There were probably close to a hundred participants, the logistics for managing something like this effectively were quite difficult.

As Vlad signed in as one of the participants, he got a token with a large 43 number engraved on it, so did all of the other participants.

After all of them had their token, the man in military clothes suddenly stood up.

"All of you have been given a token with a number, there is a corresponding token with the same number, and the person who has that corresponding number token shall be your opponent, we will start with the first 5 number token, Now you may officially begin this tournament." The man shouted as the crowd erupted into cheers.

'I wonder who my opponent is.' Vlad thought as he looked at other token numbers, similarly, the people around him also had the same thought.

Unable to find his opponent, Vlad suddenly realized how much time it will take for my turn.

'Considering each match is 10 minutes and I can see 5 total arenas on the stage, it will take a maximum of an hour and a half.'

Barely half an hour passed and finally it was already Vlad's turn, contrary to his expectations only a couple of matches that lasted 10 minutes, most of them were people surrendering or getting destroyed by a higher-rank cultivator.

Some people caught the crowd's attention, but the strength level was still pretty undecided.

As Vlad walked onto the stage, opposite to him he saw a brown-haired man, he had pale skin and was quite muscular.

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Judging from his aura, he should be a soul tempering cultivator, Vlad unsheathed his katana, as he executed the blocking stance of the basic sword forging technique.

Vlad wanted to get a judge of the opponent's power before he attacked, plus he didn't want to rush in blindly.

The man also prepared his metal katana as he quickly slashed towards Vlad's neck, Vlad was successfully able to identify the attack and performed his blocking stance, as he successfully blocked the sword, Vlad was still pushed back a little as he slid through the floor, it made a screeching voice.

The man not wanting to give Vlad a chance to attack quickly followed up with several quick attacks.

'His technique is not bad, his strength is also sufficient, but unluckily his opponent is me.' Vlad thought as he switched his blocking stance to the counter-attack stance, Vlad deflected the katana pushing it back, and did a quick slash towards the man's neck, barely stopping an inch away.

The brown-haired man suddenly held up his hands, as he surrendered.

"I have lost." the brown-haired man exclaimed a little unwillingly.

The crowd erupted as they saw their fight, seems like they had also found an interesting guy to cheer for.

The whole round went by, there weren't any interesting fights, as half of the participants were eliminated, the second round of the tournament started, with only half people left, the competition got a little intense, as several fights lasted for whole 10 minutes.

Three participants especially caught Vlad's attention, 2 were girls and 1 was a man, the girls had won their fights effortlessly, even though their opponents were soul tempering realm plus they had a really good relationship and looked similar to each other so Vlad presumed they were sisters, the man wore a black hood he was accompanied by his black katana, he defeated a blood tempering cultivator with minimal effort in the previous rounds, most people had already considered him the winner of the tournament

Vlad got ready as his turn was slowly approaching, although Vlad was a little surprised when he saw the strength of the man with the black katana, he wasn't discouraged.

Vlad approached the arena as he looked at his new opponent, several other fights were happening besides him, the crowd's eyes tho were focused on their fight.

'Seems like this isn't going to be an easy fight.' Vlad thought as he sensed the aura of a blood tempering cultivator coming from the guy in a navy blue military suit.