One night passed uneventfully.
The next morning, Gu Yuan had adjusted his mood, pushed his speculations to the back of his mind, and treated his classmates with his usual demeanor, showing no unusual emotions.
Di Liu looked at the assembled students with satisfaction and led them directly to verify their contestant identities.
Gu Yuan blended in with the fifteen people, unremarkable except for his handsome appearance.
The group walked out of the dormitory area and arrived at another location, which consisted only of an office building.
Di Liu presented his identification to the guard for verification. After it was confirmed, the guard let them in.
Upon entering the office building, in the first-floor lobby, two groups of people were already waiting. Hearing the approach of Gu Yuan and his group, they all turned to look.
Gu Yuan recognized many familiar faces among them, including Ren Tiandu, who was among the top ten in Zhongzhou Prefecture.
Ren Tiandu also spotted Gu Yuan and nodded in greeting with a smile. Gu Yuan reciprocated the gesture.
It seemed these were the teams from the other two super-tier martial arts universities.
The two leading teachers, seeing Di Liu arrive with his students, smiled and immediately stepped forward to greet Di Liu, saying, "Teacher Di, are you leading the team again today?"
Di Liu nodded with a smile, "Teacher Wang, Teacher Li, long time no see."
Teacher Wang was the lead teacher from Tianxia University.
Teacher Li was the lead teacher from Tianhai University.
The three then walked aside, chatting and laughing, their conversation unknown.
Gu Yuan felt a bit bored and began to circulate the lightning true qi within his body, tempering his physique.
Ten minutes later, another group arrived.
Gu Yuan turned to look and found that this group also had quite a few familiar faces.
Hearing the discussions around him, he understood the situation. Because it was the Martial Arts League, those like Gu Yuan, who did not belong to any major factions, participated with their respective universities.
However, the disciples of major sects, true disciples, and the like, participated as sects.
For example, among the group walking towards Gu Yuan were Monk Miaozhen, Xiao Yixian, Qin Erlang, and Wu Gui.
Although they had been admitted to universities, they would still participate in the Martial Arts League alongside their own sects.
The few of them also spotted Gu Yuan, who was trying to remain inconspicuous among the crowd.
If not for his exceptionally striking appearance, they doubted they would have been able to find Gu Yuan immediately.
Seeing Gu Yuan like this, they all cursed him inwardly, calling him a sly fox who was always hiding his strength.
Gu Yuan waved at them as well, and they responded in kind.
This caused Gu Yuan's classmates from the First Martial Arts University to look at him with surprise, seeing that he knew so many true disciple contestants.
They hadn't expected that Gu Yuan, who was otherwise unremarkable except for his handsome looks, knew so many prodigies. It seemed his strength was not to be underestimated.
They inwardly became vigilant, wary of being caught off guard and defeated by him in a match.
Gu Yuan was unaware of this situation. He didn't realize that simply greeting others had been noticed and registered by some individuals, who were now secretly wary of this "sly fox."
When the verification time arrived, the teachers returned to their respective teams and, one by one, directed their students to line up for verification.
This verification primarily focused on the contestants' verification certificates, participation permits, and physical condition.
This was to ensure that their cultivation realms were not being concealed to gain an unfair advantage, for example, a Qi Sea realm cultivator masquerading as a True Qi realm cultivator to participate.
These were necessary verification measures. In the past, during a lapse in verification, someone with a concealed realm had participated, won first place, and then been exposed, nearly ruining the reputation of the Martial Arts League.
Therefore, the rules of the Martial Arts League were established and refined through repeated lessons learned from failures, ensuring they were both reasonable and legitimate.
As one contestant after another successfully passed verification, it was soon Gu Yuan's turn.
When Gu Yuan entered the verification room, he found himself in a room made entirely of golden metal.
There was only a small window on the wall in front of him.
"Contestant, please present your participation permit and identification."
A voice echoed from within the room. Gu Yuan retrieved his identification card and participation permit from his storage ring and placed them on the small tray in front of the window.
A pair of fair hands reached out, took the items, and placed them back through the slot. With a beep, Gu Yuan's items were returned, but only his identification card; the participation permit had been collected.
"Please stand still. Your cultivation realm will now be scanned."
The voice sounded again, informing Gu Yuan that his realm was about to be scanned.
Gu Yuan complied. Blue light emanated from the surrounding metal walls, scanning his body from all angles.
"Beep. Realm verification complete. Contestant Gu Yuan's realm is late True Qi stage."
A voice resembling a human's announced Gu Yuan's current cultivation level.
"Alright, contestant Gu Yuan, please collect your participation certificate."
Gu Yuan stepped forward, took the certificate handed to him, said a word of thanks, and turned to leave the verification room.
He waited outside quietly for the other participants to finish their verification and then returned to his dormitory with Di Liu.
The rules for the Martial Arts League were similar to those of the Martial Arts Exam; participants were only allowed to move within the dormitory area and could not leave the entire competition zone.
The elimination rule adopted was a two-into-one format.
Since most of the contestants were at the same cultivation level, matches were arranged by the system.
If one lost, they lost. It proved they still needed to train, and if they couldn't defeat opponents of the same level, they wouldn't be qualified to contend for the Martial Arts League championship.
All participants in the Martial Arts League were geniuses at the same cultivation level.
Here, strength was the sole determinant; there was no room for luck. If you couldn't win, you couldn't win.
Gu Yuan quite liked this match format. The selection method of the Martial Arts Exam was too troublesome, as by the end of the matches, participants were already mentally and physically exhausted.
He then learned from Di Liu that there were approximately four hundred participants at the True Qi stage for this Martial Arts League.
The competition format was: four hundred advance to two hundred, two hundred to one hundred, and so on, until twenty-five participants remained. One would receive a bye, and then twenty-four would compete for twelve spots. Thirteen participants would then draw lots again, with one receiving a bye, leading to twelve competing for six spots. With the same procedure, one would receive a bye, leading directly to the top four.
Some might ask, isn't this still dependent on luck?
But remember, a bye only occurred when twenty-five participants remained. To reach the top twenty-five out of four hundred already proved a certain level of strength, so it wasn't purely luck.
Upon returning to the dormitory, Di Liu dismissed the group and went off to catch up with some old friends.
Qin Erlang and his group, who had also been dismissed, came to find Gu Yuan. After a brief discussion, they decided to go to a restaurant for a small meeting.
These individuals had known each other since childhood, as most true disciples were either adopted by major sects from a young age or raised as children within them.
Thus, these people had known each other and been together since childhood.