The arena was buzzing with excitement as the spectators leaned forward in their seats, eyes glued to the empty stage below. Any moment now, the first stage of the tournament would come to a close.

Only the teams who secured both the precious Yang and Yin scrolls, while keeping all three members alive, would progress to the next round.

In the highest booth, on the most impressive seat, sat Slifer, lazing around like he had no care in the world.

He had no doubt that his disciples would pass the first trial with ease. They were the elite of the Black Rose Sect, hand-picked and trained by the Original personally.

But more importantly, they were either protagonists or pseudo-protagonists, it would take more than some average Core Formation cultivators to deal with them.

No, Slifer was far more interested in whether his followers had succeeded in disposing of that pesky cockroach, Ziven.

"My, my, someone's awfully sure of themselves."

Slifer didn't bother turning his head at the voice coming from two seats over.

Zofia leaned towards him, an impish grin on her face. "Getting a bit complacent, are we?"

When Slifer continued ignoring her, Zofia let out a frustrated sigh.

"It's rude not to look at someone when they're talking to you. Didn't your master teach you any manners?"

"You're the rude one!" Val bared her fangs. "Stop annoying master, he wants nothing to do with an old hag like you!"

Old hag? Now where did she learn language like that? Was it Amelia? Slifer wondered.

As nice as it was for Val to come to his defence, he didn’t want to spoil her with crude language like that, she was just a baby after all.

Zofia's eye twitched, but her smile remained fixed in place. "Still hiding behind your little bird I see.”

“Bird? Val a dragon!”

On Slifer's other side, the Black Death Sect Master Vowron turned to him with a smile.

"The results of the first stage may surprise you, Supreme Elder," he said. Though his words sounded innocuous enough, Slifer's senses prickled.

Surprise me? What was the man getting at? Slifer nearly frowned.

None of his disciples had fallen in the trial, he was certain of that much. The system would have notified him instantly if that was the case.

Just what are you plotting? Slifer's gaze sharpened, staring intently at the Black Death Sect Master's face.

Slifer had yet to receive any updates from Morvran or Kaelin regarding the Black Death Sect’s movements, so he had decided to add Fenlock to hunt.

It’s not like he has anything better to do…all he does is spend time with his Junior Sister, Slifer shook his head. Fenlock’s strange relationship was not something he wanted to delve into at this moment.

But I do think gaining his complete loyalty is related to that Junior Sister of his…

Any further thought was interrupted as dozens of spatial portals sprang into existence around the arena.

Slifer sat up straighter, an eager glint entering his eyes.

Here we go! Let's see how they did!

Hundreds of cultivators came tumbling out of the portals onto the platform. Many had injuries or torn clothes.

Slifer immediately focused on scanning the mass of disciples for his own. He held back a sigh of relief as he spotted Amelia's silver hair, then Dentos' lanky frame, followed by the rest of his team. They seemed a little battered but overall intact.

Good.

Satisfied his disciples had passed, Slifer turned to shoot Vowron a pointed look. The Black Death Sect Master had the grace to appear surprised.

Interesting...it seems he really didn’t expect my disciples to return.

This gave Slifer pause. There was a big difference between sabotaging group allocations and attempted murder. Unfortunately, he had no idea what the demonic sect master was up to.

If only I could buy the answer from the System…

Ding! Congratulations! Your Disciples All Passed The First Stage You Have Gained 400 Karmic Credits

It's always nice to get credits without having to move a muscle.

Slifer's eyes then narrowed as his gaze landed on a familiar muscular figure with dark shoulder-length hair.

Ziven.

Somehow that tenacious cockroach had survived. Slifer wasn't really surprised. The heavens seemed to favour their precious Son no matter what obstacles were thrown his way.

Much like actual cockroaches, Ziven just kept crawling back time and time again.

Slifer hid his displeasure and schooled his features into indifference. He couldn't let anyone guess the extent of his hatred, or was it fear, towards the Heavenly Light Sect disciple. A supposed Ascendant cultivator targeting a mere Core Formation cultivator would bring about too many questions.

A spiritual transmission from Caelum stole his attention.

"Master, I’m sorry we failed the mission. But there is something important we found out. The Black Death disciples are…”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

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When the blinding light of the portal finally receded, Zack found himself dumped onto the floor of an arena. Groaning, he rolled over and sat up, blinking rapidly as his vision adjusted.

One sweep of the surroundings and Zack instantly recognized where they were - the Intersect Tournament grounds.

Hundreds of other cultivators were also pulling themselves up from the ground around him, some letting out sighs of relief whilst others complained.

"Ugh, finally. I never want to see another lava pit again!"

"Just thank the heavens we made it out of that nightmare!"

"Feels like we barely escaped with our lives. Are trials normally this deadly?"

Zack stretched his back, wincing as his joints popped. He was battered, hungry, and desperately in need of a bath, but otherwise no worse for wear.

A burning sensation in his shoulder proved him wrong immediately.

Oh yeah, I’ve got to get that sorted before it becomes a real problem.

Zack's eyes turned to his two teammates, who were rising to their feet as well. The male and female Black Death disciples stared at him with their usual blank, creepy expressions. Zack suppressed a shudder.

“Well ain't this just an awkward reunion," he laughed nervously.

Their last encounter in the trial space had been...tense, to say the least. The pair had gone from seemingly ignoring his existence to abruptly trying to murder him.

And they had pursued Zack relentlessly, despite his attempts to lose them. It was as if passing the trial meant nothing compared to their desire to kill him, which made zero sense!

Just what beef do they have with me? I'm obviously an amazing dude, but still!

Before Zack could ponder the mystery further, he sensed a familiar tugging at the edges of his spiritual awareness. It felt as though strands of his recent experiences were being gently extracted from his consciousness.

Ah, this again!

He had grown accustomed to the out-of-body sensation that accompanied the Main Body syncing their experiences and memories.

"Hope you're happy, bossman. The first round wasn't exactly a picnic," Zack muttered internally. Images of the deadly black miasma the two Black Death disciples wielded flashed through his mind. “Send me the antidote before my arm falls off!”

The booming voice of Elder Fred interrupted Zack's complaints.

"Attention! All participants, stand with your teammates immediately!"

Zack grimaced. Well, time to get up close and personal with his murderous buddies again. He dragged his feet over to join the Black Death cultivators, carefully positioning himself out of arms' reach. Their lifeless gazes followed his every move.

Yeah, this isn't creepy at all...

"Right!" Elder Fred bellowed. "The teams with both a Yin and Yang scroll, present them now!"

Grinning, Zack took out the scrolls from his interspatial ring, holding them up proudly. He spotted Caelum and Dentos doing the same, along with a few other talents like William and Nomed.

Nice, the whole squad made it through.

"The ten teams that secured the scrolls from both the Core Formation and Foundation Establishment divisions shall advance." Elder Fred’s tone hardened, "The rest of you, scram!"

Angry mutters broke out among the eliminated disciples at the dismissal.

"This isn't fair, we didn't even get to show our strength!"

"They can't just fail us without seeing what we can do!"

But under the oppressive pressure of Elder Fred's Nascent Soul cultivation, nobody dared protest further. Shooting dirty glances at the passing teams, the losers quickly filed out.

"Now then! The second trial will consist of one versus one battles. And just like before, the Core Formation division shall compete separately from the Foundation Establishment division."

"There will be five brackets of six competitors each," Elder Fred continued. "The six cultivators in a bracket will battle each other in turn. A win earns you 3 points, a draw 1 point, and a loss 0 points. The cultivator in each bracket with the most points will advance and secure a slot to the Sealed Realm."

Mumbles of annoyance spread amongst the participants.

"Only five slots, out of all of us?"

"Seriously? One loss and you're basically out of the running.”

"They expect us to battle tournament style right after the first trial?"

"Yeah, we've not had any time to rest!"

“Enough!” With a wave of his sleeve, Elder Fred silenced them as he produced a glowing orb of water. "The matchups will now be decided!"

He caused the liquid to separate into five smaller orbs, each holding six names. With motions from his fingers, he stirred the names within each orb, randomizing the order.

Watching closely, Zack noted with satisfaction when the Black Rose disciples each ended up in different brackets, just like the Main Body had promised.

With a round-robin style tournament bracket there’s no chance of the gang accidentally knocking each other out of the competition. And with a bit of luck, we’ll be able to monopolize all five slots to the Sealed Realm!

Finally, Elder Fred flicked his wrist, solidifying the pools into brackets.

Let's see who I'm up against first... Zack scanned the Foundation Establishment list.

"The first match will be Zack versus Varoom!" Elder Fred announced.

Varoom? What kind of name is that? It sounds like one those little toy vehicles kids race around...what were they called again? Hot Wheels? Ah well, no use making jokes the poor guy won't even understand. I'll just have to throttle him quickly instead!

Zack cracked his knuckles as he stepped forward, ready to face the nobody from the Black Heart Sect.