Chapter 7: Generational Tournament

The town was unusually lively this morning with a large influx of beasts coming in from all directions. The merchants on the streets were promoting their wares and everyone seemed to be engaged in conversation. If one were to have an aerial view of the town they would see that the stream of people were all congregating at one location.

At the far east side of town there was a stadium formed by ring-shaped black stone bleachers. The rings of the bleachers were 3 meters wide each with simple rice straw mats made to accommodate the beastly members of the audience. The concentric circles that were the stands were all centered around a large, elevated stone platform, rimmed by a small area of dirt where the contestants currently stood.

"I said I was sorry." Giggling, Weiyang comforted the soaking wet Weizhe. In the morning Weiyang was rudely awakened by thunderous snores at her side. As revenge, she used some of her spiritual energy to send some of the nearby lake water straight towards Weizhe, resulting in his current appearance. Still disgruntled, he snorted and turned back towards the people who were on the platform.

Gathered on the platform stood seven people. At the front, overlooking the young clan members, was clan chief Zhixin. Lined up side by side behind him were the elders of the clan, shown by the robes which marked their status. The elders consisted of four men and two women of varying ages, with Elder Lihua being one among the six elders. The other female elder was a slightly pudgy woman who, unlike Lihua, appeared rather young, with a healthy red glow to her smooth, pale skin. Her hair was arranged in a loose bun, with some untied hair still flowing down the back of her neck as well. Of the male elders, two were old men, one was middle aged, and one actually had the appearance of a youth.

Glancing at the two elderly men they were actually twins! This was an incredibly shocking matter, while demon beasts certainly had strength above their mortal counterparts the way their bodies functioned was around the same, and horse type beasts weren't built to house more than one child at a time. Typically when horse beasts bore twins, the result was either the death of one of the twins during pregnancy, or the mother during labor. What result these two old men had, however, remains unclear.

Next was the middle aged man. His hair, as was common in the clan, was a jet black color with hints of gray appearing at the temples of his head. His hair was short and his forehead somewhat large, though this was covered by a blue rope band he had tied around his head. This man, with his sharp eyes, was currently glaring at Weizhe. This was Weiyang's father, Zhilin.

Finally, there was the elder that had the appearance an 11 year old child. His hair only reached his shoulder and his face had a child-like immaturity with puffy cheeks and a large grin plastered on. However, his eyes seemed to hold a wisdom far beyond what his appearance would show. Among the clan, many respected this elder, for regardless of his appearance he was one of the wisest in clan.

Seeing that the flow of people entering the stadium was slowing down, Zhixin channeled some spiritual energy into his vocal chords before clearing his throat. The sound was thunderous, projected by the spiritual energy, and it drew the attention of both the audience and the members below.

"First I'd like to welcome all of you who have come to our Ancestral Sea village to observe our Generational Tournament. Hopefully you all have had a wonderful time thus far in our little town." Many nodded their heads in response to Zhixin's words, leaving him with a small smile on his face, which quickly turned sour after a shout came from the audience.

"Bah! Would you get on with it Zhixin, we don't have all day for you to revel in the feeling of being in the spotlight." Turning to face who it was that had interrupted him, he sneered.

"Hongli you big oaf, what brings the Rock Splitting Bear clan to our little competition." There in the crowd was a large burly man who wore brown robes lined with red. The robes were left wide open at the top, only held up by a sash at his waist, leaving the man's broad chest out in the open. The man was bald, with thick eyebrows and fierce brown eyes.

"As fellow inhabitant of the mountain, we should also be able to come participate in the festivities no? I don't hear you complaining about that Old Doe over there." Pointing to his left, there stood an elderly woman wearing a golden robe with a black cherry blossom tree on it's back. The elderly woman was short and had hair held up in a bun, with two loops of hair hanging off the sides of her head. Having been forced into the conversation, she let out a sigh.

"There's really no need for excuses is there, we all obviously came to scout out the potential of your next generation." Her blunt response caused a frown to appear on the large man's face, clearly irked by the elderly looking woman so easily stating their true purpose in being there. Zhixin was peeved, these two people who had interrupted his speech were the chiefs of the other two clans: Hongli of the Rock Splitting Bear clan and Xiaofan of the Bone Chime Deer clan. Muttering some curses under his breath, Zhixin simply decided to ignore the two and continue.

"Since some members of our audience are impatient," a glare was thrown Hongli's way, and a glare was sent in response, "I will explain the rules so that the tournament can commence."

"The rules of the tournament are simple, two people will fight within rings that are placed on the large platform behind us. To win the fight, you must either push your opponent out of the ring, incapacitate them out, or get them to surrender. Because there are an odd number of competitors, we will draw two separate lots. The first lot will decide who the odd man out is, while the second lot will decide whether this person gets to sit out a fight, or has to go through two fights. This is done to assure fairness, it would be unfair to the other competitors to simply decide to let one sit out, but also unfair to the competitor to make them go through two fights. Leaving it up to a lot should reduce any hard feelings. Now, we will begin by drawing lots."

Sending a signal towards Lihua, and seeing this, she walked forward before pulling a small black box out from within the sleeves of her robes. Channeling spiritual energy into her hand, she then slapped the side of the box, dispersing the energy into the box. This action of allowing the stored spiritual energy to burst within the box caused the papers within to fly around within, shuffling them, before one came out. Written on the paper was a name. Passing the paper to Zhixin, his briefly flashed complicated emotions.

"Weizhe will be acting as the first round's exception." Returning the paper to Lihua, she put the paper back into the black box before pulling out another box, this one red, before repeating her previous actions. A paper which flew out the box was sent into Zhixin's hand, and looking at it his complicated emotions settled into a small smile. "Weizhe will not participate in any battles for the first round." Many of the members were unsatisfied with this result, some having hoped to gain an easy victory and increase their reputation. They cast this aside though and the matches were quickly arranged. The members participating in the first firsts began heading up onto the stage and Zhixin continued his speech.

"All the lots have been drawn, and the matches arranged. I wish you all the best of luck. As one final announcement, those who place within the top three will be granted a Myriad Body Metamorphosis fruit, with second place and third place getting one each and first place being granted three."

Instantly both the audience and the competitors were thrown into an uproar. Heated gazes entered the eyes of the young clan members, and they all seemed to be imbued with newfound energy. The Myriad Body Metamorphosis fruit was one of the most sought after ingredients on the mountain, eating one would grant one a chance of forming a demihuman body, so much so that around fifty percent of the members of the Murky Whip Horse clan had humanoid forms.

Not only so, but it was said to increase the chances one had at forming a true human form. It had to be known that this was extremely rare, for demon beasts who didn't undergo the changes this mystical fruit provided forming a demihuman body was a matter as rare as finding qilin horns and phoenix feathers, much less a true human body. While demon beasts typically looked down on human practices, human forms granted many benefits. A demon beast which had undergone metamorphosis would cultivate far faster, and could practice Beast Cultivation Methods specially made to strengthen and complement their natural talents. Zhixin, seeing the intense desire burning in their eyes, chuckled.

"And with this, let the first round of the Generational Tournament begin!"