"If I'm not wrong, this all happened right after he saw Fu Min. That's when he started pretending to be sick to get out of that place. You should be able to guess as well now," Meng Qian said. A mocking grin was on his face as he glared at Meng Huling.

"Let me go find him myself," Meng Huling let out as he walked towards the door to leave.

"Wait!" 

Before the Second Prince could even leave the room, he was stopped.

The Crown Prince's abrupt shout made him stop.

He spun around to look back at the Crown Prince.

"Where do you think you're going?" Crown Prince Meng Luqi asked.

"I believe it's the truth. Do you really think you can find the guy now? He ran away last night after seeing Fu Min. Even if he didn't escape from the city, he'd still be hiding. Let our army do their job. They'll find that guy," he continued.

"Till then, stay here. Don't waste your time. We don't have long. The first stage of the ranking trial will be tomorrow. We only have a short time to train you. I can't let you waste this chance."

Meng Huling sighed deeply as unhappy lines etched on his forehead. He walked back. 

"Heh," Meng Qian grinned as he saw all this. He was finding it funny.

"Qian, you too start training. Stop wasting your time on things like that. Come and train with me. I was just about to have you called here. It's good that you came on your own," the Crown Prince said with a hint of a smile on his face. 

"This... First Brother I..."

"No excuses. Get your sword ready. We'll start with a mock battle to see how much progress you can get in a day." The Crown Prince didn't even let Meng Qian finish his sentence before he answered. 

****

A circular formation could be seen carved on the ground. Many intricate lines and patterns could be seen going back and forth in the formation.

Various strange patterns were also carved on it.

This formation was inside one of the most strictly guarded rooms in the palace.

There were two Guards standing outside this room. Their only duty was to make sure that no one entered the room without permission. 

The formation started glowing in blue light slowly. The light kept getting brighter and brighter and soon filled the entire room.

It was so bright that it made it impossible for anything inside the room to be seen with naked eye.

The light remained in the room for close to thirty seconds before it started retreating. The light soon disappeared entirely as the Formation stopped glowing.

The room that was entirely empty previously didn't seem to be empty now, though.

There were four people in the room who were standing on top of the formation.

There happened to be three youngsters and one old man there.

"We're here..." One of the youngsters said.

Even though these people looked like humans, there was something inherently different between them and humans.

Amongst the three youngsters, only one of them was a girl. The girl had tiger-like claws instead of hands. Other than that, she looked entirely like a human.

The other two were guys who seemed even more different.

One of them had green skin and the eyes of a snake.

The second guy had a tall neck that seemed to be three times the length of a normal human's neck.

The middle-aged man seemed to be more normal. He seemed like a proper human with only one light difference. His ears were much sharper like that of an elf. They were covered due to his long hair, making him seem normal.

"So this is where we'll go to Battle. Whatever, it's only a formality. We'll get in top ten anyway," the girl said as she observed the room.

"It's good to be confident, but you must not be overconfident. You know how important this is for our beastkin race. There will be many powerful opponents. All three of you must get ranked in the top ten," the middle-aged man said as he walked towards the door.

"That's right. The world with most candidates in the top ten will get the opportunity to host the second and final stage of the trials. Only when we get on top ten can we have the chance to have the exams in our own world. This will give us an advantage," The long-necked man said.

"Don't worry. Those Cultivators can't even compare to us. We hold a big advantage over them. There are only a few races that can face us, but we are prepared for them. We won't let them defeat us either," the green-skinned man acknowledged.

The middle-aged man knocked on the door.

"Hmm? Someone's knocking from inside?" The guards who stood outside grew shocked as they heard the knocks on the door.

"It must be them. The guests... His Majesty told us that they would be coming."

The guards realized what it might be. They unlocked the door and opened it, allowing the people inside to leave.

"Greetings to our guests. And welcome to our land. Please allow us to escape you to our Emperor," one of the guards said.

"That would be good." The middle-aged man answered.

The guard looked back at his partner. "You guard this place. I'll take them to His Majesty," he informed the other guard before he left with the guests.

Just like this room, there were eighteen more rooms. All of these eighteen rooms had a portal formation that connected them to another world.

All those formations kept getting activated as teams kept arriving.

Each of the teams had three people that were going to participate in the Trials, and the fourth person, who was their escort that came with them to take care of them on this trip and handle other matters.

Most of the teams that came here consisted of humans. Only one team was of different species amongst the twelve that had come here today.

Nine teams were still to arrive.

All these teams were escorted to the Emperor to greet him.

The Emperor greeted them all properly before he assigned an escort to them from his own side who was responsible for showing them around the beautiful city of theirs.

Half the teams said no to leaving the palace since they wished to train instead. They asked for a training room which was provided to them.

The other half of the teams agreed to see the city and its culture to have some fun now that they were here.

The Beastkins were amongst the five teams that wished to roam around the city since they were confident in their strength.

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