However, their ranks were mostly in the last ten. Only Zhao Yufei had reached the top twenty. Obviously, this was the Spot Challenge rankings and not the real rankings.
"I still came late." Zhao Feng used his identity card and passed through the checkpoint.
"It's Zhao Feng!"
"It's him, the top outer disciple!" Zhao Feng immediately attracted the crowd's attention.
"Judge, can I still participate?" Zhao Feng said as he arrived, puffing from his run.
"No matter who you are, you cannot join since the first round of the tournament is over," the judge said. He didn't think that Zhao Feng needed special attention.
"Hm? It's him!" The white-bearded main judge's eyes lit up. He was the main judge of the outer disciples' contest and had seen Zhao Feng dominate it.
Hearing the judge's words, Zhao Feng shook his head helplessly. He wasn't very interested since there were only two to three people who were his match. But Zhao Feng was still interested in the rewards. If one reached the top three, they could go to the Martial Arts Library and choose a peak ranked skill.
"Wait," the command came from the main judge.
"Main judge? What do you mean…?" the judge that was organizing asked doubtfully.
"This kid easily dominated the outer disciples' contest and came in first. His understanding and potential are immeasurable. I think we can give him a chance," the white-bearded old man said.
Zhao Feng looked gratefully towards him. The judge had helped him more than once.
"I oppose!" a cold voice sounded from opposite corner. The person was Zhao Tianjian.
"Every country has their own rules! How can rules be changed for one person? If they arrive late for the main tournament, then it is obvious that he is disregarding the rules!" Zhao Tianjian said righteously.
Zhao Feng felt sick. He was late because Zhao Tianjian had sent assassins after him. Now, Zhao Tianjian was stopping him from entering the tournament.
"You're right! Zhao Tianjian is correct! We can't let people like him through the back door."
"Heh, this kid can wait for the next tournament three years later." Many people sent gloating looks at Zhao Feng.
The high ups of the Zhao sect started to discuss among themselves. This year's contest was very important. Not only had some of the elders arrived, even the head of the sect Zhao Tiancang was here. Their point of view was different than others. They would rather raise more geniuses than care about rules.
"What do the two main judges think?" the head of the sect Zhao Tiancang said without expression. Three people had the most power in the main tournament: the head of the sect and the two main judges.
"I support Zhao Feng. It's better for the sect if we have more geniuses," the white-bearded main judge said. Immediately, all the people turned to look at the other main judge. The other judge was a white-robed old man.
Zhao Feng saw that this person was familiar. He then immediately realized that this person was the one guarding the Martial Arts Library the last time he'd visited.
The white-robed old man also saw Zhao Feng, and said deeply, "I also support Zhao Feng."
The crowd stirred. Both the main judges had decided to support Zhao Feng!
Two of the three people who had the most power here had decided to help Zhao Feng. Even the head of the sect couldn't do anything about it now.
"How could this happen…?" Zhao Tianijan's face turned green.
Chapter 37 – Ranking Challenge
"Ok, we'll act as the two main judges say and allow Zhao Feng to participate." The head of the sect Zhao Tiancang looked at Zhao Feng with interest.
With the head of the sect and the two main judges agreeing, no one dared to oppose them. This was the first time Zhao Feng had ever felt a sense of belonging to his sect.
Zhao Tianjian was trembling in anger. He couldn't believe that Zhao Feng could return alive. Gray Eagle has failed. With Gray Eagle's strength, how could he possibly fail?
"Zhao Feng!" the judge said. "I shall explain the rules to you now."
"Yes." Zhao Feng listened carefully.
People challenged one another in this tournament. The first round Spot Challenge was when the fifty outer disciples challenged the fifty inner disciples. If they won, they took the place of the inner disciples. Every outer disciple had three chances to challenge someone. If they lost all three challenges, then they would remain outer disciples. Therefore, before the outer disciples challenged anyone, they first had to estimate their own strength and choose the weaker inner disciples.
"Zhao Feng, since you were late, you only have one chance to challenge someone," the judge said strictly.
One chance?
Zhao Feng nodded his head. "I understand." With his strength, he could easily become an inner disciple. Unless Zhao Feng was retarded and chose someone like Zhao Linlong, he would win. Obviously, Zhao Feng would not challenge the strongest guy straight away.
"Now you can choose one person. If you win, you can take their spot," the judge warned.
"Ok!" Zhao Feng jumped on stage and surveyed the fifty people.
Fifty people, fifty seats all arranged in order.
The order from left to right went Zhao Linlong, Zhao Chi, Zhao Han, Zhao Qin…
The first row of ten represented the top ten inner disciples. On the seventh chair of the second row, Zhao Feng spotted Zhao Yufei. Zhao Yufei looked at him and gently smiled. The two were neighbors and were quite familiar with each other.
Zhao Yue, Zhao Yijian, Zhao Gan, and Zhao Guang were between fortieth and fiftieth place. Apart from Zhao Feng, there were only five others that had become inner disciples.
Who should I challenge? Zhao Feng smiled as he inspected them. Zhao Linlong, who was in first place had his eyes closed as if he was trying to gain insights into something. It seemed like the tournament had nothing to do with him.
The top inner disciples didn't even worry. However, the disciples ranked at the bottom were nervous. After all, Zhao Feng was the top outer disciple. He could easily reach the top ten with his strength.
The second row…sixth seat… Zhao Feng's eyes settled on the person on Zhao Yufei's right.
"Number sixteen Zhao Fei, please come out," the judge said. Zhao Fei was sixteen or seventeen years old. He had the cultivation of the peak third rank, but his aura wasn't any weaker than cultivators of the fourth rank.
"Kid, don't think that you can beat me just because you've reached the fourth rank!" Zhao Fei calmly walked on stage.
"Heh, this Zhao Fei is pretty strong. With his Block Metal Body, he's beaten two quasi Martial Artists."
"Zhao Feng might not advance so smoothly."
In terms of winning, Zhao Feng obviously had a higher chance. But his opponent's strength wasn't weak either, so it would be a tough fight.
"Metal Sand Palm!" Zhao Fei only used a middle ranked martial art.
Pah!
The damage was higher than most high ranked martial arts. This was because it had been trained to the peak level!
Zhao Feng was slightly impressed. At the outer disciple contest, only he had trained middle ranked martial arts to the high level. The thing was, Zhao Fei's Metal Sand Palm complemented his Block Metal Body. Therefore, this palm could beat Zhao Yijian's Ice Flowing Sword.
"Zhao Fei's strength is not any weaker than half-step Martial Artists now." A few of the inner disciples nodded in approval.
Flaming Metal Fist!
Zhao Feng casually threw out a punch. He was using core ranked martial arts. Not only that, he didn't add any Inner Strength to it.
This scene caused many people to be shocked. Not using Inner Strength meant that he didn't have an advantage.
"Kid, don't try to be cool!" Zhao Fei took a deep breath and circulated Block Metal Body and Metal Sand Palm to his limit. Originally, he didn't think that he'd beat Zhao Feng, he could only spar a bit. But since the opponent was so arrogant…
; On the stage, the two figures closed in on each other, and the fist and palm hit the other.
"Break—–"
Zhao Fei had a face of urgency and happiness, But the reality is cruel.
Peh!
The second his palm hit the fist, he felt overwhelming power numb his arm.
Ah!
Zhao Fei's started to sweat. He felt that Zhao Feng was as powerful as a bull.
Pong—
Zhao Fei didn't even understand what was happening and was sent flying. One move. All it took Zhao Feng to beat Zhao Fei was one move. Although it wasn't surprising that Zhao Feng would win, to win in one move was startling.
"He won by using core ranked martial arts, and he didn't use any Inner Strength."
"Zhao Feng has learned a high ranked body martial art… "
"Zhao Feng, challenge successful! You are ranked sixteenth for now. As for Zhao Fei, you have three chances to challenge someone…" the judge declared.
After beating Zhao Fei, Zhao Feng walked calmly to the sixth seat of the second row. On his left was Zhao Yufei.
"Your Metal Wall Technique has reached at least the third level," Zhao Yufei said, slightly surprised. Zhao Feng had learned this skill from her grandfather only a week ago!
According to her knowledge, Metal Wall Technique was very hard to train. Her grandfather had said that Zhao Feng would only be able to train it to the second level at best. But from Zhao Feng's performance, his Metal Wall Technique had reached at least the third level.
"Yep!" Zhao Feng smiled. His Metal Wall Technique had already reached the peak fourth level. There was a huge difference between the third and fourth level. Zhao Feng didn't even use half his strength when fighting Zhao Fei.
Onstage, the fighting continued. According to the rules, Zhao Fei had another chance to challenge someone. Soon, Zhao Fei successfully beat someone who was ranked twenty-sixth.
The tournament was delayed since Zhao Feng had entered halfway through to get through the new Spot Challenges.
Because there were fifty spots for inner disciples and there were 51 people, with one person eliminated. But Zhao Feng and five other outer disciples had become inner disciples.
"The spot challenge has finished…" the judge let out a breath and started to declare the start of the next round. They were proceeding to the Ranking tournament.
According to the previous news, the top twenty, ten and three had different rewards. The top three could choose peak ranked martial arts!
This was where Zhao Feng was especially interested. It was evident that the competition was going to be very fierce. Also, the inner disciples ranking decided one's honor and glory. All the youths here were eighteen or under, and they had the desire to win.
"The second round Ranking Tournament means that all of you have three chances to challenge someone. If you fail, then your chances decrease by one…" the judge said.
The rules were very clear.
The ones ranked behind would challenge the ones ranked higher. If they won, they would replace the opponent's rank. Everyone only had three chances to challenge someone. If they were successful, they still had three chances, but if they failed, their chances decreased by one.
"Understood." The fifty people nodded their heads.
The ones ranked last challenged others first. It started with rank fifty.
However, for those at the bottom, they were already very happy in becoming an inner disciple, and they knew that they had no chance to get to the top twenty. Therefore, there weren't many 40th to 50th ranked people doing challenges.
Even if there were, they just wanted to show off, and if they won higher rankings, they didn't even get any rewards.
Fortieth…thirty-ninth…thirty-eighth…
The rankings edged closer and closer. When it reached the twentieth to thirtieth places, the fighting became more and more fierce. People such as Zhao Yue and Zhao Yijian had all reached the top thirty. Zhao Yijian had reached twelfth, and Zhao Yue had reached fifteenth.
Overall, the top twenty inner disciples had the strength of quasi Martial Artists. Zhao Feng and Zhao Yufei were both true Martial Artists, so no one dared to challenge them. There were less than ten disciples who had reached the fourth rank of the Martial Path.
After the top twenty were confirmed, they started to compete for the top ten. Soon, it was Zhao Yufei's turn to challenge someone. Zhao Feng would challenge someone after Zhao Yufei's turn.
Several top ten inner disciples had not reached the fourth rank of the Martial Path. Zhao Yufei decided to challenge number six, and she won her match easily.
After reaching the top ten, Zhao Yufei gave up her chance to keep on challenging someone. This way, she could still save her two chances for the next two rounds.
"Number sixteen Zhao Feng, it's your turn," the judge declared.
Challenge 38 – Zhao Han's Challenge
It was finally Zhao Feng's turn. Being the top outer disciple, who would he challenge?
The top six had all reached the fourth rank. Zhao Linlong had reached the peak of the fifth rank, a bit better than Zhao Feng. Under the expectant eyes of the crowd, Zhao Feng slowly said, "Pass."
What!? Pass?
"Giving up your chance to challenge someone this round means that you only have two chances left to challenge someone," the judge said, surprised.
However, the rules said that the challenger could give up their chance if they wanted to. Zhao Feng obviously had his plans when he passed his turn.
His goal was the top three. This was only the first of three rounds; he didn't need everyone to know his true strength.
Secondly, he first wanted to understand the true strength of Zhao Linlong. Zhao Feng didn't dare to look down on the top three as they had all reached the fifth rank.
"Hmph! You think that because you gave up your chance, I don't have any way around that… " Zhao Han, who was ranked third, looked mockingly towards Zhao Feng. Zhao Feng could feel his enmity.
Before the tournament, Zhao Han had once told him that he would break his arm, just like Zhao Feng had done to Zhao Yijian.
After ten days, Zhao Han's cultivation was fully stable, and he could keep his Inner Strength under control.
Number fifteen…fourteen…thirteen…
The challengers became stronger. The competition for the top ten was very intense, but it was mainly focused on the seventh to tenth places. This was because the other six had all reached the fourth rank or higher, and their places were stable.
Soon, the top ten was decided. Now, the people focused on the top five and even the top three.
"I want to challenge number four, Zhao Qin," the azure-clothed youth said as he held his halberd. The impression that Zhao Qin gave Zhao Feng was gentle, quiet, and calm.
"Zhao Tun, you just reached the fourth rank not long ago, and you're already challenging me?" Zhao Qin faintly smiled. Her style of fighting was similar to her attitude. She used softness to counter hardness, and her specialty was speed.
"You're the only one I can challenge in the top five. Let's have a good fight!" Zhao Tun danced with his halberd. This was just the beginning of the ranking tournament, and two true Martial Artists were already fighting.
After tangling for a long time, Zhao Qin came out victorious. After all, she had the higher cultivation, and her skills were trained to a higher level.
Although Zhao Tun lost, his ranking stayed the same. Zhao Qin felt helpless as she scanned the top three. The top three were all too strong. All of them had reached the fifth rank. But to give up so easily wasn't her style.
Zhao Qin finally made her decision. "I choose to challenge number two, Zhao Chi."
Zhao Chi had just recently reached the fifth rank as well, but his Inner Strength wasn't as strong as Zhao Han's.
"Haha! You know you'll still lose Zhao Qin, so why bother!" Zhao Chi lazily jumped onstage.
The two face off. Zhao Feng was finally able
to see the strength of the top three now.
"Blue Cloud Finger!" Zhao Qin slowly lifted her finger. A faint blue glow came from the finger. It seemed weak and fragile, yet, it still swished through the air. This finger skill of hers was a high ranked martial art. She had trained it to a high level, and she understood how to use it very well.
The damage of her skill is not bad. The energy is focused onto one point. It contains both the softness of the water and the hardness of ice, Zhao Feng analyzed as he watched with his left eye.
Although Zhao Yijian's Ice Flowing Sword and Zhao Qin's Blue Cloud Finger were both high ranked martial arts that had reached the high level, the damage dealt by them was not comparable.
"Ai…you've only improved by this much!" Zhao Chi's lazy voice sounded.
Shuah!
Zhao Chi's body turned into an afterimage as he dodged Zhao Qin's attack.
Not good!
She had still underestimated Zhao Chi's strength.
"Zhao Chi's movement skill has reached the high level," the disciples exclaimed.
"Howling Sky Fist!" Zhao Chi appeared behind Zhao Qin and punched at her.
His fist was covered in a bright red glow. When it moved through the air, it caused a sound similar to lightning. Just the fist moving through the air caused the eardrums of some inner disciples to tremble.
What a devastating fist skill. This skill is infinitely close to a peak ranked martial art, it's no worse than my Metal Wall Technique. Zhao Feng was slightly surprised.
"Blue Clouds Flying!" Zhao Qin shouted as she took the punch straight on. Immediately, she was sent flying, and she coughed up blood as she landed on the ground.
Just one punch injured Zhao Qin. It was lucky that she used softness to counter hardness, any other cultivator would've been instantly defeated.
"That was just warm up." Zhao Chi said indifferently and attacked again. His performance made all the disciples wary of him!
King of Gods - (A Chinese Novel Translation): Book 1 Page 21
