freenovelworld Chapter 44 Trials
Chapter 44 Trials
The entire Sword Sect was in a state of utter speechlessness.
The organizers' service attitude is truly appalling! Lin Zhifeng thought to himself, standing in the crowd: This is the only downside of the cultivation continent—there's no regulatory body. When faced with such outrageous tactics from the Heavenly Sword Sect, there's absolutely nothing they can do. Either they storm off in a huff, letting this year's competition benefit other sects because the Heavenly Sword Sect isn't participating; or they have to be "under someone else's roof" and swallow their anger.
Ultimately, the Sword Sect prioritized the greater good and chose to endure.
Everyone returned to their rooms, each holding their breath. "When the competition starts, if we encounter anyone from the Heavenly Sword Sect, we'll beat them to a pulp!"
The Sword Sect lived a meager existence in a remote "parking lot," without even basic necessities. They had made many sacrifices to ensure the smooth running of the tournament.
Three days later, the competition officially began.
The first event was the advancement competition for the Nascent Soul cultivator group.
Lin Zhifeng and his fellow disciples were all ready to show off their skills and, if they happened to encounter anyone from the Heavenly Sword Sect, to teach them a lesson.
The selection competition for the grand tournament among various sects in the cultivation world is a chaotic free-for-all, where all participants will be teleported to a large arena.
The competition is limited to half a day. When the competition ends, the last person still standing on the ring will enter the final.
Those who advance to the finals will be drawn into groups and will compete in one-on-one matches. Finally, the top 100 players will be determined based on the number of wins and losses.
After the leaderboard is determined, those who made it to the finals but didn't make the leaderboard have one chance to challenge any player on the leaderboard. If they win, the challenger can take the place of the person who originally ranked on the leaderboard; the outcome for those who lose is self-explanatory.
Therefore, generally speaking, the ten players ranked at the bottom of the leaderboard are in a more precarious position. Making it onto the leaderboard is one thing, but maintaining it is another—they will likely face a barrage of challenges from other players.
Since this is the competition rule, Lin Zhifeng definitely needs to study its loopholes so that everyone can conserve more physical and mental energy during the arena battles.
Lin Zhifeng's idea was that the disciples of the Sword Sect should gather as soon as they arrived at the arena and stick together.
Everyone first occupies a corner of the ring, taking turns to fight on the outer perimeter. Those in the inner circle are responsible for support and providing buffs to their teammates. After a while, a new group of people is rotated out, and if someone is defeated or injured, they are promptly replaced by someone from behind.
This method can control the number of casualties to the maximum extent. Unless you encounter an extremely powerful opponent who can instantly kill someone of the same level, you cannot cause them too much damage as long as they are roughly equal.
This is absolutely the best choice.
Lin Zhifeng explained his method. Previously, the hundred contestants from the Sword Sect had looked down on him, thinking that he only became one of them by luck and having a good father. Now, everyone understood that this kid was quite clever and had some skills.
Although everyone agreed to follow his plan, they were still somewhat unhappy: it seemed he was just using them to fend off an attack because he himself was incompetent; how could he come up with such a high-sounding reason? At this point, for the sake of the Sword Sect's reputation, everyone had no choice but to act as his henchmen, no matter how unwilling they were.
Seeing that no one objected and everyone readily accepted his suggestion, Lin Zhifeng felt quite pleased with himself, thinking he had cleverly helped more members of the Sword Sect get on the list. If he knew what everyone was thinking, he might have been so angry that he wouldn't care about anyone else.
It's no wonder people look down on him; everyone knows how he got into the top 100. Even the elite disciples who ventured into the secret realm with him didn't think he was that strong.
Only Lin Jun and his brothers knew that Lin Zhifeng had received the inheritance. Despite their seemingly unreliable demeanor, these guys were very tight-lipped. Therefore, the other elite disciples of the Sword Sect were completely unaware that Lin Zhifeng had achieved minor mastery of the Water and Fire Dual Swords and that his power had greatly increased.
In short, regardless of everyone's individual motives, they have reached a consensus for the sake of the Sword Sect.
The competition officially began, and hundreds of thousands of people were crammed onto a stage the size of a football field, where people were practically shoulder to shoulder.
Those unlucky ones who landed on the edge of the ring were kicked off by the people next to them, ending their match.
As agreed beforehand, the Sword Sect members fought their way towards the eastern corner.
Lin Zhifeng now had a 30% luck boost, and all the players he encountered along the way were inferior to him, so he quickly arrived at the meeting point unscathed.
There were some scheming individuals in the Sword Sect who deliberately pushed him to the periphery to fight against contestants from other sects.
Lin Zhifeng didn't take it too seriously. He unleashed a phoenix cry and burned the disciples from other sects who were near him, leaving them scorched and broken. For a moment, no one dared to approach him.
As time passed, fewer and fewer people remained on the arena. Apart from the few dozen who had been lost before the gathering, most of the Sword Sect members actually persevered until the end.
Lin Zhifeng didn't slack off and even showed his face in the front row a few times; when he was in the back row, he used ice magic to save several senior brothers; in addition, the method he came up with was indeed very effective, which actually changed his image in the eyes of the Sword Sect disciples.
When the selection ended, there were fifty-six disciples from the Sword Sect on the arena, while the other sects combined only had a little over four hundred.
This result gave the organizers a major headache. However, they couldn't accuse the Sword Sect of cheating, since they hadn't violated any competition rules.
The organizers drafted supplementary rules for the competition overnight, meaning that Lin Zhifeng's methods could no longer be used in competitions for the Nascent Soul stage. This was all announced later, and Lin Zhifeng was quite disappointed upon hearing it—but that's another story.
The five hundred-plus finalists drew lots to determine their one-on-one opponents. Winners continued, losers were eliminated.
Lin Zhifeng easily won two matches and entered the top 100.
The other disciples of the Sword Sect largely benefited from Lin Zhifeng's influence and were not eliminated in the selection competition. Therefore, their overall win rate in the first two rounds of the selection against the top 100 was not high. Some even unfortunately encountered fellow disciples from the Sword Sect, resulting in sect "internal strife," which was quite regrettable.
But there's nothing we can do about it; their sect has the most members.
Thirty-one disciples from the Sword Sect ultimately made it into the top one hundred.
The top 100 contestants then began competing for rankings.
Lin Zhifeng, a lucky guy, first captured a Nascent Soul stage disciple from a small sect. This disciple was also somewhat fortunate, which is why he survived the chaotic battle among many sects and made it into the final top 100.
Unfortunately, he was outmatched by a truly lucky opponent. Lin Zhifeng easily won with just one move and entered the top fifty.
The top fifty will draw lots again, and this time his opponent is quite strong. Unfortunately, he is a fire-type two-handed swordsman. His swordsmanship is wide and sweeping, and his fighting style is fierce, but he inevitably lacks mobility and flexibility.
Lin Zhifeng used the water-based Crane Cry Sword to counter the fire-based attack, and with his agile movements, the battle ended in just a few dozen moves.
The next round will have 25 winners, which is an odd number. One person will receive a bye and advance directly to the next round.
While other sects were still speculating about who the lucky winner would be, the Sword Sect members were already numbly thinking: "Here we go again! It's that familiar draw for the finals again!"
As expected, the draw resulted in Lin Zhifeng receiving a bye in this round and advancing directly to the next round.