I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 215: Chapter 188: Cat-Girl Form Gu Yue’Er

The top 24 contestants in the individual tournament would all receive a consolation prize from the Sovereign Country worth 500 million.

Thus, many contestants who weren’t among the absolute strongest were already quite satisfied just to have made it to the second round. They hadn’t really thought about aiming for the top ten.

The rewards for the individual tournament were tiered: one level for the top 24, another for the top ten, and yet another for the top three.

First place, in particular, was in a league of its own.

Because Dongli University had been targeted by the Luofan Country and the Mu Country, their results this time weren’t great. Only three students had entered the top 24: Su Ze, Gu Yue’Er, and Li Yongguan.

All three of them had the strength to aim for the top ten.

After the first round, the eliminated students from Dongli University looked grim. Some of them had held high hopes of advancing to the second round.

”Lizard-spawned bastards!”

The students muttered curses, but none of them held any resentment toward Su Ze, who had brought all this on.

Dongli and Luofan had a long-standing grudge. The fact that Su Ze had so decisively crippled Luofan Academy’s number one seed was nothing but satisfying to them.

Pei Wuhua, on the other hand, was all smiles. He looked quite pleased. Based on the strength Su Ze had displayed in the first round, of course he was happy!

Even if the eliminated Dongli University students had advanced to the second round, they wouldn’t have had the strength to aim for the top ten. Their elimination wasn’t too great a loss.

The crucial part was Su Ze. In Pei Wuhua’s eyes, he could already lock down a top-three finish for Dongli University in both the individual and team tournaments!

”Su Ze, be honest with me. What’s your real strength right now?” Pei Wuhua asked. ”I need to adjust our team tournament strategy based on your abilities.”

Su Ze himself couldn’t say for sure what his strength was.

He was solidly in the Cocoon Stage, but he felt he wouldn’t flinch even against an ordinary Butterfly Stage practitioner.

”Let’s just say my goal this time is first place,” Su Ze said with confidence.

He was telling the truth. He was aiming for the top spot, and he intended to take first in both the individual and team tournaments!

”Good! With you saying that, I have a much better idea of where things stand,” Pei Wuhua said in a low voice. ”In that case, we’ll need to adjust our team tournament strategy. Yangyang, Li Zhi, during the team competition, your priority is to support Su Ze and coordinate with his attacks. The same goes for everyone else...”

Pei Wuhua began to formulate a new strategy, with Su Ze as its core.

...

The first round of the individual tournament concluded in the morning, and the second round was scheduled to begin at two o’clock that afternoon.

The few hours in between gave the contestants a short break and allowed the organizers to prepare the competition grounds.

The first round had been to determine the top 24. The second round, which followed immediately after, would be even more intense—it would determine the top ten and the top three!

The Exchange Tournament of the Six Nations’ Highest Academies was organized by the Sovereign Country with the goal of discovering and cultivating the top geniuses among the six nations.

For this reason, the Sovereign Country didn’t place much importance on the team tournament, focusing instead on the individual one. In truth, their real interest lay only in the handful of geniuses at the very top.

Thus, the tournament’s format was ruthless in its eliminations. The first round cut the contestants by half, and the second round was set to determine the top ten and top three.

When Su Ze and the others arrived at the competition grounds, they saw that the 24 arenas from the morning had been dismantled. In their place stood ten brand-new arenas that were larger and made of a more durable material.

Of the ten arenas, three stood in the very center, arranged like the legs of a tripod. These arenas were forged entirely of gold, exuding an air of glory and nobility.

The remaining seven arenas were silver and surrounded the three golden ones like stars orbiting a moon.

The tournament announcer held a microphone and declared the rules to the 24 assembled contestants.

The second round would be a timed challenge.

The ten arenas for the second round represented the top ten spots in the individual tournament.

The golden arenas represented the top three, while the silver arenas represented places four through ten.

Only the three contestants on the golden arenas would advance to the third round—the finals of the individual tournament—where they would battle to determine the ultimate champion.

The seven contestants on the silver arenas could rest easy after the second round and simply wait for their rewards. No further matches would be held to determine their specific rankings, as the Sovereign Country had no interest in the exact order of the top ten—only the top three truly mattered to them.

For each arena, a one-hour timer would begin the moment a contestant stepped onto it. Whoever was still standing on the arena when the timer ran out would be considered one of the top ten.

In other words, each arena would be contested for one hour. The person left standing on an arena at the end would be the victor.

The contest for the arenas would also take the form of challenges. All 24 contestants had an unlimited number of chances to challenge any contestant currently holding an arena. A successful challenger would automatically become the new defender and would have to accept challenges from others.

However, after each battle, a defender would be granted a ten-minute grace period during which they could not be challenged.

This meant that even if a defender defeated every opponent instantly, they could accept a maximum of five challenges within the one-hour period.

Additionally, each challenge match could not exceed ten minutes. If a winner was not decided within that time, a referee would declare the victor based on who held the advantage.

This rule was to prevent contestants from colluding to deliberately run out the clock.

As in the first round, contestants were forbidden from challenging their own teammates.

Su Ze, Gu Yue’Er, and Li Yongguan stood together, the three of them waiting quietly for the tournament to begin.

Only the three of them remained from the Dongli University team. Accordingly, Pei Wuhua had set a goal for them: all three must make it into the top ten.