126: Chapter 126 Top Fifty in the County Examination

Taking the route to attack Linhai Prefecture offers rich rewards: each clan can receive one High Grade Tier 5 treasure, four Medium Grade Tier 5 treasures, and five Low Grade Tier 5 treasures. If utilized well, these treasures might allow the clan to produce another Tier 5 Demon King, or help an existing Early Stage Tier 5 Demon King advance to the Middle Stage.

Such rich rewards come with hidden dangers; a real attack is quite different from a feigned one.

A real attack on a prefecture requires killing or injuring at least ten Tier 4 Martial Artists and severely wounding one Tier 5 Martial Artist to count; a feigned attack only requires killing or injuring three Tier 4 Martial Ancestors and keeping the Tier 5 Martial Artists occupied so they cannot reinforce other regions.

The more human Martial Artists killed, the more likely it is to provoke a desperate fight to the death from the humans; no one knows what kind of battlefield that might eventually turn into.

Clan Leader Xue Lang and Clan Leader Ji Yan exchanged a glance, thinking to themselves: 'That old fox, Clan Leader Cang Lan, is pretending to let us choose, but in reality, he has already made the choice for us.'

Who in the Inner Sea does not know about the centuries-old feud between the Tiger Shark Clan and the Deep Sea Giant Turtle Clan against Linhai Prefecture!

Facing such a life-or-death enmity, it goes without saying which route Clan Leader Xue Lang and Clan Leader Ji Yan would choose.

However, they could not let that old fox, Clan Leader Cang Lan, get off easily. Clan Leader Ji Yan said in a deep voice, "Brother Xue Lang and I will take responsibility for the Linhai Prefecture route, but the reward is insufficient. We need an additional ten Low Grade Tier 5 treasures."

"That's right, add ten more Low Grade Tier 5 treasures," Clan Leader Xue Lang agreed.

"Very well. I hope you two brothers will not disappoint me." Clan Leader Cang Lan pondered for a moment and agreed to the two demons' conditions.

Clan Leader Huan Mei and Clan Leader Yin Suo were envious and wanted to add conditions as well, but they were ruthlessly rejected by Clan Leader Cang Lan.

The Black Flood Dragon Clan was not wealthy either; Tier 5 treasures do not appear out of thin air. Each one was obtained through the hard work and blood and flesh of the clansmen, painstakingly sought from various places.

Bringing out so many Tier 5 treasures to hire the Jellyfish Clan and the Spearfish Clan for a feigned attack was already a very generous reward.

It was only because of the good relationship maintained between the five great royal clans for thousands of years that he had prioritized inviting these four clans to discuss this major matter.

If these four clans were too unreasonable, Clan Leader Cang Lan would not mind inviting other clans to complete this mission.

"Brother Cang Lan, that human Emperor guarding the East Sea won't take action against us, will he!" Clan Leader Ji Yan asked with trepidation.

The other three demons also stared at Clan Leader Cang Lan upon hearing this.

If this issue wasn't resolved, they would not dare to rashly attack the human families inland.

"You can rest assured about that. I have already requested the help of Lord You Huang, so that human Emperor will naturally be too busy to pay attention to us." Clan Leader Cang Lan gave the four of them some peace of mind.

"That is good." Clan Leader Ji Yan and the others nodded. The pressure that Emperor placed on them was too immense; even a single glance was more than they could withstand.

What the few did not know was that Clan Leader Cang Lan's experience with this was far more profound than theirs. One of his own Dragon claws had recently been severed by that Emperor, and it had cost three Late Stage Tier 5 medicinal herbs to regrow it, which only restored about thirty percent of his former strength.

The five demons made a joint oath before the Sea God statue to send troops to the East Sea and stain the three prefectures with blood.

...

All the families in Cangjiang Prefecture were immersed in the Prefecture Examination, completely unaware that a storm sweeping through the entire prefecture was imminent.

When that time comes, it is hard to say which families will be able to survive this storm. Even a Family with a Tier 5 Martial King might not necessarily be able to guarantee their own safety through such a crisis.

In the sixth round of the competition, only twenty-five people ultimately achieved two victories and directly advanced to the Top 50 of the Prefecture Examination. Twenty-five people regrettably suffered two defeats and could only be ranked in the bottom fifty of the Prefecture Examination.

There were another fifty people who had only won one match in this round and needed to compete one more time. The winners would advance to the Top 50 of the Prefecture Examination, while the losers would be eliminated and ranked in the bottom fifty.

The competition would be conducted in the form of challenges. One person would initiate a challenge, and the challenged party had the right to refuse, but each person could only refuse twice. That is to say, when a Martial Artist is challenged for the third time, they cannot refuse.

Of course, during this time, they could also challenge others, choosing a suitable opponent for themselves.

While resting in the pavilion, Ye Yisong received some very bad news: among the Disciples from the Wei Family and the Wang Family participating in the Prefecture Examination, one from each had comprehended a Martial Dao Seed, and they were only one step away from becoming a Martial Ancestor.

It was unknown why these two had not broken through to the Martial Ancestor realm before the Prefecture Examination; surely they hadn't just comprehended the Martial Dao Seed recently.

Originally, with Ye Yisong's strength, he was full of confidence about winning first place in the competition. Now that these two variables had appeared, er... he was still full of confidence, it would just make the process a bit more troublesome.

Ye Yisong believed that no Martial Master could withstand his Nine-Colored Green Lotus imbued with red light, not even a Martial Master who had comprehended a Martial Dao Seed.

"Why is there no reaction at all?" Ye Yisong muttered to himself. Ever since he learned about Martial Dao Seeds from Ye Jiesheng, Ye Yisong had been trying to find his own Martial Dao Seed.

But there had been no reaction!

Perhaps it was because Ye Yisong's path of cultivation was too short, causing his understanding of the Dao to be relatively shallow, making it difficult to comprehend the true meaning of the Dao, which was why he could not find the way.

He just did not know what type of Martial Dao Seed those two geniuses from the Wei Family and Wang Family had comprehended.

If it was an offensive Martial Dao Seed, that would really be troublesome.

While Ye Yisong was contemplating his own Martial Dao Seed, the second part of the sixth round of the competition was in full swing.

Some Martial Artists had better luck, choosing opponents with relatively low strength and easily advancing.

The luckiest one was a Disciple of the Ye Family—Ye Jiehao, who had the cultivation of a 6-star Martial Master. The opponent he chose only had the cultivation of a 9-star Martial Artist, and this kid had already refused two challengers, so this time he could not avoid it, and Ye Jiehao picked up a big bargain.

However, some Martial Artists had very bad luck. Their strength was among the best of the fifty, with the strength of a 6-star Martial Master, yet they were defeated in a few moves by other strong Martial Artists and could only gloomily be ranked in the bottom fifty.

After another half day of challenge matches, the final twenty-five advancement spots were determined. When everyone saw the Family affiliations of these fifty spots, their hearts skipped a beat.

Of the fifty people, eighteen were from the Wei Family, twelve from the Wang Family, and ten from the Ye Family.

It was not surprising that the three giants took the lion's share every year; it was just a matter of which Family had more people this year and which had fewer.

What shocked everyone was that the Sun Family and the Qi Family actually both had as many as four people enter the Top 50 of the Prefecture Examination, and the remaining two Martial Artists were Loose Cultivators.

The Liu Family and the Zheng Family of the four small families actually did not have a single person advance to the Top 50 of the Prefecture Examination this time. Especially the Liu Family, as the head of the four small families, causing such a huge upset was truly alarming.

It is estimated that in the next hundred years in Cangjiang Prefecture, the struggle between the families will become even more intense; the Liu Family will never allow the Sun Family and the Qi Family to rise so easily.

"Quiet!" Official Wu Tian shouted, focusing everyone's attention on him.