Chapter 285: Chapter 167: Get to the Side! Don’t Touch Me
Lu Yuan stood on a high platform, holding a horn, and announced, "Today’s assessment will be a team elimination tournament. You will form teams of five to compete against each other.
A Traveler on a team is worth one point, a Celestial Master is two points, a Spirit Binder is three points, and a Grand Celestial Master is four points.
Teams with the same point total will be matched against each other. The fights will be non-lethal.
The losing team will provisionally fail the assessment.
From the losing teams, we will select the ten best performers based on their individual situations to advance to the next round."
The reason Lu Yuan had established these rules for the second round was quite simple.
The five or six hundred people in the courtyard had either come in groups or arrived alone.
Most of them were randomly choosing partners to form their teams.
If a team of five Grand Celestial Masters were to fight a team of five Travelers,
the outcome of such a mismatched fight would be all but certain.
That’s why he had implemented a system where teams with equal point values would compete against each other. It was a much fairer rule.
For example, a team of five Grand Celestial Masters would have a score of twenty points.
Thus, they would inevitably be matched against another twenty-point team of five Grand Celestial Masters.
After yesterday’s first round of selections, the applicants now gathered in the Martial Hall Courtyard were all relatively outstanding individuals.
Of course, there would be a few odd individuals unable to form a team, or a few leftover teams with no one to fight.
Lu Yuan planned to have his own Mansion Guards participate in the assessment, which would also serve as a test for the current Zhao Mansion guards.
Once everyone understood the rules for the second round, a stir ran through the crowd.
Everyone began scrambling to find teammates.
Under these circumstances, Grand Celestial Masters were not necessarily the most sought-after.
After all, if your team had a Grand Celestial Master, the opposing team would most likely have one too.
Instead, Spirit Binders became the hot commodity.
If a Spirit Binder on your team had a Xingzi with four or five hundred years of cultivation, wouldn’t that be completely overpowered?
A Xingzi with that much cultivation could even fight a Grand Celestial Master.
However, Spirit Binders of that caliber were exceedingly rare.
It was difficult for Spirit Binders not from prominent families to have the resources to capture a Xingzi with four or five hundred years of cultivation; managing to detain one with three hundred years was already a considerable feat.
This was mainly due to the limitations of Spirit Capturing Devices. Middle Grade Spirit Capturing Devices were scarce on the market and not easy to obtain.
Besides, Xingzi also varied in quality.
Jiang Huai, a Grand Celestial Master and a Central Guard Thousand Households of the Southern Town Patrol Department, rejected a team invitation from a stranger who was also a Grand Celestial Master.
Jiang Huai chose to team up with his own subordinates. This way, he wouldn’t end up in a situation where he had to carry four others.
Jiang Huai was very confident in his subordinates.
Jiang Huai, along with two Celestial Masters and two Spirit Binders, formed a team with fourteen points—a team in the upper-middle range.
The Martial Hall’s courtyard was quite large, spanning over a dozen acres.
The one hundred-plus teams would face off in pairs. They were divided among ten combat arenas, with five or six matches scheduled for each arena.
At this rate, the second round of the assessment would be over by the end of the day.
「In less than an hour.」
Lu Yuan had already arranged for the Mansion Guards to have the hundred-plus teams draw lots for their groups and assigned combat arenas.
Following a loud shout from a Mansion Guard with a horn,
the twenty teams in the ten combat arenas began their matches simultaneously.
Lu Yuan moved between the various combat arenas, observing the participants’ fights.
For Lu Yuan, this was an excellent learning opportunity.
’I’ve only ever practiced with Martial Arts Secret Manuals. I have far too little actual combat experience.’
’If I were to fight a senior with rich combat experience, what with techniques like "Four Catties Move Thousand Pounds" or the "Receiving and Transforming Technique"...’
’...I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to use any of my skills.’
’I should use this opportunity to watch how others perform in real battles.’
As it happened, Jiang Huai’s team was in the first round of matches.
Their opponents were a team composed of four Spirit Binders and one Celestial Master.
After the match began, the opposing team was the first to act.
The four Spirit Binders chanted their Spells and shook the Dharma Artifacts in their hands. Their detained Xingzi appeared one after another—all of them with over three hundred years of cultivation.
The spectators outside the arena who saw this overwhelmingly threw their support behind the team with four Spirit Binders.
Jiang Huai’s subordinates didn’t let their superior make a move.
As Jinyi Guards, they often held this kind of competitive match in the Southern Town Patrol Department.
Given the strength of the Jinyi Guard, this match was bound to be a complete rout.
One of the Spirit Binders on Jiang Huai’s team detained a colobus monkey with over three hundred years of cultivation, while the other summoned a black panther with over four hundred years.
The moment the colobus monkey and black panther appeared in the arena, Lu Yuan immediately took notice.
The quality of the colobus monkey and the black panther was not low, and both of their masters were holding Middle Grade Spirit Capturing Devices.
Yesterday, the number and quality of each Spirit Binder’s Xingzi had been recorded in a register.
Lu Yuan hadn’t examined it in detail; the Mansion Guards had been the ones to decide who passed the assessment based on the set standards.
Although the opposing four Spirit Binders all had Xingzi with over three hundred years of cultivation, their quality couldn’t compare to these two. They lacked spiritual awareness.
That was why it was possible to barely detain a three-hundred-year Xingzi with a Lower Grade Spirit Capturing Device.
Of these four Spirit Binders, three held Lower Grade Spirit Capturing Devices, and one held a Top Grade Spirit Capturing Device.
Lu Yuan stood not far from the arena, watching the match.
The Jinyi Guard’s colobus monkey was the first to attack, lunging forward with extreme speed.
It leaped up, wrapped its arms around the neck of a Xingzi, and in the next instant, executed a suplex.
It smashed the Xingzi directly into unconsciousness.
And only five seconds had passed.
The spectators, both in and out of the combat arena, were all stunned.
