Chapter 670: Cai’er’s Domain of Purification (III)
It was not that Xue Zhisheng feared Cai’er’s Domain Ability, but that her use of a Domain Ability already conquered him thoroughly. Being the elder chief of the Assassin Temple, he had come to his own choice.
Seeing the Flourishing Lotus Flower finally dissipate in her hand, even Cai’er relaxed greatly. Just as she said, she still did not have a full control of this Domain Ability, and had not yet even tried out its true might, having at most used it to intimidate Xue Zhisheng and no more.
Seeing Cai’er retract her own domain, Xue Zhisheng retrieved his dagger before crossing his arms, bowing in front of her.
This was the formal salute in the Assassin Temple. No one other than the Temple Head Sheng Yue should have qualifications to be saluted that way by him, but there would still be no need to bow. Right now, Xue Zhisheng could really be said to have gone past the limits of his own etiquette habits, making clear his current attitude.
Sheng Yue had never been so lively for a lot of years already, especially since the steep decline of the Temple Alliance’s population following the start of the Holy War. By chance, there was no damage sustained in the rear, which is what enabled the Alliance to recover its vigor in just four years.
But even if their economy and power was replenished, their population was still greatly affected, so the current Temple Alliance had to encourage pregnancy, as well as help improve the living conditions of the masses.
Holy War, the largest city of the Temple Alliance, had its hotels packed since long ago, the reason being the decennial Temples’ Great Gathering.
Although just a small count was really able to watch the Alliance’s Great Stadium, a lot of people were willing to head to Holy City at this time because of the ardent atmosphere. Some seniors would even bring their children to Holy City to try out seeking an opportunity to find a powerhouse for their children to acknowledge as master.
The dark era was already some six thousand years ago. The two years of Holy War having finally ended up in a demon retreat, gave a lot of insightful people a hope to see dawn come in this dark era. Almost all humans were hopeful to see the day that the human army would be the ones to lead the offense against demonkind.
The Temples’ Great Gathering differed from the Demon Hunt Selection in their degree of importance, and the people who were rushing to buy tickets for the very goal of watching clashes between the Six Great Temples’ powerhouses affirmed the confidence of the masses in the Alliance. Almost every Temples’ Great Gathering caused great surges of emotions in the whole Alliance, and drastically increased their amount of recruits in the following period.
In Holy City, the most symbolic buildings had announcements had bright yellow announcements posted, recording in detail the times of the contests as well as rules for this Temples’ Great Gathering.
Every Temples’ Great Gathering would involve such announcements, and amendments to the rules would immediately get published.
Right, a white cloaked youngster was standing in front of a five-floored hotel, looking at it with attention.
As early as one month ago, when the advertisements were first released, many of the ordinary people already got familiar with their content, which is why right now, he was only standing by himself in front of this announcement. The white cloak covered him entirely and gave off an eye-catching and lofty air.
Even behind this cloak, this young man’s very tall build was visible, as he really was close to two meters in size, with especially wide shoulders, though his build was not really excessively robust.
His perfect build gave off a mystical feel as he stood calmly in place. He had a seemingly ordinary, yet extraordinary gentle, disposition.
Most of the bypassers’ gazes were attracted to this calm young man, causing them to feel peaceful and greatly relaxed just by looking at him.
On that clear-cut announcement were recorded the time and rules for this Temples’ Great Gathering.
Tomorrow would be the day of start of the Temples’ Great Gathering. When the time comes, the higher-ups from the Six Great Temples would all gather into the Alliance’s Great Stadium, each of the Temples dispatching a team of thirty-six people to participate, making up a total of two hundred sixteen contestants from the Six Great Temples.
The Temples’ Great Gathering was determined first of all by drawing ballots. In the first three days one versus one battles would be ongoing, a three-day knockout competition. Each knockout battle would follow right after a previous one ends, with no time allocated for rest. Those from the Priest Temple won’t be included in the individual knockout battles, they would be evaluated with another method in these individual stages: spiritual energy measuring. Generally, the Priest Temple’s points would be around the middle ranks by the end of this stage.
In this stage, a point would be awarded to every one of the other five Temples’ candidates for a victory, two points for two victories, with a doubled amount of points for every additional individual victory.
Great restrictive clauses regulated this individual stage. First, no equipment or pill are to be allowed, and only the use of one’s individual strength is allowed. Second, no situation of wounding the opponent allowed, and is penalized with a direct elimination. This Temples’ Great Gathering being no struggle of life and death, these two rules looked simple, but were greatly restrictive. Just think, when all contestants would at least be powerhouses of the eighth step, what is the level of control required to absolutely avoid wounding any opponent?
The individual competition would terminate within three days, followed by sorting the points to conclude the primary stage of the Temples’ Great Gathering.
The reason why this involved so many contestants was to assess the strength of every Temple as a whole, as a single person’s strength was not enough to stand for his or her whole Temple.
After the individual battles, would begin the contests for the highest spiritual energies. The Six Great Temples would all dispatch three candidates of age below a hundred years old to undergo spiritual energy assessment. Every year below a hundred would give an additional thousand points of score.
The addition of these three candidates’ spiritual energies will make up their ranking, and the first place Temple will be awarded with two hundred points, the second would receive one hundred fifty, third place, one hundred twenty, fourth place, ninety, fifth place, sixty, but none for the last one.
After the end of the spiritual energy competition follows the Domain Competition, with each of the Six Great Temples sending three contestants.
Then a domain confrontation, with eighteen domain wielding powerhouses fighting together. Whichever side cannot maintain his domain anymore will be excluded, until only three contestants from one Temple are left. This one is really important, as the first place will be awarded five hundred total points, with every next one being awarded a hundred less, with the last one getting no reward.
This kind of team competition does not emphasize on domain power, but should best implicate three complementary domains. That’s because the winner won’t necessarily be the side with the greatest powerhouse, but the side of the best coordination.
In the previous gathering, the Knight Temple had managed to win with the combinations of the domains of the Knight Temple’s Divine Knight of Defense and Planning Yang Haohan, the Divine Knight of Control and Constraint Long Tianying, and the Divine Knight of Adjudication and Trial Long Xingyu, achieving victory in this most important stage, thus fundamentally settling the Knight Temple as number one.
The Temples’ Great Gathering’s last trial would be the most significant team battle. Each Temple would send ten contestants to undergo a round-robin tournament, with each victory awarding a hundred total points. Among teams, the Priest Temple would not be participating, giving them a direct three hundred total.
All four stages would be confrontation between the top of the Temple Alliance’s higher-ups. Generally, the least performing in the Temples’ Great Gathering would be the Priest Temple, but its importance still had no needs to be proved anymore. Anyway, a priest would visibly not be fitting as a ruler for the Temple Alliance. Aside from them, the others would all attach great importance to this ranking contest.
The final ranking of the previous Temples’ Great Gathering had the Knight Temple in first place, followed by the Mage Temple, Spiritual Temple, Assassin Temple, Priest Temple, and Warrior Temple.
The Priest Temple, having been given some preferential treatment, ended up surpassing the Warrior Temple and gaining the fifth rank. The Warrior Temple would frequently be ranked among the last ones.
This announcement was not at all correlated to any adjustment of the Alliance, but the individuals with deeper understanding all knew that the final ranking would determine crucial changes in the Alliance this year. So the contest for the first place would surely be even more intense than the previous years.
The white clad young man was standing there for half an hour already, looking like a statue which didn’t move in the slightest from the beginning.
“What looks so good in a mere announcement?” A distinct voice suddenly rang behind him, coming from a girl clad in a green gown.
This girl was very beautiful, looking in her twenties, but gave off an aloof feel, and an impression of great pride making her unapproachable.
Her green gown looked very simple and didn’t give off any elemental fluctuation. As she appeared behind the young man clad in white, an indescribable faint green light bubbled up from her, pushing this white clad youngster forward.
This female mage was Tan Wan, the sole disciple of the head of the Mage Temple, Li Zhengzhi. Over these four years, she kept training bitterly, and was fully directed by her master, making her one of the targets of the Mage Temple’s ressources, and causing her cultivation to have made great progress.
Xuanyuan Yan who had formerly been standing alongside her had now fallen far behind. Her cultivation had already broken through the eighth step, and she had learnt some formidable original wind elemental spell from Li Zhengzhi, and was one of the Mage Temple’s representative for this Temples’ Great Gathering. Given her age, that was absolutely an enormous honor for her.