After reading and reviewing all the information about the candidates that he needed to pay attention to, Wang Wei asked Wang Ju: "What's the situation with Fan Li?"
"Many people or factions are paying attention to him and his inheritance. After all, most cultivators have lost a loved one during their journey, and the possibility of losing one is very high. So, with this inheritance, it is the perfect chance for them to make up for their regrets.
"Additionally, including him into their factions will add an additional Emperor Scriptures to their own inheritance, so many people have plans to try to recruit him after the Tournament--even if they have to use force," replied Wang Ju.
Wang Wei then nodded as he could guess that the Dao Opening Sect had similar strategy; then, he dismissed her by ending the communication talisman.
Then, he started to check his cultivation. Inside his Divine Sea, he saw 17 Origin Patterns in his Ancient Lamp and he nodded in satisfaction while thinking to himself:
'One Origin Pattern per year is considered a fast cultivation process, so in another 33 years, I should reach the total 50 Origin Patterns needed before breaking through the Divine Body Realm.
'However, given the fact that I have a Transcendent Dao Foundation and in order to increase the power of my True Will, I will need to have more than 50 Origin Patterns. Meaning, while I cultivate the 51st Origin Pattern and up, most of my competitors will have reached the stage of breaking through higher realm.
'So, I need a little help to speed up the process.'
After that, he took out the Spiritual Milk from the Calcify Milk Cave back in the sect and drank it to increase his cultivation speed. However, Wang Wei did not enter retreat this time, but focused on the Third Round that was taking place.
In the Secret Realm of the Tournament, while all these world changing events were taking place, the Seeded-Players were in their own residence. After the number of participants reached 100,000 from half a billion in the past ten years, they received notifications that the Third Round would begin.
Inside Li Jun residence, he suddenly opened his eyes from his state of meditation after receiving a talisman warning him of the beginning of the Third Round.
After getting up, he put on his armor and held his spear in his hand. While doing some basic stretches, Li Jun suddenly sneezed twice.
After frowning, he muttered to himself: "Who's talking bad things about me now? Could it be my Ling'er? No, I have not done anything bad in the past decade. So, is it big brother Wang Wei? Is he blaming me for something again?"
After that, he walked in front of an array that would teleport him to a certain part of the Secrem Realm. While waiting, Li Jun started thinking about the rules of this round and the challenges he will face.
According to the Academy's rule, the Tournament is divided into 30 Sectors, with each Seeded-Players in charge of a sector. In the third round, these seeded-players have to participate in eliminating as many people as possible until the number of participants is reduced from 100,000 to only 1,000 people.
This round is important because this is the time that these seeded-players have to show the reason they were chosen as such. So, throughout history, the third round has always been a cruel one as most participants usually banded together to fight and kill these Seeded-Players.
So, if the Seeded-Players are not strong enough or vigilant enough, they might be killed during this round, or forced to run for their lives and be humiliated in front of trillions of people.
Be that as it may, this generation's [Heaven Chosen Selection Trial] is different as many of the Seeded-Players did not participate. That includes Wang Wei, Di Tian, Wu Hong, Liu Meixiu from the Herd Raising Valley, Zhen Biyu from the Five Elements Palace and Feng Heng from the Taiyi Gate who left midway through.
Additionally, there are people with strength similar to the Seeded-Players--like Mo Xingyun and Zhang Xuan--that do not hold this position due to the fact that they have remained low-key in the eyes of the public until the Tournament began.
Adding to that the few rising talents that appeared in the second rounds, the third round should be very exciting.
Once the appropriate time arrived, Li Jun entered the formation and he was teleported to the section he was in charge of. The truth of the matter was that he was not worried about group fights given that one of his Innate Talent was perfectly suited for this occasion.
However, Li Jun did not use it during the next 20 years that the Third Round lasted; he fought countless geniuses from all the world while honing his skills. More importantly, Li Jun was able to absorb the slaughter aura that enveloped the entire Secret Realm and increase his own strength.
As a matter of fact, Li Jun was not the only one who used such tactics. Many of the powerful Heaven Chosens like Ji Song, Lin Fan or Su Ya did use their powerful Innate Talent or hidden cards as they were reserving it for when they met each other.
Unfortunately for these Heaven Chosens, things were not as simple as they first imagined. Due to the fact that many of the sections did not have a Seeded-Player, the Emperor Enlightening Academy allowed the people in these sections to travel freely to other sections based on their choices.
As a result of this, Heaven Chosens in the top 10 Lists created by the Heaven Mystery Pavilion discovered that instead of having to fight 1000s of people, some of them had to fight 5-7 times that number.
Adding to the limitations of having to hide their hidden cards, this proved to be a harder task to accomplish, hence also the reason that this round took so long before finishing.
Of course this was not the main reason that these people were hiding their strength; to the point of going to the extreme in order to do so. The real reason being that they received news from their factions or sects about the on-going battle between the Dao Opening Sect and the Emperor Enlightening Academy, and the fact that one of their competitors has orchestrated the entire thing.
Knowing the general situation, many of them felt like participating in this tournament was kind of beneath them or, to be precise, it should be. While they were fighting for the so-called 'glory' of being the number one Heaven Chosen, Wang Wei--who was in the same generation as them--was doing things that influence the world in an unimaginable scale.
As absurd as it might sound, many of them felt like they were the younger generation, while people like Wang Wei, Di Tian, and Wu Hong were of the older generation that considered tournaments like this to be an excellent way for the younger generation to show their progress to them.
To many, this absurd feeling was unacceptable--especially given the culture of this world involving respecting the superior and elders, which has been deeply ingrained in the cultivating world' society.
Adding to that the fact that these Seeded-Players who did not participate in the tournament can watch on the sideline and peek at their hidden cards, strengths and abilities--without revealing their own. These Heaven Chosen know the advantage a person can have over another during battle due to information.
Additionally, Feng Heng's news that he has awakened the Yin-Yang Eyes has already spread throughout the entire Myriad Emperor World. As a result of this, his level of threat has been elevated from the middle or bottom of the Heaven Chosen List to the level of Lin Fan, Su Ya and Jian Wushuang.
Although the [Absolute Beginning Dao Art] is not that famous due to the few people who managed to cultivate it, all these Emperor Lineages know that the ones that succeeded in doing so were extremely powerful and extraordinary.
So, by the time that the Final Round arrived, the mentality of many of these Heaven Chosens had greatly shifted. If it was not the fact that they all wanted access to the 3000 Dao Tablets, many of them would have forfeited the tournament mid-way through just like Feng Heng.
Nevertheless, the majority of them have decided that they will keep their true strengths as hidden as possible. As for the spots for the Tablets, as long as they acquire a spot in the top 30, it did not matter to them.
Although the higher the ranking the more time a participant can spend enlightening in front of the Tablets--no one actually cared about this; these prideful Heaven Chosens all had confidence in themselves that no matter how little time they have to spend inside, it will be more than enough.
They believed that since people like Wang Wei, Di Tian, and Wu Hong can give up access to the Dao Tablets, they can spend a little less time than necessary to still achieve their goals as they do not believe that they are in any way inferior to these three.
Of course not everyone felt this way. For example, Lin Fan; he wanted to show the world that his low background did not matter by taking the first place of this tournament.
As for the Dao Tablets, as the True Disciple of the Emperor Enlightening Academy, he had access to them any time he wanted, so he did not really care.
So, when the Final Round began, many odd behaviors were noticed by the viewers.