Mantora Mountain,
"Master, it's about time. I think we should announce the opening of Mantora Mountain."
A person, his head covered by a cloak, respectfully bowed and asked.
The person he asked was an old man. His beard was thin and reached his chest.
The old man turned around and answered,
"I think you should do this. Soon, the Mantora will be awakening. The world should prepare for this soon. Also, make sure to tell everyone that everyone must have more than one person accompanying them if they want to appear here." replied the old man.
The person bowed respectfully before leaving.
He came to the foot of the mountain and announced,
"Be prepared, master has given us the command. We will begin soon. Let the world know that Mantora Mountain will be opening to the world soon!"
The person shouted, conveying what he wanted clearly.
With this, the people present began to look at each other and shout with excitement.
…..
Meanwhile,
There are people gathered everywhere one can see. Right in the middle is located a stage. On the stage stood a person. Everyone looked at the person, not saying anything.
A profound silence filled the venue. None dared to move, gripped by fear. Even their breathing was hushed, slowed to the barest whisper, as though making any sound would invite disaster.
This stage ranges to around a hundred meters wide.
Though the blind could not witness the events, the rest of the spectators saw everything with perfect clarity, thanks to the enormous phantom in the sky that mirrored the happenings on the stage.
One side of the venue is free of any crowd. At the end of that side are many people sitting on chairs. Those chairs are distributed in groups. Each group separated from the other group by a distance of five meters.
Yang Zhai was also among them.
However, there was a huge difference there. Even though many chairs were placed around him, they were all empty. He sat alone with nobody to accompany him.
However, he was covering his face with a veil. Originally, five percent of his hair was white while the rest was black. But right now, his hair was completely white as he had dyed it.
"So, as everyone knows this competition is being held for. It's being held to find a worthy person to accompany the young miss of this Domain, Yue Qing. I heard she is quite beautiful and some even say that her beauty truly surpasses this world. I even heard that whenever she roams around her own domain, she wears a veil so that nobody can see her or recognize her…"
The man standing in the middle of the stage began speaking.
"I don't know; I heard that her hair used to be black but slowly turned silver and then white. As a result, she has three different colors in her hair." This wasn't said by him loudly, but he whispered these words.
However, the phantom caught his words and amplified them. So, everyone heard these words.
But, he didn't mind this and shamelessly continued,
"I heard she is at rank 6 and will soon advance to rank 7. The competition is going to be held between the masters. I heard the reason is because she herself is a mastery path cultivator. However, as not everyone is a Mastery Path cultivator, Senior Sun Jian thought it was a better idea to let other Mastery Path cultivators compete for the one who wants to marry Young Miss Yue Qing…"
"So, this competition will involve only Mastery Path cultivators. The rules are simple: kill the master or the slave and you will win. Only beasts are allowed to fight. Giving up is allowed, and that is all. As for the rewards…"
"One is you all know. As for the other rewards, there are two rank 7 materials: the Brown Dacite and the Sap Water. Though I don't know why Senior Sun is giving two body path materials as a reward to the Mastery Path cultivators." He said this and thought: it might be to mock them.
"Whatever, that is all. Now, let us begin the competition of masters! Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. I am an Overwatcher, Ryu Tae, and it's an honor to meet you."
With this, he finished his speech.
Two reasons were what kept everyone here quiet: one was because of the high rank figures' presence, and the second and the main reason was Ryu Tae.
When he spoke, everyone stood quietly.
The reason: he had three golden lines drawn all around his left hand. It indicated that he was among the high-echelon Overwatchers.
If he were to kill anyone here, except for those belonging to the elite, no one would do anything. Their integrity was the one that earned them everyone's trust.
There were a total of four echelons a person could earn as an Overwatcher starting from one golden line to four.
Forget about three, even one golden line Overwatcher is considered too great. Even earning one golden line is considered almost nearly impossible, Yang Zhai contemplated.
The reason he was sitting alone was that the ones representing him were basically the Eroh Domain higher-ups. So, they couldn't sit with Yang Zhai to not give others the impression that they were siding with him.
As for Yue Qing, it was because she was the one for whom this competition was being held, she couldn't appear herself.
Thus, Yang Zhai was sitting alone in a corner with many empty chairs beside him.
"We have divided the competition into different rounds. Everyone in the competition will be competing randomly. As it involves too many places, the competition cannot be concluded in just a day. The first round would be between Young Master Zhao Qi from the Lear Domain and Young Master Zing Kwa from the Sira Clan!" He shouted.
"As everyone knows, Lear Domain and Sira Clan are two giants of this continent. They are on par with Eroh Domain, so we can expect a fierce fight…" He said.
After he said this, a woman with an eagle jumped onto the stage. She seemed to be in her thirties.
"Her name is Nao Ko! And her opponent's name is…"
However, no one walked onto the stage from the other side.
Everyone waited silently.
…..
Yang Zhai walked back and sat on his chair.
He was thinking of what Sun Jian just said.
"Yue Qing, are you sure you won't regret it?"
A girl that seemed to be in her twenties entered the room and asked.
"Biu Le, what took you so long?" Sun Jian inquired.
!|!*****!*****!|!
Author's Note: A friendly reminder: "Even though I introduce what the characters look like in the present, their real age often differs from their appearances." For example, this woman, who seems to be in her thirties (Nao Ko), isn't actually in her thirties; she's much older. Enjoy!