The final spot would be decided by the match taking place before them, between a disciple of the Demonic Sword Sect and Huang Hua of the Heavenly Dao Sect. First place had already been settled in the earlier matches. The ultimate winner was Zhu Yun, a disciple of the Five Poisons Sect on the Demonic Path. His Poison Cultivation and several poison spiritual artifacts were formidable, and the other cultivators were deeply wary of his Poison Cultivation. Several disciples of the Righteous and Demonic Paths had cultivation comparable to his, but without good spiritual artifacts to ward off poison, they had failed to beat him.
Second place went to Sword Spirit, a disciple of Bell Sword Mountain, the sword cultivation sect strongest in one-on-one combat among the righteous sects. Third place went to Dong Santong of the Heavenly Dao Sect, the disciple of Buddha Xuanmen.
Dong Santong had rather been shortchanged by taking only third place. He had run into Zhu Yun in the semifinals and lost by a single move. Among the righteous cultivators, he was the only one capable of matching Zhu Yun, but unfortunately, he too lacked a spiritual artifact that could withstand Zhu Yun's Poison Cultivation.
Although Sword Spirit's spiritual artifacts had powerful attacks, he held up even worse than Dong Santong. Among Zhu Yun's spiritual artifacts was one that could corrode other spiritual artifacts, allowing him to defeat Sword Spirit in just a few exchanges.
Zhu Yun had taken first place largely because no one could counter his powerful spiritual artifacts, but he was the only disciple of the Five Poisons Sect to enter the top eighteen. Dong Santong's light attribute spiritual root, meanwhile, had shone brilliantly at the Spiritlight Lake Immortal Gathering, making him its brightest rising star. After watching Dong Santong's matches, Li