16 The first round

After the patriarch announced the beginning of the martial arts competition, one of the 12 elders of the outer sect started explaining the rules of the competition:" all the participants, listen very well to what I'm about to say, I will only explain the rules to you once, the competition will last for 3 days, it'll also have 3 rounds, the first 2 rounds are to eliminate all the weak contestants until there is only 20 disciples left, the last round will be the real martial arts competition, where all the 20 disciples will face each other in 20 matches, the 5 disciples who have the least number of loses will be accepted as inner disciples...."

While the elder was explaining the rules, Liam heard his teacher's voice:" not bad, not bad at all, for a medium size sect, you're pretty powerful, the patriarch of the sect already reached the peak of Heaven shattering realm and about to become a Legendary realm cultivated, as for those four who called themselves grandmasters, except for the medicine hall grandmaster who is sill at the peak of earth chattering realm, the other 3 grandmasters are already at the beginning or the middle of Heaven shattering realm, the other 12 elders are either Earth chattering cultivators, or Heaven realm cultivators".

Hearing his teacher talking about all of these cultivators and their cultivation realms, Liam felt embarrassed that he was so proud when he just reached Human realm 8 stars, but at the same time felt excited for the day when he also reach these realms.

When his teacher finished talking Liam was able to focus on what the elder was saying once again:" alright, the first round will be an elimination round as I said, all the contestants will have to come on stage to test there cultivation realm, you must have reached at least Human realm 4 stars to advance to the next round, and because the huge number of the contestants, we'll test 5 of you at the same time, once you hear the number that you received when you registered, you need to come on stage and put your hands on the spiritual stone pillar, the number of lights will show your level, you need at least 4 lights to appear in order to pass this round".

Then the elder started calling numbers:

"number 1,2,3,4 and 5 come on stage".

after they put their hands on the stone, none of them was able to make it, since most outer disciple never received any kind of teaching or support from the sect, they just spend their days doing their jods to eat and earn some money.

After a long time it was finally Lucas turn, he was famous as the most talented disciple in the outer sect.

The moment he put his hand on the stone 9 lights shined very clearly.

Even the elder was very happy:" hahaha you've already reached the peak of Human realm, no wonder you're the most talented caltivator in the outer sect, once you become an inner disciple the sect will help you break through to the next level".

At that time all the outer disciples already considered that the first place will be his, except for Liam, he wasn't surprised at all, on the contrary, he was excited to finally test his power in front of someone powerful like Lucas.

Lucas wasn't the only outstanding talent in the outer sect, there was also Noah and Alice, who were both Human realm 8 stars cultivators, plus many more at the Human realm 7 stars and 6 stars.

When the round was reaching its end, it was finally Liams turn, he was number 561, when he heard the elder calling his number he got really nervous, but he knew that he has nothing to be worried about, and started walking toward the stage.

Along the way he could hear all the audience and participants making fun of him:

"hahaha even the trash wants to become an inner disciple"

"hahaha does he think we are playing over here, he just wants to embarrass himself"

"I bet there won't be even one light on the stone, he can't even cultivate that trash body of his, and yet he dares to go on stage"

Even the elders didn't expect anything from him since they couldn't feel any spiritual energy coming from his body.

But Liam didn't care at all about what every one was saying about him, he was completely focused on passing this round.

The moment Liam went on stage, his teacher took off the seal that he put on Liam's body when he just started cultivating to hide his ability to cultivate and his real realm from others, then he put his hand on the stone.

At first there was no reaction, so every one was laughing and making fun of him, even the elder was about to make him get down the state, but after the seal was completely broken, the first to sense his spiritual energy was the patriarch, then the other elders, and just moments after, appeared 8 lights on the stone, but for some reason, the lights ware very strong and clear, even stronger than Lucas's light.

At that moment all the disciples and participants that were laughing just a while ago, all stood speechless just staring at the warm light that the stone was emitting.