ASCENSION OF THE LAST SWORD SOVEREIGN EMPEROR

The huge arena was filled up with millions of spectators both mortals in the stands and cultivators among them and stronger ones riding their treasured swords in the air. The Black Dragon Empire tournament is the greatest tournament for all cultivators in all the countries making up the Black Dragon Empir, it is a top-level tournament in which all the young geniuses in the various national academies below the age of eighteen years and at most at the Xantian Martial Force Realm come together to battle it out and to showcase their prowess and win glory through blood and sweat for themselves and their national academies they are representing in the tournament.

They also get to be on the Black Dragon Genious Ranking table, this goes a long way to spread their fame and earn them a great reputation and the respect of the masses. Through this ranking, they also get to be taken as special disciples of the big cultivation sects and their future is further guaranteed to be a great one. The academies also get resource allocation based on the placement of the student they produce, so therefore the tournament is a great deal for this young cultivator and their national Academies and a great deal of effort is made to present only the best of the best geniuses.

It's a rare gathering of geniuses and a place of opportunity for the young participants as they get drafted into the Royal Armies of the Empire or join big sects to become renowned figures and legends on the continent and the Divine Domains as a whole. Every great name in the Empire almost of them once participated in this tournament and others such as this which are held in other Empires.

Today is the final day of the Black Dragon Tournament which is always held at the Dragon Eye Island. The whole island was purported for an arena for all sorts of military exercises and the Black Dragon Tournament, it is only opened every five years for the military promotion and induction exams and ultimately the Black Dragon Tournament.

The whole arena was built by rune masters and artificers to make the stages for battle very strong in other to prevent extensive damage. The island is surrounded by mountain ranges and is only accessible through tunnels directly under the control of the Royal Court.

Currently, on the four stages, four simultaneous battles were ongoing to determine the second batch of winners that would be joining the showdown. The placement of the top ten geniuses. Sword qi and sword intent explode all over the arenas as all the participants strive to outsmart their opponents. Out of the countries participating only participants from eight countries are left in the tournament.

Quickly as the battles come to an end one after the other, two participants were locked up in a fierce battle. Fu Bai from Snowstorm Country and Li Baitin from Po Chi Lam Country. As the predominant weapon of choice is the sword in the whole Divine Dormain, these two who were both sword users were involved in an intense skilful battle where both sword qi and sword intent ran rampant and caused so much devastation that the elders in charge of the tournament had to set up a yuan qi barrier to protect the audience who are mortals and some low-level cultivators as well.

Both Fu Bai and Li Baitin are Xantian Martial force realm cultivators and are both seventeen years old, they both were evenly matched and therefore the intensity of the battle. Li Baitin hit the Arena with the tip of his toe and flies into the air as he strikes his sword out at a very tricky angle towards Fu Bai's neck.

The all-out and impossible-to-dodge sword attack was parried by Fu Bai who imbued sword qi into a sword and swung it to parry off the opponent's attack as he twisted his waist and swerves around the attack and send a kick of his leg towards the airborne Li Baitin, Li Batian then also pushed out his sword qi and sword intent into his arm and used it as a shield to take the opponent's attack head-on.

There was a loud sound of two sharp swords grating against each other causing the audience to feel as if a sharp sword was about to cut their throats open. The elders had to reinforce the yunqi barrier as some mortals directly fainted and some cultivators vomited mouthfuls of blood from the internal injuries they received from the sounds of the clash earlier.

Meanwhile, both opponents were forced more than hundreds of meters apart from each other. Their flying swords clash in the air being controlled by their sword spirit techniques. As Xantian Force Martial Realm cultivators, they could both control ten swords each with their sword spirit techniques. They both jumped onto their treasured sword and flew towards each other in fierce hand-to-hand combat imbuing each blow and kick with sword qi and intent as they rode their swords above the Arena.

The spectators were in uproar at this point as the fight got exciting and intense. A man said to his neighbour "Friend, I say who among these two lads is going to win this bout.?" The friend responded, "Li Baitin is a top genius from my country's Heaven Sage Academy, he would surely win". The other friend replies "If you are so sure, would you enter a wager with me, ten monarch ice coins? Against him"; the other also said" Why not, I know he is going to win so ten monarch ice coins is. Another joined in "Here is one monarch qi stone, I want to join the bet. Soon a healthy amount of monarch ice coins and monarch qi stones were been wagered as more people begin to bet as they did in the previous fights.

On stage, both opponents seem to have grown fiercer as the battle continued, with sword qi and sword intent being manifested outside the bodies, a sign of being a true first-level Xantian Martial force realm cultivator. They used this for both defence and offence. Escucite movement techniques blended with sword techniques and sword spirit control made the fight dazzling and captivating to watch. The whole arena was as quiet as a tomb as all the spectators were watching the fight with rapt attention. Fully captivated.

Li Baitin flew off his treasured sword High into the air and flipped over descending head first towards Fu Bai's head As all ten swords intensified their attack on his opponent and his treasured sword also joined the fray. Whilst descending he formed a hand seal "Guilin hoof sword finger" concentrating almost half of his sword qi and sword intent on strike as he got nearer, he used his other arm to attack Fu Bai who was already struggling to parry away the sword attacks and therefore was unable to prevent the finger strike that landed on his left shoulder as sword qi and sword intent was directly sent it his body and invaded his internal organs causing havoc in there.

Fu Bai flew off his treasured sword as if he were a broken kite and landed on the stage whilst spitting out a few mouthfuls of blood and fainted afterwards. This took a while to describe but it actually to place at a lightning pace.

It took a while for the truth to dawn on the spectators as the end was extremely fast, So it took the silent arena some time to wake up from their stupor. The arena only erupted in cheers and applause after a few seconds had passed. there was a loud uproar of cheers, as the supervising Elder flew down and began to inspect Fu Bai's body and injected his sword qi to expel the one causing havoc in Fu Bai's body, he then neutralized the sword intent.

He got up and announced, " Li Baitin from Po chi Lam Heave Sage Academy wins and shall join the finals". Another round of cheers echoed throughout the Arena as Li Baitin flew on his sword towards their country's stands and the countrymen from Snowstorm Country came to collect their injured and unconscious participant back to their stand.

In the spectator's stand, some were in a jubilant mood while others wore a bitter smiles on their face, shaking their heads dejected in regret. The man who proposed the wager earlier was elated as quite a few people had betted against his choice." hahaha, this time my trip is not wasted. I have made quite a fortune".

The other one and almost all those who lost the bet were quiet and felt mocked by his expression of joy. One said to himself" Just be smug just a little longer in a few hours this tournament would end and you and your wealth would be mine, just a mere third-level spirit martial force realm cultivator dares to win a bet against me a peak-level spirit realm practitioner. We would see soon enough". Unknown to him most other people had the same thoughts as him. Such is the cultivation world the strong prey on the weak.

As the last qualifying round came to an end people move to wipe the stages and began preparation for the final round of the battles. The ultimate ranking battle was where the best of the Empire would battle it out for supremacy and fame. Discussion already broke out among the audience as preparations were underway for the beginning of the final battle. Just who would this time first on the Black Dragon Tournament ranking be?