The night passed quickly and soon it was the next day.
This was the second day of the tournament and the day that fights between contestants was supposed to begin.
The preliminary tests yesterday brought the number of contestants down to a thousand, but that was still too many people. So they had to do another round of eliminations to bring the number of people down to a number that they could hold a proper tournament with.
Their method of doing this was dividing people into blocks and then having those blocks fight it out to determine who would be moving on.
It was set so that there were sixteen blocks in total and there would be only two people who would be moving on for each of the sixteen blocks.
As for the distribution, it would be completely random.
But in the end, as if by some kind of miracle, the blocks were divided so that each of them had one seeded contestant in them. That is except for a certain block that had two seeded contestants.
There were seventeen seeded contestants in the first place, so even if they were evenly divided among the sixteen blocks, there would have been one block that had two seeded contestants.
But by all right, the seeded contestants should have been grouped together more instead of being spread out evenly like this. There should have been more blocks that had seeded contestants in them.
The normal contestants all complained about this matter.
If the seeded contestants were pitted against each other, that would mean that there would be fewer seeded contestants making it into the main tournament and there would be a greater chance of them making it through. But now that the seeded contestants had been spread out across these different blocks, it was very likely that they would all make it through to the main tournament.
At the same time, it would mean less spots for them to make it through.
Even if they couldn't win the main tournament, just making it through would be plenty for them to brag about. At the same time, the increase in their prestige would benefit them greatly since it would allow them to be scouted by large sects or powers, giving them many resources to help them grow stronger.
But it wasn't as if there was anyone that they could complain to.
In fact, even if they complained, it wouldn't change anything.
To say that it wasn't premeditated was a lie since it was indeed something that the organizers of the tournament had set up.
The powers behind these seeded contestants were working closely with the organizers, so it wasn't as if they could just ignore the wishes of these powers. So they had rigged these draws so that there would be one seeded contestant in each of the blocks.
As for the block that had to have two seeded contestants…they had deliberately made it so that it was Young Master Tai and Young Master He who were put in those blocks.
These two already had a grudge between them since they were from sects that opposed each other. So if they were paired in the same block, there was no doubt that they would fight each other with all that they had.
This was done intentionally as a way to create more hype in the crowd.
An all out fight between cultivators at the level of Young Master Tai and Young Master He was not something that normal people would have a chance to see. So they were using this to create more fame and hype for the tournament.
The format for this round of elimination was very simple.
It was set up so that each of the blocks would enter a battle royale and the last two standing would be the ones that moved on to the main tournament.
The results of the different blocks were as one would imagine them to be.
The seeded contestants easily made their way into the real tournament, but there were a few blocks that had interesting results.
One of the blocks saw everyone teaming up to fight that seeded contestant, but that didn't turn out well for them.
They were all taken down in groups by the seeded contestant until there were only a few of them left. At that point, they gave up on ganging up on the seeded contestant since they knew they couldn't win and started fighting amongst themselves.
Eventually, there was only one of them that was left standing and that person went to the real tournament with the seeded contestant.
There was also a block where multiple groups tried to team up with the seeded contestant, but that didn't work at all. In the end, they fought against each other until there was only one group left and then that group fought amongst themselves to decide who would make it through with the seeded contestant.
The rest of the blocks progressed as normal.
They were real battle royales among the contestants and there were people who challenged the seeded contestants, but they were all defeated in the end.
Every single seeded contestant was able to make it through their blocks in the end.
Finally, it was time for the block with two seeded contestants.
Every normal contestant who was in that block had a look like they were about to face death on their faces. Though to describe it as that wasn't considered wrong since they were indeed about to face death.
There were two seeded contestants in this block, so their fate had already been sealed.
They could only team up with each other and try to take advantage of the fight between the two of them to see if they could do anything. After all, the grudge between their two sects was something that everyone knew.
But to their surprise and everyone else's surprise, the two of them…actually teamed up to take care of every other contestant.
Well, it wasn't that they teamed up per say…It was just as if there was a tacit understanding between the two of them that they didn't attack each other.
The other contestants all had bitter looks on their faces when facing the two of them, but there wasn't anything that they could do.
There was a large difference in power between them, so they were knocked out in the end.
In the end, there were only five people left.
Both Young Master Tai and Young Master He knocked out one person before turning to the last person who was still there.
That person raised his sword to point at them, but there was no hiding the trembling of his legs. Even the crowd that was watching this couldn't help feeling sorry for this person as he was surrounded by Young Master Tai and Young Master He.
At the very least, he had been the one that had survived the longest against the two of them.
However, to his surprise and everyone's surprise again, the two young masters didn't knock him out. They instead pulled out some rope that they had prepared ahead of time and tied this person up.
That person tried to resist, but they weren't able to break out of the ropes.
It wasn't surprising since these were ropes that had been specially prepared.
They were strong enough to even bind and suppress someone in the Foundation Realm, so it wasn't as if this person who was in the Qi Gathering Realm would be able to break out of it.
So that person could only sit there as the two young masters turned to face each other.
There was a moment of silence as the two of them stared at each other before they suddenly used their strongest moves against each other.
The ball of flames and the sword surrounded in water slammed into each other and there was a shockwave that was released. If it wasn't for the barrier that surrounded this stage, then it was very likely that the crowd would have been blown away from this shockwave.
However, the cracks that formed on the ground of the stage were more than enough to show how powerful this clash was.
There was a balance between the two attacks as neither side backed down.
In the end, both of them were pushed away from each other before both spitting out a mouthful of blood.
It was clear that they had both been injured from that clash just now.
However, it was also clear that neither of them were willing to back down with the determined looks on their faces.
It was just too bad that before either of them could make a move, the referee called an end to the fight.
Both of them immediately turned to glare at the referee as if they didn't agree to this, but the referee pointed at the person they had tied up on the ground. Both of them turned to look at this person and they were surprised to find…that this person had fainted.
However, it wasn't as if they couldn't understand why this person had fainted.
They had only tied him up so that he wouldn't struggle, but they hadn't put anything around him to protect this person.
So when he faced the shockwave from the clash between them…he was knocked out by the force of the shockwave.
Both of them realized their mistakes right away, but it wasn't as if they were going to admit their mistakes.
So they just glared at each other for a bit before suddenly turning around to leave at the same time while also giving a snort at the same time.
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