Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 527 - 526 - Choosing Slots

Lind felt that his more than 2 centuries in the lower world had prepared him for running a sect in all aspects and he was not wrong.  While incorporating beasts had some strange incidents, it had gone rather smoothly during the short time he led the Floating Isles branch.

His decade wandering the Wild Heart Isle had deepend his understanding of the beasts so accommodating them in the upcoming competition had actually gone well.  Few aether beasts had interests in the cultivation professions until they reached the Star Tier, but there were a few that had the gift from their race memories.

Any beasts with fire could theoretically learn alchemy, but it took care to nurture herbs on a regular basis compared to natural discoveries.

Still, all in all, he had not had too many issues until he chose to make a competition.

The negotiations with the envoys had been migraine inducing and trials on his patience with only 2 stepping over the line.  Ulta Kingdom had sent profuse apologies to both him and Lady Char.  The woman they sent later was weaker but far more adept at the talks.

Many even seemed to try and tempt her to their own powers!

The only other person crippled was an aether child from the lower world.  He had been bitter about human and demon powers being so prevalent that he attacked Master Ye and Mistress Hilde.  He could not put a scratch on them, but Lind had punished him anyway.

His equal treatment actually smoothed over issues on both sides, but then an issue more thorny than seating came up.

The slots.

The arena had been built to accommodate a massive number of competitors but thus far, no one had decided how many slots there would be.  He had prizes and such for up to 5th place followed by lecture admittance to the remaining top 10 of each level.

Extrapolating from that was easy to a point but there were dozens of powers on both the lower and higher parts of the realm.  The competition could not go on for months on end just because of sheer numbers.

Watching a good seedling sink their all into a high end attempt was one thing, but seeing obvious amateurs would irritate people.  Equal numbered slots did not work either as some powers did not have that many people to put forward or too many!

The arguments had dragged on for months with no end in sight.

Even the supreme powers were unwilling to commit until a pattern had been set up.  Cimmeria had long since set a standard but the same could not apply in the Floating Isles.  The problem was reclusive experts were much higher so a slot per each of them already reached close to 1000!

While there was clear promise from such disciples, it still made the slots distribution skewed all over the place.  Assuming the supreme powers got 15 slots and the other powers got less than that per other conditions, the reclusive experts would still outnumber them all combined!

Lind was in his office looking haggard as a woman with bright pink hair floated in.  He did not even blink about it as his mind was too exhausted from the various speeches the last round of negotiations had given him.

Could dragons have ulcers?

"I heard you are stuck?"  Romana was not teasing him but his dark green eyes locked her in place.

"If you think I have forgotten all you did, you are sorely mistaken."  She shivered despite being a Star Tier.  The man had the power to hurt Star Tiers long ago but now he could do it far more consistently.

"It seemed a way to help you out and complete my investigation.  We found surprisingly little Fiend artifacts outside of her office by the way.  The Path to Heaven experts are also grateful to you for taking them in after their own power imploded."  Lind's death stare did not waver which made her sweat a bit.

"Anything else to say before I pass sentence?"  His dead serious tone made her flustered!

"I have a way to help with the slots!"  The words were like magic.  Lind's previously unforgiving aura melted away as he waved for her to sit.  She had to move a stack of scrolls off one of the chairs but she made sure not to disturb any of the other piles around his office.

"Don't you have assistants?"  His face became deadpan again as she winced.  Of course he did.  His office was only like that because everyone was very busy.  The 4 years left seemed all too short in some respects.

"Speak."  His short tone made her worry she would be punished before she could talk.

"I heard they rejected the idea to narrow the field in their various powers as some only have 1 or 2 to send in the first place.  If it does not apply to all, then they argue with you about fairness, right?"  Lind massaged his temples as he nodded.

The word fairness had been tossed around so much he doubted it had any true meaning any more.

"It seems to me you are all focusing too much on the slots meaning something when you could just standardize them all."  He was ready to throttle her as he had done just that but she smiled at him and it gave him pause.  "Production powers are separated from standard powers.  You want to include all but are trying to force them all under one definition."

Lind did not immediately respond.  His fogged mind churned it over before he nearly jumped out of his seat.

How stupid was he?!

The reclusive masters aside, he should be treating the powers as they exist, not as simply members of the competition.  The Heavenly Maiden Sect, an ideal example of a supreme power, might only have 5 or 6 really good alchemists or formation masters.  They might not have any refiners at all!

He began to draft a few ideas and imprint the jade slips as Romana smiled and began to make her way out of the office.

She was almost to the door when a clawed hand grasped her neck!

"Where do you think you are going?"  A gruff voice made her look back to see a partially transformed Lind staring at her with his reptilian eyes now cold.

"W-well I came to help and it seemed my work was done so…"  Romana's voice trailed off as she was physically picked up and found her cultivation sealed!

"You mean you do not want to bother with the fallout of yet another of your actions as you find it tedious and simply want to slip away to another mission?"  His half rictus of a smile was worse than any Fiend right then.

"I–I would never leave all the work to you, afterall–"  She tried to deny his accusations but his eyes got even colder before she could only squeak and was put back in the chair she vacated.

"We will work all of the details out right now and you WILL be coming with me to the future negotiations.  Also…about earlier actions…"  Romana could be heard wailing about Lind being a unfair and a slave driver.

In most powers, holding a Star Tier against their will would invoke the rage of their power but a single message arrived that crushed all her hopes.

Lady Chyou sent a simple message.

[Make her work harder to learn a lesson for the future.]

Romana was then screaming about schemes against her and how friends are only around when convenient but Lind ignored it as they laid out their ideas.

⬧⬧⬧⬧

"Master Frey, is everything all right?"  Master Ye felt nervous to see the distraught Star Tier with bright pink hair behind him.  The sect master of Moebius Sect merely glanced back and smiled in a way that sent chills up all their spines.

"Everything is just fine, Master Ye.  Romana actually came up with an idea that I think will finally get us past the current issue."  The named woman looked daggers at Lind but stood up before assuming a more professional aura.

"As you have all been stuck on assigning prestige to the slots assigned, that will be removed entirely.  Rather than relate to your level of power, it will relate to your focus of your respective power."  Romana then distributed the jade slips to all of them.

They reviewed them and some nodded while others frowned but there were no speeches offered as of yet so Lind took that as a good sign.

"As you can see, a power like the Heavenly Maidens will be assigned 15 slots with 5 each to cover the major professions they host.  Refining, formations, and alchemists.  It will be expanded for a power like Profound Miracles that specialize in alchemy and will have 10 slots for alchemists and 10 slots for their formation masters."  Romana went on and those powers that diversified outside of combat or cultivation focus had less slots per profession carried while the guilds on average got 10 slots per profession held.

There were still some arguments but it was more about how some professions were weighted higher than others.  Alchemists, for instance, far outnumbered the rest but it was pointed out that each branch of profession would be isolated from the others.

From that perspective, it simply took planning when each profession would start for each level and so forth.

Romana looked miserable as she had to answer each question sent her way but Lind hummed happily as he finally saw the shape of his competition coming into place.

The announcements could finally go out and people could start to arrive next year!  After that it would be a short 3 years to complete the arena and await all powers to arrive from across the realm!

Lind sat back and relaxed as the discussions finally moved on to planning out some of the more interactive rewards as some experts had offered to be included in them.  The Moebius Competition was finally going to happen!