After waiting on the main stage, the announcer finally appeared. He was a strong-looking lion man with a wild and beautiful golden mane.
He opened his mouth and roared with a wild smile. "Welcome to the tournament! I'm the second in command of Torrent City and will be your host this time. I know that usually, the City Lord is the one giving the speech. However, he doesn't know many things because he just came out of the wild, and besides strength and ability to guide a power, he knows very little about the World."
The lion man laughed and continued. "Nevertheless, don't look down on our City Lord too much since he is quite young and powerful. His future is certainly enviable!"
Yasenia and the others lifted an eyebrow.
Evelyn commented. 'That's not a bad excuse. I could get behind it.'
Andrea nodded. 'This minotaur guy isn't that stupid.'
Yasenia answered. 'Yet, he has just placed a significant target on his back. It remains to be seen how long he can avoid succumbing to the control of others. If my predictions are correct, we will witness this city falling into the hands of a top power soon.'
Angel blinked and asked. 'Why didn't they aim for it before?'
Yasenia explained. 'Having an old City Lord just in the Ethereal Soul Body Realm is unattractive. A young, talented, already strong, but ignorant City Lord is like the best puppet material. They won't have to spend so many resources on him and will be able to make him submit easily.'
Cecile spoke. 'I sensed a few people, Elder Mao included, lifting an eyebrow at his statement. I don't know if the lion man spoke like that intentionally, but avoiding what Yasenia predicted is now very difficult.'
After a long speech about fairness, strength, competitiveness, and the traditions that originated this prominent tournament, the lion kin pointed at the side of the stage with a smile.
"Although our City Lord has yet to learn these procedures, he has come to see the competition intending to learn. Give a loud cheer for him!"
The people in the stadium turned toward one of the most luxurious VIP rooms and saw a bulky and tall minotaur with many scars. They were yesterday's wounds, which haven't healed yet.
Some females of various races screamed to catch his attention, while Yasenia's sharp senses felt many spiritual senses invading that spot for a few seconds before retiring.
Yasenia's expression changed, and Tatyana commented. 'There were seven especially powerful auras. I expected it, but Epoch Core Body Cultivators are in here. We must act with extra care and be attentive.'
They all nodded.
Yasenia smirked. 'By the way, I bet for a Sky Continent beast human, this place is quite similar to a small heaven. How many beast humans will want to return to a place where their identity can't be much more than a slave?'
Angel blinked. 'But Yasenia, you were also a beast-human back then.'
Yasenia chuckled. 'Baby, I'm an exception, not the rule. Cecile was a human and also my lover, so she is also an exception.'
Kali sighed. 'Well, those that value family may want to return either way. Those that have a lover back there will also be anxious to return.'
Yasenia chuckled, but her smile disappeared quickly.
Her brows furrowed as she thought. 'I have to find the girls from my Fanclub or any people I know quickly. I've already sent a message to Ghana to set up a slave trading company. Now, how should I make it so that we can search for them while also not being suspicious?'
While Yasenia thought about those things, the presentation of most powers was done. They had presented a group for each of the Nine Sects, Thirty-Three Clans, and Three Empires. Then, there were hundreds of second-rate powers and thousands of third-rate powers.
Each power presented an average of ten participants, making the participating people reach nearly fifty thousand people.
Yasenia warned. "The first rounds of elimination will be crucial since they should be focused on thinning out the crowd. Be careful when you participate. You all are not participating in combat, so there shouldn't be anything inherently dangerous, but you can't be too prepared."
The girls and disciples that listened to Yasenia's advice answered simultaneously. "Yes, Lady Yasenia!"
Yasenia turned toward them and smiled. "Good luck."
The elders also said some words of encouragement to each of them, and they all jumped toward the middle of the arena.
Cecile and Tatyana sat on each of Yasenia's sides and looked on.
Yasenia commented aloud without bothering to hide it. "Be sure always to be combat-ready. There will be voices against Andrea, Angel, and Evelyn, almost for certain. Things can escalate quickly."
Cecile and Tatyana nodded.
"As you say, my love."
"Don't worry, Mistress. This servant will take care of them."
The other elders liked these unpretentious and not-so-weak humans and decided to lend an eye.
Meanwhile, Angel grabbed Andrea's and Evelyn's hands as she said. "So exciting! We really are the only humans!"
Evelyn looked at Kali and smirked. "We would be four if this girl wouldn't have mutated."
Andrea laughed. "We have a betrayer here."
Kali snorted with a smile. "Who was the one who fell asleep while leaning on my two tails? Hm? Can you refresh my memory?"
Andrea and Evelyn coughed. "We are guilty."
Angel commented. "But Kali, your fur is super fluffy and smells really comforting. It's hard not to fall asleep~."
Kali smiled softly and patted Angel's head. "Mn, little Angel is right."
Andrea patted their shoulders and said seriously. "Angel, Evelyn, keep your defensive treasures activated. We may be attacked by a senior, and Yasenia won't be able to react from where she is. We must be able to buy time at least for her to intervene."
Valeria's calming voice entered their minds. "Although Mirrory and I aren't invincible, we can protect you until Yasenia interferes."
Kali, Andrea, Evelyn, and Angel exclaimed. "Seniors, please take care of us!"
Mirrory lightly said. "Hmph, since you are so polite, I'll listen."
Valeria chuckled. "Don't worry, children. Just focus on the challenges ahead."
Mirrory added. "Also, you are not the only humans participating. I've spotted a few others."
Kali was surprised and asked. "What are their strengths? They may be from Sky Continent."
"It's unclear. Spotting humans is easy because the aura is very noticeable in the bundle of beast-humans, like stars in a night sky, but the aura is too turbulent to distinguish strengths."
They nodded and focused on the lion kin.
"For those who are here for the first time, let's go over the general contents of the tournament."
"First, you should understand that there are a total of nine competitions. Each of them will give points to the power you belong to depending on the position you end up in, and in the end, the highest earning power will become the winner of the tournament. Naturally, there are also individual rewards for the first top three of each competition. You'll also receive group rewards if you are a rogue cultivator. However, if you win, be ready to be recruited into some powers if you are not part of one yet."
"The competition's nine segments are about the nine main professions of our World."
"Besides combat, there will be tailoring, alchemy, medicine, blacksmithing, formations, talismans, tattoo masters, and living materials. We've even decided to add a more uncommon one, Spirit cooking."
Yasenia was curious about the tattoo master, but if it was one of the most common professions, it wasn't the place to ask then. She still asked. "The combat section should be the main attraction, right?"
Elder Huo nodded. "It is. You've honestly done well in not participating, Lady Yasenia. If the other competitions give one hundred points to the winner, and one less point to each rank down, the combat one gives three hundred points to the top spot and three points less for each rank down."
Yasenia understood what Elder Huo was hinting at. 'If you've performed well in combat, you would've attracted a lot of attention toward your newly established power.'
Yasenia also had this in mind when avoiding participating in combat. Professional strength is not as intimidating as combat strength.
The lion man continued. "Now that you know the nine competitions, I'll reveal when they'll happen. First, the combat competition will happen across the three days of the tournament. It is the main attraction, and the one the seniors here are more eager to see. In the meantime, we'll divide the other professions across the three days."
Yasenia listened to the ones her dears participated in and heard the following. Tailoring will happen that day, almost right after this presentation ends. Then, Formations and Blacksmithing on the next day, and finally, Alchemy on the third day.
She also considered the Tattoo Master competition out of curiosity to visit it if she had time. It also happened on the third day, during the medicine competition.
After explaining some basic rules and a few prohibited things to do, every junior returned to the stands where the powers were waiting for them.
Thankfully, this time nothing happened as all the juniors below mainly were concentrated on the lion man, so they didn't distinguish Angel and the others as humans.
Angel, Andrea, Evelyn, and Kali returned to Yasenia's side. Then, they walked toward the place where the Tailoring Competition would be held.
Evelyn commented. "Mistress, to think I would participate right away. It left me with no time to prepare my heart."
Yasenia lifted her eyebrow and smirked. "So, what do you want, Evelyn?"
Evelyn squirmed and asked a bit shyly. "Well, a hug would motivate me enough to win a thousand matches."
The elders and disciples were surprised at such a bold statement. The elders knew that Yasenia pampered her humans quite a bit, news they received intentionally from Yasenia's "leaks," so they curiously looked at Yasenia's reaction to see if the information was accurate.
To their surprise, Yasenia easily stepped forward and used her tall body to hug her close, making her face disappear in the deep and tempting exposed flesh valley.
The show of flexibility and ability to wrap against surfaces Yasenia's breasts showed made many who were looking gulp.
Evelyn actually didn't expect Yasenia to hug her, so she was paralyzed. Yasenia chuckled and asked. "What? You are bold enough to ask, and now you are shy when you receive it, hahaha."
Yasenia separated from Evelyn and smirked, poking her nose. "Silly little slave, you better end up in the top half, or I'll be angry."
Evelyn straightened and exclaimed. "I'm aiming to gain you the first place, Matriarch! For your giant tits- Cough, majesty! For your enormous majesty, I'll do my best."
Many people had their lips twitching wildly. 'Was this human about to say, 'For your giant tits, I'll do my best'?'
Yasenia rolled her eyes. "You'll receive a spanking later. You can't just say those things aloud even if you mean it."
However, they saw Evelyn's violet eyes shining as she very quickly nodded. "Yes, Matriarch! I'll be awaiting my spanking!"
'Why do I feel this human is quite happy about this resolution!? Am I imagining things!? Please, someone, tell me!'
Yasenia turned toward her other dears, ignoring the strange gazes Evelyn was receiving, and asked them how they felt about this arrangement.
Kali was the first to answer with quite a strange statement.