Chapter 3766 — The Newcomers' Challenge
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
And the content of this assessment stage bore considerable resemblance to the newcomer assessments of years past: it was the Newcomers' Challenge Tournament, a name familiar to every ear.
Unlike the challenge tournaments of previous years, which were purely a matter of clashing strength against strength for rank, this Newcomers' Challenge Tournament stage would not only be scored separately within each of the Three-Tiered Pavilions, but, in order to link up comprehensively with the other assessment stages, would especially emphasize a point-based system.
In this Newcomers' Challenge Tournament stage, each newcomer's current cultivation cave dwelling served as their initial ranking, and the cave dwellings together with their corresponding points served as the spoils of each round of the tournament, awarded in real time to the victor. Naturally, those who lost a challenge would likewise suffer the corresponding penalty in real time.
Take Qingyun Pavilion: below the mountain there were fifteen cave dwellings in all, numbered Mountain-Low No. 1 through No. 15, and each cave dwelling carried its corresponding challenge points. Mountain-Low No. 1 was worth fifteen points, No. 2 fourteen points, No. 3 thirteen points, and so on down the line, until the last, Mountain-Low No. 10, was worth a single point.
Each time, whether issuing a challenge of one's own accord or accepting one, the newcomer had to stake the challenge points corresponding to his cultivation cave dwelling. If the challenger won, he would gain the opponent's challenge points and take over the opponent's cultivation cave dwelling; if he lost, he would forfeit his own challenge points, and his cave dwelling would remain unchanged.
Of course, only those in lower-ranked cave dwellings were entitled to challenge those in higher-ranked ones, and the latter could not refuse. Those in higher-ranked cave dwellings, by contrast, could not initiate challenges against those ranked below them.
To take a simple example: Wei Zhao now held Mountain-Low No. 14, so he could only challenge the newcomers in the thirteen cave dwellings ahead of him, and could not initiate a challenge against Meng Zhou, who resided in Mountain-Low No. 15.
And if he did issue a challenge to one of the newcomers in those thirteen cave dwellings ahead, suppose, for instance, the opponent were Li Zhengming of Mountain-Low No. 2.
Then in the challenge match between the two, the challenge points Wei Zhao had to put up would be the two points corresponding to his Mountain-Low No. 14 cave dwelling, while Li Zhengming, because his cave dwelling ranked higher than Wei Zhao's, could not refuse and moreover had to put up the fourteen challenge points corresponding to his Mountain-Low No. 2 cave dwelling.
If Wei Zhao won, he would gain the opponent's fourteen challenge points and take over the opponent's Mountain-Low No. 2 cave dwelling, while Li Zhengming, not to mention having fourteen challenge points deducted, would from then on have to move into Mountain-Low No. 14 and dwell there until his next challenge against someone.
Conversely, if Li Zhengming won, he would gain the opponent's two challenge points and remain in Mountain-Low No. 2 unchanged, while Wei Zhao would have two challenge points deducted and go on struggling in Mountain-Low No. 14.
Beyond all this, the most crucial point was this: in the fourth stage, apart from the challenge points each newcomer would be granted in the first round of the tournament according to the differing rank of his cave dwelling, all the remaining points used would come from the previous assessment stages.
That is to say, Wei Zhao's initial score before the tournament began would be the two points corresponding to his Mountain-Low No. 14 cave dwelling, plus the one hundred and five points he had earned in the two preceding assessment stages. Added together, that made one hundred and seven points.