The fights in the arena continued, and soon, only the top 2000 were left.
At this point, there wasn't even a single weak disciple left in the tournament.
Aside from those in the top 1000 who had yet to fight in the arena even once, those left were mostly disciples at the early rank 9 of the Nascent Soul, with a few exceedingly strong disciples who were still at the peak of rank 8 in the Nascent Soul.
As for those like Shun Long, Jiang Chen, and the rest, the only one left aside from Shun Long's group was only the burly young man at the early rank 8 of the Nascent Soul, Wu Tao!
When Liu Mei stepped on the stage, her opponent was an early rank 9 Nascent Soul stage outer disciple.
However, even for Liu Mei, this fight was truly difficult.
Although she managed to win in the end, even after using the second form of the Death's Chant which augmented the power of her undead creatures even further, Liu Mei still ended up sacrificing the corpse of the black-robed old man during the fight.
The corpses of the old man and the black-robed young woman that Liu Mei possessed were 2 of her strongest trump cards.
Although their cultivation was only at the early rank 8 of the Nascent Soul, their strength exceeded the peak of rank 8 in the Nascent Soul and had even reached that of an early rank 9 Nascent Soul cultivator once they were strength was increased by Liu Mei's 'Death Chant'.
However, Liu Mei's opponent was an outer court disciple that was much stronger than average early rank 9 Nascent Soul cultivators.
Even when the old man and the beautiful young woman were working together, along with Liu Mei's Death Eater, the young man that Liu Mei was facing still managed to destroy the corpse of the powerful old man before the black-robed young woman sneaked in, as she finally placed her dagger on his neck.
Sensing the cold feeling of metal and seeing the hint of blood that was coming from his neck, although the young man was unwilling to lose to someone like Liu Mei who was much weaker than him, he still had to admit defeat.
As for Xingyi and Bai Longtian who were both at the middle of rank 7 in the Nascent Soul, even after the increase in the power in their unique physique, their fights were extremely difficult.
They both had to face opponents who were at the early rank 9 of the Nascent Soul as well, and those disciples' power was barely inferior to that of Liu Mei's opponent.
However, as he watched the fights Shun Long understood that this was only natural. There were no weaklings among the outer disciples that were left, and those who won their next fights would even enter the top 1500.
After all, these were the fights between the top 2000.
It was normal that everyone would go all-out.
At the same time, Shun Long understood that the biggest weakness of Liu Mei and the rest was their low cultivation bases compared to the opponents that were left.
But this was normal as well.
Even when someone was talented enough to be born with a unique physique like Xingyi, Bai Longtian, and Jiang Chen, how could they possibly bridge the gap in cultivation between themselves and those outer disciples who had lived in the central region their entire lives?
Even when Xingyi and the rest cultivated within their masters' courtyards to make use of the extremely pure qi from the high-grade spirit stones that the Elders of the inner court used to fill their courtyards, the gap between them and the other powerful outer court disciples couldn't possibly be bridged in less than a single year.
Their rate of growth was already astonishing enough.
If it wasn't for the second 'Barrier-piercing pill' that Shun Long had refined for everyone, most likely, they would all be either at the peak of rank 6 in the Nascent Soul, trying to break through the barrier and enter the late stages, or they would be like Jun Ren, having just entered the early rank 7 of the Nascent Soul instead.
Bai Longtian's opponent was a young man who was wielding a thin long sword and had comprehended the Dao of Lightning, but after going all-out with his Golden Buddha unique physique, Bai Longtian was slightly stronger and even faster than his opponent.
His opponent was focused on speed and stabbing his opponent using his lightning-fast attacks. His Dao of Lightning even increased the speed of his stabs even further.
However, Bai Longtian's stronger trait in his Golden Buddha form was the strength of his body.
His defense was even slightly stronger than his strength and speed.
Unless the young man in front of him used more than 90 percent in every single stab, he wouldn't be able to break past Bai Longtian's defenses.
As for the young man's Dao of Lightning, Bai Longtian was able to ignore most of the lightning sparks coursing through his body.
After refining the 'five-elements awakening pill', Bai Longtian knew that the defensive ability of his body had increased even further. And yet, when the young man in front of him attacked with his full strength, even if Bai Longtian dodged or blocked the sword's attack without holding back, the lightning attacks would still injure him internally.
His body however was still tougher than his opponent's and Bai Longtian's speed was higher as well, so for every blow that he landed, his opponent had to deal with at least a single palm attack from the giant golden buddha in front of him.
Even with his cultivation at the early rank 9 of the Nascent Soul, the young man ended up coughing blood violently and collapsing on the ground less than 10 exchanges later.
As for Xingyi, her opponent was a young man who had comprehended the Dao of Water.
This person was alarmed when he saw that Xingyi was his opponent.
The concealing abilities of Xingyi's Vanishing Shadows unique physique was truly at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.
Even most peak rank 9 Nascent Soul outer disciples would find it impossible to locate her once she merged herself in the shadows.
However, despite her assassination attacks, Xingyi found it extremely hard to break through her opponent's nearly impenetrable defense.
Xingyi's opponent had created a sphere of water and hid himself inside before he spread his soul sense around his body.
Every time that Xingyi would appear to attack him, the young man would launch countless water spears towards her.
However, in terms of attack alone, Xingyi's strength was nearly comparable to Jiang Chen's and Bai Longtian's at the same level of cultivation.
Countless shadows appeared from the ground as they stabbed at full force towards the water bubble in the center of the platform.
This was the second form of the low-grade martial skill that Xingyi had chosen to train in, Creeping Shadows.
Eventually, the young man's defense broke under Xingyi's repeated shadow attacks, but Xingyi had nearly exhausted all of her qi as well.
Once they returned by Shun Long's side, Bai Longtian healed his injured body while Xingyi sat down cross-legged and consumed a top-grade rank 5 'Qi replenishing pill'.
Although Xingyi and Bai Longtian started to recuperate after their fights and everyone understood that they most likely wouldn't challenge those in the top 1000, their results were enough to shock countless disciples who were previously not paying attention to them, attracting even the gazes of some of the geniuses among the top 1000 rankings.
They all understood that if Xingyi's and Bai Longtian's cultivation bases were just a bit higher, then perhaps even some of them would be threatened to lose their spot in the rankings.
But of course, this was only for those at the bottom of the Martial Roll of Honor rankings.
Those above the top 500 barely paid any attention to Xingyi and Bai Longtian, and even to Shun Long, Liu Mei, and Jiang Chen.
In their eyes, their true opponents were only those at the top of the rankings.
Jiang Chen's fight was instead, much easier.
His opponent was a young woman who had reached the peak of rank 8 in the Nascent Soul.
Although this woman was stronger than most other outer disciples at the peak of rank 8 in the Nascent Soul, she was still weaker than Liu Mei's, Bai Longtian's, and Xingyi's opponents.
However, Jiang Chen still used his 'Kingdom of Darkness' to trap her before the young woman finally gave up.
Naturally, this young woman was only at the same level as the previous faction leader that Shun Long and the rest had fought, Peng Chao.
Jiang Chen was confident that he was strong enough to defeat him even back then, let alone now.
Finally, the last one to step into the arena was Shun Long himself.
As for his opponent, it was a young man at the middle of rank 9 in the Nascent Soul.
However, Shun Long noticed that although this person was at the middle rank 9 of the Nascent Soul, he was barely stronger than the young man at the early rank 9 of the Nascent Soul that Liu Mei had just faced.
As the outer court Elder declared for the battle to begin, the young man in front of Shun Long took out a large saber from his spatial ring and kicked the ground, as he shot towards Shun Long at full speed without saying a word.
It was obvious that he was intending to win this fight as soon as possible.
Although he didn't know what Dao Shun Long had comprehended, he had already seen Shun Long's fight with Dong Ai.
He didn't know if Shun Long needed time or not to use that weird attack, but the thought of standing still and allowing your opponent to hit you freely was terrifying.
Thus, he had been planning to catch his opponent off-guard.
Shun Long however simply stared at the young man in front of him who was closing the distance between them extremely quickly, before he mumbled to himself
''Let's see how strong my body is right now.''
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Author's note: 2/5.
3 more chapters will come in the next hours.