After that, the Yellow-rank disciples would challenge the Black-rank ones, then the Black-rank disciples would challenge the Earth-rank ones, and so on.
The Nine Yang Academy also set several rules for the challenges.
First, everyone who challenged a higher-rank disciple had to pay a certain amount of merit points.
For example, if a Yellow-rank disciple wanted to challenge a Black-rank disciple, he had to pay a minor merit.
Regardless of the outcome, this small merit would go to the Black-rank disciple who was challenged.
This rule was to prevent low-rank disciples from challenging at random to try their luck.
Secondly, more than one low-rank disciple could challenge the same high-rank disciple. The latter didn't have to accept all of them, but they had to accept at least three challenges.
The order of challenges may be determined by the challenger through negotiation.