Long Chen walked back to his courtyard. He dropped on his bed as he took off his mask and fell asleep.
The Sun rose in the sky as morning arrived. Long Chen was still sleeping when there was a knock on the door. He finally woke up as the door was knocked again.
Long Chen slowly stood up and walked towards the door, but he suddenly remembered that he forgot to put on his mask. He walked back and wore his mask again.
Long Chen opened the door and found Elder Yi standing outside.
"Little friend Shen, I'm here to escort you to the third round's location.
Elder Yi said as he smiled at Long Chen.
"Alright, let's go." Xu Liang said with a smile.
Long Chen left the courtyard and followed Elder Yi. They soon reached a large open ground.
The place looked like stadiums from earth. There were proper seating arrangements for the people in the stands, just like stadiums had. The center field was circular and had a diameter of over one kilometer.
There were 20 fighting stages in the field. A large mirror was floating at the center of the ground, at the height of ten meters. The mirror had twenty sections.
"That's the Observation Mirror. It will show the fighting on all 20 stages to our spectators. All those twenty sections will show a stage each.
"Who is in charge of this round?" Long Chen asked as he looked around.
" It's Elder Yu Tianhao! He will be managing this round" Elder Yi informed Long Chen.
"Oh, right, I heard that people from the Thunder Giant Sect are here as well. Is it true?" Long Chen inquired.
"Yeah, The guests from Thunder Giant Sect are here. There's Ling and a boy she often calls senior brother." Elder Yi answered Long Chen.
"Only two? I heard that there was another person here from the Thunder Giant Sect, possibly a girl.
"Oh, You're talking about Miss Meng! She's not here. After she came back from the Huanji Empire, She left in a hurry. Miss Ling and the other boy stayed behind. In Fact, they will be the ones who will present the rewards to the winner.
"She left?" Long Chen said as anger flickered in his eyes, though he controlled it.
"Yeah, she looked like she was in a bad mood when she left. She kept saying that the whole mission was a waste. We don't know what she meant by it though." Elder Yi informed Long Chen.
"Everyone! Silence!" Yu Tianhao stood at one of the stages and said in a loud voice. He used his Qi to make sure that his voice was heard by everyone.
The place that had been noisy just a moment ago, turned completely silent.
"The final round of the Sect Entrance Exam will be held here in front of everyone's eyes! You will get to see the hard work of the kids you came here with and how they compare with the others! Those whole process will be completely transparent and only the top hundred will get selected by the sects!" Yu Tianhao said as he gazed at the crowd of people.
"In the first Trial, we saw your potential! In the second trial, we saw your strength! The third trial will judge your overall strength! The way you adapt to the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents! Your battle tactics and your reaction to the unexpected situation in the battlefield! You won't face beasts, Instead, you will face cunning humans! Your fellow cultivators will be your opponents!" He said to the 500 participants that passed the second round.
"You all know the ranking you received in the second trial! Your fighting orders will be decided based on that ranking! Rank 1 will fight rank 500. Rank 2 will fight rank 499 and so on! If a lower rank cultivator defeats a higher rank cultivator, their rankings will switch. Only the top 250 will move onto the second stage of the battles"
"But Elder, We... we all have varying cultivation! Some are in Gold Core Realm while others are only in the Spirit Establishment Realm! How can we fight each other with such a big difference." One of the cultivators said in a worried tone.
He was only at the 7th Stage of Spirit Establishment Realm and had managed to get rank 240 because his fighting powers were good compared to people with the same cultivation realm, but he knew that the gap between him and a gold core realm cultivator's strength was too big.
' You don't have to worry about that. Although the outside world won't think about your weak cultivation and strength when someone attacks you, we would give you an equal chance."
" All the cultivators would have to restrict their cultivation to the 5th stage of the Spirit Establishment Realm! If anyone is found cheating or using unfair means, he shall be punished by the discipline hall.
"Alright, Enough explanation! The first battle will be held between Rank 1 Tian Shen and Rank 500 Jiu Li in the first arena. The second battle... The 20th battle will be held between rank 20 Mu Qi and rank 481 Miao Miao in the last arena. Take your places!" Yu Tianhao said before he got off the arena.
"Best of Luck." Elder Yi wished Long Chen as he was going towards the first arena.
Long Chen didn't respond and continued straight ahead.
Long Chen stood in the arena in front of a bald boy. The boy was wearing saffron clothing.
"My name is Jiu Li. I've seen a lot of miracles created by you. If you can survive one of my punches, I will consider it as your win." Jiu Li said as he smiled.
"I will take your silence as a yes." Jiu Li said as he packed his fist when he got no reaction from Long Chen. He started directing his Qi towards his hand.
"Hidden Tiger Fist!" Jiu Li said loudly as he punched towards Long Chen.
A smile appeared on Jiu Li's face as he saw Long Chen standing still.
"You're brave, but that bravery will get you killed!" Jui Li laughed loudly as victory seemed in sight. Just as his fist was about to hit Long Chen's, Long Chen used his footwork as he dodged to the side.
"You are too slow." Long Chen said softly as he punched the ribcage of the opponent.
Jiu Li gave a painful cry as he crashed outside the arena.
"My...my bones have broken!!! Help me fast!!!" He let out loud as he groaned in pain. Some people came and took him away.
"Hey? Didn't the battle on the first stage finish too fast? Just who is that masked boy? I heard that he received the 1st rank in two previous exams." Jinjing said softly as she gazed at the screen. She was the Chief of the Royal Guards in the Royal family of Shui and the one who escorted the cultivators from the Royal Clan.
Long Clan's Patriarch Long Ran sat beside her.
"Must be someone who doesn't want to show off his identity. He knows that he would offend a lot of people in the process of the examination. If he is selected, then the sects would protect him, but if he failed, he would be in real trouble after he leaves the sect. He is a smart kid." Long Ren said with a smile as he continued looking around the field.
"Hey, You have been looking around for a long time. Are you trying to find someone?" Jinjing asked with a curious look on her face.
"Yeah, but it seems like the one I'm trying to find isn't here." Long Ren said as he couldn't find Long Chen amongst the participants.
"Tell me who you're looking for, I might be able to help," She asked with a smile on her face.
"I'm looking for my grandson."Long Ren answered her.
"Long Tian? Do you believe he would be here? " Jinjing let out with a stunned look on her face.
"I considered that as a possibility." Long Ren replied with a smile.
"Well, I've seen his portrait, but I don't think he's here. What do you think about that masked boy? He is the only person here whose face we haven't seen." Jinjing said in a low voice with a thoughtful look on her face.
"He? It's not possible. That masked boy was at the 4th stage of the Gold Core Realm. I checked his cultivating when I saw him enter the arena." Long Ren shook his head in denial.
"Well... if you say so." She turned silent as she began looking at the 11th screen. The Crown Prince, Yue Zhang of the Shui Kingdom has received the highest rank in the 2nd stage amongst all the participants of the kingdom of Shui. He had received 11th rank and was fighting the 490th rank cultivator.
"He's a talented kid." Long Ren said as he gazed towards Prince
"Yea, Yue Zhang is really good. Unfortunately, he doesn't care about the kingdom and its throne." She said as she shook her head.
"Who knows... It's really hard to understand what people really desire." Long Ren said with a smile.
The second battle to be finished was the battle of Prince Lu with the girl who got rank 499. As everyone had already expected, it was an easy win for Prince Lu.
Soon all 20 battles had finished and none of the top 20 rank cultivators had lost. More battles kept going on and soon all the cultivators had fought a battle.
"The stage one is over! Top 250 ranks will go and battle now."
The second stage of battles began and soon enough, it was over as well. Long Chen's opponent had tried his best but he was still defeated.
No high-rank cultivator was defeated other than rank 100 cultivator who was defeated by rank 151 cultivator.
"Now we have 125 people for the battle! Since it's an uneven number, rank one will get a free pass to the 4th stage." Yu Tianhao announced just after the second round had finished.