They quickly found an open lounging area set up with dozens of cushions around a short table with a freshly placed hookah in the middle. A young man quickly approached them with menus, but before he could hand them out Kai ordered the special.

Hyrua spoke up. “While I appreciate this, what are we supposed to do about our fifth person? We only have two more days until the deadline.”

“Relax big guy, we’ve already got all the muscle we need. And I’m still all for the idea of grabbing some random person just to get us past the team limit.” Laau Kai lounged in his seat as their order quickly arrived.

Apparently the special included not only everything the kitchen could make, but several blocks of dried herbs. He chose one seemingly at random and placed it on top before his armband dimly lit up and a small flame ignited it.

“You know? Why don’t we ask one of your siblings to join us? Lord Kijin, has so many children competing and what’s adding a third to our team?” He asked nonchalantly.

Hyrua awkwardly searched for how to respond. His sister didn’t have that problem.

“It wouldn’t work.” She kept short.

“Well, why not? You must know how they fight better than some stranger?”

“It’s… complicated.” Hyrua continued. “It’ll save us all from a big mess if we just don’t even try to associate with them.” He couldn’t help but run his fingers over a faded scar.

“Ah! Family drama. Believe me brother, if anyone could understand that, it’s yours truly.”

Kai reached over the table as if to console him. But, the giant man didn’t know how to respond. Instead he ended up passing one of the many dishes.

“Well what about you?” Kamadra asked.

“What about me? Unless you're asking about how I could be such a genius.” He winked.

They rolled their eyes. “I think we all perfectly understand what you’re capable of. No, what I meant was, what about your family. I mean it wasn’t exactly subtle when you showed up in the city. So what if we get one of your family members to join us?”

“Sorry Sunshine, no can do. My family only has three people that qualify to take part in the festival. The rest are either too young or too advanced. And there’s two other problems, the first being that we were tasked with getting through the trials with our own strength. No point in raising weak successors, am I right?” He waved around a chunk of meat as he spoke.

“So what’s the other problem?” Sienna leaned in.

Laau Kai snapped a piece off the chunk. “Geez that must have been a tough kill,” he said to himself. “Wha-? Oh yeah! Right, I just don’t like my cousins. Not quite what you call exceptional.”

After their meal the four of them went over to the training hall.

A commotion stopped them in their tracks, “Who’s next? If you’re still missing a teammate then show me you’re at least capable of taking care of yourselves.” A dark haired woman called out. “I am confident that I can make it to the second trial even by my own power.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Sienna’s face lit up. “Her! She’s perfect for our team! I bet she could make your successor title more than a little shaky, whatdya think Kai?” Sienna didn’t wait for a response and made her way over. “You’re rather bold! What’s your name stranger!” Sienna smiled with her words.

The dark haired stranger was tall, though she still had to look up to meet Sienna’s gaze.

“My name is Diana, and if you’re here to recruit me then quickly bring out your strongest fighter. I won’t join you unless I acknowledge your talent and I don’t have the patience to face an entire team.”

Diana revealed her slender fingers and a small glint fell past her sleeve. Sienna took a wide defensive stance that protected her neck.

“You must be from a sound school, otherwise you wouldn’t be so confident with that frail body. You look like you spend all your time hidden away from the sun and listening to the ’sounds of the universe’.”

Sienna understood the importance of patience when it came to cultivation, her families style was ingrained in her after all. But, she also knew how seriously creative styles took themselves. It didn’t seem to have an effect on Diana though, the hot blooded and loud woman was replaced by an intense yet tranquil focus.

“You have a sharp eye, that shows promise.” She smiled before twirling around and bringing her arm down as if to cast judgment.

To everyone’s confusion Sienna leapt into the air and curled into a ball. While Diana continued to swing her arms one after another like she was trying cast some sort of curse.

When Sienna landed, she was less than half a meter away from her opponent and covered in small cuts.

“I see you haven’t had to fight someone who knows advanced body realm techniques.” She cracked her neck side to side.

Diana relaxed her stance. “Lucky for you that I don’t have the soul force to strengthen my thread more. But, you’ve proved to me that I won’t have to babysit you, so I’m willing to join your team.” She paused. “At least for the first round.”

“So does someone want to share with me what just happened?” Kai asked as the rest of the group joined them.

“Your friend here was right in assuming that I’m from a sound school. And since a majority of our techniques require soul force, we have to be more… crafty until we advance to the immortal realm.”

“Well that’s all fine. But, I don’t get how you were able to cut her up like that.” Kamadra added.

“We can talk about this more in a private setting.” Sienna glanced around. “We wouldn’t want to give away too many cards in our hands before the trial started.”

Everyone in the training hall had stopped what they were doing in order to watch the match between the two mythical women. And though it had already come to its end, most participants were still keeping an eye on them. While some were more subtle than others. They were all analyzing the two.

Sienna then lead them away to a private training space owned by her father. On the way they decided to get to know their new teammate a little better.

In a bar not too far from the training hall, another group also tried learning more about the sound artist.

“Hey big bro, did you hear?” The short gourd shaped man ran into his groups private dining room. “Apparently two beauties were fighting, and rumor has it that their both pretty powerful.”

Xenos was busy cleaning a bone with his teeth, “So what if they have some power? They were probably fighting over something stupid, like any other women.” He chuckled as a thought came to him. “As a matter of fact, they were probably fighting over which one of them has more of a right to become my woman.”

“Hehehe, you’re definitely right big bro. There’s no woman who wouldn’t want to belong to the mighty Xenos.” Durań continued, completely forgetting the rest of his report.

“Durań! Fetch a servant! We can’t have our new brothers cups run dry!” Xenos’ voice boomed through the room. And he turned to one of his new brothers in particular. “Now brother Raam, tell me more about your childhood frie- I mean tell me more about your journey!” His smile resembled a wild dog’s.

He looked up at the broad man beside him with bright eyes. “I’m sure.”

“Little brother is truly blessed, and in more ways than one. For you have had the fortune of joining m- us.”

Xenos pivoted at the last moment and threw his arm over the gushing Raam.

“But what luck for brother’s friend to have such talent. Surely she must be competing in the festival as well. You must introduce her to us, since we’re brothers.”

“Actually brother, I don’t know if she is competing. You see I’ve been in isolation training and we haven’t had contact in the past three years.” Raam said with a heavy heart.