The crowd had their full attention on the twenty screens as the groups entered the forest. For the first hour, there wasn’t much action. The examiners were spread out on the entrance areas that the twenty groups entered.

The groups separated the instant they entered the forest. There were smaller groups working together but the majority of the participants ran into the forest solo.

The crowd could also see individual and small groups of monster beasts heading towards some of the cultivators.

The barrier limited the height that one could fly at. Those who climbed a few tens of meters above the forest canopy would encounter a pressure that would keep them from flying any higher.

There were also flight type monster beasts present, therefore escaping by flying high was not an option.

In fact, some of the faster people had already met obstacles in the air. A lone cultivator with a hawk type spirit beast had encountered a small group of black crow type monster beasts.

The crows were smaller in comparison to the hawk but they had much superior burst speed, which made it difficult for the cultivator and spirit beast pair to evade and block the attacks from all directions.

Similar situations started happening around the forest. Some cultivators would successfully kill the monster beast and collect the proof while unlucky individuals would encounter groups of monster beasts and would have to flee. There were also notable solo cultivators and small groups using powerful magic arts and top-grade magic tools.

Shen and Xue’er were also immersed in the scenes inside the barrier.

“I have never fought anyone before. I want to try some time.” Shen mused as he sipped on his wine.

“Little White or I can be a partner if Big Brother Shen doesn’t use chaos power.”

“Haha, of course! I want to try using a weapon after all.”

“Big Brother Shen can also try fighting a monster beast. A magical beast has some intelligence so most of them would run away from Big Brother Shen’s aura. Also, Big Brother Shen should learn some magic arts.”

Xue’er happily went on. She has never had this much fun in her entire life.

Suddenly, Shen turned his vision away from the screens and looked towards the east.

 Small black dots could be seen on the horizon. The dots were getting bigger as the minutes went by.

Shen’s superior vision and Divine Sense identified eight large flying devices rapidly approaching their location. There were cultivators standing atop the flying devices. On the head of each flying device, a cultivator that gave off an aura no inferior to the five Sky Immortal elders on the stage stood still, with dozens of Earth Immortals behind them.

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“Xue’er who are those people?” Shen gestured towards the now visible large flying devices.

Xue’er looked away from the screens and turned towards the east.

“Devil sect alliance!”

Xue’er’s voice wasn’t loud but it was enough for the surrounding cultivators to hear.

Some people turned to looked at Xue’er and Shen, after which they followed Xue’er’s line of sight.

Of course, the Sky Immortal elders on the stage have already noticed shortly after Shen.

“Devil sect cultivators, why have you come!” The middle-aged man from Celestial Sword Peak bellowed.

The eight flying devices came to a stop not far from the gathering.

“Hahahaha! Of course, we are here to participate in the competition! Just because you ‘correct path’ faction banned us from participating, doesn’t mean we will just meekly listen to you!”

The younger generation in the crowd became restless upon the arrival of the intruders.

However, the older cultivators were not as worried.

“Hmph! So, what do you want?”

“Why do you even ask! You were also here ten years ago. Don’t create unnecessary trouble! As you can see we have eight Sky Immortals and far more Earth Immortals!”

“Hmph, so what? We are not afraid of you devil cultivators!”

“And we have ten Sky Immortal Elders here! I dare you to try!”

“Hahahaha! Who are you fooling! Five of you are maintaining the barrier. If they left, the barrier would collapse and the monster beasts would scatter! Even Core Formation stage monster beasts from the surroundings might slaughter your precious disciples! In fact, I want you to dissolve the barrier even more! Hahahaha!”

The dialogue between the leaders of the two factions explained some of the doubts of the younger generation.

“Xue’er, are those people the ‘evil cultivators’ that your father mentioned?”

“They are indeed the devil path cultivators. But not all of them are evil cultivators. The term ‘devil path’ was merely given by these so called correct path people.”

“Also, father said some of these devil path cultivators are more righteous than the correct path sects.”

“Hmm, I see. So, how come the devil path cultivators got banned from the competition?”

“I don’t know Big Brother Shen. Father probably knows. All I know is that this happened about 1800 years ago.”

“This can’t be the first time this has occurred. Look, some of the spectators don’t look worried at all.”

A thirty-year-old looking woman near Shen and Xue’er heard the couple’s conversation. “You are right, this isn’t the first time. In fact, I’ve heard from my sect elders that the devil path alliance always show up.

For the first few times, they would go all out and try kill each other. After a couple of hundred years, both sides got tired and they just verbally shout at each other. Like now. The elders at both sides are just trying to keep face.”

The woman’s explanation answered Shen’s conjecture and a few younger cultivators in the surrounding were also enlightened.

“Keep watching, soon they’ll come to an agreement. This happened the last two times I attended as well. It has become a sort of tradition.”

Shen and Xue’er placed their attention back to the Sky Immortal leaders of both sides.

The Sky Immortal from Celestial Sword Peak yelled out once more.

“I can give you 100 tokens. Take it or leave it!”

“Bah! Your side have sent almost 800 disciples in. Are you trying to murder with a borrowed hand? You despicable so called correct paths. Hahahaha! 400!

“No way! Are you looking for a fight?! We’re not afraid of you! 250 tokens are all I have! You don’t expect to refine more on the spot, right?” The middle-aged man took out a bag of holding and tossed it towards the lead flying device.

“Hmph! Shameless!”

The Sky Immortal took the bag of holding nonetheless and quickly distributed to the devil path disciples.

“This seemed to be planned beforehand.” Shen muttered. “No way that the elders from the correct path would have that many extra tokens without reason.”

“Young man, you are smart!” The woman who explained earlier raised her thumb at Shen.

The devil path junior disciples from the eight flying devices quickly disembarked and entered the forest with the lead of Earth Immortals.