*Crack*

Another branch broke under Hao Xuan's feet. They had been walking through the foggy hills for about 10 minutes straight. The visibility was horrible and he could only see about 3 meters ahead. There was no other sound around them, not wind, not a single bug, nothing.

It was an eerie kind of silence.

"How much further is it?" Hao Xuan inquired.

Ryfon stopped and looked around. He broke off a leaf from a nearby tree and examined it carefully before throwing it away.

"Just a couple of minutes," he said before continuing.

With a sigh, Hao Xuan also followed after with heavy steps but Ryfon spoke up again not long after.

"We can talk about something if you're bored."

Hao Xuan wasn't really in a mood to chit chat but he still wanted to know a few things in detail so he decided to accept the offer.

"The tournament then. Tell me the details. Cornelia told me the history and gave a rough overview so just tell me exact details. What should I expect?"

"Ah, yes, forgot about that haha," Ryfon rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly.

"Well, this tournament is taking place on a new world excavated from deep space. It was excavated by the personal army of one of the ancients that were out doing something else and happened upon it by accident. So the ancient decided to use for the tournament."

"The world already has a native population of its own so it's not just our people there. The rules of the tournament aren't that simple and have many different factors that count towards winning so I won't go into them."

"But basically, this is supposed to be seen as both as a training and a test for the Academy, the Temple, and the Hall. Because at the end whoever wins the tournament gets to keep the entire world as their own, so its a pretty big deal."

"Now for the details. Each of the three big powers has sent a mobile city to the world already. The cities are located on the backs of gargantuan tamed Ether beasts called 'Atsu'. These beasts aren't the same as normal ones and are able to read and follow the flow of spiritual energy of the world naturally, leading to treasures of all kinds."

"Unless told otherwise, they will continue to do so without stop. Now the members of each power have a few duties to undertake. Numer one, they must protect their Atsu from other beasts and even other powers that would want to harm them. This includes the native beasts and creatures as well as the ones that go from our world."

"Number two. Every five days 3 treasures will be sent down to the world by the ancient that discovered the world. Everyone will have to fight for these treasures and the winner gets to keep it. The more fights like this we win, the better the overall chances."

"Number Three. We have to go down and create diplomatic relationships with the natives whenever possible. This is much more important for the people belonging to the Academy as any kind of knowledge is considered valuable to us and will be rewarded by the elders. We have to find out their history, how their world evolved, their cultures, etc."

"Number Four and the most important one. Every 20 days there will be one major confrontation between all our forces that went from this world. There we will fight using both our troops and those natives that we created diplomatic relationships with. These fights are long and bloody and usually end badly for the natives more so than us, but it is not uncommon to lose a few people every time, especially against those a*sholes from the Hall. Those f*ckers don't hold back at all," Ryfon spat in disgust and anger.

It seemed like he had seen a few fights like this himself and was speaking from experience.

"Is this how every tournament is?" Hao Xuan asked curiously. It seemed like a huge deal, much bigger than what he initially thought.

But Ryfon quickly shook his head and dispelled Hao Xuan's misconceptions.

"There aren't entire worlds on stake usually so it's not this hardcore. Not to mention that since this world was discovered from deep space, it is very close to the veil naturally. We can use it to conduct research on the veil and abyss among many other things. That's why it's so valuable."

At this point he stopped and turned around to face Hao Xuan, "I'm sure you're gonna see some strange things there but as long as you're careful, it will be fine....probably..." he mumbled the last word under his breath but Hao Xuan still heard it.

"Also, we're here!" he smiled and moved aside, revealing a breathtaking landscape.

Right in front of them was a wooden bridge under which a crystal clear waterfall flowed.

On the other side was a shallow river and a series of temples created on the side of a tall mountain. There were hundreds of different waterfalls, both small and large coming down from the mountain top decorated by colorful trees filled with all kinds of flowers. (Pic in authors note for reference).

He could see several dozen people walking around, a few were even meditating under some of the waterfalls.

"Holy sh*t...is...is this the temple?"

Hao Xuan's mouth almost fell open. It was EXACTLY like he had imagined it would be. The waterfalls, the colorful trees, the peaceful environment, the simple structures alongside the river, the thick spiritual energy, everything was perfect.

Ryfon nodded, also somewhat entranced by the sheer beauty of this place. Even though he had seen it multiple times before, it still looked as spectacular as ever.

"Come, Guo Yang should already be up and training the newbies," Ryfon patted Hao Xuan's shoulder and walked across the wooden bridge.

****

Authors Notes:

The temple: https://urlzs.com/DhzMd

Full image: https://i.pinimg..com/564x/65/20/75/6520759cce2f82cd1f6c12cf2543f261.jpg

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