The Holy Disciple ceremony was presided over by a teacher. Although it was just a formality, it was a standard event every year. The oaths made by the nearly 200 people below the stage reverberated in the Soul Arena. It was nothing more than some high-sounding words such as swearing allegiance to the Holy City and following in the footsteps of the Holy Saint Teacher Adalia. However, with the solemn sound of drums, the occasional choking and excited cries of the newly promoted Holy Disciples, and the cooperation of the audience in the stands, the entire scene seemed rather solemn.
Frankly speaking, only those who had experienced the Holy Disciple assessment would know how difficult it was to become a Holy Disciple. There were definitely some who relied on luck and pushed out competitors who were stronger than them. There was also no lack of old Holy Apprentices who had stayed in the Holy City for five or six years or even longer. They might have only been excited when they walked in, but the moment they read the oaths, these old Holy Apprentices could not help but tear up.
Become a member of the Holy City? Follow in the footsteps of the Holy Saint Teacher?
These old Holy Apprentices who had delayed becoming Holy Disciples for many years were once favored by the heavens. However, after coming to the Holy City, they became the lowest rung of society. Without the novice protection period and the status of a Holy Disciple, they had to pay a price that ordinary people could not imagine if they wanted to continue living and learning in the inner city of the Holy City. Tired? That was only the most basic thing. What was more terrifying was that they had no dignity and no hope. They could not even live as well as a teacher's pet dog.
At this moment, amidst the excitement of taking the oath, there were many who were choking with tears streaming down their cheeks. Many rookies might not be able to understand such excitement. Many of the rookies in the stands still believed that they were just slower than others and had fewer resources. However, they would eventually understand the bitterness in their hearts.
As for the challenges that followed, these old Holy Apprentices did not care much about them. Living as slaves for a few years had already eroded most of their fighting spirit and made them used to hiding in the shadows. It might take a long time for them to break free, or they might not be able to break free for the rest of their lives. They were more concerned about the status of a Holy Disciple. They did not even think about being in the limelight.
The ones who were truly pondering over this matter were the freshmen from the Empire, the Federation, and the dimensional humans.
To be selected as a Holy Disciple while still in their freshmen year, these people were undoubtedly the cream of the crop. They might not particularly care about the monthly allowance of one or two hundred Holy Coins for class one or two apprentices, but at their level, they didn't really care about this little bit of income. What they cared more about was the reputation they could gain from this battle.
Who didn't want to attract the attention of Great Teachers? Who didn't want to amaze the world with a single brilliant feat and be favored and nurtured by more forces? The opportunity was right in front of him, the Saint Challenge Competition!
After taking the oath, the Holy Disciples did not disperse. The teacher on the stage was still announcing some rules of the Holy Disciple Challenge. Actually, everyone already knew these rules. The Holy Disciples below the stage were automatically divided into a few groups.
The power of the Empire was definitely the strongest among these groups. After all, it had been accumulated for so many years. Now that it had exploded, there were more than a hundred Empire freshmen brought to the Holy City by the teachers, which far exceeded the total number of Federation freshmen this year. Now, the Empire had the most people who had passed the Holy Disciple assessment. There were a total of 50 people, which accounted for almost one-third of the new Holy Disciples. Not only did they come from the Kaiser Empire, but there were also many people from the Amazon Empire and even the Tutankhamun Empire. Solomon's trip to the Holy Land this time could be said to be perfect. He had persuaded his own Great Teacher to fight for more than a hundred spots from the Empire, which was groundbreaking.
At this moment, they were all gathered behind Solomon. Although they belonged to different camps before coming here, Solomon had conquered them after arriving in the Holy City. Solomon obviously had his own unique way of doing things, be it in terms of strength or character. When he wanted to win people's hearts, he had too many tricks up his sleeves.
Beside Solomon, Enoch, who was now quite famous among the freshmen, was always standing on Solomon's left. It was said that unruly people came from barren hills and unruly rivers. The fierceness of the people from the Empire had long been rumored in the Federation. This group of elites from the Empire was also fierce, ruthless, and full of banditry, which was a stark contrast to the relatively gentle and elegant Federation disciples. Just by looking at their temperament, one could tell that this was actually one of the important reasons why the Holy City decided to accept people from the Empire this time. They needed such real fresh blood to stimulate the already rigid Holy City people. The integration of different cultures would always bring a lot of fresh things and maintain the liveliness of the people. In addition to the power of the Empire and Solomon, the dimensional humans were probably the most powerful. They were a truly talented group, and the proportion of newcomers who passed the rank-advancement competition was also the highest, even higher than that of the elites from the Empire. There were a total of more than 40 dimensional newcomers this year, and nearly 30 of them passed the rank-advancement competition.
Hyde Alexander was quite low-key among this batch of newcomers. As the undisputed number one expert among the Tyrants, he was also known as a super genius among the dimensional humans. Naturally, he became the benchmark of this group. Including some old Holy Apprentices among the dimensional humans, there were about 40 people gathered around him, which was not much less than the number of people from the Empire. The dimensional humans had always had a very small presence in the Holy City, and they never took the initiative to dominate the public's opinion. They were like a transparent group, but they definitely could not be ignored. In fact, the dimensional humans were quite talented. Thanks to their excellent genes, the proportion of experts among them was also very high. Furthermore, because they were indigenous to the Holy City and were united because of oppression, their network of relationships and power was actually quite large in the Holy City.
This race was different from the Holy City. On one hand, they were one of the main forces of the Holy City when it went on an expedition against the outside world. On the other hand, they seemed to never be able to enter the higher-ups of the Holy City. No matter how great their contributions were in an expedition against the outside world, the dimensional humans seemed to have no chance of receiving rewards. All the credit would be taken away by the higher-ups. There were rumors in the Holy City that the higher-ups were afraid of the dimensional humans and would even target them to exclude them. They were afraid of their natural endowments and their internal unity … Of course, the people who spread this kind of rumor did not end up well.
Compared to these two large groups, there were fewer people around Carolyn, but there were still more than 30 of them.
Although there were only a dozen or so newcomers from the Federation who had passed the rank-advancement competition, many of them were old Holy Disciples from the 10 Great Families. Although they were older than Carolyn, they were no match for her in terms of strength. Most people were well aware of the situation of old Holy Apprentices. As long as they did chores in the Holy City for a few years, even if they managed to become a Holy Disciple, it was almost impossible for them to climb to the top of the pyramid. The rule of late bloomers did not apply here. Perhaps there were a few people who broke this rule in the long history of the Holy City, but there were too few of them. It was expected that this group of people would follow Carolyn's lead. Not only did they not dare to steal the limelight, but even if they wanted to, they did not have the ability to do so.
This group represented the power of the families in the Federation. It was not just the 10 Great Families. Anyone from the Federation would automatically join this group, and the 10 Great Families would also accept them. After all, those who could come to the Holy City had potential. This was also why there were so many people in the Federation who attached themselves to the 10 Great Families, as well as the foundation of the other first-tier families. Divian, Gui Xinying, Bobo Torres, and the others, who had not appeared for a long time, gathered around Carolyn and became the core of this group. The strange thing was that Gui Hao did not stand with them.
There were also a dozen people gathered around him. It was as if he wanted to raise a flag and compete with the other three powerful newcomers. There were fewer people, but as the only newcomer who had publicly appraised the strength of a Peak Heroic Soul in this batch of Holy Disciples, and it was a record-breaking 12,000 Grassos, Gui Hao did not seem to be overestimating himself by leading a group of people there.
Other than these four circles, the rest were all unaffiliated people. Most of them were from the Federation, and they were all old apprentices from the previous batches. However, after experiencing those few years of despair, they no longer had any hope for their own families. When they were in the most difficult times, their families were unable or unable to lend them a helping hand. Now, they no longer needed them, nor would they try to cling onto the thighs of the ten Great Clans. As once favored by the heavens, even if they had fallen, they still had their own bottom line.
There were quite a lot of people in this group, about 20 to 30 people. This was the group that received the least attention among the previous batches of Holy Disciples. In the past, if such a group of people were squeezed together, no one would take a second look at them. But this time, it was different. There were three newcomers sandwiched in the group, and they were rather 'eyesores'.
Wang Zhong, Grai, and Napier.
These three were the champions of today's competition. Second-class Holy Disciples would naturally receive everyone's attention, not to mention that Grai and Napier were recently the hottest new stars among the newcomers. Not only had there been news that several Great Teachers had taken a liking to Grai, but the two of them had also managed to squeeze into the top five of the Holy Disciple rank-advancement competition with a time of 16 hours and 56 minutes and 17 hours and 23 minutes respectively. They were definitely strong, and any newcomers who wanted to challenge their position as the arena master would have to think twice before doing so. They would definitely attract attention.
As for Wang Zhong, there was no need to mention it. Although the higher-ups downplayed the matter in the end, the impact was not so easy to get rid of. As a result, Wang Zhong's reputation in the Holy Disciple circle was now very bad, especially for the alien races. They thought that they would naturally receive compensation, but in the end, although the higher-ups arranged better accommodations for them, they did not receive any compensation for their other losses. This caused many alien Holy Disciples to want to skin Wang Zhong alive. If it wasn't for the fact that this was a solemn occasion, someone might have thrown rotten eggs at him.
"I heard that this guy used the Alchemy Union's backdoor and advanced directly without even taking part in the assessment."
"What? He used the Alchemy Union's backdoor? There's no problem with the person-in-charge of the Alchemy Union, right? They dare to accept this kind of guy who can blow up three buildings by doing experiments? "
"Who accepted him? Are they blind? "
"It's Great Master Murphy …"
"Phew … Ahem. Hey, I think Solomon is quite handsome!"
The spectators were chattering non-stop, and Marie Ji couldn't help but laugh out loud. "This guy is quite interesting. Wang Zhong, I heard that some time ago, he had an accident while experimenting with wards and blew up the dormitory building. He's quite brave … Phew."
She suddenly thought of Lan Daier's assistant, Ella. She seemed to have mentioned a new taste-tester with the surname Wang. She said that Lan Daier took good care of him. "Don't tell me that your little taste-tester is this guy?"
"Isn't that him?" Lan Daier laughed. "How about it? Doesn't he look like the type who can eat a lot? He's so skinny, ha. But if you really see his appetite, I'm sure you'll be shocked. "
"Shh …" Marie Ji noticed the look in Lan Daier's eyes. It had been many years since Marie Ji had seen Lan Daier exuding a sense of youthfulness.
Was there a reason behind this?
There was a slight smile on Marie Ji's face, but she didn't point it out. "It's not bad for a newcomer to be able to become a Holy Disciple."
While the two of them were chatting, the teacher in charge had already completed the promotion ceremony and explained the rules of the challenge. He then officially announced the start of the challenge, which was also the highlight of the day. There was a tsunami of cheers from the spectators' stand. Regardless of whether they were here to watch the fun or to cheer for their own people, everyone was already in high spirits.
"As Si Jiali hasn't returned yet, she's exempted from this challenge. All the other champions whose names are called, please stand in your respective arenas!" The teacher's voice spread throughout the entire Soul Arena.
Just as Wang Zhong was about to face the test, Katchirda City was also facing all kinds of oddities. Many hungry merchant caravans brought all kinds of resources and gathered from all directions. At the same time, there was also an endless stream of desert bandits.
The lives of people in the desert were as worthless as yellow sand. The desert bandits' pursuit of wealth was an obsession that was engraved in their bones. It was a curse given to them by the desert, an incurable poison.
Early in the morning, Reynolds had only slept for an hour when he was woken up again. "Instructor, they're here again!"
Reynolds's eyes were bloodshot. He grabbed his leather armor and put it on before rushing out of the tent. At the city wall that was under construction, a group of bare-chested desert bandits was frantically moving wood and stone materials piled up beside the city gate. In the desert, wood and stone were precious resources second only to food.
As soon as Reynolds showed his face, a whistle came from afar. The desert bandits who were looting shouted in unison and quickly retreated into the depths of the desert with the things they had already looted.
Reynolds snorted coldly and chased after them. Five desert bandits shouted and rushed towards him.
Boom boom boom …
Reynolds smashed the desert bandits who rushed at him to the ground. Looking at the desert bandits who were already riding on their camels, he didn't continue to chase them. Instead, he ordered his men to tie up the remaining five desert bandits and put them in jail. They would become the labor force for the construction of Katchirda City.
This was a simple conversion given by Gong Yi. The "resources for labor" plan with the desert bandits could be considered as buying resources with money. Anyway, building a city required a lot of manpower. This was Tutankhamun, and there wasn't the technological content and modern equipment of the Federation.
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