Hearing Ling Xiao’s words, Ling Feng’s face turned ashen. He hadn’t expected Ling Xiao to underestimate Ling Ziran, but to dare belittle him !
"Fine! Just you wait!"
Ling Xiao smiled faintly, not saying anything more, but continued with his own matches.
In the next three matches, his opponents all conceded voluntarily, so he easily secured a hundred consecutive victories.
"Congratulations to contestant number 9588, Ling Xiao, the only one to achieve a hundred consecutive victories, successfully advancing to the thousand-man list!"
Advancing to the thousand-man list meant he had entered the Elite Hall, no longer a lower-ranked disciple.
This elicited envy from countless others.
By this time, the day had grown late, yet light still lingered. While others were still competing, Ling Xiao quietly left the martial arts platform.
In his opinion, the only ones who could pose a threat to him now were Ling Yixue, Ling Yihang, and the members of the Genius Hall.
Since these individuals had not yet entered the competition, he might as well head home for a good rest.
Before returning home, he made a detour to the Pharmacy Hall.
"What’s the matter, kid, did you get eliminated? Shouldn’t the competition still be going on?"
Inside the Pharmacy Hall, Ling Xiao surprisingly ran into Ling Jiu and another middle-aged man, likely Ling Feng’s father.
The one speaking was Ling Jiu, dripping with irony.
"Oh, it’s Ninth Master. I’ve completed a hundred consecutive victories and advanced ahead of time."
Ling Xiao cupped his hands in greeting, then calmly spoke and headed up to find the Pharmacy Hall’s master.
He left Ling Jiu and Ling Feng’s father with embarrassingly stiff faces.
"Hahaha, Ninth Master, this young man used to bully your Ling Chong quite a bit. You can’t let him keep on hopping around, can you?"
A moment later, Ling Feng’s father suddenly said with a chuckle.
"Hmph, it’s good that he advanced, Tieshou will take care of him."
"That’s not a given, maybe our Feng’er will be the one to eliminate him first."
These two clearly still didn’t take Ling Xiao seriously, thinking that with Ling Tieshou or Ling Feng, they could easily defeat him.
While they were chatting, Ling Xiao had already acquired three Gang Qi Pills and left, a total of three!
Ling Xiao didn’t want these two to see them, lest he invite unnecessary trouble, so he exited through the back door.
Upon returning home, and eating some dumplings personally wrapped by his grandfather, Ling Xiao entered the practice room to start his cultivation.
One Gang Qi Pill went down his throat.
In one night, the Gang Qi in his third meridian had increased to ninety percent.
Just the last ten percent was needed for a breakthrough.
However, there were still matches today, so he left the two remaining Gang Qi Pills in the practice room and departed to take part in the competition.
Yesterday, the battles went on until well into the night, enduring until the final thousand were decided.
After all, clashes of this sort were just minor skirmishes, hardly interesting.
Apart from the highlights showcased by Ling Xiao, the rest were unremarkable, finishing quickly to make way for the more thrilling matches that lay ahead.
The next day, more than nine hundred advancing disciples, along with ten seeded contestants, gathered in the arena.
Ling Xiao was looking forward to today’s contests.
After a full day of combat yesterday, he had clearly noticed his practical experience making significant progress, and his cultivation level had risen as well.
This showed that such battles were definitely beneficial for him and not a waste of time.
"Today! The thousand of you here are all eligible to enter the Elite Hall! However, after today’s matches, most of you will be eliminated, and only ten will remain to participate in the final!"
"Now, I will announce the rules for the next matches..."
The rules for the semi-final differed greatly from the preliminary.
It was divided into two stages.
The first stage divided a thousand people into ten groups, each a hundred strong.
Then these hundred people were simultaneously placed on the great martial arts platform, and the last ten remaining could advance to the second stage.
That is the so-called melee!
The reason the higher-ups arranged this naturally had their purpose.
A martial artist can’t only be strong in one-on-one combat.
They also need to learn to protect themselves in a melee!
Upon hearing about the first stage, Ling Xiao laughed.
Because this stage posed absolutely no difficulty for him.
He didn’t even need to make a move, just evade the attacks with his nimble body movement technique, after all, the real challenge was the second stage.
Ten people selected from each group, a total of a hundred people, would undergo a point-based ranking, and the top ten with the most points would advance to the final stage.
At that time, he would definitely encounter Ling Feng, Ling Yixue, Ling Yihang, and others, which would be a truly fierce battle.
So for this first stage, if you can save energy, you’d better save as much as possible.
After the rules were read, Ling Xiao was assigned to the tenth group, with Ling Fei, ranked tenth, as the strongest in his group.
That was the person who had once competed with Ling Xiao in light-work skill and was defeated.
At the start of the competition, the situation became somewhat subtle. It was unknown if it was pre-arranged, but the other ninety-nine people simultaneously launched an attack on Ling Xiao.
"Can they really do this?"
"Ling Xiao sure has offended quite a few people!"
"It’s not offense, it’s probably jealousy, not wanting him to move forward."
"What can he do then? Even if it’s Ling Yihang, even Ling Feifan, I’m afraid they wouldn’t dare to claim they can face these ninety-nine people unbeaten, right?"
"What can be done? Just deal with it! It’s a bit of a pity, but I guess he’s really going to get eliminated."
Although many people were sweating for Ling Xiao and felt that it was a bit unfair to him, as long as no rules were broken, no one could say much about it.
However, what happened next shocked and excited those watching.
They saw Ling Xiao sitting cross-legged mid-air, about twenty meters above the ground, managing to maintain that position for a quarter of a shichen.
After the quarter of a shichen, he landed and instantly rose into the air again.
Others couldn’t even think of attacking him, they couldn’t even touch the hem of his clothes.
Originally, Ling Fei wanted to take advantage of the numbers, but seeing this scene, he directly gave up.
Who would want to go against that kind of monster?
"Heavens, what kind of light-work skill is this, to be able to hover in the air for nearly a quarter of a shichen!"
"I don’t know, do they have this kind of light-work skill in the Book Collection Pavilion?"
"Soaring Cloud Step!"
In a dark corner, Ling Jiu angrily punched the wall.
He hadn’t expected that after forcefully taking the Soaring Cloud Step and Bull Demon Technique from Ling Xiao, neither his biological son nor his adopted son could cultivate it.
To be the villain and not get any benefits, harming others without benefiting oneself.
But that’s beside the point.
Now, seeing Ling Xiao had actually mastered the Soaring Cloud Step, he almost spat blood on the wall.
The reason everyone targeted Ling Xiao was also because he had schemed behind the scenes.
Yet, the result turned into a joke.
About one shichen later, a thousand people were eliminated down to the last hundred.
Ling Xiao was among those who passed this stage with the least effort, but Ling Yihang, Ling Yixue, Ling Feng, as well as Ling Tieshou didn’t have much trouble either.
Because hardly anyone dared to attack them.
After all, ten people could remain, and whoever targeted these individuals first could likely be eliminated first, so anyone with a bit of brains probably wouldn’t do that.