Chapter 280: Three Sects Fight Over Jiang Chen
The five trials of the first selection were: first - trial of the heart, second - trial of talent, third - trial of potential, fourth - trial of combat and fifth - trial of fortune.
Jiang Chen was hard pressed to find flaws in the design of these trials, even with his past experiences.
Just as Jiang Chen was thoroughly turning the meaning behind these five trials over in his mind, Sunchaser’s voice sounded once again. “Through these five trials, what potential you possess, what abilities you have, and how far you can walk in the future, will be divided out.”
The first selection would choose ten thousand from four hundred thousand partic.i.p.ants to advance onwards.
The ten thousand would then partic.i.p.ate in a second selection with the disciples of similar ages from the four sects.
Three thousand lucky partic.i.p.ants would then receive the right to enter the sects.
But of this three thousand, it was uncertain how many of them would make it into the final sixty four.
After all, the opponents that these three thousand would face were the sect geniuses.
It was a pessimistic outlook on how many slots for the final sixty four would be taken by ordinary geniuses.
“Alright, this is all I will say with regards to the selections for now. There will be people specifically in charge of each trial and they will explain the rules in detail for you. Remember, before you enter, you must surrender your registration token for a partic.i.p.ant token, a uniform, and a mask. Let me remind you that partic.i.p.ation in the selection is anonymous. You are not allowed to reveal your real ident.i.ty. Why is this, some ask? The answer is simple, this is to prevent cheating and ensure that the four great sects make their selections fairly.”
“It will be the same case in the second selection. You might ask if the sect disciples will be anonymous as well? Of course not. They are already part of a sect and they are only partic.i.p.ating in the selection to compete for a slot in the final sixty four. They do not need to be anonymous.”
It wasn’t difficult to understand this rule either.
The mundane pract.i.tioners all had different backgrounds, nationalities, and naturally, they had certain relations.h.i.+ps with the four great sects.
In this way, unhealthy compet.i.tion could form as relations.h.i.+ps prevail over rules.
If they conducted the selection anonymously and make it so that the four great sects were unable to recruit on basis of relations.h.i.+ps, then recruitment would be able to be conducted through fair compet.i.tion.
Of course, the rules were thus, but there were still room for cheating.
Nothing could be perfect, and the rules could only minimize the possibility of cheating as much as they could.
Some particular situations were unavoidable, and there was nothing for that either.
Take Jiang Chen for example, his trademark style would be recognized sooner or later in the second selection.
His light was too bright to be hidden, not to mention that there was no need for him to conceal anything in a selection like this. He would face the preeminent geniuses of the sixteen kingdoms in the final compet.i.tion. If he hid too much of his strength, it would be a lack of responsibility towards himself.
“Alright then, come and collect your partic.i.p.ant tokens, uniforms, and masks according to your nationality.”
Forefather Sunchaser left the stage after announcing the rules and he left it for those in charge of the details.
The four sects had sent thousands of their middle and upper management to the great selection, demonstrating how highly they viewed this year’s event.
Jiang Chen stood in line, neither impatient or restless.
Suddenly, white light flashed in front of his eyes as a figure landed in front of him.
It was a senior executive riding a spirit creature. His style of dress was quite similar to forefather Ninelion of the Myriad Spirit Sect, and his steed bore the unique mark of the Myriad Spirit Sect.
This person was most likely upper management in the Myriad Spirit Sect.
“Heh heh, young friend, I recognized you with a glance from the crowd of four hundred thousands. You’re Jiang Chen right?” The person wore a smile on his face as he appeared quite benevolent and kindly.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am w.a.n.g Tuo, the vice head of the Myriad Spirit Sect. I’ve heard that young friend Jiang Chen orchestrated a thousand spirit birds to set up a formation and captured two earth spirit realm disciples of the Precious Stree Sect in the Skylaurel Kingdom?”
“Vice head w.a.n.g has a wondrous intelligence network.” Jiang Chen smiled faintly.
“Haha, it’s most likely that everyone knows about it. Young friend Jiang Chen, I don’t like to waste time with blather. I’m here to invite you to join my Myriad Spirit Sect. I wonder if the young friend would be interested?”
“Oh? Isn’t vice head w.a.n.g’s recruitment like this against the rules?” chuckled Jiang Chen.
“The selection hasn’t started now, has it? It’s not a violation as long as the selection hasn’t started. As long as young friend Jiang Chen nods, I will immediately take you and make you my personal disciple. You won’t need to partic.i.p.ate in the first selection at all, and you can go directly to the second selection.”
w.a.n.g Tuo, the vice head of the Myriad Spirit Sect, was personally asking Jiang Chen to be his personal disciple! The partic.i.p.ants in area around Jiang Chen immediately erupted into a furor when they heard this.
Everyone immediately looked at Jiang Chen with admiration.
This kind of treatment had fallen into his lap from the sky! He could bypa.s.s the first selection and enter the second selection, and he wouldn’t have to worry about fighting for a place in a sect. He could directly jump ahead to fighting for a place in the final sixty four!
Sounds of astonishment sounded from all around.
There was admiration and envy.
All eyes were on Jiang Chen. They all thought that he was going to soar into the skies with one step.
There was a faint smile on Jiang Chen’s face.
Although the Myriad Spirit Sect was one of the four great sects, it wasn’t Jiang Chen’s first choice. His first choice, and only choice, was the Precious Tree Sect.
He had his sights set on the Precious Tree Sect precisely for their reputation as being the leader for spirit medicines.
What he needed most right now was spirit medicines and the best spirit medicine resources.
Although the Myriad Spirit Sect was good in the area of taming and raising spirit creatures, it wasn’t Jiang Chen’s first choice. Besides, there was really nothing the sect could teach Jiang Chen with regards to spirit creatures.
In the same regard, they may not even have the right for Jiang Chen to teach them anything.
He was hesitating over how to politely turn them down when another pulse of spirit power flashed right next to him as a woman touched down.
“Vice head w.a.n.g, recruiting before the selection begins is not the thing to do.” A smile played about her lips as hints of temptation and promise were held within. Her every move and sway were quite alluring. “Young friend Jiang Chen, I am vice head Jiang Rou of the Flowing Wind Sect. You and I have the same surname, maybe we were even part of the same clan five hundred years ago. I am here with orders from the Flowing Wind forefather to recruit you. As long as you… ”
“Daoist Jiang, what do you mean by this? The order of arrival has to be respected in all things, no?” w.a.n.g Tuo felt a bit alarmed when he saw Jiang Ruo’s sudden interruption and her tug on the heartstrings with her mention of their shared surname.
“Heh heh heh heh… ” Jiang Ruo t.i.ttered delightfully. “Vice head w.a.n.g, what are you worried about? The choice lies with young friend Jiang Chen. If he’s already predisposed towards a certain sect, then he has his choice already. What use is there in the two of us yelling at each other?”
w.a.n.g Tuo gave a soft snort. “Daoist Jiang, you’ve even employed your unique seduction art. This is a vicious compet.i.tion already. Who amongst young men can resist your art?”
Jiang Ruo’s eyes shone as she laughed, “If you have any tricks up your sleeve, vice head w.a.n.g, bring them out as well!”
w.a.n.g Tuo called out, “Young friend Jiang Chen, if you’re not satisfied with a position as my personal disciple, even the forefather of my sect would be willing to take you as a disciple. It’s not impossible for him to take you as a personal disciple if your talents in training spirit creatures are extraordinary!”
He had upped the ante.
Jiang Ruo was about to add to her terms as well when a soft voice called from above, “Friends, this isn’t quite the thing to do, hmm? You’re attempting to steal one of my kingdom’s talents from right in front of me?”
“Eh?”
Jiang Ruo and w.a.n.g Tuo’s expression changed when they saw who had arrived. A hint of wariness could be seen and they smiled with some difficulty.
The person who had arrived possessed an uncommon air and he was as if a graceful willow tree welcoming the breeze. He was the head of the Precious Tree Sect, Xie Tianshu.
Xie Tianshu was the current sect head and his position was second only to forefather Thousandleaf. He even ranked ahead of esteemed elder Iron Long.
In his capacity as the sect head, he had naturally heard of Jiang Chen’s reputation in the past couple of days.
He’d actually been keeping an eye on Jiang Chen in private, but he hadn’t been able to make an appearance to recruit Jiang Chen because of the circ.u.mstances. He was the head of a sect after all.
Jiang Chen and esteemed elder Iron Long’s clan was in the midst of furious unpleasantries. He’d have to wait for this wave to die down even if he wanted to recruit Jiang Chen.
Otherwise, his performance as a sect head would come off as too hasty, lacking of good bearing and a complete loss of understanding the greater picture.
However, now that his compet.i.tion, w.a.n.g Tuo and Jiang Ruo, were openly stealing his target, Xie Tianshu found it hard to sit still!
Setting aside the matter of Jiang Chen’s potential, just his ruthlessness in handling the Iron family made Jiang Chen worth recruiting.
After all, the veiled struggles and open confrontation between the Xie and Iron family in the Precious Tree Sect was an eternal theme. If Jiang Chen could become a thorn in the Iron family’s side, then there was no reason not to recruit him.
“Heh heh, sect head Xie, Jiang Chen was in the Skylaurel Kingdom for two years and the Precious Tree Sect didn’t make a move. You can’t dictate what we want to do with who you didn’t want, can you? Not to mention, what’s the purpose of the great selection this time? It’s to unearth talents! You try to disallow us from recruiting someone you don’t want. Now, this is a public oppression of the genius Jiang Chen and to make it so that he never can make a name for himself?” w.a.n.g Tuo chuckled oddly.
“Indeed, indeed. You speak like your Precious Tree Sect values talent, but I’ve heard that some within your sect have been suppressing Jiang Chen regardless of the cost. You don’t want a genius such as him, but you dare say that we can’t have him either? What kind of logic is this?” Jiang Ruo wasn’t about to take this lying down either.
Xie Tianshu’s face lost all color thanks to their words, and he was in quite an awkward situation.
He’d lost quite a bit of face in the span of a moment. That’s true, Jiang Chen was in the Skylaurel Kingdom for so long, yet the Precious Tree Sect had failed to recruit him and they had allowed a bright pearl to be covered in dust. This was indeed the sect’s negligence.
However, Jiang Chen had only recently started displaying such potential, and he himself had only started noticing Jiang Chen in the last couple of days.
Thanks to Jiang Ruo and w.a.n.g Tuo’s words, it appeared that the Precious Tree Sect had been purposefully neglecting Jiang Chen.
Xie Tianshu was worried that Jiang Chen would be unhappy and he would have thoughts of which of the other two sects to join.
However, everyone around Jiang Chen was flabbergasted by this turn of events.
The first selection hadn’t even begun! Jiang Chen was already being fought over by the senior executives of three of the sects, with the sect head of the Precious Tree Sect showing up in person!