The mont Zhen Xun Po unveiled this strange fish bowl-like treasure, one of two imdiate emotional reactions occurred amongst the participants and audience alike.
On the one hand was genuine curiosity.
The Zhen Clan had a habit of changing how their tournant function every single ti they hosted it, aning that nobody knew what to expect. The fact that it involved a strange looking aether treasure made the whole thing even more exciting.
This was the reaction of most of the foreign contestants and audience mbers who weren’t familiar with this treasure.
On the other hand though, those who knew what this treasure was, a deep feeling of dread and fear rumbled in their stomachs.
This was the reaction of a majority of the Zhen main clan mbers.
And unfortunately, both reactions were in play in a very concentrated seating area.
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In a skybox overlooking the arena with an almost perfect bird’s eye view, the Zhen Clan mbers of both the branch and main variety, were sitting and watching the event unfold before them with mixed levels of attention. Of course, it’d be more accurate to say that the skybox consisted mostly of the branch mbers, with the only representative of the main branch being none other than the matriarch, Zhen Xun Tian. While the elders and their spouses, i.e. the parents, of the branch clan were watching to make sure their children were okay, the matriarch of the main clan was chuckling at the reaction of her wayward clansn.
After all, he was a student of hers once...distantly at least.
As such, she watched with amusent as her forr disciple explain why he had such a reaction to the presence of this particular treasure to his children, especially since it was technically a very familiar one.
Then again, she also found the idea of informing them while he squird also amusing.
Decisions, decisions...
Zhen Xun Tian asked.
Zhen Shi shook his head in response before explaining himself.
Zhen Yan asked in surprise at the turn of phrase.
Zhen Xun Tian interjected as to explain this randomness,
In this exact mont, the Zhen Clan elders went silent after hearing the main clan matriarch’s words.
Not because they were relatively profound, but because it gave them a lot more context about so of the training exercises they went through as children before establishing themselves as a power in Stone Claw.
If their father had this woman as a teacher, then the concept of "badger drawers" suddenly made a lot more sense...sort of.
Zhen Xun Tian said in a loud, deliberate tone, for everyone to hear.
She did this to partially alert the parents, while also having them go on edge.
Nothing says fun like superstition after all.
’Then again...it might be more amusing for the branch clan scions fight our main clan disciples! The kids have been needing a good kick in the pants recently...’
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’Oh sweet mother of convoluted,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he heard the chorus of voices all wanting to be the first person to roll.
Shortly after introducing this strange aether treasure full of pocket dinsion marbles to the crowd and contestants, Hero Elder, Zhen Xun Po, proceeded to elaborate the rules and as to how and why they pertained to this aether treasure. He also made sure to will the aether treasure down to the center of the arena, allowing everyone participating to bask in its aether and feel its aweso power...or be annoyed by the fact that their fate in this tournant was determined by a magic gachapon machine.
The long and short if was that inside the aether treasure were several thousand or so colored marbles and depending on what marble the contestants pull out of the aforentioned treasure. The results of this lottery grab would determine whether or not the contestant would automatically beco qualified for the next round, get eliminated or have to fight for their right to move on to the next round.
That last result was apparently the most common among the marbles, but even those had so rarity to what kind of opponent the unlucky drawer would have to face to qualify.
Despite understanding all of this though, Zhen Liu couldn’t help but think that this whole lottery thing was convoluted as fuck.
He understood that this was to partially drum up so drama amongst the on-lookers and maintain the Zhen Clan’s unusual reputation to tournant preparation...but this was insane!
’Is it too much to ask that we just do this single elimination, sixty-four matches? I would rather just punch out one random motherfucker and know its just gonna be that singular mother fucker. For all I know, I could pull a marble with an aether beast as opponent or one of the elites from the main branch, or even worse, one of the cousins I actually care about!’
[To be fair milord, those monts would also serve as an excellent opportunity to earn you and your family so glory. People do love winners in the arena,] Nepherage comforted.
=Adding on to that milord, the chances of one of your cousins being your opponent is incredibly small,= Logos added.
’That is too much of a cliché to not happen at this point,’ Zhen Liu joked in a lightly cynical tone.
’I just hope this goes smoothly and that and my family gets through this...mostly unscathed...’
[Why only ’mostly’, maestro?]
’Realistically, soone’s bond to get hurt in a crowd this big,’ Zhen Liu answered, ’the only question is from where and by whom...’
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As easily as pointing at the three random hands, Zhen Xun Po had picked out the first three competitors that were going to be subjected to this randomized hell.
"Wait a minute. Isn’t that-?"
"It is."
"Man, I am counting my lucky stars that none of us got picked in this batch."
Amongst the three contestants chosen, Zhen Liu and his cousin could imdiately identify one of them as being Zhen Ren Fa, aka, that main clan girlie they had beef with. Alongside her were two other contestants, clearly from Roaring Tide but whether or not they had identities worth rembering was another matter altogether.
Judging from the expression on Zhen Ren Fa’s face though...probably not.
Once the three contestants got close enough to the aether treasure, Zhen Xun Po instructed them further.
Hearing these words coming from the Hero elder caused two of the competitors to hesitate a bit, giving Zhen Ren Fa ti to lead by example and plunge her aether straight away into the aether treasure, causing the marbles within it to glow a rainbow of colors and release minute waves of energy that the competitors could feel on their skin.
It only took Zhen Ren Fa a couple of seconds before pulling out a gold tinted marble.
*BWOOM*
But before anybody could ask any questions, a display made of energy appeared above the aether treasure with a ssage that caused the audience to cheer in celebration of Zhen Ren Fa’s incredible luck.
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Golden Marble selected.
Contestant: Zhen Ren Fa automatically qualifies for the next round.
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Of course...if anyone took a closer look at Zhen Ren Fa’s face at this mont, they would see a hint of dissatisfaction.
’Tsk! I wanted to eliminate at least one of those brackborns early!’
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