I Was Forced To Marry The Phoenix Empress-Chapter 137: Leaving for the Tournament
"If only we were in a favourable position..." Qin Yao chuckled disparagingly and continued.
"It would indeed seem like that in the first instance, but that really isn’t the case. In reality, it’s skewed against us."
Qin Yao exhaled a deep breath and said while pointing towards the rows of chopsticks that were laid on the table.
"Each of the challenging clans has eight attempts to carve a path through the walls and the pillars to finally claim the peak.
However, while going through each of those attempts, they can freely change cultivators after defeating a cultivator from one row, as they’ll next be challenging the next row.
"Ah, so the First Level Cultivator won’t have to face a Second Level after they have broken through the first row," Yi Chen nodded in understanding as he saw Qin Yao’s finger moving over the chopsticks.
"Indeed." Qin Yao nodded and continued, "Along with this, the challenging clans also have the right to choose any one of the defending cultivators from one row as their opponent in that attempt.
As a result, it’s not uncommon to see the lower-ranked clans exhausting all their attempts just to attack the same set of cultivators." Qin Yao stated.
"This...why would they do that? They won’t be able to win with such a tactic," Yi Chen asked with a frown.
"That’s because they already know they can’t win. The minor clans below the third rank don’t have a single Fifth Meridian Refinement Stage Cultivator in their formation. Their aim is just to exhaust our walls and pillars so that it becomes easier for the Top 3 of the Minor Clans to defeat us.
"This...isn’t this cheating?" Yi Chen couldn’t help but ask when he realised how heavily tilted the tournament was in the Minor clans’ side.
If one powerful cultivator could be targeted eight times by one clan, then by the time it was the turn of the top 3 clans, most of the defenders would have already been defeated or would be on the brink of exhaustion.
"Yes, therefore, there’s a provision that one cultivator cannot be targeted successively by the challenging clans in their attempts. However, that still means that they could be challenged in the attempt after the next attempt.
Although it allows some resting period to the defender, since we’ll need to face a total of 56 such waves of attacks nonstop before even being challenged by the top 3 minor clans, our side would be greatly exhausted.
"Being a Major clan seems more like a liability than a privilege in this case..." Yi Chen couldn’t help but comment when he heard these skewed rules.
"Well, that’s how it is. It’s a way of the imperial family telling the Major Clans that if we can’t even defend against this much, then we don’t deserve the benefits they provide," Qin Yao answered with a bitter smile.
However, the next moment he chuckled and said with a relieved expression.
"Haha, but still. With two Sixth Level cultivators on our side, we really have no need to worry now.
I had heard from Feng Min that previously, our clan was in a panic when the minor clans gained one Sixth Meridian Refinement Stage cultivator out of nowhere.
But thanks to the new cultivator who had joined us recently, we have more sixth-level cultivators than them and thus there’s no way they can defeat us now.
Although I don’t like him since he had stolen Brother Chen’s spot, the clan still feels relieved because of his presence."
Hearing Qin Yao’s last set of words, Yi Chen couldn’t help but stare at him blankly.
Qin Yao: "???"
’Did he just raise a flag...’ Yi Chen couldn’t help but purse his lips the next instant. Seeing Qin Yao’s confused expression, he just shook his head and said, "It’s nothing."
After finishing their dinner, they did some light exercises in the courtyard to digest their food. They kept it to a minimum, and after they had sweated a little, they took another relaxing bath in the bathhouse to kill time.
"Good night," Yi Chen waved his hand towards Qin Yao and left for his room a while later.
Now that he was all alone and was no longer engaged in talking about tomorrow’s tournament, Feng Yu’s thoughts once again began surfacing in his mind.
’I’ll really be able to talk with her...’ he smiled once again as he lay on the bed, lost in a variety of thoughts.
A few moments later, he finally gave his thoughts a rest and tried to sleep.
However, to his disappointment, sleep seemed to have decided to betray him tonight.
He kept tossing and turning on the bed, and only when the time was nearing one o’clock in the morning did he finally fall asleep.
"Brother Chen!"
"Brother Chen!"
Only a few minutes had passed for Yi Chen when he was suddenly stirred awake by Qin Yao’s voice.
"W-what happened?" he suddenly asked in a groggy state.
"It’s morning already, brother Chen! Wake up, or we’ll be late!" Qin Yao explained the next instant.
It was only after those words had entered Yi Chen’s ears that his eyes became fully awake.
Glancing towards Qin Yao, who was already freshened up and was in his battle robes, coupled with the bright rays of the morning sun that were penetrating his room, Yi Chen realised that this wasn’t a joke.
’Wasn’t it around midnight just a few minutes ago...’
He thought while cursing his fate and rushed towards the bathroom to freshen up.
Half an hour later.
"We have not even left for the tournament, and I’m already exhausted..." Yi Chen, who was now dressed in white combat robes, whined after finishing his breakfast.
"Haha, Brother Chen should have been more careful," Qin Yao laughed at his state and got up.
Yi Chen sighed dejectedly when he heard Qin Yao’s words and got up from his seat soon after.
After the two of them were done with the dishes, they finally walked out of the residence after ensuring that all the doors were firmly locked.
Standing just outside the residence’s gate, they waited for a carriage.
Feng Ning had offered to pick them up today when they last met, and finding it convenient since all of them were going to the same place, the two of them didn’t refuse.
A while later, a horse-drawn carriage large enough for six people became visible from a distance.
"Brother Qin!"
Feng Min’s head popped out of the carriage’s window the very next instant as she cheerfully waved towards Qin Yao.
Seeing her bright smile, a smile naturally formed on Qin Yao’s face as well, and he waved back at her as the carriage soon came to a stop.
"Come in, Brother Qin, Big Brother Chen!" Feng Min said while opening the door for them.
Seeing her excited expression, even Yi Chen couldn’t help but develop a smile as he followed after Qin Yao and entered the carriage.
"Greetings, Senior Sister Ning!" Qin Yao greeted her and soon took a seat next to Feng Min, whose heart couldn’t help but flutter because of it.
"Greetings, Miss Ning," Yi Chen greeted soon after and sat next to Feng Ning.
"Greetings, Young Master Chen," Feng Ning greeted back with a smile and ordered the coachman to start moving the next instant.
Their destination was the Soaring Dragon Arena, which was located deep inside the Jade City, and it was for this reason that the carriage began picking up speed very soon.
While Feng Min and Qin Yao were busy talking about random things, there was just comfortable silence between Feng Ning and Yi Chen, who were enjoying the view outside while occasionally glancing towards the exchange of two young birds in front of them.
’I’ll use this moment to catch up on my sleep,’ Yi Chen thought to himself and gently closed his eyes. However, at that exact moment, Feng Ning thought of initiating a conversation.
"Is your body fully rested for today’s tournament?" She asked with a subtle smile.
"...Y-yes, I’m fully rested." Yi Chen forced out a smile the next instant.
’I want to sleep...’
Yi Chen cried at his fate as Feng Ning decided to use this opportunity to make him familiarise himself with all the other team members.
The carriage passed through the market areas, several clan territories and beautiful leisure spots before finally entering an area which was quite open and filled with a lot of greenery.
"We’ve finally entered the Imperial Family’s Territory. From here, it will take us about half an hour to reach the Soaring Dragon Arena," Feng Ning informed Yi Chen, whose attention was attracted by the outside view.
"I see, just how far is the Imperial Palace from here?" He asked, knowing that the Imperial family had the largest share of land in the whole city.
"With Qi Bred horses, it would take a whole day to reach the walls of the palace, so with ours...it will take days," Feng Ning answered with a pursed smile.
"So far?" Yi Chen exclaimed in surprise.
"Indeed, it’s almost a hundred kilometres inside from the start of the Imperial Territory, situated right at the centre of our capital city," Feng Ning answered.
"Ah, I see," Yi Chen nodded as he pictured it in his mind.
The Jade City, from a bird’s perspective, was a giant circle covering an area of five thousand square kilometres.
A concentric circle with an area of five hundred square kilometres divided the city into two territories. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
The area outside the concentric circle was termed the Common Territory and was where all the clans, marketplace and other recreational buildings were available.
Meanwhile, the area inside the concentric circle was the one which fully belonged to the Imperial Family.
Half an hour elapsed pretty quickly, and the carriage soon came to a stop. The next moment, a huge structure with the words, ’Soaring Dragon Arena’ engraved on its entrance, appeared in front of Yi Chen’s eyes.
