Once inside the competition camp, the clinging sound were even louder and the tent forest appeared to cover everything on the sides, only the main road that led ahead was slightly clear, although there were still many people on the road. Surprisingly there were also some stands that sold food, accessories and other things on the road, there were even some cultivators slightly down the side roads that put their own stands and sold their goods.
The whole scenery reminded one of a bazaar, which surprised Shixuan and Qianyu a bit, as in the end, they were still only 16-year-olds and barely saw the world. They could only keep their face cold and indifferent because they were taught by their big bro for a long time, but now it was slightly destroyed. They quickly regained their composure and went down the main road, till they arrived at a large field full of stone platforms.
The platforms made of stone were large enough to hold a hundred people, and each platform had their own workstation prepared with some tables and a small oven to heat up things. It wasn't that the town chief prepared too few, but he just didn't know anything about the competition at all, besides what the two brothers told him.
They also only knew a bit, as they thought of letting their elder brother just decide about this. Still, they had some ideas they would present, and what was prepared was enough for all the ideas they had. Worst case they would just add a few things, at least for the first competition stage, everything was prepared. The smallest crowd was also the first to compete so that the dwarfs could have a day or two longer to prepare for a larger group of participants.
There were fifty such platforms, enabling five thousand competitors to partake at the same time. Of course, that wasn't enough, and the next day, thirty more platforms would be placed and twenty more the day after, according to the report the steward got. A hundred platforms would be enough for ten thousand participants which was already slightly enough for all the participants of this part.
The next days the workers would build even more platforms as they already finished all tents and didn't need to build any more. The only issue now was to make sure that not one platform was missing, or they'd have to split the competitions into a morning match and an evening match. Which would make it difficult to decide the winner.
Shixuan and Qianyu looked around and saw no seating option, but under careful consideration, he understood that most watchers should have enough cultivation to stand for some time, and the truly high guests which needed catering wouldn't be watching, at least officially.
They went to another platform and checked there, and so did they with all fifty platforms till they were sure there weren't any errors. At one point dwarf servant came there way but was stopped by the steward, so he just followed them along the route.
Once they were finished, they looked at the dwarf and told him "There are no errors, but there are still things missing." Shixuan looked at Qianyu who took out a scroll. Shixuan took the scroll to give it to the dwarf as he continued "Here are some more instructions for the tools you have to prepare, they are simple and should be laying around in your workshops.
Tell your town chief to prepare everything, tomorrow Intermediate Eunuch Li will be doing a final inspection and expects everything to be taken care of by then. Also, prepare some high platform for us to announce the rules, that should have been obvious.
Lastly, remind your town chief that the top ten of each competition would be competing among each other in the central plaza of the workshop district. We have not inspected it yet as the competition there would be held in five days, still make sure that everything is prepared, our senior might want to check out and make sure that you didn't make any mistakes.
You can leave but tell him to come and greet the senior tomorrow in the morning after he ate something, we wouldn't want him to starve himself when he is serving the Eunuch Palace, that would truly be a tragedy and give us a bad image."
The dwarf servant couldn't even reply before the brothers left together with their guards and the steward. When they were a distance away and already out of the camp, Qianyu signalled for the steward to come forward and told him "You have done your work well, so we will mention it to our senior brother. Make sure you keep up the work. When we enter the town, just go to the plaza and check out if everything's good. The town chief will be held accountable, as well as you, if there are any mistakes. Remember the responsibility you hold in the branch, everything here is under your supervision, we are only momentarily here to fulfil our mission, but do not forget why you got such a large responsibility and the authority which came with it."
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Qianyu then dismissed the steward and looked at Shixuan who was looking at him confusedly. They weren't planning to visit the plaza at all, so they could give their elder brother space to complain towards the town chief. They wanted to give away their responsibility, and of course, they would tell their brother the exact same. After all, he was the one who always told them to keep room for mistakes but give the responsibility for the mistakes away, as it would always serve for scheming.
They went back to the branch and ate there relaxedly before telling the kitchen to prepare a lot of food for breakfast the next day, after all they knew the hunger, their brother would express after going into closed cultivation, and there it didn't matter whether his cultivation enabled him to not eat for days, he would still act like he was starving, every single time.
…
The next day, Shixuan and Qianyu were standing in front of Ji Li's room while there were several servants waiting behind them with food, with a lot of food, like really a lot. It was enough to be a banquet and didn't seem like breakfast at all. Qianyu looked at the window down the hallway, and when he saw the first sun shines, he tapped at Shixuan's shoulder with his hand, who reacted and opened the door. Qianyu directed the servants to place the food on the table in the middle of the room while Shixuan waited at the door. Once the servants left, Shixuan closed the door and activated the formation, to which Qianyu 'hmphed'. A second later, Ji Li's voice came from inside.
"MAAAAAAN I AM STARVING! Where's food? Stone, Monkey, come and help me out of this lotus position! I was sitting for a full fucking five days, my legs are SLEEEEEEEPING! I'm tellin you, I was suffering just for cultivation! At least now my cultivation is fully stable, or else I'd really have to starve myself to death just to cultivate a little more in life! BAH!" Ji LI complained, several words of his were totally foreign and incomprehensible for his little brothers, but he didn't care, and so did they, they were way too used to this 'little polite', or however others called him. Whenever they heard that, they had to suppress the urge to roll their eyes.
Shixuan and Qianyu did as they were told and helped Ji Li who was relaxing and meditating behind a curtain on his bed. When they saw him, they felt that he somehow looked different. His whole body seemed to shine as he was even full of vitality than before! He didn't advance in cultivation, but he still solidified his cultivation and became more aligned with his talent and attribute.
They pulled him out of his seating position and placed him on the ground in front of the table, to which he directly started eating everything. He wasn't a vegetarian, so naturally he would eat meat. The Emerald Brilliance Empire had a love for nature, it gave them everything they needed. Naturally they would give back to nature what they got, so they would spray around some tree seeds and also feed the animals that lived in the nature, so they saw no wrong in eating said animals.
After eating, and Ji Li truly ate, as even the bones were bitten on the sides, did Shixuan and Qianyu have the courage to tell him what they did and how they planned the competition. There was only once when another trainee eunuch interrupted Ji Li's eating session, and that eunuch ended up doing them most disgusting chore for a whole year.
As Shixuan wanted to begin the explanation, Qianyu stopped him, went outside and called the servants in to take away the plates and clean the room shortly. Qianyu then nodded once the servants were outside, while Shixuan was scratching his head because he was so happy that he rushed to Ji Li to tell him everything.
Shixuan slowly summarised what happened and how they thought they would do the competition, as he finished, he looked at Ji Li expectantly, waiting to be praised. Ji Li thought for a bit and nodded as he said "You've done well, both of you did. I'm very proud of you and your idea was definitely a bit of a surprise and it might be a bit troublesome, but in the long run it will be very profitable. This is the correct way, since we recruit them, we can give them benefits while also treating ourselves to a long-term competition. We can use the exact same prize for every year and only change the prizes for the first places of each competition. If it goes well this time, then I might be able to convince the Main Palace for more prizes so we could make a larger competition every three years or so."
"I am very satisfied, okay so let me visit the competition ground. You said that the town chief is already down below, right? Let his take us and describe how he worked and give him suggestions so he will do better the next time. Let him see our goodwill, understood?"
"Yes brother, we will make sure he begs us to join our Eunuch Palace!" both said simultaneously.