Chapter 40: Eat up

Because Fang Lin had already been tempered by countless life and death trials, he could not help but agree on Wang Hao's advice. Too bad he does not know any of his master's dark thoughts.

"Does that mean I am not going to give my all in fighting? That will be hard right?" Fang Lin turned his head to ask Boner, who might have an idea about the competition.

"That will be hard yes." Boner nodded. He then continued. "As you know, all of you who passed the second stage are now technically Outer Disciples. In order to determine which have the best talents, they organized the final stage, which is a battle stage."

"It's the top 5 who gets apprenticed right? Does that always happen?"

"Actually, no. That's only the pretext that people know about the final stage. But the truth is, even you can enter the top 5, no elder might be interested in you. Heck, there was a lot of years that nobody got apprenticed to any elder. And on the years where some are selected, some of them are not even in the top 5! There are some who got defeated in the battle stage, but because their talent interested some elders, they still got apprenticed!"

"If its like that, why does the sect tell the people its the top 5?" Tang Ya inquired while stroking Yao'er's hair who had been sleeping on her lap.

"Huh? If I tell you that you might get nothing even you are in the top rank, will you have the drive to be in the top?"

"Well...no."

"Exactly! The sect does not want the participants to lose motivation. Besides, those who got into the top 5 in the previous selections but failed to be apprenticed wanted the new participants to expect the top 5 to get apprenticed. Such jealous bunch! They just want the new participants to suffer like them!"

"That's... what my master would do." Fang Lin could not help but cast a dubious look towards Wang Hao, who just looked back innocently towards him.

"So what will happen to this cards now?" Fang Lin waved his card in front of Boner."I assume this will be also used in the final stage?"

"Let me tell you about the mechanics of the final stage first." Boner took a deep breath and said "The first part of the final stage will be a group vs group battle. There are 10 groups and the top 2 groups with the highest quality of cards will be exempted from the group match."

"Hey that's unfair!"

"Well going on, the remaining 8 groups will have then 3 round of group battle. For each round the losing group gets eliminated. So for the first round, the 8 becomes 4, then the 4 becomes 2, then the 2 becomes 1."

"Then the 1 becomes 0?" Fang Lin could not help but reverse-quote the yin-yang mantra he heard in his bloodline.

"The heck that come from? The group stage of course stops after 1 group remains!" Boner could not help but look at Fang Lin incredulously. "After the group stage, there will only be three groups remaining. After that, the groups will be disbanded."

"Disbanded?" Upon hearing that, Fang Lin started to have melancholic feelings about his teammates. Well, at least he's gonna be free from seeing Tang Ya's sexy and toned body that always made Fang Lin's blood boil. He have always wanted to hide somewhere to 'relieve' himself after that instance that he saw Tang Ya bending over in front of him over to carry some logs Too bad he cannot leave their camp during the selection and if he 'relieved' himself in their sleeping quarters, he was sure Tang Ya would murder him.

Tang Ya and Venomshade of course looked sad too upon the impending separation. Venomshade's sadness looked like the typical side character that will be forgotten in the story already. Tang Ya however, frowned and said "Does that mean that the members of the group will fight each other?"

"Not exactly like that." Boner leaned forward and said "You see those red cards in front of you? There are three types of weapons in there. The sword type, the bow type and the special type. The 3 groups that will remain will have each of these 3 weapon types. So once separated, there will be 3 sword type holders, 3 bow type holders and 3 special weapon type holders."

Boner then scratched the back of his neck at the wall, probably an itch. He then continued.

"The 3 sword type card holders will then fight each other at the same time. The one who wins will consume the swords of the defeated enemies."

"Woah, so a triple sword fighting? That leaves something to the imagination! Some girls would love to see that!" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Fang Lin just facepalmed upon hearing his master's commentary.

"Er.... so the same goes too for the 3 bow type holders and the 3 special weapon type holders. So after that, only 3 fighters remain."

"Wait," Fang Lin started to get confused. "You said it will be top 5 so how can only 3 remain? And what about the colored eggs?"

Boner then replied "For the colored eggs, that will depend on your luck if your opponent has the same color of egg as yours."

"Hehehehe... how are you going to see the color your of opponent's eggs I wonder?" Wang Hao snickered silenly behind them.

They just chose to ignore him.

"Moving on," Boner continued with a straight face. "As for the two remaining slots in the top 5, it will be a battle royale of the other 6 who got eliminated. The remaining two will be included in the top 5. At that stage, if your egg is still ok, you can eat up the eggs of your opponents if you are lucky."

"Eat up the eggs! Hahahaha! I did not expect that someone with the name Boner will say that with a straight face!"

"Shut up!"Tang Ya smacked her 'Darling's' head. "If you do not behave, I as your wife will discipline you in the future!"

"Who told you that you are my wife!" Nonetheless, Wang Hao shut his mouth.

"So there you have it. That's the top 5. The top 3 will have their weapons completed while the other 2 will just be there as a filler. There are no rankings within the top 5. It's just the top 5."

Fang Lin then inquired "What happens when you completed your weapon?"

"I do not know too." Boner shook his head. "They tend to keep that as an important sect secret."

Suddenly, they heard sounds of people approaching them. Looking at the map, they saw the icon of the exam proctor approaching them. Wang Hao immediately knocked Boner unconscious then he brought him and they teleported away.

The exam proctor arrived with a steely look on his face. "Come with me, the final stage will happen in a week. As of now, you all need to rest."

But before leaving, Fang Lin could not help but ask "Can you tell us about our rank?"

"Your group's rank?" The exam proctor looked at them. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you right now. You will know it in the day of the battle. But be assured that your group is in the top 10. Now, let's go!"

The man then flew away, bringing the group in his tow.

......

Fang Yu on the other hand, was busy in her own training. She gritted her teeth as countless amounts of yin essence penetrated her body. But while her master was vigorously running her hands on her back and legs, her master suddenly stopped. She appeared to have received a divine sense message. Fang Yu then sensed that Xiao Ya looked a little.. disturbed?

"Master is there any problem?"

Xiao Ya sighed, looking a little worried.

"The sect head of the Ice Empress Sect has arrived and wants to see you personally and alone!"

"...."