Wu Liming was an inner disciple of the Green Mountain sect, a sect in the Nanying continent that managed Green Mountain city. It had been a year since elders and core disciples had traveled to Sun & Moon island, and had brought with them amazing new artifacts and products. He watched the sect and the city change in this last year including where he was right now, the pod cafe inside the inner court. It was all so revolutionary, the new stores, the improvements to the spiritual farms, the clothes, and even the flying ship of the Golden Peony company that came by every few weeks. Even how he spent his time was so different than before, in the past, his days consisted of sitting in meditation, trying to comprehend the mysteries of the universe. Now, he ate meals, practiced professions, completed in various battles, meditated, and more.
Today, Wu Liming had logged into the pod he normally used because the Sect master had spread the news of an important announcement. After a few hours of battling in various modes, he noticed a timer appear in the upper right corner of his view with the time counting down. He took note of this, and fought a few more quick rounds before returning to the home screen.
Wu Liming didn't know why, but this was the first time in a long time that his emotions started to fluctuate as the timer was lower than thirty second. He felt locked in place as he saw [5, 4, 3, 2, 1], and his surroundings went dark. A few moments later, he saw lights brighten a stage, and continue to expand until he saw a grand sight. Magnificent seats were everywhere, on the ground and floating in the air, surrounding the center stage that was grandly decorated. As Wu Liming looked around he recognized some of the other audience members, but most of the others he had never seen before.
As people murmured to each other discussing what was happening, a hole appeared in the middle of the stage, and a few seconds later a beautiful woman wearing a black kimono with golden dragons on it appeared as a platform rose into place. Wu Liming was well aware of the cultivation world, and how cultivators had control over their body. This meant that most cultivators were attractive and young looking, but he recognized that this woman was a level above most.
"Hello everyone, I'm your host, Lui Mingxue", Mingxue introduced herself to the humongous crowd, "Tonight, I have the honor to announce many exciting new developments that will bring the world together. So, I will not waste your time, and begin with the first announcement: As of now, the continent of Nanying and Sun & Moon island are connected. Everyone here should know of 'The Web' that originated in Sun & Moon island, and has since been implemented in most cities in Nanying continent afterwards. I am pleased to inform everyone here, that all these individual communities are now connected to each other, meaning a disciple from the Profound Yang sect can message or battle a disciple from Azure Cloud sect over the QR pod without using spirit stones. With that in mind, I want to now welcome everyone here: such as the Profound Yang sect, the Mountains and Rivers sect, Ice River city, the Golden Peony company, and the many other cities and sects from across the Nanying continent."
As Lui Mingxue spoke, spotlights landed on certain groups of people to highlight her point, and the audience realized that 'The Web' was already activated. Wu Liming was left stunned as he he looked around the audience again to see all the cultivators from all over the continent.
"Now that it's easier than ever to speak with your friends across the world, we are introducing several new applications to the QR pods and Qphone to take advantage of it", Mingxue said, "The first app I'll show tonight is 'Bazaar', a virtual shopping realm where businesses, individual sellers or customers can advertise, buy or sell their products. For example…"
Mingxue moved her hand, and the screen changed from its current view to one titled 'Heavenly Medicine Pavilion'.
"As you can see, if you go to what we have called 'a website', you can easily browse through the different pills and medicines that are sold by this business", Mingxue explained, "Once you have chosen what you wanted, you press here to confirm your order, and the rest will be handled by your bank and the business. Whatever you order will arrive when the flying boat arrives in your area. All orders will be monitored for damage or theft, so we guarantee that if something happens to your item, we will compensate you for it."
This caused an uproar in the audience, previously if you wanted premium goods from Sun & Moon island, you had to travel there to buy them. Now you order what you wanted from your own home, and just wait for it to be delivered. You could even track the order through an array placed on the packages just in case of theft.
"The next item on tonight's docket has to do with learning", Mingxue told everyone, "As everyone should know by now, many of the newest creations from Sun & Moon island came about from studying and research. While we will continue to forge ahead to uncover more of life's secrets, we can't do it alone. As it stands now, we hold small classes on the island so we can teach students about our discoveries, but the waiting list for seats is long. I'll now introduce the Virtual Academy, a new application for education in which instructors from Sun & Moon island hold classes for anyone that is qualified. We are excited for this, and in the future as more people obtain the qualifications to teach, they will earn the right to teach lessons as well."
Different levels of enthusiasm was heard from the audience as people who had been placed on the waiting list were ecstatic, but others gave it a lukewarm reception.
"Now I am not sure how many comprehended the importance of the last announcement", Mingxue teased, "If you think about that news, it should have stuck out that the instructors have the ability to broadcast their lectures to their students. The next application coming up next can do the same, but instead of a teacher, it could you. Introducing to you, 'Qiflow', a service where you can broadcast yourself to the world. You might be asking, 'How does it work?', but if you look at me right now, it's easy to see I'm streaming right now."
Everybody was dumbfounded, they could be the star of their own show!
"In Qiflow, you can show almost whatever you want, and how well you do will determine how many people watch you", Mingxue explained, "Even though it's disabled at the moment, in the future should you get fans, they can donate to your performance. And to give an example of this, maybe some of you in the audience may have wondered why the stage is too large just for such a little girl like me."
Lui Mingxue's words and actions provoked a reaction from most of the men in the crowd as they shouted words of encouragement.
"Thank you for the support", Mingxue laughed as she waved to everyone, "I hope to see you if I stream in the future. But today isn't about me, put your hands together as we hear from 'The Dragon's Harem'"
Everything went dark again before the lights on the center stage came on again with five women replacing Lui Mingxue. They respectfully bowed to everyone before they all picked up a nearby instrument, and began playing. It was a stirring song that everyone seem to enjoy at first, but as the song continued, many of the 'decorations' came to life as they were dancers that moved along with the music. There was a swell at the end of the song, and a burst of color from the troupe of dancers that impressed most of the audience, and they clapped as the band put their instruments down and bowed.
Lui Mingxue walked out while the band was leaving the stage, "Everyone, let's hear it for 'The Dragon's Harem', a new group that debuted last season. They also were handpicked to sing for the next announcement. Let's watch it now."
Lui Mingxue walked off stage again as the lights dimmed, and a holographic image came into view. Several scenes played as the music played "Legends never..", and the audience watched as the various cultivators in the video trained to overcome obstacle after obstacle to reach the pinnacle. The final scene as the song finished was the cultivators entering the arena as participants.
"Sun & Moon island is proud to announce a new competition we are calling, 'The Pinnacle', and it will take place in three rounds", Mingxue told the crowd, "The first round will happen in your local area, as all sect masters, mayors, family patriarchs, and business leaders have already been informed. They will over see the local tournaments, but to prevent favoritism or underhanded behavior, referees have already been picked and will sent to keep things fair. The second phase will be held at the region level, and will work the same as the first. The winners of the second round will be invited to Sun & Moon island for the final round where they will battle for the title of champion in front of everyone to see. Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time to introduce the games and categories you can enter: Hunter of Monsters, Solo Arena, Team Arena, Battle Arena, Sage, Musou, Grand Prix racing, and Battle Royale. But a new game that will make its debut, and is open to anyone to join is called Warring Kingdoms. Unlike most the other modes, Kingdoms isn't a combat or card game, but a game of strategy. It's a battle of the minds as you try to outthink your opponent, and ultimately claim the title of ultimate strategist. The categories you can select are the Junior, Senior, or Master divisions."
Lui Mingxue finished her speech as the audience was cheering, and she could tell that their blood was boiling. She had been nervous when she received this assignment, but as she stood there soaking in the attention, her self confidence grew.
"Unfortunately, this is the end of our time together for now", Mingxue said, "You have two months to register for your local tournament that starts three months from now. Xue'er wishes you good luck and hopes to see you at the final tournament, Goodbye."
Wu Liming watched as everything around him disappeared, and he returned to his pod looking at the home screen. He immediately logged out, left the pod, and headed towards the mission pavilion to find out where to register.
While the cultivators in the Nanying continent were watching one show, the beastkin of Shuo continent were treated to a different experience. The birdkins had hatched a plan, and sent members of their tribes to the different areas of the land before the battle of Whitetail city started.
All the beastkin had front row seats as they watched the attack of the boar army, the power of the artifacts from the Bloodclaw wolves and Razortalon Eagles, and the oppressive power of the frigate class flying ship when it fired its 'Gravitas' weapon.
By the time the battle was over, Razortalon even spoke into the camera, "The ships will be leaving here to find the last few holders of the cursed stones soon. If you belong to the Tiger, Snake, Monkey, or Horse clans, expect to see a ship in your future soon. If it were me, I would lead them to the cursed stone immediately, otherwise."
Razortalon spun the camera around towards the battlefield, and showed everyone the crater caused by the Gravitas weapon, "Your future will look like this."
The Eagle chief turned the camera off before storing his Qphone away. It should have been impossible for him to broadcast the battle, but when he first told Wei Huoran about his plan to build a news network, Huoran supported him. As soon as the streaming application had been completed, Huoran had sent it to Razortalon. He did restrict it to the Shuo continent until the official release, and then the birdkins could broadcast to everyone.
The reactions from the four nations named in the video were different, the snake queen went into hibernation in an attempt to hide, the herd that ran with the holder of the horse stone tried to remove him from the herd only to be killed, the Tiger prince holding the stone was defiant, and the monkeys got desperate and accelerated their plans to attack the ape tribes.
Chief Razortalon soon caught up with Captain Zhuo as other birdkin also partnered with other flying ships as well, and the hunt began as two ships went after the snake stone, and the other two went for the Horse stone.
Soon, the flying ships of Captains Zhuo and Long were standing by in position over the location where the Snake Queen was hiding. Even if she entered a hibernation state, they could easily find her using the array formation the Sages had crafted. Chief Razortalon got into position with his Qphone, and started broadcasting as Captain Zhuo fired another Gravitas round at the snake stone's location. The beastkin world had to watch the Queen snake felled to weapons created by cultivators.
The reactions from the different clans and tribes were slightly mixed, the majority of beastkin who respected power had no issues. But the Dog nation and a small minority of tribes were fearful or angry with the cultivators, and tried to persuade others into attacking them.
The four ships didn't pay attention to anything else as they split into two groups, one headed towards the Tiger clan, and the other headed towards the Monkey tribe.