Start of the Hall Competition.

Liang Chen opened his eyes and saw that the warped space that surrounded this part of the stream had indeed vanished. Yan Wuhan and Yan Ling were standing at the edge of the water, quietly waiting for Liang Chen. Yan Ling's mouth had curled into a slightly evil-looking expectant smile, so it was clear to Liang Chen that this mischievous fox had already made plans to mess with him.

Liang Chen raised himself up from the water by grabbing onto air whose time he had stopped, he then froze the time of the air beneath his feet and walked over to the shore, drying himself using the high heat of his lightning. He stopped in front of Yan Wuhan, who gave a slight nod of his head.

"It seems like you have spent this time wisely, having a stronger soul will make future cultivation easier. The Hall Competition will start soon, and since it seems like your injuries are healed, there should be no problem with you participating."

The Storm Wolf sect had certain rules, and one of these rules was that new disciples had to at least partake in one battle during the first Hall Competition after they joined. This was to better gauge the strength and progress of the disciples, making it easier to know how best to help them in their future cultivation.

Yan Ling didn't say anything, but Liang Chen could hear a subdued snicker coming from her, so whatever she had planned, it was going to happen during the Hall Competition. Noticing that Liang Chen had ended his cultivation, Yumao popped out from within his body, curling up on top of Liang Chen's head, looking at the surroundings with a curious gaze.

Yan Wuhan only looked at Yumao with a somewhat interested gaze, but Yan Ling's eyes instantly lit up. Yumao was rather small, and coupled with the small feathers that covered his back, he looked rather cute. And because of that, Yan Ling stepped closer, staring intently at Yumao.

"Who's this? Why didn't you show her to me earlier?!"

She stretched out her arm and picked up Yumao, who looked at her with a curious gaze. Even while inside his egg, he had been able to hear a little of the outside world, so he had heard Yan Ling's voice before and knew that she was a friend of Liang Chen. Otherwise, he wouldn't have allowed himself to get picked up that easily. Since Yumao didn't resist, Liang Chen simply shrugged his shoulders.

"He's Yumao. I got his egg as the reward for the third trial in the hidden realm, but the egg only hatched just now."

There was no need to lie about this to Yan Ling or Yan Wuhan, but to others who he didn't know as well, he would probably come up with some lie. After hearing the name, Yan Ling couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as she looked at Liang Chen, her lips curling into snickering smile.

"Really, Feather? You couldn't come up with anything better?"

How could she not laugh when the name was so bad? It was only one step above naming him based on his color or his race. The corners of Liang Chen's lips twitched slightly after hearing her taunts.

"Trying to laugh at my naming skills? Want me to lift you by the neck again?"

Liang Chen formed his hand into a claw, stretching it out slightly as he made it look like he was going to grab her by the neck and lift her up like he had done shortly after entering the sect. Faced with the threat, Yan Ling placed Yumao on her own head and let out a challenging snort.

"Bring it, I'll whoop your ass so bad you won't be able to sit straight for days."

Her cultivation had reached the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, she had gotten to cultivate and recuperate in this stream that came from the Immortal God's Vein, and she had tried to awaken her bloodline. She had failed to awaken her bloodline in the end, but she had roused it somewhat before it returned to slumbering, so it still made her quite a bit stronger.

Looking at the two of them, Yan Wuhan could only shake his head with a sigh. Had they already forgotten that he was standing right next to them, or that they had a place they needed to be? He gave a quick wave of his hand, interrupting the two and addressing Liang Chen.

"Alright alright, enough of that. The competition starts soon, so we have to get over there. Liang Chen, during the competition, you are forbidden from using your law of time, your emerald lightning, and your bloodline, understand?"

Liang Chen didn't understand it a first but quickly realized what Yan Wuhan meant, so he nodded his head. He had to keep those hidden for the same reason he kept his Chaos King Technique, they were simply too overwhelming. If the spies of the other sects got wind of these things and told their sects about them, who knows how hard the other sects would try to kill Liang Chen while he was still young.

He was a member of the Storm Wolf sect, so there was next to no chance that he would ever become one of their disciples. Even sects like the Fiendgod sect, which had friendly relations with the Storm Wolf sect, might try to secretly assassinate him. After all, if Liang Chen grew so powerful that he could suppress all the other sects, wouldn't they just have to wait for him to come and force them to either integrate or disband?

After making sure that Liang Chen understood that he had to hold back, Yan Wuhan nodded his head and the three people started walking away, heading towards where the Hall Competition would take place. Yan Ling didn't return Yumao, keeping him on her head and feeding him small slices of dried Demonic beast meat that she kept stored in her interspatial ring. Yumao would of course not reject free treats like this, so he happily ate anything she handed to him.

The three swiftly left the herbal garden, which turned out to be located inside a hidden realm that was located on the other side of the split mountain that the Storm Wolf sect was located on. Liang Chen knew that this was the back side of the mountain because he could see the cyan arch that led to the sect's graveyard, the Hero's Tomb, located a short distance to his left.

The three walked up the side of the mountain, Yan Wuhan walking in front while Liang Chen and Yan Ling walked side by side a bit behind him, quietly chatting about how their cultivation in the stream went. At the same time, Liang Chen shared what little he knew about Yumao with her, even telling her how much energy he absorbed in order to hatch.

The group quickly arrived by the palace that belonged to the Storm Hall, walking up to an arched gate made from black wood that stood behind the palace. The gate didn't lead into any buildings, so Liang Chen guessed that it likely connected to some hidden realm, just like the Hero's Tomb.

His guess was proven correct when Yan Wuhan pushed open the gate and they entered it, stepping onto a vast prairie. The prairie was completely flat, not even the smallest hill or mountain in sight. Standing a few kilometers in front of them were several large stages made up from square stones, each stage about five kilometers in each direction. Each stage was surrounded on three sides by a large structure where people could sit and watch the battles, almost like a coliseum.

All but one of the stages were empty, a large group of people gathered around the stage closest to Liang Chen's group. The seating area of this stage was also completely filled, so it seemed like a large portion of the sect disciples had arrived to observe or partake in this Hall Competition.

Yan Wuhan led Liang Chen and Yan Ling over to the stage, which had a special multi-layred throne-like seating area prepared close by the stage. There were quite a few elders sitting there, even Elder Chaotic was there, so it was clearly for the sect elders. Yan Wuhan sat waved Yan Ling towards the seating area to the left of the throne-like seats, while Liang Chen himself was waved towards the seating area on the right.

Liang Chen's eyes landed on the seating area he was waved towards. There were quite a few gazes looking at him, some with curiosity, some with jealousy, and some with hostility. He noticed the orange-haired and buxom Mao Zexi wave him over, pointing at a seat next to her and the two other top disciples of the Wolf Hall.

When he walked over and sat down next to them, the youngest looking of the three top disciples, the unruly-haired Yao Ming, stretched out his arm and raised his thumb at Liang Chen.

"Nice going, but you better watch your back, there'll be quite a few jealous ones."

They had seen him walk over with Yan Wuhan and Yan Ling, chatting happily with Yan Ling. She was the little princess of the sect, and the target of many a man's affection, so whenever someone else displayed even the slightest closeness to her, they immediately burned with jealousy. Liang Chen could only shrug his shoulders nonchalantly, he didn't really bother with what other people thought about him being close to Yan Ling.

After Yan Wuhan stepped onto the throne-like seating area for the elders, he turned to look at the surrounding disciples, who were starting to bubble with quiet excitement. He cleared his throat and spoke out in a soft voice, his clear words reaching the ears of all the disciples present.

"The Hall Competition will proceed as always, divided into two different stages. First, we'll have individual duels between disciples chosen at random, one from each hall. This stage will go on for two days before we finally move onto the group stage, where the two halls will be divided into several groups that take turns engaging in group battles."

The reason the individual duels were between randomly selected disciples was to prevent the same disciples from stepping forward time and time again. It also added a bit of excitement to it, as one never knew who would be the next to fight or who you would face. After letting his words sink in, Yan Wuhan's gaze landed on Liang Chen.

"As is customary, the new disciples will be the first to fight. Liang Chen, step onto the stage and await your opponent."

Liang Chen stood up and walked onto the gray stone stage, calmly waiting for his opponent. One of the elders of the Storm Hall stood up, a beam of light shooting out from her body and landing on someone sitting in the Storm Hall seating area. Liang Chen's enemy quickly walked onto the stage, causing Liang Chen to raise an eyebrow.

"You are my opponent?"

Standing a bit away from him was Yan Ling, who carried a somewhat triumphant smile as she giggled at him.

"Nihihi. Didn't I tell you? Once I reach the early stage of the Heaven's Gate realm, it'll be my turn to show you a thing or two, as well as my turn to bully you."

Her words didn't outright state it, but they made it abundantly clear what she had done. Liang Chen couldn't help but look at her, his mouth somewhat agape in amazement.

"You rigged the Hall Competition, for this?"

She had gone through the trouble of rigging a competition like this, just for the chance to battle against him? Yan Ling puffed out her chest, the triumphant smile on her face growing a bit wider, like a child waiting for praise.

"Just the selection of your opponent."

She had nagged her father for quite a bit after she was placed in the stream to recuperate, nagging him until he could only let out an exasperated sigh and agree to her demands. Getting confirmation from her, Liang Chen felt like letting out a weak sigh.

"Really, you spend your energy on the weirdest things. Yumao, please take cover for a bit."

Yumao, who was still coiled up on Yan Ling's head, perked up when he heard Liang Chen's voice. His body sank into Yan Ling's head, vanishing into the shadows of her hair and re-appearing within Liang Chen's dantian. With Yumao vanishing because of Liang Chen's orders, Yan Ling puffed out her cheeks slightly as she pouted.

"Boo, no fair."

She found it unfair that a brute like Liang Chen should have such a cute beast companion like Yumao, it was completely wasted. Liang Chen could feel that he wouldn't have any peace if he didn't appease Yan Ling slightly, so he waved his hand shaking his head as if he was tired.

"You can keep coddling him once I've beaten you down, consider it my apology for beating you in front of an audience."

His words were not only a form of appeasement, but they were also a tease, his lips forming a smirk only visible to Yan Ling. Seeing his smirk, Yan Ling stopped pouting, letting out a snort as her lips curled in a similar smirk and she took up her battle position.

"Heh, big talk you got going there. But just you watch, it's my turn to lift you up by the neck."