Guild Wars

Draco and Eva gazed at each other coldly, then harrumphed and turned away. The Elders of the various sects were helpless about this behavior of the two of them, but decided that it was for the best. 

Then, the judge stood up and spoke loudly. "I hereby declare that the Awakening Tournament is over! In first place, we have a tie between the Young Lord of the Lucifer Clan, Draco, and the Young Lady of the Amaterasu Clan Eva, at third place we have <character that doesn't deserve a name>… etc." 

Once he finished naming all the other useless people, the floor began to recede on itself as the objective had been perfectly completed. 

｢Congratulations on completing: Tower of Babylon Thirty-First Floor     

Time elapsed: 2:45:31     

Objectives complete: All     

Assessment: EX+     

Reward:     

36,000 Score Points     

1 Treasure Selection Reward - Peak Silver Grade｣   

The White-Haired Duo took a brief moment to get used to inhabiting a body that had already gone through puberty before diving into the 33rd floor. 

Here, they noticed that they were standing in a large hall with hundreds of youths seated around them in various positions, with various colored robes in a certain order. 

Around them stood 34 other youths who all wore their own attire from where they came from, but each one had a look of excitement and anxiety on their faces, like students about to face their finals and be free for life afterward. 

In front of the 10 years old Evil Duo were a bunch of Elders seated on a high table, gazing down at them. The man in the middle was the youngest of them, with sharp brows, clean blue eyes, and black hair tied into a topknot. 

Before he could speak, the floor's details came up. 

｢The Thirty-Third Floor – Divine Quest     

Description: You are in the World of Martial Spirits! Here, children at the age of ten undergo an awakening ceremony to unlock their hidden Martial Spirits and embark upon the path of Martial Arts! 

After your extremely exemplary performance during the Awakening Tournament, you were accepted into the top sect of your region. Undergo the discipleship ceremony and seek out your master for the rest of your tutelage! 

Limitation 1: Magic does not exist in this world, only Qi and Martial Arts! 

Limitation 2: You may retreat from the floor at any time, but upon re-entry, you would have to resume from the exact situation you were in at the time.   

Limitation 3: You cannot use any class-based skills or abilities, as well as your equipment. 

Limitation 4: This world is ruthless, dog-eat dog in the truest sense. There will be no mercy or pity. 

Provision 1: You retain your power from outside, but only in terms of stats and only after you awaken Martial Spirits. 

Provision 2: You may freely use any healing items and consumables in your Inventory. 

Provision 3: You can use any and all of your Tradeskills at will. 

Rewards: Score Points, 1 Silver-tier Reward Selection.｣   

The man in the middle - likely the Sect Master - stroked his black goatee and smiled. "I welcome you, our 561,783th generation of fledgling disciples. In the future you'll all regard this moment as your life's greatest blessing, having been accepted by my Dragon & Phoenix Palace, Houtian Continent's number 1 sect!" 

After saying this, he folded his arms. "All of you have displayed talent that proves that anyone of you is far above average compared to your peers. Nevertheless, as the number 1 sect, our standards are naturally much higher than those of any of the other sects." 

"You might have easily become core disciples or even legacy disciples if you had headed to one of the Lower Sects, yet all of you have wisely chosen to come to us, instead. With your current talent is equivalent to an outer sect disciple at worst, and an inner sect disciple at best." 

None of the lads showed an unhappy and shocked expression, meaning that this must be common knowledge. Well, it would obviously be so since this sect had to have existed for some time and obviously had held hundreds of thousands of recruitments. 

Draco and Eva noted this silently and continued watching the events unfold. 

"So, come forth and display your Martial Spirit. If no Elders selects you as their in-name disciple, you will be sent to the outer sect. If an Elder selects you as an in-name disciple, you will be sent to the inner sect. 

"If you are accepted as a true disciple by an Elder, you will be sent to the core sect. If an Elder wishes to have you as their personal disciple, you will be sent to the legacy discipleship area." 

The Sect Master then smiled mysteriously. "If any of you are special enough to make either me or the Grand Elder select you as our in-name disciple, you'll be trained together with the core disciples." 

"If we wish to take you as our true disciple, you'll be sent to the legacy discipleship area... and in the case that either one of us wishes to take you on as our personal disciple, you will be groomed as a Sect Son or Sect Daughter." 

The new disciples seemed excited by the options they thought they had, while the previous generations who were watching their future juniors curled their lips in disdain. 

Hehe, hadn't they once been like that too? Excited about the future and believed in their own talent so much that they expected to soar to the heavens in one go. 

Alas, reality has always been the number 1 cruel lord. 

Even the undisputed number 2, corporate employment, and the number 3, taxes, had to greet reality as their ancestor in this field. 

"Now, starting from the front, display your Martial Spirits one by one." The Sect Master ordered neutrally. 

The first lad went up and displayed his 10th grade Martial Spirit which was definitely good when the scale realistically went up to 12, but none of the Elders seemed to react. 

All of them just smiled thinly at the lad, whose look of confidence and hope began to weaken when he noticed the lack of a response. The lad began to panic and radiated the strength of his Martial Spirit, but there was still no reaction from these ancient monsters. 

The Sect Master smiled and gestured to the side. "We've seen enough. Please stand over here, young man, your time's up." 

The lad wanted to open his mouth and cause a scene, but remembered the warning his father had given him before he came over. He shut his mouth and dejectedly walked to the side, not able to raise his head up anymore. 

"Next!" 

With that, another lad went up and was screened as well. This one was another 10th-grade spirit, and his fate was the same as his predecessor's. 

This made Draco and Eva frown, as sects in the lower part of the Top Ten would probably take these fellows as core disciples and nurture them heavily. 

So why settle for less by staying here? 

There had to be a reason, maybe the sect had better resources even at the lowest tier, better teachers, better manuals, and whatnot? Well, they would certainly find out in the future. 

More and more children went up, though it had become apparent that they had seemingly been sorted by their grade beforehand. Only after half of them had already gone up, did the first one with an 11th grade Martial Spirit came up. 

The little girl, as well as those who came after her, were quickly snapped up by various Elders as in-name disciples, heading straight for the inner sect. 

Such fellows could have become the personal disciples of an Elder elsewhere, but here… sigh. 

Then there were those with the 12th Grade Martial Spirits. Here, it was a little less dry and a bit tenser. Each Elder stopped looking lax and put their all into sensing out the potential of each of the 12th Grade Martial Spirit in order to decide whether they were suitable for their legacy or not. 

Obviously, the selections were done based on compatibility, not raw strength. What use was a disciple with a 12th grade Dragon-Ape Martial Spirit to an Elder with a 12th grade White Tiger Martial Spirit? 

There was no compatibility, so how could the disciple be taught and groomed? 

As for availability, this should be obvious enough. The Dragon and Phoenix Palace was the top sect of the continent, and the number of generations that had come before Draco and Eva were testimony that they had been around for a while. 

As such, it should be more than obvious that, given their high standards for recruitment, they had already gathered the best lineup of Elders of each category of Martial Spirit at the highest tier. 

In fact, this huge quality in teaching might be the secret to the sect's number one position. 

Most of the 12th grade Martial Spirits were taken as the Elder's true disciples if they fit into their category. Particularly powerful 12th-grade spirits that were higher than average were taken as personal disciples, especially those that had practically the same Martial Spirit as the Elder in question. 

The Sect Master and the Grand Elder by the side only watched with gentle smiles, yet none made a single move. More than one candidate peeked at them hoping that they would be chosen, even if it would just be as an in-name disciple, so their status would be higher, but they had to take what they could get. 

There was naturally a great gap between their standard and what the Sect Master and Grand Elder were looking for. In fact, there were rarely any candidates that could satisfy them in each batch, otherwise, the sect would be swarmed with Sect Sons and Daughters, the position no longer exclusive. 

However, in this batch… 

Soon, it landed on Draco and Eva, who calmly stood side by side with arrogant and nonchalant expressions. The crowd held their breath, feeling that a serious fight was about to begin between the Elders for these two. 

Many trembled in fear, wondering if the sect would finally be destroyed today, as they noticed that the atmosphere between the Elders had gone from amiable to murderous, as if they were all about to fight for the last piece of the cake. 

----------------------------

Author's Note: 2 days worth of chapters missed, I am sorry. I had to write this one bit by bit over the past 2 days so it might seem like the tone shifts at parts. 

I'll try to write more when I feel better during each day, and can promise 1 half GW and 1 half DS chapter at best each day.

Thank you, Almighty Essence Stalker and AP_Berserker for the donations.. It was actually what gave me to boost to finish.