A few days before the competition started, Chen Fang nervously dialed Feng Chengyuan's phone number.
It turned out that in the previous competition, apart from Yu Nian, the most popular one was actually Feng Chengyuan. There were even quite a few people shipping their CP.
Chen Fang wanted to seize this wave of popularity, so he invited Feng Chengyuan to be a special accompanying guest and go with all the contestants.
Chen Fang originally thought Feng Chengyuan would decline. After all, he was well - known for his cold personality. But unexpectedly, Feng Chengyuan agreed without even thinking, which made Chen Fang feel flattered by his easy - going response.
A few days later, the Xuanmen training officially began. The location was the Floating Cloud Taoist Temple, the largest Taoist temple in the capital. Many senior celestial masters in the Xuanmen world, such as Xue Jinyan and Xu Yufang, all showed up.
The Nanyang True Man, Zhuge Fangyuan, was chatting cheerfully with his fellow practitioners. His eyes scanned the entering contestants one by one, and he sighed with emotion, "The young people participating in this training session all seem to have extraordinary bearing. Fellow Taoist Xue, in your opinion, who will take the first place in this training session?"
Xue Jinyan stroked his beard with a smile. After the experience of being a judge in the previous metaphysics competition, he didn't dare to make hasty judgments anymore.
However, when Xue Jinyan's eyes accidentally fell on the young girl walking side by side with Xue Yier, a surprised light flashed in his eyes.
"She actually came to participate... There's no need to say more, Fellow Taoist Zhuge. With Yu Nian here, others are destined to be just runners - up!"
Zhuge Fangyuan raised his eyebrows in surprise. This old Xue was always smooth - talking, and it was the first time he had praised someone so definitely.
He looked in the direction Xue Jinyan was pointing and saw a girl in her twenties walking into the Taoist temple unhurriedly.
Yu Nian was wearing the simplest white T - shirt and blue jeans. She still had her ever - present black backpack on her back. Her long black hair was casually pulled up into a loose bun, making her look fresh and beautiful.
However, she seemed too calm. She didn't look like someone coming for training, but rather like someone on a tour.
"Old Xue, aren't you exaggerating a bit? This training is different from the metaphysics competition. Both orthodox sects and side - practitioners and miscellaneous practitioners will participate. How can you be so sure about her? You mean this little girl can make it to the end? I don't believe it."
Looking at Zhuge Fangyuan's skeptical face, Xue Jinyan seemed to see himself back then, who had looked down on Yu Nian and was later proven wrong.
He reached out and patted Zhuge Fangyuan on the shoulder, saying earnestly, "Fellow Taoist Zhuge, don't be too absolute about anything. Leave yourself a way out."
Xue Jinyan thought that even if all of them judges were combined, they might not be able to defeat the little girl in Zhuge Fangyuan's words.
Zhuge Fangyuan forced a smile.
He had watched the metaphysics competition, but he always thought that the previous competition was rigged.
Otherwise, how could Yu Nian, a Taoist from a small sect with no background or support, stand out among the disciples of famous families and become the champion?
Zhuge Fangyuan squinted his eyes and said disdainfully and frivolously, "If this girl can take the first place, I'll go and worship her as my teacher!"
Xue Jinyan twitched the corner of his mouth and was too lazy to deal with this stubborn mule. He turned around and greeted others.
In just half an hour, the Taoist temple was crowded with people.
Yu Nian's eyes swept over many contestants and she actually saw quite a few familiar faces.
Zhong Yaya had dressed the little zombie in a new and festive outfit. The moment their eyes met, she waved cheerfully.
Not far away, Bai Jiming was wearing a washed - out Taoist robe. He was nervously looking around with his peach - wood sword in his arms.
There were also a few cool - dressed men and women with different - colored pupils. They were good - looking, and no matter who they looked at, their autumn - water - like eyes were filled with an indescribable ambiguous emotion.
Xue Yier carefully reminded beside her, "Those are from the Charm - Cultivation Sect. None of them in that sect are easy to deal with. They are very good at charming others, especially that Gou Yu. I heard he's into both genders! Many fellow practitioners have fallen into their hands in previous years. Be careful. It's best not to get involved with them."
Before she could finish speaking, Gou Yu noticed their blatant gazes. He suddenly turned his head and met Yu Nian's eyes.
A faint light flashed in Gou Yu's lavender eyes, and then he blinked innocently and gave Yu Nian a bright smile.
His smile was no small matter. Several younger practitioners beside him immediately blushed.
Xue Yier's alarm bells went off in his mind. He quickly took a few steps back, "Did that bastard Gou Yu just smile at me?? Damn it, I knew he had evil intentions towards me! I'm a straight man!!"
His voice was quite loud and attracted a lot of attention.
Qi Rongsheng looked at Xue Yier like he was a crazy person and then showed the classic expression of "Don't look at me. I don't know this person."
Yu Nian politely nodded at Gou Yu and then calmly withdrew her gaze.
Not long after, all the people in the Xuanmen had gathered. With the announcement from the representative of the Taoist Alliance, the training officially began.
The moment all the judges and guests were seated, clouds formed by the spiritual power of the Taoists came surging from the horizon. The lavender auspicious aura pierced through the clouds and sprinkled over the entire mountain, which was extremely shocking.
All the contestants were excited by this magnificent scene and were eager to start.
Although this training was extremely dangerous, if one lost in the secret realm, they might very well lose their lives.
But if one won, they would become famous overnight and have a boundless future!
All the contestants stood in their respective areas according to their numbers. The staff handed each contestant a jade slip and a smart bracelet that could detect spiritual power, and said with a smile, "Fellow practitioners, please take good care of these two items. The bracelet records the contestants' vital signs and can save your life when necessary. After entering the secret realm, all matters related to the competition will be presented on this jade slip. I wish all of you a smooth journey. May the Heavenly Lord of Immeasurable Blessings protect you."
The moment the voice fell, the jade slips in everyone's hands made a soft "ding" sound. The notice of the preliminary selection competition had been issued.
After everyone roughly scanned the rules, someone couldn't help but complain, "When did the Xuanmen start playing live - action CS?"
There were a total of six thousand Xuanmen disciples who signed up for this competition. At the beginning, everyone would be uniformly distributed into the secret realm. The range of activities for everyone was only within this secret realm. Outside the secret realm was a toxic circle, and those who crossed the boundary would bear the consequences themselves.
After all the contestants entered the secret realm, the system would assign an initial score from 1 to 10 based on the strength of each person's spiritual soul. They could form teams freely, with three people in each team.
The start of the competition meant the start of the killing. Regardless of the size of your sect, as long as you were hit by spiritual power, it meant you were eliminated.
Maybe you just killed someone, but the next second you would be killed by someone else.
As long as you killed someone, all the scores of the killed person would belong to you.
The killed person would be automatically kicked out of the illusion by the screening system and watch the competition in the waiting room until the end.
However, a problem arose. The stronger one's spiritual soul was, the higher the initial score would be, and the more likely they would be targeted by others.
As soon as the rules were announced, there was an uproar.
"But I'm born with a weak spiritual soul. Isn't it unfair to assign the initial score like this??"
Zhuge Fangyuan smiled softly. He had expected that someone would object.
When this rule was first set, it had been criticized by many people. But after discussions among the people in the Xuanmen and the organizers, it was finally decided.
Zhuge Fangyuan explained with a smile, "Fellow practitioners, the Xuanmen training is inseparable from your usual hard work. The stronger one is, the higher the initial score will naturally be. But don't worry. The program team once invited a group of top - level masters in the Xuanmen to test. Even the Xuhuai Celestial Master only got 8 points. The scores of everyone won't differ too much. This is very fair."
All the contestants looked at each other. Seeing that the scores were indeed not very different, they stopped arguing.
Xue Yier fiddled with the smart bracelet and saw a huge number "4" in the initial score column.
He curled his lips and secretly glanced at Qi Rongsheng's score. It was only a green - labeled "5".
Xue Yier felt a little more balanced. He whispered to Yu Nian, "What about you? How many points do you have?"
Yu Nian casually pulled the screen down. The number on the screen first froze for a moment, and then soared like a crashing stock market. When it reached the bright red number 10, the bracelet vibrated violently twice and actually emitted a wisp of white smoke. Just like that, it burned out!!