Stomp* Stomp* Stomp*
After 5 stomps, the Elder had appeared on top, carrying the birds and carriage on one hand.
"Master." Jun Din rushed up to Elder Hu. "Tell this loser your judgement so she can finally disappear."
Hu Qing had the same smile on his face as Luo Si. "Okay, the winner is Luo SI."
"You hear him the winner is… Luo Si? Who is that?" The boy asked in confusion.
"That is my name. I am Hong Luo Si." Luo Si answered.
"That is impossible. Master, didn't you see clearly." He protested.
"I did indeed see clearly. You were the one flying over the top, right?" The old man sarcastically asked.
"Yes, but that also means I'm the winner."
The other two facepalmed in sync and the Elder asked again. "Can you tell me again, what the condition for winning was?"
"Of course, the one who was first on top…" Jun Din halfway said before Hu Qing corrected him.
"The first one to STAND on top is the winner."
Luo Si grabbed the stick out of the whiners' hand, "No. This is not fair."
"YoUr WoRdS, nO gOiNg BaCk. I assume you have cleaned this off your taint." She shrugged and entering the carriage.
Elder Hu casted a pitiful look on his speechless discipline, before he turned back towards the cliff. He was somewhat disappointed by the rest yet he could not blame them.
One after another the other fighters made it up the wall, smiling at first to see Luo Si off. The smile vanished though, when a sulking Jun Din was spotted.
The last to ascend, of course, were the players, bound to one another with lianas. The trio had a rough time because of the youngest twin's acrophobia.
After a short rest, the travel continued.
An hour later, a coppered hill could be seen, shining like a treasury in the light of the sun.
"Welcome to the 3rd Morning Ray." The villagers and players were captured by the copper casted 'Kingdom.'
Walking beneath the bronzed arc entrance, some young people in tattered clothes could be seen from time to time. They did not look like they belonged into this scenery copper casted environment.
"Tse." A girl from the group spit in distain. "That's right. Trash should know its place." Some people looked at her. She was taken aback though, when she only received savage smiles.
"Come, I will show you around." The Elder happily showed his home. They stopped in front of a big door, that led inside a massive palace.
"Wow. This is so awesome. I can't believe our destination to be so fabulous and grand." The new members were excited and couldn't wait to rush inside to see the fabulous lifestyle inside.
"This is the inner gate. It is also, where we will part ways. Jun Din!" Both pulled out a token and held it onto the door. The door opened up enough for one person to enter as shining spiritual rich sun light came out.
The duo vanished through the crack into the grand palazzo. The crack closed instantly as soon as they entered, leaving behind a frozen crowd.
Before the door completely closed, a dozen wooden chips fell on the ground with a whisp strand dissolving slowly in the air. "I forgot; these are your discipline tokens. Don't lose them, or you can not even enter the outer gate."
Luo Si, unperturbed, stretched out a hand, catching the last token before it hit the ground. The others could only bow down to pick up the rest.
"Uh, what?" Xinyue and Luo Si giggled, seeing the others in daze.
Xinyue had a wry smile on his face, realizing that he was left alone. "Alright, let me show you the outer area."
"Hold on!" Jihad stepped out. "Aren't we supposed to go inside?"
Xinyue couldn't hold back his laugh. "Ahaha. What? You thought you could go inside and live a blissful life?"
His joy was swapped with a dead-on serious mocking face. "Stop dreaming. The inner area is only to be entered by the inner disciplines. We, the outer disciplines have our separated living field. Follow me."
The rest could only bow down to pick up a token and tag along their senior.
Some buildings and a mall stood around the inner castle. "These are the book pavilion, market to buy all your stuff and some other buildings you can find out yourself." He was clearly not in the mood to be a guide.
"And this is the heart of the outer area." He stopped in front of a big barren area decorated with people. The same type of people they had ridiculed before.
A girl had pulled out a bread from in between her chest, but was trampled on by the people next to her, who in return fought over the piece of food. "It's also the place where you cleaners will be living from now on."
The fighters could not believe it.
One of the few girls asked in annoyance, seeing this all as a joke. "This is definitely not where we belong to and why do you call us cleaners? We are respected geniuses of the Min village. As for if my father is a cleaner or not, he has enough money to buy 3 at the very least."
"Phe, Geniuses?" The boy scuffed. "Look around you, we are all geniuses. Even I am one, at least I thought I was one. As for why I call you cleaners, that's because your suits are still clean and shiny, but will get dirtier the longer you stay. By the way, forget about the money. That shit is useless here. If you want to survive, you will have to earn merit points. You will get them after completing tasks. But don't be as dumb as her and pull it out in front of all."
"Then how are we supposed to become inner disciplines?" Ping Lian asked. The players just cared about getting stronger.
"To pass the gate, you have to become a King among Martial Artist or in other words, reach the 6th Martial Realm." Some villagers had pale faces. They knew how difficult it was to reach the 6th stage.
Not all though. Jidan for example was very confidant. As the village chiefs' son, not only had he received the best resources. His father also helped him open some acupoints to unfold his talent.
The players were also taken aback for a second. Still being in the Martial Learner sub-realm, they were the furthest away from becoming inner disciplines. However, different from the children, those who had only taken weeks to represent the peak of players, they only took some weeks, while the tribesmen needed years to have the same result, based on the further developed mindset.
John Cage probed the water, seeing Zhen Xinyue in good mood. "Then is there a way to get faster stronger?"
For a split second, Xinyue showed an evil face. "Of course, do you see the 10 shacks over there?" He pointed at 10 small huts, oddly standing line. Even though they were in the same shape, they all looked different. One was glowing, while another one was constantly sweating. One was made out of lively wood while another was out of metal.
Standing in front of the 9th shack, the guide opened the door. A rich spiritual breeze escaped from inside. "As you can see, the effect of this little house is not as good as the inner area, but it's the best alternative around to get stronger in a short period of time."
Glowing lights came out of the crowd's eyes. Besides the inner gates they had never been in a better environment, than in front of the open door.
"Say, do you want to have this room? I mean, it probably already has an owner, but if you want it you just have to challenge the owner. As the owner, he cannot deny your request." He asked in an unconcerned way.
The people were taken aback. Just by asking they could get such a treasure. The thirst was boiling up and everybody nodded wildly.
"Good… I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGES. Take my Ape King Fist." His persona changed instantly as he released a powerful punch,
Pah!
A huge fist swapped over those in range. Unprepared and surprised the newcomers could only take the attack head on.