CLANG—HUMMMMMMM!
As the three-hundred-foot white-jade portal of the Heavenly Stairway Junior Secret Realm stabilized in the center of Central Sky-Plaza, a gigantic, five-hundred-foot-wide [Heavenly Dao Live-Broadcast Sky-Mirror] condensed in the clouds directly above the amphitheater!
Designed by the ancient Sword-Emperor three thousand years ago so that sect elders outside could observe the trial from Step 1 all the way to Step 1,000 in crystal-clear detail. The giant Sky-Mirror now projected the starting line at the foot of the jade stairway to all one hundred thousand live spectators in. The plaza—and through Merchant Boss Qian Duoduo’s relay crystals to tens of millions of citizens watching in town squares across the four provinces!
On the northern side of the starting line stood one thousand nineteen-year-old Inner Sect elites from the Supreme Sword Sect, Jade Lotus Sect, Thunder-Clap Sect, Heavenly Talisman Sect, and Beast-Taming Sect. Every single one of them was between seventeen and nineteen years old, clad in gleaming spirit-steel battle armor, gripping unsheathed Rank 4 Peak and Rank 5 Early swords, talismans. Beast-whips with fierce, murderous tension on their faces.
And walking casually toward the southern side of the starting line—escorted to the edge of the white-jade boundary line by thirty-year-old Gu Changsheng in his white chef’s apron—were four children between seven. Eleven years old carrying woven bamboo picnic baskets!
