Chapter – 18 - Congregation of Champions

Rihanna slowly opened her eyes. The hair on her hands were standing up, and she could feel the goosebumps crawling up and down her flesh. Literally!

These people were smart, and they were not interested in giving her any time. They had already built a trap, and if she had not been practicing her passive hearing and sensing skill tonight, she would never know what they were planning in the dark. Father Musakat was right – she was really lucky!

But what of it? She had only one more day. Whoever was the second disciple of whatever Sect Leader, he definitely was not going to be any easier to deal with than Wen Haoli. In probabilities – he would be far, far worse! One day....she only had one day. What was she going to do? Run away?...But where?

'No....return back to Moon-grave city.'

Rihanna almost fell off the bed.

What a great time the Voice chose to return to society! And what did it mean – 'return to Moon-Grave City'?? Was it sending her on a suicide mission? Hey....that was a one way ticket....going to Moon-Grave City meant being sealed, packet and couriered off to Moon-Grave Sect...through express delivery...right to the Sect Leaders bed!

'You are still as stupid and noisy as ever! Psssh....even cultivation cannot curb your excessive energy?! Your mind is turning into slush!'

'Hey I know you saved my life.....like, multiple times.....but I am still your host...so could you go easy on the cursing? And you are the one telling me to go back inside the dragon's belly after I have already made it to his mouth and am about to step out!"

'Stupid....you still have the aura changing fruits you gathered from the underground place, and also feature morphing herbs. Use them, and I will help you in enhancing their properties for a while. You can evade these people sent to guard you, and go to Moon-Grave City on your own.'

Rihanna blinked, suddenly feeling enlightened. But....

'Why do you want me to go to Moon-Grave City?'

'There is something in the city which you will need to keep yourself safe. The Trans-morphing Jade.'

'.....'

'Aish.....it is a stone which can help a person to change his looks and also hide his aura. Though you can achieve the same results with the herb and fruit you have, they are effective for a very short time. Thankfully you collected a hoard of them in Poison Swamp. The Jade on the other hand works with blood and spiritual energy of the person. So as long as you feed it a little of your blood and fill it with your spiritual power everyday, it will keep on working.'

'Aaahhhh?!....Such a miraculous thing exists in such a small, insignificant city?'

'It is most probably an heirloom artifact of one of the clans in the city. I cannot sense exactly where it is, but I can feel it is somewhere within the city. We'll know more once we are inside the city ourselves. Be ready...we must leave by tomorrow night....before that second disciple comes.'

And so saying, once more, the Voice disappeared, leaving a very confused and skeptical Rihanna still trying to figure out her sudden change of itinerary!

______________________________________

The arena was more full today than before, and Rihanna had to nudge and push left-and-right to reach her seat. Her clothes were stuck to her body with layers and layers of sweat, her neat hair having changed into an African knotted style, and all she could see around her were....heads.....lots and lots of heads!

This was the Championship arena. Well, truthfully, it looked exactly like an old Greek open amphitheater, except it was way larger, and could seat hundreds of thousands of people. The area in the center was also large and raised high above the ground, making it more visible to the spectators.

Such a large area was truly not possible to exist within a city' boundary - so it existed outside it! Actually a large flat land had been chosen near the city outskirts, and then a lot of arrays, inscriptions and space-manipulation masters were used to create this large, but actually encompassed amphitheater. The Congregation of Champions by The Alliance of Sects was a major event, taking place once in every decade. And hence they had spent a lot of spirit stones and resources to create these extravagant but permanent spaces. There were four such arenas all over the country, one in each prefecture, and the Championship was held in these places in rotation.

During the preliminaries, the stage was divided into ten arena's, where duels were being held simultaneously. Since it was the first day of semi-finals today, there were only 5 duel arena's set up.

Each fighting arena was set up inside a large and complicated rune inscription – this was a protective defense array which absorbed all energy of attacks which hit the array boundary, thus protecting both, the audience, as well the competitors from attack-energy rebound.

Above each arena, floating on Gravity Defying Flying Artifacts, were members of the Guild Alliance, dressed in smart dark blue clothes, who acted as the referee, and also kept an eye on the situation inside the arena. Kind of like a human-surveillance camera!

On two ends of the central ground, two older people wearing white supervised the entire competition. They flew at a higher level, thus signifying their status and authority.

The audience area itself was also covered by a number of large arrays overlapping each other – they looked very similar to Venn diagrams! They were also protective arrays, both to keep out any stray attacks, and also to stop any over excited fan from jumping through onto the arena.

Gray color flat stones hung in the air, a golden glow flowing in and out of their center. Rihanna learned from Uncle He that these were special Recording stones, which could record sounds and visuals. But they were extremely expensive, and only Major Clans and the Guild Alliance could afford them in large quantities. They were also difficult to make.

Suddenly Rihanna had a flash of images in her mind....wasn't this scene extremely similar to Harry Potter's what-was-that-weird-game scene?....People flying in the air....Arena fights....Only the balls were missing! Except this scene also had surveillance camera's – a product of magic merging with technology!

As the competitors filed into the auditorium, walking in a disciplined line towards the seating area allotted to them, the audience started growing restless.

Who said that cultivators were different from human?.....Look at their lots....carrying large flags with emblems of the various Sects on them, proudly waving them around. Every Sect and every competitor had their own fan group, where the fans proudly showed their allegiance by wearing dazzling and colorful emblems of their favorite sect – embroidered on their clothes, embossed on portable wooden or metal boards. Some were throwing up Rainbow Light Sparkles into the air, where the sparkles formed their favorite sects name or emblem.

There was also a shiny metal board hanging up in the air behind the arena stages. All the names of the competitors were lit up in sequence according to their preliminary ranking. As their rankings changed in this semi-finals, so would their name order change on this sequencing list.

Wooow....even pop-idol events didn't hold a candle to these fanatic fans and their methods of pumping chicken blood into their favorite champions. This was far more dazzling than any sports events or idol performance she had attended on earth! The only thing they lacked were food stalls and soft-drink corners! Of course....cultivators had their own inner worlds, so they actually came pre-loaded with food....One point to cultivators!

Today, a separate Judges Panel had also been created. Ten senior cultivators, from which-which sect and what-what clans and countries were seated in this panel at the center row in the audience area. Sorry....but Rihanna's knowledge about all the different countries, sects, governance, politics, etc., etc., etc. were still rather on the low side. She did go, once, to a few bookstores and even bought a few books on cultivation as well as general knowledge, but....well, she was too busy watching the events and cultivating in her free time to go through any of the books!

The Head Judge, who Uncle He said belonged to one of the Major Clans in the Core City of Madsa-Tamu, was currently giving a long speech praising the cultivation heritage of Madsa-Tamu.

Madsa-Tamu was actually the name of the country she was in at the the moment. Again, from Uncle He' encyclopedia – Madsa meant Forest and Tamu meant Land. Literally meaning Land of Forests. And such was the name because four of the seven largest forests shared between the five countries on this land belonged to Madsa Tamu.

At the end of the speech, the Head judge gestured, and the audience went into a frenzy as ten competitors stood up and jumped onto their respective stages. The way these opponents acknowledged each other was quite special.

Each of them raised their right palm towards their opponent, and released a light flow of their energy. These two different energy streams would circle around each other and slowly dissipate into the air around them. Apparently this was an age old tradition between equal level cultivators, whenever they met each other, whether inside an arena or outside on the road.

The arrays lit up, and audience too quietened down. Rihanna was kneeling on top of her seat, and keenly felt the throbbing of many hearts all around her.

Truly....in a world of Cultivation, these cultivation champions were the stars, the idols and the future of this world. And every cultivator, whether belonging to sects, clans or forging their path alone – everyone looked up to these budding stars!