The few of them even set up several platforms on purposes so that they would be able to display their products to the long line of potential buyers. Lonemoon and the others sat behind while all of this was happening. They relaxed and ate. The time that Chef took to go out and look for ingredients was forcefully increased by Father Niu, from an hour to two hours.

　　At the start, Yi Qing was unwilling. Although he was used to going out to look for ingredients, he was only used to doing this for Master. On what basis should he be made to sell them? They might be a chef and a foodie, but they had their own pride as well.

　　“Take it as your salary – I will increase your allowance by three times!” Lonemoon held up three fingers.

　　“Alright!” The two of them exclaimed in unison.

　　A certain master and disciple thought, mm, our prides just aren’t as important as food.

　　Thus, the beasts that covered the mystic realm disappeared at a rapid pace. Everyone who entered the mystic realm went away with at least one beast, half a beast, either by using currencies or by investing in the business.

　　This bustling scene carried on all the way until the eighth day. There were less than half of the people left in the mystic realm by now – of course, less than half of the beasts remaining as well! Now, everybody was getting news of the huge sale through their tokens.

　　[Attention, attention! We’re selling array flags as well! Do you want to make it to the next round? We’re selling qualifying array flags for just 1,000,000 void currencies each! We have 30 flags on sale! We’ll sell them on a first-come-first-served basis!]

　　Everybody who heard the message paused for awhile before they realized what was happening.

　　Huh?

　　Holy shit! They were competing! They had completely forgotten that they were competing! All they had been concerned with for the past few days was queueing up. Some even queued up overnight. They had forgotten all about collecting array flags!

　　The crowd was quite open-minded, however. Now that they had the rare beasts in their hands, they were not too worried about collecting the array flags. After all, not everybody could make it to become first. They had already made a windfall out of the competition! In fact, a significant number of people were so worried that others would still the beasts that they bought, that they went out of the mystic realm of their own accord. Of course, the disciples from the huge academies remained behind. They did have to protect the reputation of the elite academies. There were also other responsible disciples who remained behind. These people stepped forward to purchase more array flags.

　　Although the array flag business was not as profitable as the beast business, they still managed to sell about 60 array flags.

　　People outside the mystic realm watched as Immortal Academy Group Three 23 dropped from the top, down to the middle of the board. From 68 flags, they dropped right down to 4.

　　All the teachers who were crowding around were absolutely confused by now. No matter how hard they tried, they could not figure out why this was happening. The people who had exited the competition early did not spill the beans about what took place inside the mystic realm, for fear that they would have to hand over the rare beasts they bought. They did represent their respective academies after all. As for the people who remained inside until the very end, there was no need to spell it out. Rubbish! All their array flags were bought over. Could they really go out and tell others that this was how they won the competition?

　　Even Ling Hong and the three others sealed their lips shut when they were questioned outside. All they told others was that they were lucky to have found the array flags at the last minute. At the end of it all, the immortal Academy had no choice but to say that the stone board was faulty, and the numbers displayed on it throughout the competition were misleading. That settled things once and for all.

　　The first round of the competition came to an end just like that. It went differently from how everyone expected. Only 75 people made it to the second round. That’s right! There were over a thousand disciples who entered the competition, but over 20 array flags had not been found.

　　Shen Ying, who had remained at the side of the river for ten days straight, advanced to the next round. Needless to say, Ling Hong and his three companions, and even Buggy – who did not get a single bite of food – advanced as well.

　　They all thought it ridiculous that they had advanced to the next round. The ten days passed like a dream. By the time they regained consciousness, they found that they were already in the second round of the competition. In their hands, they were holding bags which contained a frightening amount of void currencies. That was the bonus that Lonemoon had distributed to them earlier.

　　Lonemoon was probably the biggest winner of the entire competition. In his hands, he was holding void currencies that would be sufficient to feed several people for a long, long time. That was not even including the 60 over I.O.U.s that he had! Overjoyed, he distributed more allowance to Shen Ying and Yi Qing.

　　He read the I.O.U.s in his hand and thought about the second round of competitions that was coming up in just a few days. Suddenly, he felt 90% confident that they would emerge victorious once again.

　　————

　　The second round of competitions was scheduled to take place three days later.

　　There was nothing else Lonemoon could do to prepare for it. He was planning on bringing Shen Ying, Yi Qing and Buggy somewhere nice to have a good meal. He had not expected to bump into the first person they met in the void – a familiar face.

　　“It’s been a long time, Fellow Daoists!” The man walked over briskly toward them. “Do the three of you still want to go out?”

　　“Ling Hong, what are you doing here?” Lonemoon scanned the person in front of him from head to toe. In those ten days, Ling Hong was the best salesman among his peers. “What’s the matter?”

　　“I came especially to thank you.” Once he finished speaking, he bowed respectfully toward the group of them. When he stood back upright, he said in a low voice, “I have to thank you for dealing with that problem involving the Red Scented Fish Monster earlier.”

　　“Don’t stand on ceremony!” Lonemoon smiled. “I said before, you spent good money to buy that before. It has nothing to do with us.”

　　“That might be the case, but if not for your good heart, we would not have been able to buy that.” Ling Hong still looked at them gratefully. After pondering for a moment, he said, “Oh right, I came this time to give you news about the next round.”

　　“Oh? Are the instructions out already?” Lonemoon paused. He stepped aside. “Come in and we’ll talk!”

　　He started to lead Ling Hong into the house, but Chef and Shen Ying remained at the doorstep. They both turned to Father Niu with grievance in their eyes.

　　Shen Ying: Didn’t we say we’re going to eat?

　　Yi QIng: Didn’t we say we’re going for a huge meal?

　　Lonemoon: “…” Don’t forget what we’re here for!

　　Only Buggy looked confused at the way the three of them were behaving. What was going on? Why was nobody moving? He was hungry! He had only eaten white rice for ten whole days.

　　“Alright!” Lonemoon glared at the two wastrels. “You can go out and eat. Come back and report the amount you spent, alright?”

　　“Yes, Father Niu! No problem, Father Niu!” The two of them replied obediently.

　　They cheered and walked out of the room joyfully, pulling Buggy along with them.

　　Ling Hong: “…” Why did he feel like Lonemoon was the parent in a family?

　　“Fellow Daoist Ling, please come in!” Lonemoon led Ling Hong into the house. “Thank you for making the trip down here.”

　　“Fellow Daoist Lonemoon, don’t stand on ceremony. They’re going to announce this tomorrow. I’m just giving the news to you several hours earlier,” Ling Hong said.

　　“May I know how we’re going to be competing in the next round then?”

　　Ling Hong frowned and said in a low voice, “This round is going to be much tougher than the previous mystic realm. We have to break through the academy’s Thousand-Image Array.”

　　“Thousand-Image Array?” Lonemoon paused. “Is that an array?”

　　“Fellow Daoist, you do know your stuff. The Thousand-Image Array is an array set up by an exalted immortal from the Immortal Academy many years ago.” Ling Hong frowned. “Over tens of thousands of years, the array has gone through many changes. It is said that there are over ten thousand more arrays inside that one array. It won’t be easy to escape it.”

　　“Oh.” If it really was an array, things would be much simpler. Both Lonemoon and Yi Qing were experts at arrays.