Ten thrones

——(POV Li Huang)——

There are some days that everything goes as you planned and you feel good about yourself because you had predicted all these scenarios. It is like playing a game of chess when you have thought of all possible moves.

Well, today wasn't one of those days. Today was a testament to Murphy's law; Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And let me tell you, when I first woke up today, I didn't think this would be the result at the end of the day and consequently the end of the selection.

You might be thinking that I am exaggerating and you are probably right, but I can assure you that even with all my plans, I didn't see this coming.

To give you a good summary of the events, I have to go back to when we were going to conduct challenges for the three special thrones after the second round of challenges.

At that time I thought that at least I would be challenged by Dai Bao or Jin Fen, but no, that didn't happen. I got challenged once by someone who I have already forgotten his name but that was it.

Dai Bao didn't challenge me, or anyone for that matter, and only watched as if he was an audience. Jin Fen on other hand was also watching, watching Lai Xinyue. Not gonna lie, this was getting creepy at this point, Lai Xinyue acted as if he didn't exist so at least her personality worked well for this situation.

The point is that none of them challenged me and honestly I was baffled. Don't they want to be on a special throne and have glory or something?

Jin Fen's move was somewhat predictable because he would probably only move when Lai Xinyue moves from there so after thinking a little about it, I didn't find it surprising anymore.

But Dai Bao was another story, why did he decide to sit out the challenges for the special thrones? Well, I think it might have something with that shit show that he and Jin Fen created in the battle royale round and he simply wants to get himself out of everyone's mind because, any publicity is not good publicity in a cultivation world.

So with this, these challenges also passed and the next round only one disciple got to win herself a position on the thrones and that was it for the ten thrones, and the eleventh position was given to the disciple who just got 'dethroned'.

With this, the 10 disciples of the heavenly sword sect were selected and now was the only chance for any of us to change our thrones but only one challenge happened and that was from the new female disciple who got into the final ten and she challenged Ye Ling. Well, I say challenge but it was more like that she was a fan and wanted to use this chance to have a spar…

Anyway, I thought maybe now something would happen but again I was wrong and the selection just finished with Ye Ling getting another easy win.

Amongst us ten, Hu Anjing is the leader, Me and Ye Ling are the vice-leaders, and others like Jin Fen, Dai Bao, and Lai Xinyue are members of this team.

"What are you thinking about, junior uncle?" Hu Anjing's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Nothing much, I'm just thinking that it was weird that fewer and fewer disciples challenged us for our thrones…" I said.

She looked at me for a few seconds while giving me a 'are you an idiot' look.

"…isn't it just more work if you get this position?" she said.

"…" I couldn't refute it. I mean sure, there is the temporary fame that comes with it but in the trial, you have real obligations.

"Than I can only be happy that we have a competent leader." I dumped all the works on Hu Anjing as one should and nodded sagely.

She was speechless for a moment.

"I still have the 'I will do anything' card…" Hu Anjing said with a raised eyebrow.

"You can't use that on the same thing that you got it for." It was my turn to be speechless.

she kept looking at me so that maybe I back down.

"*tsk* Fair enough." She said.

"Let's check the other trials tomorrow." I told her. I want to look for some 'hidden gems' to support in these upcoming challenges from the disciples who might have humble origins.

"Sure." Hu Anjing shrugged her shoulder.

Now that the selection was done, I could rest easy and train a bit with that herbal mix that grandpa long created for me. I didn't use it in these last days so that I don't get tired before the challenges but now I don't have to worry about that.

…

The night passed with a light training if you compare it with grandpa Long's training. Now that the sun has risen, I can go and check out the first day of the smaller powers competition.

I won't be checking it later but I want to check on the participants before the start.

Getting out of my room I went toward the predetermined location for these fights, along the way I started using the [Peeping eye of heaven]. With my cultivation rising, I could now control this artifact better and the danger of sensory overload was now smaller, to say the least.

As I was looking around, the disciples with all sorts of robes were gathering. As this is a competition between multiple sects, there is almost a guaranty that tensions would happen and there will be fights even outside of the selection.

So far I have checked about 200 disciples but none of them catches my eyes. They obviously have some talent but nothing extraordinary like Lai Xinyue.

True, it might be too much to ask for someone at her level of innate talent but if I am looking for someone to support, it's better to start with the best option that I can think of and that is to compare them with the light that Lai Xinyue emitted at that time.

I didn't dare to use it on grandpa Long in fear of him finding it out so I don't have him as a reference and honestly using him would be too much.

Minutes passed and I didn't find anyone at the level that I was hoping for. Hu Anjing would join me here in a little and because of my low level of cultivation I didn't know if she could find out about the [Peeping eye of heaven] or not, so I have to finish this soon.

As if heavens heard my plea, I found not only one, but two candidates that were on Lai Xinyue's level.

It was a girl and a boy around my own age— physically at least.

Without wasting any more time, I went toward them and stopped in front of them.

"Hello brother and sister, if I may ask, which sect are you from?" I asked them politely. Opening lines in a conversation is important and I can't act like a classic young master and start with some cheesy line.

They were startled at first but the boy soon regained his composure and stepped forward and at the same time shielded the girl. If they weren't that similar I would have thought they are lovers.

"Hello big brother, we are from the green lake sect (A/N: luhumen)." He cupped his fists and answered.

Now I didn't know how to continue. I mean how does one ask in a cultivation world if someone needs a sponsor?