.E (1-704)

581-585

Even Ling Hong and the three others sealed their lips shut when they were questioned outside. All they told others was that they were lucky to have found the array flags at the last minute. At the end of it all, the immortal Academy had no choice but to say that the stone board was faulty, and the numbers displayed on it throughout the competition were misleading. That settled things once and for all.

The first round of the competition came to an end just like that. It went differently from how everyone expected. Only 75 people made it to the second round. That's right! There were over a thousand disciples who entered the competition, but over 20 array flags had not been found.

Shen Ying, who had remained at the side of the river for ten days straight, advanced to the next round. Needless to say, Ling Hong and his three companions, and even Buggy – who did not get a single bite of food – advanced as well.

They all thought it ridiculous that they had advanced to the next round. The ten days passed like a dream. By the time they regained consciousness, they found that they were already in the second round of the competition. In their hands, they were holding bags which contained a frightening amount of void currencies. That was the bonus that Lonemoon had distributed to them earlier.

Lonemoon was probably the biggest winner of the entire competition. In his hands, he was holding void currencies that would be sufficient to feed several people for a long, long time. That was not even including the 60 over I.O.U.s that he had! Overjoyed, he distributed more allowance to Shen Ying and Yi Qing.

He read the I.O.U.s in his hand and thought about the second round of competitions that was coming up in just a few days. Suddenly, he felt 90% confident that they would emerge victorious once again.

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The second round of competitions was scheduled to take place three days later.

There was nothing else Lonemoon could do to prepare for it. He was planning on bringing Shen Ying, Yi Qing and Buggy somewhere nice to have a good meal. He had not expected to bump into the first person they met in the void – a familiar face.

"It's been a long time, Fellow Daoists!" The man walked over briskly toward them. "Do the three of you still want to go out?"

"Ling Hong, what are you doing here?" Lonemoon scanned the person in front of him from head to toe. In those ten days, Ling Hong was the best salesman among his peers. "What's the matter?"

"I came especially to thank you." Once he finished speaking, he bowed respectfully toward the group of them. When he stood back upright, he said in a low voice, "I have to thank you for dealing with that problem involving the Red Scented Fish Monster earlier."

"Don't stand on ceremony!" Lonemoon smiled. "I said before, you spent good money to buy that before. It has nothing to do with us."

"That might be the case, but if not for your good heart, we would not have been able to buy that." Ling Hong still looked at them gratefully. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Oh right, I came this time to give you news about the next round."