Chapter 318: Rules of the Second Selection, The Eternal Spirit Mountain

The 3,500 qualifying candidates from the initial tests were led to the foot of an enormous mountain.

The mountain extended into the distance and was wreathed in cloud and mist, giving off an impressive, yet sacred feeling.

There seemed to be a few buildings and pavilions fading in and out of sight amidst the clouds.

“Do you see that? This is the Eternal Spirit Mountain, and the site of the second selection. The Eternal Spirit Mountain has been present in the legacy realm since the ancient times. Countless eons have passed, and only this Eternal Spirit Mountain has remained steadfast.”

The overseer’s tone was full of respect. He too seemed to filled with great admiration for this mountain.

“I have to say, you’re all quite lucky. You’ve passed the initial selection and can train on this mountain for three years. Three years here is equivalent to thirty years in the outside world.”

Three years here was equivalent to thirty years in the outside world?

This meant that the concentration of spirit qi within the mountain was ten times that of the outside world? Surprise showed on all of the candidate’s faces after hearing these words.

They also reaffirmed their faith to endure and not be eliminated. Even if they didn’t gain the identity of a sect disciple, they would do this for the three years that was worth thirty years of cultivation!

“The Eternal Spirit Mountain is split into four quadrants: the sky spirit quadrant, the earth spirit quadrant, the mystic spirit quadrant, and the yellow spirit quadrant. Without a doubt, the sky spirit quadrant is the best out of all of them. However, it’s something that you can’t even think of just yet. That quadrant belongs to the premier geniuses in the four sects, and only a hundred of them have been arranged to occupy the sky spirit quadrant in this selection. They were all handpicked from their sects, and any one of them could trample any one of you here!”

The overseer’s tone was faint, but still embodied that pride unique to sect members.

Trample all of us? Jiang Chen smiled coldly in his heart. He didn’t think much of these words, but also couldn’t be bothered to retort.

Only after a fight was one revealed to be a dragon or a worm. It wasn’t something that could be settled by flapping one’s lips.

“You’re ordinary practitioners, and although you’ve emerged from the first selection, you’re still only the foremost amongst ordinary disciples now. You still need to undergo another stage of evaluation before being acknowledged by the sects. As such, to receive the true acknowledgement of the sects, you must start from the bottom. Therefore, most of you have been assigned to the yellow spirit quadrant.”

Sky, earth, mystic, and yellow. Four levels.

The yellow level was without a doubt the lowest.

As heaven defying as the ordinary practitioners were, they still truly hadn’t undergone the sects’ real testing yet. Therefore, it wasn’t too absurd that they’d be allotted the yellow spirit quadrant.

So although a couple of dissatisfied murmurs came from the assembled candidates, no one reacted too strongly. As much as they didn’t want to accept things, they knew this was the harsh reality of the world of martial dao.

It wasn’t that easy for an ordinary practitioner to receive the acknowledgement of the sects.

“Of course, not everyone is going to the yellow spirit quadrant. To commend those who displayed exemplary performance in the first selection, the top ten will be sent to the mystic spirit quadrant.”

“The mystic spirit quadrant has roughly double the concentration of spirit qi in the yellow quadrant. It is undoubtedly greatly superior to the yellow level.”

Jiang Chen smiled sarcastically when he heard this. So it seems that he’d been assigned to the mystic level. At least his starting point wasn’t too low!

The overseer continued, “Of course, these levels aren’t set in stone. You each have the chance to change your destinies in this trial. It’s up to you if you can alter your fate. You may be in the yellow level now, but you can absolutely challenge the mystic level if you work hard enough. In the same vein, even if you start off in the mystic quadrant, don’t think you can remain there and enjoy the peace. If you don’t work hard and improve fast enough, you too may be kicked down to the yellow level.”

“You must be very curious if there are any rules for advancement here? I can tell you clearly that yes, there are. Moreover, they are very fair and very clear.”

“The rules of advancement change every three months, and the basis for the change is your talents and strength. To be more precise, it’s a reflection of your battle strength. Every person in each quadrant must complete a hundred challenges a month. The win rate of these hundred challenges will determine your rankings. The strongest ten will advance one level, and the lowest performing ten will be demoted a level. You may ask, how will one be demoted from the yellow level? It’s already the lowest. I can tell you that forty candidates will be eliminated from the yellow quadrant in three months. 160 of you will be eliminated each year. That will make 500 in three years. Therefore, those of you in the yellow level are in the most precarious position. Those in other quadrants will be demoted at most, but the last 40 of you will be eliminated.”

Three months was the duration of a cycle, and each candidate had to complete a hundred challenges in each cycle, with their ranking determined by their win rate.

This was rather fair, but there weren’t that many slots for advancement.

There were only 10 in each quadrant every three months.

However, as little as that seemed, it wasn’t that paltry either. If one couldn’t even make it into the top ten of their level, then even if one was a genius, in the end, their potential was limited.

Not to mention that with three months being a cycle, one year had four cycles, and by extension, twelve cycles in three years.

This meant there were twelve chances.

If a person couldn’t even grasp twelve chances, then it wasn’t fate being unkind, but their own lack of ability.

However, how would they go about these challenges, and who would they challenge?

Jiang Chen was perplexed, and so were those around him.

Three months was roughly ninety days, and it wasn’t a difficult thing to complete a hundred battles in ninety days.

“Master overseer, who are we challenging with the hundred challenges? The overseers? Or others?”

“Yeah, you should at least talk about our targets?”

Indeed, this was the issue that people were most concerned about.

The overseer smiled slightly, “I knew you would be concerned about this question. I’ll explain the further division of the four quadrants first. The four quadrants are divided into the sky, earth, mystic, and yellow levels, but this is only an overall division and not particularly fine tuned. When it comes down to you, all of you will be divided into four levels of first, second, third, and fourth.”

“Taking the yellow spirit quadrant for example, the 3,500 within it will also be divided into these four levels. The levels are naturally determined by your selection scores. As for the sect disciples, they will be divided up according to their potential and strength. Overall, this is fair.”

The four quadrants of sky, earth, mystic, and yellow spirit.

The four levels of first, second, third, and fourth.

This meant that the participating candidates had been divided into sixteen levels.

First level sky quadrant, second level sky quadrant… all the way to fourth level yellow quadrant.

“In summary, there are a total of sixteen levels amongst you all across the four quadrants. Each level within the quadrant is labeled the first, second, third, or fourth level. The one hundred challenges will be comprised of challenging the twenty five candidates in each level in three months. Do you understood?”

It wasn’t hard to understand such rules.

Four levels and twenty five challenges each made precisely for a hundred challenges.

However, how would they choose their opponents?

“You must also be wondering how you would choose your opponents? Very simple. It will be random selection within the levels. In order to ensure the rights of each candidate, the same opponent won’t appear twice!

Random selection!

This meant that they would meet a hundred different opponents for each cycle’s challenges.

This meant that certain people would be luckier and others unluckier, to a certain degree. It was a good thing that twenty five challenges had to be made per level. Being unlucky once didn’t mean always being unlucky.

So speaking overall, this was actually quite fair. Each challenge would equally be against a strong candidate or a weak one. Unexpected surprises would have a very low chance of occurring with a hundred challenges, so one had to rely on their strength to the end.

“Remember, the scores are calculated from your win rates. If you’re the one receiving the challenge, you can only accept it, but whether it’s a win or loss — that won’t affect your win rate. Therefore, it’s a hundred challenges in name, but there’s no way that you will be fighting only a hundred times. You could be the challenger or the one being challenged. When we calculate the rates, we will pay attention only to the times in which you were the challenger.”

Jiang Chen had thought of this question before as well, and his confusion had been finally resolved with these words.

With this, the frequency of battles would be quite high! One had to both complete a hundred challenges and fend off an unknown amount of challenges.

On average, each person would likely fight two hundred times.

This meant that there would, on average, be two battles each day.

This was far more difficult.

“I trust that you realize that you will not have the same number of battles as the person next to you. If someone is unlucky, they will fight many more times. However, this may not be a bad thing. To use an example, if two candidates have the same win rate, then the one who was challenged more frequently will have the advantage and the higher ranking.”

“Don’t dismiss this advantage. According to our simulations, multiple people will have the same win rate. Therefore, it’s very likely that the final ten that advance will all have the same win rate and the list will be determined by the number of challenges.”

The rules were quite detailed, and so thorough that each one of them could affect the outcome.