Family Tournament

"You are my most satisfying student. Although you are also my only one, I believe that no matter how many students or disciples I may have in the future, you will always be the most special one."

"Because—you once represented the first." Li Yilin finally said.

Si Yao ultimately rejected World Lord Xunzhen's intention to take her as a disciple. Even though he took a step back, acknowledging Li Yilin as her first teacher and offering to be the second, she still refused.

Li Yilin did not try to persuade her, fully respecting her thoughts.

If she didn't want to, she didn't want to.

What's more, he himself was unwilling to have the fruit of his hard work in raising a child snatched away by someone else just like that.

But after going through such an ordeal, Si Yao was considered famous on Cloud Sea Planet.

Everyone knew she didn't know what was good for her, choosing a teacher with only Domain Lord level strength over World Lord Xunzhen, who possessed the strength of a ninth-rank World Lord and was only one step away from breaking through to Immortal.

In the third month of Li Yilin's arrival on Cloud Sea Planet, the Cloud Sea Family's decennial family tournament arrived.

The family tournament was a grand event that the Cloud Sea Family valued extremely highly.

The reason the Cloud Sea Family could hold such a high status in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire, besides the deterrent strength of World Lord Xunzhen, was also because the members of the Cloud Sea Family were competitive.

The family tournament was a competition specifically established by the Cloud Sea Family to motivate their descendants, held once every ten years.

The results of the tournament determined how much in the way of cultivation resources, guidance from experts, secret techniques, and weapons the family members at the Star Level and below could receive from the family over the next ten years.

Because of this, once the date for the family tournament was set, no matter where the members of the Cloud Sea Family were, as long as they didn't want to lose the extra cultivation resources provided by the family on top of their own, they would return to Cloud Sea Planet to participate.

A grand event held by the Cloud Sea Family, which held such a status in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire, and which mobilized almost the entire clan, naturally wouldn't pass without a stir.

It could be said that once the start date for the family tournament was confirmed, more than half of the top forces in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire made preparations for it. Many forces, such as the other fifteen families, even sent representative teams to watch the battle before the tournament began to show their importance.

Well, the kind that gives tickets. Some friendly forces would even prepare rewards. These rewards could be seen as an early attempt to befriend the younger generation of the Cloud Sea Family who had not yet grown up, provided they didn't fall in battle.

Isn't this just early investment!

Li Yilin crossed his legs, listening leisurely as Liu Qing told him about the grand occasion of the Cloud Sea Family tournament, thinking to himself.

For example, the Hundred Tiger Tower, a force close to the Cloud Sea Family, sent a Domain Lord to watch the battle in person and even prepared rewards for the top three members of the tournament finals.

The Hundred Tiger Tower, the Black Cloud Society, Three Axe Mountain, and North Dragon City—the four major organizations of Black Dragon Mountain, second only to the two holy lands, the Black Dragon Mountain and the Ice Sea Divine Kingdom—could be said to be forces that covered the sky with one hand.

Such entities would actually send representatives to watch a small family tournament that only the juniors of the Cloud Sea Family would participate in.

Even if the White-Robed Envoy sent was only at the Domain Lord level, it was still a sign of respect.

It seems no one doubts that World Lord Xunzhen cannot break through to Immortal!

Or perhaps, World Lord Xunzhen is already confident in breaking through to Immortal.

However, none of this was Li Yilin's business. He had no influence in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire. If one were to talk about foundations, his were in the Noah Universe Kingdom. Whether World Lord Xunzhen broke through to Immortal or not had a negligible impact on him.

As a guest of the Cloud Sea Family and a friend of Gui Jiao, he only needed to watch the competition well and eat some melon on the side.

"Teacher~"

Li Yilin raised his eyes to look.

He saw his own student wearing a red dress she had found somewhere, the layers of the skirt blooming at her feet like a burning flame, rushing toward him.

Relying on the almost perfect control of her body at the Planetary Level, Si Yao accurately threw herself into Li Yilin's arms, then looked up, a smile of maximum sweetness blooming on her face.

"Teacher~"

She shook Li Yilin's arm, her face full of fawning.

Li Yilin raised an eyebrow, leaning back slightly to adopt a comfortable and natural posture.

"Speak."

--

"Hehe." Si Yao jumped to the ground, her hands poking at each other in front of her chest.

"Teacher, A-Yao also wants to participate in the tournament."

A look of realization flashed in the depths of Li Yilin's eyes, followed immediately by helplessness. He sighed softly.

"A-Yao, that is a grand event for the Cloud Sea Family. Why are you going to join in the fun?"

"But A-Yao also wants to compete with people of the same level. A-Yao has never participated in such a lively competition before." Si Yao switched to holding her hands behind her back, her body swaying from side to side, causing the excessively enthusiastic skirt she was wearing to spin along with her. The clean, elegant feather wings on her back reflected the red light, making her look a bit more hazy.

"Teacher, just say yes to A-Yao~" Grabbing Li Yilin's large hand, Si Yao shook it from side to side, her blue eyes blinking, looking at him pitifully.

"Can Teacher bear to see A-Yao watching everyone else compete with longing eyes from above?"

Good heavens, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were so pitiful.

"Longing eyes," indeed.

Even if the people in the competition won the championship and got a few more rewards, it wouldn't even be one ten-thousandth of the money he spent on her.

Although Li Yilin felt helpless in his heart, he couldn't bear to see her looking so pitiful. "If you really want to participate, I have to ask Gui Jiao first."

If it really didn't work out, he would just do what those big forces coming to watch the match did and put up some rewards himself.

"I've already asked Uncle Gui Jiao." Si Yao's eyes lit up. "He said that as long as I want to, I can participate."

"Besides, many forces have actually brought people to participate just to join in the fun. It's not just me, so one more person doesn't make a difference."

Although the Cloud Sea Family's grand competition is named as such, with World Lord Xunzhen's status in the Black Dragon Mountain Empire rising and gaining more importance, the competition has long since become an alternative venue for the juniors of the Sixteen Families to test their skills against one another.

Fortunately, the grand competition is merely a method for the Cloud Sea Family to determine the amount of resources their juniors will receive over the next decade; regardless of how many outsiders come to participate, it generally does not affect their internal evaluations within the clan.

The only catch is that if one performs poorly in the competition, they certainly won't receive any of the rewards associated with the matches.

However, this loss is almost negligible when compared to the anticipation of fighting against the upcoming geniuses from different races.

There are very few cultivators who do not love to fight; even those spoiled disciples who rely on the legacy of their ancestors actually have a bloodthirsty streak deep in their bones.

Fighting against Fighters of the same level is something they all crave.

"Is that so?" Li Yilin raised an eyebrow. "Since Gui Jiao said so, then you should go."

He did not doubt his student's words; although A-Yao was spoiled, she would never lie to him.

He was even clearer on Gui Jiao's personality. If it were difficult to arrange, he would have sent a message; the fact that he didn't meant it was exactly as A-Yao said—whether one more or one less person participated was of no consequence.

However, while Gui Jiao might not care, he, as the teacher, could not be negligent in his duties.

Since his students were using the stage they had set up to perform, regardless of the final outcome, he had to provide some sort of contribution.

Sigh, raising children is such a hassle!

Li Yilin clicked his tongue lightly and probed his consciousness into his ring to see what was suitable to use as an extra prize for the competition.

Something too good wouldn't do; he needed to keep those for his own use, or at the very least for A-Yao. He wasn't about to be a sucker.

Something too cheap wouldn't do either; it would make him lose face, and it would also be a bit embarrassing for Gui Jiao.

Hmm, this one will do!

After rummaging through a massive amount of cultivation supplies for a while, Li Yilin finally found something he was satisfied with.

He would give it to Gui Jiao tomorrow; it would serve as A-Yao's admission ticket to the competition.