Chapter – 194 A crushing defeat

Before the Wudao eighth layer disciples went away, Baiyun Zhong had went to them and spoke to them for a while.

When all the seventy seven Wudao eighth layer contestants, who were going to fight each other finally entered the Imperial Martial Arena, the eyes of all the other people were fixed on them.

Some of the people had even begun to sweat due to anxiety.

This knockout round was one of the few opportunities the martial arts disciples got to perform in front of highly renowned viewers. Their performance here could find them some patrons and secure their future.

Soon, the seventy seven contestants divided themselves into seven large groups. Each one of them was standing beside the fellow disciples from their own sect. Each group was carefully observing the other groups.

“Begin!”

With Chu Chao Sheng’s order, the first knockout round of the seven sects’ compet.i.tion finally started.

The environment of the entire Imperial Martial Arena intensified as all the disciples released their murderous aura.

“Kill!”

The disciples of Raining Sword sect began with the attack as they rushed towards the disciples of Qiansi sect.

Qiansi sect had been leading the compet.i.tion right from the start because of Yu Qianning being the only contestant with a cultivation level of Zhenling fifth layer. This made the disciples of Raining Sword sect to take down the disciples of Qiansi sect first.

“Now!”

The disciples of Tibetan Fire sect and Knife Cut sect looked at each other and immediately came together to strike the disciples of Zhentian sect.

“Help them!”

The ten disciples of Hanbing sect rushed towards the Zhentian disciples to help them, as soon as they saw them getting attacked by Tibetan Fire sect and Knife Cut sect.

The alliances had been formed, although each sect had its own reasons behind their chosen alliances.

Zhentian sect and Hanbing sect had joined forces to suppress Qiansi sect to ensure the failure of Chu Chao Sheng’s plan.

However, Tibetan Fire sect and Knife Cut sect had formed an alliance because of their common enemy – Zhentian sect!

A fierce fight had ensued, and the outcome of this fight was unpredictable.

All the sects bore some kind of enmity for the other sects.

While some enmities were trivial and could be made up for afterwards, some were caused by pure resentment and couldn’t be sorted out peacefully.

For example, Long Yu first killed the son of the sovereign of Tibetan Fire sect and later killed a Zhenling third layer Elder of the same sect. Neither the sovereign, nor the disciples of Tibetan Fire sect could ever forgive Long Yu for this. Such a strong enmity could never be sorted out peacefully.

While all the sects had entered some alliance or the other, the one sect that remained out of it was Allure sect.

The disciples of Raining Sword sect and Qiansi sect fought each other fiercely. Sword qi had spread all over the arena and shadows appeared here and there. As soon as a Raining Sword disciple would finally catch a shadow, it would immediately dissipate into thin air. The Raining Sword disciples had no idea how to cope up with the shadow techniques of Qiansi disciples.

Shua! Shua!

The actual bodies of the disciples of Qiansi sect moved swiftly about the martial arena and struck the other contenders as soon as they got any chance, creating great chaos in the arena.

As Raining Sword disciples saw Qiansi disciples running here and there, they stopped attacking them. They had a.s.sumed that their attacks were so fierce that the Qiansi disciples wouldn’t be able to face them.

Each of them was holding a sword in their hands and was releasing a great amount of Sword qi. They soon rushed towards the other disciples in the arena.

The fight would come to an end if sixty six out of these seventy seven disciples were either injured or willfully conceded the fight.

The eleven people, who would stay till the end, would earn one point each.

In this knockout round, the Qiansi disciples were also targeting the Zhentian disciples, making it more difficult for Zhentian disciples and Hanbing disciples to continue fighting.

The situation was more chaotic than ever. However, Ling Yiyue was thoroughly being protected by her fellow disciples.

“We’re at a disadvantageous position, but we have to beat them.”

As the time pa.s.sed, two Zhentian disciples had conceded the fight due to injuries, while the others had been separated by the disciples of Qiansi sect, who were creating great confusion.

Initially, Baiyun Zhong had formed an alliance with all six sects to fight united against Qiansi sect. However, as it turned out to be, most of these sects had targeted the disciples of Zhentian sect!

It was impossible for the Zhentian sect’s disciples to continue fighting for long!

Soon afterwards, all the remaining disciples of Zhentian sect had admitted defeat and had exited the martial arena. Although none of them had lost their life, they all received serious injuries.

Certainly, they would be provided with proper medication to recover from the injuries, soon. However, since none of the Zhentian sects disciples could make it to the final eleven contestants of the first knockout round, the sect hadn’t scored any points.

The disciples of Hanbing sect also withdrew from the fight since they knew that after Zhentian sect’s exit, all the other sects would collectively attack them.

This had made the disciples of Hanbing sect quite discontented. They regretted siding with Zhentian sect. Had they gone against the alliance, they might have stood a fair chance of earning some points. However, Tang Qin, the sovereign of Hanbing sect, had not said anything.

Forming an alliance with Zhentian sect was the only way Tang Qi could take some action against Qiansi sect. This was not something Zhentian sect or Hanbing sect could do alone.

No matter what, they had to stick together and try to defeat the Qiansi disciples in the upcoming rounds.

However, since the Qiansi disciples had practiced agility type martial skills and shadow manipulation techniques, it was difficult to capture and attack them.

After Zhentian disciples and Hanbing disciples exited the fight, three disciples of Qiansi sect also conceded, leaving eight of their fellow disciples in the arena.

Half of the disciples of each one of Raining Sword sect, Knife Cut sect and Allure sect had already been injured and conceded the fight by this time.

Qiansi sect had the largest number disciples still remaining in the fight

“Attack the Qiansi disciples!”

The disciples of the remaining four sects were no fool. They were well aware of the importance of defeating Qiansi sect in this seven sects’ compet.i.tion. Should the Qiansi sect win the compet.i.tion, their own sects would be completely annihilated!

This made them join forces against Qiansi sect.

A Raining Sword disciple, who was earnestly chasing the shadow of a Qiansi disciple, released a burst of Sword qi to hit the shadow. However, the shadow dodged the attack and the burst of Sword qi struck a Tibetan Fire sect disciple’s head.

The Tibetan Fire sect disciple immediately retorted back and shouted, “You idiot! Who do you think you are hitting?”

“Huh!”

The Raining Sword disciple didn’t pay any attention to the Tibetan Fire sect disciple and ran away.

He just wanted to chase the Qiansi sect disciple. However, the Tibetan Fire sect disciple was enraged with his behavior, “First you strike me without any reason and then you run away without even apologizing! You are courting death!”

The Tibetan Fire sect disciple waved his hands and released a burst of fire, while immediately enveloped the Raining sword disciple.

The chaos that followed injured more contestants.

Only five of Qiansi sect disciples were left in the arena, while the other four sects had about two or three disciples each, who were still fighting.

At this time, the Qiansi disciples united again and ambushed the three girls of Allure sect. Their continuous attack made the girls admit defeat, too.

Now, there were only eleven people left in the martial arena. Five of them hailed from Qiansi sect, while Raining Sword sect, Knife Cut sect and Tibetan Fire sect had two disciples each in the final eleven.

According to the rules, the five disciples of Qiansi sect were to be awarded one point each. This way, Qiansi sect gained five points from the first round!

Two points each were to be awarded to Knife Cut sect, Raining Sword sect and Tibetan fire sect, while Zhentian sect, Hanbing sect and Allure sect failed to gain any points.

No one had expected such an outcome!

All the disciples of the six sects should’ve joined forces right from the beginning and attacked the Qiansi disciples. However, the disciples thought it to be the most opportune moment to settle personal scores.

Perhaps, the strategy for the first round had been wrong.

Allure sect tried to stay out of the fight for the longest time, hoping to benefit from other sects’ strife. However, they failed to gain any points in the end.

This made the sovereign of Allure sect, Fang Qiaoyue, to ponder over the matter deeply.

Was it the time to join an alliance?

To counter Chu Chao Sheng’s scheme, Allure sect should’ve ideally allied with Zhentian sect and Hanbing sect and fought Qiansi sect with them. However, it seemed to Fang Qiaoyue that helping Zhentian sect might endanger her disciples’ lives since all the other sects had rallied against Zhentian sect.

“To make Chu Chao Sheng’s plan unsuccessful, we have to gain more points than Qiansi sect…”

Fang Qiaoyue was lost in thoughts. She was thinking about Zhentian sect.

The strongest disciples of Zhentian sect, Long Yu and Bu Xing, had the cultivation level of Zhenling fourth layer, while Zhuge Jian had the cultivation level of Zhenling third layer. Although she had heard that Long Yu had sent Long Ji flying with his attack and severely injured him, Liu Yuan had helped him in doing so.

Fang Qiaoyue had no doubts regarding Long Yu’s cultivation level, but she couldn’t believe that Long Yu might have injured a person who was much stronger than him without Liu Yuan’s help. However, she hadn’t talked to Liu Yuan in this regard.

She was proud of her disciples Liu Yuan and Bai Linsha, both of whom had the cultivation level of Zhenling fourth layer.

She was sure that if Liu Yuan and Bai Linsha teamed up, they could easily earn twelve points in the sixth round.

Moreover, Allure sect had several Zhenling third layer and second layer disciples, more than Zhentian sect had.

Fang Qiaoyue had finally made her decision.

“We shall first save ourselves with the help of Tibetan Fire sect. Later, we can take down the Qiansi sect together.”

However, everyone had seen in the first round that in spite of their best efforts to collectively attack the Qiansi disciples, the disciples of the remaining four sects had fallen for the misunderstanding created by the Qiansi disciples and ended up injuring each other.

This mistake must not be repeated by them in the upcoming rounds, otherwise Qiansi sect would win again.

The next round was scheduled after two days by Chu Chao Sheng, so Fang Qiaoyue had enough time to discuss the terms of alliance with Tibetan Fire sect and Knife Cute sect.

“Today’s round went pretty well! Qiansi sect has earned five points.”

Chu Chao Sheng was satisfied with the outcome. Qiansi sect had gained a lot. As the Qiansi sect would increase its lead over the other sects, Chu Chao Sheng would come closer to realizing his dream of controlling all the seven sects!

“The second knockout round will take place after two days. Let’s call it a day.”

Chu Chao Sheng announced the end of the first knockout round.

As Long Yu stood up to leave with Baiyun Zhong and the other people from his Zhentian sect, he noticed a group of people approaching in their direction.

“People of Long Clan?”

Long Yu’s eyes flashed.

These people had expelled his father from the clan and Long Ji had tried to kill him more than once. What did these people want now?

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