Chapter 61: The Great Selection Tournament

  "Master, this woman's heart is too deep, she's not a good person, we can't stay here for long." Hu Xiaoyue floated out and whispered behind Guo Fei.

  "This cheap woman!" Guo Fei cursed as he watched Zhao Xue walk away. What Guo Fei hated the most was women playing with him.

  In high school, Guo Fei had a girlfriend. On their first date, his girlfriend stood him up for an hour and then said with a smile: "This is a woman's privilege!" Guo Fei turned around and left, ignoring her desperate pleas to come back. Who would have thought that after crossing over into this world, his personality would be suppressed by reality?

  "Xiao Yue, my master is very pitiful, sacrificing his appearance just to gain knowledge for cultivation. It's all so that one day we can live with our heads held high." After letting the servant retreat, Guo Fei teased Hu Xiao Yue and opened the animal skin envelope to see what the selection of scholars meant according to Zhao Xue.

  "I'm afraid the master would be delighted to accept such a good thing!" Hu Xiaoyue seemed to have a hint of sourness in her voice, and said in a soft tone.

  "Haha, it seems I'm not at a loss either! However, my 200,000 gold coins must be recovered." Guo Fei said with a smile as he looked at the letter.

  Opening the beast skin envelope left by Zhao Xue, it was found that inside there were a few thin pages of beast skin paper introducing the Selection Tournament.

  The so-called election of soldiers is a system for selecting and recommending talents in the northern countries, and it is also a ladder for the progress of many wealthy sons and military officers with merits. In Guo Fei's understanding, it is like the imperial examination system in the previous life.

  According to the system of Zhao Guo, the ducal domain recommends 10 places, the marquis domain recommends 5 places, and the viscount domain recommends 3 places. Therefore, Heishi County has 10 places, recommended to enter the capital to participate in the grand election, after being elected, can enter the "Xiu Shi Fu" for further study, and then arrange positions in the kingdom according to ability.

  Currently, Heishi County stipulates that there are three types of people who can sign up: the first type is the young masters of aristocratic families with titles within the territory of Heishi County; the second type is the sons of wealthy families who have lived here for more than ten years and paid 200,000 gold coins; the third is meritorious generals recommended by the military.

  Guo Fei thought for a moment and felt that this system was well-established, beneficial for attracting wealthy and powerful families to settle here. This world is not lacking in wealth, but there are no places for merchant families with money to cultivate, and the prosperity of Blackstone County relies on these wealthy people.

  Zhao Xue said clearly that she had already signed up for Guo Fei, and according to the category of meritorious soldiers in the army, Zhao Xue naturally had a connection.

  These three types of people signed up in no small number, with nearly five hundred people estimated to be selected from among them. After the selection, Blackstone County will have focused training, and three months later, they will participate in the kingdom's grand election. What moved Guo Fei was that during the training period, he could enter the Lord's Manor to study the knowledge of the Refiners.

  The Blackstone County Election Tournament is divided into three stages. The first stage is the arena duel, where contestants are randomly matched and one-third of them are eliminated. The second stage is a competition in cavalry tactics, as cavalry is the main force of each country on the continent, and knights' battles and travels also rely on their mounts. Therefore, cavalry tactics are very important. The competition method is a melee, where contestants prepare their mounts and weapons in a valley and enter the melee. Those who last for an hour are considered qualified. Contestants who raise a white flag to surrender are not allowed to be pursued and killed, while the rest are left to their fate.

  The third step is to combine it with the Beast Hunting Festival. The Beast Hunting Festival, a unique festival in Blackstone County, was created by the lord of the county that year to develop the territory of Blackstone County and control the wild beasts and monsters that ravaged the highlands of Blackrock. The festival lasted for seven days, and the hunter who killed the most beasts was heavily rewarded, attracting hunters from all over the North Plains to come and hunt in this land, gradually expanding the territory of Blackstone County towards the Blackrock Highlands.

  Hunters can register individually or in groups, and after entering the Blackrock Highlands for seven days, they will be judged on the quantity and quality of their prey, with no distinction between group and individual entries. The judges are appointed by the Lord's Manor of Blackstone County, usually consisting of high-ranking officials from the manor.

  The Hunter's Competition and the Beast Hunting Festival have been combined for ten years now. During these seven days, each contestant will enter the Blackrock Highlands to hunt beasts, competing on an equal footing with the hunters who come here to hunt. If they can get into the top three, they can receive the Beast Hunting Festival rewards issued by the Lord's Manor. The contestants are ranked individually, and the top ten are taken.

  Guo Fei took a look and made some calculations in his mind. He felt that organizing the competition this way gave people a good opportunity to cheat. By holding it together with the Beast Hunting Festival, one could naturally hire beast hunters to hunt for demon dan for themselves, or have their own family members disguise themselves as beast hunters to enter and help them, and so on. However, the Blackstone City seemed to ignore all these, only looking at the number of demon dan and wild beasts.

  Also, during the seven days on Kuroiwa Plateau, there are no restrictions on looting between contestants and demon hunters. For demon hunters who make a living by walking on the blade, getting something for nothing is their favorite thing to do. The participating contestants will also take advantage of this opportunity to hunt down other contestants in order to improve their ranking.

  "It's interesting, I like it!" Guo Fei looked at it and smiled strangely. Hunting can improve cultivation. Moreover, in order to learn the basic knowledge of the cultivator, he must participate in this competition and enter the top ten.

  Acquiring the demon pellet is obviously extremely advantageous for Guo Fei. Hu Xiaoyue is familiar with the terrain of Blackrock Highlands, and with his undead minions assisting him, he will definitely gain benefits from it.

  Furthermore, regarding the demonic beasts and demonic cultivators, Guo Fei had already obtained a lot of knowledge from Hu Xiaoyue. The strength of demonic cultivators is not divided according to their level of transformation, but rather by the formation of their demon core and the degree of refinement of their beast soul.

  The Fox tribe is a weak and small beast, its body meridians are easy to penetrate, but the elixir field and sea of qi are difficult to penetrate, often breaking through at the last moment, so although they transform early and have developed intelligence, their attack power is weak.

  Some ferocious beasts are different, their dantian qihai opened up earlier, and even when their bodies were still completely beastly, they had already begun to condense the demon dan. Such demonic beasts may be at the level of yao wei; there are even more extreme cases where their bodies have not yet transformed, but the demon dan inside them has started to nourish the beast soul, forming a powerful attack with the beast soul, reaching the level of yao wei and yao jiang, becoming a terrifying existence. Generally speaking, these are all giant beasts or ferocious beasts, and should not be underestimated.

  "Master, tell the butler that I'll be leaving tomorrow. Judging from Zhao Xue's tone, it seems safer here, and there shouldn't be any danger during the day. So, I plan to enter the Black Rock Highlands for cultivation during the day. After all, my current level of cultivation can't help much." Hu Xiao Yue said with a sigh after showing Guo Fei the letter.

  "Ah, this idea is good. In the world, everything still depends on strength to speak, regardless of conspiracy or not, in front of super strong strength, they are all weak and powerless. Tomorrow I'll send you out. Also, where is the terrain familiar to you? I want you to bring all the corpse soldiers with you to enter the Black Rock Highlands to temper their marksmanship and increase their cultivation through killing." Guo Fei thought about the upcoming Beast Hunting Festival activity and immediately came up with a plan, preparing to let Hu Xiaoyue take the corpse soldiers into the Black Rock Highlands ahead of time to get familiar with the terrain and cultivate.

  "No way, you don't have anyone to help you, what if something dangerous happens?" Hu Xiaoyue said in a soft voice.

  "Don't worry, Zhao Xue's people are secretly protecting you, and with your master being me, I'm not someone to be trifled with. You've become stronger, which makes me feel more secure, and with the undead guards, you'll be safer in Blackrock Highlands too. I can rest assured now. Wait for my divine message, we'll meet again." Guo Fei said, taking out the Qiankun Ring and having Hu Xiaoyue acknowledge ownership by dripping her blood on it.

  "Take this, inside there are 200 gold coins, 300 pieces of fire spirit stone, a demon search plate, five soul crystals, and a copy of the 'Sword Classic' for your reference. You guys cultivate well, if you encounter a demon beast, you can hunt it down, I heard that every part of its body is a treasure! Maybe when I participate in the Beast Hunting Festival event, I'll even get rewards. Hehe." Guo Fei smiled greedily.

  "Thank you, Master! I'll take my leave now!" Hu Xiaoyue said suddenly with tears in her eyes.

  "Oh dear, I'm most afraid of women crying and wailing, it makes my heart tremble. It's not like we're facing life or death separation, just cultivate well, with your clever mind and the power of the Corpse Soldier, this combination should be safe." Guo Fei said with a faint smile.

  "The master is really hateful, and he's teasing me again!" Hu Xiaoyue said with a smile, her tear-stained face looking like a pear blossom in the rain, utterly captivating.

  "If Zhao Xue knew there was a freak like you by my side, she might deal with you. The people of the Zhao family are really abnormal." Guo Fei thought of Zhao Xue's eyes and muttered to himself.