Death... and me

"This..." Trinio was basically the only one who paid attention to Rean's name, so he knew that Jaspion was him. "Brother, yo-"

Rean immediately covered his mouth, though. "Shhh! Don't mess things up. I don't want others to know that it's me who got that score," he whispered close to Trinio's ears. At the same time, he felt like he was going to cry. 'Come on! I held back already! How come I got 1363 points?!'

Rean then took his hand away from Trinio's mouth before Trinio finally began to whisper back. "How come I don't know about you or this Lukimira Sect of yours? No, wait! I think I heard this name before somewhere."

Rean nodded, saying, "We are also a sect from Cosec City. However, I'm a new disciple there who came from another region. Anyways, all I can tell you is that I wasn't expecting that result either."

Trinio finally remembered. "Right! The Lukimira Sect is one of the small sects in the area. It's just that it's at the bottom of the rankings, so I couldn't remember that straight away. How the hell did someone like you end up in such a small sect? With your Soul Power score, you could totally get an important position in the Soul Guild."

Rean shook his head as he replied, "I have my reasons. Anyway, can you keep quiet for now? I won't be able to hide for long after the competition starts."

Trinio nodded, saying, "Sure...it is indeed much better to keep yourself hidden until you face a real strong opponent." Trinio then put his arm around Rean's shoulder and asked, "However, you have to tell me what kind of Soul Power training you're doing later. Deal?"

Rean didn't mind it since it was Roan's method, which was quite hellish. "Sure, it's a deal."

As the two of them talked, the uproar continued around the Soul Power Measurement Formation.

"Who is Jaspion?!"

"He smashed Sansa and the top three sect disciples' scores!"

"Did anyone see who the guy was?"

"Is he another member of the Soul Guild?"

"It must be, right? Where else could he have come from?"

Sansa, the previous top one in the ranking board, immediately looked back at the other members of the Soul Guild and asked, "Was it any of you?"

"No..." Everyone shook their heads.

She wasn't the only one. Volod, Diran, and Oglico were also puzzled, not having ever heard that name before. Still, they didn't seem that worried. "It's fine. None of us tried that much to get that score. Even the weaker members of the Soul Guild could probably get that number if they took it seriously. We will only know the truth once the competition starts."

Meanwhile, Roan was checking the other categories that he would take part in. 'Stealth is literally what the name means. They use formations to judge how good we are at avoiding all types of detection while moving through several fields. There's the Forest Field, Mountainous Field, Open Clear Field, Illusory Battlefield, and City Field. Each one of those has a decreasing score system. Everyone starts with 100 points, and they will lose points every time they are detected in any kind of form. Too much sound? Points lost. Left behind a footprint? Points lost. Caught by Divine Sense? Points lost.'

Roan couldn't help but faintly smile the more he thought about it. 'Interesting. Since Divine Sense is also one of the detection methods, that means Rean's bending skill isn't the only skill capable of hiding against it anymore.' Roan was right, rarely did the twins' group find anyone else capable of hiding from Spiritual Senses back in the Realm of Mortals. Cases like Red were very rare. However, in the Realm of Gods, such a thing was a lot more common, or such a category wouldn't be present in the assembly.

One by one, Roan looked at the categories and their tests. Of course, he also shared the information with Rean through their Soul Connection. 'It seems pretty straightforward.'

Roan agreed with Rean, telling him, 'It makes sense. The Royal Family must be impartial to prevent rumors from spreading. Using the most straightforward methods wouldn't leave any gaps for anyone to complain. It's either you're the best, or you are not. Although there's luck involved, that can also be considered part of one's strength.'

'By the way, have you checked when the competitions start and the times?' Rean asked soon after. 'Perhaps we won't be able to participate in so many of them at the same time.'

Roan confirmed as he replied, 'Yes. Don't worry. They have already considered all scenarios. The first competitions are the ones for the side occupations, and they will happen one after another. Before one category is over, the other one won't start. As you can imagine, we are far from being the only ones trying various categories.'

Rean sighed in relief. 'That's good. Which side occupation will be the first one?'

'Talismans,' Roan answered. 'I believe you know a few things about it, no?'

Rean nodded, telling Roan, 'Yes. I had to dig into this side occupation knowledge to learn how to transfer thoughts into the talismans. I used this method in my Circuitry Communication System. However, my knowledge basically stops there. I don't intend to learn more, nor do I want to. So, I won't take part in the competition.'

Roan didn't find anything wrong with the decision. 'It's fine. We better participate in the areas where we are confident to be a good match. It will be good for our development.' For Roan, everything could be used as training.

A few hours went by as more participants arrived. Eventually, the doors of the dimensional room were closed before a man appeared floating close to the ceiling. Without a doubt, he was at the Transition Realm or above in cultivation. Because of the spatial formation responsible for the room, the ceiling was also extremely high. "Welcome, everyone. My name is Fabio Kamos, a member of the Kamos Royal Family. I'm also the one responsible for Cosec City's assembly. All the participants have already arrived, and your elders are all watching from other rooms."

Suddenly, a spatial door appeared in the middle of that Dimensional Room. "This door will take the Talisman Masters directly into the Talisman Side Occupation Test. Anyone can take part in it. If you wish so, go ahead. If you don't, just stay here as we will transmit the event through the Illusory Formation in this main room. Alright, let's not waste more time. Talisman Masters, enter the spatial door."