Hidden genius: Black belly snake

Chapter 148: Contest begins Part1

Two days later

The sun rose and shone brightly in the land of Xion.

Tang Yue's eyes flickered open early in the morning and a serious expression surfaced on her face.

She took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally. This was the first time she was taking part in a contest like this.

Her floundering fights earlier with the common grade and low-grade spirit beasts couldn't really be called an actual battle.

But this contest, consisting of participants from the entirety of Eldoria and the neighboring small settlements, could be truly counted as the first test of her fighting capabilities.

She steadily stood up from her bed, her eyes full of determination and hunger, and started preparing for the day.

She walked over to the bunch of neatly arranged equipments, that laid scattered on one corner of her chamber, where she had been studying them and analyzing their various uses the previous day.

Tang Yue tossed them one by one into her new ring. 

She had completely emptied out one space ring the previous day so that she could organize all the new equipments from her multiple trips to the auction house and also the black market.

Since she was short on time, she had to rely on the black market to acquire quite a few items.

They had cost her ten times the normal price at which they typically were sold, but who cared about that!

After arranging the pieces of equipment, Tang Yue then arranged all her potions and a few other special tricks inside another space ring.

Now she was ready!

She slowly rose to her feet and solemnly walked out of the royal palace.

And as usual, walking right behind her, a small wolf cub and Lotte, her palace aide.

The royal training grounds located near the Eldorian royal palace had a huge fighting arena, where these kinds of events were typically held.

Quite a few people had already gathered in the arena grounds to participate and watch the proceedings.

Everyone was excitedly gossiping and chatting amongst themselves and guessing who all would be lucky enough to get selected in this contest.

There were a total of 50 slots for the Labyrinth exploration available to the contestants today. 

A whopping number of 50!

Even if they didn't manage to get into the top ten or whatever, they could still somehow squeeze into the bottom ten by hook or crook.

So everyone was busily chatting with each other and trying to gauge each other's strengths in high spirits.

As Tang Yue's emerald eyes gazed at the gathered crowd, she saw that most people around her were in the Martial realm just like herself.

But there were also quite a few who had already stepped into the Emperor realm. 

These were veteran beast hunters whose strength and combat expertise were just a smudge away from being accepted into the royal battalions.

Or freelancers, those who preferred not to involve themselves too much with the royal family.

This would be the majority of Tang Yue's main competition!

Luckily, there was no one from Saint realm or higher participating in this contest.

As Tang Yue walked into the crowd to register herself for the contest, a black-clothed hooded figure suddenly walked past her, brushing her or rather bumping against her in the process.

It almost looked as if the passerby had purposefully rammed their shoulder into Tang Yue's right shoulder.

"What the? Watch where you go" 

The snake muttered absent-mindedly and turned around to take a look at this specific passerby.

For an instant, her emerald eyes met with the eyes of the elf who had crossed her but the perpetrator had already disappeared into the crowd.

"Have I seen that person before? Huh?" 

Tang Yue's sharp senses had caught an outline of the figure and her mind lingered, but she soon shrugged it off. "Whatever."

She headed directly to the crowded registration desk and gave her name and details to the elf sitting there.

The man looked up at her weirdly and had a bitter smile on his face as he jotted down her details.

"Successfully registered, your highness." He then muttered and pointed Tang Yue to a nearby waiting area.

"Please wait for your turn there."

"Mmhm." Tang Yue nodded and looked over in the direction the elf pointed.

That was the contestants' gathering area. 

There were several people there, some sitting cross-legged in meditation, preparing for the contest which was about to begin and some noisily chatting, not in the least worried about the contest which was about to begin.

And of course, among the noisily chatting bunch, she recognized a few familiar faces!

"What the hell?" Tang Yue's eyes flew wide. 

Now she realized why the registration elf was looking weirdly at her. 

Almost all the royal consorts from Xander's personal harem had shown up for the contest! Each elf was more beautiful than the other!

Not just that, but a few other royal family members, probably women from other harems in the palace and a few noble family daughters had also gathered in the same area.

It was definitely a sight to behold for any man!

Before Tang Yue could digest this view in front of her, the System's notifications chimed in.

[Little snake, Little snake, Why don't you spin the Lucky Wheel now?]

"Fuck!" Tang Yue cursed the shameless perverted old man.

She smiled weakly and decided to head back into the crowd to sit among the commoner participants. 

She wanted to meditate silently for a while and didn't want to unnecessarily participate in any drama.

Apart from the elves, there were also several orcs, and fox spirit beasts participating in this contest, so it was relatively easy for her to blend into the crowd and find a silent corner.

Tang Yue flopped onto the ground and sat cross-legged, Lotte and Little Blue settling next to her.

It was a good spot for her to observe the fights and learn from the combat display.

The snake nodded satisfactorily and retrieved a piece of roasted meat from her space pearl, popping one into her mouth and the other to the little white wolf cub.

The show was about to begin!