Chapter 4199 — The Tournament Begins
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 3
"The inner sect tournament? Sister Xiaotao, are you entering the inner sect tournament too?" Shangguan Lan'er asked, astonished. She never paid attention to such matters, but even she knew that only Golden Core stage disciples were eligible for the inner sect tournament—that was the most basic threshold.
"That's right. The inner sect tournament includes a team battle, and Wei Zhao was short a partner, so he asked me to join. And he even helped raise my strength to the Golden Core stage!" Huang Xiaotao said frankly.
"Truly? That's wonderful!" Shangguan Lan'er had never known what scheming was; she was genuinely happy for Huang Xiaotao. But a moment later, envy and excitement both: "Our little junior brother actually has such amazing powers, that he can raise someone's strength too? Then hurry and make me a Golden Core expert as well, so Grandfather won't nag me to cultivate every single day!"
Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears at this. If he rashly boosted Shangguan Lan'er's strength, it would inevitably alert Shangguan Tianxia, and then the secret would not keep. Besides, even if he wanted to, he would at least need the right conditions for it.
"Little senior sister, to become a Golden Core expert, you first have to have a Golden Core ready—I don't have one on hand. We'll have to wait until I find one," Wei Zhao could only say with a smile. Something as rare as the Myriad Crossing Golden Core Fruit came by chance and could not be sought; even someone of Shangguan Lan'er's standing would not ordinarily have one.
"Is that so? Well, all right then, we'll talk about it later. I'm in no hurry anyway." Shangguan Lan'er nodded. Her sudden talk of this had been purely a whim; if Shangguan Tianxia had not been constantly pressing her to cultivate, she would never have thought of raising her strength, much less of becoming some Golden Core expert.
"Oh, right—Sister Xiaotao just said you two were drilling. Drilling what, exactly? I want to see!" Shangguan Lan'er said, brightening again.
Wei Zhao and Huang Xiaotao exchanged a glance and promptly resumed their practice of the Savage Fire Eight-Trigram Joint Strike Palm, while Shangguan Lan'er cheerfully ad-libbed as on-the-spot judge—though this judge was hardly a professional one, only ever able to clap and cheer like little Curly Bear.
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After five days of preparation, the inner sect tournament finally raised its curtain in earnest.
The North Island arena was packed with a sea of heads. Wei Zhao was startled to find that the crowd today was plainly far larger than five days ago—the inner sect core disciples, plus those outer sect disciples whose strength had already reached the Golden Core stage. By rough count, the total came to nearly two hundred, nearly double what he had seen before!
But on second thought, Wei Zhao understood. Five days ago had merely been a customary announcement; many deeply seasoned inner sect disciples had long grown inured to such formalities, and so long as they knew the rules, there was no harm in not showing up.
Today, however, was the real fighting. If they failed to appear now, they would simply be deemed to have forfeited—and that was a problem far too grave to permit; come they must, whether they wished to or not.
Looking at so many Golden Core experts gathered in one place, Wei Zhao could not help but feel a secret shock. It seemed he had still underestimated the depths of the North Island Tri-Layer Pavilion. Compared with some of the top sects of the Middle Island, such depths were not merely on par—they surpassed them!
It was only that these Golden Core experts were either out on high-level missions or simply in secluded cultivation, and very rarely came out to move about, so they were hard to spot in ordinary times—which was why he had never felt it so keenly before.