“There’ll be an hour-long break now. Do whatever you please!”
After the first phase was a break.
Ling Xiao ate and restored his gang qi.
After an hour, the second phase competition would begin.
Each of the hundred would start with 0 initial points. A disciple would earn three points for victory, one point for a draw, and zero for defeat.
The ten who accumulated the most points would advance to the finals to compete with the Genius Hall’s disciples.
“The competition will start now!”
With the judge’s signal, the martial artists tensed.
Because the contests between these 100 people would be completely random, you could run into anyone.
In this competition, twenty matches would occur concurrently.
Generally speaking, each disciple would undergo 99 matches.
In other words, they would fight against everyone else.
Therefore, there was no meaning in avoiding someone. However, some people felt that if they ran into the more powerful experts in the later matches, they would at least maintain their fighting spirits until the end.
Otherwise, they would certainly lose morale or be grievously injured.
“Number 24 vs. number 98!”
“Number 6 vs. number 11!”
……
As the judges announced the match-ups, the martial artists jumped into their respective martial stages.
“Number 9588 vs. number 57!”
Because 20 matches would occur simultaneously, the competition passed by quickly. Soon, it was Ling Xiao’s turn.
His opponent was a short, squat person with a cultivation of Rank Three Martial Vein.
“Heh, heh, senior apprentice brother Ling Xiao, I came up here just to tell you that, hereafter, you are my idol!”
The fatty smiled and unexpectedly jumped off the martial stage.
Forfeit!
This was normal. In the previous matches, some opponents had similarly taken the initiative to admit defeat. Their reason was simple.
Upon encountering an opponent against whom it was absolutely impossible to win, it would be better to simply admit defeat rather than to waste true qi.
In any case, their points wouldn’t be deducted for losing.
Winning, however, would give three points.
This point was very clear.
Ling Xiao clearly hadn’t advanced by accident. In the former two rounds, he had accumulated a lot of fame.
In addition, he had easily defeated Ling Ziran who had a cultivation of Peak Rank Three Martial Vein and had used an advanced martial art.
Those people with at least a bit of intelligence wouldn’t easily confront him.
The competition was very fast.
Because besides having many occur at once, the matches had time limits.
If a match couldn’t be resolved within 15 minutes, the judge would decide the outcome.
Otherwise, some people who were well-matched in strength might fight for several days and nights without determining a victor.
Soon, Ling Xiao met his second opponent.
It was a female disciple.
Her appearance was outstanding, especially her eyes that could captivate the soul. She was comparable to Ling Yu.
Merely, her strength was a bit inferior to Ling Yu’s.
“Big Brother Ling Xiao, let me win this match please? Or, how about we call it a draw? Then, I’ll become your girlfriend, okay?”
If someone else had been her opponent, he might have truly been bewitched by this woman.
Looking at those people in the audience who had hearts in their eyes, most of them would have taken this deal. This showed how powerful this woman was.
Compared to Ling Yu’s seduction skills, it was not at all inferior.
Merely, it was a pity. After Ling Yu, Ling Xiao had gained an innate resistance towards beautiful women.
Hearing her crazy demand, Ling Xiao was already fed-up with her.
“Barbarian Bull Strength!”
Not speaking any superfluous words, he directly sent her flying off the stage with a palm.
If he had looked at this woman any longer, he might have vomitted.
“You! You beast! Don’t you know how to be a gentleman?”
The girl sat on the ground and burst into loud tears, causing several male disciples to glare at him in anger.
“That was too excessive! In any case, the other party was a girl. He was too violent!”
“Yes, don’t cry, beauty! Wait a moment, I will go and teach him a good lesson!”
“You shouldn’t brag. Not even Ling Ziran could beat him, how about you? What a big boast!”
Obviously, not everyone felt that Ling Ziao’s actions were wrong.
Ling Xiao also had firm fans among the crowd.
This was the benefit of being strong!
“Number 9588 wins. 6 points in total!”
The judge quickly announced the result.
“He is truly a promising young man. Not even a woman’s beauty affected him; he will certainly become successful!”
The judges thought very highly of him.
The competition continued.
Ling Xiao’s points continuously increased.
All the opponents he encountered either took the initiative to give up or were sent flying off the stage by a single move.
To avoid trouble, Ling Xiao also started being a bit heavy-handed.
He wanted to warn fools not to provoke him.
This was to preserve his strength in case he was matched against an opponent who could actually threaten him.
“I can’t see the true extent of Ling Xiao’s strength! I always feel that he’s hiding something!”
More and more people thought that it was impossible for Ling Xiao to only know a basic martial art.
He was hiding his true power.
Everyone’s expectations for him grew.
After the match, Ling Xiao didn’t forget to observe Ling Yihang, Ling Yixue, and Ling Feng.
In his view, only these three people constituted a threat to him.
“Number 2 vs. Number 4!”
Eh?
Upon hearing this announcement, Ling Xiao hastily walked over.
Sure enough, Ling Yixue and Ling Tieshou faced each other.
At present, Ling Tieshou ranked fourth in the Elite Hall.
Ling Yixue was ranked second.
“The match between the second and fourth ranks: this will be interesting. Hahaha!”
Many people gathered because this kind of rare match promised a spectacular scene.
Naturally, Ling Xiao was unwilling to miss such a wonderful matchup, so he rushed over. There was some time before his next match.
Honestly speaking, he had yet to see Ling Yixue fight.
He would feast his eyes today.
By the time he arrived, the battle had already begun.
“Giant Spirit Divine Palm, Ninth Style!”
From the beginning, Ling Tieshou didn’t hold back.
He used a terrifying amount of true qi to morph into a giant phantom. His terrifying power greatly shocked the crowd.
Ling Yixue adopted a wait-and-see attitude. She didn’t impatiently make a move but relied on her nimble movement technique to dodge.
What surprised Ling Xiao was that Ling Tieshou’s strength was greater than when they had encountered each other at the registration.
With greater skill, one could unleash more of a skill’s power.
Currently, Ling Tieshou could display 90% of his advanced martial art’s full power.
In other words, his <Giant Spirit Divine Plam> had already reached perfection. Merely, it was still a step away from sublimity.
The current Ling Tieshou was 30% more powerful than Li Xingyun had been in the Crouching Dragon Mountain Range.
Naturally, Li Xingyun’s strength had improved, so the outcome would not be the same.
“Ling Tieshou, you’re not weak, but unfortunately for you, your opponent is I!”
After a short while, Ling Yixue started her counterattack.
At her words, the air around her nearly froze.
Her palms turned abnormally white as if she were wearing gloves knitted from snowflakes.
“Advanced Martial Art <Frozen Palm>!”
Someone recognized her martial art.
“It is said that successfully cultivating <Frozen Palm> requires staying in a world of snow and ice. I fear Senior Apprentice Sister Yixue suffered in the past.”
“It’s certain that she suffered. I heard that she regularly cultivated in the clan’s frozen cellar. But once this <Frozen Plam> is successfully cultivated, it’s very terrifying.”
“Yes, anything you touch will be frozen. This is truly a frightening advanced martial art. Ling Tieshou is in no small danger.”
There was no lack of experts among the spectators. Perhaps, they might not recognize Ling Xiao’s <Soaring Cloud Steps>, but if it were a martial art from the Library Pavilion, they would surely recognize it.
