Chapter 39: Stage Three Begins!

Fang Chen was the black sheep of the Fang Clan, always behaving arrogant and conceited ever since he suffered Qi Deviation. He didn't put anyone in his eyes, and for him, Hou Xing who was from a weaker clan and status, was someone he was very jealous of. So he tried all his tricks and schemes on Hou Xing to annoy him.

Hou Xing started hating Fang Chen's guts but could only grit his teeths in frustration and wait. Wait to become a Core Disciple of the Gracious Sword Sect and elevate his clan's condition and status.

Elder Lai Chang observed the expression of the participants before saying, "Now, we will begin with the Third Stage."

"This stage is pretty simple, and is an opportunity for all participants who have ranked lower than hundred to battle higher ranked disciples for their points. And for the top hundred, this is a chance to get the Rank 4 cultivation manual by ranking in the top 10."

"I will now announce the rewards and rules for this stage."

"In this Single Elimination stage, all disciples get to challenge anyone from Rank 11 to 100. But only one challenge, so choose wisely. All disciples from Rank 11 to 100, get the chance to challenge top 10 after they have successfully defeated four lower ranked disciples who challenged them or when there is no lower rank disciple left to challenge. And the top 10 disciples will then get one chance to challenge and rank higher."

"Now I will talk about the rules."

"The one who loses, will have to hand over fifty percent of his beast cores to his opponent and the rest will go to the sect. And the disciples will get to keep the beast cores that they win after defeating other disciples."

"All participants from Stage two will receive at least One spiritual stone. The Top 100 disciples will become the Inner Court Disciples of the Gracious Sword Sect, and each will also receive fixed amounts of low tier spiritual stones, with the one ranked at hundredth getting two low tier spiritual stones and the rank one disciple receiving one hundred two low tier spiritual stones. And the top 3 disciples will also receive a Rank 4 Cultivation Book from the Martial Book Pavilion in the Inner Court."

"Now, we will start from 463nd ranked disciple, Zheng Xiang." He then towards a scrawny kid standing at one coroner among the participants and said, "Come on the battle stage and challenge anyone of the top 100 disciples."

Zheng Xiang slowly walked up. With mere thirteen beast cores, he was ranked last in the Stage Two. However, the look on his face was not that of nervousness or fear, he held his head high, looking at the other participants with a confident look, as he said, "I challenge Ranked 62nd, Cheng Fu."

Cheng Fu was a relatively known disciple with cultivation of 6th Level of Qi Refining Realm, however, Zheng Xiang was also not far behind, and had recently broken through the 6th level too.

However, for him to challenge Cheng Fu indeed came a surprise for everyone.

Cheng Fu didn't say any bullshit and directly went for his battle.

"Start!"

"Bang!" Zheng Xiang stuck his palm out, hitting fiercely towards Cheng Fu's body, the two sides directly made a collision creating a huge explosion.

Zheng Xiang was motionless. Cheng had a natural big build. Although the cultivation of both disciples was the same, the strength in Cheng Fu's hand had an absolute advantage, comparable to the 7th Level of Qi Refining, but he still fell a few steps backward and was forced to balance himself.

"Impossible!" Cheng Fu's eyes were full of surprise looking at Zheng Xiang, to think he was forced in such a bad state just as the battle had begun.

"Boom!"

Accompanied with a loud burst of thunderstorm sounds, Zheng Xiang's palm shot out a group of torpedo shaped Qi, with a lightning speed and pressed onto Cheng Fu.

"Bang!" Cheng Fu's tower-like body was flown up when shot by Zheng Xiang's palm, bones in his body were broken in half, his blood sprayed all over as he fell directly off the stage.

"What, how is this possible!"

The disciples were shocked to see such a swift battle. The gap between power was indeed too big. To think that a well known disciple like Cheng Fu was not even able to hold up against a scrawny kid like Zheng Xiang and was thrown out of the stage, severely injured.

"This battle, Zheng Xiang wins. Now, he is Ranked 62nd. Fifty percent of Cheng Fu's beast cores, a total of seventy two, will now be handed over to Zheng Xiang." Ignoring the commotion, Elder Mu announced the result.

"Now, the next battle, 462nd Ranked disciple, Su Hu, come on the stage and chose your opponent."

For the next few hours, the battles continued, though not every battle was swift like the one between Zheng Xiang and Cheng Fu. Most of them were equally matched or sometimes it was a one sided massacre, but the winners were mostly the already established disciples of the Top 100 from the Pre Rankings. In fact, some disciples even decided to not to challenge any disciple from the top disciples, since they knew their limits or were just too lazy to go on stage and lose.

Around noon, the first part of the Stage Three finally came to an end. With the 101st Ranked disciple challenging the 94th Rank and winning, the Top 100 of the Inner Court Entrance Hunt were now finalised.

Next part now was the battle for the Top 10, which will then decide their qualifications to challenge the Top 3 and fight for the chance to get a Rank 4 Cultivation Manual.

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A/n: Zheng Xiang is a good guy. Don't forget him.