Chapter 393 – The Eve of the Grand Prix
Chapter 393 – The Eve of the Great Competition
In the small courtyard, another team of Cheng family members had been waiting for a long time, their expressions were sullen, and the atmosphere looked a bit heavy.
At this time, seeing Cheng Qingjia leading another team to arrive, also looked like they could not raise their spirits.
Xu Chuniang secretly swept through the cultivators in the courtyard, among these ten people, there were two Foundation Establishment Perfection people, three Late Foundation Establishment people, and the remaining five people were all in the Pre-Foundation stage.
With the team she was currently in, the overall strength was similar.
“Seventh uncle, fellow Daoist Tang.”
Cheng Qingjia greeted towards the crowd, “What’s wrong with you all, you all look sad?”
“Qingjia is here.”
Cheng Qi barely managed to pull out a smile, they came early, Fang had already poked around outside for news, it was really not optimistic.
The Liu Family had sent out four teams this time, while the Zhang Family also had three teams of elites.
The entire five islands of the southern line, including the Zhan family of Coral Island, totaled eleven families, except for the Chen family of Green Bamboo Island and the Dong family of Red Sand Island, who had likewise only sent out two teams.
But the Chen Family and the Dong Family had always been at the bottom of the list. How could the Cheng Family have fallen to such a state?
Cheng Qingjia couldn’t stop her heart from sinking after hearing the news, “What about those casual cultivator forces, how many hunting teams did most of them send out?”
In addition to the eleven families on the five islands of the southern line, there were three forces formed by casual cultivators.
“I’ve inquired about these as well, only the weakest Chisha Island’s loose cultivators have sent out only two teams. The rest, are all three hunting teams.”
Cheng Qingjia’s frown deepened, hunting teams were formed in groups of ten, and the minimum requirement for cultivation was Foundation Establishment.
It was so that every time there was a difference of one team, the gap between them was hard to bridge.
In this case, it seemed that the best that the Cheng Family could achieve in this Hunting Competition would only be to outperform the Chen and Dong Families, as well as the group of scattered cultivators from the Red Sand Island, and come in at the eleventh place.
Whether or not they could beat these three forces was still unknown.
No wonder the seventh uncle is so disappointed. In the last Hunting Competition, the Cheng family barely won the tenth place, and the sea area they were assigned to was not only remote, but also particularly barren.
If the ranking fell further this time, Cheng Qingjia simply couldn’t imagine how passive the family would be at that time.
Cheng Qi let out a light sigh, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, stopping for a split second on Tang Chuan and Xu Chuniang.
“I don’t know if you Daoists have any insights?”
Tang Chuan was already very old as a Foundation Establishment Perfection Cultivator, and he even had more than a dozen times of participation in the Hunting Competition, so he could be considered to be very experienced.
Hearing this he pondered for a long time and slowly opened his mouth.
“The gap in strength is not something that can be made up for by equanimity, it would be better to reintegrate the two teams of cultivators and divide them into two teams of strength and weakness.”
Cheng Qi understood his meaning, but still had concerns.
“If that’s the case, the strong team is certainly enhanced, but the weak team is too weak, there aren’t even cultivators in the middle of Foundation Establishment, and when they meet a more powerful late Foundation Establishment Sea Demon Beast, they may not even be able to beat it.”
The Hunting Competition was a hunt launched by human cultivators against the sea demonic beasts, but the number of cultivators who lost their lives in the mouths of the sea demonic beasts every year as a result was also not few.
“No harm done. The strong team will go deeper into the sea, and the weak team will just stay in the shallow sea area to hunt.”
Tang Chuan was obviously well thought out and said without thinking, “If the two teams are balanced, instead, their hands will be tied and it will be difficult to bring out their true strength.”
Cheng Qi was somewhat convinced and looked towards Xu Chuniang, “What does Fellow Daoist Xu think of this method?”
Xu Chuniang thought for a moment, “It’s my first time participating in the Hunting and Killing Conference, so I’ll listen to your arrangements.”
So Cheng Qi clapped her hands, following Tang Chuan’s suggestion, those with high cultivation levels were grouped into one team.
The other team of ten people, all composed of cultivators at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, was feared to be the weakest team in this Hunting and Killing Conference.
Five days later, the Hunting and Killing Competition officially kicked off, and all the participants were led by the Zhan Family to the Zhan Family’s practice field. The practice field was filled with people, and in addition to the cultivation families and loose cultivation forces, many small cultivation families and loose cultivators were also participating in the Hunting Competition.
They were either in groups of three or five, or traveling alone, and the total number of participants was no less than these large forces.
The Zhan family was worthy of being the only first family with a YuanYing cultivator sitting on the five islands of the southern line, and its practice ground was so large that it was more than enough to accommodate thousands of cultivators.
Xu Chuniang once again lamented the prosperity of the maritime cultivation world.
The number of Foundation Establishment cultivators who had come to participate in the Hunting Competition today alone had already exceeded the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators that the Easy Sect had.
“This finger ring is refined from shadow-retaining stones, and is able to automatically record the demonic beasts you have killed, scoring points along the way. The shadow-retaining stone has been refined in a special way, and the record will automatically disappear after one hour.”
As Zhan family head Zhan Siming recounted the rules of the Hunting Competition, the Zhan family cultivators happened to distribute the finger rings to everyone.
Xu Chuniang took the finger ring, the records in the shadow-retaining stone could disappear automatically, so there was no need to worry about revealing the means of killing the enemy.
She probed into her Divine Sense and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, so she followed the others’ example and slipped the ring over her thumb.
The ring seemed to feel something and automatically contracted a little, fitting her finger tightly.
The words of the Zhan family head were still coming from the high platform, introducing the rules for calculating the points for killing the sea demon beasts.
For every Qi Practicing Stage Sea Demon Beast killed, ten, twenty, thirty and forty points would be counted according to its cultivation level.
For every Foundation Establishment Stage Siren Beast killed, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred and four hundred points would be counted according to its cultivation level.
If you kill a Jindan stage sea monster, you will get ten times as many points, at least a thousand points.
As for the Yuanying stage beasts, they were extremely rare in the five islands of the southern line.
If they encountered one, it would be a blessing from the heavens if they managed to save their lives.
As the Zhan family head announced the official start of the hunting competition, many cultivators took action.
After Cheng Qi explained to the other team not to go deeper into the sea, he was leading the crowd towards the outside, when a group of people blocked the way.
The female cultivator at the head was dressed in red, her eyebrows were open and bright, and she had the cultivation level of Foundation Establishment Perfection.
Behind her were nine people, eight of which were Foundation Establishment Perfection.
There was even a person with a majestic breath, far better than the others, clearly with Jindan stage cultivation.
Xu Chuniang was still secretly guessing the identity of the other party, Cheng Qi was already full of smiles, arching his hand towards the visitor as a salute.
“Greetings to Third Miss Zhan, Senior Zhao.”
The former gave a slight nod towards her as a return salute, as for the Jindan cultivator surnamed Zhao, he didn’t even raise his eyelids.
“I’m looking for Cheng Qingjia.”
Zhan Luo’s eyes landed on Cheng Qingjia, and she didn’t conceal her intentions.
A trace of dislike crossed Cheng Qingjia’s heart, and she coped with the other party’s status by saying, “Third Miss Zhan.”
Zhan Luo nodded her head and calmly spoke, “You’re accompanying me to the sea.”
Cheng Qingjia inhaled deeply to calm her heart, “Third Miss, I’m afraid that this is not in line with the rules, if I go out to sea with you, there will be one less person in my Cheng Family’s team.”
“What rules? My Third Miss’s words are the rules.”
Zhan Luo did not say anything, and an old man beside her spoke indifferently, “Third Miss is lifting you up by letting you sail with her.”
(End of Chapter)