Chapter 1448: The Rules are Out
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The third floor of the Xuan Tang Cultural Building was not available for rent. This was an extremely important hidden meeting point of Tang Sect within Mingdu City.
After being declared as a treasonous organization, the entire Tang Sect went into shadows. All outward jobs and businesses were downscaled. It appeared as if they suffered a great loss by doing this with Tang Sect’s scale. However, throughout the twenty thousand years that Tang Sect had existed on the continent, it had established countless numbers of businesses. Such a setback was not enough to do any real damage to Tang Sect’s finances.
Tang Sect had a team that specifically handled these matters that appeared unrelated to the sect. The team was called Xuanshi Tang Sect Culture Investment Corporation. All endeavors under Xuantang Culture’s name were actually under Tang Sect.
Tang Wulin was only privy to this fact after he became the Sect Master. Ordinary Tang Sect disciples would not even know these secrets.
Xuantang Culture was involved in various fields like culture, media, real estate, and much more. It was a family enterprise with rich secrets. On the surface, it was indeed a family enterprise, but it was a business of the Tang Sect all along.
Everything had been arranged before he came here. In order to maintain secrecy, not many people had come to greet him. The entire top floor of the Xuan Tang Cultural Building was available for him.
Through the unidirectional floor to ceiling window, he could see the Mingdu Coliseum. With Tang Wulin’s eyesight, he could basically see everything that was happening inside the coliseum.
Currently, preparation works were being carried out amid a din of gongs and drums in the coliseum. Mingdu City had put great emphasis on this festival. From his casual glance, he reckoned that there were at least a thousand workers busying themselves across the coliseum.
It was said that it was difficult to get one’s hands on a single ticket to Joust For A Spouse Festival now.
Tang Wulin raised a hand and touched the Silver Dragon scale which hung around his neck. ‘Gu Yue, have you come to this city as well?’
…
Gu Yuena silently sat in her room. She was meditating.
A faint silver halo gently rippled around her. There was no powerful aura. However, if one looked closely, one could see that her aura seemed to have a certain solidness that was difficult to describe.
Before her, a ball of light flickered with nine colors pulsed. Every time it flickered, nine-colored radiance would be released and absorbed by her body.
“Fuu!” Gu Yuena heaved a sigh and slightly parted her red lips. The mass of nine-colored radiance was immediately sucked into her mouth and vanished.
She opened her eyes. In that instant, the radiance unleashed from her moving purple eyes seemed capable of penetrating the heavens and the earth. It seemed as if a small world had formed within her eyes.
She softly raised her hand and touched the golden dragon scale on her chest. She could not help but sigh softly. “So you came after all.”
…
The rules of Spirit Pagoda’s Joust For A Spouse Festival were officially announced.
The deadline for signing up was twelve o’clock noon, three days before the actual festival. That would be the only chance for anyone to register.
Due to the large number of sign-ups, there would be a series of selection rounds. The registrants could only enter the actual Joust For A Spouse Festival if they passed the selection process.
The selection process was like a screening of the registrants. Only those who passed all the tests could enter the consequent festival and compete with the others. This way, a large number of registrants whose cultivation bases were weak could be eliminated to save time and resources.
After the selection process, the actual competition would begin. Firstly, a continuous elimination round would take place. In the end, a hundred participants would be selected for the final rounds.
In the final stages, the participants would be divided into ten groups. Every group would have its own round-robin tournaments. The victor would get three marks, the loser zero marks, while one mark would be awarded to each contestant in the event of a draw.
The first place of every group would proceed to the next round and form the final top ten.
The contestants who managed to enter the top hundred would be rewarded with a black spirit soul. In the group competition, the top three contestants of each group would also receive additional rewards based on the final rankings.
The contestants who made it into the top ten would be rewarded handsomely with additional rewards. At the same time, they would have the right to be selected by the Silver Dragon Princess Gu Yuena.
In other words, the real Joust For A Spouse would take place between the final top ten contestants.
This set of rules seemed the most logical. After all, if there was only one final victor for the Joust For A Spouse Festival, the range of choices would be diminished greatly.
If there were ten contestants in the final stages, Gu Yuena could make her choice from these ten people. This way, she could pick a person that she favored more.
At the same time, Gu Yuena would individually fight with these ten contestants. The contestants who could defeat her would undoubtedly look more appealing.
When the rules were announced, it was only mentioned that these ten contestants could have the opportunity to challenge the Silver Dragon Princess Gu Yuena. The final choice in this Joust For A Spouse Festival would also be made from among these ten contestants.
In truth, anyone could have guessed that Gu Yuena would naturally go easy on the person she liked in the contest and let him win. However, this was a Joust For A Spouse event and not some soul masters’ competition. Nobody could find any fault in the rules.
The person who would be selected by the Silver Dragon Princess would not receive too many awards as the Silver Dragon Princess herself was the best prize. The contestant who could successfully defeat Gu Yuena but was not chosen in the end would receive an additional prize in the end. It would also be an extremely precious heaven and earth treasure. The identity of the actual prize would only be announced in the finals.
There were many who had taken guesses at the rules of the festival before they were announced. The actual rules were basically similar to what was predicted and the contestants were satisfied with the rules.
After this, they would have to rely on their own strength. Strength and outer appearance would be equally important in the final stages where it was down to the top ten contestants.
An extremely large number of contestants signed up for this festival. According to the official statistics, there were more than three thousand participants. This number exceeded even the soul masters’ competitions. The reason for this, apart from Gu Yuena’s outstanding looks, was that the attractive prizes offered.
Spirit Pagoda had truly invested a lot this time. Practically all the young good-looking men had signed up. Naturally, only a handful of them actually had the confidence to win the beauty and many of them were more interested in the prizes and not the spouse.
A hundred units of ten thousand year spirit souls! That was an insane amount! Also, it was said that anyone who registered would receive a consolation prize from Spirit Pagoda. Even now, nobody knew what the consolation prize was. However, everyone was sure that Spirit Pagoda would not be too stingy.
The sheer number of three thousand participants was a sign of the federation’s power. The minimum requirement for participation was a six-ringed cultivation base. In other words, there were at least three thousand experts with a six-ringed cultivation base in the age range of thirty to fifty years.
That was a terrifying number.
The combination of the Star Luo and Dou Spirit Empires would not even reach two-thirds of this number.
Ten days later, the festival would begin. The first screening would be held in Mingdu Coliseum. Every participant had to take part and there would be no exceptions. At least, everything seemed fair on the surface.
…
“Alright, Nana. Everything is ready now, only the easterly wind is needed. I’ve done everything that you’ve asked, do you have any rewards for me?” Qiangu Zhangting looked at Gu Yuena in front of him with a smile.
He was roughly half a head taller than Gu Yuena. He was at the right height to see her long eyelashes. The more he looked at them, the more he liked them.
Gu Yuena rolled her eyes at him. “What more do you want?”
Qiangu Zhangting laughed. “I don’t want anything? I’m already decided internally that I’ll be your husband. You’re the best reward there is. However, can I have a taste of it in advance? At least, let me hug you,” as he said this, he spread his arms.
Gu Yuena’s beautiful face blushed. “No.”
Qiangu Zhangting chuckled. “Usually, when a girl says no, she actually means yes.” He proceeded to hug Gu Yuena as he talked.
There was a flash of silver radiance and his hug went right through her. He hugged air while Gu Yuena appeared slightly further from where he stood.
Gu Yuena giggled. There was another flash of silver radiance as she vanished without a trace.
As he stared at the spot from which she had vanished, Qiangu Zhangting could not help but grind his teeth together. What an attractive young girl… From the very beginning, he had not managed to lay his hands on her. However, he liked this feeling more.
In truth, the words he spoke to Qiangu Dongfeng the other day were taught to him by Gu Yuena to a large extent. Qiangu Dongfeng would have never expected that the idea of this Joust For A Spouse Festival was not his grandson’s, but Gu Yuena herself. The reason she gave Qiangu Zhangting was that she hoped that he could be her boyfriend in a dignified manner. She wanted a grand ceremonial sense.
Naturally, she did not mention that they could deal with Tang Wulin through this. That was added by Qiangu Zhangting himself. Of course, he would never tell this to Gu Yuena. From his point of view, that was a desirable outcome which he could achieve with a single effort.
The reason why he was full of confidence when he spoke to his grandfather was naturally that he was the internally decided final victor!
However, Nana’s strength was increasing more and more, especially her control over the space element. That made him powerless over her.
Gu Yuena had told him before that he could get close to her as long as he was capable. He had attempted numerous sneak attacks as well, but he had never succeeded. However, the more this was the case, the greater his urges were.