CHAPTER 108: THE DAY OF THE TOURNAMENT

Chapter 108: The Day of the Tournament

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The training with Ye Ning didn’t last long, but it was enough to give her a few tips on small things here and there.

After all, there wasn’t much he could really do for her in that regard, since within her mind she had a legendary existence who certainly knew far more about cultivation than he did.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that after Lin Xian’s awakening, the main help he could offer his disciple was through cultivation resources and protection.

As for the rest, Lin Xian would take care of it.

And so, the remaining two days passed in the blink of an eye, and finally the day of the competition arrived.

Unlike the End of semester exam, which had been held in a prepared area of the forest behind the academy, this competition was held directly in the academy’s main arena, mainly used for various important events throughout the year.

And the competition to select the five candidates for the Secret Realm was one of those, given its importance.

The stadium where everyone would compete was big enough to hold 10,000 people, and although the total number of students and staff barely reached 2,000, during many events guests were welcomed, sometimes from other academies, sometimes family members or people from the city.

Qingyun Academy, being a very prestigious academy, accepted only a limited number of students each year, and many of them, after the first year, were expelled for failing to meet the requirements to continue.

Because of this, the total number of people in the academy barely reached 2,000, in which about 90% students, 3% instructors, and the remaining 7% split among other staff.

Of course, there were larger academies, but they weren’t at the same level as Qingyun Academy, for obvious reasons.

That said, today was an important day, and the stands were quickly filling up.

The number of entrants to the tournament soon reached 500 people, most of whom came from the first two years.

The competition itself was simple: one on one battles, fought continuously until the number of participants was reduced to the minimum.

Given the high number of participants, the large central arena of the stadium had been divided into dozens of smaller arenas, each big enough to sustain multiple fights.

Of course, the arena size also depended on the participants’ power.

Those from the first two years were weaker, so the smaller arenas were mainly for them, while for the third year students the entire field would later be rearranged into larger sections.

Because of this, the third year matches were scheduled for the third day of the competition.

In total, the field had 10 areas, each with the same number of participants.

Excluding the third years, who were not only a small minority but also obviously stronger than the first two years, there were just over 400 people left, all from the first and second years.

These people were divided among the 10 fields, and in each one the goal was to emerge with at least 10 victories.

A person could fight more than once, so even if they lost, they could try again. But losing more than five times meant immediate disqualification.

As for the winners, they could decide whether to step down and rest for a while or continue fighting right after finishing a battle.

The important thing was to reach 10 victories.

That said, in total only 40 people could advance, four from each arena.

Which was reasonable, considering that each of those four had to defeat at least 10 opponents before moving on.

Normally, a tournament would proceed in typical one on one brackets until the numbers dropped enough to clearly see who was strong and who wasn’t.

But given the lack of time, they had to use this kind of approach to quickly filter out the strongest among the ten groups.

Even this would require several hours over the first two days of competition, which essentially made up the initial elimination stage.

Considering that these 400 participants from the first two years could have originally been many more, the situation could easily have become too complicated.

And with the limited time available, it simply wasn’t possible to let everyone join.

Therefore, during registration, anyone who hadn’t reached at least the mid-stage of Body Tempering was not allowed to participate.

For Zhu Rong, who had already reached the fourth stage, signing up while pretending to be a second stage was not difficult.

The competition would last a total of five days.

In the first two days, most participants would be eliminated, while only in the last three would the ones with a real chance of claiming one of the five spots would compete.

The atmosphere in the stadium was heated, and the first participants were already stepping onto the various arenas, ready to fight as soon as the starting signal was given.

The tournament would last several hours, and in that time each participant had to secure as many victories as possible.

Many were excited, others doubtful about their chances of passing, and many more, now that they were here, were wondering what they had even come for in the first place.

This was a common feeling among the first and second years.

After all, the number of available spots was only five, and these five would essentially represent the most capable among all three years of Qingyun Academy.

So why were people in the first and second stages here, competing alongside the third years who were already advancing steadily toward the third stage?

It was known that to avoid expulsion from the academy, strict requirements had to be met at the end of every year.

The first year was the easiest in that regard, as the focus was more on theoretical knowledge and other small aspects rather than a person’s cultivation level.

Of course, if by the end of the first year a student hadn’t even reached the first stage, they were practically already one step out of the academy.

They only had until the first semester of the second year to reach the first stage, or they’d be expelled before the 2nd year even ended.

In his past life, Zhu Rong had managed to reach the first stage after great effort.

And while that gave him the rest of the 2nd year to cultivate further and try to reach the second stage, it also ended up destroying his chances of healing himself.

He had often wondered later on, after learning about his condition, whether that forced breakthrough in the first stage had been a blessing at the time or a big mistake that led him to the unfortunate circumstances which followed.