The first round: Sword Inquiry.
In this round, cultivators assigned to the same group would not be forced to duel one another. Instead, those holding Sword Inquiry Tokens would challenge whichever cultivators they wished and seize their opponents' tokens.
In the end, the three with the most Sword Inquiry Tokens would advance.
The second round: Sword Seizure.
In this round, the Nine Prefectures would release nine Immortal Swords bearing the True Martial Great Emperor's Sword Intent, for the nine groups of cultivators holding Sword Inquiry Tokens to compete over within a set time.
When time ran out, whoever held a sword would be declared a winner.
That sword would also belong to that Sword Cultivator.
The third round: Sword Champion.
This round had the simplest rules. Of the Sword Cultivators who reached it, whoever remained standing until the end on the arena beneath the Sword Chief Ranking would be the Sword Champion of this Sword Champion Assembly.
However, each round also had many rules restricting the Sword Cultivators. Zhao Linglong did not explain them one by one, but instead inscribed them all in a Jade Slip for Xu Taiping to read himself.
At the end, Zhao Linglong summed it up:
"Unlike the Golden Scale Assembly, the True Martial Sword Champion Assembly doesn't impose limits on cultivators' ages and cultivation. Any cultivator above the Heaven Gazing Realm and below the Heaven Shocking Realm can participate."
"However, when the difference in cultivation is too great, once the weaker side concedes, the stronger side absolutely must not kill them. Otherwise, they'll be struck from the Sword Chief Ranking immediately."
"So by the third round of the Sword Champion Assembly, essentially everyone left is a powerful Sword Cultivator in the Heaven Questioning Realm."
"But even so, the rewards for the first and second rounds