It was Xiao Lok but disguised as a man accompanying the sixth prince. Bai Hua had known that the sixth prince would be participating but he didn’t expect to see Xiao Lok with him. But Xiao Lok wasn’t taking the test. She was curiously looking around the procedures of the test. The prince had also easily passed through the first phase.

Most of the people who had come to the competition were teenagers and young adults. There were some older men but they were few. It was like the teenagers had scared off the older men. Besides, it was more fitting for the younger ones to become a disciple. The older men felt that they won’t progress much as a disciple of an immortal. They knew that the younger ones had much more potential. But they had participated nonetheless to obtain the pills that were promised to the top 10 participants.

Bai Hua observed that the East Mainland truly lacked great martial artists. He had heard tales of strong immortals when he was in the godly realm. And also of immortals who had achieved godhood whereas the people gathered in the arena were pretty weak. He couldn’t say about the young ones yet. Their dantians were still developing but for the adults, he felt that they will never achieve the state of an immortal unless by extremely impossible circumstances.

The first phase of the competition was going smoothly. People were divided into groups as they passed the first phase. They were given tokens with a number on it.

Xia Sheng and Xia Feng came to the seat where Bai Hua was sitting with differently numbered tokens. They were happy that both of them didn’t have similar tokens. The people with the same numbered tokens were going to the second phase of the competition.

“Brother Hua, I wish you could participate in the competition too,” said Xia Feng, dissatisfied.

“Yes, it would have been fun for us if you were participating too,” added Xia Sheng.

“Ah, I am a musician. I don’t like blood on my hands,” Bai Hua said modestly.

“Say, big brother, did you see that boy with brother Chen? I think I have seen him somewhere. I didn’t get to take a proper look because they were at a different gate,” Xia Feng inquired.

“I didn’t see anyone with him. There were many people and I was looking around for people from other families. I am sure they’re here too. I saw some of their carriages,” he said as he scanned the crowd. He zeroed in on the other side of the gallery and his eyes glinted as if he had seen someone he was looking for.

“Feng’er, stay with brother Hua, I am going to check out something.”

And he left another word towards the direction he was looking at.

Bai Hua had also seen what Xia Sheng was looking at. It was a group of youngsters who were all dressed magnificently. They seem to belong to the great families and nobilities of the kingdom.

“Big brother probably went to check on his potential opponents. He is very competitive,” Xia Feng confessed.

Bai Hua laughed when he heard that. He had siblings too but they were much older than him in terms of thousands of years. And he never had been competitive because there weren’t many peers of his age in the godly realm. He was the young one. Major gods didn’t have many children. There were also some lowly gods in the lower tier of the godly realm but their children were not true gods. They made up the commoners in the godly realm.

“Look, who’s here, the youngest master of the Xia family. Word has it that the great prodigy nearly died by drowning,” came a sniggering voice followed by many footsteps.

Xia Feng recognised the voice and turned towards the speaker.

“Wang Fu, you dare show your face here? Do you still want the beating from last time?!” Xia Feng said angrily.

“I was tired that day and you technically won because I was distracted. That is not even worth mentioning,” said Wang Fu dismissively. He was wearing a distracting colour of green robes while his companions were wearing mischievous smiles on their faces. It was obvious that Wang Fu was the leader of this gang. They were all teenagers older than Xia Feng.

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Bai Hua was curious to see Xia Feng’s exchanging words heatedly with a boy who seemed to be a little older than him. Bai Hua had taken Xia Feng to be a mild-tempered boy but now he could see that he was clearly angry!

“You lay your filthy eyes on my sister again and I will send your sorry ass to your Wang mansion!” Xia Feng was now raising his voice.

The others just laughed at Xia Feng’s “tantrum”.

Wang Wu continued to provoke him.

“Too bad your sister is not around today. But look who’s with you today? A delicate looking attendant. Is he your brother’s new lover? I heard that your brother prefers men over women.”

They all laughed at this.

Xia Feng moved to attack Wang Ju shouting, “Don’t you dare slander my brother and brother Hua!” but Bai Hua pulled him back.

“Hiding behind an adult are we?” Wang Fu mocked looking at Xia Feng’s red face.

“Brother Hua, let me go. Let me get rid of this trash today! I swear the Wang family will regret mocking our Xia family today!”

But Bai Hua didn’t let go and calmly said, “He’s afraid of you that’s why he’s provoking you to get you disqualified. Remember no fighting among the contestants inside the arena?”

Xia Feng stopped struggling when Bai Hua reminded him of the competition’s rule.

Wang Fu was now wearing an ugly expression.

“Little Feng, your brother’s lover even behaves like a woman. Truly worthy of the Xia family!” he spat and added “I’ll take care of you in the competition. I’ll show how real men win in a battle, hmmph!”

He raised his chin and left followed by his followers.

“Brother Hua, I swear I will defend your honour. I will beat his ass in this competition if not my name will not be Xia Feng anymore!”

For some reason this made Bai Hua laugh and he started laughing. A little mortal kid was staking his family name to defend him. He was truly grateful yet he found it undeniably hilarious.

“Brother Hua, you don’t believe in my capabilities?” Xia Feng said disheartened after hearing Bai Hua laughing.

“Little Feng, I believe in you. I just found it funny that you want to fight with someone for some silly reason. Don’t easily stake your name again like that again,” he gently chided Xia Feng.

“But he makes me so angry! Just because he belongs to one of the great families of this kingdom, he has the audacity to provoke me again and again!”

“Don’t let their provocations rile you up. You should not become their prey easily. Be your own master. No one should control your emotions except you. Okay?”

“If you say so, brother Hua. But I am still thrashing him today! Nobody insults my family or friends!”

Bai Hua sighed and patted Xia Feng. For some reason, Bai Hua felt that he was taking care of a pet cat instead of a human child. His Divine mother had a spiritual beast that behaved exactly like Xia Feng back in the godly realm.

“Cool down, little Feng, you’re too young to be affected by the world. Look, they are going to start the second phase.”

Just like he said, someone had appeared on a raised platform that overlooked the stages prepared for the battle.

“Gentlemen who have gathered for the competition, the first phase of the competition is over. The first phase is a fair way to determine both your physical and spiritual strength disregarding your background. This was done so that everyone had a fair opportunity.”

The speaker scanned the crowd for effect and continued, “My name is Mr Bao and I will be the commentator for this competition. All those who passed the first phase were given a token. The number written on the token corresponds to the stage. Each stage has a number written on it. Please assemble on the stages according to the tokens you received. Anyone who had exchanged their tokens with another person will be disqualified. So, please make sure your token is the one given to you by one of our examiners.”

There were audible groans as those who had exchanged their tokens with others went to retrieve their original token.

“Okay, now that we have cleared that up, please make your way to the stage.”

Xia Feng left Bai Hua when this announcement was made saying he’ll come back victorious.

Bai Hua could see that Xia Feng, Xia Sheng and the sixth prince were all on different stages. He also noticed that Xiao Lok was sitting on the opposite gallery to him. It was strange how she turned up in places where he was.

“Contestants, listen up now. There are many of you on the stages. The first tier of the second phase is quite easy actually; you fight to knock off your opponents off the stage. The last two standing on the stage will advance to the second tier of the second phase. The judges are ready. Let the match begin!”

Just after he said that Bai Hua felt a presence. An immortal was present in the audience. The immortal had hidden his presence well but it was easy for Bai Hua to spot him. But it was not the immortal described by the sixth prince to them.

Then, he’s another immortal, thought Bai Hua.

Right after then he also felt another presence, it wasn’t strong like the first one but the spiritual powers of this person was comparatively stronger than all the others who had gathered here except him and the immortal. And when he spotted this person, he looked exactly like the description made by the prince and unlike the real immortal which he had spotted before him he was quite conspicuous and was sitting with someone who seemed to be the king in the opposite gallery.

Things were about to get interesting, Bai Hua inwardly smiled. There was a fake immortal and a real immortal inside this arena. Actually, he could feel the presence of only one immortal in the imperial city.

Bai Hua was convinced that something big was on the way. He wasn’t wrong when he had seen the eyes of Xia Feng and seen a tiny flicker of a prophecy that was already moving.