Demon Hunter Squad Selection Trial

After taking care of their respective matters, the five members of Long Haochen's team set out once more for their final destination—the Holy City.

Since Ling Mo was not on the same team as Long Haochen, he set off early with Yae Sakura. Yae Sakura's situation differed from Fei Yu Maru's. After awakening, she could not remain in Ksitigarbha Soul in physical form. Ling Mo had no choice but to keep Yae Sakura by his side. If Yae Sakura had awakened earlier, Ling Mo definitely would have had her join the Warrior Temple while he went to the Mage Temple himself. Then, if he took first place in the Selection Trial, he could have ended up on the same team as Yae Sakura.

Now that even the qualification trials were over, Yae Sakura definitely could not join a Demon Hunter Squad. When it came time to take missions, he had no idea how they could stay together.

"Should I just withdraw? I just don't know how many Demon Hunter Squads they'll form. It'd be awful if I withdrew in the first round and still got picked."

"What's wrong? Is something bothering you?" Yae Sakura had just finished bathing when she saw Ling Mo frowning deeply. She came over, sat beside him, and asked with concern.

Ling Mo leaned back on his hands against the bed and turned sideways to look at Yae Sakura as she carefully dried her hair. The faint fragrance drifting from her was impossible to identify—perhaps body wash, perhaps something else. The long fox ears atop her head were still damp, not yet dried. Unlike her usual shrine maiden robes, her pale pink-and-white sleepwear gave Ling Mo a fresh impression of beauty.

"Yes, something's bothering me. I'm thinking about where I'm supposed to sleep tonight." Ling Mo teased Yae Sakura.

"Of course you'll sleep on the bed. Where else would you sleep?"

"There's only one bed here. Aren't you afraid I might not be able to hold myself back and do something?"

"I'd actually hope you couldn't hold yourself back, but..." Yae Sakura paused, tilted her head, and smiled at Ling Mo. "If you really couldn't hold yourself back, things wouldn't have ended up like that back at St. Freya Academy, would they? My Captain~"

Jeez, I really can't handle Miss Shrine Maiden's teasing. Forget it, I'm going to sleep! Ling Mo was so embarrassed by her words that his mouth hung slightly open, but he had no idea what to say. He could only flop back onto the bed in frustration and slowly drift off to sleep.

The next day, Ling Mo woke in the morning light filtering through the curtains. At some point, Yae Sakura had curled up in his arms. Her long fox ears occasionally brushed against the tip of his nose with their breathing, making it itch enough that he nearly sneezed.

Carefully lifting Yae Sakura from his arms, Ling Mo gently placed her beside him. After getting out of bed, he tucked her in again, washed up, and prepared to get some breakfast. Afterward, he intended to see whether Long Haochen and the others had arrived in the Holy City, and perhaps ask about the specifics of the Demon Hunter Squad Selection Trial while he was at it.

As luck would have it, Long Haochen's group had just arrived in the Holy City, though their instructors had taken them away to register. Upon learning this, Ling Mo slapped his forehead. So registration is required too? I thought I could just show up and compete when the time came. He hurried to the Warrior Temple to register for the Demon Hunter Squad Selection Trial. With Yae Sakura by his side these past few days, he had almost forgotten everything else. Fortunately, he had kept an eye on the Protagonist Group's movements, or he might have gotten muddleheaded and missed it.

After registering, Ling Mo learned from the Warrior Temple instructor that the Demon Hunter Squad Selection Trial was divided into two stages: preliminaries and finals. The preliminaries were knockout tournaments held by drawing lots within each temple. Each temple would select ten candidates to enter the finals. The top three finalists would earn the right to independently choose one Demon Hunter Squad teammate, as well as receive a spiritual stove from their respective temple.

The other temples were no problem, but Ling Mo had a headache over the Warrior Temple. There were simply too many people there! According to the rules, anyone eliminated in the preliminaries could not enter a Demon Hunter Squad. Ling Mo considered withdrawing outright. Otherwise, what would Yae Sakura do? Unless he was lucky enough to be assigned to Long Haochen's squad, no other team would possibly allow Ling Mo to keep Yae Sakura with him all the time. Long Haochen would never choose him for his squad anyway. One mage, Lin Xin, was already enough of a headache for him. Ling Mo had no intention of adding to the trouble.

However, when Ling Mo told Yae Sakura of his decision, she did not agree. She told him to continue competing. In the end, unable to argue against Yae Sakura, Ling Mo could only obediently take part.

The preliminaries were long and tedious. There were many people in the Warrior Temple, but few Fifth-tier warriors. Fourth-tier opponents posed no threat to Ling Mo. Fifth-tier ones were a little troublesome if he did not use his martial soul, but they were still not much of a problem. Thus, after more than a month of preliminary matches, Ling Mo entered the finals as the top warrior. However, there was one thing he felt a little bad about: he had eliminated Wang Yuanyuan, the warrior from the original Protagonist Group—the one with the huge shield. Well... how should he put it? It wasn't his fault.

On the first day of the finals, Yae Sakura could not enter the Holy Temple Training Ground because she was not a member of any temple, so Ling Mo had to go alone. After arriving, he first found Long Haochen. At the moment, Long Haochen and Li Xin were seated one behind the other in two nearby rows. Beside Long Haochen sat a light-purple-haired woman with her face veiled in black gauze. Ling Mo guessed that she was the heroine, Sheng Cai'er. Seated on the other side of Sheng Cai'er, next to Long Haochen, was a green-haired man who should be Lin Xin. Ling Mo went forward to greet them. Aside from Sheng Cai'er, who merely gave a slight nod, everyone else was quite enthusiastic. It would have been even better if Li Xin could get his name right.

Just as Long Haochen was introducing Sheng Cai'er and Lin Xin to him, a burly old man in a light-gold fitted outfit stepped into the center of the assembly hall.

"Everyone is here. The grouping ceremony will now begin."

Everyone immediately fell silent and focused on the old man's speech. Ling Mo was no exception. After all, as a "transmigrator," he did not know much about these rules. Unlike the other contestants, who had more or less learned about them through constant exposure, he had never bothered gathering such information himself.

The grouping ceremony truly lived up to the word "ceremony." Setting aside the atmosphere, the process of repeated confirmations alone reminded Ling Mo of the flag-raising ceremonies from his previous world. Of course, the two had different meanings and could not be compared.

Just as Ling Mo was growing bored, the main event finally began.

"Finals Group One. Competition venue: Knight Training Ground of the Holy Alliance Grand Training Ground. The roster is as follows: Knight Number One, Warrior..."

Not me, Ling Mo thought to himself. When he heard "Knight Number One," though, his interest was piqued. The grouping ceremony used their preliminary numbers. For instance, Ling Mo was Warrior Number Fourteen. The Number Ones of every temple were all Fifth-tier. If one of them were placed in the same group as him, that would be rather interesting.

"The participants of Group One have been announced. Please follow the staff to the training ground for the first round of round-robin matches."

There were sixty finalists, divided into six groups of ten, with matches held at the training grounds of the various temples. Knight Number One was called Yang Wenzhao. As he left, he glanced in this direction.

"Finals Group Two. Competition venue: Mage Training Ground of the Holy Alliance Grand Training Ground. The roster is as follows: Assassin Number One, Knight Number Ninety-Eight, Warrior..."

Still not him. However, Li Xin and Sheng Cai'er had been assigned to the same group. Ling Mo suddenly remembered that Sheng Cai'er seemed to forfeit directly when she faced Li Xin, right? It seemed that the top-ranked contestants could not be in the same Demon Hunter Squad. Ah, right—if he formed his own squad, wouldn't he be able to take Yae Sakura everywhere? He would be the captain, after all. What could anyone say? Still, forget it. Too troublesome.

"Finals Group Three. Competition venue: Warrior Training Ground of the Holy Alliance Grand Training Ground. The roster is as follows: Summoner Number One, Mage Number Two, Knight Number Ninety-Seven, Warrior Number Fourteen, Assassin..."

Nice. Same group as Long Haochen. When Sheng Cai'er fought Li Xin, she would forfeit. When I fought Long Haochen, I would forfeit. Plan complete. Perfect.

After greeting Lin Xin, Ling Mo and Long Haochen rose and headed toward the Warrior Training Ground. They drew quite a few looks as they walked together. Anyone wearing a black cloak in the Holy Alliance would seem strange, not to mention that he was accompanied by a Long Haochen so exquisitely handsome that even girls would envy him.

After arriving at the training ground, the ten contestants drew lots under the referee's watch to determine the match order. The top two would advance, while the third-place contestant could also advance if they had enough victories.

Upon hearing that, Ling Mo thought, Well, obviously. If third place didn't advance, how would twelve people from six groups compete in the final top-sixteen tournament?

After the drawing, Ling Mo's first opponent was an assassin. For fairness, four pillars would rise from the ground during an assassin's match to provide cover. But how should he put it...

"Are four pillars a little too few?" Ling Mo said as he looked at the four pillars, each more than a meter thick, that he had smashed apart, along with the assassin lying beside the last one.