The second phase of the battles started. The 112 people that fought in the first round were now down to 56. Of them, 32 belonged to the Red Tiger sect and the remaining belonged to the Blue Dragon sect.
The body cultivators were in general stronger than the Qi cultivators and were thus coming out on top in the competition.
Soon, the host made them all pick up small pieces of paper to choose their opponents again and the second round began.
This time, the arena was transformed so that only 2 stages were available at the same time. 2 of the elders walked up as referees.
4 disciples walked up to the stage once their numbers were called and thus the next round of battle began.
This round of battle was way more intense. Since the strong ones were already filtered, those who remained were all stronger in general. Ning got to see some very intense fighting from such a match-up.
Although it couldn't bring forth the same thrill as when he fought those blue-skinned women, seeing two very strong cultivators fight each other had a special charm to it.
While the Blue Dragon sect disciples used various different methods, sending out blasts of energy and using weird Qi techniques; the Red Tiger sect disciples would always fight in close combat with their bodies and fists.
Even when they did use weapons, they would use swords and spears and go into close quarters for those fights too.
Ning waited for his role in the tournament to heal the injured, but no such problem ever arose. One after another, disciples were called to the stage as it was their turn to fight, and before anyone knew it, the 2nd round of battles had ended too.
"Ah, that was great, wasn't it?" one of the elders sitting close to Ning asked.
"I wasn't expecting such intense battles when you mixed together two different battle styles," another elder said.
"The disciples this time around are stronger than they were 3 years ago, aren't they?" another elder asked.
"The sect leaders must be really happy with the batch of core disciples this time around," Another elder said while looking at the podium among the audience that housed the sect leaders and other important elders.
Ning looked towards them once and looked back to the stage.
After a few minutes of the resting period, the host walked up to the stage and spoke.
"We now have 28 contestants remaining. Of them, the winner from the next 14 battles will be guaranteed to go to the Triennial Tournament."
"However, don't be worried because even if you lose, due to there being 15 participation limit, one of you who fails may be able to get into the roster if you manage to impress the sect leaders."
"So, even if it seems unlikely that you will win, try your best and you might just luck out," The host said.
The disciples started to get unusually excited once they heard that. One more win and they were guaranteed to go to the Triennial Tournament.
Everyone was getting hyped up and with that, the third and final round of battles started.
This time, the disciples were made to go up onto the stage for one battle at a time. The first battle was between a Blue Dragon disciple and a Red Tiger disciple.
The blue-robed and red-robed disciples walked up onto the stage and this time, the host himself stayed as the referee.
As soon as the competition started the two fighters got into action. The blue-robed disciple took out a sword, while the red-robed disciple simply ran forward with his bare body.
The fight was intense as one person continuously tried to create some distance with their sword while the other one tried to close the gap to not let the other one gain any advantage.
The fight came to a standstill as neither one could gain an advantage over the other. In the end, the red-robed disciple took the brunt of one of the blue-robed disciple's sword attacks and got in close to defeat them.
The red-robed disciple's arms were bloody, but he had won.
Ning immediately ran up to the stage and helped get the disciple down. Once off the stage, he immediately created a simple paste to help close the bleeding and heal the wound.
"Thankfully, your bones aren't broken so you will be fine. Just try not to do anything extreme for the next 5 days," Ning said to the red-robed disciple.
"Thank you, doctor," the person said and left with a big smile on his face. He had won.
Ning went back to his seat and looked at the second match that had started between two Blue Dragon sect disciples. This one was a little better as they could both fight freely without fishing for advantage between the two.
Before long, one of them came out as a clear winner, and soon after that, the 3rd match started.
The third match was between a female body cultivator and a male cultivator that played music. This was a very interesting match as neither knew how to fight against the other.
The body cultivator couldn't close the gap since she didn't know what sort of weird techniques the male cultivator would have, and the male cultivator's long-distance attacks were mostly useless since the girl's ears were very strong and the sound didn't affect them as much.
She didn't have Qi to block her ears, but she didn't need to given how strong they naturally were. Soon, they came to a standstill.
The girl finally managed to win after deciding to do the same thing the first guy did and took an attack directly to get to the male cultivator and tossed him off the stage.
As such the third match was done as well.
Similarly, 10 more matches took place, each with its own magic and wonders to show. Out of the 5 Blue Dragon sect disicples, and 5 Red Tiger sect disciples managed to win.
Finally, the last match of the day was going to commence.