A Level 1 Fest

As the Headmaster's voice rang out, elders of the 3rd level of the body forging realm flashed onto each stage, before calling out a couple of names each. After that, they each took up positions outside their respective arenas to act as judges. Meanwhile, the students whose names had been called out went up to their respective arenas.

Lin Fan looked at Zhao Song. "Senior brother, I am not aware of the rules that Headmaster Wang was talking about. Could you help me out?"

Zhao Song nodded. "Sure. Junior brother Jiang, you should listen here as well. The participants are divided into two pools, for new students and senior students respectively. Students that have been in the academy for at least 2 years today will fight in the senior students category. The junior students are less than 2 years into their training. Both pools will have the same prizes."

"There will be some resources provided, based on how far you get in the tournament. The first ranked student, in addition to the resources awarded, would also get the chance to be taken in as a disciple by the headmaster. The top 8 students would get the chance to be taken in as a disciple by the core elders. For the next 5 years, these students would be nurtured with the best available resources."

"During the competition 5 years ago, I had almost reached 2 years of training. Back then, I dominated Tang Hao in the finals to become master's disciple from the junior student's pool. Of course, junior brother Jiang has just started practice a bit more than a month ago, so you do not have to worry about your performance. Junior brother Lin, your time spent cultivating was also very low, barely a quarter of a year, but you can still take a look at the senior's strengths so you can perform well five years later. Becoming the disciple of a core elder can really change your life then."

Jiang Ting nodded as Lin Fan took Zhao Song's words to heart.

"The first phase of the competition will be between the junior disciples. All of them must be at level 1 of the body forging realm, with perhaps one or two at level 2 of the body forging realm. It is a straightforward elimination format. You must defeat your opponent, without crippling or killing. Anyways, you guys just have some fun, then come watch your senior brother dominate the senior's competition."

As Zhao Song finished speaking, the competition had started in all of the arenas. Lin Fan took Jiang Ting and walked over to the spectator's area near one of the arenas to assess their competitors. The crowd was pretty huge, filled with students.

"Take a look, brother Jiang. The ones fighting here are both pretty popular among the new disciples. Within just half a year of cultivation, Zhuge Jin over there in the black robes has already stepped into the middle stage of the 1st level of body forging realm. He practices the grade one technique, the stone eagle technique. It is an agility martial art that strengthens one's hands to mimic an eagle's claws while attacking. The martial art mostly focusses on evading and making sharp, swift attacks at the instant the opponent reveals an opening. Zhuge Jin has taken the technique to middle stage mastery. He is a pretty solid talent."

Jiang Ting looked at the stage. There was a man in blook robes, with a comparatively lithe physique, and sharp eyes. He was watching his enemy's every move intently, dodging about with quick speed, and slashing out with his fingers whenever the opportunity presented itself.

"The other one over there is Cao Xuan. He joined about seven months ago, and has cultivated the grade 1 technique, the Iron Bear technique to advanced stage mastery. This is an offensive martial art, relying on brute force to overcome opponents. This technique has more brute strength than any other grade 1 technique, but it has lower requirements for comprehension, since it lacks much in the way of technique. This creates a weakness against skillful martial artists and is mostly cultivated by those with low martial arts talent. I have heard that Cao Xuan has always been a weak child, so he figured he should take a technique with less requirement of talent yet ended up making very fast progress in his cultivation, surprising all his peers. At first, people thought his earlier weak physique had fooled him into thinking he was not talented, but later one of the elders at the academy studied Cao Xuan's physique and declared that he was indeed poorly talented, but his physique was uniquely suited to practice techniques derived from mimicking bear-like animals. As a result, he has been allowed to study the grade 4 shadow bear technique. As someone innately suited to cultivate a grade 4 technique, he will be taken in as a core elder's disciple after the competition. If he cultivates it successfully, the core elders have decided that they will go outside and trade with other villages to obtain higher grade techniques for this little bear god of ours."

Jiang Ting stared at Cao Xuan from afar. This fellow had extremely overbearing strength and was a strong talent even in his past life. With his talent and affinity, it was thought that he might become a level 3 expert of the body forging realm, with extraordinary combat ability due to cultivating such a high-level ability. After all, the grade 4 ability would not have such basic weaknesses, and instead would be superior in technique. Additionally, his bear like physique would dominate opponents.

However, in Jiang Ting's experience, Cao Xuan's potential was much greater. His affinity to such techniques meant that as he long as he had sufficient resources, it wasn't impossible for him to make quick progress. He had seen such talents outside the village, and they were terrifying. It wasn't an understatement to say that these people had naturally blessed physiques for cultivation, which could theoretically even support them until the peak of body forging realm. However, he was also aware that Cao Xuan's affinity to bear attribute techniques wasn't too strong, so he naturally could not be compared to such beasts.