hei Ran continued at long last, “First place Ye Lin, one thousand sacred stones!”
[What?!]
At this news, the crowd was aboil, then confused eyes focused on Zhuo Fan.
Why didn’t the final winner get a spot as well but the loser did?
[Does the Double Dragon Manor have some shady agenda for the Double Dragon Gathering?]
[But this is too shady! You think we’re so blind we can’t see the outcome?]
They recalled how Exalted Hei Ran rescued Ye Lin and they started making wild guesses that Ye Lin had something to do with the exalted to be shielded.
Thus forcing the best in western lands, Zhuo Fan, to be a crownless king.
From the moment Ye Lin fell, everyone saw Zhuo Fan as the number one. Even if he wasn’t officially recognized, everyone saw him as such.
All looked at the Exalted Double Dragons with doubt and suspicion.
[What strings are you pulling here?]
