“AHHHH!!”
A shrill scream echoed from the girl as her male opponent savagely sent a kick to her stomach, knocking her off the stage to win first place.
Seeing the male disciple showing such viciousness to a rather good-looking female, most of the disciples had grimaces on their faces.
The male disciple had a cold expression on his face that soon turned into a wide grin as he heard the elder's voice announcing his victory. He became extremely ecstatic and was overcome with joy.
Under the jealous stares of the other participants who lost, that male disciple quickly leaped off the stage to stand at the winner's section. The second-place winner, the girl that had been viciously kicked off the stage, came to stand there as well but her eyes gleamed with hatred as she gave the male disciple a death stare while holding her abdomen.
After the third-place winner, which was another male disciple, came to stand there as well, the elder addressed the crowd.
“The Inner Disciple rounds will immediately start! Inner Disciples step forward to draw your lots!!”
After saying that, the elder began looking around the crowded venue, as well as the airspace above the stage, and he couldn't help but take in a large gulp.
For the past few days when the Outer Disciple rounds were happening, practically no one was there in the audience other than the Academy’s disciples and a few people from the small clans and aristocratic families.
But now on the final day of the Freshmen Disciple Competition, the venue was flooded with so many people that some had to resort to flying in the air on various magic treasures or swords.
The thing that frighten the elder was that each of these people was from a prominent family on the continent, and even elders from various well-known academies.
Practically every power on the continent had a representative here at the venue.
And the elder wasn’t the only one intimidated, all of the disciples who were there had watched these people sail from over the horizon with horror on their faces. Each time one additional party came to the venue, the suffocating pressure of these high-level experts' presence weighed down on them.
At first, the Celestial Academy was contemplating whether to allow so many people into their academy, but the sheer number of influential powers forced them to agree to it.
Upon hearing the announcement that all of them have been waiting for they all perked up.
All the disciples gulped simultaneously as the tension in the air seemed to amplify all of a sudden.
One by one the 33 Inner Disciples participating walk up to the stage and draw their lots in order to match with an opponent.
Their first round consists of a one v one battle and the winner of each fight will head to the next round.
Due to there being a total of 33 participants, one lucky person would be eligible to skip this round and advance to the second round without fighting.
Suddenly a small commotion rippled across the crowd of powerful experts, as the youth from the Ming Clan that had opened his meridian in the Blood Purifying Realm, came up to the stage.
They had all come to personally see the effects of the new cultivation path that the Ming Clan had created.
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Most of their eyes also shifted to the other Ming Clan youth that had not taken the test. They all suspected that the previous youth wasn’t the only one that had opened his meridians.
This made them all wonder how many meridians this youth had open.
One should remember that each meridian open will result in having a significant amount of strength in the Sea Expansion Realm.
This was also another reason why Ghuanyu had garnered so much attention after revealing he had a way to open meridians so early on in the Four Physical Realms.
Phase One of the Meridian Opening Realm is opening 1-9 meridians, Phase Two is opening 10-27, 28-57 is Phase Three, and 57-90 is Phase Four.
Cultivators in the Sea Expansion Realm could be categorized into people who broke through from each phase.
In the history of the Celestial Academy, or even the continent as a whole, the highest phase and number of meridians a person had broken into the Sea Expansion Realm using is the Fourth Phase with 59 meridians.
However, that record was shattered by three outstanding people of this generation.
The Crown Prince had reached the Sea Expansion Realm after opening a shocking 93 meridians. Followed by the mysterious disciple of the Divine Star Academy with 91 meridians, and finally, the sword genius that possesses the Sword Constitution, Ling Tian, who opened 90 meridians.
When these three had broken into the Sea Expansion Realm, no other experts in the same realm as them could compare to them in raw power alone.
Within the Sea Expansion Realm, one would start creating and expanding their Qi Sea within their dantian. The speed and quality of the Qi gathered were determined by the number of meridians one opened.
So with their Spiritual Qi alone, they could easily overpower Sea Expansion Realm cultivators who had broken through from the first or second Phase.
The only competition the three of them had was each other, and it stayed that way at all levels of their cultivation. And even now in the Nascent Soul Realm, the only cultivators who could match up to them are those from the older generation that had been in the Nascent Soul Realm for quite some time.
This is what the clans and various academies wanted.
They want to replicate the invincibility the Three Peaks had shone in the Sea Expansion Realm, and even the subsequent realms further on.
If their clan or academy could have just one such person, that would boost their power and influence to a level they hadn’t achieved before.
Ghuanyu’s method hinted at the possibility that such an outcome was possible if this method of opening the meridians early on is cultivated.
So they came to observe this youth, and they also wanted to know how he would fair against actually Meridian Opening Realm cultivators.
Would he have the power to battle across realms with this new cultivation method? Would he lose tragically?
That’s what they were all trying to figure out, but one thing’s for sure is that if either of them put on a big enough display, like say winning the competition, then most of them would have their hearts sway at the idea of cultivating invincible Sea Expansion Realm cultivators.
Soon after, all the disciples had chosen a lot, with only one person remaining, Yang Su.
As he walked onto the stage, his breath hitched in his throat as all those soul-penetrating eyes of the high-level cultivators bore into him.
A small commotion had occurred because of his presence as well. Even though Yang Su opened an astonishing amount of his meridians at practically breakneck speed, his existence had mostly gone unnoticed, because if Ghuanyu’s method worked, there could be plenty of disciples who would be able to open fifty or more of their meridians before breaking into the Sea Expansion Realm.
However, they still took notice of him since the news had gotten out that he was affiliated with the second prince.
But with that said, their reactions to Yang Su opening 50 Meridians would have been completely different if they had known that he hadn't used four months to reach that level of cultivation, but a mere four weeks. If they had known that, they would have probably died from a heart attack.
Reaching the middle of the large stage, Yang Su came to the box that held the last lot.
Unbeknownst to most people in the crowd, every one of the Inner Disciples, especially the senior Inner Disciples, was looking at Yang Su with an ugly expression.
Pulling his hand out of the box, Yang Su look at the empty piece of paper that was without a number in his hand before he turned to look at the elder with a confused look.
Seeing the confused look on Yang Su’s face, the elder explained, “You’ve gotten the free pass to move on to the next round.”
When the crowd heard that, they all looked at Yang Su.
Each gaze was different, ranging from suspicion, surprise, or even both.
Under these different gazes, Yang Su leaped down from the stage and stood off to one side.
As someone who was from a small village with about two hundred people, Yang Su never had this many people staring at him before even the Disciple Selection Ceremony was this nerve-racking. Needless to say, he was a fidgeting mess. If it wasn’t for his soul increasing in size and quality, which ultimately helped his overall mental strength develop, he would have probably had a nervous breakdown by now.
As Yang Su was taking deep breaths to wash away his nervousness, the elder announced the start of the first battle.
“Number 1 and Number 32, step onto the stage!!”
Everyone's eyes focused on the group of participants to see who had those numbers.
Suddenly, Sun Donghai could be seen strolling out of the crowd and onto the stage.
Seeing this a chorus of noise erupted from the disciples. They didn’t expect to see him battle so soon, however, their mouths suddenly clamp shout as they stared wide-eyed at the first Ming Clan youth stepping up onto the stage to stand in front of Sun Donghai.
Now it was the high-level experts' turn to start a chorus of noise around the venue.
No one had expected to see a match-up like this in this round, much less the very first battle.