Chapter 396: Swordfight
Song Qingming picked up the wooden sign in his hand, shook his head and said, "I only know that I have drawn number 29. As for who my opponent is, I am still unclear. I guess I will know after the Taoist friends in front of me finish the competition."
Since Patriarch Chen announced the holding of the Sword Competition, the specific spiritual objects awarded to the winners of the Sword Competition were soon announced. As long as the Qi Refining cultivators can enter the top 20, each person can get a first-level high-quality spiritual pill as a reward, and the top five can get an additional first-level high-quality magic weapon.
As long as the cultivators in the foundation-building stage can enter the top ten, the reward is a second-level medium-quality Moon-Watching Pill, and the top three cultivators can each get a second-level high-quality magic weapon.
The Moon-Watching Pill has the function of assisting the foundation-building cultivators to break through the realm. Song Qingming had bought two in Yangshanfang before. The value of this Moon-Watching Pill alone is about 500 spirit stones in the market. The second-level high-quality magic weapon is not much, and any one of them is worth nearly 2,000 spirit stones.
Seeing that the Sword Contest had such high rewards, many foundation-building cultivators who came to Tuoyun Mountain, regardless of their cultivation level, basically signed up. Anyway, as long as they signed up, they could participate in the Sword Contest, and they didn't have to hand in extra spirit stones. Even if they didn't make it into the top ten to get the rewards, it wouldn't be a big loss for them.
"Fellow Daoist Song, I heard that in addition to the superficial rewards, the cultivators who entered the top ten of this Sword Contest can stay in Tuoyun Mountain after the trade fair to listen to the lectures of Patriarch Chen. This is a rare opportunity for us."
"Haha! What Fellow Daoist Huang said is true, but there are more than a hundred foundation-building Taoists who came to Tuoyun Mountain this time. It may be a little difficult for us to enter the top ten. We can only try our luck. I don't know who will get the rewards for the top three!" Song Qingming looked ahead and sighed with a smile.
Huang Shengxin nodded and said in approval: "Fellow Daoist Song is right to think so. There are no less than 20 masters in the late stage of foundation building in this sword contest. We may all come here to join in the fun. However, it is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to compete with so many cultivators of the same level. You and I just need to try our best."
While they were talking, the first duel of the foundation-building cultivators in the sword contest had officially begun.
The first two cultivators to face off were only in the early stage of foundation building. After a fierce fight, one of the young men relied on the more sophisticated magic weapon in his hand to win the duel and enter the next round of the duel.
In the second match, a young woman in light yellow palace clothes appeared on the stage. Suddenly, a cry of surprise came from outside the duel. Song Qingming looked closely and found that the aura faintly revealed by the woman had reached the ninth level of foundation building.
"Fellow Daoist Huang, who is this woman? She has already reached the peak of foundation building at such a young age."
Seeing that Song Qingming looked puzzled, Huang Shengyue quickly explained, "This is the Fairy Qiu Die from Tiexian Valley. She is the most talented cultivator among the younger generation of the Ma family. She has learned the true teachings of Senior Ma. She should be able to rank among the top three in this sword contest. It's really unlucky for this guy to meet such a powerful opponent right at the beginning."
The cultivator fighting against the Fairy Qiu Die is an old man with a slightly white beard. His cultivation level is similar to Song Qingming's, and he has also reached the seventh level of foundation building.
Although the two people fighting are both cultivators in the late stage of foundation building and their strengths don't seem to be that different, after the battle began, the old man in the seventh level of foundation building was quickly beaten by the secret technique used by the opponent without any ability to fight back.
The woman used a silver lantern to summon a group of white butterflies from the lantern. Each of these butterflies was like a sharp hidden weapon, rapidly surrounding the opponent and attacking him from all directions. Even if the opponent had a good defensive magic weapon in his hand, he still couldn't hold on for too long. In the end, the old man could only announce his defeat and end the fight.
After seeing the magical power of the fairy Qiu Die, Song Qingming could only secretly thank himself for not meeting her at the beginning, otherwise he would be like the old man just now and would lose in the first round.
As the cultivators came on stage one by one, it was soon the turn of Song Qingming and the other two who were sitting on the sidelines to watch the battle. Fortunately, the three of them had good luck on the first day. The opponents they met were all casual cultivators of average foundation building. Except for Huang Shengyue who entangled with the opponent for a while, Song Qingming and Huang Shengxin did not spend much effort to easily enter the second round.
There were hundreds of foundation-building cultivators, but only half of them, more than 60 cultivators, remained on the second day. This time, Song Qingming encountered a stronger opponent, a bald strong man at the sixth level of foundation-building.
This guy was a body-building cultivator. Relying on his iron-hard skills, he had few rivals among the cultivators of the same level. However, a body-building cultivator had a very obvious weakness, which was that their spiritual consciousness was generally weak.
After Song Qingming used a silver shield to block several close-range attacks from the bald man, he took out a black flag from his storage bag while the other party was moving, and released a burst of black smoke to trap him in place.
This black banner was the Soul-Bewitching Banner that Song Qingming asked Huang Shengyue to help transform. This banner was originally a magic weapon that was best at attacking the souls of cultivators. The bald man was trapped in the place by the Soul-Bewitching Banner. After struggling for a while, he rushed out of the black smoke. Just when he raised his eyes to search for Song Qingming's trace, a huge transparent spike had already arrived in front of him and knocked him off the stage.
Standing on the stone platform, Song Qingming wiped the sweat from his forehead and slowly walked to the side. In order to launch this powerful attack, he had already consumed a lot of mana. Fortunately, this attack that he had accumulated for a long time did not disappoint him and directly knocked his opponent off the stone platform.
Because in the rules of the sword fight, as long as the opponent is forced out of the stone platform, it is also considered a victory. Although the bald man who was knocked off the stone platform by him was not injured and stood up immediately after falling off the stone platform, Song Qingming soon heard the voice of the cultivator next to him announcing his victory, and quickly put away the Soul-Bewitching Banner and walked down from the stone platform.
Although this battle took some effort and consumed a lot of mana, it was just as Song Qingming had expected before the battle, and there were no major twists and turns or troubles. After all, he was superior to the opponent in both cultivation and magic weapons. As long as he was not restrained by the opponent's skills or ambushed, it would not be a problem for him to win.