Chapter 5190 — There Really Was No Need
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
He could not help the headache. After all, he had once given Dr. Glasses his solemn word, and if this business were botched, what if Dr. Glasses simply revoked his status as a key cultivator?
Just as Xue Jianming was at his wit's end, another Snow Sword Sect disciple entered the arena and, like Luo Shasheng before him, was forcibly strung together into the snow momentum by his opponent; the man could not resist at all and was defeated with a single effortless move. This was the most normal outcome of all—if everyone turned the tables within a single move the way Qiu Lingshan had just done, now that would be a problem.
At this thought, a sudden inspiration struck Xue Jianming. He looked at Wei Zhao and the cold-faced group standing together not far away, chatting and laughing, and in an instant he understood.
The matches continued. After the early Foundation Establishment cultivators came the clashes among disciples at the peak of the Heaven Tier, and those who had not even reached the peak of the Heaven Tier had no right to enter the trial tournament at all, for even if they took part they would only be wasting their time.
Only two short months remained. Anyone still merely at the peak of the late Heaven Tier, or even lower, had no hope of succeeding in Foundation Establishment within those two months. They were fated to be eliminated, so naturally there was no need for them to join any trial tournament.
By the time the first round of matches was entirely finished, it was already evening of the second day. Everyone returned to rest for the night, and when the sun rose on the third day, the second round of the trial tournament began.
As was customary, the cross-tier challenges came before the regular matches. In the first round everyone else had stood watching, and only Ling Tianyou had stepped forward to name Wei Zhao as his challenge—and tasted defeat for the first time in his life.
Now, in the second round, after two days of careful deliberation—and since the first round had more or less laid bare everyone's true strength—there was enough for the crowd to go on.
Sure enough, this time far more people chose to issue cross-tier challenges: seven in all. The most eye-catching was Ling Tianyou, challenging once again. Though this young sect master of the Thousand Blades Sect had lost to Wei Zhao last time, the might of the Thousand Blades in Flight was beyond doubt; among the many early-stage Foundation Establishment experts, apart from Wei Zhao, there was likely no one who could match him.
And the facts proved it. At the Foundation Establishment level, even if Ling Tianyou was not the invincible number one, he was certainly among the top few. His opponent, an expert at the peak of early Foundation Establishment, was by no means weak, yet was effortlessly crushed in a single exchange, with no chance to strike back.
And so Ling Tianyou became the first disciple to win a place in the Grand Antiquity Trial, while the peak Foundation Establishment disciple he defeated became the first unlucky soul eliminated from the tournament.
Watching the man's dazed, despairing look, quite a few people felt a pang of sympathy. A dignified expert at the peak of Foundation Establishment, eliminated just like that—it truly left one sighing and speechless.
In terms of strength, this man was hardly weak among the peak Foundation Establishment experts. Had he not run into Ling Tianyou, he would in fact have had a good chance of snatching three victories from other experts of his level—provided, of course, that his luck was not too poor.
Alas, there are no "ifs" in this world. His luck was not merely poor; it was utterly wretched. Under such cruel rules, elimination was unavoidable, and he could blame no one but himself for being so unfortunate as to catch Ling Tianyou's eye.