As the First Elder finished his announcement, a dozen deacons stepped forward with pre-prepared metal sticks to let disciples draw lots.
Su Mo and Zhou Xin joined the queue for the draw.
Soon, Su Mo received his metal stick.
Group six, no. 518.
Su Mo’s metal stick read, “group six, no. 518”.
Over 10,000 Outer Disciples were divided into 10 groups, each with over 1,000 contestants.
Zhou Xin, Li Feng, and Niu Xiaohu each drew.
None of them were in the same group with Su Mo.
Zhou Xin was in group two, Niu Xiaohu in group eight, and Li Feng in group nine.
After drawing, the four friends waited together for the competition to start.
As the 10 fighting rings were not too far from each other, the four stayed in one place.
The draw finished quickly.
A hosting deacon stood up and announced, “The competition starts now!”
“Group one, No. 16 versus no. 825!”
“Group two, no. 605 versus no. 853!”
“Group three, no. 102 versus no. 467!”
…
The disciples whose numbers were called by the deacon stepped in the corresponding ring and began their first round of the fight.
Beams of light shone in each ring and loud clashes sounded here and there.
The group stage was brutal. One defeat was all it took to be eliminated.
This meant that good luck would play an important part in the first stage.
Even a disciple who was at the Peak Lv 6 Spiritual Martial Realm would suffer a terrible loss if he was unlucky enough to encounter one of the top 10 outer disciples.
As the competition went on, more and more disciples were eliminated.
Some groups finished their first round and moved on to the next fight faster than the others.
“Group nine, no. 74 versus no. 1019!” The deacon called Li Feng into the ring.
Li Feng was no. 74.
Li Feng’s opponent was a disciple at the Lv 2 Spiritual Martial Realm.
He was no match for Li Feng.
“Mountain-Collapsing Fist!” Li Feng shouted within the ring and knocked his opponent out with one powerful punch.
Coming down from the fighting ring, Li Feng had a fine color in his cheeks like a spring breeze.
“Ha-hah. Easy wins from the first round!” Li Feng laughed.
“Congratulations, brother Li!”
“Beautiful, brother Li!”
Zhou Xin and Niu Xiaohu appeared to be excited about Li Feng’s opening victory.
“Group six, no. 518 versus no. 661!” The deacon called again.
“Brother Su Mo, it’s your turn!” said Li Feng.
Su Mo nodded as he stepped into the ring of Group Six.
“Su Mo?”
Su Mo’s opponent was dressed in a yellow robe. He was at the Lv 3 Spiritual Martial Realm.
The youth in yellow looked gloomy as soon as he saw Su Mo.
“You know me?”
Su Mo was surprised. He stared at the youth up and down and realized who he was.
He was one of the Gale Island disciples from the Guanwu City mission.
“I surrender!” the youth in yellow forced a wry smile before shouting his decision to the referee.
He had learned how powerful Su Mo was in the Battle of Guanwu.
He knew he had no chance of facing Su Mo even if he had reached the Lv 4 Spiritual Martial Realm.
However upset he felt, he had to admit his defeat.
The youth in yellow immediately turned and walked down from the fighting ring.
Su Mo quietly stroked his nose without a word and left the fighting ring.
Round one, a free win!
Hundreds of disciples of the Sky Alliance stood together in the distance.
He Yangjun saw Su Mo’s free victory and a sneer appeared in his eyes.
“You can gloat for a little while, before long your end will come.”
After that, Zhou Xin and Niu Xiaohu each had their first match.
Niu Xiaohu was lucky that he drew an opponent at Lv 1 Spiritual Martial Realm and scored an easy victory.
On the other hand, Zhou Xin, unfortunately, encountered a mighty rival of the Lv 5 Spiritual Martial Realm in his first round.
He chose to fight like a man instead of throwing in the towel but was knocked out by one blow from his rival.
As time went by, round one finished in all 10 fighting rings and thousands of disciples got eliminated.
The rest of the contestants advanced to the second round.
“Group six, no. 518 versus no. 932!”
It was Su Mos’s turn to fight again.
This round, Su Mo was facing a round-faced youth at the Lv 5 Spiritual Martial Realm.
“We’re at the same level. You’re to lose for certain!” The round-faced youth holding a light green spear said with confidence after eying Su Mo up and down.
“Bring it!”
Su Mo shook his head gently, wondering why the youth was so confident.
“Take a defeat!”
The round-faced youth dashed out, his body rising up into the air and stabbed Su Mo with his spear of shining blue light.
Phew!
The spear pierced through the air and approached Su Mo’s chest at the lightning speed.
Err!
However, at the next moment, the round-faced youth’s facial expression suddenly froze and his body reached a standstill in the air.
Su Mo stretched his hand and grabbed the spear.
“How can it be?”
The round-faced youth was in a terrible shock. He struggled hard but could not pull out the spear. He was trying so hard that his face turned red, but it did not change anything.
The spear in Su Mo’s hand did not move at all, as if there was a mountain resting on it.
At this very moment, the scene in that fighting ring appeared rather amusing.
Su Mo stood in the middle of the fighting ring and held up a spear, at the tip of which the round-faced youth hung in the air.
“Go down!” Su Mo said in a flat voice as he shook his arm. The round-faced youth flew off the ring together with his spear.
Su Mo scored another victory with ease in the second round.
Su Mo’s luck continued for three more rounds and he harvested five wins without any struggle.
Niu Xiaohu was eliminated in round three.
Li Feng made it to round five.
By the end of each round, the number of remaining disciples was cut by half. After five rounds, there were less than four dozen contestants left in Su Mo’s group.
In all 10 fighting rings, the top 10 outer disciples attracted the most attention.
None of their rivals made it to their second strike.
The seed Outer Disciple of Su Mo’s group was Lu Shaoyun.
In a blue silk robe, this handsome, elegant young man threw his opponents out of the ring with ease.
The top three outer disciples Nangong Linjue, Duan Bingye, and Ling Muchen seemed even more relaxed.
All of their rivals admitted their defeat without fighting.
As a result, they had not made any move so far.
“Group six, no. 12 versus no. 518!”
Finally, in round six, Su Mo met a worthy rival.
A grim-looking youth in black at the Peak Lv 5 Spiritual Martial Realm, his bearing was extremely imposing, way beyond his peers of the same level.
Su Mo got in the ring and the pair stood face to face.
“He-heh! Lucky me!”
The man in black grinned as soon as he saw Su Mo. “I’ll be rewarded handsomely for taking your life!”
“Taking my life?”
Su Mo raised his brows and asked in a cold voice, “You want to take my life?”
“What did you say?”
The man in black showed his killing desire in his eyes and answered, “Yes, you’re pretty strong. However, it’s your misfortune to encounter me!”
The man in black appeared extremely confident. Though he was only at Peak Lv 5 Spiritual Martial Realm, he was no weaker than those at level 6.
“You’re from the Sky Alliance?” Su Mo asked, an expression of scorn on his face.