The following week was rather uneventful. All the sects and families were busy accounting for their losses and the repair of the Falling Stones city. In just a few days, it became apparent who would never return.
Due to the circumstances, Sir Chen postponed the selection of candidates for the week, giving everyone some time to grieve and say goodbye to lost ones. But one week was still short and passed by quickly. And soon the day arrived when Sir Chen would select the candidates.
"Big Brother, when will you come back?" Mu Ningxue asked when Mu Chen and Zhou Mei had finished their preparations and were about to set off.
"Should be a few months." Mu Chen said.
"So long? Big Brother, I will miss..." Mu Ningxue said in low spirits.
"Don't worry. We will be back before you even know." Mu Chen said, caressing Mu Ningxue's head.
"Eh? I was talking about Xiao Xue." Mu Ningxue said, looking at Xiao Xue who was perched lazily on Mu Chen's shoulder. "Can't she stay?"
"You―" Mu Chen choked. Mu Ningxue sensed her blunder and ran off to hide behind Grandpa Wu and Grandma Jie's back. "Don't slack off while we are gone." Mu Chen admonished but Mu Ningxue just spit her tongue at him. Mu Chen could only shrug.
"Grandpa Wu, Grandma Jie, take care." Mu Chen said, "We will see you soon."
"Leave the things here to us." Grandpa Wu said, "And don't take any unnecessary risks."
"Young Master. I wish you luck!" Ma Hong bade Mu Chen goodbye. He was very spirited since the day when the Ming Dynasty entourage would leave the region had arrived. He had been living the life of the refugee for the past week, afraid of getting apprehended and thrown in prison. Fortunately, nothing happened.
"Ma Hong, are you sure you don't want to tag along?" Mu Chen asked.
"Young Master, you jest!" Ma Hong jumped back, like a cat that had its tail stamped on. "I don't have such big ambitions."
After Zhou Mei bid goodbye, Mu Chen left the Mu Family estate with her. The location for selection was the same as where everyone had welcomed Sir Chen. Sir Chen had declared they would leave for the capital once the selection was done. Although Mu Chen didn't know how Sir Chen was going to select the candidates, he was very confident he could pass the test.
When they arrived, the crowd had already gathered in front of the ship. However, unlike the previous time, it lacked the festive atmosphere. Mu Chen thought a lot of faces looked rather mournful.
All the bodies of monster beasts had already been cleared, however, the ground was still red.
"Mu Chen! Sister Mei! Over here!"
"Brother Chen! Over here!"
Mu Chen and Zhou Mei heard someone call their names. It was Liu Fengying, Liu Ru, Xia Ping, and Li Kun. They were waving at them. Mu Chen and Zhou Mei approached them. Liu Fengying drew Zhou Mei on her side and the two girls began to talk to each other, leaving Mu Chen to chat with Xia Ping and Li Kun.
"You guys! What are you doing together?" Mu Chen asked. He was somewhat surprised, seeing them together. He thought everyone would be with their sect or clan. Instead, they had propped up a huge tent.
"Of course we have to stay together." Li Kun said. "How else will we protect the reputation of our city from outsiders?"
"Gao Ren and others?" Mu Chen asked.
"They are still on the ship. I think they will come out at the time of selection." Xia Ping said. "Brother Chen, here is the beast pouch you asked for." Once inside the tent, Xia Ping took out a bag that looked similar to a spatial bag and handed it to Mu Chen.
Mu Chen grabbed the bag and inspected it. Although it looked similar to a spatial bag, it had slightly different inscriptions and markings on it. Mu Chen tried to pry it open and put his hand into it, but his hand was blocked by some invisible restriction.
"Brother Chen, the beast bag is protected by formation to preserve the atmosphere inside." Xia Ping explained. "It can be opened with monster qi, so the beast can naturally bypass the restriction. And once the beast is inside, you can activate another formation that will overlap the previous restriction, so the beast will not be able to come out on its own. There is enough air for the beast to survive a week. But Brother Chen you won't be able to use it."
"Doesn't matter." Mu Chen shook his head. He pulled Xiao Xue from within his robes. "Xiao Xue, get in." Mu Chen brought the pouch in front of Xiao Xue. However, Xiao Xue only took one look at it, then turned her head and snorted.
"Hey, get in." Mu Chen continued to urge, trying to put Xiao Xue inside the bag, but Xiao Xue wouldn't budge.
"Um? Brother Chen?" Xia Ping looked at Mu Chen's awkward attempts to get the little fox into the bag. "I think it doesn't like it."
"You don't say?" Mu Chen looked at Xiao Xue, annoyed. "Get in, I don't have all day for this!" But Xiao Xue turned a blind ear.
"Look! I can't have you seen by everyone―just get into the bag for now." Mu Chen persuaded. "You won't have to stay inside for long. I will give you," Mu Chen thought for a bit, "one pastry made by Grandma Jie." Although Xiao Xue remained motionless, her ears twitched―Mu Chen knew he had managed to get her attention.
"Two pastries?" Mu Chen said, but Xiao Xue didn't respond.
"Three?"
"..."
"Five pastries! That's the best I can do!" Mu Chen said. Xiao Xue glared at Mu Chen, but finally acquiesced and entered the pouch―much to Mu Chen's relief.
"Brother Chen, just how much did you pamper the fox?" Li Kun asked.
"What about it? If I had a companion beast like it―I would also pamper it a lot." Xia Ping said, looking at Mu Chen's beast pouch with envy.
"It wasn't me." Mu Chen sighed. Over the week, Mu Ningxue had become very fond of Xiao Xue and pampered her a lot, even buying a rainbow-colored ribbon for her. And because she was with Mu Ningxue most of the time, Xiao Xue had picked some of Mu Ningxue's tastes.
"Before I forget―" Mu Chen rummaged through his pouch and removed a piece of the armor and handed it to Xia Ping. "Do you know what kind of material this is made of?"
Xia Ping and Li Kun looked curiously at the leathery piece of armor. It was the armor he had Zhou Mei recover from the dead assassin.
"This?" Xia Ping frowned and began to fiddle with the piece of armor between his fingers. A while later, the armor glowed and a scale pattern appeared on it. "Brother Chen, where did you get this?!"
"In the forest." Mu Chen said. "Is there anything wrong with it?" He had originally planned to find a craftsman to see if he could turn the broken armor into something useful. But he was worried someone might recognize it and trace it back to him, so he decided to wait for a while.
"If I am correct, this armor is made from the skin of a flood-dragon." Xia Ping said, his face full of shock.
"What? A dragon?!" Li Kun cried out.
"A dragon? " Mu Chen was also stunned. No wonder the armor was so tenacious.
"I said a flood-dragon, not a dragon." Xia Ping shook his head. "Flood dragons only have a trace of dragon bloodline."
"Just the skin of a flood-dragon is so tenacious," Mu Chen wondered, "then what about the skin of a real dragon?"
"Tenacious? Brother Chen, legends say dragons are impervious to all sorts of techniques. And the only way to defeat a dragon is to force it to surrender using pure strength." Xia Ping sighed. "But nobody knows if it's the truth.." Xia Ping sighed. "Forget about real dragons―even the flood-dragons are hard to find. They have always been something of a myth. But I hear there is a Dragon Clan in the Central Continent, who are said to be descendants of dragons."
"Central Continent?" Li Kun shook his head. "It's too far. Can we even trust the rumors from that place?"
"The Ming Dynasty's symbol is also a dragon?" Mu Chen said, "Are they related to the Dragon Clan?"
"Who knows?" Xia Ping shrugged. Li Kun also sighed.
"Anyway Brother Chen, what were you planning to do with this armor?" Xia Ping asked.
"I was thinking about using it for something else. But since you say it's so rare, I doubt anyone in our region could make anything useful out of it." Mu Chen said.
"I think you might find someone in the capital city." Li Kun said.
"I hope so." Mu Chen said. In any case, he wasn't in any hurry.
The crowd outside began to clamor. Mu Chen, Xia Ping, and Li Kun stopped their discussion and came outside the tent to see what was happening. Mu Chen and others looked at the Ming Dynasty's ship and saw that Gao Ren, Qin Huang, and others had appeared on the deck.
"Looks like it is about to begin." Li Kun said.
"Phew! Finally." Xia Ping said.
"Mu Chen!" Liu Fengying and Zhou Mei came, hand in hand, "We were just about to call you guys. They are about to start."
"Did you girls catch up with each other?" Mu Chen asked, alternating between Zhou Mei and Liu Fengying.
"Uh-huh." Liu Fengying and Zhou Mei looked at each other and nodded.
"Look, Sir Chen has also come out." Xia Ping said.
Mu Chen looked in the direction of the ship. Chen Ning was standing at the bow of the ship. With his appearance, the clamoring crowd fell silent.
"Everyone." Chen Ning surveyed the crowd. "The selection of candidates was delayed by unforeseen events. I am sure many have yet to overcome their sorrow, but the selection cannot be delayed anymore." Chen Ning flicked his wrist and a ring of light that was a hundred meters wide appeared in the clearance in front of the ship. "Those under twenty-five and interested in the selection―step into the circle."
The crowd was stimulated as one by one, youngsters began to walk forward and step into the circle.
"Mu Chen, you should go first." Liu Fengying said.
"Yes, Brother Chen." Li Kun said.
Mu Chen looked around and noticed that Mu Changshou and Fang Tian hadn't yet entered the circle. Presumably, they would enter the circle once everyone else had entered, to show off their status.
"Mei'er, stay with Fengying." Mu Chen said and walked into the circle. There were already around fifty or so youngsters gathered into the circle. Majority of them looked like they were in the Spirit Condensation realm, while there were a few like him that hadn't cultivated at all, but wanted to try their luck.
However, Mu Chen didn't have to wait for long because he was joined by Liu Fengying, Zhou Mei and others.
"Huh?" Mu Chen looked at them in surprise. "So soon? What happened to making a big entrance?" Mu Chen noticed that even Mu Changshou and Fang Tian had entered the circle.
"Big entrance needs a bigger audience." Li Kun sighed.
"What do you mean?" Mu Chen looked around. No more youngsters were entering the circle.
"This is all the participants." Liu Fengying said.
"Isn't this too less?" Mu Chen said. He expected hundreds of participants. But there seemed to be barely a hundred of them. "Don't tell me?!" Mu Chen was hit with realization and understood why the atmosphere had been so gloomy.
"It is indeed as we feared." Liu Fengying sighed.
At the bow of the ship, Chen Ning also frowned at the pathetically low number of participants. His divine sense expanded and all the participants engulfed felt a chill down their spine.
"One hundred and twenty-three?" Chen Ning muttered. "So few?" Everyone heard the disappointment in his voice. "Are there no more contestants?" Chen Ning's voice spread wide and loud. However, even after waiting for several more minutes, no more people can forward.
"Since there is only this many of you," Chen Ning shook his head, "there is no point in a competition. Everyone, board the ship―we will leave now."
