Bamboo Mound

The Xuanshan Sect disciple, completely oblivious to the deadly attack from behind, continued walking towards the Xuanshan Sect's resting place with a slightly displeased expression.

However, the actions of the Xuanshan Sect disciples were clearly seen from the spectator stands, eliciting gasps of surprise.

But by the time they realized what was happening and cried out in alarm, two hidden darts had already reached the rear of the Xuanshan Sect disciples!

Only then did the Xuanshan Sect disciple sense the sharpness coming from behind, but by then it was too late for his expression to change!

Just as he was preparing to gather his spiritual power for a desperate defense, a soft voice whispered in his ear:

"It's alright, child."

Just as the dart was about to hit its target, the host suddenly appeared beside him!

The two hidden darts suddenly stopped in place.

Half a breath later, it crumbled into tiny fragments, which then turned into dust again as they fell.

In their haste, the Xuanshan Sect disciples did not hear the abbot's words.

He focused all his spiritual energy on his back, preparing to withstand the fatal blow.

Suddenly, a hand landed on his shoulder, easily dissipating his spiritual power.

He then opened his eyes again and turned around to see a pile of powder that had fallen to the ground.

He then realized what was happening, looked excitedly at the host beside him, and bowed in gratitude.

"Thank you Elder Yan for saving my life!"

"Alright, go back." Elder Nayan waved his hand, signaling his disciple to return to the spectator stands.

He then looked at the Huayu Sect disciple before him, who was almost completely out of his mind, and shook his head with a long sigh.

"Couldn't accept failure, so he went mad and also stimulated his divine consciousness."

The disciple was half-lying on the ground, his scarlet eyes unfocused, facing this side, laughing maniacally and muttering incoherently.

"Die...die...haha...I won...I won!"

Upon seeing this, he flashed and appeared on the viewing platform of the Huayu Sect elders.

"You have all seen clearly the situation of your sect's disciple, right? What do you plan to do with this disciple?"

The elders of Huayu Sect looked rather grim, after all, the first incident in this Three Sects Competition had originated from their own sect.

But what's done is done, and it can't be ignored.

The elder sitting in the very center sighed and said:

"After being defeated, he was suddenly ambushed and killed, and he also suffered a qi deviation, damaging his divine consciousness, from which there is no possibility of recovery."

Another elder chimed in, "And even if he were incredibly lucky and truly regained consciousness, the sect would not tolerate him again since he had resorted to such methods."

"In that case, let him return to dust." The elder in the middle waved his hand.

Elder Yan paused for a moment, then nodded, "That's fine too."

Then, with another flash, he returned to the front of the Huayu Sect disciple.

Looking at his still-delusional disciple, he raised his palm and aimed it at the disciple, from which a ball of fire shot out.

The moment the flames touched the other person, they instantly covered their entire body!

The disciple also collapsed instantly, motionless. A few breaths later, he turned into a pile of ashes, which were blown into the sky by a gust of wind and disappeared without a trace.

After the matter was resolved, Elder Yan returned to his original spot and resumed his role as the host.

After waiting a while longer and seeing no further developments, Ning Chang unconsciously asked in a low voice:

"Is this gone?"

The master, of course, heard this and replied without turning his head:

“In the whole world, a cultivator’s life is the second cheapest thing, especially those below the Spirit Platform Realm, who are everywhere.”

That disciple is of low moral character and has killed other disciples; he will surely be expelled from the sect after the competition.

Moreover, their mental state is unstable; even a slight failure can lead to qi deviation, preventing them from ever improving their cultivation again.

Fortunately, his demonic possession had damaged his consciousness, allowing the elders of the Xuanshan Sect to finish him off, which could be considered a release for him.

Ning Chang then understood, "It means you're completely ruined. The sooner you die, the sooner you'll be reincarnated, if that's the case in this world."

Then he stopped caring about it.

Ning Chang could roughly guess what the cheapest thing was, based on what his master had said about cultivators' lives being the second cheapest.

It's nothing more than the fate of an ordinary person or a spirit stone, but the specific ranking depends on each person's considerations.

That being said, there are actually some points worth noting about this match for Ningchang:

At first, throw a few objects at a time. Once the enemy bounces off, they will become less wary. Then, throw a few more objects, and the enemy will completely ignore the objects that have already been bounced off.

If you control the object that was previously launched to fly back while attacking, you will have a high probability of succeeding.

Even if it's ineffective, it will keep the enemy busy and create more opportunities.

"However, this requires the initial object to have sufficient strength to be bounced away at the beginning rather than broken in two, otherwise it would be too easy to detect."

Ning Chang stroked his chin, feeling around.

"And we can't afford to encounter overly clever opponents; let's stick to our original plan."

"Once I return this time and receive the items from my master to enhance the cultivation method, it will be almost complete."

Using a small amount of slightly enhanced bamboo leaves as cover, interspersed with a few more powerful bamboo leaves, the opponent will believe that all the bamboo leaf illusions are for these few powerful bamboo pieces.

Finally, I used that array that emitted spiritual light to make the opponent guess that this was my real killing move.

This will easily complete the process of absorbing spiritual energy into the body.

That should be enough for a fight, right? Until we really need to use spiritual energy to fight...

Hiss! That's when running away means you have to fight!

There's no way to escape, let alone fight back...

Hopefully, that time will never come.

Realizing that his thoughts had gone astray, Ning Chang quickly came back to his senses.

The last two flying spears unleashed by the Xuanshan Sect disciple were quite powerful, penetrating halfway into the spear!

"Unfortunately, I don't have that much strength, but I can try it if it's unexpected or when the opponent can't defend against it."

.........

Having learned from the precedent set by the Huayu Sect disciple, no further instances of killing were reported.

Ning Chang observed that the disciples of the Qingyun Sect mainly used swords and employed flexible attrition tactics as their primary strategy.

The disciples of Xuanshan Sect possess a variety of weapons and usually engage in close combat, relying on their strength and physical skills to fight.

A few disciples of the Huayu Sect use hidden weapons and flying swords, but most rely on talismans and formations, although formations are actually quite rare.

Although I saw formations appear in a few more matches, Ning Chang basically didn't have time to look at them before the matches were over.

Before we knew it, a few rays of red had descended on the horizon, and the first day's two matches had officially come to an end.

The five stone platforms in the center remain untouched.

After the outer and inner disciples of the Xuanshan Sect who were watching the competition dispersed, all the disciples and elders from the three sects who participated in the competition gathered in the square.

The Xuanshan Sect had already arranged accommodations, and a special disciple led them to their dormitory.

Grouped into teams of five, a total of 149 people quickly left the square.