The pursuit and slaughter, traps and madness unfolding in Maple Forest City seemed to have nothing to do with the Martial Arts Arena.
The battles here went on as usual.
The three winners who entered the round-robin were Zhang Linchuan, Lin Zhengren, and Fu Baosong from Wangjiang City.
He was a tall, lean man with a clear-cut face. After a hard-fought victory over a fifth-year disciple from Maple Forest City, he claimed the final spot.
Both of Wangjiang City's fifth-year students had made it into the round-robin, leaving them in a commanding position.
In truth, the battles between the fifth-year students were the most important part. Only the champion among the fifth-year students at the Three Cities Dao Discussion would earn the right to enter the State Daoist Academy directly.
Events like this always offered a certain number of such spots, though the number varied. For example, the North Wind Snow Performance offered two spots. Though it was a discussion among five cities, in practice, only two out of ten needed to be selected, giving the contenders better odds than in the Three Cities Dao Discussion.
These spots were also a way of distributing resources, and their allocation often depended on the strength of each city's Dao Academy. What reflected an academy's strength, after all, was the cultivators it produced. So whenever a cultivator rose to prominence, the City Dao Academy they came from would rise along with them.
More State Daoist Academy spots meant faster-growing cultivators, creating a virtuous cycle.
But in a place like Three Mountains City, where the elite had dwindled, they couldn't win the discussions, resources dwindled, and the disciples' cultivation conditions grew harsher... That was a vicious cycle.
Only by understanding Zhuang Kingdom's Dao Academy system could one understand why cultivators from Three Mountains City