CHAPTER 118: FIRST ROUND

Chapter 118: First Round

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Each round would consist of battles lasting thirty minutes, and after one battle ended, the next would immediately begin, continuing until everyone had fought.

That way, those who had already fought would have time to rest and prepare for the following battles.

The arenas had also been reassembled together, reducing their number from ten to five.

If they had let everyone fight one by one on a single large arena, it would have taken a little more than twelve hours just to finish the first round of battles, something the academy clearly couldn’t afford to do, since they had to take into account both the audience and the students’ condition.

Dividing them into five, on the other hand, was faster and still gave the participants enough time to recover, unless they were severely injured , in which case there wasn’t much to be done except withdraw from the tournament, though that too was the participant’s choice.

Of course, the academy wouldn’t let the students kill each other or leave lasting injuries, but aside from that, they wouldn’t step in and just let the students handle things on their own.

Another 30 minutes passed, and by then everyone had arrived, both participants and audience.

Seeing this, the academy’s headmaster looked toward the group of students below him before smiling and saying aloud,

"Let the semifinals begin."

As soon as those words left his mouth, the crowd erupted in cheers, while the headmaster stepped aside and several instructors came forward.

When they reached the edge of the raised podium, they pulled out a few talismans from their dimensional rings, infused them with Qi, and threw them into the air above the arena.

Soon those talismans, as if they had a will of their own, began moving by themselves, and shortly after, above the announcer’s podium appeared a transparent image held in place by the four floating talismans, faintly glowing.

This was a projection array, and given the structure of the semifinals, it would help everyone understand who would be fighting against whom.

And sure enough, that didn’t take long to appear.

The large, slightly transparent image was blank at first, but soon, as if an invisible hand had begun striking it, several lines appeared on its surface.

They formed, shifted direction as if they had their own will, then shifted again.

There were fifty lines in total, which connected into twenty five, which then connected into others, and so on, each time the number halving, until eventually there were only two left, which joined into one.

It was a double elimination competition, so there were extra sections visible at each level of this tree like structure, which essentially marked the Lucky ones who would be spared from a fight.

Both for the winner’s side, which would keep moving forward until the numbers went down, and for the loser’s side, which still had another chance and would compete among themselves until their numbers also went down to one.

Since both sides had odd numbers, a student could obtain immunity in each round of both sides.

That said, at the base of this tree like diagram, names began to appear under each line, and in just a few seconds it was filled with them.

The position of each name had been chosen at random, so as soon as everyone saw the names appearing, they immediately began looking for their own names.

One after another they found them, and when they did, the expressions of many lit up, as if they had finally seen a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

Others, more confident at first, now wore dark looks, cursing once more whoever had drawn the names.

Even though everyone knew the names hadn’t been picked by the instructors this time, but rather by an artifact that shuffled them at random once filled with all the participants’ names.

Still, that didn’t lessen the flood of emotions that broke out, and soon, under the fifty names paired into twenty five sections, numbers began to appear in order, marking who would fight first.

The first ten participants soon stepped onto the 5 arenas arranged at the center of the field, these visibly larger than the ones before, giving everyone more room to fight.

As luck would have it, one of these people was Zhu Rong, who ended up facing a third year student.

The third year was a boy about 1.80 meters tall, with a shaved head and a square face.

He had a tall, powerful build, clearly shaped by long, intense training.

His short sleeved uniform left his well-sculpted arms completely exposed, showing them off in all their glory.

He was basically the typical close combat cultivator, and when he saw who his opponent was, he couldn’t help but frowned before saying,

"Tch, and to think my first battle would end up being against a second year.

Hey, kid, you know who I am, right? If you do, don’t waste my time and withdraw immediately.

I’ve got no time to waste with you. Think of it as my way of sparing you from the embarrassing defeat you’d otherwise suffer."

He clearly didn’t put Zhu Rong in his eyes at all.

Zhu Rong: "..."

Zhu Rong didn’t care in the slightest whether his opponent was a first year or a third year.

He knew that with his current strength he could even defeat a good portion of the academy’s instructors, let alone students who hadn’t even reached the peak of the third stage.

If anyone had the right to say something like that, it should’ve been him, right?

And yet here he was, being scolded by some guy who didn’t even have half his years, or at least, half his mental age.

’Ah, youngsters these days are too bold, and too ignorant. I’ll need to set this lost lamb back on the right path before he gets himself killed.’

He shook his head, casting a look of compassion at the other side that sent shivers down his opponent’s spine.

’What the hell is that expression? Why is he looking at me like that?’

The third year wasn’t sure what Zhu Rong was thinking, but that expression on his face was somehow irritating him, and combined with the fact that Zhu Rong had ignored his polite offer, it made him angry.

"Kid, you’ve certainly got guts. I gave you the chance to withdraw peacefully, yet you still decided to stay.

I honestly don’t know whether to admire your determination or mock your stupidity." He said, deciding to show this junior what it meant to respect one’s seniors.

He was one of the most talented students of his year, and ever since he had joined the academy, his cultivation progress speed had always been above that of most of his peers.

He had reached the third stage toward the end of his second year, and after barely five months into his third year, he was already halfway through that stage, close to reaching its peak.

This was a very good speed of progress, and only a few others were at his level.

Only two people had surpassed him in this regard, and those two were the monstrous talents of the third year.

He could admit they were stronger than him, and that even if he gave it his all, he wouldn’t be able to defeat them, especially one of them, who was rumored to have already reached the fourth stage, leaving an enormous gap between him and everyone else of the same age.

Those two were the only ones he respected with all his heart, and feared with all his heart.

Apart from them, who else could stand against him? Who else could hold their head high before him?

no one!

So seeing that a second year student, despite knowing all this, didn’t give him any face, and even irritated him successfully.

After that, he said nothing more and simply waited for the judge of their arena to give the signal to start.

And it didn’t take long, because the next moment, seeing that everyone was ready, the judges of each arena gave the signal, and a storm of strikes and charged attacks erupted.

Needless to say, from that point on the battles were intense from the very beginning, and only those who found themselves against weaker opponents could afford to take it easy.

Along with the intensity of the fights came the exclamations of surprise and awe from the audience, as everyone discussed who might win or lose, while others cheered for their idols or friends.

Everyone’s eyes shifted from one arena to the next, scanning the fights whith some also examining their potential future opponents.

All did this, some starting from the first arena and moving forward, others the opposite. But one thing was common for everyone:

Those who reached arena number three all ended up with confused expressions as they looked at the bizarre scene there.

At first there were only a few, but little by little more people gathered, all staring at the strange sight with odd looks on their faces.

And how could they not?

After all, unlike the other arenas where the battles had already begun and were growing more intense, here everything was calm, as if the fight hadn’t started.

But that wasn’t the case, infact, it had already started, and was already over.

In the end, after a few seconds, one of the spectators couldn’t help but blurt out,

"Hey,why is that guy kneeling?" he asked, wearing a baffled look at what he was seeing.

Indeed, before his eyes was the scene of a boy wearing the uniform of a second year student on the arena, looking down at another person in a third year uniform, crouched on the ground with his body trembling slightly.