The day was Blissful in the outer court as people kept flocking towards one direction, the outer court martial stage.
It was the start of the Round-Robbin of the competition to determine the top hundred. This time around the top ten Mortal lords were excluded so only nine hundred and ninety people were participating which means only ninety people would have to come out on top.
These 990 people would be divided into ten groups, with ninety-nine people in each group. But only the top nine would be qualified, and the rules were as follows :
1. Each person has a chance to battle with the other ninety-eight.
2. Each person is only allowed to lose twice in a row without winning before being disqualified.
3. If two people were to tie, they would only be given half points.
4. Your opponents were selected randomly, which meant you can't challenge someone else.
5. Fight till you lose.
All in all the rules were quite simple, just like the last point said, battle till you lose, if one person is able to win against the other ninety-eight without losing, he'd automatically become the winner for that group.
Once one person lost, the winner of that battle was to continue the battle till he lost and so on.
Naturally they couldn't just keep fighting continuously as they weren't machines and so they winner of a battle was allowed thirty minutes rest after his battle but he could chose not to use it.
The Round-Robbin was set to last a week at most, so everyone could battle to their hearts contents.
When everyone got to the martial stage the realized it was divided into ten smaller stages, this would enable all ten groups to have their battles at the same time.
So everyone could decide who they wanted to pay attention to, but asides from the top twenty of everyone's favorites, there was also an underdog who people were looking forward to, and that person was the one who had killed someone with a snap of his fingers the day prior.
But the person in question wasn't even paying attention to what was going on, in fact he seemed as if he didn't even know what was going on.
The moment Vin came to the stage he quickly located his cabin where he had been posted, each cabin was connected to a stage that a particularly group would fight on.
After listening to the rules he lost interest in the rest of the useless talks and kept on reading the booklet, at first he had wanted to read it as quickly as possible but he soon changed his mind, the book was quite interesting so he decided to take his time to understand it.
And even after reading all night, he didn't feel tired or fatigued at all, in fact he felt more refreshed than ever before, he felt like ready the ancient Aramaic was another form of cultivation on its own, the cultivation of the mind.
In fact, he felt like his comprehension increased the more he read and that he was close to mastering Sword one and Tears of Asura.
After all the talks and introductions of the rules, it didn't take long for the competition to start, and the referee on charge of his group stage was non other than Elder Ling himself, he had decided to pay special attention to Vin.
And just as the competition was underway with the first combatants battling in stage another commotion was happening in the cabin where the rest of the competitors were staying.
A young boy of 17 walked up to Vin who was reading in a corner, he had a scar that ran along his face which made him look especially scary, as he walked up to Vin, various murmurs sounded out among one contestants.
"Wait, Is that?"
"Yes, it's him"
"That's Victor Stoneworth"
"He's said to be an irrational person"
"And ruthless too"
"What do you think he wants with the underdog"
"Isn't that obvious, even though he's ranked 20th, he still a follower of the ranked 15th Haemon Cadmus who was rumored to have fancied Suzanne Reina"
"Oh yeah that's true, so he must have been sent to make trouble"
"Make trouble?. You underestimate their ruthlessness, he might probably kill him and act like it was a mistake, he might even decide to challenge him to a death match"
"But that guy won't agree to it right?"
"Well, who knows"
Victor heard the murmurs and smiled faintly, when he got to Vin's position he stopped and looked at him in derision.
"So you're Vin Celestra?" he said coldly, "And you are?" Vin asked curtly not even raising his, for someone to speak to him ay this moment and in that manner, he surely didn't mean well so there was no need to pay attention to that person.
"I'm Victor Stoneworth, ranked 20th" Victor introduced proudly, although he was a little pissed the Vin wasn't paying attention to him.
"Oh, okay" Vin replied "You really are an idiot, you offended someone you shouldn't have and you still have the mind to read" Victor berated, he was getting angrier by the second.
"And my guess is, you're the dog who is sent to deal with me?!!" Vin asked but he still didn't look up, Victor almost exploded at that sentence, frankly speaking he was just as Vin said a dog, but he was one with class and ranks.
But the way Vin said it made his status quite degrading, and he could feel the look of disdain the rest of geniuses were giving him but he managed to control himself, anyways Vin was going to die soon, what was the point of arguing with a dead person.
"Hmph, if you have the guts why don't you accept a death challenge on the stage" he finally said his true purpose of coming here but all he got was "Hmm. Alright got it, you can leave now" Vin dismissed with a wave of hand.
"What did you just say to me?" Victor said coldly almost flaring his aura but... "I said. BEGONE!!!" Vin commanded as he finally raised his head, the moment Victor's eyes met his, he felt a huge pressure on his mind.
He almost fell to his knees, but through sheer will he managed to stand on his feet "Hmph, we'll see" he said as he quickly vanished into the crowd to his seat, Vin just shook his head and continued reading.
But this little episode didn't escape the eyes of those geniuses.
"Wait, what did I just see?"
"Did Victor just get scared with a single gaze"
"It can't be right"
"Is that guy that terrifying"
"If I'm matched against him, I'll just give up"
"Me too"
Vin didn't mind all these murmurs and just focused on reading, nothing was more important than that. But because he couldn't care less about it doesn't mean someone else didn't mind it.
Victor's body kept trembling in rage and a dangerous aura was coming off of him, and that was how the whole day went, at the end only a fourth of them fought.
If Vin had known he wouldn't be battling today, frankly he wouldn't have come, after the match ended for the day, he went back to his residence and focused on learning the language of ancient.
It almost felt like an obsession. Vin had thought the night was going to pass by without any anything happening but fate had other plans.
Deep into the night, black shadows kept flickering as they moved towards one location, obviously they didn't mean well.
Vin was still engrossed in his reading when he felt something was wrong, due to the influence of the booklet his senses had been enhanced quite a bit, and he could sense the movements around him.
But he didn't react to it, his expression didn't even change as he didn't want to alert the enemy.
"The target is within sight" one of the shadows said, "Just like the information said, he seems to be engrossed in his reading" another added "Hmph, this should be quite easy" one of them sneered.
"Don't let you guard down, we'll attach together on my count" one of them who seemed like the leader berated. "Now"
And immediately five shadows pierced through the roof of the building and targeted five week points on Vin's body.
One went for his head, one went to his throat, another went for his heart and the other went for other weak spots in his body, in a second the had almost reached their target but within the next second, just as they were about to accomplish their mission, a bristling cold voice sounded.
"Sword one"
Five piercing sounds rang out and immediately five bodies dropped to the ground, but only one was alive, but barely, Vin had purposely left him alive as he needed information on who sent them.
"Now then, tell me, who sent you?!" he asked as he finally raised his heard from his book.
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