Today is Monday, the start of a week, dear readers, the author wants the votes in your hands.
——————————————————————————————————————
Lu Yu has fire Spiritual Qi in his body, but his realm has not yet reached the Qi Cultivation stage, and he cannot control the Spiritual Qi in his body, so he can only let it circulate with the cultivation technique.
Therefore, he cannot open the storage bag. Lu Yu took a more reckless approach—to destroy the array on the storage bag and take out the items within it.
Rip~ The sturdy fabric of the storage bag was violently torn in half by Lu Yu, damaging the miniature array inscribed inside. Some fragile items were destroyed when the array was damaged, but most items remained intact.
After tearing open the storage bag, the items fell all over the ground.
Lu Yu sorted them out a bit, putting personal items like clothes aside, forming piles for pills and weapons, and another pile for items he didn’t recognize.
Before long, Lu Yu had sorted out the looted items and put them into his backpack.
As he walked out of the tent prepared by the Divine Weapon Pavilion for everyone, Lu Yu had an ordinary-looking ring on his index finger. He was not a Martial Cultivator of the Qi Cultivation stage, unable to use a storage bag, nor could he directly take out fire crystals from a backpack, hence he wore a ring as disguise.
"Lu Yu, are you ready? The steward is calling us to settle accounts," Ouyang Lie’s voice came from outside the tent.
"Ready." Lu Yu lifted the curtain and walked out of the tent.
After coming out of the secret realm, they rested for a while in the tent, those injured healed, and those unhurt counted their spoils.
This time, the Divine Weapon Pavilion’s trial lasted less than a day, which the steward didn’t expect. The Fire Rain Mountain secret realm has already been sealed by the authorities, so the steward can only take the current count of everyone’s fire crystals as the final result.
The steward of the Divine Weapon Pavilion scanned the crowd, among whom were a few shirtless people, stripped of their storage bags, and their clothes were burnt in the secret realm, with no spare clothing to change into.
"Let me first explain the rules, fire crystals in a Body Refinement Spirit Body count as 1 point, in a Fire Infant body count as 5 points, and in a mature Fire Spirit body count as 20 points."
"Now, those reporting names come up to count the number of fire crystals, Zhang Yu," the steward read from a list.
Zhang Yu stepped out of the crowd, took fire crystals from his storage bag, and poured a small pile of them onto the table, where the steward’s subordinate began counting them.
Soon, they finished counting, "A total of 44 points, with 6 one-point empty fire crystals and 2 five-point empty fire crystals."
The steward noted the score next to Zhang Yu’s name, specifically marking the number of empty fire crystals.
After Zhang Yu collected his fire crystals, Liu Wei stepped out of the crowd...
Lu Yu quietly asked Ouyang Lie, "Do empty fire crystals also count?"
"Of course they count, obtaining empty fire crystals also represents your strength, how could they not? If scores are the same, fewer empty fire crystals rank higher." Ouyang Lie explained to Lu Yu.
"Oh, alright." After watching a few people’s harvest, Lu Yu stopped worrying about the empty fire crystals he discarded; they surely had fewer fire crystals than him.
"Gao Song," the steward called out.
A tall man stepped out of the crowd, wearing only a pair of shorts. His spare clothes were in the storage bag given to Lu Yu, and the shorts were borrowed from someone else. For the person who took advantage of him, the tall man was itching with hatred. Had it not been obscured by clouds, he would have reclaimed his items.
Ting totong~ A pile of fire crystals poured out of Gao Song’s storage bag, noticeably more in number than those before him.
Upon seeing this, Lu Yu was slightly surprised. He hadn’t expected Gao Song to have another storage bag. No wonder he felt that the number of fire crystals in one was particularly small.
"Learn from this experience and next time, collect the spoils yourself," Lu Yu thought to himself.
"Gao Song, 126 points, 12 one-point empty fire crystals, 4 five-point empty fire crystals."
Upon hearing his score, Gao Song visibly let out a breath of relief. This score is more than twice that of the previous few people, securing him a sure spot in the top ten this time.
Gao Song collected the fire crystals counted on the table into his storage bag, turned and returned to the crowd, accidentally noticing Lu Yu’s exposed arm on the way. He felt that this arm looked familiar. Soon, others’ bodies blocked his sight, and Gao Song didn’t give it much thought. His mind was only on entering the top ten and successfully joining the Divine Weapon Pavilion.
"When is it our turn?" Lu Yu glanced around, still seeing many who hadn’t had their scores counted, and asked Ouyang Lie out of boredom.
"I guess it’ll be our turn after everyone else has finished. The best always performs last," Ouyang Lie said.
"Zheng Che, score is invalid, you are blacklisted from joining the Divine Weapon Pavilion." The steward announced loudly after a few words with a subordinate.
"On what grounds do you void my score!" Zheng Che’s face changed dramatically, full of grief and indignation, he shouted at the steward.
"Hehe~" The Divine Weapon Pavilion member counting the fire crystals chuckled, his face stern as he said, "You used others’ fire crystals to fake your score, and you ask me why?"
He threw a few fire crystals from the table, "You think I wouldn’t notice if you secretly mixed others’ fire crystals in yours? When I counted, I left a trace of Spiritual Qi on each fire crystal."
Without looking at Zheng Che, he scanned the crowd and said, "Don’t try to use fire crystals already counted by others to inflate your numbers, don’t play such tricks, or you’ll bear the consequences."
"Next..." The steward continued calling the next person, while Zheng Che was thrown out of the area by the Divine Weapon Pavilion people, with fire crystals also hurled at him, scattering all over the ground.
This secret realm trial was too short, many people’s scores ranged from 30 to 50, with few reaching 60, 70.
Scores over a hundred clearly indicate someone who hijacked others’ fire crystals.
The trial ended too quickly; many Martial Cultivators who had planned to snatch others’ results had no time to act before being driven out of the secret realm, leaving them no chance, so few people scored over a hundred, currently only 3 or 4.
A man in blue stepped out of the crowd, extended his right hand, and fire crystals continuously fell from it. Soon, the table couldn’t accommodate them, some fire crystals fell to the ground, and the fire crystals piled on the table formed a small hill before Qin Feng withdrew his hand.
The quantity of fire crystals Qin Feng obtained left everyone in shock; the table was piled with at least two to three hundred fire crystals, with more scattering all over the ground below.
The steward personally counted them, quickly drawing a conclusion and announcing, "Qin Feng, 422 points, no empty fire crystals."
Qin Feng’s score tripled that of the current first place, leaving others in the dust.
After Qin Feng collected his fire crystals, Ouyang Lie stepped onto the wooden platform at the steward’s call, pulled out seven or eight storage bags, and poured fire crystals onto the table. Witnessing his actions, several Martial Cultivators in the crowd who were bare-chested glared fiercely; those were their storage bags.
Quickly, Ouyang Lie’s fire crystals were counted,
"Ouyang Lie, 326 points, 42 one-point empty fire crystals, 7 five-point empty fire crystals, 1 twenty-point empty fire crystal."
Knowing his score was just slightly lower than Qin Feng’s, Ouyang Lie smiled widely; he hadn’t focused much on the fire crystals at all, so this result was excellent.
As Ouyang Lie stepped off the platform and passed by Lu Yu, he patted him on the shoulder and comforted, "No worries, as long as you score over 200, getting third place is enough."
Lu Yu was speechless, not wanting to verbally counter him, only wanting to use the facts to show him what it means to be first place.
Standing in front of the steward, Lu Yu glanced at the table and shifted it aside. The steward curiously asked, "What are you doing?"
"The table is too small; it can’t hold everything."