Chapter 241 - 983-995

Chapter 983: Time to go

[I think you're thinking way too far ahead. In any case, you have 22728 Destiny Points remaining. You really won't use it anymore, right?] Sister Orb asked after Rean was done talking.

Rean and Roan nodded as Roan replied, "Yes. Leave those points there for us to accumulate to 50000. Only then will we choose something else."

With that decided, the twins, Celis, and Kentucky finally exited the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm. After that, they returned to the sect on Kentucky's back.

Cynthia sighed in relief, seeing that the twins were back. However, the one who almost cried was Kurt, who was having a hard time holding the Stage Five Demon Beast down. "Celis, Kentucky, you can't leave like that. I had to chain up the demon beast, and it reset our efforts in taming it."

Kentucky nodded, telling Kurt, "It's okay. We won't leave anytime soon. Well, at least not the two of us together. Celis will most likely reconnect with the roots spread already and just focus on cultivation."

Celis confirmed that as he said, "That's true. It's just that the twins and us two had a few things to do, so we had to leave."

"Something to do? What was th-" Only then did Kurt notice Kentucky and Celis's new cultivation levels. "Oh! You broke through to Middle Stage Six! Congratulations! No wonder you had to leave. You were preparing for this breakthrough. I see! I see!"

Kentucky and Celis didn't try to fix his ideas as they returned to where Celis had taken roots. Naturally, Kentucky's nest would be there as well. 

"Kentucky!"

"Kentucky's back!"

"Why did you leave so suddenly?!"

"We missed you!"

Unsurprisingly...Kentucky had already captured the girls' hearts in the Beast Taming Hall. Since he didn't need to pretend that he couldn't talk in the sect, he didn't waste time before playing his 'charm' once again. "Sniff, sniff...you don't know how frightening it was. However, it was the thought of you back in the Beast Taming Hall that allowed me to come back from this trip and even breakthrough. I missed you too!"

Celis's mouth twitched as he heard that...or it would if he had one. 'I really can't understand this Minokawa sometimes...'

The head elder and the disciples of the Beast Taming Hall weren't the only ones shocked. When Cynthia came to see the twins, she immediately noticed that they had broken through. "What?! How the hell did you do that?"

Roan glanced at her for a moment before shaking his head, telling her in response, "It's a secret. Otherwise, we wouldn't have left the sect before breaking through."

"This..." Cynthia knew it was true. Nevertheless... "Could it be that you found another Divine Stream Lake?"

Rean and Roan looked at Cynthia as if she was an idiot. "If even you guys, who have lived in this area for so long, don't know how to find the next lake, how do you expect us to know?" 

Cynthia scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. "Errr...forget I asked anything." She then changed the topic. "Ahem...can't you give me a clue on how to cultivate that fast like you guys?"

Rean smiled before saying, "Get more Divine Stones to cultivate."

Cynthia felt like giving Rean a beating. "If I could do that, our sect wouldn't be with financial struggles!"

"Hahaha!" Rean laughed in response. "That's true. Anyway, once we get a Divine Vein for your sect, things should become easier for you."

Cynthia shook her head in response. "Don't underestimate the assembly. I can guarantee you that there will be Saint Realm experts below the age of 50 there. That just shows how different the level of strength is between our sect and the top organizations in Cosec."

Rean wanted to say that he and Roan could probably fight up to an entire realm above their cultivation alone and even higher if they exchanged elements. However, he refrained from doing so, deciding to just end it off with a chuckle. "Hehe! Of course, we know of the competition. In any case, we'll see how strong they are once it starts."

Cynthia then conversed with the twins for a little longer before leaving their residence. Well, the twins left with her as well, heading straight to the Formation Master and Alchemy Halls.

In the Sect Master's residence, Cynthia told them the news. "What?! They broke through again?! Not only that, but it was all four of them?!"

Cynthia nodded, muttering, "I really wonder what kind of place they came from."

"Could it be they know some secret to cultivate much faster?" Wuxan could not help but say, who was also called over.

"If I were to guess, it has something to do with the Divine Stream Lake you found before." Kayla, on the other hand, was calm.

"How come?"

"Simple," Kayla replied. "Only after they found the Divine Stream Lake did they get that boost in cultivation. They're already in their late thirties. If their cultivation had always been this fast, they wouldn't just be Soul Transformation Realm cultivators. They would be far above it, perhaps even reaching the Elemental Transformation Realm."

Everyone went silent after hearing that until Kayla finally continued, "Don't talk about it anymore. The Divine Stream Lake is gone, and we don't know where the next one will appear. No one knows. Besides, we're already asking them a favor from them to try and get a Divine Vein for us. Let's not pry into their secrets, as I really don't want to lose their support. First of all, we're not the type of sect that does anything regardless of the outcome. As long as they don't mean any harm to our sect, we won't do anything to them."

Cynthia and the others nodded with serious expressions. "Yes, Sect Master!"

Time began to pass in a flash as the twins' group occupied themselves with their own things. Contrary to Roan's imagination, no one appeared to ask more about their breakthroughs. He only heard a few congratulations, and that was about it. In any case, he was satisfied with the sect's approach regarding that issue.

Eventually, the day of the assembly arrived, and Kayla gathered the group that would participate in it. "Whether you're ready or not, I don't care. There's no turning back now. Let's go!"

Chapter 984: What Is Happening Here?

Naturally, the local assembly would happen in Cosec City itself. As the twins' group got close to the teleport formation, they were finally able to see the other participants from Lukimira Sect. Well, to be more specific, the other participants came to see them. A man with a similar age to the twins introduced himself as he appeared in front of them. "Hey there! I'm Wamil, a member of the Truesi Race."

Some humanoid races were extremely similar to humans, making it hard to distinguish them by simply looking at them. Wamil's Truesi Race was one of those races. You could say that Wamil was completely human...if not for the blue color of his hair. That was their natural hair color. All pureblood members of the Truesi Race were like that.

"Truesi Race..." Rean pondered in silence for a bit about the few races he read about. "If I'm not wrong, your race is slightly inclined towards Yin Energy...am I right?"

Wamil nodded as he said, "That's the Truesi Race. Well, the fact still stands that there are humanoid races with better affinity than ours, so it's nothing that impressive. If a human's affinity with Yin Energy is worth 100 points, you could say the Truesi Race has 105 points." Wamil wasn't trying to be modest. Due to the number of humanoid races in existence, there were many who didn't even have a difference other than physical traits. Truesi Race still had something to distinguish them from others other than their blue hair.

Rean then smiled in response, introducing the two of them as he said, "I'm Rean, a new disciple of the sect. As for the dead body by my side, you can call him Roan. He's, unfortunately, my twin brother."

Roan just glanced at Wamil before giving a slight nod, completely ignoring Rean's words.

Wamil was just about to talk when...

"Hello there! I'm Casil from the Juran Race!" Suddenly, another member of the group introduced himself as well. "I've heard that you two are very strong. By the way, I'm at the Peak Stage of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm. I can't feel your cultivation with my Divine Sense at all, though."

The other participants of the sect followed suit soon after.

"I'm Iulia, a human, just like you two. I'm at the peak of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm."

"I'm Gobef, Zamal Race and at the Initial Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm."

"You guys can call me Kar, Sanscrin Race. I'm also at the Initial Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm."

Rean complimented every single one of them and quickly noticed that no one in the participating group had cultivation lower than the peak of the Core and Soul Fusion Realm. 

Wamil sighed, finally finding the time to continue speaking. "Anyways, I'm the strongest in our group. I'm at the Middle Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm...or so I wanted to say." Wamil then saw the expectation on everyone's faces. Naturally, they wanted to know the same thing as Casil. "Ahem...what is your cultivation? Even with my cultivation, I can just barely feel that you definitely have it."

Rean nodded, responding, "Well, it's not a secret anyway. Roan and I are both in the Middle Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm."

*Wow!*

"So young and already so strong!"

"Why would they be in our sect, though?"

"Shut up! The important thing is that they're here."

Casil couldn't help but ask, "How did you cultivate so fast like that?!"

Rean shrugged his shoulders in response. "You could say that it's also the same reason why we joined your sect. Senior Cynthia found a Divine Stream Lake, and we found her. We didn't know what a Divine Stream Lake was at that time, and she could have forced us to leave. However, she told us what it was and how to use it. Thanks to that, we finally entered the Soul Transformation Realm and even reached the Middle Stage. Joining the Lukimira Sect is our way of thanking her for the life-changing help she gave us."

Cynthia, who was slightly at the front with the other elders, couldn't help but nod her head in satisfaction. She obviously overheard Rean's words.

Wamil felt like a huge burden was taken from his back as he said, "I see...no wonder your cultivation was so high. You found a Divine Stream Lake." He understood that the twins were still Nascent Soul Realm cultivators a while ago, even though their stage was higher. That gave him some confidence in his own effort so far. 

Rean knew what he was thinking but didn't try to correct him. They could think whatever they wanted.

Eventually, the teleport formation was ready as Kayla called the disciples' attention. "Everyone, step on the teleport formation."

Following the sect's elders, everyone used the teleport formation to go straight to Cosec City. 

*Vup!*

Of course, they teleported to the sect's teleport formation that Rean and Roan used on their way to the sect.

Once again, the image of the streets of Cosec City appeared in the twins' sight. However, they didn't have to admire it as Kayla immediately guided their group to another teleport formation.

"Halt!"

However, a guard stopped their passage.

Kayla then took out a token and passed it to the guard. The guard seemed to have some way of verifying the authenticity of the token as well. A few moments later, he opened the path and said, "Go ahead. Remember that only those below the age of 50 can participate. However, their protectors can watch the assembly."

Kayla nodded with a smile before she, the elders, and the ten Lukimira Sect's disciples entered the teleport formation...or so they tried. "Now, would you look at that? I can't believe the Lukimira Sect still exists."

Kayla's expression went dark as soon as she heard that voice. However, it completely changed to a smile before she looked back at the owner of that voice. It was a man wearing a sea blue robe, followed by some elders and disciples with similar clothes and emblems. "That's weird. I thought that your Qianbel Sect would have been wiped out of the map already."

Rean and Roan looked at Wamil and the others. Just like Kayla, Wamil's group didn't seem to like the presence of the other part. Eventually, Rean couldn't hold back anymore and used his Divine Sense to ask Wamil. 'Errr...what's happening here?'

Chapter 985: The Status Quo

Wamil then explained through a Divine Sense Message, telling Rean, 'Although they say that, the fact is that the Qianbel and Lukimira Sect are located very close to each other. The cliff where our Lukimira Sect is located extends for over 600 kilometers. We are on the left side of that cliff. As for the Qianbel Sect, they're on the right side. We both used the cliff to build our sects inside since it was a cheap way to do so.'

Rean immediately understood the issue. 'Simply put, it's a territorial dispute as to who should be using that place as their home, right?'

Wamil nodded, saying, 'Yes. The point is, both Lukimira and Qianbel Sect are small sects at a pretty similar level of power. With that being said, it's not worth going to war against each other since we would just hurt each other. Nevertheless, we frequently clash on other things, and the main one...'

'The centennial power assembly...' Rean could see why they were both acting that way. 'Do they have some agreement that uses the assembly's final scores or something like that?'

Wamil looked at Rean with surprise on his face. 'So, you've already guessed that, huh? Indeed, we do have one agreement. There's one other reason other than being cheap for us to select that cliff as our home. The cliff is also considered a very small Divine Stone deposit. Lukimira and Qianbel have an agreement to protect the cliff together since we're both weak. However, only those who finish ahead of the other in the centennial assembly will have the right to extract the Divine Stones for the next one hundred years. Although the Divine Stones that could be mined are of the lowest grade, they are extremely valuable for sects of our size.'

'I see...' Indeed, that was a very important thing considering their power. 'Who has the rights to extract the Divine Stones this century? Also, how many Divine Stones can you make during this time?'

Wamil then explained, 'Qianbel got it in the last assembly. I wasn't born back then, but I heard they were just ahead up of us by a small margin. From the looks of it, both our sects often end somewhere close to each other every year. It's not wrong to say that we're rivals...that no one other than ourselves cares about.'

Wamil continued, 'As for Divine Stones, it's just as I said. It's a very small deposit that renews itself with time. I've been in the mine before on duty, so I can tell you that we don't mine more than a few tens of them every year. Of course, a few tens of Divine Stones is very good for sects of our size.'

Rean couldn't help but sigh after hearing that. 'Indeed, that's very low. Well, considering that they get a hundred years of mining, it can become a big amount in the end...if they didn't have their own sect to run, which cost Divine Stones as well.'

As the conversation was done through Divine Sense, it only took a moment.

The leader of the Qianbel Sect was called Ranmgues. Surprisingly, he was from the Lakure Race as Rean and Roan could easily identify the red veins above his skin. "Wiped out? Hehe! If that had really happened, I wonder if you would still be living inside our cliff instead of someone else taking it away from you."

"Your cliff? Hmph!" Kayla snorted in response, saying, "We were obviously the first sect to arrive there. Just be happy that our dignified Lukimira Sect is allowing you to live there with us. If not because of the agreement made by our ancestors, we would have taken it for ourselves already."

"Hahaha!" Ranmgues laughed out loud in response. "Why don't you try, then? Of course, I want to see how you'll protect the cliff once we're gone."

Of course, Ranmgues knew that it was exactly the same situation for him. Neither sect could live without the other, even though they didn't like the other part. Because of that, their clashes were always like that, all bark but no bite. However, there was one thing Ranmgues had always been jealous about, the Divine Vein that the Lukimira Sectgot 500 years ago. After all, he was alive during the time they got it.

However, it was at that moment he flashed a grin. "Hehe! Five hundred years have already passed! How is your Divine Vein doing?"

Kayla narrowed her eyes in response. Everyone knew about the lifespan of the veins offered by the Royal Family, so there was no point trying to hide it. "Hmph! As if you didn't know already. However, don't you worry, we will get another one this year...and also take the next one hundred years of ownership over the Divine Stone deposit."

The one to narrow his eyes now was Ranmgues. He then looked at the Lukimira Sect's disciples and recognized eight of them. They were very close to each other, so he obviously kept tabs on the Lukimira Sect. However, he had never seen Rean and Roan. Because the twins were very new to the sect, Ranmgues hasn't gotten information on them yet. "Who are those two?"

Kayla shrugged her shoulders, telling him, "Oh, just two new disciples of our sect. Don't worry, you will come to know them during the assembly." Without even waiting for Ranmgues to talk, Kayla turned around and said, "Let's go. We can't let the teleport formation run forever."

A few moments later, they were gone.

Ranmgues didn't seem to care too much, though. "Hmph! Just pretending to be high and mighty." Right after, he looked at a disciple of his sect that was hidden behind his sect elders. "Tuly, we are counting on you this time. Make sure you finish at least ahead of Lukimira. We kept you far away during all these years to not raise any suspicion, so I hope you won't let us down."

Tuly, who happened to be a human as well, nodded in response. "Yes, Sect Master." He was a cultivator at the Peak Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Too bad for him, but he didn't know about the twins.

Chapter 986: Easy To Deal With

Cosec City was similar to Sasamil Capital in the way it was divided. It had its outer, inner, and core regions, with the Core Region being where the most wealthy and strong lived. For example, the three top sects of Cosec Cit had branches there. That's something both the Lukimira and Qianbel Sect could never hope to afford.

The Core Region obviously was the place where the assembly would happen. The teleport formation Kayla brought the twins to just so happened to teleport them straight into the location for it. 

"Is this... a palace?" Rean asked as he looked at the ridiculously big building ahead.

Cynthia nodded as she explained, "That's the City Lord's palace. It is the place where the assembly always happens. You can find basically everything inside there. To be honest, even our entire sect pales in comparison to the installations inside. Formations, resources, techniques, and much more. You can find more and better quality ones in the City Lord's palace than in our Lukimira Sect."

Rean nodded as their group approached the palace's entrance. There, they could see the queue of sects and other organizations waiting to enter. "Oh, that's where they test the participants."

Rean was right. The participants had to put their hands on what seemed to be a small formation on a table. That formation worked for a few moments before a small light appeared above it. So far, only blue lights have appeared.

"That's the bone age test. If you're above fifty years of age, it will show a red light. If not, then it'll show that blue light you are seeing," Wamil explained as he was beside Rean.

Suddenly, a red light appeared on one of the formations, which caught the guards' attention. "You are above 50 years of age. Therefore, you can't take part in this years' assembly."

The guy was taken aback by that. "So I'm above fifty already?" From the looks of it, even he didn't know. An elder of his organization then put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. "As you know, you were an orphan when we found you, so we didn't know exactly how old you were. Even though you're above fifty, it's probably a very small thing. Anyway, we brought another disciple since we weren't sure, so step back for now."

The man couldn't help but show a sad expression before retreating. The guards didn't say anything, nor did they give any punishment. Their age test was perfect, so no one above fifty would pass through it to start with. And just like that, the queues continued to move forward until the turn for the Lukimira Sect finally arrived.

Roan stepped forward and looked at the formation on the table. Because he wasn't from the Realm of Gods, he wasn't sure if the formation worked in the same way in his case. 'Well, there's only one way to find out.'

Roan put his hands on the formation, and a few moments later, a dark light appeared.

Rean, who used a formation beside Roan, just so happened to get a white light instead.

'Sure enough, things wouldn't be that easy,' the twins thought.

"Oh! That's quite rare." The guard observing it seemed surprised, and so did the rest of the people around. However, it didn't look like it was a big deal for some reason.

The guard then turned around before instructing his subordinate. "We got two guys with odd affinities. Bring the blood test crystal here to check their age."

Rean and Roan could not help but have confused expressions at the situation, not expecting things to go that smoothly even after their affinities were exposed. Well, it would be exposed sooner or later during the assembly, but still...

A few moments later, an old man arrived with the crystal in his hands. He then looked at Rean and Roan, asking, "Are these the ones?"

The guard nodded. "Yep, they're the fifth and sixth ones to appear this year already."

Rean and Roan were surprised to hear that. 'So, weird elemental affinities aren't that uncommon in the Realm of Gods, huh?'

The old man then made a few inscriptions on the crystal before putting it in front of Rean and Roan. "Just put a drop of your blood over it. I modified the crystal so that it would reject the blood of someone above the age of fifty. If it absorbs your blood, then you pass." 

The twins quickly did as the old man said. Sure enough, their blood was absorbed by the crystal, which proved they were within the requirements. The guard nodded after seeing that as well. "Alright, you pass. Next!"

Rean and Roan then went besides Cynthia, who was waiting for them. "It seems like there are more people with odd affinities."

Cynthia nodded, not finding it abnormal. "Odd affinities are definitely rare. However, not that rare. From what I know, you can find one person with an odd elemental affinity every ten thousand people or so. What the guard found surprising was that two of them appeared exactly at the same time. Oh well, that's just about it."

That was really a surprise for the twins. Back in the Realm of Mortals, it would be impressive if one found one in a billion! Let alone two like them. Of course, for the twins, that was perfect as they wouldn't have to care about their elemental affinities.

Sister Orb then warned the twins. [Weird Elemental Affinities are indeed a lot more common in the Realm of Gods. However, you must not forget. Light and Dark Affinities are definitely not. I can guarantee that you two are the only ones in existence.] 

Of course, Sister Orb also had good news. [Well, it doesn't matter that much. After all, you are the only ones who know about that. Others will simply think they had never seen Light and Dark Element Affinity before because of their luck. That's all.]

The twins were still happy to hear that, as Rean could not help but say, "That definitely makes things a lot easier to deal with."

Chapter 987: Let's Try That Formation

Once they entered the City Lord's palace, they were told to follow a different path from the sect's elders. Kayla didn't mind as he warned Rean and the others, "We will be observing you two from afar. Just do your best."

As the elders were soon brought away, Rean and the other participants followed a different path. Eventually, they arrived at what seemed to be a big room. However, Rean and Roan had underestimated the size of it. "This..."

Inside the room, there seemed to be a huge space much, much bigger than what it looked like from the outside. Not only that, but they could see participants everywhere. All of them were waiting for the assembly to start. With that, Rean asked Sister Orb, 'Sister Orb, is there a formation manipulating space in this room?'

[Oh, you noticed? That's correct. I can't tell what kind of formation it is exactly without analyzing it. However, it's definitely a spatial formation as you can probably feel the spatial power similar to when you enter the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm.]

Rean nodded in response, muttering, 'Really impressive. So far, I only know of formations that could teleport people. This is the first time I've seen a formation that manipulates space. It turns what was supposed to be a small place into a bigger one.'

Wamil and the others didn't seem surprised by that, so they moved ahead. "Rean, Roan, let's check the contents of the assembly this time."

"Check the contents?" The twins were surprised to hear that. "Have they announced it already?"

Wamil nodded as he told them, "It has obviously been decided already. It's just that you won't know before you arrive at this place. It's always like that. Let's head to the center of the room. It should be there."

Everyone followed Wamil, passing various other candidates. Eventually, some formations displayed giant boards with a lot of information on them at the center of the room.

Roan looked at them, paying attention to the type of competitions available for the Divine Veins. "I see...there isn't just a single type of trial. There are also trials related to side occupations. Alchemy, blacksmithing, formations, talismans..." Roan also noticed one he hadn't seen before. "Soul Power?"

Kar noticed Roan's puzzled expression when he said that, so he explained, "Any humanoid race can use Soul Power, but there aren't many who focus on it. That's because it's hard to awaken Soul Power. Even if you do, you have to divide your attention between your normal cultivation and Soul Power, which decreases the number of users even more. Of course, a few races are already born with this capability, like the Husbons, Iolas, Zasfins, and so on. In their case, it's a lot easier to focus on both paths."

Rean and Roan nodded after hearing that. Kar's words confirmed what Rean mentioned in the past. Humans could really learn Soul Power, just like he had discovered. Plus, it seemed like it wasn't a secret in the Realm of Gods, unlike the Zasfin Planet in the Realm of Mortals. 'However, anyone who has kept my Light Element equipment close to them would definitely awaken Soul Power in the future. On the other hand, it seems that it's a lot harder to do it in the Realm of Gods. I guess that's an advantage of having Light Element Affinity, as others simply can't copy my abilities. I wonder what methods they would use to awaken the Soul Power of those who aren't born with it.'

Kar continued, "Since Soul Power is uncommon, it's considered a side occupation. Naturally, there's a competition for them as well with Divine Veins as the prize." In Kar's eyes, Rean and Roan didn't know those things because they came from that 'other part' of the Realm of Gods where things seemed to be different.

Rean and Roan nodded in response. It made sense since everyone could definitely cultivate, but not everyone could do a specific side occupation. Soul Power obviously fell into the latter.

Rean and Roan then looked at the different categories of the Soul Power competition.

-Soul Power Strength-

-Soul Power Manipulation-

-Soul Power and Divine Energy Synergy-

"Three categories for the Soul Power competition, huh?" Obviously, the twins wondered if they should take part in it as well.

It was then that Sister Orb mentioned. [Well, the fusion of Divine Energy and Soul Power you have makes it one type of energy. When you fight, you absorb Divine Energy from the environment and create Soul Power in your Soul. Those two powers fuse together, and your attacks come out with this new type of energy. They really can't be considered any of the two. Well, I guess it can be considered both of them simultaneously.]

'What do you mean?' Rean asked.

[I meant that once they try to measure your Soul Power, there's a chance they won't be able to detect anything as it is fused with Divine Energy to create the new type of energy. That means you won't have any Soul Power Strength. Your Soul Power Manipulation won't be considered Soul Power Manipulation either. As for Synergy, Soul Power users use both Divine Energy and Soul Power to support it. However, their energies don't fuse together. Naturally, you won't get anything from this synergy since it'll look like you aren't using any of them.]

Rean found it strange. 'But that also means they'll find out that we aren't using Divine Energy or Soul Power alone either, no?'

Sister Orb responded in agreement, [Exactly. So unless you're ready to keep using the excuse that you come from somewhere else, I would rather not let them analyze your fused power.]

Roan then mentioned, 'From what you said, this is just a possibility. They might be able to tell that we're using both energies, right?'

[Yes. The question is which one of the two is the case. Suppose that their Divine Senses can tell that you are using both energies. In that case, they might only see it as you two having ridiculously high proficiency in Divine Energy and Soul Power Synergy.]

Rean then remembered he passed by a Soul Power Analysis Formation on the way to the center of the room. 'Well, we can test it out. The Zasnfins had the Soul Power Measurement Orb, which could calculate our Soul Power even after the fusion. Perhaps that formation we passed by can also calculate it. Let's try the formation. If it shows us our Soul Power Score, then we know they can distinguish it, and we can take part in the Soul Power competitions.' 

Rean also added one last thought, suggesting, 'By the way, let's just call it Divine Soul Power. There's no point in talking about both energies all the time.'

Roan and Sister Orb agreed with the suggestion, thinking that it was a fitting name. 

Chapter 988: Roan Isn't Very Confident

Surprisingly, Roan gave up participating in the Soul Power category. 'You go and test it out. When it comes to Soul Power, you're better than me due to your Light Element Affinity. We don't need the two of us to participate in that thing. But before that, let's check out the information on the other boards.'

Rean nodded as he said, 'Alright then.'

"Other than competitions for side occupations, there are also battle-related competitions," Wamil mentioned as he noticed them getting closer to him.

Roan was looking exactly at those. "From the looks of it, the battle-related ones are the categories that reward the most Divine Veins."

Gobef confirmed Roan's words, saying, "That's to be expected. In the end, what matters most in the Realm of Gods is strength. It has always been like that, and it wouldn't change anytime soon."

Roan couldn't agree more with Gobef. He then took a look at the categories available for the competition.

-Physical One vs. One Battles-

-Ability Only One vs. One Battles-

-All-Out One vs. One Battles-

-Group Fights (Up to Five Members at Most)-

-Free for All Single Battle (Only one participant per sect, guild, or organization allowed)-

-Stealth Tests-

-Strategy Tests-

-Physical Strength Measurement Test-

-Divine Energy Capability Test-

-Speed Test-

Roan was quite impressed by that. "So many..."

However, Wamil shook his head. "In fact, it is very little. If you consider the number of organizations participating in this assembly, there are simply not enough Divine Veins. It's far, far from enough. Look around. There are tens of thousands of participants here, and more are coming by the second."

Iulia, the other human in their group, then mentioned, "I took a look at the official information they released a few days before the assembly day. There are a total of 3889 teams invited to this assembly. However, there are only forty or so categories with obviously the same number of Divine Veins as rewards."

Rean and Roan had to admit Iulia was right. "So, we only have one Divine Vein for every one hundred organizations, more or less. One can already imagine how desperate the matches will be."

"That's not all," Casil said soon after, another member of their group, as he pointed at the rewards list on the board. "Can you see? There are different qualities for the Divine Veins offered to each category. The battle-related ones are the somehow better Divine Veins, with the 'All-Out One vs. One Battles' having the highest quality Divine Vein as the prize. It will reward the organization where that participant originated with a Golden-Low Quality Divine Vein."

Roan looked at the list and could see the types of Divine Veins available. "Bronze Low, Middle, High, and Peak Quality Divine Veins. Same thing goes for Silver Quality. There's only one Golden Quality vein as a reward." Roan then looked at the categories, saying not long after, "Most side occupation competitions have Bronze Quality veins as rewards."

Rean agreed with Roan, saying, "It seems like only the mainstream side occupations have Silver Quality veins as rewards. Namely, those occupations are alchemy, blacksmithing, formations, talismans, and Soul Power. Nevertheless, the rewards are only Silver-Low Quality veins."

Ruka, a Peak Stage Core and Soul Fusion Realm disciple of their group, couldn't help but laugh. "Hahaha! So what if the rewards are different? It's not like we can get any of those. The Blacksmith Guild branch of Cosec will obviously send their best disciple for the blacksmith competition. The same can be said for the other side occupations. All we'll be able to do is watch as they fight for those veins." 

Wamil and the others nodded in agreement. They knew their limits very well. "Well then. What categories are you guys going to participate in?"

Iulia immediately raised her hand and replied, "Talismans for me. I have absolutely no chance in the battle-related categories."

Casil, on the other hand, chose exactly that. "I'm going for speed. I obviously don't have a chance of winning against the best disciples of the top three sects, but I want to see how far I can reach right now."

One by one, they selected which categories they would participate in, with some of them selecting two until finally, only Rean and Roan were remaining. They hadn't said a single word so far. "So, how about the two of you?"

Rean pondered in silence for a bit before saying, "Blacksmithing looks nice, but I'm too lacking compared to the other top participants." There was no helping in it since Rean didn't want to reveal his Element Gathering Equipment. "However, I'm very confident in formations, so I'm taking that one." Formations were different, though. Rean wasn't as afraid of using his Circuitry Formation Runes. They would obviously catch a lot of attention, but no one would really understand their potential as they had never seen those runes before. It was different from the Element Gathering Equipment as anyone could instantly tell just how overpowered they were.

Wamil and the others nodded and were about to say something...but Rean didn't stop there. "I'm also taking Soul Power, as I have a good chance of winning. The same goes for the Physical One vs. One Fights and the Strength Measurement Test. I'm also taking the Speed Test. I should be able to get a few Divine Veins from those if everything goes well."

Wamil's group could not help but have their mouths agape. Rean was totally talking as if the victory in those categories were already his. 'Brother, you're kidding, right?'

Roan narrowed his eyes after hearing Rean's words, telling him, "Don't underestimate your opponents. We don't know how strong the Saint Realm participants are."

Rean waved his hand in response as he replied, "I know, I know...I wouldn't be such an idiot." Right after, he asked back. "Which categories are you taking? I believe that with your abilities, you should take even more Divine Veins than me."

Roan pondered over it for a bit before selecting the ones he would participate in. "Stealth, Strategy, Divine Energy Capability, Ability Only One vs. One Battles, All-Out One vs. One Battles, and Free For All Single Battle. I should be able to get a few Divine Veins from those, perhaps all of them. Also, I'll take part in the Alchemy Competition. I just want to see where I'm standing in terms of my alchemy skills at the moment. I'm not very confident in Alchemy, though."

Wamil's group almost vomited blood after hearing that! 'Brother, just which god's son are you?'

Chapter 989: Write Your Name

Rean looked back at the surprised expressions of Wamil's group before laughing out loud. "Hahaha! We're joking! You don't believe we can really do that much, right?"

Obviously, Wamil's group didn't. "No, but you sure looked confident."

Rean shook his head as he told them, "It's true that we are participating in those categories, but we are only at the Middle Stages of the Soul Transformation Realm. There's a very big gap between us and the top disciples of the major powers that have already reached the Saint Realm."

Casil sighed in the end. "That's true. Well, you still have higher hopes than any of us, so who knows? You might get lucky and fight injured opponents all the way to the top."

Iulia then mentioned, "Oh, talking about lucky, that's how the sect got its Bronze Low-Quality Divine Vein. The other participants got to go all out before the sect's battles and ultimately lost for not being able to continue fighting. Well, the sect also had a Soul Transformation Realm participant at that time."

"What happened to him?" Rean asked. 

"Who knows?" Wamil shrugged his shoulders as he answered. "The elders don't seem to like to talk about it, so we don't ask either. Besides, it has been 500 years already. It's not something from our time."

Rean nodded before he turned around to leave. "I'm going to test my Soul Power at the formation back there. See you guys later."

Wamil's group was surprised to find out that Rean had Soul Power. However, since Soul Power was also a side-occupation, they didn't dwell on this fact for long. Instead, they stayed by the board as they talked more about the categories.

Rean quickly arrived at the formation that measured one's Soul Power. Obviously, he wasn't the only one there, as quite a few cultivators stepped on it to check their score. "Oh! There's a ranking board."

1st: Sansa - Soul Guild - 1123 Points.

2nd: Oglico - Vintchi Sect - 998 Points.

3rd: Difran - Ostrao Sect - 996 Points.

4th: Volod - Praler Sect - 981 Points.

5th...

Rean couldn't help but mutter in a low voice, "Sure enough, the three top sects are right there on top. However, the Soul Guild is really the best at this category with that girl called Sansa far ahead of the second and below." 

Still, a few people close to him heard that. "Brother, you're getting ahead of yourself," a guy who heard Rean's comment could not help but say.

Rean looked at him in response and asked, "How come?"

"I can guarantee that all of them held back when they tested their Soul Power. What's the point of showing your real power before the competition starts later?" 

Rean had to admit the guy was right. "Well, that's true." Rean then smiled back at the man and thanked him. "Thank you for the advice, friend."

"No problem. Small fries like us need to help each other. Hahaha!" The guy then extended his hand as he introduced himself, "I'm Trinio, a member of the Pontis Sect."

Rean didn't know how strong that sect was as it was the first time he heard of the name. Still, he shook Trinio's hand back and said, "I'm Rean, a member of the Lukimira Sect."

Following that, Rean decided to try his Soul Power. "Well then, I want to see how strong my Soul Power is, so I'm going ahead."

"Sure." Trinio nodded. "Don't bother if you can't get up to their score. Humans aren't fit for Soul Power to start with. The fact you're cultivating Divine Energy and Soul Power together is already very commendable."

Rean smiled but didn't say anything else.

There were a few formations to test Soul Power. All one had to do was to send their own Soul Power inside the formation, and it would evaluate its strength. It was different from the Soul Measurement Orbs back in the Zasfin Planet, which touched the soul directly to give an absolute number. 'I better not put too much Divine Soul Power inside since this is a mix of Soul Power and Divine Energy. It would be bad if I broke the formation. Besides...' Rean then looked at the ranking board. 'The scoring system of the Realm of Gods is obviously different from the Zasfin Planet. I have no idea what the difference between the 'me' from the Zasfin Planet and the 'me' from the Realm of Gods is.'

No one was paying attention to Rean as participants testing their Soul Power was happening all the time. Rean was happy about that, of course. 'Alright, let's not exaggerate.' Rean then sent his Divine Soul Power inside the formation. 

The formation immediately activated once it felt Soul Power, much to Rean's delight. However, there was a small plate that shone in front of the formation first. It had a few words written on it as well. 

-Please write a name for the ranking board.-

'Oh! That's right. It doesn't know from where I am. It seems like I don't need to add which sect I'm from either.' Rean then looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to him. After pondering a bit, he finally wrote his name...well, not really. Eventually, the formation seemed to absorb Rean's Divine Soul Power and began to calculate his result. Too bad for the others, but Rean immediately retreated before anyone paid much attention that he had even been there. Although a few participants around saw Rean using the formation, they could also see many more in the other formations, so no one cared.

Rean then looked back, knowing that he left the area quick enough...or so he thought. 

It was then that someone put a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Hey, brother. I was watching your test. Why did you use a different name?"

Rean bitterly smiled as he looked at the guy. "Oh. Hey, Trinio. Er...ahem! I'm just trying to keep a low profile. That's all."

Trinio was confused when suddenly...

*WOW!*

The area went into an uproar. Trinio then looked at the Ranking Board before his mouth twitched.

1st: Jaspion! - 1363 Points.

Chapter 990: A Few Rules

"This..." Trinio was basically the only one who paid attention to Rean's name, so he knew that Jaspion was him. "Brother, yo-"

Rean immediately covered his mouth, though. "Shhh! Don't mess things up. I don't want others to know that it's me who got that score," he whispered close to Trinio's ears. At the same time, he felt like he was going to cry. 'Come on! I held back already! How come I got 1363 points?!'

Rean then took his hand away from Trinio's mouth before Trinio finally began to whisper back. "How come I don't know about you or this Lukimira Sect of yours? No, wait! I think I heard this name before somewhere."

Rean nodded, saying, "We are also a sect from Cosec City. However, I'm a new disciple there who came from another region. Anyways, all I can tell you is that I wasn't expecting that result either."

Trinio finally remembered. "Right! The Lukimira Sect is one of the small sects in the area. It's just that it's at the bottom of the rankings, so I couldn't remember that straight away. How the hell did someone like you end up in such a small sect? With your Soul Power score, you could totally get an important position in the Soul Guild."

Rean shook his head as he replied, "I have my reasons. Anyway, can you keep quiet for now? I won't be able to hide for long after the competition starts."

Trinio nodded, saying, "Sure...it is indeed much better to keep yourself hidden until you face a real strong opponent." Trinio then put his arm around Rean's shoulder and asked, "However, you have to tell me what kind of Soul Power training you're doing later. Deal?"

Rean didn't mind it since it was Roan's method, which was quite hellish. "Sure, it's a deal."

As the two of them talked, the uproar continued around the Soul Power Measurement Formation.

"Who is Jaspion?!"

"He smashed Sansa and the top three sect disciples' scores!"

"Did anyone see who the guy was?"

"Is he another member of the Soul Guild?"

"It must be, right? Where else could he have come from?"

Sansa, the previous top one in the ranking board, immediately looked back at the other members of the Soul Guild and asked, "Was it any of you?"

"No..." Everyone shook their heads. 

She wasn't the only one. Volod, Diran, and Oglico were also puzzled, not having ever heard that name before. Still, they didn't seem that worried. "It's fine. None of us tried that much to get that score. Even the weaker members of the Soul Guild could probably get that number if they took it seriously. We will only know the truth once the competition starts."

Meanwhile, Roan was checking the other categories that he would take part in. 'Stealth is literally what the name means. They use formations to judge how good we are at avoiding all types of detection while moving through several fields. There's the Forest Field, Mountainous Field, Open Clear Field, Illusory Battlefield, and City Field. Each one of those has a decreasing score system. Everyone starts with 100 points, and they will lose points every time they are detected in any kind of form. Too much sound? Points lost. Left behind a footprint? Points lost. Caught by Divine Sense? Points lost.'

Roan couldn't help but faintly smile the more he thought about it. 'Interesting. Since Divine Sense is also one of the detection methods, that means Rean's bending skill isn't the only skill capable of hiding against it anymore.' Roan was right, rarely did the twins' group find anyone else capable of hiding from Spiritual Senses back in the Realm of Mortals. Cases like Red were very rare. However, in the Realm of Gods, such a thing was a lot more common, or such a category wouldn't be present in the assembly.

One by one, Roan looked at the categories and their tests. Of course, he also shared the information with Rean through their Soul Connection. 'It seems pretty straightforward.'

Roan agreed with Rean, telling him, 'It makes sense. The Royal Family must be impartial to prevent rumors from spreading. Using the most straightforward methods wouldn't leave any gaps for anyone to complain. It's either you're the best, or you are not. Although there's luck involved, that can also be considered part of one's strength.'

'By the way, have you checked when the competitions start and the times?' Rean asked soon after. 'Perhaps we won't be able to participate in so many of them at the same time.'

Roan confirmed as he replied, 'Yes. Don't worry. They have already considered all scenarios. The first competitions are the ones for the side occupations, and they will happen one after another. Before one category is over, the other one won't start. As you can imagine, we are far from being the only ones trying various categories.'

Rean sighed in relief. 'That's good. Which side occupation will be the first one?'

'Talismans,' Roan answered. 'I believe you know a few things about it, no?'

Rean nodded, telling Roan, 'Yes. I had to dig into this side occupation knowledge to learn how to transfer thoughts into the talismans. I used this method in my Circuitry Communication System. However, my knowledge basically stops there. I don't intend to learn more, nor do I want to. So, I won't take part in the competition.' 

Roan didn't find anything wrong with the decision. 'It's fine. We better participate in the areas where we are confident to be a good match. It will be good for our development.' For Roan, everything could be used as training.

A few hours went by as more participants arrived. Eventually, the doors of the dimensional room were closed before a man appeared floating close to the ceiling. Without a doubt, he was at the Transition Realm or above in cultivation. Because of the spatial formation responsible for the room, the ceiling was also extremely high. "Welcome, everyone. My name is Fabio Kamos, a member of the Kamos Royal Family. I'm also the one responsible for Cosec City's assembly. All the participants have already arrived, and your elders are all watching from other rooms."

Suddenly, a spatial door appeared in the middle of that Dimensional Room. "This door will take the Talisman Masters directly into the Talisman Side Occupation Test. Anyone can take part in it. If you wish so, go ahead. If you don't, just stay here as we will transmit the event through the Illusory Formation in this main room. Alright, let's not waste more time. Talisman Masters, enter the spatial door."

Chapter 991: First Competition

Rean and Roan obviously did not enter, just like most of the participants from Lukimira Sect. Th only exception was Iulia, who had already told them that she would participate in the Talisman Master competition. Soon, the spatial door disappeared, and what replaced it was a huge screen showing what was happening inside due to an illusory formation in the main room.

Only then did Rean ask, "By the way, what level is Iulia?"

Casil shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "Bronze High-level. She's quite close to entering the Peak-level actually. Sadly, it's still far from enough."

Kar agreed with Casil as he pointed to the images displayed ahead. "Can you see the participants at the very front in the room?" Rean nodded. He could see that there several rows of tables. However, the tables at the very forefront were only occupied by six people. There were many more, but no one took them. 

Kar continued, "Those tables are separated by ability. Since those six people are using the ones at the very front, that means they're already Golden-level Talisman Masters."

"I see..." Rean had to admit it made sense. Right behind those Golden-level disciples, there were a huge number of Talisman Masters. However, none of them dared to step into the row of tables for Golden-level Talisman Masters. "Those behind are all Silver-level and below."

That surprised Rean more than anything else. After all, they reached the Golden Level while still in the Saint Realm. Rean thought that he would be a very rare Golden-level Formation Master and Blacksmith while he was still in the Saint Realm. After all, there was the cultivation barrier to overcome first before entering the Golden-level. However, the reality showed that he wasn't the only one capable of such a thing. 'It seems like I underestimated the Realm of Gods. I must pay a visit to the Blacksmith and Formation Master Guilds later. There's no way those six cultivators are above the Saint Realm. If anything, they should be at the Initial Stage or Middle Stage of the Saint Realm if one truly forced it.'

The competition played as the Lukimira Sect members imagined. Iulia simply had no chance whatsoever against the Silver-level Talisman Masters, let alone those six Golden-level ones. In the end, the final showdown happened between those six, with the Talisman Guild's candidate taking first place as the Divine Vein was rewarded to his guild.

In the area prepared for the elders of the participants, everyone also watched the Talisman Master competition.

"Hahaha! As expected of Tutu. Only 47 years old and already at the Middle Stage of the Saint Realm. But above all, he is the gem of our Talisman Master Guild. He might be in the Golden Initial-level as a Talisman Master, but that's only because he lacks the cultivation to go higher. If he was in the Elemental Transformation Realm, he would enter the Middle-level straight away. I'm sorry, everyone, but you had never had a chance to start with." The one who talked was the head of the Talisman Master Guild, Suo Lian.

In fact, three of the six Talisman Masters at Golden-level were part of the Talisman Master Guild. Only the other three belonged to other powers. 

The other leaders of top organizations from Cosec narrowed their eyes after hearing that. The Talisman Master Guild had taken most of the Divine Veins of the Talisman Master competition at every assembly, so it was expected to happen anyway. "Hmph! It's easy for you to talk when it comes to your guild's specialty. Just wait for the Blacksmith competition. Let's see if you or anyone else can beat the Blacksmiths of our Blacksmith Guild."

"Ha! I can say the same thing for our Alchemist Guild."

This kind of trash talk then continued between the side occupation guild leaders. Only an occasional big guild or some other organization would join it as they groomed some talented side occupation disciples as well. Nonetheless, most of the other elders from different powers kept quiet. Some simply didn't think they had a chance at getting a Divine Vein. Others had some hidden disciples that they didn't want others to know about before it was time. 

Between those elders, Kayla and the Lukimira Sect elders were part of those who were keeping a low profile. The only sect they told something to was Qianbel Sect, but that was because Qianbel had an 'agreement' with the Lukimira Sect where they couldn't get in the others' way. Besides, would the big powers believe in the words of a small sect like Qianbel? Not a chance. They were too proud to do such a thing.

"Iulia did way better than I thought. She ended up in the top ranks between the Bronze Peak-level Talisman Masters." Cynthia seemed quite satisfied with Iulia's performance.

However, Kayla didn't look very happy.

It was then that she heard the Ranmgues voice from a table not too far from her sect's table."Hey, Kayla! Your Talisman Master seems to be quite behind. This is one point for our Qianbel Sect in the decision of who will take the Divine Stone Mine this time. Hahaha! It seems like we will hold it for another 100 years." 

Kayla didn't seem too worried, though. "Hmph! Keep talking. Our Lukimira didn't have much hope for the Talisman Master competition to start with. Just wait for the other competitions. We can't win them, but we can definitely get a higher position than yours there. Let's see who will be laughing in th end."

Ranmgues snorted in response but didn't say anything else. That's how their internal struggle for the Divine Stone Mine worked. As long as they had disciples inside the same category, the disciple to finish in a higher position would be considered the victor between them. In the end, the sect with more points would control the mine for the next 100 years.

The Talisman Masters then came out of the Spatial Room and joined the participants who didn't take part in it. After all, many of them would take part in other categories as well. Iulia, obviously, went back to the Lukimira Sect's group. "Sorry, guys. The disciple of Qianbel Sect was quite a step ahead of me when it came to talismans."

Wamil shook his head. "It's fine. We still have a long way to go."

Not long after, another spatial door appeared, as Fabio announced. "The next competition is for Blacksmiths. The Blacksmiths present can enter already."

Chapter 992: Deactivate

Kayla had some confidence on her face as she saw the participants entering the Blacksmith spatial door. After all, Rean told her he was a Silver Middle-level blacksmith. She refused to believe Qianbel Sect had a better blacksmith than them. However... 'Why can't I see Rean anywhere?'

It turns out that Rean... simply didn't want to take part in this competition! In the end, the only member of her sect who entered the Blacksmith category was a man called Hoji, a Bronze High-level Blacksmith...which was far from enough.

"What?! Where is Rean?"

Cynthia and the other elders looked at the participants who didn't enter the Blacksmith competition and quickly found him. "He...didn't enter..."

Kayla felt like crying already. The Blacksmith competition was supposed to be one of the categories her sect would get the point in. Now she simply didn't know if Hoji had a chance of beating Qianbel Sect's Blacksmith.

Rean didn't know anything like that. He had never said which categories he would take part in since Rean didn't know which ones would be present until he arrived in this place. 

However, he still paid close attention to the entire competition and had to admit the level of blacksmithing in the Realm of Gods was much more advanced than the Realm of Mortals. 'Once again, there are Golden-level blacksmiths at the Saint Realm. Not only that, there are even twelve of them. However, that helped me understand one thing. The people in the Realm of Gods also don't know how to create metals that can gather elements on their own. Otherwise, I would have definitely seen it during these matches.'

Hoji could only sigh as he came out of the spatial door. "It didn't go as planned. I failed many steps during my forging process, so I fell even lower than I should."

Wamil's group could only comfort him. "Don't worry. It's still the start. You're also taking part in the battles, right? Try to beat the Qianbel disciples if you get lucky enough to meet one of them."

Hoji nodded, saying, "Alright."

Fabio didn't wait much longer before calling the next group. "Next, the Formation Master competition. Please, enter the new spatial door that will send you to the field of the competition."

Rean then patted Hoji's shoulder before saying, "Don't worry. I don't know if I can win, but I will definitely not do any worse than the Qianbel Sect. Watch me."

Hoji and the others nodded after hearing that. Well, everyone except for Roan, who didn't even glance at Rean as he pondered about the Alchemy competition.

In the elder's room, Kayla finally sighed in relief when she saw Rean entering the Formation Master spatial door. "Perhaps he was saving his energy for this moment instead of getting tired in blacksmithing."

However, Wuxan noticed a problem. "Wait! There are none of the Qianbel Sect members entering the Formation Master spatial door."

Kayla's attention was immediately piqued. She took a look at the Qianbel Sect members in the list, and sure enough, none of them took part in the Formation Master test. "They don't have any Formation Masters..." That wasn't good news. After all, the agreement was that only categories where both sects had participants would be considered a competition between the two. If Qianbel Sect didn't send anyone, that meant their sect wouldn't get a point at all, no matter Rean's final result. "Fuck!"

Kayla looked with a dark expression at Ranmgues, much to the man's delight. "Hehe! It seems like you had some confidence in formations. Although it's just a coincidence, it looks like it was a good thing for my disciples to not take part in it."

Kayla couldn't help but say.,"So be it. Don't forget, you can't give up more than three categories, and this is the first. If you give up more than that, then we will get one point for each one of them."

"Of course!" Ranmgues replied. "Otherwise, the first one of us to score a point could simply give up participating in all the other competitions. That's why we created this rule of only a maximum of three forfeits. I'm more than happy to give up the first one here. In fact, I'm surprised you didn't do it in the Blacksmith competition. Your spies should have told you that our Blacksmith disciple is quite good."

Obviously, Kayla knew that. It's just she didn't expect Rean to stay outside. Otherwise, she would have told Hoji and the others to stay away from it.

On Rean's side, the spatial room he entered was even bigger than where the participants waited. 'Well, formations can be enormous, so it makes sense.'

Not too long after, a member of the City Lord's forces appeared there. "I'm Vintan, a Golden High-level Formation Master working for the City Lord. I'll be presiding over this test this time."

Everyone paid attention as Vintan explained the test. 

Vintan then turned around and raised his hand, ordering, "Activate the formations."

The entire room began to shine as Divine Energy rushed into the area nonstop. Rean immediately noticed that many types of formations appeared one after another. However, they weren't that big. Rean thought he would see some gigantic formations in this place, but that didn't happen at all. 'Still, there are basically all types of formations here. Support, attack, defense, illusion, you name it. They're there. The number of formations here alone is several times higher than the number of participants in the Formation Master test.'

Eventually, all formations finished activating. Vintan then looked back at the participants with a smile and told them, "Your objective is very simple. You have to deactivate the formations without damaging them. Each formation deactivated will give you one point. However, if any damage at all is done, you will instantly lose three points. I don't care how much damage they take. It might be as much as just wasting 0.1% of the formations' capability. The loss in points will be the same."

Vintan continued, "Last but not least, you must not repeat the same type of formation until you have deactivated all types available at least once. That is to prevent some who are better at certain types of formations from focusing on only those." 

The damaging rule was already very complicated, but the last rule definitely brought most of the difficulties into play. After all, it was normal for Formation Masters to focus on the type of formations they liked the most. Even Rean wasn't an exception as he preferred Lightning-type formations.

Vintan wasn't going to wait for everyone to think much about it, though. "Alright, you have eight hours. The test starts now!"

Chapter 993: Shall We Take Part In This Test?

Sister Orb immediately contacted Rean. [Do you want me to help with the analysis? If we work together, it should be much easier to deactivate them without causing damage.]

Rean shook his head as he moved to the formations ahead. 'No. I already have the Circuitry Runes. If I need help on top of that, then I don't deserve to win this test to start with. Besides, I'm very curious to see how the Realm of Gods' formations that use Divine Energy work. This is a great opportunity.'

[Well, if you say so...]

Although over thirty thousand participants could be found in the assembling, not all of them participated in all categories. The Formation Master test, for example, had only a little over two thousand of them. Without a doubt, the categories that got most of the participants were the battle-related ones.

With that being said, these formations available for the test were way more than all of them could deactivate together in just eight hours. Let alone eight hours, even eight days might not be enough.

*Wow!* As soon as Rean arrived at one of the formations, he heard a commotion from the side. Soon after, the same thing happened in a few places around him. 'Golden-level Formation Masters, huh? Well, it makes sense that they deactivated their first formations this fast. After all, they went for the types of formations they were best at first.'

Rean then smiled as he looked at a Lightning-type formation beneath his feet. Rean could understand the whole structure, even though it used Divine Energy instead of Spiritual Energy. However, Rean didn't deactivate it straight away. 'Let's take a good look at the runes used in this guy. This seems to be a Lightning Current Formation, probably used to charge some other defensive type that needs Lightning Element.'

As the Formation Masters continued to deactivate the formations, Rean spent an entire minute in that Lightning one. Compared to the majority present, that was already a huge waste of time as the formations at the forefront were low-level ones. Eventually, Rean deactivated the Lightning Current Formation before he looked at the next ones. 'Sure enough, the further you go into this spatial room, the harder the formations become.'

Rean didn't mind, though. Instead, he went to the next formation, a concealing type. Once again, because this was one of the first formations at the forefront, Rean could deactivate it straight away if he wanted to. There wasn't even a need to use the Circuitry Runes for that. However... 'Oh, this one is also interesting. The mist generated by Divine Energy is a lot more restrictive than if it used Spiritual Energy. I see, I see...so this arrangement of runes works better with Divine Energy, which would be a waste if it was used with Spiritual Energy.'

Another minute or so passed until Rean finally began to draw a few common runes with his Spiritual Energy. A moment later, the formation was deactivated, completely undamaged. 'So many interesting arrangements. Let's continue.'

Outside the Formation Master competition, Kayla's group found Rean's performance quite lacking. "Wasn't Rean a Silver Middle-level Formation Master? How come he's even falling behind the Bronze-level ones?"

The others shook their heads. "We don't know. Perhaps Rean was lying about his level?"

Cynthia pondered over it for a bit before saying, "He did come from somewhere else in the Realm of Gods, and a very far away place on top of that. Maybe the formations back in his home were different?"

Cynthia's words made sense, and it was indeed the truth. Those formations were different than the ones Rean was used to seeing. It's just that he could still be much faster but wanted to study them one by one first.

Time passed, and two hours quickly went by.

At the moment, the Formation Master Guild Leader from Cosec City had a dark expression on his face. That's because his best Formation Master disciple was starting to fall behind in comparison to another Formation Master that wasn't part of his guild.

"Hahaha! Zil, it seems like my Rumira Merchant Organization is going to take this Divine Vein." As mentioned before, all the main powers in Cosec City were invited to the assembly. That included sects, guilds, and anyone who had a certain amount of power as a group. Naturally, merchant organizations could take part in it as they had the money to contract experts to fight for them.

"Hmph!" Zil quickly calmed down. "This is just the start. There are six more hours ahead, Miame. I hope your Formation Master won't tire himself to death before time is up." 

Nevertheless, he felt a little helpless. 'If the age restriction was raised to sixty years, I would have a much better Formation Master available to use. This restriction truly caught us by surprise. Although Gluxin reached the Golden Initial-level in time for the competition, he's just way too new to it. Let alone the Rumira Merchant Organization, he might even lose to the other powers as well.' In the end, he silently sighed to himself. 'Our chances of getting this Divine Vein in this assembly is very small.' Of course, he kept those thoughts to himself.

Meanwhile, Rean was having the time of his life. 'Oh!!! This is so ingenious! I definitely could apply this array of runes to my communication system later. If I add the Router Formation Runes to them, it would improve the stability of the current by at least 5%!'

The formations obviously kept increasing in difficulty. Rean had deactivated 97 so far, but he still damaged 3 of them, losing 9 points. That left Rean with 88 points total within these two hours. Let alone the Silver-level Formation Masters, Rean was even behind most Bronze Peak-level ones.

Outside, the Qianbel Sect Leader was cursing himself because of that. 'Fuck! If I knew he was that bad, I would have let my disciples take part in this test.'

Little did they know, but Rean only damaged those formations because he was trying to study them better. If he only needed to deactivate them, he would have done so without causing any damage whatsoever.

Soon, four hours of the test had gone by. Rean had achieved 167 points so far. The leaders, the Golden-level Formations Masters, all had more than 300 points, with the first place having 375 in total. However, it was at this moment that Rean got up from another formation and stretched his back. 'This was really fun.' He then looked into the distance and saw how far the leaders were before smiling. Suddenly, Circuitry Runes began to take form on Rean's hands as he thought to himself. 'Now then. Shall we truly take part in this test?'

Chapter 994: Lukimira... Sect?

Without anyone paying attention to Rean anymore, he took his first step. In just a moment, he was already above another formation, a slaughter formation. The active formation immediately assaulted Rean when he stepped inside it. However, Rean didn't do anything as his steps continued forward.

The attacks then approached Rean in a flash and...disappeared! All the Divine Energy from the slaughter formation stopped flowing completely, making it impossible to sustain the attack. Rean already knew that. That's why he didn't even bother to stop walking.

On Rean's hands, hundreds of very tiny runes could be seen floating above it. There were all produced with the materials in the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm while Rean studied the previous formations. Around 70% of them were Circuitry Runes of several types, while the rest were normal Divine Energy Runes.

If one took a close look at the slaughter formation's Divine Energy Paths, he would see quite a few of these runes placed in specific areas. Those runes had completely sealed the paths of energy that fed the slaughter formation, not damaging it in the slightest. 

Rean smiled as he passed by it, thinking to himself, 'This method is pretty much efficient for all those formations. Although the difficulty is increasing, the Formation Masters who set them up left many propositional flaws. After all, it would take very long to deactivate properly made formations of this level. The test itself could be said to test how good the Formation Masters are at spotting flaws in the formations.'

Rean then began to walk by a water protection formation as if the water wall didn't even exist. Once he reached the center of the formation, the water wall that was supposed to be holding him down blew up like a bubble. The formation wasn't damaged, though. It simply ran out of energy as well. 'However, once you get the gist of their thought process, you can more or less predict where these flaws can be found.'

No more than ten seconds had passed since Rean began to walk, and he was already over his third active formation...or so he thought. That's because this mini illusory formation stopped showing illusions the moment Rean put his feet inside. 'Of course, the main reason why I can deactivate them this fast isn't just understanding where the flaws are most likely located.'

Rean then stepped into the fourth formation. It was a haze concealing formation made for throwing off pursuers. It's just that it was extremely small for that purpose. It wasn't a problem, though. The test was all about deactivating them, so there was no need to care about the size of the formation, only about the time the participants would take to pass through them.

Too bad that no haze appeared at all. That's because the paths of Divine Energy were full of Circuitry Runes once again. 'The main reason for me to be able to deactivate them this fast is in my Circuitry Runes. When used together with common Divine Energy Runes, the restrictive effect is simply unmatched at the Silver-level.'

Rean then took another look ahead with a smile, muttering inwardly, 'I doubt even the Golden-level Formation Masters can beat the efficacy of my Circuitry Runes.'

At first, no one was paying attention to Rean. After all, he was far behind in the queue of formations. However, as he kept walking as if nothing was happening, the other participants around him began to take notice of his presence.

'Wasn't this guy all the way behind?'

'How come he got here already?'

'Could it be that he didn't deactivate the formations?'

Of course, once they paid attention to him, they immediately noticed that the active formations he was moving to were active...just to stop working altogether a second later. Naturally, those thoughts disappeared very fast.

'This...'

'How can he be this fast?'

'Hey, it looks more like the formations are deactivating on their own!'

Rean ignored the prying eyes as he kept moving forward. Every now and then, many of the runes floating on his hand would shoot out, entering the formations ahead. 'Hehe! If not because of these purposely made flaws, I would take a lot of time to deactivate these formations without damaging them. I have to say, they truly made a test where my Circuitry Runes are advantageous. I hope the others don't blame me later.'

At first, just a few participants paid attention to Rean during the time he passed by them. However, as time passed, the elders outside began to notice his presence as well.

"Isn't that human a little too fast?"

"That doesn't make sense."

"How come he wasn't as fast as that from the start?"

"Could it be that he was holding himself back?"

The Rumira Merchant Organization and the Formation Master Guild leaders noticed the commotion, which shifted their attention to Rean's location. Rean was still far behind their disciples, but he was truly passing by those formations way faster than their disciples did previously. 

"Who is that guy?" Miame could not help but ask.

Zil shook his head in response. "I don't know? I don't recognize the emblem he's using either."

On the other hand, there was one group of elders who had been paying attention to Rean from the very start. Obviously, it was Kayla and company. "Why didn't he do that from the begging?"

"I think I was right," Cynthia mentioned. "Because the formations from his home were different, he didn't know how to deal with them. That's probably why Rean lost so much time in the first four hours. He was trying to understand our formations."

Wuxan, Jusis, and Tura, and the other nodded after that. They couldn't think of another reason.

Back in the Formation Master Guild and Rumira Merchant Organization's tables, their subordinates quickly arrived with more information. Well, they weren't the only ones. All the powers who had Golden-level Formation Masters participating in this test also looked into Rean's identity.

"Lukimira...Sect?" Sure enough, all of them were puzzled. "Does our Cosec City even have a sect with that name?" And once again, Lukimira Sect was reminded of how insignificant they were.

Chapter 995: Yes, Why?

Kayla, obviously, heard that remark from far away. After all, the top powers watching the competition didn't try to hide their thoughts at all. Of course, Kayla wouldn't say anything either since her sect couldn't afford to buy a fight with those people. 'Hmph! If my sect was as good as yours, I wouldn't stay silent without saying anything.'

However, it didn't take long for these same powers to start looking in the direction of Lukimira Sect, much to their distress. 'Well, I don't want you to notice us either,' she thought soon after.

With those top guilds, sects, information networks and so on, it wasn't hard for them to find out where Lukimira Sect's elders were sitting. However, they didn't say anything else after that. One must remember that Rean was still too far behind the top contestants. So what if he was deactivating the formations very fast now? The ones Rean was passing through at the moment were several times easier than the ones their Golden-level Formation Masters are working on.

Back in the Formation Master competition, Rean didn't know what the Lukimira Sect's elders were going through at all. Even if he knew, he wouldn't care anyway. It's not like he could do anything.

Another hour went by, and Rean's pace began to fall. Rean wasn't surprised by that, though. 'Sure enough, it takes me some extra time to analyze and decide where to intervene in these harder formations.'

Nonetheless, Rean jumped straight to 278 points in the last hour. That was a gargantuan difference in display to what he showed in the four hours before that. For example, due to the formations' difficulty, the first place had only gone from 375 points to 392. The other Golden-level Formation Masters behind him were the same.

By now, the elders who wanted to ignore Rean's presence began to feel that he might really be a threat to their participants. Lukimira Sect and Qianbel Sect weren't the only ones who had internal disputes that used the assembly to be resolved. Most of the organizations there also did the same. Rean's sudden contention would obviously put more oil in the fire.

Six hours after the competition started, Rean had finally caught up to the first Golden Initial-Level Formation Master of the competition. Her name was Kabaia, a member of a strong sect called Sunset Storm. This sect wasn't part of the top three sects of Cosec City, but it was still within its top 20 sects or so. 

"Rean now has 331 points, and so does Kabaia..." The elders of the Sunset Storm Sect didn't have good expressions on their faces. However, they quickly calmed down as they also understood something. "Hehe! They used to be almost two hours ahead, and he's already there." Right after, they looked at the other elders with disciples at the front of the Formation Master competition. "It won't be long before he catches up to you guys as well."

The Sunset Storm Leader's words immediately changed the other participants' expressions, especially the Qoveq Union, a private organization of mercenaries from Cosec City. They just so happened to have a disciple there too, and Rean's next target would exactly be him.

Rean stopped in front of the next formation as he analyzed it. 'Oh! This one and the other formations ahead are quite harder. No wonder this guy has been here for the last five minutes, trying to deactivate it.' Rean then smiled as his runes began to fly into the formation. They targeted the flaws left behind, cutting all supplies of Divine Energy from the formation. 'This one took me half a minute. I guess I'm reaching the limit of my level.'

Soon, Rean reached the Qoveq Union's Formation Master, obtaining the same points as him. However, that didn't last long, as the moment Rean arrived in the formation, his score surpassed the other guy. 

In the elders' room, the Qoveq Union's elders couldn't help but sigh. "In the end, that Lukimira Sect disciple didn't even have to make more points. Tovey damaged the formation on his own and lost three points." 

That was correct. Even Rean noticed when the formation got damaged, having quite a few runes inside destroyed. 'Well, he just lost three points. He can make those points again by deactivating the next formations.' Rean then put those thoughts behind and started to work on his own formation.

As always, everyone couldn't repeat the same type of formation before they deactivated at least one of each type before restarting. If one damaged the formation they were working on, one could not jump to the next type. One had to find one of the same kind and deactivate it. That was to prevent the participants from purposely damaging the formations they were bad at to jump to the ones they were good at. Even if one lost three points, as long as one was good at the other types, one could recover those points and make more on top of that. Naturally, this strategy didn't work with that rule.

The more formations Rean passed through, the longer he took to deactivate them. Rean came to understand that he was basically lacking in knowledge about Golden-level Formations, having to find alternatives for each new challenge ahead. Nevertheless, his pace was still much faster than those who passed by the same place before.

When the seventh hour arrived, Rean caught up to the third place. Both he and the other guy had the same 389 points. The second had 401, while the first place kept a good distance with his 416 points.

At some moment in the elders' room, Miame got up and began to walk in the direction of the Lukimira Sect. She wasn't the only one, though. The Formation Master Guild Leader did the same. It seemed like they both had something to talk about with Kayla and the others.

Miame was the first to open her mouth, asking, "That is your sect's disciple, right?"

Kayla could only nod as she asked, "Yes, why?"