On the tenth day of the tenth month, beneath gazes both open and hidden, this year's Three Cities Dao Discussion officially began.
The first-, third-, and fifth-year students naturally competed separately. For example, Maple Forest City's two first-years would each have to fight the first-year students from Sanshan City and Wangjiang City.
After the first round, the three remaining victors would compete in a round-robin. A fought B, B fought C, and C fought A. A win earned three points, a draw one, and a loss none. Whoever had the most points would become the first-year champion of the Three Cities Dao Discussion.
This way, the competition tested both individual strength and the overall strength of each Dao Academy. After all, if two contestants from the same academy met in the final round-robin, they could conserve their strength and focus on the other contestant.
The first-years competed first. Six cultivators from three cities took part, and all three matches began at once.
The matches were held in the plaza before the City Lord's Mansion. Since the City Guard often assembled there to take their oaths before setting out, the common folk also called it the Martial Arts Arena.
The first-year cultivators from the city Dao Academies had generally only recently laid their foundations. Their fights relied mainly on Daoist Arts, though martial skills played their part too. These were the matches ordinary folk found easiest to follow, so they were even more popular with the crowds.
The place was packed early that morning. Maple Forest City's residents had brought their whole families, gathering around the Martial Arts Arena like they were off to market. Only after the City Guard was called out did they barely manage to keep order.
Jiang An'an's classes were canceled that day, so Ling He naturally brought her along to watch the matches.
With so many people there, Jiang An'an sat on Ling He's shoulders. She was clapping her little hands and cheering loudly for her big brother.
Zhao Rucheng and Huang Azhan naturally came first to watch Jiang Wang's match. But a wealthy man like Zhao would never lower himself to yelling at the top of his lungs. A little way off, the dozen or so burly fellows he had hired were doing plenty of that for him.
"Jiang Wang, victory! Jiang Wang, victory!"
Two large banners waved in the wind—
One read, "Fists crush Sanshan; no rival remains in sight."
The other read, "Feet trample Wangjiang; who beneath them can claim to be a hero?"
Jiang Wang certainly wouldn't appreciate the gesture.
For a time, the cheers for Jiang Wang drowned out the rest of the arena. The competition seemed to have become his personal show. People kept whispering to each other, asking who this Jiang Wang was. When they learned he was a contestant from Maple Forest City, the city's simple folk cheered just as loudly.
Standing in the arena, Jiang Wang felt... awkward.
The three matches were arranged side by side, with all six cultivators present. From the glances the others kept sending his way, Jiang Wang could tell he had become everyone's enemy. If the rules allowed it, he suspected he'd be fighting five against one right now. That even included the senior fellow disciple from his own Maple Forest City Daoist Academy.
"What a show-off. What's he making such a spectacle for?" Lin Zhengli, from Wangjiang City, was the most annoyed. He didn't look at his own opponent; instead, he spat toward Jiang Wang.
His voice wasn't especially loud or soft. Jiang Wang ignored him completely.
The Martial Arts Arena had been divided into three fighting grounds, with broad buffer zones between them.
A cultivator from the Prefecture Academy served as the head referee, with two instructors from the Maple Forest City Daoist Academy as assistant referees. Fighting was simple: whoever fell lost, so there was little concern that the referees might show favoritism. In truth, their main purpose was to prevent young cultivators from losing control and causing injuries or deaths.
Jiang Wang's opponent was from Sanshan City.
He was short but stocky, dressed in close-fitting martial clothes, his muscles thick as slabs of stone.
The two exchanged Daoist salutes, then took their positions.
At the referee's command, Jiang Wang drew his sword and lunged!
He rose like a dragon, his sword piercing through the air like a meteor.
The Sanshan City cultivator had barely formed half a hand seal when Jiang Wang was already upon him, sword in hand.
Decisive. Fast.
Among the combat techniques available before reaching the Transcendent realm, the Purple Qi Comes from the East Sword Technique held an almost overwhelming advantage.
During the Maple Forest City Daoist Academy's internal selection, he had defeated Fang Heling with the same move. It seemed he was about to repeat that victory.
But to Jiang Wang's—and the audience's—surprise, the Sanshan City cultivator did not dodge!
He didn't even move. He stared straight at the sword rushing toward him, his hand steady as his Dao seal took shape beneath that unwavering gaze.
In that situation, he had to either abandon the seal and dodge or concede. But with the speed Jiang Wang had shown, if he dodged, he would have even less chance to use his next Daoist Art.
Yet he made a choice completely different from Fang Heling's!
Earth-elemental energy surged together. Jiang Wang felt a force erupting upward from beneath the ground. He knew exactly what it was.
He was confident he could drive his sword through his opponent's heart before the Earth Spike emerged, but the spikes that followed would pierce both his feet.
He could trade an injury for a kill and still win. But he didn't want to win that way.
Jiang Wang turned his sword, touched the Earth Spikes that burst up beneath his feet, then sprang backward with the momentum and landed back where he'd started.
Only then did the dense, razor-sharp Earth Spikes spread across the ground around the Sanshan City cultivator.
This cultivator from Sanshan City, the man sneered at as a Mountain Barbarian, had just risked his life to seize an opening.
He immediately kicked out several times, snapping the Earth Spikes before him and sending them flying. The spikes shot toward Jiang Wang one after another, howling through the air like javelins.
The Sanshan City cultivator charged right behind them.
Under Jiang An'an's tense gaze, Jiang Wang turned like the wind, gliding lightly between the incoming spikes without a scratch.
The Sanshan City cultivator was already upon him.
His short, sturdy body sprang high into the air. His fist gradually turned to stone, swelling into a gigantic fist like a small mountain.
Stone-Covered Fist!
The roles had reversed!
He couldn't take that blow head-on. Jiang Wang held his sword crosswise and met the stone fist with its flat, hoping to ride the force and drift away before searching for another opening.
No matter what, a Foundation Establishment cultivator had only so much Dao Essence. He couldn't cast many Daoist Arts. If Jiang Wang dragged the fight out, his swordsmanship would ensure victory.
But the stone fist suddenly twisted and clamped down on Jiang Wang's sword, crushing it!
Stone-Covered Fist was only a Grade-D high-rank Daoist Art. Jiang Wang hadn't mastered it, but he knew it well. He had never imagined the technique could shift so nimbly!
In the crisis, Jiang Wang let go of the hilt, wrapped both arms around the stone fist that had crushed his sword, and twisted hard.
The powerful physical strength granted by the Four Spirits Body Refining Technique poured into the motion without restraint. Under the torque, shattered stone flew everywhere.
Jiang Wang tapped the ground with his toes and retreated sharply, leaning backward. At the same time, he avoided the stone fist as it suddenly exploded!
As Jiang Wang broke the stone fist, the Sanshan City cultivator had simply detonated it, turning it into another means of attack. He hadn't expected Jiang Wang to react so quickly and evade it at once.
The explosion still affected him. Though he had tried to control it, Jiang Wang's entire right arm was covered in wounds and drenched in blood.
Yet he seemed unable to feel the pain. Without a word, he went straight after Jiang Wang.
He didn't form another Dao seal. There wasn't time to use a Daoist Art—or perhaps he had realized that the arts he knew couldn't defeat his opponent.
Then he would test the physique he had honed crossing mountains and valleys, and the fists and kicks he had trained to fight lions and tigers.
Elbow strikes, rising knees, headbutts!
Jiang Wang couldn't open up any distance either. Without his sword, he couldn't use his swordsmanship at all.
Fists, kicks, shoulder checks!
The two of them broke into a close-quarters brawl!
At arm's length, it was fierce, direct, and wild!
Many of the ordinary martial artists in the crowd knew a trick or two themselves. Watching this, they erupted in excitement!
Thanks to book friend Ye Songsong for the hall master reward! Beautiful cabbage~~ Thanks to book friend Ah Shen's Little Padded Jacket for the helm reward! Honestly, saying that ID aloud is so embarrassing... But it's also so heartwarming! Thanks to book friends Snow Mountain Beside, Xi Zichu, and Happy_Star Treasure for the tips!
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