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Chapter 38 event has ended; select your reward.

"Stone, Stone Wall Technique."

On the arena, Zhou Chun gave a command in his mind, and a yellowish-brown stone wall quickly rose up two steps in front of him.

Boom!

Almost as soon as the stone wall rose, a ball of crimson fire landed on it and exploded with a bang.

The powerful explosion instantly shattered the stone wall into pieces, turning it into scattered specks of light.

Even Zhou Chun, who was behind and had erected a protective shield, was slightly affected by the impact of the explosion.

But a smile appeared on his face.

Because this was the opponent's last Tier 1 mid-grade magic talisman.

In the previous battle, the opponent had already used up one first-grade high-quality magic talisman and three first-grade mid-quality magic talismans.

With this "Explosive Flame Talisman" used up, the opponent has no more trump cards left to play.

He has only used a first-tier mid-grade magic talisman, "Diamond Shield".

Next, under the combined attack of Zhou Chun and Rock Tortoise, the opponent's shield was quickly broken, and he had to leave the arena and admit defeat.

"My He family is renowned for its talisman-making skills. I can now produce most low-grade first-tier talismans on my own. If there were no limit to the number of times a talisman can be used, even with your spirit pet's assistance, I wouldn't lose to you!"

Outside the arena, He Chengfeng, a cultivator from the He family who had been forced to admit defeat by Zhou Chun, looked at him with a face full of resentment and shouted.

But now that the outcome is decided, Zhou Chun won't care what he says.

He smiled gracefully and said, "Fellow Daoist He is right, but that's just how the rules of the arena are. You flatter me."

In the audience, Zhou Daoyi also showed a happy smile when he saw Zhou Chun win.

On the other hand, the He family patriarch said with a hint of sourness, "Three out of ten, it seems your Zhou family is going to be the biggest winner this time!"

At this point, Zhou Daoyi, like Zhou Chun, no longer cared about others' sarcastic remarks after gaining an advantage.

He immediately smiled modestly and said, "Fellow Daoist He, you flatter me. It's just that the younger generation in the youth group is quite promising."

Is the youth group better?

After observing the situation with the elite group, the clan leaders were indeed in a better mood.

Unlike the youth group, the elite group has a relaxed age limit of sixty, which means that most of the other family participants are at the eleventh or twelfth level of the Qi Refining stage.

Only the Zhou family is different.

Because raising spirit pets would delay the Zhou family cultivators' own cultivation improvement, there are several people like Zhou Jiapeng who have reached the tenth level of Qi Refining.

Moreover, most of the cultivators from various families who have been at the late stage of Qi Refining for many years possess two or more first-grade high-quality magic artifacts, and their own magic skills are quite proficient. In fact, most of them have even cultivated one or two secret techniques.

As a result, even with the help of spirit pets, the Zhou family cultivators were unable to gain much advantage.

After Zhou Chun stepped off the stage, Zhou Zhengyong, who had been watching from below, immediately patted him on the shoulder and said happily, "You're really something, Thirteenth Brother. You've really brought honor to our Zhou family this time."

Hearing this, Zhou Chun couldn't help but laugh and said, "You were just lucky. Your opponent wasn't very strong. If it were you, Brother Yong, you could have won too."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong rolled his eyes and said, "Come on, I know my own limitations. Unless it's a fight to the death, I'm probably no match for that guy."

In a life-or-death battle, he could have his spirit pet, the Red-tailed Monkey, fight desperately, but that was definitely not possible on the arena.

So Zhou Chun stopped trying to be cute, smiled lightly, and didn't respond.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhengyong suddenly asked in a low voice, "Now that you've secured a top-ten spot, Thirteenth Brother, do you still plan to try and get into the top three?"

In this martial arts competition among the five major families, the top ten will receive substantial rewards, but the best rewards will be for the top three.

Like Zhou Zhengkang of the Zhou family, whose goal is to be in the top three or even number one.

Now that Zhou Chun has entered the top ten, Zhou Zhengyong will naturally ask him about it out of curiosity.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately waved his hand and said, "I won't compete. My strength is only enough to make it into the top ten, and luck has already played a part. There's no way I can get into the top three."

Not making it into the top three, whether you're fourth or tenth, doesn't affect the reward.

Zhou Chun had no interest in continuing to fight; he wasn't some kind of battle maniac.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong couldn't help but sigh with regret, "Tsk, Thirteenth Brother, you're still so cautious and prudent. If it were me, I would definitely have to give it a try before I was satisfied."

Next, the seven losers, along with the one who received a bye, will draw lots again to determine the remaining eighty or ninety.

The seven people, including Zhou Chun, who successfully advanced, can compete for the top three.

However, with Zhou Chun, Zhou Zhengtao, and another Mu family cultivator withdrawing, only four people remained to compete for the top three spots.

Of these four, the highest cultivation level was the eleventh level of the Qi Refining stage, and the lowest was the tenth level of the Qi Refining stage.

Each of them is strong enough to be among the top twenty in the elite group.

After the four drew lots, the first to go was Zhou Zhengkang from the Zhou family, whose opponent was a cultivator from the Wang family named Wang Zhenhong.

The two were of similar cultivation level, both at the tenth level of the Qi Refining stage.

At this point, after the two bowed to each other and introduced themselves on the ring, they started fighting at the referee's command.

Zhou Zhengkang reached down, took the spirit beast pouch from his waist, and flung it. Two crimson-furred demon wolf spirit pets rushed out, spitting fireballs as they fiercely attacked their opponent.

His two demonic wolf spirit pets were low-level demonic beasts, Crimson Flame Wolves, born of the same mother. They had both been trained to the first-tier superior grade, and each of them was stronger than Zhou Zhengyong's Crimson-tailed Monkey.

While the two demonic wolf spirit pets attacked their opponent, Zhou Zhengkang also summoned a crimson flying sword magic weapon to attack the enemy, and at the same time used a blue pearl that could release blue light to protect himself.

These two magical artifacts are naturally both top-grade first-tier magical artifacts.

With such a lineup, even if the opponent also had two first-tier high-grade magic weapons, they would instantly fall into a disadvantageous position.

"Having a cultivator at the Purple Mansion stage as a backer is truly wonderful! Not only do I have no shortage of elixirs during my cultivation, but my spirit pets and magical artifacts also steadily improve along with my cultivation level!"

Beside Zhou Chun, Zhou Zhengyong suddenly sighed softly with envy in his eyes.

However, as a cultivator of the Zhou family, he couldn't help but feel envious and jealous of Zhou Zhengkang, the most outstanding young cultivator in the Zhou family.

Zhou Chun remained silent upon hearing this.

Zhou Zhengkang's situation is indeed something that his peers and fellow Zhou family cultivators envy.

He himself not only possesses excellent top-grade spiritual root aptitude, but his great-grandfather was also the elder brother of Zhou Mingde, the current Supreme Elder of the Zhou family.

This made him destined for greatness from birth.

It's not that because of his identity, he obtained many resources from the Zhou family that ordinary Zhou family members did not have, although he certainly received some preferential treatment in terms of resources.

The main reason is that, with his father and grandfather being cultivators of the Zhou family, Zhou Zhengkang has far more resources to inherit and use than Zhou Chun, whose ancestors were all mortal cultivators.

Putting everything else aside, just the fact that Zhou Mingde's great-uncle, who was at the Purple Mansion stage, could easily give him a little something to eat his fill.

Zhou Zhengyong may have had little experience with this kind of situation, which is why he is making such a comment now.

However, Zhou Chun had witnessed the carefree lives of those born with a silver spoon in their mouths in his previous life and had long accepted this social reality.

In layman's terms, it means that reality has worn down its edges.

At this moment, he simply sighed and said, "If he can win first place, it will be a good thing for the Zhou family. Some things cannot be changed, so let's try to accept them!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhengyong, whether he took it to heart or not, did not respond further.

After a relatively easy fight on the ring, Zhou Zhengkang successfully defeated his opponent and won.

Four people are competing for the top three spots, which means that each person has to play against the other three once, and the ranking is determined by the number of wins.

After a series of battles, the person who finally won first place was Zhou Zhengkang, a cultivator from the Zhou family!

His two Tier 1 high-grade demon wolf spirit pets had a huge advantage. With the two wolves attacking the enemy together, the opponent had to focus most of his energy on dealing with the two demon wolves and was unable to deal with his subsequent attacks.

So much so that when the results came out, the cultivators from the other four families looked at the Zhou family cultivators with anger, and the discussions about "cheating" were rampant.

Meanwhile, in the audience, the patriarchs of several families also looked rather grim.

At this point, they even regretted involving the Zhou family in this activity.

It wasn't that they were heartbroken over the small reward, but rather that the outcome of this martial arts competition would undoubtedly be a blow to the reputation and morale of their families, a loss far greater than the reward itself.

"Next time, the Zhou family's spirit pets must be banned from the competition!"

For a moment, this thought flashed through the minds of several clan leaders.

Compared to the youth group, the elite group finished much slower.

The elite group participants have high cultivation levels and profound magical power, so it is normal for their battles to last for more than fifteen minutes.

Therefore, it took them almost a third longer to determine the final results than the youth group.

After the results for the elite group were released, the expressions of the other family heads finally improved.

Among the top ten in the elite group, the Zhou family only occupied two positions, and none of them made it into the top three.

This at least made up for some of the face lost in the youth group.

"Fellow Daoists, now that the results are in, let's go and present the awards to the younger generation!"

In the audience, the host, Wang Zhixiong, stood up, smiled, and bowed to Zhou Daoyi and the other clan leaders, inviting them to go up and present the awards.

Upon seeing this, the clan leaders all rose and bowed to him humbly, saying, "Fellow Daoist Wang, please."

Then the group followed Wang Zhixiong toward the two arenas.

Desert will be updated tonight.

(End of this chapter)