Journey Of An Unknown - Chapter 20
Zou Shen opened his eyes stood up to look at the beautiful garden before he left to go for the selection tournament. Ruozhen who was standing there waiting for Zou to finish his meditation greeted him.
“Lord Shen miss Xinling has already left, I have a sent a servant to guide her. Should I send a servant to guide you to the grand arena as well.”
Ruozhen was ready to guide Zou Shen himself but he didn’t say it as it would be too eye catching, rousing the suspicions of the powers present for the event.
“No need just gives me the directions I will go there by myself. I need to watch out for any demonic movements. Usually events like this are prone to attacks, I may be overreacting but that demonic beast I killed didn’t seem to come out of nowhere. I hope I am wrong, and nothing happens during the tournament.”
Zou Shen knew an event like this was prone to extraordinary moments happening to it, good or bad moments was up to fate. It was mostly caused by the main character themselves, a powerful rival of the sect looking for revenge, or a mysterious powerful organization just causing chaos. Anyone of these things could pop up at events like these.
Ruozhen didn’t understand the caution from Zou Shen as he felt like demons or anyone would have to be stupid to make any move during the event. Still he would do as he was told.
He learnt the directions for the Grand Arena and walked out of the shop. He walked calmly towards the arena, in his mind he was trying to decide if he should use Shi Jian or not.
The people on the streets looked at his weird clothes. Some children were giggling looking at him thinking he was kind of a clown. Those old women could see the expensive fabrics used and beautiful design of the dress.
He didn’t mind their stares or whispers; he dressed the way he wanted to, so he was happy. After few minutes of walk he reached the Grand Arena of Feathers Peak City. It was the size two cities put together, one city for the audience and one for the arena. There was an underground area under the arena for fighters and entertainers to wait, rest and heal.
He looked around to see hundreds of cultivators going to a desk counter outside to register their name. He had his name already registered and didn’t to go the counter at all. This desk counter was for independent cultivators with no backing looking to participate.
He stood in the line to register just for fun, he was sure Ruozhen would panic when he realizes he wasn’t at the special section of arena for the cultivators who were registered by different powers. He was told by Ruozhen he would meet him there and make up a story of who Zou Shen was to Ren
Clan with Xinling already present there. He could also meet other geniuses and talents of other clans and sects there like Xiaoshan.
He felt sad for making Xinling and Ruozhen worry but he wanted to have his own fun. It would be too boring to take the VIP treatment from the get-go.
After a while his turn came to register his name, the person who was taking the names was a cultivator just a few years older than him. He was surprised when he saw Zou Shen, he looked average from head to toe but his clothes were weird and looked expensive.
He didn’t think much as there were always weird cultivators in this world, he asked as usual for his name.
“My name is Zou Shen.” He answered calmly with a smile on his face.
“Any special title you have earned or achieved.” The cultivator behind the desk asked again.
“Some call me Lord Shen, Guardian of the Iron Mountain Empire.” He replied in a joking manner.
The cultivator behind the desk looked at him and was not amused by his answer.
He quietly wrote ‘Smiling Demon’ as he was annoyed by Zou Shen who always calmly smiling.
“Zou Shen group A, enter through the left entrance you will come to a large hall where you will fight other combatants of group A. If you earn first place in your group, you will enter the main round.” He closed the register after telling Zou Shen the directions.
Zou Shen was the last person to register, only two hundred cultivators could enter the open rounds to enter the main tournament. He went as the directions were given to him; he soon reached a very large hall. There were 4 raised small platforms each group, 50 fighters per group.
He was the last person to enter the hall, the rest of the cultivators looked him with weird looks, again because of his clothes. Then they soon went to back minding their own business.
He walked towards the group A platform, he looked around the platform to see the other fighters he would be fighting. He also looked the people from other platforms.
Near the group D platform a young cultivator caught his eyes, he was the same age as Xinling. This young man was good looking in his own way, he looked cute right now but would group up to be a handsome man in the future. His eyes were bright as it showed he was nervous and excited to be here, but his face was calm.
Zou Shen could not help but laugh inside thinking he was trying to act cool, but his eyes betrayed his true emotions. He was way too cute looking to act like a cold handsome young man. Still Zou knew he was strong, probably deserving to enter the main tournament straight away.
He asked a cultivator if he knew the name of the young man he was looking at. The cultivator immediately answered as who wouldn’t remember the name of a face like that. Another cultivator heard them talking and joined in to tell the back story of the young man.
His name was Tian Xinfan, he was once a young prodigy destined for great things. He once battled someone who crippled him, he is now slowly recovering his cultivation. All his glory was sadly lost as the beauty he was supposed to marry, left him for a core disciple in the Red Rain Sect.
Inside his mind Zou Shen was rolling laughing too much, this guy had the same back story as many novel main characters from his previous life. This Tian Xinfan was surely going to get into the Red Rain sect, he could not wait to see him dazzle everyone with his new strength. Catch the eye of a special elder in the sect who would help him in his path of cultivation. He must have some fortunate encounter which helped him recover and gain his strength back quickly. This was too much for Zou Shen to handle as he kept laughing inside.
Soon the open round started, he saw many go up and fight, soon his turn came as he was called by group A judge.
“Zou Shen against Han Guo.” The judge announced in a hurry. As he wanted his group to be done as quickly as possible.
Zou Shen jumped up the platform to meet his opponent. His opponent was average looking same as him, it was just he was dressed weirdly. His enemy was wearing simple Daoist robes. This Han Guo looked stronger than an average cultivator of the late Human Mortal Realm.
The cultivation required for this selection tournament was, mid Mortal Human Realm for the weak ones to Early Core Realm for the stronger ones. Zou Shen still didn’t name a realm for himself or knew where he stood in the spectrum of normal way of judging someone’s cultivation Realm.
They both greeted each other with respect and the fight started. Han Guo didn’t waste time as he launched an attack on Zou Shen. Han Guo punched towards Zou Shen with his full strength, it was a strong attack that could damage strong 10th step Human Mortal Realm cultivators.
Zou Shen stood in his spot calmly waiting for the punch to reach enough distance from him. As Han Guo punch reached where he wanted, he moved his left hand to grab hold Han Guo right hand which was punching towards him. Pulling Han Guo towards him, killing all the momentum and power the punch had built up.
Zou moved forward after pulling Han Guo towards him and used his left foot to trip the incoming Han Guo making him fall down towards the platform. He used a simple palm strike to add momentum to Han Guo fall, making him hit the ground quickly and hard. Han Guo fainted instantly as he soon as he touched the ground.
All this was done by Zou Shen quickly. The judge took a minute to realize the match had handed, as he announced the victor.
“Zou Shen wins and advances to the next round.” Zou Shen heard the judge as he jumped down the platform to wait for his next opponent.
He was very happy as this was his very first fight with a cultivator. It went better than expected, he could not fight more cultivators to try more new things.
Every other fighter of group A realized they had just seen the winner of this group fight. Han Guo was a strong cultivator of 8th step, before Zou Shen fought him Han Guo was their groups winner. And this popular choice winner was just taken out of the group in the very first round.
Everyone in group A was sacred. He took out a strong 8th step cultivator quickly without any effort.
They would not fare any better even if they were at late Mortal Human Realm. They looked towards Zou Shen who was smiling calmly with fear.
After the first round Zou Shen opponents either surrendered or the match ended quickly. The judge of this group was pleased, he was going to be first to announce a group winner.
Group C was also fast but not as Group A, Group D speed was normal. Group B was the slowest. Soon enough Zou Shen won the final round of group A.
The judge of Group A loudly announced his groups winner to rub it in the faces of his colleagues who were slower than him. The other judges looked at him with envy.
The fighters looked over to see who the winner of group A was, it was not someone who they knew or had heard of before. They had heard of Han Guo before so they guessed he would win easily.
They found the winner to be a weirdly dressed average person confusing them about how he was even strong. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.
Group A fighters were all dejected especially those lost to Zou Shen. They had tried their best from the very start and yet lost to Zou Shen quickly who defeated them with no effort.
The cultivator who Zou Shen went up to him to talk. He asked why no one had heard of his name and of his battles before this, Zou Shen looked at everyone who was looking at him when the cultivator asked him this question.
He calmly replied, “Han Guo was my first ever battle against a cultivator, before this I have killed many Light Wind Rabbits and one Demonic beast before this. This selection tournament will also be my very first time of getting to watch cultivators fight. I have not seen any fights of cultivators before this open round.”
Everyone who heard his reply wanted to cough blood in pain. They all could think one thing, ‘We lost to a virgin who has never fought properly before or seen cultivators before.’
What kind of power does one gain from killing Light Wind Rabbits and killing one simple Demonic beast? They had all killed plenty of Light Wind Rabbits for money or for food. Demonic beast was also not hard to kill. They did put up a battle, but every cultivator was expected to kill many in their lifetime. They could not figure out why Zou Shen was so stronger than them even if he was cultivating day and night without sleeping or eating.
How could this average looking, weird dressed guy be stronger than them, it felt like the more they thought about this the more their brains didn’t function. So they did think about this anymore and just decided that Zou Shen was a deity walking among them, toying with them for fun.
Zou Shen was smart enough to not mention his crazy ideas and ordeals he went through to achieve his strength. These cultivators might actually loose their minds and kill themselves if they heard about it from him.
