The next day, in the early morning, Ye Feng heard a knock on his door when he was sleeping. He woke up and started cursing in his mind at the person who was knocking on his door. He got out of bed unwillingly and went to open the door. When he opened his door he saw a middle-aged woman with an ordinary face. She was wearing an azure robe, showing her curvy, feminine body. She was carrying a white robe in her hand.
The middle-aged woman looked at Ye Feng blankly and asked, "Are you Ye Feng?" Ye Feng nodded his head. The middle-aged woman gave Ye Feng the white robe that she was carrying and said, "The freshmen competition will start in half an hour. Don't be late, and wear this robe at all times when you are not in your dwelling; the white robe that I just gave you is the academy uniform. Also, I recommend you go to the library and read about the rules and regulations of the academy; after all, it is for your own good. Anyway, the freshmen competition will be held in the Azure Fang Pagoda. You just need to ask the other students or the academy staff about the location of the pagoda, and they will tell you where it is." Ye Feng nodded and thanked the middle-aged woman.
After the middle-aged woman left, Ye Feng quickly took a bath, freshened up, wore the white robe that the middle-aged woman gave him, and had his breakfast. He then exited his room and went to look for Ye Long.
After walking for 10 minutes around the academy, Ye Feng found Ye Long chatting with two young men around his age. When Ye Long saw Ye Feng walking to him, he stood up and said with a smile on his face, "Fifth brother, good to see you. These two are my friends, Zi Ma and Yang Hau."
Ye Feng smiled at them and greeted them, then he asked Ye Long. "First, brother, one of the academy staff told me that the freshmen competition is going to start very soon, and I need to go to the pagoda. Can you show me where the pagoda is?"
Ye Long smiled and said, "Sure thing, fifth brother, I am interested to see how you will perform in the freshmen competition; there is no way I am going to miss this event." Ye Feng smiled at Ye Long and thanked him. Zi Ma and Yang Hau nodded their heads in agreement with what Ye Long just said; they also wanted to come and see how the new students would do in the competition, so Zi Ma and Yang Hau decided to go to the pagoda with the two brothers. The four of them then started walking towards the Azure Fang Pagoda.
After walking for 5 minutes, Ye Feng group arrived at the Azure Fang Pagoda. The pagoda was in Azure; it was so huge; it had a huge golden gate. The gate was 5 metres tall and 5 metres wide. On top of the pagoda was an Azure dragon figure snarling to the sky angrily.
Ye Feng saw a bulky, muscular, middle-aged man standing in front of the pagoda. The middle-aged man has a long brown beard that reaches to his chest and messy brown hair. He has a tan complexion and was wearing an azure robe. When he saw many students had arrived, he yelled, "Alright, listen up, all of you. I don't have all day to waste on you. All the new students come forward, and the rest of you make way for the new students."
Ye Feng and the new students walked towards the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man looked at them and nodded. "Good, it seems all 200 new students are here. Now listen carefully. I don't like to repeat myself."
All the new students were quiet and were paying attention to what the middle-aged man was about to say. The middle-aged man then opened his mouth and said, "You will all enter the Azure Fang Pagoda and fight the puppets who reside inside the pagoda. Your objectives are to defeat the puppets you encounter in each level of the pagoda and to reach the highest level possible in the pagoda. The one who reaches the highest level among you all in the pagoda will be the winner of this competition. The champion of this competition will receive one rank 3 monster core, the runner-up will receive one rank 2 monster core, and the third-place winner will receive one rank 1 monster core. Do you all understand?"
All the new students nodded, and the middle-aged man nodded back in satisfaction. Then the middle-aged man waved his hand. and four boxes suddenly appeared on the ground. The boxes that appeared were three large brown boxes and one medium black box.
The middle-aged man then said, "The brown boxes are filled with different kinds of weapons. You can choose whatever you fancy before entering the pagoda, and the black box contains stones, but each of these stones has a formation imprinted on it."
The middle-aged man continued "the formation will record your progress in the pagoda and monitor you inside the pagoda. Also, the formation will teleport you outside the pagoda if you lose consciousness or if you grasp the stone tightly. You all will need to pick one stone each before entering the pagoda. Do you all understand?" All the new students nodded, then the middle-aged man said, "Good, now go pick a weapon and one stone from the boxes.".
All the students started walking towards the boxes to pick up a weapon and one formation stone from the boxes before entering the pagoda. Ye Feng picks up a sword. It has a silver blade. The sword's blade was two feet long and three fingers wide. The sword has a simple black handle and a cross guard.
After the students picked up their weapons and the formation stones, the middle-aged man opened the pagoda gate to them, and the students started entering the pagoda one by one.
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Inside The Pagoda
Ye Feng entered the Azure Fang Pagoda. The first level of the pagoda was very wide. Ye Feng was surprised because he couldn't find the other students. He asked himself. "Where are the other students? Why am I the only one in the pagoda? All the new students entered the pagoda like me.".
Ye Feng started walking deeper into the pagoda and stopped advancing when he saw a puppet standing like a statue while carrying a war hammer over its shoulder. The puppet was huge and bulky. The formation on the formation stone inside Ye Feng's pocket started to shine without Ye Feng's knowledge when he stopped walking, and the puppet in front of Ye Feng's eyes shined brightly.
The puppet rushed at Ye Feng with incredible speed while holding its hammer tightly. The puppet swung the hammer smoothly at Ye Feng. Ye Feng's eyes widened in shock, and he quickly brought his sword in front of him to block the attack. "BAAM." Ye Feng was sent flying like an arrow and crashed harshly into the wall. "BAAM." Ye Feng spit a blood arrow from his mouth and cursed, "Damn, this really hurt." The puppet charged at Ye Feng again, not giving him any time to catch his breath. The puppet swung his hammer again quickly at Ye Feng when it was close to him. Ye Feng quickly got up, and he rolled on the ground, dodging the hammer. "BAAM.".
Ye Feng quickly made some distance between himself and the puppet. The puppet then turned towards Ye Feng and charged at him again. When he was close to Ye Feng, he started swinging his hammer as smoothly as before: "SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, SWISH". However, this time Ye Feng didn't try to block the hammer like in his first clash with the puppet; instead, he dodged every strike: "BAAM, BAAM, BAAM, BAAM, BAAM". The puppet hammer kept smashing the ground whenever Ye Feng dodged.
Ye Feng continues dodging and studying the puppet attack patterns in a calm and collected manner: "SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, BAAM, BAAM, BAAM, BAAM, BAAM". Ye Feng then made a distance between him and the puppet again and thought, "That's it. The only option for me to defeat this puppet is to counterattack its hammer strikes." The puppet attacks Ye Feng again, and Ye Feng dodges "SWISH, SWISH, SWISH BAAM, BAAM, BAAM". "After every attack from the puppet, the puppet always has a 2-second gap. Before it attacks again, I will use these 2-second gaps to counterattack."
Ye Feng started executing his plan. He dodged the hammer strike from the puppet and stabbed the puppet in the chest with his sword. "CLANK." Ye Feng's eyes widened in disbelief because Ye Feng's sword didn't even leave a scratch on the puppet's chest.
The puppet swung its hammer at Ye Feng, and Ye Feng squatted down, dodging the hammer, "BAAM," then Ye Feng executed a barrage of sword strikes all over the puppet body with incredible speed: "CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK, CLANK."
Ye Feng leapt backward and frowned when he saw no scratch on the puppet's body, and he narrowed his eyes. "Not even scratch; I need more power in my sword strikes." The puppet charged at Ye Feng again and swung his hammer fiercely and smoothly: "SWISH, SWISH, SWISH, SWISH."; "BAAM, BAAM, BAAM, BAAM." Ye Feng kept dodging and thinking of a solution to defeat the puppet, then he made up his mind: "No choice. I have never tried it before, and I don't know if it will work, but here goes nothing."
Ye Feng concentrated his saint force on his sword. After a second, a bright blue energy coated Ye Feng sword blade; the saint force energy that coated the sword blade took the shape of a cloud. Ye Feng dodged a hammer strike from the puppet again, "BAAM," and then he swung his sword at the puppet's neck. Ye Feng's sword cut through the puppet's neck like a knife through butter, beheading the puppet. The puppet head flew in the air, and after a second, the puppet body and head fell to the ground.
Ye Feng smiled happily and said loudly, "It worked," but Ye Feng didn't have time to celebrate because he saw the wall in front of him lifted in the air and two wooden doors appeared. The wooden doors slowly opened. Two puppets walked from the wooden doors; one was a short puppet holding two daggers in each hand, and the other was tall, around 2 metres, holding a long bo staff.