Back in his courtyard, Zhao Er did not dare let his guard down in the slightest, even though the Grand Exam was over for him.
The Grand Exam had merely been a small test of his blade. His real trials would only begin once he reached the Martial Academy.
That meant Zhao Er needed to cultivate even harder. Ideally, he would reach great accomplishment of sinew transformation before entering the Martial Academy.
Raise my cultivation to great accomplishment of sinew transformation, then use the Martial Academy's cultivation methods to break through to primordial unity... That should give me a firm foothold in the Martial Academy...
As Zhao Er laid out his plans, he had already arrived in the cultivation chamber, ready to begin cultivating.
Zhao Er had left the Grand Exam grounds, but the Grand Exam did not stop with his departure.
If anything, the battles that followed grew even fiercer.
Since the contestants were all in the sinew transformation realm, their fights were not like Zhao Er's, where he killed his opponent within a few moves without even giving him time to surrender.
But precisely because their cultivation levels were comparable, the battles were spectacular. The longest match lasted nearly an hour, ending only when both sides exhausted themselves.
The Grand Exam's Dragon Ascension Tournament was a contest of strength and luck, one Zhao Er took no part in.
In the end, Qian Hao of the Qian Family and He Yan of the Wan Family Martial Arts School each secured two consecutive victories, claiming places in the top five.
It would not be accurate to say that their strength placed them firmly above everyone else. The greatest reason they advanced was the opponents they faced.
In his first match, Qian Hao of the Qian Family faced Sun Yuanying of