153: C153 First Round

C153 First Round

After Nie Zhen returned from the Yuqing Hall to the secret room, he cultivated for the entire night. Although the Advanced Disciple Assessment wasn't a big deal to Nie Zhen, during the fourth round, Nie Zhen absorbed quite a bit of the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.

Although Nie Zhen had yet to break through to the third level of the sky realm and the window paper had yet to be broken through, at the very least, he had touched the window paper.

Nie Zhen had no distractions in his mind as he wholeheartedly immersed himself in cultivation. Unknowingly, the night had already passed.

On the morning of the second day, Nie Zhen finished his closed door cultivation.

This day could be said to be the busiest day of the year in the Duobao Sect. Because the highlight of the annual examination — the battle of the core disciples — had begun today.

Although this was only a contest between ninety-six disciples, these ninety-six people still represented the peak combat strength of the Duobao Sect's younger generation.

As for the other disciples of the Duobao Sect, although they were unable to participate because of their own limitations, in their hearts, they were incomparably yearning for these core disciples. When they watched the battle once more, they would also imagine themselves standing in the arena one day.

At this time, the ninety-six core disciples were already standing on the stage, and the surrounding area of the stage was filled with disciples of Duobao Sect. Almost all of the inner sect disciples of Duobao Sect had already arrived here.

In the high platform in front of the martial arts arena, Wu Great Sect Master sat in the front row, followed by dozens of Duobao Sect Elders who stood in two rows. Each Duobao Sect Enforcer also stood at their respective positions.

Great Sect Master and Zhuo Bufan smiled: "Today, the ones standing here are the ninety-six core disciples with the highest level of Duobao Sect, you will be the main characters of today, I hope each of you can do your best, display what you have learned, and sacrifice yourself for my Duobao Sect, are you confident?"

"Yes!" All the disciples spoke out.

Great Sect Master nodded with a smile and said, "Very good! According to the custom of previous years, the top 32 core disciples, the first round will be empty, there's no need to participate in the competition, the remaining 64 core disciples, the sect has already numbered your corresponding rankings and made them into lots, and also put it in the opposite wooden box. In a while, we, Great Sect Master, will go up one by one to draw lots, and each person will take out two paper lots.

"Disciple understands!"

Great Sect Master smiled and called the other four heads forward. Great Sect Master went up to the wooden box with the paper sticks at the same time.

"The four heads will be in charge of supervising. I will first break all the paper sticks."

After Great Sect Master said this, he held the wooden box with both hands and shook it vigorously, messing up the order of the paper sticks.

After breaking the lot, Great Sect Master looked at the other four and asked, "Is there a problem?"

The other four sect masters said at the same time, "No problem."

"Alright, Fifth Sect Master, you should first grab the papers from the two disciples and sign them." Great Sect Master laughed.

Fifth Sect Master did not stand on ceremony. He stepped forward and grabbed with one hand, and two paper sticks were in his hands. He opened them and announced in front of the crowd: "# 46 versus # 82!"

The two core disciples who were called raised their heads at the same time and looked around for their opponents. At the same time, they determined if they were from the same sect.

At this time, Fifth Sect Master had already moved out of the way. Like Fifth Sect Master, Fourth Sect Master also stood out and grabbed two paper sticks. He opened them and said: "Number 49, against Number 54."

Fourth Sect Master's draw this time was very close, so the two of them should be equally strong.

Third Sect Master went up again and also grabbed two pieces of paper. He opened them and his expression slightly changed. He couldn't help but look at his hands and sigh in his heart: What kind of luck is this?

It turned out that the lot drawn by Third Sect Master, the two of them were both Third Sect Master's disciples...

"Number forty-two against number seventy-four." Third Sect Master could only say helplessly. With the rules like this, even if he were to draw lots with his own sect, it would be impossible to change it.

After Third Sect Master had finished, it was Nie Zhen's Master, Second Sect Master Duan Rong's turn to draw lots.

Duan Rong did not draw either badly or well, nor did he draw his disciple, so there was nothing special about him.

After drawing the lot, Duan Rong was about to step down when he heard Great Sect Master say from behind, "Second brother, you have to break the wooden box again to prevent me from cheating."

The Second Sect Master smiled bitterly at Great Sect Master. They did not doubt Great Sect Master would cheat on this matter. In Duan Rong's opinion, Great Sect Master's actions were a bit excessive. However, it was not a bad idea to try to be fair in front of the crowd.

According to Great Sect Master's request, Duan Rong once again disrupted all the lots in the wooden box. Then, Great Sect Master went up to draw his lot.

5 Great Sect Master took turns to draw lots, with each round he could draw ten disciples to have a showdown.

Nie Zhen was number 94 and was selected in the second round.

"Number sixty-five against number ninety-four!" Third Sect Master said loudly.

The sixty-fifth disciple was overjoyed when he heard about his opponent's decisive battle, and said in a low voice, "Haha …" "This round's ranking for my opponent is very low. It seems like I won't have any suspense in the first round."

Immediately, number sixty-five looked around, wanting to know who his opponent was. He then asked his fellow disciples: "Number ninety-four, do you know who that person is?"

There were a total of 64 disciples that had been selected, so it was easy to find out who their opponents were.

The seniors beside the sixty-fifth disciple immediately focused their attention on Nie Zhen, and they looked at the sixty-four disciple with a smile, "Congratulations Seventh Junior Brother, your opponent is the champion of the Advanced Disciple assessment."

"Senior Disciple Champion …" That "Seventh Martial Brother" still hadn't reacted when he thought about it.

Suddenly, Number 65 felt as if he was struck by lightning, and blurted out: "My opponent is Nie Zhen?! "Oh my god!"

He was initially overjoyed, but now he looked dejected. When he found out that his opponent was Nie Zhen, he became dispirited.

That number sixty-five bitterly said: "What kind of luck is this, to have lost two years in a row!"

This number sixty-five, was the disciple that lost to Nie Zhen's Great Sect Master's seventh junior brother in the final battle of Treasure Snatching Competition. The two of them were in the wrong this time, and were once again selected as the opponent.

In terms of personal strength, Bo Yan should be at least in the top forty of the Duobao Sect Core Disciples, and if the contract was good, he would be able to rush into the top thirty-two, but last year, this person had lost to First Senior Brother and Qin Wuyan who were of the same faction in the second round.

Who was Nie Zhen? The champion of the Advanced Appraisal, with a perfect score of six, it was said in the outside world that he already had the strength to enter the top 16, and even had the chance to enter the top 10.

Their strength was basically at the top of the core disciples. Even the First Level of the Heavenly Stage deacon, Sun Yu, had been defeated by them. Previously, they had only participated in the high-level disciple exam because of the sect's rules.

Bo Yan had lost to Nie Zhen in Treasure Snatching Competition at that time, and suffered from severe internal injuries, which had just recovered not too long ago. His cultivation was still stuck at the Ninth Level of the Earth Stage, and now that Nie Zhen had even defeated his First Level of the Heavenly Stage, how could a mere Ninth Level of the Earth Stage not be fun?

Bo Yan didn't know that the one who defeated him was Nie Zhen. Otherwise, when the result of the draw came out, he would have immediately surrendered.

Compared to Bo Yan, Nie Zhen's mentality was much calmer. He did not know that the disciple he pressed on the ground just happened to be this opponent, but even if he knew, his mentality would probably not fluctuate at all. The first round of the fight did not have the participation of the top thirty-two core disciples, so Nie Zhen did not feel any pressure at all.

In fact, even if it was the top thirty-two Core Disciples, Nie Zhen would not have felt that it was a threat to him. Back then, when Nie Zhen's cultivation was still at the Eighth Level of the Earth Stage, he was able to kill First Level of the Heavenly Stage Ranker Cai Saangzi.

By the time the results of the lots were out, the thirty-two pairs of competitors had already found their opponents.

Next, he would be standing on the Duobao Sect's Martial Arts Practice Field.

The training grounds of Duobao Sect, arranged according to the nine palaces, were extremely wide, and among them, the center of the training ground was the most spacious. And surrounding the training grounds, there were eight separate arenas, which were about one-tenth of the size of the training grounds, however, it was still much larger than the plaza where the previous Advanced Disciples assessment was held.

Even Nie Zhen had to admit that the training field was truly grand.

The eight Martial Arts Practice Grounds began their examination at the same time, and only four rounds were needed to finish all thirty-two pairs of disciples.

Nie Zhen was one of the first eight competitors to enter the stage.

Under the lead of the deacon, he and Bo Yan arrived at the arena.

Nie Zhen stood at the end of the training field with his hands behind his back. He looked very relaxed as he looked at Bo Yan, who was standing opposite him.

"Huff …" Bo Yan let out a long sigh of relief. He knew that there was no point lamenting about his poor luck. All he could do now was to try his best.

Thinking up to here, Bo Yan did not hold back and immediately summoned out a Spirit Weapon Spear from the Storage Ring.

This spear was his most powerful weapon, and he did not even use it when he was at the Treasure Snatching Competition. It was obvious that the pressure that Nie Zhen brought him was too much.2

"Make your move."

Nie Zhen gestured to Bo Yan with a single hand.

"Duobao Sect, Great Sect Master's seventh disciple Bo Yan, please enlighten me!" Bo Yan growled at Nie Zhen.

As for Nie Zhen, he cupped his fists towards the other party and said: "Second Patriarch of Duobao Sect, Nie Zhen, come at me!"

Nie Zhen saluted and Bo Yan rushed towards Nie Zhen.

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