Rui was rather surprised that she had managed to break out at almost the same time that he did. He managed to accomplish this with the help of his reincarnated mind and his strong dedication to his Martial Path.
She managed to accomplish the same feat without the former advantage. That was an incredible feat, worthy of the reigning champion of the Martial Contest.
He evaluated her with his Primordial Instinct. He was incredibly accustomed to getting a good gauge and grasp of Martial Squires with his mind and senses. He could usually easily understand their power, and decipher their Martial Art and Martial Path.
His eyes narrowed as he felt his nerves tingle.
Something was profoundly wrong.
He wasn't able to even fathom what her Martial Art was.
That wasn't the most disturbing part of her power level.
('This…') Rui's eyes widened. ('This isn't even incoherent. The impressions she gives rapidly fluctuate every second!')
One moment she was weak.
The next moment she was extremely strong.
The next moment she grew even stronger, giving off a quasi-Senior level strength!
…Before returning to an average power level.
He didn't understand. How could a Martial Squire's power fluctuate as if it were the readings of a seismograph? How could that even make any sense?
It Rui even more wary than if she was just plainly strong. He had dealt with that many times in his life and was confident that he could overcome it after understanding its depths.
What he truly was wary of was a Martial Squire whose power was incoherent. That was much more of a problem to him than an ordinarily strong Martial Squire.
"I wouldn't bother if I were you," Master Carian smirked. "The true depths of young Meera here are inscrutable to even my eyes. Then again…"
His eyes narrowed as he stared at Rui. "…The same can be said of yourself, can it not? You're birds of the same feather."
Just then, the third Martial Squire contestant got up after having broken out of the illusion that the Master had conjured.
Rui recognized her as well, it was the old grandma that he had spotted multiple times up until now.
It appeared that he had truly not misjudged her, she was certainly quite impressive to break out of the illusion this soon after it had been cast, trailing third behind Rui and Squire Meera.
People watched with interest as more and more began breaking out over the next hour. The ones that held their interest the most were the first eight that broke out of the illusion. They had the highest probability of making it to the final tournament as far as everybody was concerned.
The fact that the current champion of the Martial Contest was among the eight certainly lent credence to this theory.
However, Rui wasn't entirely sure how true that was. Mental fortitude did not corroborate with Martial power in a one-to-one fashion. Surely there were weaker Martial Artists with incredible mental fortitude, and there were prodigiously blessed Martial Squires with weaker fortitude.
However, it was true that mental parameters corresponded with the depth of the Martial Art, which, in turn, corresponded with Martial power, thus the correspondence was not bad, even if not perfect.
In reality, there was no way to root out the strongest in an absolutely perfect manner with a single test. It would take incredibly rigorous testing over extensive periods of time, pitting all Martial Squires against all others to even come close to having a hundred percent accuracy on who the strongest was.
However, this was not practical in such an event. This event was in celebration of a festival in its nature, and the event needed to reflect that.
That was a rather simple and unsophisticated format was chosen.
"It is time," Master Carian announced once the two-hundredth Martial Squire woke up. "The two hundred of you standing at this moment have successfully passed through to the next round. Congratulations, and good luck."
He clapped his hands, yet the noise it produced was an incredibly strange resonating tone that reverberated across the battle arena.
It was only after the remaining Martial Squire began waking up groggily to that trigger that Rui realized that he had deactivated his technique.
"You may be confused, so allow me to explain," Master Carian kindly informed. "You have all failed to overcome the challenge of the first round. You have been eliminated from the Martial Contest, we appreciate your participation, and we wish you good luck for the next time."
The losers of the first round quickly left the colosseum, heading out while the victors remained.
"The second round will begin soon, once again, good luck," Master Carian smiled as he sky-walked away.
The two hundred victors remained in place as they waited, unsure of what was to come next. Yet even before the next round could begin, a pair of potions suddenly appeared before all of them.
"Drink them," An incredibly elderly voice instructed them.
They all saw a powerful Martial Master descending from the sky onto the podium.
The next Martial Master responsible for the second round was an incredibly aged grandma, she made even the grandma Martial Squire feel young.
She was so old that she even needed a cane!
Of course, Rui was not stupid.
There was no way an especially powerful Martial Master needed a cane to balance or walk. It was either part of her Martial Art, or she simply carried it for some other reason.
Regardless, he followed her instructions, consuming both potions.
Instantly, his mind was rejuvenated, though his body remained the same. It appeared that the potions only refreshed the brain. That did make sense considering they did not physically exert themselves, only mentally. Rui did not even need any rejuvenation given that he had spent very little time in the dream world.
Yet the same could not be said for everybody, especially the lowest-ranked contestants who spent a lot more time breaking out of the dream world.
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