Journey Of An Unknown - Chapter 23
Hanrong didn’t mind the commotion or the cries and pleas of the Hanrong fan army asking him to marry them all and bear children with them. If someone were to go, ask him what he thought about it all he would blush shyly and answer with ‘Shameless’. No one had the courage to do so because of his radiant handsome face that shined so brightly upon this mortal realm.
Xiaoshan and the rest were also shocked some of them were even scared of Zhou Hanrong, they prayed that they didn’t ever run into him during this tournament as an opponent. Their hopes and dreams would be crushed right away.
Tian Xinfan was also shocked but he regained himself quickly as he knew he was also someone who could beat anyone in this tournament. Sadly for him no one in this tournament thought much about him at all except Zou Shen. He would have to blow everyone away on his own first then show others how far he had risen since his fall.
Soon more people went up to measure their strength they all reached 6 stars or 5 stars on the Star stone pillar. Only one more person reached 7 stars advancing to the next round automatically. This cultivator also received attention from many.
Soon it was the turn Xiaoshan and Xinling who would go to measure on the pillar back to back. First
was Xiaoshan then it would Xinling turn.
Xiaoshan walked towards the pillar with grace and beauty. Many young men in the audience fainted or were beaten by their wives or partners. Elder Chang and Xieren had big smile on their faces as they knew time had come for Xiaoshan to show her strength to the world. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience
Xiaoshan stood in front of the Star stone pillar calmly as she stuck the pillar with a palm strike. She put minor effort into it, soon the stars on the pillar started to activate fast and as quickly they slowed down stopping on the 8th star. She just turned around calmly and walked back to her seat gracefully.
The whole Grand Arena was quiet, but it was something they had expected of her. The announcer looked at the pillar and started to announce Xiaoshan result.
“Luo Xiaoshan advances to the next round.” Just as the announcer said this the 9th star activated. The official next saw the pillar and was shocked to death. They had announced the result too quickly.
He patted the announcer’s shoulder and pointed him towards the Star stone pillar. Even the announcer was shocked to death realizing he made the announcement too early.
Soon he made another announcement to correct his mistake. “Xiaoshan advances to the next round with 9 stars activated.”
Many people were left breathless they had thought activating 8 stars was already great. Now it had turned to 9 stars rivalling Zhou Hanrong. Many people wanted to say she was also a cultivator who would stand atop others of her era.
They couldn’t call her a monster like Zhou Hanrong who was a true cultivation monster incarnate. They called her Goddess who stands above others. Many young girls looked towards Xiaoshan with eyes of worship and respect. To them they wanted to grow up and be like her and follow her example.
The men who had fainted before also fainted again for the second time. There were lots of nosebleeds due to the overdose of beauty and power. Beauty and power combined, Xiaoshan was truly blessed by the heavens.
The higher powers were about to cough up more blood, Red Rain Sect was going to get another strong cultivator. This was too much, strength going into the hands of one sect. Did they sacrifice an
Immortal Beast to the heavens to get these kinds of gifts? They again congratulated Elder Chun was again grinning from ear to ear to immense happiness.
Ruozhen was also worried, Zhou Hanrong and Luo Xiaoshan were two prodigies who would go down in legends. They would even reach the Immortal Realm if nothing dire to any of them. The Red
Rain sect would have two Immortal Realm cultivators in the far future.
This was too much power, the other 4 top sects or strong clans had a peak Ascension Realm cultivator who was the leader of the sect, with a grand Immortal Realm elder who was a previous sect leader or the leader of the clan.
They usually were hiding someplace to cultivate in peace to break through to unknown Realms, many had died in the past eras one had died in this century already. No new cultivators of this era had reached the Immortal Realm, but it looked like Red Rain sect was would lead everyone else on this matter with possible two Immortal cultivators under their belt.
Even other elders and disciples of other higher powers present in the Grand Arena also realized this point. A very big realization dawned on them at this moment, they would need to discuss it with their own clans and sects about it after this selection tournament was over.
The participants sitting in the fighters seating area did not think like the older generation, what they saw instead was another very strong wall had risen before them in this tournament. Hanrong, Xinling and Tian Xinfan were not shocked for long as they had expected this result from the start. If 9 stars were not activated by Xiaoshan then they would be disappointed in her fame around the continent.
Xiaoshan calmly looked towards the platform waiting for the next person to go up, she knew it was Xinling and she was very interested how she would perform. Xiaoshan could feel some threat from Xinling in the tournament, the rest of the female cultivators were not worthy of her attention.
An unknown factor like Xinling would scare anyone as she was backed by Ren Clan, who were not to be looked down upon just because their Iron Mountain Empire was in a dire situation right now.
Instead it showed their immense trust in her as they backed her in this selection tournament even with what was going in their empire.
After a while it was Xinling turn, she walked quietly towards the Star stone pillar, soon her image appeared on large magical screen in the Grand Arena. When the audience looked at her, they were shocked by her beauty, they suddenly had many questions about her. How did they not know about her, where had she come from, why were they reminded of something they had seen minutes ago?
Her cold beautiful face radiated on the magical screen for everyone to see, the men who had fainted from the beauty of Xiaoshan again fell as blood ran from their nose making them faint again.
Someone needed to save these men from beauties like Xiaoshan and Xinling or they would die a very young death.
The young girls who looked up to Xiaoshan couldn’t connect with Xinling, both were cold beautiful cultivators but Xiaoshan had the air of authority and charm of a heroine. Xinling was younger than her and didn’t radiate such charms except her cold beauty.
She gave off the aura of wanting to be left alone and not disturbed by any unnecessary things. It was sad as at one time she was cheerful and lively young girl, who could make others happy with her beauty. Now she was cold to the outside world, still it was not as bad. She had met Zou Shen and held on to her emotions with his help. She now just hid them very well under her cold beautiful face.
It didn’t matter to her if she was noticed or not, if young girls looked up to her or not. She did not care about such things only focusing on growing stronger, finder her mother and getting revenge for her father.
She reached the Star stone pillar and punched it swiftly. It was a slow start as the stars activated one by one slowly, only when it reached the 5th star did the speed rapidly increase and soon it passed the 7th star reaching the 8th star where it finally stopped.
This result was higher than the other people who had advanced to the next round not counting Xiaoshan and Hanrong in. The whole Grand Arena was shocked again. This was a blow to them back to back, some felt it was not good for their health.
The most shocked were the higher powers in the special seating area. They had no idea who this strong prodigy was, they had never seen or heard of Xinling before. They only knew she was backed by Ren Clan in this selection tournament.
Her results far surpassed their guesses, they thought she would advance to the next round with 6 or 7 stars activated. She had surpassed their expectations, Xinling was younger than both Hanrong and Xiaoshan but her strength exceeded them when they were at her age.
This result shocked everyone in the including Xiaoshan and Hanrong, they knew she was strong, but they didn’t think she would be this strong. When she reached their age what heights would her strength reach.
Everyone thought this same question, even elder Chang was shocked by Xinling result, he turned to looked towards Ruozhen. Ruozhen was not shocked at all even though he didn’t know a lot about Xinling strength he still trusted the judgement of Zou Shen.
He was proven right, how could someone who had been taken care by the Guardian of Iron Mountain Empire by simple, they would also stand at the peak of this era cultivator. If Zou Shen asked him to let her be under the care of Ren Clan, the clan would gladly nurture a great prodigy like her.
He still remembered how Xinling had told him that Zou Shen had given her the advice to take part in this selection tournament to see her place in the cultivation world. Now he knew that her place would be at peak with Xiaoshan and Hanrong, maybe even surpassing them under the guidance of Zou Shen. Sadly he knew Zou Shen didn’t directly took her under her wing and only helped her a bit.
Still he knew with the Guardians help she would reach realms unseen ever; it was just impossible to think such things, but he felt it becoming reality deep down inside. It would just be a matter of if Zou Shen wanted to help her reach that realm or not. He had seen Zou Shen attitude of not being hands on with matters that didn’t interest him, or he saw worth in.
He and the Ren Clan were happy that he gave them a path to walk on in the future, it was an immense gift for the future of the clan that he saw some worth and had some interest in their future.
The announcer then quickly announced her result “Jiang Xinling advances to the next round.” Many people in the special seating area when hearing the surname remembered the surname being the same as a weird clan that was hidden from the world. They were strong but not powerful to challenge higher powers, they were in between mid-tier and high-tier powers of this continent.
They were weird as they rarely took part in events or showed themselves in the world, only showing when they needed some resources. No one took notice of them or bothered them and left them on their own like they didn’t exist or held any importance. Now they had after a long time seen another person from that weird Jiang Clan.
Xinling returned to her seat quietly not showing any emotion on her cold beautiful face. As she sat down the two participants beside her who had also advanced to the next round moved a bit away from her in fear. Xinling didn’t mind their reactions she just sat down in her seat not caring about others stares or thoughts.
Everyone was quiet for a while as they realized that only 1 spot was left to advance to the next round automatically. Only few more participants remained, could one among them shock them once more.
Soon the rest of participants went to the Star stone pillar to get their results, it was just 5 or 6 stars, very soon the time of the open rounds to measure their inner energy came. The audience didn’t think anyone from the remaining 4 would be able to advance to the next round. They only knew Tian Xinfan who was infamous in the cultivation world as a fallen from grace prodigy now returning.
The other winners of the open round also didn’t advance to the next round as both activated 5 stars on the Star stone pillar. The audiences hope for the last slot to be filled dropped even more.
Elder Chun was ready to give the spot to one of the backed participants as it would balance the tournament out. Neither he or anyone held any hope for Tian Xinfan and Zou Shen to succeed.
Zou Shen was still sleeping in his seat soundly. He had been like this the whole time, never waking up for anything.
Finally it was Tian Xinfan time to go measure his inner strength. If anyone looked at him, they could see a fire burning in eyes as he was about to let everyone know of his true strength. He had hidden himself long enough, now it was time for this fallen Dragon to rise again and return to the skies where he once lived.
