Battle for the Top Ten

Time always flies when you're cultivating. Before you know it, it's late at night again.

After roughly sensing the time and realizing it was already late at night, Lin Ming stopped cultivating and then fell asleep.

Early in the morning, shortly after sunrise, Lin Ming woke up from his sleep.

After getting up and washing up, Lin Ming went out and headed towards the square where the competition was being held.

Today, the ranking of those who will enter the Inner Academy will be determined. The top five students will have the opportunity to enter the academy's Scripture Pavilion and choose one item.

Even after Lin Ming arrived at the square, the area was still packed with people.

At this moment, Instructor Zhang Man spotted Lin Ming and led Lin Ming through a less crowded passage to a seat near the arena.

Since there was no need for the academy's elders to speak today, shortly after Lin Ming sat down, a voice came from the arena, instructing the winners of the second round of the Ranking Tournament to come up and draw their opponents for this round.

After yesterday's competition, a total of thirteen trainees have advanced to the third round. Twelve of them won in the second round of the arena battles. Only Lin Ming received a blank Number Plate and directly entered the third round without a chance to compete.

Since there are now thirteen people who have entered the third round, the next Number Plate will involve selecting six people to compete, thus eliminating three others.

The remaining seven people who did not draw number Number Plate, plus the three who win the next three matches, will be the top ten in this Inner Academy Selection Tournament Ranking Tournament.

Because Lin Ming received a bye in the previous round and entered the third round, Lin Ming will not need to draw Number Plate again in this round. Instead, he will be directly identified as one of the owners of the Number Plate "three".

The person who draws the Number Plate "3" during the Number Plate draw will be Lin Ming's opponent in the third round.

As the competition has progressed to this point, although everyone is quite capable, there are still differences in skill level.

In the event that the two strongest players draw the same Number Plate in this round, one of them will be eliminated.

The person who was eliminated would definitely be dissatisfied, since there must be some weaker people among those who didn't participate in this round.

To avoid such a situation, starting from this round, everyone eliminated in the arena will have one more chance to challenge.

They can challenge any one of the top ten, and the chosen person cannot refuse the first challenge.

However, if the challenged person defeats the challenger and maintains their top-ten ranking, they can refuse any further challenges from those who have been eliminated.

After such a challenge, the top ten will no longer be controversial.

Then the top ten will draw Number Plate again, and the two people who draw the same number will compete, with the winners taking the temporary top five spots.

Because it's possible that the two strongest players will draw the same Number Plate in this round, the loser will also have one chance to challenge the winner.

After this competition format, the five who ultimately win will be the top five in this Inner Academy Selection Tournament Ranking Tournament.

Soon after they enter the Inner Academy, they will receive better treatment and will have the opportunity to enter the academy's Scripture Pavilion and select an item.

Therefore, achieving a top-five finish in the Ranking Tournament will be the common goal of the thirteen students participating in the competition.

The elder in charge of overseeing the drawing of the Number Plate for this round, after seeing that all thirteen participants had arrived at the arena, organized twelve of them to draw their own Number Plate to select the next person to participate in the Arena Tournament.

Lin Ming had a bye in the previous round, so he was already confirmed as one of the players with the number "three" and didn't need to draw Number Plate again.

Soon, the Number Plate were drawn.

With the results announced, some were happy while others were sad. One contestant, whose cultivation level was Nine Star Dou Shi, was particularly distressed.

Because the Number Plate he drew was "three," it meant he would be facing off against Lin Ming in the next match.

After several rounds of competition, the remaining thirteen people are all at the Dou Master level, excluding the four Da Dou Shi, including Lin Ming.

Five of them were at the Dou Master Nine Star, while the remaining four were at the Eight-Star Dou Master level.

The proportion of High-Level Dou Master in this Inner Academy Selection Tournament reached 70%. And the fact that these Dou Masters have such high and uniform cultivation levels is largely due to Lin Ming.

If Lin Ming hadn't sold the formula for the Liquid Energy Pill to the academy, and the academy hadn't refined the Liquid Energy Pill and sold it to these students, allowing them to advance their cultivation by two stars in the Dou Master...

Although Lin Ming also earned a share of the academy's profits from this, the fact that these students possessed such high cultivation levels was also a result of Lin Ming's kindness.

With the drawing of Number Plate completed and the opponents determined, those who were to fight needed to begin their preparations. And today's competition was about to officially begin.

Two more arenas were raised, indicating that the three arena battles would take place simultaneously.

At the referee's call, Lin Ming went to the ring corresponding to his match.

"This match will be between Lin Ming and Xie Lei. If neither of you has any objections, I, the referee, will now announce the start of the match," the referee in charge of Lin Ming's ring said, looking at Lin Ming two of them.

"I'm ready," Lin Ming said.

"I'm fine with it too," Xie Lei, Lin Ming's opponent, also spoke up.

"Alright! Then I declare the Arena Tournament between Lin Ming and Xie Lei to begin." After both sides confirmed that there were no problems, the referee announced the official start of the match between Lin Ming and Xie Lei.

"Lin Ming, I know I'm no match for you. But I, Xie Lei, am not one to surrender without a fight. So I hope to settle this with a single move."

"I suppose you, Lin Ming, also want to end this fight quickly." After the referee announced the start of the match, Xie Lei did not attack Lin Ming first, but instead started talking to Lin Ming, intending to decide the outcome in one move.

Lin Ming understood Xie Lei's intentions in his explanation.

Xie Lei simply felt he was no match for Lin Ming and didn't want to surrender without a fight. However, he also didn't want to engage in too much combat with Lin Ming and deplete his Dou Qi.

Because of the competition rules, Xie Lei has one more chance to challenge those who received a bye in this round after losing to Lin Ming.

Xie Lei certainly couldn't afford to expend too much of his Dou Qi in his fight with Lin Ming. The outcome of the battle was already predetermined; Xie Lei had no chance of victory.

If Xie Lei weren't so concerned about saving face, his best option would have been to simply admit defeat, thus preserving his strength to its peak.

The chances of winning will be greater when you try again later.

However, now that Xie Lei has chosen to spar with him, Lin Ming has no reason to refuse.

This is the privilege that comes with having absolute strength among these people. You can say whatever you want to do, and I, Lin Ming, will be happy to oblige.

Therefore, after listening to Xie Lei's opinion, Lin Ming agreed with Xie Lei's opinion almost without thinking.

"Alright. Since Lin Ming has agreed, let's settle this with one move!"

"Take my Devouring Axe!"

Xie Lei, carrying a mountain-splitting axe, raised it to the sky shortly after he finished speaking.

After Xie Lei raised the axe into the sky, a blood-red energy gathered on the axe head.

Lin Ming was secretly startled after sensing the energy gathered on the mountain-splitting axe.

Because the energy on the mountain-splitting axe at this moment is almost at the level of High-grade Profound Tier Dou Technique. Therefore, those who have made it this far through so many rounds of competition are truly not simple.

After sensing that the energy in the mountain-splitting axe was approaching the level of High-grade Profound Tier Dou Technique, Lin Ming stopped making any moves.

With a thought, Lin Ming's Storage Ring flashed, and a blade appeared in Lin Ming hand—his weapon, the Star Lin Ming Star Dragon Saber.

Faced with Xie Lei's Dou Technique, Lin Ming, after grasping the Star Dragon Saber in his hand, also began to use the Startling Swan Saber Technique.

As the first Blade Skill Lin Ming learned, the Startling Swan Saber Technique Sword Technique reached the Profound Tier Mid-grade.

Given Lin Ming's familiarity with the Startling Swan Saber Technique, if he were to use Startling Swan Saber Technique now, it wouldn't be much weaker than those Profound Tier High-grade -rank Dou Technique.

In addition, Lin Ming's current cultivation level Da Dou Shi means that the Dou Qi he uses is a solid Dou Qi that has been compressed Qualitative Change from the liquid Dou Master of Dou Master.

Using Dou Qi of higher quality than Xie Lei's, and employing the Swift Blade Skill, which is not much inferior to Xie Lei's Devouring Axe, it is absolutely possible to withstand Xie Lei's attack.

Lin Ming's current concern isn't whether his Startling Swan Saber Technique can block Xie Lei's Devouring Axe, but rather whether Xie Lei can block his Startling Swan Saber Technique.

However, Xie Lei is a Nine Star Dou Shi after all, so he should be able to block my Startling Swan Saber Technique. Therefore, I don't need to hold back when using Startling Swan Slash.

"Devouring Cleave, Slay the Enemy!"

After unleashing his Dou Technique, Xie Lei roared and swung the mountain-splitting axe he had raised in the air, then swung it down at Lin Ming.

The axe, its very color stained crimson by the convergence of Bloody Energy, unleashed a destructive force as Xie Lei cleaved down, striking directly at Lin Ming Blood Axe.

Facing the destructive energy of the Blood Axe, Lin Ming Lin Ming showed no fear. He gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands and slashed directly at Lin Ming incoming Blood Axe energy.

The Star Dragon Saber unleashed Startling Swan Slash, its blade energy even more domineering and fierce, aimed directly at the Blood Axe's energy. It resembled a lion provoked by a hyena, ready to tear the hyena apart.

"Boom!"

The two energies collided in the middle of the arena, producing a deafening roar. The noise from the crowd seemed to vanish at that moment.

It's unclear whether the noise was so great from the energy collision that it drowned out the surrounding commotion, or whether the crowd was so stunned by the energy of the collision that they fell silent. Or perhaps it was a combination of both.

The collision of energies lasted for several breaths before the sound dissipated.

After the energy collision ended, Lin Ming remained in his original posture on the arena, while Xie Lei's posture changed.

Xie Lei has now summoned his Dou Qi Gauze Robe, and is slightly crouching down, holding his mountain-splitting axe horizontally in front of him in a defensive stance.

At this moment, Xie Lei straightened up and glanced at Lin Ming.

Seeing that Lin Ming remained unchanged, Xie Lei said, "I lost."

Then they walked down towards the bottom of the arena.

Only after Xie Lei stepped off the ring did the referee announce that Lin Ming had won this round.

In the subsequent challenge matches, the losers can only choose one person from those who received a bye in this round to fight against.

Therefore, Lin Ming, who had already participated in the battle in this round, officially secured a place in the top ten.