Boiling Beast Bloodline
Chapter 865 - 195 - Shaman of Divine Songs_4

Chapter 865: Chapter 195 - Shaman of Divine Songs_4

Most Beamon priests were staring at Liu Zhenhan with a bizarre look...........................-Liu Zhenhan’s nostrils no longer much concerned the Piegel race, but he looked even less identifiable now, and many priests were guessing from which tribe he actually came.

The two Taige Clan Tiger Men accompanying Liu Zhenhan both held the title of viscount and were constantly marveling that this year’s Olympic Festival greatly exceeded the scale of previous years. According to the two Taige viscounts, it may be the imminent spring offensive against the Desert Kingdom that attracted so many priests.

Liu Zhenhan also had his eyes opened, surprisingly seeing two Boma Tribe Leopard Men priests and their followers quietly discussing something in a corner of the plaza. The aloofness of the Boma Tribe Leopard Men was well-known, as they had always been indifferent to everyone and everything since ancient times. Seeing them appear was indeed no simple matter.

Beamon priests’ true strength might not necessarily be judged by their temple titles. The Bimon Kingdom also had a part of folk priests who never registered under major temples. For them, independent self-cultivation was considered the highest realm of priesthood. The Medusa badges used by these folk priests, many of which were passed down from generations of masters and bore the ancient craft of classical carving. The two Boma Tribe Leopard Men priests also wore such quaintly styled badges at their chests. Besides them, there were quite a few folk priests at the War God Plaza, recognizable not by the color of their robes since they wore no priest robes, but solely by the ancient Medusa badges on their chests.

The strength of these folk priests was generally not high, so the delegations of the five main temples in War God Plaza didn’t take them seriously. Being inexperienced and from a rural area of Beamon, Liu Zhenhan couldn’t help but stare a few times more.

The Great Shaman Wei An, Master Qi Dan, who was greeting other priests at the reception point, spotted the remarkably conspicuous Liu Zhenhan from the crowd and immediately approached, enthusiastically calling, "Richard—Richard—" in a way that made the whole plaza tremble.

Having finally met someone he knew, Liu Zhenhan was also quite pleased, although today it seemed that being a Great Shaman wasn’t worth much. There were three or four wearing dark purple shaman robes in the plaza, several in golden chief priest robes, and black Scepter Shaman robes were even more common.

Master Qi Dan was truly busy to the point of distraction.

The delegation sent by the Northeast Witherspoon Main Temple this time had only twelve members, with just five young priests competing. They barely met the minimum criteria for dispatching members from a main temple, which was somewhat ironic considering that the territories under the green federal control had taken three of the five spots from the Northeast Province. Witherspoon Main Temple thus became the team with the fewest competitors in this festival, even fewer than those competing at the large altars.

To avoid lowering the standard of the entire Olympic Festival with just the participation of young priests, each temple could send a Scepter Shaman as the team leader to compete, but the Scepter Shaman could only appear in the third cycle and would face significant restrictions when competing against the young priests.

This time, the Northeast Temple was somewhat embarrassed since their entry list did not designate any Scepter Shaman. Master Qi Dan might have been overly audacious; Helen’s inability to compete disrupted his plans. Although this soon-to-be one of the twelve chief priests, Great Shaman Qi Dan was discontent, he had no choice but to shamelessly ask the Raccoon Priest, Remel, to fill in at the last minute.

Master Qi Dan had been looking forward to Richard’s arrival two days ago, worried that if Richard stood him up, it would be a major embarrassment for the Northeast Temple. Now he could finally relax. The old model also took this opportunity to explain the Olympic process to Piegel Overlord who had never participated in a grand priest competition.

The Olympic Festival competition program was divided into four parts, starting with a performance match where temple beast trainers displayed traditional fancy beast taming. His Majesty the King and the Pope would deliver speeches, followed by the first cycle of knockout matches. Due to the differences in the number of participants, regions would be crossmatched beforehand by judges who organized the pairings. The elimination format was a one-on-one battle between priests.

This was typical Beamon style; the most intense and eye-catching matches came first. Since it purely involved coordination between magic beasts and priests, this knockout round was very exciting.

The second knockout round focused on the speed of war song casting, in addition to the grouped matches, strong seeded contestants could be determined to have a bye, advancing directly to the next match.

War songs and magical pets were essentially the basic requirements of the Altar Sacrificial Ceremony. Having passed these two challenges, the remaining competitors, definitely no more than forty, were all elites. At this time, the judges would precisely distribute the opposing contestants, and followers could also make their entrance, engaging in combats of fifteen people each, gradually deciding who would win the crown of the Olympic Festival’s number one young priest, personally crowned by the Red Robed High Priest himself.

The duration of these three round-robin tournaments would not exceed ten days, serving as a solid test of the young priests’ and their followers’ abilities.

In the end, the king and queen themselves would confer the consolation prizes, which included the best war song crown and best magical pet crown, to compensate for the lack of scientific rigor in the competition’s format. Outstanding young priests were in high demand. The winner of the first young priest’s crown was definitely among the talented youths nominated by the main temples, and military departments, major families, temples, and large altars paid more attention to discovering young priests with potential, from both official and folk circles. Of course, as human traders with favorable trade relations with the Beamon Kingdom, they could also hire some junior priests for their trading groups.

It is no exaggeration to say that during the Olympic Festival of Sacrificial Rites, young priests were competing inside the arena, and so were people outside it.

Seeing that Liu Shock always had two Taige Clan Tiger Men accompanying him, several Lionman nobles from the Rhine Tribe at the reception glanced over with lazy Rhine-exclusive eyes. Their lazy gazes were like the lips of a lion—thick flesh hiding the sharpness of its canines.

Liu Shock unapologetically returned an even more intense stare to these few lions.

The Felsic Trading Group was just as boldly unreserved, quickly setting up in a single-file formation and energetically promoting their products—authentic fatty antelope skewers, southeastern specialty Immortal Fruit, Snakeberry Preserves, bamboo rice pancakes, kumquat-flavored honey water, Moore Elven royal collection’s spring palace rubbings, fresh snake meat rice dumplings, Lily Rum, Drow secret aphrodisiacs, Elves handcrafted items, and second-hand weapons and armors.

What was once the bustling War God Plaza instantly quieted down except for the cries from the Felsic Trading Group. The priests stood dumbstruck, perfectly framing the scene.

This time, the Felsic Trading Group brought out all the beautiful maids from the City Lord’s Mansion—Butterfly Beauty, Medusa Beauty, Rabbit Beauty, and Elven maids were all there, along with the sharpest-tongued, most clever Hedgehog men, Halflings, and Cicada People, led by Fawkes’s financial director, proudly displaying their merchandise.

With a grin, Liu Shock directed several laborers to move tables from the inn to near the plaza’s fountain. He contentedly gnawed on skewered meat, sipping rum and smoking cigars, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Just as all the priests in the plaza stared foolishly at Liu Shock and a group of vendors who seemed to have popped up out of nowhere, not quite knowing how to react, the orderly clashing sound of armor and weapons gradually approached from around the corner.

It’s said that foes are bound to meet. The two Richards met again.

One was dribbling oil from his mouth as he ate, and the other was drooling.

Liu Shock was eating skewered meat.

The prince had just spotted Helen.