He had pinned a lot of hopes this time but with Yehudi's failure at the very beginning of the competition,
the hearts of Master Wen and other masters of Drizzle Peak had sunk to the bottom.
However, to all of their surprises, Zen had powered through every match and overcome every
opponent, regardless of how strong they were. He had kept on winning all the time and had finally
arrived at stage that he was in now. Master Wen's hopes now lay on him now.
Apart from letting out a cry of exclamation, he truly did not know what else to say.
'It's a pity that Aura is not here to see this. I wonder what would her expressions be if she could see her
favorite disciple achieve so many things..' Master Wen wondered in his head.
'Unfortunately, a rumor has swept through the entire Burning Sky Empire these days—the Burning Sky
Palace is suffering from an internal strife. Some princes are scrambling for the throne, and somehow
Aura is involved in it. What a shame...'
Master Wen was, after all, a master from the same peak as Aura was. The two knew each other well,
and that was one of the primary reasons he had been keeping an eye on the Burning Sky Palace and
collecting information about Aura. But given that his position was not very high in the hierarchy, he was
not so well-informed as Saint Viana was. Accordingly, he had no idea that Aura had already been put
under house confinement.
Considering the complete lack of messages from Aura, he naturally deducted that Aura was not doing
very well and might even be under some sort of confinement.
Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do to help her.
And at that moment, Master Wen's eyes lit up suddenly! He had had an idea.
'Zen!
Perhaps Zen can help Aura!
He has just defeated Tracy. As long as he doesn't act below par, there is no doubt that he is going to
make it to the top 3! He is totally qualified to try the Cloud Road!
If he really does pass the test of the Cloud Road and gets admitted into the Cloud Hall, he would be
able to assist Aura.
If Zen joins the Cloud Hall, then it is true that most probably, his strength won't be able to match Elder
Xu or Kenneth of Cloud Sect in a short spell, but I am sure that he is going to be of a lot of help. After
all, if inside the Cloud Hall, his future is going to be limitless, which means that even Kenneth would
have to take his words into account!
Ever since Kane, the emperor of the Burning Sky Palace, disappeared, Kenneth has been the only one
who could command the place.
Cloud Sect has played an indispensable role throughout the history of the Burning Sky Empire. It even
helped several emperors fight their way to the throne. Cloud Sect was even powerful enough to take
control over the whole Burning Sky Palace in the past once.'
'But ever since Kane has marched into the Cloud Hall with his amazing talents, his power has become
even more impressive than Kenneth's, and that gave him more leverage. The moment Kane started to
rule the Burning Sky Empire, it began to break free from the control of Cloud Sect. After all, Kane's
position is not beneath Kenneth's.
Kane and Kenneth are both working for Cloud Hall, and that is the sole reason why the powerful
Burning Sky Palace and the mighty Cloud Sect have had no serious conflicts until now.'
'However, with the disappearance of Emperor Kane, whose return to the empire alive and well is
uncertain, it's a good time for Kenneth to take over again in this turbulent situation. Unfortunately,
Kenneth does not seem tempted by this idea and that beats me completely. Instead, he has just let
those princes fight each other in the palace.'
Based on all the information that Master Wen had collected, all he could do was analyze the situation
and come up with plans. Other means and ideas were simply out of his reach given his present
position.
Staring at Zen, who was sitting cross-legged a short distance away, Master Wen decided to have a
serious conversation with him when the All Peaks Competition was over. He believed that Zen would
not ignore the hardship Aura was enduring. After all, he couldn't have forgotten the grace that Aura had
bestowed on him.
When the round-robin came to this point, the ranking of most of the participants had already settled,
with only the top 5 somewhat disputable!
First to mention were two black horses—Zen and Rocher, both of whom had not lost a single match so
far. Zen had even vanquished Tracy, who had the body of a Blue Phoenix. In light of that, the entire
crowd was under the impression that he could be one of the top 3. However, his exact position in that
trio wasn't decided yet.
Rocher still had not unsheathed his sword, but had still managed several victories, which meant that
his power was unfathomably high. Ever since he had gotten into the round-robin, he had easily
defeated his opponents without demonstrating any impressive skills, so everyone believed Rocher had
the ability to make it to top 5.
Next were Patrick and Jacques. These two were the best out of all personal disciples. If everything
went their way, then the crowd had a general agreement that they would end up the champion and the
runner-up respectively.
As to Tracy, she seemed quite dispirited over her last failure, so no one knew whether she would come
onto the stage again. But if she did, then there were very high chances that she would find herself in
the top 5.
However, no matter how much they calculated, there was one more person who was probably going to
influence the ranking of the All Peaks Competition. Once he entered the competition, then it was
certain that every participant was going to fall one rank lower.
That figure was Evan.
Evan had earned the title of the top personal disciple on Cloud Sect and his powers were widely
acknowledged all around. Everyone respected him and thought that he would always remain the top
disciple.
However, Evan was still in the middle of a close-door training and no one knew if he was going to
come. They were all wondering whether he would meddle in the final of the round-robin. Therefore, he
was an unpredictable factor, which was excluded from their calculation at the moment.
More importantly, it was the ones above them who would determine the order of top seats on the Cloud
Sect Ranking as well as the ranking of this All Peaks Competition. What the crowd was most
concerned about was the confrontation among them.
Of course, that did not mean that these disciples did not care for the contests among other participants.
After all, the competition for the top 100 was directly going to decide the ranking of the 33 peaks, and
that was, perhaps, the second most important thing for the disciples.
As the people looked on with great expectations, waiting for the next round to begin, wondering who
was going to come next, the referee finally declared the opening of a highly crucial match, "Personal
disciple Jacques versus Zen of Drizzle Peak!"
Previously when Jacques had stepped into the arena, he had proclaimed that he wanted to challenge
Zen. He had been so sure of himself that he had promised he would restrain his Illuminating Soul
Realm cultivation within the nature level. But it turned out that Zen was even more arrogant, and had
answered that Jacques did not need to restrain his level of cultivation and they were going to have a
fair duel when the time came!
The duo had become quite hostile towards each other even before coming on-stage. Now, with their
match up next, they were finally going to encounter each other during the round-robin.
Every single person in the audience knew clearly that they now had a huge drama to
watch!
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