(Thanks to "Gentleman Sudoku" for the monthly votes, "Blood Fairy Tale" and "Small Pot Guomin" for their tips. Today's update is the fourth one.
"First round, 100th battle …"
"First round, 101st battle …"
There were a total of one thousand students participating in the tournament, and the first round would have a total of five hundred battles.
Although the duration of each battle was not very long, at most a quarter of an hour, it was already afternoon by the time they reached the 101st battle.
From the looks of it, it would be impossible to finish all five hundred battles by the end of the day.
"First round, 130th battle: Astral-4's Qi Shaofan VS Astral-7's Wang Yuan."
"Qi Shaofan …" Chu Mu's expression changed slightly, as if he had heard this name somewhere before.
But then, he saw someone running towards the arena from Astral-4. He suddenly realized that this was the person who had tried to steal his Windcutter Sword back at the Sword Pavilion.
Qi Shaofan chose his unsharpened sword and stepped onto the arena. He ignored his opponent, Wang Yuan, and instead glanced at Astral-9. His gaze traveled over a thousand meters and landed on Chu Mu's face.
Qi Shaofan sneered and then looked at his opponent, Wang Yuan, with an impatient expression. "Hurry up and draw your sword."
Wang Yuan was in the midst of performing a sword salute to Qi Shaofan, but Qi Shaofan didn't move at all. He was secretly annoyed, but when he heard Qi Shaofan's words, his expression changed to one of annoyance.
He thrust his sword forward, and the sword split into three rays that pierced towards Qi Shaofan from the top, middle, and bottom.
"Child's play," Qi Shaofan said with disdain as he smirked and thrust his sword forward.
In an instant, rays of Sword Light appeared one after another.
Qi Shaofan's Sword Light was different from the other Sword Light. Other swordsmen's Sword Light would appear as many rays as they wanted, but Qi Shaofan's Sword Light would appear first, followed by a second, and then a third.
Rays of Sword Light appeared one after another, creating a visual effect that was even more obvious than when they appeared all at once.
In particular, Qi Shaofan's Sword Light appeared one after another. Then, the first one disappeared, followed by the second one. However, the subsequent Sword Light continued to appear, forming a continuous process.
Under the cover of this Sword Light that was constantly disappearing and appearing, his sword became unfathomable, making it impossible for others to identify it.
Wang Yuan's vision was greatly affected. He tried his best to squint his eyes and focus his vision to reduce the degree of interference. However, there were still streaks of Sword Light appearing and disappearing in front of him. They kept repeating themselves, making him dizzy. He had no idea where Qi Shaofan's sword was.
After barely blocking a few strikes, Wang Yuan felt his chest being fiercely pierced. Even though the tip of the unsharpened sword was oval-shaped, this stab still made him feel a sharp pain. His entire body staggered backwards, and immediately after, another sword slashed fiercely at his chest. He fell on his buttocks, and found it difficult to breathe.
"You lost." A disdainful snort sounded in his ears. Wang Yuan took a light breath and rubbed his chest with his left hand. He glanced at Qi Shaofan, but he didn't say anything as he turned around and left the arena.
"Qi Shaofan wins," the referee announced with an expressionless face.
However, Qi Shaofan didn't leave the arena. Instead, he turned around to look at Astral-9's students. His gaze landed on Chu Mu again, and he pointed his unsharpened sword at Chu Mu. Anyone could tell that he was targeting one of Astral-9's students.
However, because they were more than a thousand meters away, it was impossible to tell.
"Who is this guy provoking?" Liang Haishan frowned and muttered to himself.
Zhuge Ming glanced at Chu Mu, but when he saw Chu Mu's calm expression, he didn't say anything.
Qi Shaofan left the arena, and the next match began.
Game after game went on.
Finally, on the 170th match, night fell, and the day's matches came to an end.
The rest of the matches would be left for the next day. The students left in an orderly manner and returned to their respective Sword Towers. Along the way, they couldn't avoid all sorts of discussions.
The night passed uneventfully, and when the next day arrived, the students once again gathered in the arena.
"First round, 171st match …"
The first day's competition continued on the second day.
"First round, 182nd match: Astral-5's Hong Tianlie versus Astral-9's Zhuge Ming."
Zhuge Ming slowly stood up with a smile on his face. His body flashed like a bolt of silver lightning as he rushed towards the arena.
"I'll be able to see how good Senior Zhuge's swordsmanship is," Chu Mu muttered to himself as interest flashed in his eyes.
Hong Tianlie was naturally not Zhuge Ming's opponent, and every strike seemed to be countered by Zhuge Ming. In less than ten strikes, Hong Tianlie was defeated.
"His opponent is too weak, so I can't tell how good he is. However, he shouldn't be above the level of a Master Swordsman," Chu Mu muttered to himself after thinking for a while.
After Zhuge Ming, the top hundred students from the previous tournament were also arranged to compete in the arena. After three years of training, their originally outstanding swordsmanship had become even more exquisite.
Thus, their opponents became miserable. They were defeated one after another, and all of them became stepping stones for their victory.
This arrangement was intentional by the referees. They wanted to leave these people's battles for later, so that they could bring about a climax.
During this period, three of the top ten students from the previous tournament also went up to the arena. Chu Mu carefully watched their matches and realized that their opponents were all defeated in a single strike.
It couldn't be helped. Their opponents were too famous, and most of the students lacked confidence when facing them. Their swordsmanship was also inferior to theirs, so they couldn't even display their full strength before being defeated in a single strike.
"Indeed … very sharp …" Chu Mu muttered to himself.
"First round, 275th match: Astral-9's Lei Hao versus Astral-10's Di San."
"It's finally my turn. I've been sitting for so long that my bones are rusty." Lei Hao stood up and stretched his body, making crackling sounds that sounded like beans being fried. He put down his sword and took a step forward. With a whoosh, he turned into a blur as he rushed towards the arena.
He didn't slow down at all. When he passed by the wooden rack, he quickly looked back and grabbed an unsharpened sword before jumping onto the arena.
His opponent, Di San, had also chosen his sword and was about to enter the arena.
After the two sides greeted each other with their swords, they didn't say a single word and immediately started fighting.
Lei Hao's sword was as fast and ferocious as ever. Once he entered battle mode, it was as if he had transformed into a ferocious beast in human form.
Di San's sword speed was also very fast, but compared to Lei Hao's combination of speed and power, it was much weaker in terms of momentum.
Lei Hao's physical strength was terrifying. Once he attacked, every strike was a perfect combination of speed and power, and each strike contained a powerful explosive force.
Under Lei Hao's seemingly tireless attacks, Di San, who had been continuously attacking with his sword, was gradually unable to withstand Lei Hao's attacks and switched from offense to defense.
"I don't believe you can keep attacking like this forever. As long as you weaken, it will be the time for me to counterattack and win," Di San said secretly.
Not only him, but the others could also see that Lei Hao's crazy attacks had both advantages and disadvantages.
Only Chu Mu knew that Lei Hao's physical strength was so terrifying that it was unrealistic to expect him to weaken. At least, Lei Hao wouldn't be exhausted before Di San's defense weakened.
It was like a storm.
"Senior Brother Cangyue, Lei Hao really has your style," a student next to Huangfu Cangyue said with a smile.
"What a joke! How can he be compared with Senior Brother Cangyue?" Another student next to him immediately retorted, "You know, Senior Brother Cangyue is the king of swordsmanship in the Sword Mansion. He was in the last session, and he will be in this session as well."
Huangfu Cangyue glanced at him without praise or disdain. That kind of look was a condescending disregard because he was qualified to do so.
"What did this guy eat to grow up? Why hasn't he exhausted his strength yet?" Di San's defense began to become difficult because Lei Hao's sword was very fierce. Every time he blocked the sword, he would be slightly shaken. In this case, Di San's palms were numb and his arms were sore.
The muscles on Lei Hao's arms were wriggling. Waves of power burst out and he suddenly chopped with his sword.
With a clang, Di San only felt his palms shake and his purlicue seemed to be torn apart. He could not hold the sword in his hand and it flew out. In the next moment, a terrible gust of wind that seemed to break his face whistled over. Before he could react, something appeared on his neck.
With a clang, Di San's sword fell a few meters away.
"Lei Hao wins."
The referee announced loudly, and his voice came into everyone's ears.
"What a fierce swordsmanship. It's full of wildness," Huang Buju said lightly, his casual smile fading a little.
"It's a bit like Huangfu Cangyue's style, but it's nothing compared to Huangfu Cangyue." Tang Shaobo said softly, "But it's still not bad. It shouldn't be too difficult for him to reach the 150th rank."
After defeating his opponent, Lei Hao returned to his seat. His body was still brimming with battle intent, and his gaze landed on Chu Mu's face with undisguised anticipation.
"First round, match two hundred and seventy-six …"
"First round, match two hundred and seventy-seven …"
Very quickly, the second day of the competition ended when night fell. It seemed that it would take another day for the first round of the competition to end.
"First round, match three hundred and fifty: Astral-9's Zhao Longkun versus Astral-10's Liu Caihong."
Zhao Longkun stepped onto the arena and defeated Liu Caihong after thirty moves. In the previous tournament, Zhao Longkun had been ranked 142nd.
Even though he already knew that Chu Mu had defeated Zhong Liyang, it was still a fact that Zhong Liyang was inferior to him.
On his way back, Zhao Longkun specially glanced at Chu Mu.
However, Chu Mu ignored him, because Zhao Longkun had used at least 80% of his strength to defeat Liu Caihong. His swordsmanship level was basically seen clearly by Chu Mu, and there was nothing praiseworthy about it.
"First round, match four hundred and ninety-nine …"
"First round, match five hundred …"
Finally, after three days, the first round of the finals of swordsmanship was over. Tomorrow would be the fourth day, and the second round of the finals of swordsmanship would be even more exciting. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to qidian.com to vote for me. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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