8 Preliminary phase
The elder was an old man wearing a brown Taoist robe. He had grey hair attached in a bun and his grey beard was trimmed to a thin point. His aura alone was enough to make everyone present look at him with a mix of fear and respect. There was no doubt that he was a powerful cultivator.
"Welcome everyone to this year's tournament! The preliminary phase of the tournament will start soon but first, each of you will be given an assigned number." Exclaimed the elder in a powerful voice.
Suddenly, a bamboo strip with a number written on it appeared in front of each of the 250 disciples.
'Wow, that's so cool.' Thought Song Yang as he took the bamboo strip that was floating in front of him.
The number assigned to him was "37". He took a look at the bamboo strip of his two roommates and saw that Tan Yanyan had the number "89" and Xia Zilin had the number "203".
"The preliminary phase of the tournament consists of a 'Free-for-all' format where ten of you will compete on a stage. The last one still standing on the stage will be able to participate in the final phase." Explained the elder.
After he said that, he raised his hand and a glowing symbol appeared above it. Then, the large stage behind him suddenly transformed into twenty-five smaller stages!
It was so impressive that many disciples widened their eyes when they saw that and even Song Yang was dumbfounded.
"Alright, the preliminary phase will start now. Number 1 to number 10, you will fight on the first stage. Number 11 to number 20, you will fight on the second stage. Number 21 to number 30, you will fight on the third stage..."
Song Yang would have to fight on the fourth stage along with nine other disciples. In his group, there were three girls and seven boys.
They all walked over to the fourth stage where a young man was already waiting for them. Coincidentally, this young man was the person whom Song Yang had met at the Martial Hall, the famous 'Senior Brother Lei'.
"My name is Wang Lei, I am the referee of the fourth stage. I will explain some rules to you. You must know that using weapons and talismans is forbidden during the preliminary phase. In order to defeat an opponent, you must knock them unconscious or throw them out of the stage. Of course, you can choose to surrender at any moment. The last one among you still standing on the stage will pass the phase." Explain the young man, smiling.
The ten disciples walked on the stage and Wang Lei announced the start of the fight.
"Begin!"
Song Yang targeted a random boy in front of him. He immediately rushed to him and punched him on the head with all his strength. The boy, surprised by the sudden attack, couldn't react and instantly passed out when he took the hit.
Next, Song Yang targeted two other people, a boy and a girl who were fighting each other and were too focused to notice their surroundings. He sneaked behind them and gave them both a powerful kick which threw them out of the stage!
A boy suddenly targeted Song Yang and tried to punch his chest. Thankfully, he reacted on time and blocked the attacks. The boy didn't stop and gave him a kick but Song Yang ignored it and allowed him to hit him to exploit an opening and hit him in the face. Thanks to his tough skin, a simple kick couldn't hurt him.
"Ahhh!" The boy screamed while holding his nose which seemed broken since it was bleeding.
"Sorry about that." Said Song Yang before knocking out the boy who was more focused on his bleeding nose than on their fight.
There were only three people left on the stage. In addition to Song Yang, there were also two boys who were fighting each other and seemed stronger than the others.
He decided to watch them fight and wait for an opening to strike them both. Well, that was his plan but one of the boys had another idea.
"Wait, let's take care of this girl before we continue our fight." He suggested to the other boy.
"Alright!" He agreed.
Song Yang clenched his fists, furious. So, they wanted to gang up on him? He would teach them a good lesson!
He used his Martial Art Freezing Palm and circulated Ice Qi in both of his hands. He dashed to the boys and struck them with the palm of his hands many times.
The two boys didn't know that he was using a Martial Art so they just casually blocked his attacks with their arms. They immediately regretted it.
"Ahhh! W-What's going on?"
"My arms! I can't move my arms!"
When Song Yang was using Freezing Palm, he could freeze from the inside everything he was touching. The two boy's arms were now completely frozen so they were unable to use them anymore.
"Give up now or I freeze your heart." He said, smirking. Of course, he was only bluffing since killing a disciple of the sect was forbidden and he was not even sure that he could kill someone.
The two boys looked at him with fear in their eyes. If they knew that this beautiful girl was actually a demon they would have never attacked her!
Since they couldn't use their arms, they could no longer defend themselves, so they had only one choice.
"I-I give up."
"M-Me too, I give up."
Song Yang was now the last person standing on the stage. He had a lovely smile on his face as he was very proud of his performance.
"Good, we have a winner! Give me your name and your assigned number." Said Wang Lei.
"Song Yu Qi, number 37." He said.
After a month of being called 'Sister Yu Qi', he no longer had a problem calling himself Song Yu Qi.
"Alright, now we have to wait until all the other stages are done." He said.
"I understand."
"Junior Sister, I saw you fight, you can even use a Martial Art! I think you have a good chance to reach the top five." Said Wang Lei, smiling
"Thank you, referee." He said.
"You can call me Senior Brother Lei." He immediately said.
"Hmm, I don't think your girlfriend will appreciate that." He said, sarcastically.
"My girlfriend?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.
"You know, the girl who threatens people to stay away from you or they will 'regret it'"
"Ah, you must be talking about Junior Sister Xiao Wei. She's definitely not my girlfriend..." He said with an irritated expression. Just thinking about that girl put him in a bad mood.
"Oh." Said Song Yang but he was no longer listening to him. He was wondering if Tan Yanyan and Xia Zilin had also successfully passed the preliminary phase.
Half an hour later, the twenty-five disciples who had passed the preliminary phase were all gathered and the twenty-five stages suddenly transformed back into one large stage.
Seeing that Tan Yanyan and Xia Zilin were among the twenty-five who passed reassured Song Yang and he walked over to them with a large grin.
"I'm glad you also passed!" He said.
"Of course, it was easy." Said Tan Yanyan, smiling.
"Easy? I almost lost, I was only lucky!" Lamented Xia Zilin.
"Well, luck is also part of a cultivator's strength." Said Song Yang to reassure her. He had read so many xianxia novels that he knew how important luck was.
While they were waiting for the announcement of the next phase, Song Yang could hear many people talking in the audience.
"Look, Prince Zhao Jian and Princess Zhao Tang passed the preliminary. As expected of the Twin Stars of the Star Empire."
"Li Qiang also passed but I'm not surprised, he is from the Li family after all."
"The heir of the Hu family, Hu Xia, also easily beat all his opponents."
"Same for Tan Yanyan, no wonder she's the sister of an inner disciple!"
Song Yang was surprised to hear that Tan Yanyan was famous among the outer disciples. He knew that her brother was an inner disciple but it didn't sound that impressive to him.
Ten minutes later, the same elder as the last time arrived and the place once again became silent.
"The last phase consists of a one versus one fight between the twenty-five of you. I remind you that the disciples who reach the top five will receive an increase in their allocated cultivation resources for one year! For this phase, the use of weapons, Martial Arts, and talismans is allowed. However, intentionally killing his opponent is forbidden." He said.
"Since there are twenty-five disciples, seven of you will directly be qualified for the second round without having to fight." He continued.
The tension was palpable among the disciples. Each of them wanted to reach the top five. Song Yang, for his part, didn't want to reach the top five for more resources but only for his personal satisfaction. His goal was even to become the top 1!
He knew that becoming top 1 would attract a lot of attention to him. But there was bad attention and good attention.
Bad attention meant that people would suspect him to hide secrets and would target him to discover these secrets.
Good attention meant that people would look up to him and approach him for his strength and talent.
As long as he was cautious enough, becoming the top 1 meant that he would attract good attention to him. Moreover, he preferred to show everyone from the start that he was strong rather than having to constantly hide his strength and lose on purpose.
"First fight: Huo Si Yan against An Qin Fu." Announced the elder.
