The qualification round had gone far better than Liu Wei had expected. Eight out of the ten disciples had managed to qualify themselves despite a tough competition. He had watched many of the fights himself, from a distance of course, and was quite proud of how his disciples had won.

The three oldest had done especially well. While Chonglin had managed to outmaneuver all four of his opponents so well that they practically defeated themselves, Jinghua had won her fights by completely tiring her opponents out with her excellent defense. The last challenger, an inner disciple, had fought her for over thirty minutes before collapsing to the ground. It had been quite the spectacle.

Zixin had had by far the worst luck, being attacked by multiple inner disciples and losing two of the stages he had fought himself on because of exhaustion. On the last one, the same had almost happened again, if not for his excellent understanding of the situation.

Zixin had correctly understood that he was outmatched with how exhausted he had been and had used the rules of the competition to his advantage. He hadn’t needed to defeat his opponent; he had just needed to get them of the stage. It had been quite nerve-wracking to watch that one, but all that mattered was that he had managed to prevail.

Other than the eight of those he had trained, three other outer disciples had also made it into the second round on their own. Overall, it was quite the success. For now, there was only Ning Bai’s closing speech for the first day left, after that they would all be done for the day.

…

Zixin was still shivering on his entire body. When that monster of an inner disciple had stepped onto the stage and even his attempt at a surprise attack had failed, he had thought it was all over. It was honestly a miracle he was still in the tournament right now.

The issue wasn’t even with his strength. He was pretty sure that he could have beaten that inner disciple in a fight, had he been in top condition. The issue was that his preferred way of fighting, a quick, close ranged exchange of blows, was not exactly designed to leave him with a lot of stamina afterwards. The real challenge today had been the consecutive nature of the fights.

He could only hope, that he would be allowed to properly rest between fights tomorrow, otherwise there was a good chance it would get pretty embarrassing for him.

Come what may, for now he needed to be content with the fact that he had qualified for the second round and try to calm down. Looking up, he saw that Elder Bai was about to begin his speech. Shaking his head to regain his concentration, he focused on the man’s words.

“Dear disciples, the first round of the competition has finished. I want to congratulate everyone who made it to the second round. To those who didn’t: I hope you are not too distressed about this fact. The nature of this round meant that while skill was of course the most deciding factor, there was also quite a bit of luck involved. While you can’t continue fighting in this competition, you are welcome to continue attending the competition as viewers. For disciples, this is completely free of charge.

Those who have qualified: once I have finished my speech, please follow the examiners who will be responsible for your age group. They will direct you to your sleeping quarters.

Once everything has been properly verified, you will be divided into groups of ten, meaning five groups per age bracket. In these groups, you will fight everyone exactly once. The two disciples with the highest number of wins will qualify for the tournament.

As I told you previously, the fights in the lowest age bracket will take place tomorrow, the second lowest in two days and so on. All fights will be held inside the arena before an audience of sect members, disciples and elders. Please prepare yourself thoroughly.

That is all for today, I wish you all a good rest tonight.”

After Elder Bai had finished his speed, several examiners stepped forward. The first of them shouted:

“Qualified disciples between age ten and fourteen, please follow me!”

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The disciples in question got up and slowly made their way through the crowd. Once they were gathered, the examiner led them away in the direction of the arena. A second examiner then shouting the same phrase for the next age bracket. This one included Zixin and Chonglin and so the two pushed themselves through the crowd to the front.

“Alright group, please follow me. I’ll show you where you will sleep.”

…

Group fights it was. Qiao couldn’t help but wonder just how exactly her grandfather expected her to deal humiliating defeats to all the pillar family disciples if she wasn’t even going to get the chance to fight them. It was his competition to organize though, so not really her problem. She would simply eliminate every pillar family disciple that she got a chance to fight, for anything else, she couldn’t be blamed.

She hadn’t watched the fights of the younger disciples that had taken place yesterday, since she had little interest in watching children swing sticks at each other. Apparently, some outer disciples had made waves by beating multiple inner disciples in duels, but other than that, she hadn’t really missed anything.

Instead, she had taken a long walk through the adjacent forest. She rarely had time to do something like that, but since her tutors weren’t here and she couldn’t train much anyway, because she had to be in perfect condition for the fights, it had been the perfect opportunity. The nature around the Lunar Peaks Sect was of a beauty so fulfilling and whole, it was hard to believe that it was natural at all.

The vibrantly colored flowers, the tall and majestic pine trees, the sated green of the lush grass – all of those were results of the high natural levels of qi in the area. That was of course also the main reason why the sect was located here.

While a high ambient qi wasn’t directly beneficial to cultivation, the resources that would be created by it certainly were. Be it the abundance of qi-rich plants that would serve as ingredients for alchemy or the rich veins of high-quality spirit ore that could be mined, the natural wealth of the mountains it was built on had directly contributed to the power that the Lunar Peaks Sect held today.

Right now, Qiao was warming up her muscles; the second round of her age-group was just about to start. They hadn’t been informed of the group compositions yet, but she didn’t really worry. There was no one her age who was currently able to beat her. While some of them might be similarly talented in cultivation, she was undoubtedly the best fighter at the moment.

A knocking at the door brought her out of her thoughts.

“Come in!”

In came one of the examiners, carefully lowering his head before speaking.

“Young Lady Qiao Bai, the disciples have been asked to assemble. The competition will begin shortly.”

“Very well, lead the way.”

…

Rows upon rows of people were looking down on Zixin and the other disciples as they entered the arena in a group, led by the examiners. He had rarely seen this many people in one place. He knew that the sect measured around ten thousand members and disciples, most of them probably being present here today, on top of many more mortal servants. He hadn’t realized just how overwhelming it would be to be the center of attention for a crowd this large.

If he had been nervous before, he was close to completely breaking down now. Looking around made him dizzy. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“You alright?”

The concerned voice of Chonglin reached him through incomprehensible mix of the thousands of voices from the crowd.

“You don’t look too well.”

“It’s… I feel a little sick, but it’s gonna be alright.”

“Are you sure? If I can do anything for you, just tell me.”

“No, nothing you could do, but thank you.”

“Okay.”

The conversation was enough diversion for Zixin to regain his focus. Closing his eyes for a second, he steeled his resolve.

Just ignore the crowd. Focus on your task.

Opening his eyes again, he already felt better. He wasn’t here to stare at the crowds, he was here to put the skills he had built up to good use.

As the group of disciples arrived in the middle of the arena, Elder Bai began floating from a podium until he was directly above them. Without further delay, he began speaking.

“Dear members and disciples of the Lunar Peaks Sect, dear participants of the competition: The third day of the competition will now begin. I have already explained the rules to you all. Your examiners will inform you of the group compositions and organize the battles. Good luck to everyone.”

An examiner stepped forward, holding up a list that he began reading names from.

“…Group one: Inner Disciple Cheng Rong, Outer Disciple Chonglin, Inner Disciple Qiao Bai, Inner Disciple Guozhi Zhao, Outer Disciple Zixin, …”

Wait, what?

He and Chonglin were in the same group? That was quite the coincidence. Zixin didn’t even know whether he should be happy about that or not. On the one hand, it meant they had to fight each other. On the other, it meant he wouldn’t be left quite as alone here.

Once the list had been fully read out, more examiners stepped forward.

“Group two, please follow me!”

Following the examiner that had called them, the ten disciples moved away from the other groups. All of this was happening faster than Zixin had expected it to, but he supposed it made sense. The crowd wanted to see fighting, not endless formalities.

“Alright everyone, this is where we will hold our fights. There are no hard limits to the space you can fight in, just don’t run of completely please. Let me just read out the order of fights, then we will begin immediately. The first duel will be between… Outer Disciple Zixin and Inner Disciple Qiao Bai!”