Xi Shen ignored the nervousness of the disciple and said, “Since it’s an unwritten rule, then it’s not enforced by the Academy. I would still like to register.”
Hearing that, the disciple only nodded like a chicken pecking the ground, and after shuffling around behind the front desk, he pull out a small slab of purple jade that was thirty centimeters in length and width, after which he place it in front of Xi Shen.
He then said, “Second prince, all you have to do is place your Identity Medallion onto this register jade and you’ll be registered into the Inner Disciple Rankings.”
Xi Shen did as the disciple said and took out his Identity jade medallion, before he placed it inside the small groove in the middle of it. After a soft glow came from the purple jade slab, several texts appeared on the bottom half of it that displayed details pertaining to Xi Shen, like his current age, and disciple position within the Academy.
Looking at this with curiosity, Xi Shen also saw that it detailed his current cultivation as well. But as expected there was nothing there. However, there were some texts and Xi Shen quickly read them.
pαпdα Йᴏνê|,сòМ “Inner Disciple Li Xi Shen is unable to cultivate but does have the ability to battle Meridian Opening Realm Cultivators when using Basic-Level Techniques. He also a chance to cultivate Soul Arts, but his level and battle prowess are undetermined for now.”
After that, bold characters that said, “Successful Registration,” appeared underneath those details.
Xi Shen was quite surprised that the Academy would be keeping such a detailed analysis of him, but he guessed this was done for all the disciples in the Academy.
After that was complete, the disciple went to a room at the back with the purple jade slab, and after a while, he came back with a purple jade slip in his hands.
With both hands, he respectfully presented it to Xi Shen, and while Xi Shen took it and began examining it, he said, “This jade slip identifies you as being a part of the Inner Disciple Rankings. When registering for Ranking Matches, this is needed, and it also gives you details on when your mandatory Ranking Matches will happen.”
Xi Shen looked away from the purple jade slip and asked, “What’s that?”
Answering respectfully, the disciple said, “Second prince, all the rules for being in the Inner Disciple Rankings are on that jade slip, but to answer your question, disciples in the Rankings are required to participate in a ranking match at least three times over the course of two months. If disciples don’t, then their ranks will drop automatically. But this rule is only there to motivate disciples, since if you participate in three ranking matches at the beginning of the month, then for that month and the next, you won’t require to fight in a ranking match.”
Xi Shen nodded his head in understanding and sent his disguised Divine Will into the jade slip and saw the various rules including that one as well.
After a moment of reading, one particular rule stood out to him that made Xi Shen frown a bit. There was a rule that said disciples could only arrange ranking matches with disciples that are five ranks above them or lower.
‘This rule will only slow me down in the rankings. Although, since I’m only looking for candidates to join my faction, I guess my ranking isn’t that much of a big deal. But then again, disciples on the bottom of the rankings might not be worth the trouble.’
Xi Shen thought for a moment before he turned to the disciple behind the front desk and asked, “Is there a rule against battling more than one disciple at once? And also is there a limit to how many matches one can fight in one day?”
Xi Shen didn’t see that as a rule on the jade slip so he had to ask.
When the disciple heard that question, he stared at Xi Shen confused, but he still said, “No, it’s not against the rules but usually disciples two or three ranks higher than you would have a higher cultivation base than yours, so it wouldn't be smart to fight more than one person above your rank at the same time. And more than one match a day is most disciples' limit anyway.”
The disciple said that in a respectful tone of voice, but what he really meant to say was that only a complete fool would try to battle more than one person in a rankings match. Like, why would a disciple choose to battle someone three ranks higher than them, and someone two ranks higher than them? That just meant more work since the highest position they would reach is the person three ranks higher than them position. Why do that, when you could just leave out the person two ranks higher than you and fight the person three ranks higher than you and get their position?
The only reason why someone would do that is if they were on the brink of a massive breakthrough, and they wanted to push themselves further towards it under the two-on-one pressure.
There have been cases where disciples had tried to battle two opponents at a time to break through a bottleneck, but they ended up getting savagely beaten up.
Especially since the two disciples would feel humiliated to be used as grinding stones, as it was a rule that ranking match challenges can’t be refused.
Hearing the disciple’s answer, however, Xi Shen was pleased to hear that it was possible and immediately said, “That’s great, I’d like to arrange five simultaneous ranking matches with rankers 1000th to 996th.”
Suddenly, the noise that hadn’t died down since Xi Shen’s actions came to a complete halt, and only pin drop silence could be heard coming from the Hall.
The disciple behind the counter was staring wide-eyed at Xi Shen as if he couldn’t comprehend what he had just heard.
The disciple only barely managed to stutter out, “Se-second prince, are you sure? No one has ever done five ranking matches simultaneously. It’s… it’s… it’s just unheard of and borderline meaningless. ”
Asides from being pointless, another reason why Xi Shen’s request left everyone so dumbfounded, was very simple. The disciples on the Inner Disciples Rankings aren’t your typical everyday Inner Disciples.
Within the Inner Academy at the moment, there are over twenty thousand disciples. The Inner Disciple Rankings reflect the top thousand disciples out of those twenty thousand.
And to be able to get your name on that ranking, even if it was last place, was extremely difficult. These thousand disciples' innate talents had not all reached the Sky-grade since most of them were once outer disciples that qualified to become Inner Disciples. But even with that, each of these thousand disciples was the best of the best, the absolute cream of the crop Inner Disciples that would become the foundation pillars of the Academy in the future.
And Xi Shen who can’t cultivate wanted to battle five of them at once? That notion sounded completely ridiculous that it was bordering on being the actions of a crazy person!
Though these disciple's views and Xi Shen’s were completely different. To Xi Shen, all these disciples were the same, especially the ones in the lower 1000 who only had Sea Expansion Realm cultivation bases.
He was wondering whether he could even find any suitable people to join his faction, but unless he battled them he wouldn’t know for sure. He had also been meaning to test out his Soul Arts in combat as well, since he hadn't actually battled anyone with Soul Arts before and he wanted the experience.
Placing the ranking purple jade slip onto the desk, Xi Shen said, “Just do it, and hurry up.”
Xi Shen was starting to get annoyed at all the disciples staring at him. More were even coming through the Mission Hall's entrance to lean against the pillars to further stare at him.
‘The fuck? Do these brats have nothing better to do?’
Hearing the impatient tone of Xi Shen, the disciple behind the front desk trembled a little before he quickly took up Xi Shen's ranking jade slip and walked to the wall where the massive jade slab of the Inner Disciple Rankings were shown.
Placing Xi Shen’s jade slip flat on a particular section of the wall, a light then traveled along the wall towards the Ranking List jade slab. The bottom five names on the Rankings then began to glow a shade of red, before the disciple came back to Xi Shen.
“Your five opponents have been notified. You can head to the Colosseum Arena second prince to prepare for your battle.”
After storing the ranking jade slip into his storage ring, Xi Shen turned around and swiftly left the Mission’s Hall under the now probably a hundred disciples' dumbfounded gazes. All of them soon had jade slips out, sending messages to anyone they could to tell them the shocking news of Xi Shen participating in the Inner Disciple Rankings and was planning to fight an absurd number of five Inner Disciples at once! A never-before situation within the Inner Academy!
The disciples who heard the news were all skeptical of this and were wondering if this ridiculous event was real. However, some believed it right away but were wondering why the fallen second prince would participate in the Inner Disciple Rankings when he couldn’t even cultivate. Was he just trying to cause trouble within the Academy?
Those were the prominent thoughts that most disciples had, but there was a minority of disciples who were suspicious of Xi Shen’s actions.
This minority of disciples were starting to wonder if he could actually cultivate, and if him not having a foundation was some big hoax or did his family manage to fix his lack of dantian problem.
But as these different thoughts plague the disciples' minds, they all come to a consensus that there was no way they would miss this event. It was just too baffling and shocking as it involved the notorious trashy second prince of the Maple Continent. They wanted front-row seats to witness what was going to happen, and why exactly Xi Shen decided to participate in the Inner Disciple Rankings in the first place.
Because of this possible debacle, an uncountable number of disciples were seen rushing towards the Colosseum Arena. Disciples who weren’t up to the news were completely stunned to see their fellow Inner Disciples frantically stampeding past them. When they asked what was going on and found out, they too joined the stampede making it even bigger.
These disciples who solely focused on cultivation, finally had something happening that could entertain them. They were itching with anticipation and excitement to see this drama of an event unfold so it could brighten up their uneventful academy life!
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Word Count: 1835
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