Challenged
It took another three hours to finish the 250 matches distributed in 20 battle stages.
The second round of the competition was held after another short break. Those with serious injuries could only hope that their opponents would be weaker or more injured.
Since the number of contestants was odd, one lucky individual got a bye through a blind random picking.
The second round became the dead end for many mages since they were matched unfortunately with an archmage. Even if the contestant was a double cultivator at Mage Ream and Sixth Tier, being matched to someone in Archmage Realm still proved to be impossible.
Gao Li unfortunately got defeated this time after being matched with an aggressive mid-stage archmage who specialized in swarm attack.
On the other side, Ximen Tian was being teased by Xu Kai.
"You're too lucky. You got matched up with a nice lady."
"Nice lady? You can have her if you want." Ximen Tian felt shiver as he involuntarily covered his lower body.
"No thanks. She seems to dislike men since she also targeted the crotch of her male opponent last round." Xu Kai said his observation.
"Oh? Why are you watching her specifically?"
"I'm bored."
After the end of the second round, there were only 63 remaining contestants. City Lord Feng created a list of top 50 based on the cultivation stages and realms of the contestants.
At the top of the list were the four emperors followed by peak-stage archmages. All the way to the last spot, the list was occupied with archmages.
City Lord Feng stood up once again and addressed the contestants and the spectators.
"For the third round, we will finalize the top 50. The remaining 13 contestants can challenge anyone in the list I created. As for the other contestants who got disqualified earlier but have the cultivation of Archmage Realm or body cultivation of Fifth Tier and above, you can also challenge someone in the list."
"All the challengers only have one chance. A contestant in the list can only be challenged one time. A challenger who won can be challenged by the other challengers only after the next two matches. The 13 remaining contestants will have their turns first before the disqualified ones."
Two archmages in the crowd heaved a sigh of relief hearing that they could come back in the competition. They were both unlucky to be matched with one of the four emperors in the earlier rounds.
On the other hand, Ximen Tian already accepted his faith.
"Buddy, good luck to the remaining seven of you."
"Don't worry. We will give you an eye-opener about the elite battle."
Ximen Tian twitched his mouth hearing Xu Kai's unconcerned tone. He even heard some proudness in it.
'You didn't even try to encourage me to challenge someone?' He complained inwardly but he knew his brother was just a practical one.
The list of the top fifty created by City Lord Feng was shown to everyone through a projection. Listed also were the cultivation realms and/or body refinement tier of each one.
Undeniably, all the challengers placed their attention to the ones in the early-stage of Archmage Realm. Taxia Dru and Tai Yuwen were both in this stage.
Out of 13 remaining contestants that became challengers, 7 were archmages. These archmages naturally had their own pride and would not give up easily.
Some of them had already set Taxia Dru and Tai Yuwen as their targets. They were backed up by their preconceived notions that the members of Three Peak Sect lacked combat experience of itinerant cultivators or powerful arts of those who belonged to the other major forces.
Moreover, Taxia Dru and Tai Yuwen had only faced mages and weaker archmages in the past rounds.
Thus, the first challenge in round three was thrown to Tai Yuwen.
His challenger was a black-dressed lady at the early-stage of Archmage Realm. She came from a less renowned force in the city.
The whip in her hand which was composed of a crimson handle and a long lash linked by glowing chain rings appeared to be heavy.
However, an archmage could even uproot a whole giant tree using origin energy, not to mention swinging a mere whip.
Tai Yuwen, opposite to her, drew a plain metallic halberd with curved slender blade on its end.
"Wei Ling."
"Tai Yuwen."
As the referee signaled the start of the match, the lady immediately used a movement technique as her figure vanished from her spot and appeared just some meters away beside her opponent.
A cracking sound could be heard from her whip when she swung it towards Tai Yuwen.
Blue ripples enveloped the chain rings of the whip, making the afterimages of the whip distorted with bluish lights.
Obviously, it was not for adding special effects but the manifestation of water energy.
Tai Yuwen moved at the same time she vanished. His figure immediately retreated meters away.
Waiting for the time before the whip contracted, he used the force generated due to the sudden retreat. As if his feet had springs attached to its end, his figure shot at a faster speed towards the lady and pointed the tip of his halberd towards her chest.
The whip which was in the process of contracting was forcibly swung by the lady again and targeted the sides of Tai Yuwen, prompting him to shift his direction slightly.
This gave the lady some time to retreat.
Both separated a distance away momentarily. Their first clash was a draw.
No one was really surprised since they could see that both were just testing each other, trying to adjust and observe each other's tendencies in a battle.
The momentary pause did not last even a breath before both of them finally activated their own set of art manuals.
The lady's whip was like a venomous serpent, trying to find crafty angles to bind or disrupt the opponent.
The halberd held by Tai Yuwen wanted to cleave everything in a straightforward manner. Its slender blade shone with crimson color as it began to emit fiery fluctuations of fire energy.
Although he knew that he was at a disadvantage in terms of elemental interaction between fire and water, he would never back down without a fight.
Not to be outdone, the blue ripples enveloping the lady's whip undulated more. Its hue became darker until it turned dark blue.
They had the same idea: charging a full-powered attack.
BOOM!
A collision of cleaving crimson energy and lashes of deep blue energy created a resounding explosion.
In terms of charged attack, both were also equal.
The two showcased their combat abilities for the next several minutes until Tai Yuwen finally got his chance.
A sudden change in his movement technique made the lady miscalculate his next move.
From being someone who seemed to have strings to his feet which needed time for a rebound, he changed into someone whose figure soared rapidly into the midair without any signs for his opponent to capitalize.
The miscalculated timing was enough to launch an offensive that put the girl at the disadvantage.
Tai Yuwen did not let go of this advantage and managed to send the lady out of the stage.
She lost since her figure exited the stage. This kind of defeat was hard to accept. Tai Yuwen did not also feel good from his win. He knew that he did not really defeat the lady but instead outsmarted her.
However, from Ji Chen's point of view, a win did not need smashing the opponent to the ground or beating until to the point of unconsciousness. The rules were set and everyone just needed to think of a way to fulfill one of the conditions to win.
"It's a good fight." Tai Yuwen said to the lady who tidied her clothes outside the stage.
"Yes. Congratulations." She said with a squeezed smile before going back to her seat.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone