We talked a little more and at the end of our small talk, the outer elder introduced himself as Zhong Zedong. To be honest it was getting a little awkward for me while talking and knowing that I don't even know his name.
Thankfully this awkward situation was fixed soon after and I asked outer elder Zhong Zedong about himself. Me and him both know that if I wanted to, I could easily find information about him but the fact that I asked him directly not only didn't create any unease, it was received as a good sign by elder Zhong Zedong.
Zhong Zedong is 36 years old and he is in the first stage of the golden core realm. He just recently was appointed as an outer elder but according to him, he likes his position.
Well, being an elder of the heavenly sword sect at this young age is a good thing however you look at it…
From what he told me is from the same generation of disciples as the matriarch, Yuan Jia. After he saw that he likes his environment in the sect, he applied for the position of outer elder so that he can 'start a new chapter in his life' as he likes to call it.
After that, we said our goodbyes, and I went back to my temporary room on the ship and spent the night meditating.
I'm really grateful for the fact that I got the cultivation world mentality when my memories and Li Huang's merged, otherwise I couldn't just sit and meditate like it's a normal thing to do.
As the first rays of sunlight hit the ship, you could feel the speed of the flying treasure decrease slowly.
Immediately, I put my chief disciple robes on and got ready to get off the ship.
"Disciples should be on the deck in 5 minutes." At that moment, I heard grand elder Wan's voice. It wasn't loud or anything but I am sure that everyone else heard him without any problem.
Getting to the deck I saw other disciples, nodding to Lai Xinyue who was looking at me I felt Hu Anjing nudging me.
"Hm?" I looked at her.
"Is it her?" She asked me.
It took me a moment to get what she meant by that.
"Oh right! Yes, she is the one that I think has good talent…" I answered her. I remembered that I had talked about Lai Xinyue to Yuan Jia and Hu Anjing but until now they don't know her name as Yuan Jia wanted it to be a surprise or something.
"You seem very fond of her, Junior uncle." Hu Anjing said with a smirk.
I just rolled my eyes.
"If just nodding to her means that I am fond of her, me and you should be considered married already." I retorted.
Hu Anjing was taken aback for a moment but soon responded.
"Than you have to take responsibility, junior uncle." She told me with puppy eyes.
'I should have known better to back and forth with this girl…' I shook my head.
"Sure." I told her dismissively.
"For now put your mind on the trial." I added after a second.
She nodded and we looked at the grand elder Wan who entered the deck right on time for the five-minute notice.
After the pleasantries, the grand elder started speaking.
"You are the geniuses among the geniuses. In the younger generation, you are the best that there is in our heavenly sword sect." Grand elder Wan started with some words of encouragement.
"But you have to know that behind the mountain there are mountains. No matter how talented you are, there is always someone with more talent." He continued with humbling words.
"In these final selections we would only choose 10 amongst you to represent the sect and be our face." He paused to let the weight of his words sink in.
"So you have to try and grasp this opportunity not only for yourself but for the sect. But do not forget that right now, these selections are still inside of the sect, so I do not wish for any infighting…" After a few seconds, he continued.
"In this final selection, you would fight based on the time that you got your seat. Meaning the first one who got a seat would fight against the last one who got a seat, and so on…" Grand elder Wan explained this round's rules.
"After that, we have 50 disciples who lost and 50 who won. The 50 who won would get to fight for the 10 thrones first and the 50 who lost would have to fight in a one against all setting, the final five of that fight would get to fight for the throne from the second day." He added.
'This would make the initial round the most important. If you lose the road ahead would not be an easy one to tread…' I was pondering about the implications of this rule.
'On the other hand, if you can make teams in the battle royale round, that would be too easy.' I thought.
"There are some minor rules that I would explain when the time comes." He told us and I know that these rules are probably to counter some flaws which disciples would try to abuse.
"For the winning team, you can sit on any seat that you want. If the space is empty you can get it without a fight. But keep it in mind that three seats are special." He held up three fingers.
"There is the main seat. This seat represents the best of this generation and the disciple who gets this seat would be the leader in this trial. Well, I will tell you the exact details when you are the leader." Grand elder Wan smiled.
"The other two seats would show the status of vice leader. As you might know, there is always the possibility of getting separated when you are in the trials so you can look up to the ones on these two seats for commands when the leader is not with you." He explained the reason for these seats' existence.
"I know this is soon to say but I want to know that I wouldn't accept any of you dying in there, so make sure you don't get too greedy." He sternly looked at each one of us.
He let the silence resume for a while and then spoke again.
"Good. Now we will get off the Yin Xi and we will have the first series of spars." He nodded and opened a portal.
It was at this time that I know I was played.
'So I have to get this shitty leader seat because I am someone who is a candidate for the next patriarch position. Haaa, what a chore…' I know this would be a pain in the ass but that sly old fox, grand elder Wan set me up for this.