The sun rose over the horizon as a bubbling feeling the atmosphere of the the sect. Everyone moved and talked excitedly about the upcoming event in the sect.
That's right, in three days was going to be the outer court disciples Mortal Rankings competition, it was an annual competition that happened every year.
There were thousands of disciples in the outer court, but only the top one thousand people would be ranked by the sect, the same rule applied to the inner and core courts too.
And now it was time for the outer court to reshuffle those on the ranks, naturally there were those expected to to be underdogs too or those who didn't get their desired rankings last year.
Everyone were vetoeing for their favorite idols, well mostly the top ten Mortal lords and the number one Mortal king.
"Hey, say who do you think will make a change to this year's Mortal lords"
"Huh, I dunno yet though, but I think Pyrope ignis, who's ranked 11 might challenge the 10th Lord Miren Frostbite"
"Huh, you think so too, I think Aethonys Flamecaller who's ranked 12 might challenge the 8th Lord Zyphyrine Blackwood, after all they're always at logger heads"
"I totally can't wait for the 4th Lord Kaida Redmoon and 5th Lord Niamh Windsong's battle, they're the outer courts goddesses after all."
Similar conversations rang pit throughout the outer court as everyone routed for their favorite Lords and other deciples in the top 20 and this made the sect even more pumped up.
But all this didn't concern a certain youth who was outside the sect, fighting demonic beasts in the dark wind forest or we can just say, he didn't even know what was going on at all.
"Sword one" "Tears of Asura" asides the constant whooshing sounds and roars of beasts either in pain or excitement ringing out, these were the only words that was being said in the middle layer.
It could be said that Vin had made great work of the middle layer, it had only been three days since his battle with the blazing leopard, but he had managed to kill dozens of beasts during that time frame.
A testament to that was how his robes currently looked tattered at the moment, he kept on repeating the two first moves on the Wordless sword manual and the Nine Chronicles of Hell, over and over again.
He was determined to master them before returning to the sect "Alright in another three days, I should be able to leap past the beginner stages and master the small success stage of the two skills, hmm not bad" he said to himself.
With this, he could be said to have revealed something the outside world would consider terrifying, after all he was training in two incredible techniques and he was planning to reach the small success stage within six days.
In this world skills and techniques were divided into five known ranks namely :
Mortal rank
Earth rank
Heaven rank
Profound rank
Spirit rank
And they were further divided into four stages namely;
Beginner stage
Small success stage
Great success stage
And the Completion stage
It was said that when one reached the Completion stage of any skill, they stand a chance to surpass its creator, After all most creators of skills and techniques hadn't reached the profound stage of their skills.
And that brings us to a very wild ambition of Vin "My Flames are quite special, different from everyone else, I don't know the full use but I'm pretty sure it can burn anything and even devour other Flames to strengthen itself, I don't think normal skills are enough to control it."
He said to himself as he raised his palm and a tongue of violet Flames appeared on it, as soon as it appeared
the temperature immediately rose a few dozen degrees.
"Besides I still have two Incredible techniques I'm cultivating, so rather than learn more, I should probably create a technique unique to me alone" In this world there were only select few who would dare say such arrogant words.
And they the rare demon level geniuses of the world, they were people whose strength could be judged by their cultivation realms, and the ones who could create their own skills were monsters among demons.
They couldn't be judged by common sense at all, that was the kind of person Vin had unknowingly just proclaimed himself to be.
"Well, that can only be in the future, maybe when I break through to the spirit sea realm, I'll think about it again. But for now let's round up here" he inadvertently stated as he rushed forward again.
He was determined to reach the small success stage within the next three days, and the beasts in the middle would help him do just that.
******
Three days passed by in a flash and the long awaited competition was finally going to start, the power court martial stage was already packed with people and even though it was enough to accommodate up to five thousand people.
It was still packed to the brim and overflowing as more people flocked in, there were more than ten thousand people in the Flaming sun sect so it was guaranteed that a lot of people would be left standing.
But this inconvenience wasn't enough to dull their spirits and in fact it made then even more impatient for the event to begin.
The first round of the the competition was the elimination round, a free for all trial by combat, after that came the round-robbin and then the true rankings.
Naturally something like the elimination wasn't exactly worth the attention of the higher ups in the sect, as the even the top one hundred was prohibited from competing in the elimination round, their strength was too much for the weaker deciples.
After a few hours of waiting, someone finally appeared on the center of the martial stage, it was an old man with wizened looks and flowing red robes.
Although he looked benevolent no one would be fooled by it, that was because this person was the Hall Master of the outer court Desiplinary Hall Ling Fengzi.
And he was said to be both strict and and impartial in his judgment when meting out rewards and punishments, Elder Ling as he was popularly called looked at the crowd as they chatted fervor and smiled as he nodded.
"Alright, everyone quiet down" his voice boomed everywhere as he added spiritual energy to it, this was naturally only possible for people at Spirit sea realm and above, and elder Ling was in the Sea expansion realm.
So one could naturally feel how loud his voice was, the crowd immediately quietened down, partly because of the impact of the voice but mostly because of his identity.
Looking around at the quiet crowd, elder Ling nodded in satisfaction before continuing "As you all know it that time of the year again where we have our ranking competition."
"Some of you might lose your ranking while some might replace those on it. But the the most important thing is that this is the best way to grow stronger, through battling stronger opponents..."
"Alright, let the elimination round begin, those competiting, come up to the stage." after a given a round if speech elder Ling invited the geniuses to the stage as he flew up to his seat.
And immediately over three thousand people swooped down to the stage immediately, like they had been waiting for this moment, their eyes blazing with fighting intent.
The elimination round was quite simple since it was a free for all, since the top hundred was excluded, the only ones here were those below that rank and others who were hoping to replace those on the rankings or simply fight for the fun of it.
They had to fight till there were only nine hundred people remaining on the stage, only then would they move to the round-robbin part of the competition.
"BEGIN!"
The moment elder Ling's voice bellowed out Chaos ensued on the stage as everyone one started fighting intensely amongst themselves, fireworks lit the sky as various skills were used.
The crowd was not left out as they cheered on the participants in blazing fervor, if one didn't know better, you'd like they were the ones fighting on the stage themselves.
"BOOM!!!!!!"
Large booming sounds kept ringing out from the stage with from solo fights or group battles, and since group battles weren't prohibited, some weaker ones decided to band together.
Some deciples even decided to use this opportunity to settle old grudges, even though some of the grudges sounded ridiculous and stupid.
"You bastard, you dare go after the woman I had my eyes on, I'll duke it out with you." one of the the geniuses shouted as he charged towards another "Idiot, an ugly frog like you even have the face to covet a swan, come let me teach manners." his opponent said as he also charged.
It only toke a few hours before things started to calm down a little, and at that moment almost every one had whittled down the stage, counting the rest of them there were exactly nine hundred and forty-nine people remaining on stage.
Which means they had to eliminate forty-nine people for the round to be completed, just as they were about to act on their thoughts....
"BOOOOOMMM!!!!"
"SWOOSHHHHHH"
A heavy booming sound out as if cannon had been shot followed be swooshing sound like something was was moving fast through the air and then came a calm and serene voice "Tears of Asura"
***
Few minutes earlier.