Outer City Martial Arts Competition!

In the courtyard.

Li Changsheng was practicing the Tiger Skin Bone Refining Fist. He seemed to have transformed into a fierce tiger, every move brimming with murderous intent.

By now, he had cultivated this High-grade Bone Refining Martial Art to the Minor Accomplishment Realm. His body was also covered in Flawless Tiger Bone Secret Medicine, which was being absorbed by all one hundred and eight of his bones.

Gradually, those one hundred and eight bones began to transform, changing bit by bit from iron bones into bronze bones.

Several more days passed.

Li Changsheng's one hundred and eight bones had completely transformed into bronze bones. He had become a powerful Bronze Bone Realm martial artist, and his strength surged tremendously.

After breaking through to the Bronze Bone Realm, Li Changsheng gave himself a day off. He rested properly and went out for a lavish meal.

The next day.

He arrived at the Azure Steel Martial Hall. As soon as he entered and revealed his true appearance, a martial hall disciple came over.

"Senior Brother Li, Master is calling for you!"

The speaker was a disciple in the Skin Grinding Realm. As for his name, Li Changsheng had no idea.

He followed this Junior Brother to see his master.

"Master," Li Changsheng called.

Xu He dismissed that disciple, then said to Li Changsheng, "Changsheng, the once-every-five-years Baiye Outer City Martial Arts Competition is about to begin. Are you interested in competing?"

"The Baiye City Outer City Martial Arts Competition?" Li Changsheng had never heard of this event, so he asked, "Master, what kind of competition is this?"

Xu He explained, "The Outer City Martial Arts Competition is also an opportunity for Outer City martial artists to enter the Inner City. However, participants must be under twenty-five years old and cannot be members of the six great families."

"Not members of the six great families?" Li Changsheng was puzzled. "Master, why can't people from the Outer City's six great families participate?"

"Because this is an opportunity for the mud-legged folk of the Outer City. The six great families stand above martial hall disciples, gang disciples, and ordinary martial artists in strength. To the Inner City, everyone other than the Outer City's six great families is a mud-legged commoner. The six great families have many channels through which they can enter the Inner City, and they have backers there as well. They do not need to fight over the Inner City slots from this Martial Arts Competition. There are only ten slots in total. Even if some were given to them, they would not get many, and they do not care much for them."

"There is another reason. The six great families are the top powers in the Outer City, but if they moved into the Inner City, they would be nothing. Thus, the six great families do not permit too many clan members to enter the Inner City, and only send in a few geniuses each year. Take Zhang Baizang, who traded with you before. The Zhang family would not have given him a slot, because they were preparing to groom Zhang Baizang as the next head of the Outer City Zhang family. Yet Zhang Baizang still bought your slot and went to the Inner City."

Xu He's explanation made Li Changsheng fully understand, but he did not want to go to the Inner City for the time being.

"Master, I'm not really suited to going to the Inner City right now, am I? That slot isn't of much use to me," Li Changsheng said.

Xu He smiled. "The Inner City slot may not matter to you, but what about High-grade Bone Refining Martial Arts? If you break into the top ten, each person can obtain one High-grade Bone Refining Martial Art. If you take first place, you can obtain two High-grade Bone Refining Martial Arts and one High-grade Tendon Refining Martial Art. Furthermore, everyone in the top ten can receive a portion of Marrow Cleansing Secret Medicine. Marrow Cleansing Secret Medicine can alter one's aptitude and is exceedingly valuable. Your Senior Brother Qin Xun participated in the previous Outer City Martial Arts Competition and took first place. He was rewarded with two High-grade Bone Refining Martial Arts and one High-grade Tendon Refining Martial Art, allowing him to cultivate silver tendons. Unfortunately, those martial arts were rewards from the Inner City and could not be passed on to outsiders."

Marrow Cleansing Secret Medicine was useless to Li Changsheng. He had the Vajra Dao Fruit—what did a mere portion of Marrow Cleansing Secret Medicine amount to?

But he was interested in High-grade Bone Refining Martial Arts. He was currently lacking precisely that kind of martial art!

"Master, the Evil Demon Society is still watching me. Will it really be alright if I compete openly?" This was Li Changsheng's main concern. After all, he had slaughtered an Evil Demon Society member in the Blood Changing Realm not long ago.

"Rest assured. Your master will accompany you, and the Evil Demon Society will not dare make a move where the Martial Arts Competition is held." Since Xu He dared to let Li Changsheng compete, he had naturally considered this issue. If it were dangerous, he would not have allowed Li Changsheng to take part.

"Master, this disciple is willing to compete!" Li Changsheng said.

"Very good. Besides you, your Sixth Senior Brother will also be competing this time. Your Sixth Senior Brother's cultivation is a little higher than yours. He broke through to Great Accomplishment Bronze Bone not long ago, but his foundation is inferior to yours, so his strength should be far below yours."

Xu He only thought Li Changsheng had broken through to the Bone Refining Realm from Silver Skin Perfection, unaware that Li Changsheng had broken through from the Dragon Skin Perfection Realm. Now, he was even walking the path of refining the bones throughout his entire body, and his strength was greater than Xu He's.

The Outer City Martial Arts Competition would not begin until half a month later, and Xu He directly registered him for it.

According to the intelligence Xu He provided, there were no particularly powerful martial artists under twenty-five in the Outer City. The strongest were merely in the Tendon Refining Realm.

The Outer City lacked martial arts inheritances and resources. Being able to cultivate to the Tendon Refining Realm by the age of twenty-five was already considered genius-level talent!

Yet among the six great families, there were many Tendon Refining Realm martial artists under twenty-five. They could even cultivate Blood Changing Realm martial artists under twenty-five.

If members of the six great families were allowed to participate in the Outer City Martial Arts Competition, then no one else would have any chance to play.

With Li Changsheng's current strength, he could naturally sweep through everyone in the Martial Arts Competition. Still, he had to conceal his strength and could not reveal too much.

During these half a month, Li Changsheng continued his arduous cultivation, tempering one iron bone after another into bronze bones. The number of bronze bones in his body steadily increased, but the boost to his strength was not particularly great.

Unless he refined every bone in his body into bronze bones, it would be difficult for his strength to undergo any major increase.

This day.

The Outer City Martial Arts Competition was about to begin. Xu He brought Li Changsheng and Sixth Senior Brother Bai Dongdong to the competition's designated venue.

Geniuses from the various martial halls, gangs, and small families had all come to contend for the ten slots. There were quite a few participants, more than five hundred in total. The lowest cultivation among them was the Bone Refining Realm, and there were over twenty Tendon Refining Realm martial artists.

Based on past competitions, without Tendon Refining Realm cultivation, it was genuinely difficult to enter the top ten. Still, every competition had one or two Bone Refining Realm martial artists in the top ten. They were all Bone Refining Realm martial artists with extremely formidable foundations. For instance, Silver Bone Realm geniuses could still fight Tendon Refining Realm martial artists across a realm.

Sixth Senior Brother Bai Dongdong had no hope of entering the top ten. He had entered this competition merely to broaden his horizons and temper himself, which would benefit his future cultivation.

Soon.

Nearly all the participants had arrived. First came bone-age testing and cultivation testing. Such simple tests could not detect Li Changsheng's Dragon Skin Realm, nor could they detect the condition of all the bones in his body. They merely made a simple assessment of cultivation.

After the cultivation tests ended, the participants would be divided into groups based on cultivation. The Group Stage would take place today, the Knockout Stage would begin tomorrow, and the Finals would not be held until the third day.

In other words, many battles would be fought each day. If one were injured too severely, they would need a great deal of Secret Medicine to recover. If they could not recover in time, they would certainly be unable to defeat the other competitors.

Such a competition was not particularly fair. Some impoverished martial artists did not have much recovery-type Secret Medicine, but those people from the Inner City would not care about that.