The morning rose on the fifteen of Decina, there was nothing special or auspicious about the day in itself, but it was the date on which the Myriad-Arm Sect would hold its annual tournament meant for the newly recruited disciples on, it was sort of like a school, as every year, new people would join a class and replace those who were there before, and with the high fertility rate in Leynlornd, along with families typically having more than three children… Naturally, sects of good renown like the Myriad-Arm Sect are never lacking in fresh disciples every year.

The outer ring of the sect, despite seeing the most traffic of people leaving and joining, was always the most densely populated all year round, and apart from those who had given up and decided to do menial work around the sect, each and everyone one of them was pumped up to do their best and show what they were capable of.

Even those who knew their talent was lesser compared to their peers were very hopeful.

Currently, in an area hidden behind the towering main building of the sect, all of the disciples had gathered around a cluster of arenas, a place meant specifically for holding tournaments, it was equipped with a grand array that allowed the one controlling it to shape the stone-like soil to form anything they desired.

And indeed, right now, around a dozen small arenas, rectangular in shape, had been erected, surrounded by rows of seats for spectators to sit in, it was like an entire building had been constructed.

The elders sat higher than the rest, within a stone box, where they could observe the fights below, while those outside the box could barely catch sight of them.

As special disciples, Edrick and his wives had seats for themselves just underneath the elevated box, and they arrived early in the morning, although none of his wives were going to participate, they had naturally come to support and watch their husband beat some people up, in essence, Anoteros had cheerleaders.

Fanqia was looking around curiously, and being a bit familiar with arrays by now, she could tell that one- Or rather, two, seemed to be active at the moment, though they seemed to be built together into one big composite formation, the nature of these arrays did not need to be deciphered, however, everybody knew about them.

One allowed to shape the area at will, while the other created powerful barriers around the arenas, preventing attacks from escaping the edges, as well as allowing for the elder in charge to intervene should a disciple be at risk of dying or being severely maimed.

Such refined and powerful arrays naturally had their method of conception tightly guarded, so unfortunately, Fanqia could only try to guess when she would see it in action… Who knew? Maybe her velvet pixie bloodline would help her comprehend such arrays if she focused hard enough.

Linmin probably could have participated and done rather well, he was not incredibly talented, but he was still a fair bit above average, and fuelled with unending dedication, and a hefty dose of Cleansing Elixir nearly every day, he had made notable progress in swordsmanship and cultivation, but the second wife did not seem very interested in taking part, preferring to wait on the sidelines to take care of Anoteros after each of his upcoming fights.

Hui and Luxuli were way out of their depths though- One had once been an outer disciple with such awful talent, that she didn’t even dare show her face at the previous tournaments that had taken place, and the other had come from a completely different country, had spent most of her life in a small village before being taken to Leynlornd, only to then spend most of her time at the residence… So seeing so many people at once in such a grand place was making her feel a bit dizzy.

The disciples quickly gathered and assembled, all turning silent as the voice of Elder Gang washed over the whole place, booming loudly.

“Welcome to the annual tournament of Decina, all of those who joined the sect recently are allowed to participate, your names will be called out, if you want to prove yourself, step forward when that happens, if not, remain silent- The first batch of duels will begin- If your name is called and you wish to fight, go to the arena where a pillar is currently erected” just as he said this, one of the arenas suddenly grew a pillar, extending from the ground in just an instant.

“Ooh…” Fanqia was mesmerised, holding onto her husband’s arm and unconsciously squeezing it every time a pillar would appear and retract into the ground.

As the arenas were all filled up, Edrick was not yet called, and Elder Gang announced the start of the duels… The show was- Something, for sure, as outer disciples, the vast majority of them had never fought in their lives, the spars they partook in were like children playing compared to what was expected of them.

To win, one needed to either beat their opponent into submission or, alternatively, if they were stopped from delivering a strike, the one attacking would be declared the winner, as it was effectively the elders judging that the strike would have definitely ended the fight.

There was also the option of knocking your opponent out of the arena, although the barriers that manifested around them seemed solid and would stop all projectiles, no matter their nature, it allowed for the passage of people, or rather, it allowed for people to exit from within its embrace without much problem.

After all, knocking your enemy off a cliff was amongst the oldest tricks in the book, often used by weaker but craftier opponents, and was a perfectly legitimate way of winning a fight.

Most of the duels on this first set were rather awkward to look at, but a few ended rather quickly, some of the outer disciples actually had a clue on how to fight, one managed to get their opponent into a chokehold, successfully defeating them as they failed to escape the hold in time.

Another simply showed that they knew how to fight, knocking their adversary out with the pommel of their sword.

Or one just picked the opposing disciple up and threw them out of the arena, so everything was not boring, but it was undeniable that they were still rookies, none of those seemed like obvious material to promote to the inner ring of the sect, demonstrating nothing exceptional, they could only qualify if they got far into the tournament.

In the next call out of names, Edrick's name rang out, and so did Xiao’s, but they were not in the same arena, so they could only glance and nod at one another before Gang announced the start of their fights.