Yale didn't expect that the other party would force them to participate in the competition with such a short time, but Yale wanted to finish as soon as possible, so he didn't mind too much with the shortage of time.
Krienek didn't expect that Yale wouldn't bother about that point, but since there was no way to turn back, he didn't say anything.
After that, Yale teleported Kermu and Ange towards the Storage Space before using Shape Shift to disguise himself as Kermu.
Due to Krienek's orders, Kermu had never battled with others in the clan since he became Krienek's disciple, so besides Krienek and Serka, no one else in the Kurk Clan know the extent of his power.
Of course, they could sense his level if they were to meet with him, but for someone like Krienek putting a formation on his disciple clothes to alter the level the others were noticing wasn't something impossible. Moreover, one's level of practice wasn't the only important factor in a battle.
Krienek didn't use anything like that, nor Kermu possessed a battle strength capable of surpassing levels, but there wasn't any problem by telling some lies about that topic since Krienek had even agreed to have Yale supplanting Kermu's identity.
Half an hour later, Yale, Serka, Nurvey, and Krienek were already in the training grounds where a big dueling platform had been put in the middle. The other party had ordered its construction since the moment they asked for the competition, so they could start as soon as the other party agreed.
The dueling platform was quite big, but since the other party had over five hundred members, there wasn't that much space to dodge.
"Everyone! Our shameless clan head finally accepted our rightful request for a competition to prove that he is worthy of the position. Abusing his power as the clan head, Krienek has stolen the money belonging to all the clan to groom his disciples. However, are his disciples worthy of that? Knowing that this couldn't continue in this way, I asked for a competition between his disciples and mine."
The great elder speaking was the one who was always opposing to Krienek, and he was extremely adept to manipulating the truth to make it seem that the other party was guilty.
In fact, he was the one who abused his authority to steal money to groom his hundreds of disciples and increase his private wealth, but with some fake proofs and smart words, he made almost everyone doubtful of the clan head.
"See! Krienek only has one disciple, and he is a weakling at the Apprentice Rank. How can he waste so much money on him? It is obvious that the money of clan turned into the personal wealth of Krienek and his disciple. This is a huge crime against the clan; they should be grateful that I am magnanimous and gave them the chance to prove that they are innocent. If Krienek's disciple is able to kill all my disciples, then I will admit that the money has been used to groom an unparalleled genius, but if Kermu dies against my disciples, then it will show that both of them are corrupt and I will ask for Krienek to kill himself to wash away his crimes."
Even though he made everything sound righteous and logical, it was already a great feat that Kermu was at the 8-star Apprentice Rank with his age, but the great elder omitted completely the fact about Kermu's age making it sound like if Krienek had trained Kermu for some decades, but he was still at the Apprentice Rank.
The words of that elder were persuasive, and he also added a bit of illusion skill in them making that those who heard it would tend to believe his words as long as they sounded logical.
The people of the Kurk Clan were divided into two halves around the dueling platform, one supporting the great elder and the other supporting Krienek.
However, those who supported the great elder were higher in number despite Yale noticing that not all of them belonged to the True Empire.
There were still a lot of people who believed in Krienek, but most of them were still deceived by the great elder's words and thought that it was fair competition to prove Krienek's innocence.
Of course, some people noticed that the competition had absolutely no sense and could only be more unfair if the great elder battled himself towards Kermu, but those people were a minority, so their words were ignored and some of them even heavily punished by the great elder because they had complained about the unfairness of the proposed competition.
No one died in those punishments because the punishment focused more on torture than on killing.
"Is this a battle to the death?"
Yale was happy about that because he was planning to kill them and say that it was an accident, but he felt too shameless that the other party hid that until the last moment.
"Of course, this it is a battle to the death. Your crimes are too high; you aren't even worthy of having our noble bloodline. Be grateful that I haven't killed you on the spot for your crimes!"
Although it was a secret, Krieg, who died in the special realm, was that great elder's last disciple, but he ended killed by Kermu's group, so he truly wanted to kill Kermu. However, at that time, Krienek accepted Kermu as his disciple, and thus the great elder couldn't touch him without a good reason.
Krienek had the impulse of jumping towards that great elder and battle with him to the death, but he restrained himself because he feared how many people could be implicated due to such reckless action.
"Kermu, good luck."
Seka hugged Yale, who was disguised as Kermu, that was for the sake of deceiving everyone else, but Serka was truly worried by Yale. Moreover, Yale's disguise was so perfect that in that half-hour, Serka sometimes forgot that Kermu wasn't there and the one beside her was Yale disguised as Kermu.
It was easy to guess how fearsome the level of disguising should be to make that even the wife of the real person mistook the impostor with the real while knowing that the person was an impostor.
In fact, she almost kissed Yale when wishing luck for him, but she remembered quickly and only hugged him. Fortunately, in the Kurk Clan it wasn't too normal kiss others in public, so no one felt strange that Serka only hugged Kermu.
However, that wasn't that strange in the Zhan Clan, so Serka forgot about it a lot of times making that others saw her like a pervert for kissing Kermu in public.
Yale didn't waste time after Serka had hugged him and went towards the platform to battle. He didn't fear to battle against a huge number of opponents, but he knew that he should end the battle quickly or it might turn difficult.
"On the right side, the best talents of our Kurk Clan, the disciples of our future and rightful clan head who will clean the Kurk Clan from corrupted people after this competition!"
A man started to speak like if everything was just a show and not an important battle to the clan. That man was a member of the True Kurk Clan who wanted to put the audience on the True Kurk Clan's side.
"On the left side, the trashiest member of the Kurk Clan, who after having trained with the current clan head and used all the money of the clan is still at the Apprentice Rank despite having trained for so much time. How shameless can he be to battle against our best members instead of killing himself on the spot? We will see if this trash dies in a few seconds or for some miracle the corrupt clan head was really grooming a real genius!"
The people on the great elder's side laughed at the words of that man, they were just waiting to Kermu to be slaughtered and the great elder to obtain the clan head's position to bring the Kurk Clan to new heights.
Even those who weren't from the Ture Kurk Clan, but believed that Krienek was guilty were hoping to see Kermu die. In fact, the great elder planned to force everyone to join the True Kurk Clan in the same moment he obtained the clan head position, and Krienek was dead. At that moment, no one would be able to oppose him.
Even the people on the side of Krienek felt that Kermu was truly trash because they still felt that he was at the 8-star Apprentice, due to Yale hiding his real level.
They wanted to believe in Krienek, but the words of the other party fooled them making them believe that Kermu's accomplishment of training wasn't one of the best in the Revgen Empire but just the accomplishment of trash who couldn't even be compared to a commoner.
The disciples of the other party surrounded Yale before the battle started, but no one said anything about it.
"The competition starts now!"
All the disciples rushed towards Yale attempting to kill him just at that moment, but Yale just smiled.
"They believe that this will be a short battle, and I think that they are right, but the result won't be the one they are expecting."
With that thought in mind, the competition started.