319 Top 64 starts

"Now, for the final event of the day. The battle between the Top 64 strongest cultivators amongst the current generation will now begin," Fu Zhen announced.

"This time, the participants won't get to randomly choose their opponents. Instead, we have made a placement chart for you to see who you will all be fighting against. Here it is."

The moment Fu Zhen stopped speaking, a massive chart with the fighting brackets appeared in the sky.

There were 4 different groups in the chart. There were 2 groups on each side and each group had 16 participants.

"As you can see, we have separated the participants based on a few different secret criteria. The one we can reveal is that we made the brackets so that no two participants of the same sect will ever have to fight prior to the semi-finals."

"Please look at the brackets for a while. In the meanwhile, Group A, please gather down below. The matches will start very soon," Fu Zhen said.

"I'm leaving junior brother, I will come back later," Luo Mei said and left the seating area.

"Good Luck sister," Alex said and looked back at the brackets. Luo Mei was 5th on the list. Thankfully, Wan Li wasn't in that group. He was in group 3 with Yang Ma.

'At least he won't lose immediately,' Alex thought.

"Arghh, this is bad," Wen Cheng started to worry about something.

"What's wrong, Master?" Alex asked.

"Group 2 is bad. Group 2 is horrible. So many strong participants are in group 2. Yuhan, you think you will be fine?" Wen Cheng asked.

Du Yuhan looked up at the brackets once more and looked down. "It doesn't matter, sect leader. I will try my best," he said.

"Sigh, I know you will. Little Ma doesn't have it any easy either. I guess none of the groups are easy anymore. There are so few participants now that every battle you fight might be your last," Wen Cheng said.

The first battle was starting between a cultivator wearing a golden robe and another cultivator wearing a dark blue robe.

"Oh, the first one is a disciple from the Honor sect. Against a random sect, they should win easily," Wen Cheng said.

"So the golden robe what Honor sect wears, huh. Honor sect… where did I hear the name before? Hmn…Ah right, their sect leader came to the bi-annual auction a month ago," Alex said.

"Huh? Lu Chun was in the auction? How do you know?" Wen Cheng asked.

"Oh, Master told me when she noticed him," Alex said. "Is it weird?"

"No, I'm just surprised he was even there in the first place. Since they are a 1st-grade sect, they usually don't enter a sect without another first-grade sect," Wen Cheng said.

"Oh, so then why did he?" Alex asked.

"Probably because the city is close and he had free time. Rosewood city is just 3 to 4 hours of flight for him, you know," Wen Cheng said.

"Ah, yes," Alex said as he recalled the map of the empire.

The golden-robed man started the attack. He suddenly placed his arms on the ground and various spikes made up of earth appeared on the other side of the stage.

The other man sent out a golden slash, but the man from the Honor sect brought forth a wall of earth from the ground. It easily blocked the attack.

"He…is using pure elements to fight, right?" Alex asked.

"Yes, he is mostly just using elements without the Qi. Still, it is so strong that the other kid's metal Qi can't weaken it at all," Wen Cheng said.

Quickly, the man from the Honor sect finished the match by sending a barrage of fist-sized stones towards his opponent.

The next match was between a disciple from the Myriad Beast sect and a disciple from another normal sect. The competition holders had made sure that the strong never met at the start.

This was an easy battle for the Myriad beast sect disciple.

The next one up was Luo Mei. Her opponent was a disciple from a random sect she didn't know at all. Her match was pretty simple as well.

All she did was throw gushes of water at her opponent until they couldn't handle it anymore and gave up.

The next match was between two relatively unknown sects. The fight was between a woman with a sword and a man with a spear.

In the end, the woman with the sword won after a long, intense battle. She was heavily wounded at the end of it, but a single pill from the referee helped her heal a lot.

The next few matches were relatively fun to watch, but still very simple.

The winner for the 5th match was a disciple from the Lesser Immortal sect. The winner for the 6th match was the True Wisdom sect. The winner for the 7th match was the Golden Eagle sect. And finally, the winner for the 8th match was a disciple from Royal Fu Academy.

This concluded the matches of Group A.

The next one was Group B. Once called, Du Yuhan and 15 other people walked to the waiting area. Luo Mei returned back to her seat.

"Congratulations, sister. You did great out there," Alex said.

"Thank you, but there is a lot more to be done. Master, I'm really worried about that guy from the Royal Fu Academy," Luo Mei said.

"Sigh, I know. Thankfully, neither you nor Yuhan will meet your opponents from Royal Fu academy until the final match of your group, which will be the top 8," Wen Cheng said.

"Yes. Hopefully, the others aren't surprisingly strong and have more up their sleeves. I really don't want to reveal everything I have until the final match," Luo Mei said.

"I wish the same for all three of you," Wen Cheng said.

Finally, Fu Zhen called for the first pair of Group B.

Du Yuhan walked out from the second area, along with his opponent from a random sect. It was his turn to fight next.