Preparing for the tournament

Two weeks had passed since Song Yang had visited the Martial Hall.

There were only three days left before the tournament.

After a lot of suffering and pain, Song Yang had successfully refined and tempered his skin.

Now that it was free from all its impurities, his skin was brighter and even more perfect than before. Not only that, his skin was now as tough as metal and his pain tolerance also greatly increased!

"Sister Yu Qi, what did you do to have such perfect skin? You're even more beautiful than before!" Asked Xia Zilin.

"Did you use a Cosmetic Pill? These pills are very expensive, you shouldn't waste your Spirit Stones to buy them!" Exclaimed Tan Yanyan.

Song Yang was currently eating breakfast with his two roommates. Hearing them, he didn't know what to say so he decided to dodge the questions.

"Girls, now that we have all reached the second level of the Eight Meridians Opening realm, do you want to spar in the training ground to prepare for the tournament?" He suggested.

He was strong now. But what was the point of being strong if he didn't know how to fight? After all, he never fought with anyone in his previous life. His only experience with fighting was from watching animes and boxing matches with his father...

"That's a good idea, it will allow us to gain some battle experience before the tournament." Said Tan Yanyan.

"Sure, why not." Said Xia Zilin.

After they finished eating, the three girls left their house and walked towards the Training Area.

They arrived a few minutes later and saw many medium-sized training grounds with a lot of disciples already training. They walked towards an empty training ground and Song Yang turned to his two roommates.

"So, who wants to fight first?" He asked.

"I can go first against you." Said Tan Yanyan.

Song Yang was facing Tan Yanyan with a boxing stance since it was the one he was the most familiar with.

In his previous life, he would have never hit a girl but in this world everything was different, so he would not hesitate.

He was observing Tan Yanyan and noticed that she was using a peculiar stance: her body was bent forward and she had her left arm extended behind her while her right arm was extended in front of her with her palm open.

Tan Yanyan kicked the ground and dashed to Song Yang. Once she was close enough, she started striking him with multiple palm attacks.

At first, Song Yang could follow Tan Yanyan's attacks and was able to dodge all of them. However, Tan Yanyan suddenly started to strike faster than before and Song Yang was now forced to block them.

After Song Yang blocked a palm attack that was aimed at his head, Tan Yanyan immediately used a sweep kick to make him fall. Song Yang didn't fall but lost his balance and Tan Yanyan took this opportunity to give him a powerful kick on the stomach.

Song Yang didn't feel that much pain but was forced to take a few steps back because of the impact of the kick.

Tan Yanyan was surprised by the strength of Song Yang. That kick she just gave him should have sent him flying away but he only took three steps back!

Song Yang, for his part, was very surprised by how skilled his roommate was, if it was not for his tough skin, he would have already lost!

Although it was just a training fight, Song Yang had a competitive mind so he really didn't want to lose. However, he knew that he had no chance to win if he continued like that. If he wanted to win, he needed to do something to surprise his opponent. And the only thing he could think of to surprise Tan Yanyan was to use a Martial Art.

Song Yang used his Martial Art Rushing Frost Steps and channeled Ice Qi in his feet to boost his speed. In just an instant, he found himself in front of Tan Yanyan and used the momentum to punch her chest with all his strength.

It was so fast that Tan Yanyan couldn't react, block, or dodge. The punch she received got the wind knocked out of her and ejected her several meters away!

Tan Yanyan was now lying on the ground and groaning in pain. She was holding her chest and trying to get up when she suddenly spit a mouthful of blood.

"Oh my god, are you alright?" Asked Song Yang who panicked when he saw that.

"Y-yes, I'm fine." She answered, wiping her mouth.

"Are you sure? Let me help you."

Song Yang walked towards Tan Yanyan and helped her get up.

"Thanks. But did you use a Martial Art to defeat me?" Asked Tan Yanyan.

"Yes?" Answered Song Yang not sure of what Tan Yanyan wanted to say.

"So, you learned a Martial Art in less than a month! You must be a genius, I underestimated you." Said Tan Yanyan, smiling.

"Ah?" Song Yang didn't know what to say. Was it such a big deal to learn a Martial Art in less than a month? Well, he had a system so he didn't know if learning one was hard or not.

"I need to rest a little. You should spar with Sister Zilin." Said Tan Yanyan.

"Alright!"

"Sister Yu Qi, I'm not as skilled as Sister Yanyan. Please, go easy on me." Said Xia Zilin with a sweet voice.

Seeing Xia Zilin's posture, Song Yang could clearly tell that she never fought before.

Xia Zilin rushed forward to kick at Song Yang but he dodged it with a quick step aside. She didn't stop here and kicked Song Yang again who this time blocked it, grabbed her leg, and threw her to the side.

Song Yang noticed that Xia Zilin's attacks were slower and more predictable than Tan Yanyan's attacks, that was why he was easily able to counter her.

Xia Zilin got up from the ground and ran towards Song Yang. She continuously kicked and punched him but Song Yang dodged and blocked all her strikes and would punch her every time he would see an opening in Xia Zilin's defense.

Bang!

Song Yang kicked Xia Zilin on the stomach after blocking one of her attacks and sent her flying away.

"I give up." Said Xia Zilin after getting up.

"Good fight!" Said Song Yang, smiling.

...

The three girls continued to train together for the following days. They fought for most of the day and cultivated from late afternoon until late at night.

Both Song Yang and Xia Zilin benefit the most from these sparring. Since they didn't know how to fight, they learned a lot by fighting against Tan Yanyan.

Today was finally the day of the tournament.

Song Yang woke up at dawn and started to prepare breakfast as usual. Xia Zilin and Tan Yanyan left their room at the same time a few minutes later and greeted him.

These past few days, the three of them had spent most of their time together, so they became very close to each other.

"Good morning. So, ready for today?" Asked Song Yang.

"Of course." Answered Tan Yanyan confidently.

"Even if I can't enter the top five, I will do my best!" Answered Xia Zilin.

The tournament would take place at noon to give time to all the disciples to gather at the Arena Area.

An hour before noon, they all left the house to walk towards the Arena Area. On the way, they met many other disciples but all of them were silent and had either a worried or a serious and focused expression. After all, their future would be determined after the tournament. If they could reach the top five, the extra cultivation resources they would receive would allow them to quickly become an inner disciple of the sect!

They finally arrived at a huge arena theater with a large stage at the center surrounded by many seats. The Arena Area counted dozens of arena theaters, but this one was the largest among them and was especially used for the important tournaments of the outer disciples.

The stage at the center was elevated and made of white stone. It was so large that it could easily contain five hundred people!

Song Yang noticed that many people were already sitting on the seats surrounding the stage. The audience consisted mostly of Outer Elders and older outer disciples.

Time passed and finally, all the new outer disciples were gathered in front of the arena theater. Song Yang looked around him but only saw around two hundred disciples.

'I was expecting much more disciples than that.' He thought.

The Myriad Clouds Sect was one of the most powerful sects in the Eastern Continent. As such, it privileged quality over quantity.

In this world, cultivators mostly had an F-grade or an E-grade talent, so having a D-grade talent was considered to be exceptional. For this reason, only people with a minimum of D-grade talent or C-grade talent could become an outer disciple of the sect and if they couldn't reach a certain level after a period of time, they would be demoted. People with a B-grade talent could directly become inner disciples while people with an A-grade talent were so rare that they directly became core disciples.

As for S-grade talent? It was only a myth in this world and only a few people knew that it existed.

Every five years, among the thousands of people wishing to join the Myriad Clouds Sect, the sect would only recruit 250 new disciples between the ages of fourteen and sixteen.

These 250 disciples were currently gathered and would have to fight each other during the tournament.

After a few minutes of waiting, an elder suddenly walked towards the new disciples and the whole place became silent.