Chapter 432: Jade Plate
Translated by Crystal of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Since the Challenge Match was to be in three days, to welcome it, every floor was bustling with excitement, raring to go.
The Giganticus had ten skyward staircases extending from the stage side upwards to a hundred levels. If one walked along it, they could see all of the major arenas but only up till the sixty-ninth floor, any further and there would be checkpoints.
Tian Xin took them to the sixth staircase and along the way, there were a lot of people passing by. Most of them were excited with only a few who expressed worry.
Tian Xin took them past the first arena since the first to tenth floor were the most crowded and this was the biggest one of them all.
In the middle of the arena were hundreds of small fighting rings, surrounding them were endless stone chairs, with a rough estimation, it could probably hold a few million people.
Tian Xin took them straight to the fifth arena on the fiftieth floor. The fiftieth floor could be considered a dividing floor in Giganticus since a lot of lesser known talents came from this floor. Thus, it was the second most crowded arena, even though those at the sixteenth floor were stronger, it was not as popular.
By the time they had arrived, there were already people there.
Tian Xin explained, “The fifth arena is very special in that all the powerhouses start from here. Since they cannot go higher, many gather here so it’s often a full house for the every-three-month challenge. Many come early to get a good spot.”
You XiaoMo felt impressed by the fact that people would come three days early to secure a spot, just how popular was it?
However, it was inevitable since the seats were public. First come, first serve, if you were late then there wouldn’t be any seats left.
Of course, there would be shamelessly bossy people who would take seats from others by force but that was pretty rare. Also, looking at other fights was a good opportunity to learn so not many would pass it up.
“Right, if you guys want to participate in the match happening three days from now, you better sign-up within in these two days. Otherwise, you will have to wait another three months since they need the last day to prepare for the tournament.” Tian Xin said after taking everyone around the different stages.
“Where do we sign-up?” Yan Hui asked.
Qiao WuXing, who was beside Tian Xin replied, “Any floor with the number five in the Giganticus has a registration area.”
Yan Hui rowed his eyes and asked, “Then which floor do you guys plan to go to?”
Did he really need to ask?
Of course, it would be the fifteenth floor. If one had the strength and still fought their way up, step by step, then that was not just pretentious, but stupid too. Especially since there were only three chances to challenge someone.
Tian Xin gave Yan Hui a look of disdain.
Qiao WuXing looked at Jiu Ye and smiled, “Want to come along?”
In silence Jiu Ye nodded, even though his position in the Mage Guild was not low, he had only heard of this place but had never gone.
Neither Wan Ya nor Zhang LanYu had complaints either.
“Heh, me, I wouldn’t be seen with you guys, just thinking about going with you makes me disgusted.” An Qiao snorted out and his cold gaze landed on You XiaoMo.
Immediately Tian Xin threw his hand up and waved, saying happily, “Take care!”
Hearing this, An Qiao’s faced turned very sour.
All You XiaoMo thought was that this young master was really hard to please and not only that, also had amnesia. Why didn’t he say anything when he came with them earlier? To take a fart on it now, not only was it not loud, it also made himself stink.
With a face livid with rage, An Qiao left along with his followers.
Tian Xin snorted at his turning back, “Yay, finally that disgusting person is gone and now the world is finally quiet again.”
The few from the Mage Guild didn’t say a word.
Since they toured the fiftieth floor, now they had to walk down again. You XiaoMo held Ling Xiao’s hand and walked at the back of the group, reflecting on what they had heard today.
The Giganticus’ challenge was every third month and the Xiao Yao Institution should prohibit its students from leaving the campus either, which means that they could allocate those three months freely. However, that was still not enough.
There was still one and a half months from the deadline given by Xiong Xiao and it would take two months to make a round trip from Nan Lu to Zhong Tian. Not nearly enough time for the next challengers match.
Not only that, if someone were to challenge him and he couldn’t attend, the referee would probably decide it was his loss. Sigh, suddenly he felt as if he came to the Institution a bit too early.
“What are you going on about by yourself?” Ling Xiao opened his mouth to ask.
So, You XiaoMo told him what was on his mind and got ridiculed.
Ling Xiao sneered at him, “You can’t go, but I can.”
You XiaoMo was dumbfounded, did he mean to leave him behind? Even if he went, it may not have much effect, however, Feng ChiYun was taken away because of him. He had to go. As he thought of this, he immediately looked at Ling Xiao determinedly.
Ling Xiao chuckled.
Instantly, You XiaoMo felt his hair bristling.
Brushing his forehead, Ling Xiao said gently, “Wife, you’re sweating.”
Immediately You XiaoMo brushed his hand off and in a cool and elegant manner, made a ‘Heh’ sound. He decided to stop talking to him, it was going to be a cold war.
“Is something wrong?” Yan Hui, who was walking ahead suddenly turned and asked.
Ling Xiao gave him a light glance and said, “Nothing.”
Yan Hui looked at You XiaoMo a few more times. Clearly, he was in a bad mood but since Ling Xiao said they didn’t want to talk, he couldn’t ask further and looked away.
As they were about to reach the fifteenth floor, You XiaoMo unexpectedly muttered, “I can’t believe there is no other way.” The Xiao Yao Institution had a long history, they must have faced all sorts of problems, so there must be a way to resolve this issue.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the fifteenth floor.
Since it was the rush hour for applications, the entire fifteenth floor was very crowded. Even before they were at the registration area, they could see the sea of people and it took everyone by surprise.
However, once they dug in further, they realized that most of them were here to see the status around the fights. Some needed to check if they were challenged and by whom, that’s why they would come to the registration area.
There were five registration counters and above them was an enormous screen, as it reflected light, the names of challengers and those challenged appeared, along with the floor number. The eyes would be confused by the sheer amounts of things to look at.
You XiaoMo was disinterested in the names on the screen, since he didn’t know them. His attention was on the five counters and after finding one that looked relatively empty he hardly waited to tell Ling Xiao, “Let’s go see the fifth counter, it looks like there is less people there.”
Ling Xiao looked down at the You XiaoMo who was, until a moment ago, still wearing the ‘I don’t want to talk to you’ expression. Originally, he thought he would endure for ten minutes, but alas, it wasn’t even five. He thought too highly of him.
Not hearing a response, You XiaoMo turned to Ling Xiao with a confused expression, only to see him with a funny face…
“……”
Ling Xiao gradually started laughing, “Lets go.”
You XiaoMo looked at his back and slapped his mouth, he just couldn’t shut it, could he?
When they finally got to the counter, it was a female clerk, who upon seeing them, said in a business-like manner, “Tell me your names, levels, the floor level as well as the level of the one you want to challenge.”
You XiaoMo replied, “You XiaoHa, first floor, level nine mage, want to challenge someone from the twentieth floor.”
The female clerk paused, raising her head in surprise, it took her a few moments before asking, “Could it be that you are new?”
You XiaoMo said, “Yes, is there a problem?”
The female clerk said no more, this wasn’t the first time it happened. With every new recruit there were bound to be a few who would challenge someone from the twentieth floor right off the bat. Then she took the list of names and showed him.
The list was a jade plate, something like a jade drive, for storing information. The difference was that you could see the content from the outside of a jade plate and it showed everyone’s condition on the twentieth floor.
You XiaoMo checked and it seemed that the challengers were all pretty sparsely divided.
The situation he asked Qiao WuXing about didn’t seem common, in order to progress, people would avoid those with a lot of challengers.
Since a lottery was drawn when there was a lot of challengers, it was all up to luck and to not waste the chance, most people would choose cautiously.
However, there was also names with no challengers behind them, these tended to be ones with a bit of fame.
You XiaoMo didn’t want to risk a lottery situation and picked someone like that.
The female clerk instantly filled his name in, since this jade plate was connected to the others, this would translate to all other jade plates as well as the big screen.
Jiu Ye was still browsing through names when he saw You XiaoMo’s name pop up. His gaze stopped for a moment before choosing someone after him.
