TFHS: Chapter 174

Bai Qiaomo came to the competition venue again and attracted the attention of many people. Many cultivators were worried that Bai Qiaomo would defend the arena like he did yesterday, so they were very wary of him.

But Bai Qiaomo was really honest today. He didn’t run to the arena and instead stayed in the stands. He sat with Feng Ming and watched the battles in each arena very obediently.

As many people were nervous, one person ran directly to Bai Qiaomo and asked bluntly, “Fellow Daoist Bai, will you go on stage today?”

Bai Qiaomo raised an eyebrow. In this life, this was the first time Qin Jian appeared in front of him, and it was in such a way.

Bai Qiaomo smiled and nodded at him. “So it is Fellow Daoist Qin. Whether or not I go on stage depends on whether I have the chance.”

Qin Jian understood that if no one plotted against Bai Qiaomo, he would leave the chance to challenge to the last day.

Qin Jian nodded. “I understand. I hope to have a good fight with Fellow Daoist Bai in the arena in the finals.”

Bai Qiaomo smiled. “I also hope to fight with Fellow Daoist Qin.”

“Okay.”

Qin Jian laughed and strode away.

The conversation between him and Bai Qiaomo spread quickly, which made many forces feel at ease.

As long as no one provoked Bai Qiaomo like they did yesterday, today’s competition would probably be much more normal.

Some of the disciples of the Imperial Academy were determined to keep an eye on all the other disciples in the academy so that they didn’t provoke Bai Qiaomo for no reason.

Yesterday’s lesson was a heavy enough lesson. They must not let the Imperial Academy continue to be a laughing stock to all parties.

There were really people keeping an eye on Gong Liquan’s group and the forces behind them. They were warned not to cause trouble again.

Gong Liquan was extremely angry. He didn’t gain anything from yesterday and was instead covered in dirt.

He hadn’t expected today’s situation to be even worse, and he couldn’t even go to the competition venue.

He was so angry that he scolded Xiong Kui for being a waste. He didn’t think that Bai Qiaomo was still in his peak condition when he fought with Xiong Kui.

Even so, Xiong Kui failed to deal with Bai Qiaomo, but was injured and forced to step down.

He was such a loser that a good opportunity slipped away from him. It was impossible to create such an opportunity again.

Even the odds of Bai Qiaomo winning the championship had gone up. Not only did he fail to achieve his goal after doing so many things, but he also provided support to Bai Qiaomo.

Gong Liquan was like a trapped beast circling around in a cage. Finally, he said fiercely, “Just wait and see. If I don’t kill you, I won’t be surnamed Gong.”

What was a genius in their eyes? Only geniuses like Zong Yupao made them afraid. Geniuses like Bai Qiaomo, who came from an ordinary background, had become a waste in their hands.

He would make Bai Qiaomo and Feng Ming repay yesterday’s humiliation a hundredfold.

The morning passed, and Bai Qiaomo had no intention of participating in the arena battle, which made the battles on the 20 arenas more intense. Today’s arena battle was much more competitive than yesterday’s.

Everyone had six chances to challenge the arena. Contestants who had no hope of winning should make full use of these six opportunities to hone their fighting power in the arena.

Today, there was a cultivator who had just finished a fight, and his aura was fluctuating violently.

The referee immediately took him away from the arena and threw him into the formation. The formation isolated the movement of the outside world. The cultivator broke through in the formation and was promoted a small level.

Such promotions stimulated cultivators to devote themselves more to the arena battle. None of the arenas attracted the attention of most of the audience like yesterday’s third arena. Instead, every arena received considerable attention today.

The disciples of Sihong Academy also took turns to fight in the arena. After retreating from the battle, Pei Yingmin, Jiang Qian, and others would provide on-site guidance, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses, looking forward to their progress in the next arena battle.

The morning arena battle was fierce enough, but the afternoon arena battle was even more intense.

As time passed, the situation became more tense. Whether or not one could successfully defend the arena and win one of today’s 20 spots in the finals depended on this final crucial moment.

Pei Yingmin also asked all the disciples who wanted to enter the finals to compete for the winning position today.

Tomorrow would be the time when seeded players like Bai Qiaomo and Zong Yupao would compete. There was no need to participate in the competition between them.

So whether they could make it to the finals or not depended on today.

As it drew to an end, the 20 arenas were filled with cultivators in the essence liquid realm. No cultivators in the early essence liquid realm could be seen.

“Qin Jian from the Liefeng Sect has come to challenge the champion.”

“Qin Jian has reached the late stage of the essence liquid realm.”

There was an uproar from the audience when Qin Jian stepped on the stage. This was the first late stage essence liquid realm cultivator to step onto the stage to compete for the champion position after Bai Qiaomo yesterday.

“Qin Jian, why are you going up to the stage today? Shouldn’t you leave it for the last day?”

Qin Jian, who had already jumped onto the stage, said coolly to the cultivators shouting below, “Whether it is today or tomorrow, I will be the champion. Is there any difference?”

“Qin Jian, are you going to learn from Bai Qiaomo and give the champion position to your own people in the end?”

If Bai Qiaomo hadn’t started that, Qin Jian would’ve wanted to say with confidence, ‘Am I that type of person?’

Well, after watching Bai Qiaomo’s battle yesterday, he admired this man very much. Therefore, he found excuses for this behavior that he had disliked in the past. He thought that Bai Qiaomo was just trying to fight back against the enemy.

Qin Jian said firmly, “Let them fight for it themselves. I won’t give in.”

“Okay, Qin Jian. I wish you a successful defense.”

The person being challenged wasn’t happy at all. If Qin Jian succeeded in defending the title, what about him? Didn’t this mean no one was optimistic about him?

However, he could only join the battle in frustration to see if Qin Jian was really that powerful.

The result was as most people expected. Qin Jian spent a quarter of an hour to knock his opponent off the stage and successfully won. The next step was to defend the arena.

Seeing Qin Jian’s move, some seeded players in the late stage of the essence liquid realm also moved forward tomorrow’s challenge to today.

For the seeded players, it didn’t really matter which day they chose to compete. If they couldn’t win this arena, they could still win other arenas.

They weren’t aiming for a good performance in the arena battle. Their goal was to enter the final, compete with other seeded players in the final, and achieve a better ranking.

So generally speaking, seeded players would tacitly avoid each other during the arena battles.

Even if they didn’t avoid it, would the result be different? If they knocked other seeded players off the stage, as long as the six chances hadn’t been used up, that seeded player could continue to compete for the title of champion and defend to the end.

IF there was only one chance to challenge, the seeded players would worry that someone would sabotage them.

Bai Qiaomo also saw this situation, so he wasn’t worried at all that he wouldn’t be able to enter the finals.

Unless, like on the first day, there was a force that didn’t hesitate to use seeded players to consume the fighting power of other players and seriously injure the opponent in the arena, causing the opponent to be unable to participate in the subsequent arena battles and enter the finals.

But after the first day, the intention of this action was too obvious. Probably when faced with such a situation, everyone would rather give up the opportunity to challenge than give others a chance to take advantage.

In the blink of an eye, the second day of fierce battles came to an end. The referee quickly announced the results. The 20 champions who succeeded in defending the arena in the second round appeared.

There was also good news from Sihong Academy. Another disciple had won one of the champion positions. Excluding Bai Qiaomo, the number of places entering the finals had increased to six.

The disciples from the Imperial Academy also won four of the positions, a result that seemed lower than expected.

It wasn’t known if it was because Bai Qiaomo fought too hard yesterday, which greatly dampened the morale of the Imperial Academy disciples. However, it resulted in the disciples from the Imperial Academy not showing a strong desire to fight in the arena today.

After receiving the news, Gong Liquan and the others were so angry that they cursed the disciples of the Imperial Academy as trash. They said that everyone was trash and allowed the cultivators outside to step on the heads of the disciples of the Imperial Academy.

Bai Qiaomo didn’t cause any more trouble today. Even the referees in the referee’s booth sighed with relief.

It could be seen that the commotion yesterday really wasn’t Bai Qiaomo’s fault. Couldn’t he fight back after being plotted against?

On the third day, everyone came to the competition venue while chatting and laughing. If there were no unexpected circumstances today, most of the last 20 places would belong to the seeded players.

Someone provided a piece of information. “I just found out last night that the 20 betting games secretly changed the odds of Bai Qiaomo winning the championship to 1:5 last night.”

“That’s right. It has increased from 1:20 to 1:5. It seems they are becoming warier of Bai Qiaomo.”

“That’s right. Before the arena battle, who would’ve thought that Bai Qiaomo, who is in the late stage of the essence liquid realm, would be so powerful? Now people outside are generally optimistic about his strength and think he is qualified to compete for third place in the martial arts competition.”

“Does this mean he is the number one contestant in the late stage of the essence liquid realm?”

“Does he still have the strength to compete with Zong Yupao and Wu Liyan?”

“It is hard to say. In any case, I noticed that when Bai Qiaomo was fighting in the arena on the first day, Zong Yupao and Wu Liyan both went to watch. Zong Yupao watched until the end.”

“In any case, no matter what, Bai Qiaomo’s strength is among the top. He must be among the top five.”

On the morning of the third day, the fighting in each arena was still fierce. Everyone took turns to be the champion, and it was very lively.

As soon as the afternoon time came, Zong Yupao and Wu Liyan no longer waited. They jumped onto the stage at almost the same time.

The moment they saw the two people coming on stage, the contestants standing on the stage immediately admitted defeat and gave up their positions.

There was no need to fight. It was useless if they fought.

Once the two people came on stage, they both turned their gaze to Bai Qiaomo. Judging from his posture, he seemed to want to continue sitting there.

Wu Liyan laughed. “Fellow Daoist Bai, how long do you want to sit there? Why don’t you go on stage together? You can also fight us in advance if you want.”

Since he was called, Bai Qiaomo felt embarrassed to continue sitting there.

Feng Ming also said, “Brother Bai, hurry up and grab an arena to be the champion. Do you want me to pick one for you?”

Bai Qiaomo didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Okay, thank you, Junior Brother Ming.”