After the second round of trials ended, it was suspended for a day. The third day began with the draw for the third round. After two rounds of screening, those cultivators who were obviously lower in cultivation or had poor magic tools had already been eliminated. And high-ranking cultivators who owned two top-grade magic tools almost all entered this round without exception. It can be seen how important magic tools are to the competition among Qi Refining stage cultivators.

  From this round onwards, it's hard to see one-sided matches. More than half of the trials took a long time, and in the end, the winner was often determined by who could hold out longer with their spiritual power.

  Because we are both top-grade artifacts, in most cases, I am unable to overcome you and you are also unable to defeat me. Under the intense struggle between us, a stalemate of competing spiritual energy is formed.

  Occasionally, there are individual cases where one side is careless and fails to defend properly, allowing the other side to use some cunning means to launch a sneak attack. This situation is extremely rare. In the competition among cultivators, those who do not use defensive shields are very few. Once a defensive shield is used, it can basically achieve all-around defense, making it difficult for the opponent to launch a sneak attack.

  Zhao Di's luck in drawing lots was also very poor, and he encountered an opponent of similar strength in the second round. In the third round, he even met a senior brother Sun Ming who had reached the 13th layer of the Refining Qi period. This is the acknowledged "hot favorite" of this foundation-building competition. Whether it's his cultivation at the peak of the Refining Qi period or the green giant sword artifact he uses, among the outer disciples, they are all considered to be among the best. Therefore, many people think that in this foundation-building competition, Senior Brother Sun will definitely be one of the final winners.

  And Sun Shixiong did indeed live up to expectations, in the first and second rounds he only used one sword to destroy his opponent's magic weapon, forcing his opponents to surrender voluntarily.

  Zhao Di, who had originally planned to hide his true strength, could only do his best in this situation. Moreover, if the opponent was as formidable as rumored, he also didn't have confidence that he could defeat them even with all his tricks out.

  The duel between the two began, and Zhao Di still took out a defensive talisman first, then drew his own Worked Brocade Sword. This Worked Brocade Sword had been slightly damaged in terms of spiritual energy during the match the day before yesterday, but Zhao Di had used a mid-grade Golden Spirit Stone to refine it again, restoring it to its original state.

  On the other hand, he took out that iconic giant green sword. The giant sword was about one zhang long and one chi wide, with a flowing green light on its body, it was a high-quality wooden attribute magic weapon.

  Both of them used swords, which was a common occurrence in duels. Originally, the number of knife and sword-type magic tools far exceeded that of other magic tools.

  Two people coincidentally wielded a golden long sword and a cyan giant sword, striking together. With a "bang", both swords were knocked back, and in the first confrontation, they fought to a stalemate.

  Zhao felt a sense of relief in his heart, the opponent's giant sword seemed not as formidable as he had heard.

  Sun Ming saw this and sneered, his right hand forming a strange seal that struck the giant blue sword. At the same time, he poured a large amount of spiritual energy from his body into the sword.

  The giant sword began to vibrate with a "humming" sound in the air, and at its blade edge, a faint cyan light of over one foot long appeared.

  "Green Edge!" The cultivators watching the trial below were in an uproar, with many recognizing Green Edge's origins at a glance, and some even shouting it out loud.

  "It's indeed the Sword Crest! It seems that this person is a Sword Cultivator, and the Sword Crest is over a foot long, truly powerful!" Zhao Di saw the green crest and immediately thought of the records about Sword Cultivators in the classics.

  Jian Xiu is a cultivator who mainly uses sharp weapons such as swords and blades. In addition to practicing the general five-elemental techniques, they also specialize in some sword-driving techniques, which further enhance the power of their sword-like artifacts. If the sword-driving technique reaches a certain level of cultivation, it can produce a Sword Aura, whose size directly reflects the cultivator's level. This person was able to unleash a Sword Aura over a foot long, indicating that they had spent many years honing their skills with this green giant sword artifact and sword-driving techniques.

  Before Zhao Di could make another move, the cyan giant sword brought a faint cyan light and chopped down towards him.

  Zhao Di could only grit his teeth and manipulate the fabric sword to resist the giant sword's blow.

  The golden long sword had just come into contact with the green mang, and a sound like a dragon's roar was heard. The golden long sword suddenly dimmed a lot, and even its body was cut out of a gap of more than an inch.

  This green bamboo's single strike actually directly shattered the body of the high-grade artifact, Gongbu Sword. This power is obviously not something that an ordinary high-grade artifact can compare to.

  "Could it be that the cyan longsword with a sword hilt, can exert a power similar to that of an extreme treasure?" Zhao Di thought to himself, and his heart felt a chill.

  Helpless, Zhao Di couldn't help but take out a somewhat damaged Hu Bu sword and another bronze ringed artifact.

  The copper ring, under the spiritual power of Zhao Di, instantly expanded to a diameter of about one zhang, surrounding Zhao Di within it. Moreover, it rapidly rotated non-stop, forming a golden light circle.

  Sun Ming wielded the giant green sword, ignoring the golden longsword that no longer posed a great threat, and instead directly attacked Zhao Di himself. Naturally, the giant sword and its blade clashed with the rapidly rotating copper ring.

  "Ding ding ding..." The sound of metal clashing continued to emanate from the point of contact between the two. Every time the giant sword struck, it would leave a mark about an inch deep on the copper ring. However, because the copper ring was constantly rotating, each spot that was hit by the giant sword was different every time. For a while, although the giant sword seemed to have the upper hand, the copper ring did not appear to be destroyed immediately.

  Zhao Di took advantage of the copper ring to gain a precious moment of breathing space. At this time, he held one hand on a golden round shield and prepared seven or eight fire snake talismans with the other hand. He used the golden shield inside the copper ring and added another layer of golden light protection. Then, he whispered incantations in a low voice, while activating these seven or eight fire snake talismans.

  Upon seeing this scene, the disciples below the stage made another commotion, with most of them secretly scolding Zhao for being a spendthrift. Who would use up dozens of low-grade spirit stones all at once like that?! For an outer sect disciple, this was equivalent to their entire income for one or two years in the Taiyu Sect!

  Zhao Di waved his hand and seven or eight fire snakes spewing red flames rushed towards the opponent, arriving in front of Sun Ming in an instant.

  The power of the seven or eight fire snakes was not something that Sun Ming dared to underestimate, and it was not something that a mid-grade defensive artifact could withstand. He calmly took out a cyan-yellow command token that he had long prepared and placed it in front of him, and his spiritual energy quickly poured into it. A layer of cyan protection enveloped him.

  As a loud explosion sounded, this seemingly ordinary token actually completely blocked the might of those seven or eight fire snakes.

  This token is undoubtedly a high-quality defensive artifact and must be a fine product among high-quality artifacts, otherwise it would not be able to withstand so easily.

  Zhao was in a dilemma, he still had quite a few fire snake symbols, even if the opponent had top-grade defensive artifacts, he was confident that with his number of fire snake symbols, he could easily break through the defense of that token. However, this way, he would inevitably have to expose himself in front of everyone, and it would be impossible to keep a low profile. Using up hundreds of spirit stones at once to compare notes, of course, no one would suspect him of being wealthy. If he were targeted by some ill-intentioned people because of this, that would lead to endless trouble.

  It's not that there's no chance at all, but without using a large amount of spiritual energy, it's impossible. Zhao Di didn't believe it, the opponent used such a powerful sword aura, the consumption of spiritual energy must be considerable, could they still persist for a long time?

  Not long after the trial began, he was secretly holding a mid-grade spirit stone in his hand, constantly replenishing the consumed spiritual power.

  At this point, Zhao Di decided to take a risk and give it a try.

  He suddenly manipulated the copper ring to fly high into the air, no longer entangling with the cyan giant sword. The cyan giant sword directly slashed onto the golden shield. "Puff puff" sounds, the cyan mang left a mark on the golden shield. Apparently, even if it was a top-notch defensive artifact, it couldn't completely withstand the attack of the sword mang.

  Zhao Di couldn't care about these, under his control, the Gongbu sword that was suspended in mid-air after being struck by Qing Mang suddenly became active and stabbed towards Sun Ming himself; at the same time, the copper ring flew to the top of Sun Ming's head and then rapidly fell down.

  "He's manipulating three magical tools at the same time!" Someone in the audience immediately noticed this, which caused another commotion. These people were all cultivators above the tenth level of Qi Refining, and naturally understood the difference between manipulating two magical tools and three, that the requirement for divine consciousness was not ordinary high. Among these people, except for a few exceptions, they all asked themselves if they could do this.

  "Isn't that a case of 'overdoing it'! Soldiers are valued for their quality, not quantity. What's the use of having many magic tools? Each one is no match for Qingjian's swordsmanship. Using too many magic tools would only waste precious spiritual energy." A cultivator whispered in disagreement.

  Another monk beside him disagreed, shaking his head and saying: "This is not necessarily the case. Two fists are hard to contend with four hands, if the magical instruments cooperate well and attack from multiple sides, it's possible to make the opponent's instrument busy and unable to cope. Once the opponent reveals an opening due to this, they can be taken down in one move."

  (Third update, four updates today! The fourth update will be before 9 pm tonight. Please collect this book and vote for recommendations! If you think this book is good, feel free to recommend it to other readers, thank you all for your support!)