Today was the day. Zixin couldn’t help but shudder thinking about it. He felt both anxious and exited at it. Anxious, because he couldn’t help but wish he had done even more to prepare for this day and excited because he was burning to finally put what he had learned to use.
There wasn’t really much he could win or lose today, his chances at being chosen to go to the tournament were slim at best. There were other prizes to be won, but all of them paled in comparison to the biggest price of them all, the one that he had already won: the training from Elder Wei. It had transformed him and the others in every conceivable way. Be it mindset, physical abilities or skill, he was not at all comparable to the person he had been previously. He was honestly confident he could beat two or three of his prior self at once.
That was also the source of the anxiousness though. While there wasn’t much for him to win personally, Elder Wei would profit, if they did well and Zixin didn’t want to disappoint him. He was grateful for every minute he had been allowed to spend with the elder and didn’t want him to regret any of those minutes. That was why he had to perform well today.
Zixin was currently walking alongside the other disciples, since they had decided to head to the competition grounds together. They had spent the last day doing only light training and heading to sleep early in order to be well rested when the competition began, and it already paid off. Zixin felt great, despite the fact that they had already been walking for two hours.
The competition would be held in the sects official sparring grounds. Zixin had only been there once, back when he had taken the entry exam, which was also held there. He remembered there to be many small, open fighting stages alongside one large arena. The place was located near the base of the northern mountain, so it was quite the walk from the Training Hall.
The competition would begin in the late morning, they still had some hours left to get there. If they were right about how long it would take them to get there, they would even have a little time left to rest and warm up.
…
Liu Wei stood atop one of the outer walls of the arena, looking down on the stream of people approaching the sparring grounds. Most of them were disciples, some of them here to participate, others just to observe. There were also quite some members amongst the mass, but most of them were expected to only arrive tomorrow.
The first day would only be consisting off elimination rounds, since there were far too many disciples who would participate to have them partake in a proper tournament. Thus, the real spectacle would only start from the second day onwards.
Participation was free and so many disciples would just try their luck, if only for the experience. Especially since Liu Wei had actively encouraged the outer disciples to do so.
Speaking of outer disciples, Liu Wei spotted the group he had trained approaching in the distance. They were moving at a moderate speed in order to conserve energy for the fights waiting for them, as he had told them to.
Truth be told, he wasn’t certain that any of them would have the ability to really stand out in this tournament. Teaching them had actually gone a lot better than he had expected. All of them had worked extremely hard, impressively hard actually. On top of that, he had found teaching a lot easier and more enjoyable than he had thought he would, considering he had next to no experience in it.
That being said, a month’s work could only accomplish so much compared to years upon years of dedicated teaching. The pillar family descendants especially would probably prove hard to beat.
In the end, Liu Wei genuinely didn’t know. He had concerned himself little with the strength of those who hadn’t even really started cultivating in the past. As such, he had little knowledge of how they compared to each other.
Without turning around, Liu Wei’s soul sense informed him that he was being approached. Continuing to focus on his group of disciples, he greeted the newcomer.
“Ma Rong. To what do I owe your presence?”
“To nothing in particular, Elder Wei. I just saw that you were standing here on your own and thought I’d pay you a visit.”
“I appreciate it. How has the Alchemy Hall’s business been going?”
“In contrast to you and Elder Shi, I am not currently implementing any great changes. As such, it has been going quite like it usually does. More importantly, what about your project?”
“Everything is ready. The instructors I have selected have largely taken the news positively and have been preparing to take up their roles. The facilities have also been readied and the Training Hall looks cleaner than it has in a millennium. I am ready to make the announcement to the wider sect. What about the Enforcement Hall? Have you spoken to Lan Shi recently?”
“I have. The pillar families are dragging their feet with their investigation, as expected. There isn’t really much they can do other than pressure her verbally though and as you know, that is pretty much useless against her. Still, they are managing to slow down the hall’s operations, which has her pretty annoyed.”
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“Well, as long as it’s only that, I think we can be quite satisfied. I had expected a much more drastic response to be honest.”
“As had I and my gut instinct is telling me that there is more to come.”
“There certainly is. We can only wait to see in what form. Anyways, do you have any disciples in this competition?”
“Some of my hall’s disciples are participating, but I am not particularly invested. We focus on alchemy and not on combat after all. What about you?”
“As you know, I have encouraged all outer disciples to take part if they can, since I think it would be a good experience for them. I have also been personally training a couple of disciples in the hope that they can create interest in the Training Hall’s new capabilities.”
“Not a bad move. I hadn’t fancied you a teacher, though I suppose it is not the most drastic change that you have gone through in recent times.”
“Neither had I. I found it surprisingly fulfilling however. I am even thinking of continuing to do it, though with reduced intensity.”
“Lately, you never cease to fascinate me.”
“I’ll choose to take that as a compliment.”
…
“Dear disciples and members of the Lunar Peaks Sect, I am happy to welcome all of you here today in my role of sect patriarch.”
The handsome man who looked like he was in his early thirties floated above the crowd, the fourteen elders of the sect, flying slightly lower than him in circular formation. Many of them, Zixin had never seen once in his time in the sect and so he squinted his eyes in an attempt to get a good look at them.
“The purpose of today’s competition is to determine which of you will receive the great honor of representing our sect in the tournament hosted by the Serene Fields Sect and the Parting Clouds Sect next fall. It goes without saying that this is simultaneously a great honor and a great opportunity. As such, it shall only go to those most worthy among you.
Today’s competition has been organized and will be hosted by the Outer Relations Hall. It’s leader, Elder Bai, will now brief you on the specifics. I wish all contestants good luck and hope to see a fair and inspiring competition.”
With these words, the patriarch descended slightly until he was in the center of the circle formed by the elders, while one of them, presumably Elder Bai, rose up.
“I am Elder Ning Bai, leader of the Outer Relations Hall and as such, host of today’s competition. I will now inform you of the rules of the competition.
First up, the general circumstances: The tournament that this competition is leading up to will be divided in four categories, depending on the participating disciples’ ages. The age brackets are as follows: The first one will happen for disciples up to the age of fourteen. The second one for those between the ages of fifteen and eighteen. The third one between the ages of nineteen and twenty-four and the last one between the ages of twenty-five and thirty.
Today’s competition will be divided in the same groups, though with the distinction that your relevant age is not that which you currently are but that which you will be when the tournament starts.
From each of these age groups, our sect will send ten participants to the tournament. Now, since over 1200 disciples have registered to participate, a little less than one in thirty participants will be chosen. Please don’t be discouraged from further improving yourself, should you not make it.
What will take place today is the qualification round. Since we can’t host the fights of 1200 disciples in the arena, only two hundred will qualify for the following round, fifty for each age group.
After that, each age group will have their fights on one of the following days to select the ten disciples who will be qualified for the tournament. All disciples who qualify for the main round will be housed free of charge inside the arena so they don’t have to repeatedly make their way here.
I will now explain the rules of the first round. As you have all seen, the arena is surrounded by open sparring stages. Two hundred of those have been marked, fifty per age group, and an examiner will stand by each of them. From each of those stages, a single person can qualify.
The rules are rather simple: anyone can claim a stage designated for their age group while it is still empty. Once someone has claimed a stage, they may be challenged by any contestant within their age group. If someone remains unchallenged for a full hour, they qualify. If someone beats three challengers in a row, they also qualify. A stage that someone has qualified from will not be used anymore.
There are limits to how much you can challenge: if you lose any fight, defending or challenging, you will not be allowed to challenge anyone for two hours. If you have lost three fights, you will be automatically disqualified. You will also not be able to challenge the same person twice. All of those rules are in place to prevent unfair behavior.
Don’t even think of trying to circumvent these rules. Before any fight, your name will be recorded by the examiner responsible for that stage. These records will be checked afterwards and if it is found that you have ignored any of the rules, you will not only be automatically disqualified, but also severely punished.
The examiners will also make sure, everything remains fair. Use of artifacts, your own weapons or performance enhancing drugs is banned. Ignoring or preventing a surrender is banned. Deliberate cruelty is banned. Violation of any of those rules will result in your opponent automatically being declared victor as well as your disqualification.
The weapons that will be used are provided at the stages. All of them are dulled in order to prevent serious injury. If you should be seriously injured nonetheless, there are professional healers present who Elder Xia from the Healing Hall has kindly provided us.
For now, that is all, I hope that all participants have a fair and exciting tournament.”
At those words, the crowd of disciples practically jumped over each other in a race to the stages. Zixin wanted to do the same, but was held back by Chonglin.
“Why are you stopping me? We need to get to the stages!”
“There is no advantage to claiming a stage early. We need to wait until the strongest have already claimed their own stages, that way they won’t challenge us.”
“But what if they all qualify before we can? We need to be as fast as possible!”
“Calm down, man. There is a reason they gave this competition an entire day. As long as we are somewhere amongst the fifty strongest in our age bracket, we have plenty of cards to play. The strong will not be challenged that much in the beginning and the weaker will not win four fights in a row. For a start, we need to get a good feeling for the situation, then we can start trying for a stage.”
“… Okay, you are right. We need to get going anyways, even just to watch.”
“Course. Just didn’t want you to run off in a panic.”