Chapter 41: The Competition Begins
The lottery for the qualifying round was held together.
All numbers are sealed in identical wax balls which are placed in a specially designed storage bag.
The opening of this storage bag is only about three or four inches in diameter, and can only stretch in half an arm. Moreover, this storage bag is not like ordinary ones, after the opening, the monks cannot use their spiritual sense to explore inside and check everything. This storage bag can completely block the monk's spiritual sense even if it is opened, so the monks can only reach in by hand.
All the outer disciples who signed up lined up in a long queue, one by one stretching their hands into the storage bag and then quickly taking out a stone wax pill about an inch in diameter.
Some of the disciples immediately pinched open the wax balls and took out a small bamboo slip with numbers carved on it.
Just a little while later, all the monks had obtained the wax pills.
Then, the group competition began.
Two monks who drew the same number formed a pair. Since there were over 900 pairs in the first round, they were divided into more than ten venues to compete at the same time due to the large number of participants.
At each location, there were at least three Foundational Period adepts serving as judges and maintaining order.
Zhao Di drew the number "627" and was assigned to the "Guanyuntai" venue for the competition.
As it was not his turn yet, Zhao Di stood below the stage, watching with great interest the competition between the two people on the stage.
One of them was the girl Zhao Di had met before - Golden Leaf Fairy, who was now holding a long emerald green bamboo whip, coldly staring at her opponent.
And her opponent was a young boy who had only reached the tenth level of Qi Refining, barely meeting the qualification for registration. Facing his senior sister whose strength far surpassed his own, the boy was trying hard to suppress the tension in his heart and appear more calm. However, the yellow sword in front of him trembled slightly, ruthlessly betraying its master's inner turmoil.
After the two men bowed to each other, an elderly man in the middle of the foundation announced the start of the trial.
The girl had yet to make a move, but the boy suddenly took the initiative. The small sword drew a slightly crooked trajectory and flew towards the girl.
The girl let out a soft hum from her nose, swung the bamboo whip with force, and the bamboo whip wrapped around the opponent's small sword with a whistling sound.
The young man was in a hurry, desperately manipulating the small sword to escape from the opponent's control. However, no matter how hard he urged the small sword, it could not break free from the entanglement of the opponent's bamboo whip. Moreover, the yellow light emitted by the small sword was also slowly weakening, emitting low and dull sounds, which was a sign that the artifact was about to be damaged.
"This is the most treasured magical artifact of his youth. He hastily opened his mouth and said: 'Sister, spare me, brother admits defeat.'"
The girl heard this and a faint smile appeared on her pale face. With a light swing of the bamboo whip, the yellow short sword trembled and returned to the young man's side.
The young man's face turned red as he put away his magic tool and walked silently down from the dueling platform.
The disparity in strength was too great, and this trial ended in just a few short breaths.
In fact, in the first round of trials, those who were separated by victory and defeat in an instant accounted for more than half. Unless both sides' cultivation and artifacts are relatively close, otherwise, after one or two rounds, the high and low will be decided, and the cultivators who are obviously not enemies will not dare to entangle too much, so as not to damage their artifacts or even suffer serious injuries, which would be a loss.
Zhao Di's opponent in the first round was a young man with a black face, eleven levels high, using a small knife-like medium-grade artifact. Zhao Di took out a long sword shining with golden light, which he named "Gongbu Sword", an upper-grade refined copper long sword artifact.
The two martial arts instruments had just exchanged hands, and the Gongbu sword easily cut open a small gap of about an inch on the opponent's small knife, and rushed straight to stab the black-faced monk. Although the black-faced monk also used a green wooden shield instrument, he was still easily pierced through his defense by the Gongbu sword, and the black-faced monk could only reluctantly admit defeat.
Unlike He Zhao Di's easy win, Jian Xian Er was not so lucky and met an opponent who also possessed a high-grade artifact in the first round.
In the first round, a rare and intense match where both sides used high-grade artifacts attracted many cultivators to watch. After finishing his own match, Zhao Di also rushed to the "Tianchi Platform" to watch Jian Xiner's match.
Finally, Jian Xiner relied on her three golden copper rings that could both attack and defend, perfectly complementing each other, to suppress the opponent's white jade ruler, forcing them to retreat from the competition stage, winning the match. Through this battle, Jian Xiner's copper ring technique also became renowned among the outer sect disciples.
On the "Wang Hai Tai", a young man with sword eyebrows and angry hair, wielding a giant green sword instrument, cut off the opponent's red cone-shaped instrument in one slash, winning the trial.
On the Luoxia Platform, a beautiful young girl with delicate eyebrows used a golden and silver colored silk-like magical instrument to wrap up her opponent and their own magical instrument together, throwing them off the platform.
On the "Listening Rain Pavilion", two cultivators at the 11th layer of Qi Refining stage, each wielding a mid-grade artifact, were fiercely entangled in combat, with neither able to gain the upper hand for the time being.
"On the 'Flower Platform', two top-grade magic artifacts were stuck together, going back and forth, neither able to gain the upper hand. However, the master of one of the magic artifacts suddenly had his spiritual energy falter, spitting out fresh blood, and was defeated."
……
Such scenes were repeated over and over again on more than a dozen competition platforms at the same time. It wasn't until two days later that the first round of competition finally came to an end. Without any rest, after the first round ended, they immediately proceeded with re-drawing lots and regrouping for the next round of competition.
This time Zhao Di drew "eleven" and was scheduled to play in the main venue "Wind Platform" for the second round of trials.
Zhao Di's opponent was Li Qing, also at the 12th layer of Qi Refining stage, who had entered Tai Xuan Men two years earlier than him.
The two people who are very similar in age, height, figure and cultivation stood on the stage, indicating that the next competition would not be as clear-cut as the first round.
After both men bowed to each other, a young monk in the middle of his foundation announced that their trial by combat had begun.
As soon as the announcement of the start of the trial fell, Zhao Di and Li Qing both subconsciously slapped a defensive talisman on themselves. When facing an opponent with similar strength, being cautious and avoiding sneak attacks was indeed necessary.
Different from Zhao Di, the other party was taking a low-level talisman "Jin Gang Fu", while he was taking a mid-level talisman "Jin Dun Fu". Among primary and intermediate defensive spells, these two golden attribute protective shields are the most practical.
The next move, the two were still very similar, both took out their own attack magic tools.
Zhao Di's right hand moved in a flash, and a small golden sword appeared in his hand. The sword was slender with an extremely short hilt. Zhao Di immediately threw the small sword in front of him, and his hands quickly changed into various postures, pouring streams of spiritual energy into the sword. In the blink of an eye, the small sword grew to three feet long, emitting a dazzling golden light - it was his first achievement, the Gongbu Sword.
As for Li Qing opposite, his movements were not slow either. He took out a two or three-inch-sized bright red mini gourd-shaped magic tool. With a wave of his hand, a red light flashed and the small gourd appeared above the heads of the two people. Then he also cast spell after spell on the small gourd.
The body of the small pot also surged violently, but after it grew to the size of a foot, it stopped growing and instead its color kept changing to bright red, finally becoming as dazzling as the scorching sun in the sky, making people dare not look directly at it.
Even with the protection of the "Golden Shield" spell, Zhao Di could still clearly feel the waves of heat emanating from the small pot. It was obvious that this small pot was a high-quality fire-attribute magical instrument.
"An opponent has appeared!" Zhao Di thought to himself. Generally speaking, the attacking power of fire-attribute magic tools is among the top in the five-element magic tools.
Moreover, he had also heard that several rare shapes of ritual objects, such as mirrors, pagodas, pots and bells, were all extraordinary in power and infinite in their uses.
Li Qing took out a high-quality fire-attribute gourd-shaped magic tool.
Zhao quietly placed a golden circular shield on his palm, and at the same time drew out his Brocade Sword. The golden long sword drew a straight line of golden light, extremely fast, stabbing towards Li Qing. Obviously, relying solely on the Golden Aegis defensive barrier on Li Qing's body was far from enough to stop this sword strike.
But under Li Qing's right index finger, a small bright red pot flew out of the mouth of the pot, about two or three feet long. The face and plumage on the body of this fire crow were not very clear, but it had three legs, which was quite strange.
The phoenix let out a small pot and then "yah yah" two cries, pecking at the golden long sword.
(Today's fourth update, first update, please collect this book and vote for recommendation! If you think this book is good, feel free to recommend it to other readers, thank you everyone!)
