Chapter 461: I didn’t become the champion because I didn’t get enough votes.

Four days later, the martial arts imperial examination was held as scheduled.

It was different from what Lu Wenwu had imagined, the ancient imperial examination was a simple competition to see who could win.

The preliminary projects of the martial arts examination are more like a screening.

It does need to be sieved.

Since there was no restriction on cultivation level in the Houtu Empire's martial arts examination, martial artists from all walks of life across the country flocked to the imperial capital.

Not to mention the inns in the city, even the stables in the inns, the woodshed and water rooms in the city, and even the villages a little closer to the neighbors were full.

If a warrior has not entered the Bone Tempering Realm, his digestive ability will be greatly enhanced and less filth will be excreted.

The martial arts examination probably hasn't been held yet, but the Houtu Empire can already consider moving the capital to another city as the imperial capital.

Warriors have bigger appetites than ordinary people.

With so many warriors living on the side, if you don’t have some strength, you really wouldn’t dare to take part in this level of martial arts examination.

At this time in the imperial capital, there were hundreds of thousands of warriors scanned by Lu Wenwu's spiritual sense alone, most of whom were flesh-refining warriors who came to try their luck.

There are very few warriors in the Bone Tempering Realm, only about ten thousand.

As for the Meridian Forging Realm, who are regarded as masters among masters in the eyes of ordinary people, there are only a hundred or so of them.

I think so.

If so many warriors all have to rely on fighting in the ring to gradually determine their rankings, then with the productivity of this era, there will be a lot of fighting.

The right approach is to eliminate the vast majority of talents as quickly as possible.

As the first stage of the martial arts examination, the assessment items are simple and unpretentious.

It's simply the degree of vitality of the blood.

Regardless of one’s state of mind, gender, age or status, as long as one’s Qi and blood are strong enough, they will be allowed to pass.

If the Qi and blood are not strong enough, even the Meridian Forging Realm will not be effective.

In fact, among the warriors who came to participate in the martial arts examination, one-third of the Pulse Forging Realm were eliminated.

Most of these are old warriors who are already old and have passed the peak of their cultivation, and their energy and blood have begun to decline.

Perhaps they can even burst out with powerful strength if they cheer up.

But in terms of the vitality of their Qi and blood, many of them have weakened to the point where they are not even as strong as those at the peak of physical training.

Perhaps whether a warrior has sufficient qi and blood cannot determine whether he is strong.

But whether a warrior has sufficient qi and blood can definitely determine whether he still has enough drive and potential, even if it is the kind that cannot be developed until death.

The first round of blood and energy testing eliminated more than 99% of the warriors, leaving only a few thousand people.

Except for dozens of Vein-Forging Warriors and nearly a hundred Flesh-Refining Realm warriors with extremely strong Qi and blood, the rest are all experts in Bone-Forging Realm.

Lu Wenwu is one of them.

He simulated the Qi and blood strength of a Bone Tempering Realm cultivator, and with his youthful appearance and sturdy build, he passed it with ease.

All warriors who enter the second level have one common characteristic.

That is youth.

None of them is old, and the oldest is only over forty years old. They are still at the end of the peak of their energy and blood, and have the possibility of fighting for progress.

Once you are over fifty years old, your Qi and blood will begin to decline uncontrollably.

Even with the help of rare and precious medicine, it can only delay the disease for a few years. This decline caused by age is irreversible.

Unless one is fortunate enough to cultivate a breath of innate fetal breath and enter the innate realm, extending one's life by a hundred years, one can continue to maintain the peak of qi and blood and strive for a higher realm.

At the end of the first level, Lu Wenwu had never expected that the Houtu Empire would announce that all warriors who entered the second level would have the opportunity to participate in the Divine Weapon Festival and try to make the national divine weapon recognize its master.

Lu Wenwu originally thought that the Houtu Empire would be more restrained. At least they would wait until there were only a few dozen people left before letting everyone try, right?

Are these two thousand people of yours qualified?

Those who know are trying to get the magic weapon to recognize its master, while those who don’t know think that it is waiting in line here to go to Cheshuo!

However, what surprised Lu Wenwu even more was...

The Houtu Empire has almost made it clear to others: I’m going to reveal my cards now, no more showmanship, I just have ulterior motives, so what?

However, no warrior chose to withdraw. Instead, they became more and more fanatical, as if the Houtu Empire was really planning to give the national treasure to someone other than the royal family.

The excitement of the group made Lu Wenwu a little suspicious. Did Xiaobao and he make a wrong judgment?

Or have these people gone crazy trying to grab a possible chance to prolong their lives, and are willing to risk their lives for that innate ability to fly high?

Lu Wenwu had no idea about this.

At least from the analysis of the Eye of True Vision, these warriors were so excited that they didn't even have any suspicions and were surprisingly carefree.

The second stage of the martial arts imperial examination seemed a bit abstract.

The Houtu Empire took out a long box that looked like a blood pressure monitor, with a rectangular groove inserted at one end of the box.

There are dense scales on the groove, and inside is a stone ball the size of a baseball.

The test method is to put your head against the other end of the box without a groove and input qi and blood power into the box. As long as the ball can be pushed up high enough to reach the scale, it is considered a success.

The three realms correspond to three different standards, and you will be qualified if you pass them.

The other contestants had no idea what was going on and just followed the instructions.

Lu Wenwu felt it was a bit abstract.

The people in this world don't know what mental power is, and they don't practice it, but they have figured out a way to roughly detect mental power.

This instrument, made of special materials but crudely made, is used to detect the strength of the mental power contained in the energy and blood.

It's normal to test your mental strength.

It is very abnormal to detect mental strength in this world.

Because the warriors in this world do not cultivate their souls, they do not know what mental power is.

It is also useless for the advancement of the martial arts system.

So the question is, why test something that is not used?

If there are warriors who realize that mental power is a good thing and needs to be transformed through soul cultivation, then why is there no corresponding technique in this world?

Even if there is no cultivation method, there is no information at all?

This is obviously unreasonable.

Lu Wenwu calmly displayed his pulse-forging level of mental strength and passed the test again with ease.

No one else suspected him of cheating.

Firstly, no one knows what this test is actually about.

Secondly, is.

Isn't it normal to have a hidden trick when traveling around the world?

Are there still honest boys these days who can become friends with you as soon as they meet?

The number of people eliminated in this round was much smaller, and in the end only about 400 people were left.

All members of the Vein Forging Realm passed the level, only thirteen people passed the Flesh Refining Realm, and the rest were in the Bone Refining Realm.

The third level finally brings us to the classic one-on-one fighting ring battle.

It's not the kind of thing where you have to sign a life-or-death agreement before you go on stage, and you won't care about life or death.

As a martial arts imperial examination that required the entire country's efforts, the authorities actually ordered everyone to put friendship first and competition second, and both sides should stop when the competition was sufficient.

It is expressly forbidden to maim or severely injure an opponent in the ring.

If it were just this level, it could still be considered understandable.

After all, we may be working together in the future as comrades in the army, so don't hurt the relationship.

But the following rules are a bit confusing.

If you severely injure or kill your opponent during the game, even if it is not intentional, your score will be significantly deducted and your priority in participating in the Divine Weapon Recognition Ceremony will be significantly lowered.

In serious cases, the offender will be directly deprived of the qualification to attempt to claim the national sacred weapon and will only be allowed to participate in the sacred weapon ceremony to watch.

Even the top martial arts champion is still like this.

At the same time, although the martial arts competition is conducted according to traditional rules, the competition will continue until only one person remains.

However, the title of martial arts champion and the ranking in the Divine Weapon Recognition Ceremony at the Divine Weapon Festival are determined by the judges' scores.

In other words, even if you can sweep all the contestants, you may not necessarily be the champion.

This suddenly gave Lu Wenwu a strange sense of déjà vu.

He remembered that he seemed to have seen a similar thing somewhere.

It seemed like in the final of a football match, the opponent scored more than a dozen goals, but in the end, because the number of votes was not as high as the other team, they ended up being the runner-up.

There are more than 400 people in the ring competition, and it takes an extremely long time just to complete one round of competition one by one.

In addition, the schedule cannot be arranged too tightly, and sufficient rest and recovery time must be left for the participants, so the entire competition process is longer.

In about two months, the GDP around the imperial city was greatly increased and the economy achieved substantial development.

This martial arts imperial examination has finally come to the final battle for the championship and runner-up.

One of the parties was naturally Lu Wenwu, who was disguised as a Pulse Forging Realm cultivator.

For him, who can flexibly control every muscle fiber and even blood cell in his body, this is not difficult at all.

The other party is a real genius in the Pulse Forging Realm. At the age of thirty, he has already cultivated to the peak of the Pulse Forging Realm and is only one step away from the Innate Realm.

But no matter how talented he is, he is useless in front of Lu Wenwu.

After a "performance" of trying his best to release the sea, Lu Wenwu and his opponent repeatedly fought for thousands of rounds, and finally "narrowly won" by half a move before "exhausting his strength", and took the lead among many warriors.

It also presented a thrilling WWE from another world to the many onlookers at the scene.

What does it feel like for Lu Wenwu to be the top martial arts scholar?

The answer is: I don’t know.

Because he is not the top martial arts champion.

Just like the rules mentioned before.

Although he defeated everyone and was the strongest genius of the younger generation in Houtu Empire, his score in the judges' scoring was not ideal, so he didn't even get the title of third place.

Just barely made it into the top ten.

Many viewers spoke up for him, believing that the ranking was absolutely a shady deal and demanded a re-ranking.

But under the suppression of the aura of an innate master, all the criticisms quickly disappeared.

Lu Wenwu himself didn't really care about this ranking.

As long as I can participate in the so-called Divine Weapon Festival, nothing else matters.

However, there was one thing that made Lu Wenwu feel a little strange.

Among those who spoke up for him, there were no warriors, only ordinary people.

In the past, whether it was the opponents who were easily defeated by him, or the onlookers who were directly eliminated in the first round, they all shouted the slogan "We warriors should cultivate virtue and self-cultivation."

There are also some other less uniform slogans, most of which also show the integrity and backbone of the warriors.

Basically, they are the kind that say "I have pride, I am not that kind of vulgar person" and so on.

But when it really came to the issue of the national defense weapon recognizing its master, there was not a single warrior who spoke up for Lu Wenwu.

Even among the onlookers, no warrior pointed out that this way of judging was unfair. It seemed that they had completely accepted this matter - including the middle-aged warrior who had risked his life to speak up for him when entering the city.

It was as if all the simplicity and honesty of the honest middle-aged man had disappeared in this matter, and he had become a completely different person.

This made Lu Wenwu extremely surprised.

What does it mean?

Is every warrior in the entire city an actor and a two-faced person?

Are they all hypocrites who say one thing and do another?

Lu Wenwu had already scanned the martial arts examination site with his true vision, and found that these warriors truly agreed with this outrageous rule, and no one felt that Lu Wenwu was being treated unfairly.

This is the case.

It's hard to describe.

If it was a matter involving their own interests, Lu Wenwu could understand why the warriors kept silent.

It's better to be prudent and protect yourself.

But those warriors who were eliminated in the first round or even didn't participate in the competition, and just came to watch, didn't say a word. Is this a bit...

It doesn't make sense to cover it up by using the fear of being repaid later.

Even warriors in the Forging Vein Realm are afraid of it, but ordinary people are not?

This is not reasonable!

After returning to the inn, Lu Wenwu and Xiaobao discussed the matter again.

Apart from speculating that the national treasure might have some ideological influence on the warriors within the range of luck, the man and the cat really couldn't figure out what the hell was going on.

It's really too weird.

What kind of scene have I not seen? (crossed out)

I have never seen such a scene!

With such complicated feelings, Lu Wenwu was summoned together with many warriors who had competed with him on the same stage, and went to the palace to meet the emperor of Houtu Empire and prepare to participate in the Divine Weapon Festival.

As they entered the palace, the guards took away everyone's weapons.

Xiaobao and Maomao stayed in Lu Wenwu's inner world, watching the live broadcast through the images projected by Lu Wenwu.

The palace of Houtu Empire is somewhat similar to the palace of ancient Shenzhou in structure and layout, but the back is different from the palace of ancient Shenzhou.

It is not a classic imperial garden, nor is it a religious place for worshipping Buddhism or Taoism.

Instead, it is a giant sacrificial site that is many times larger than the altar of heaven in ancient Shenzhou.

The altar is a three-tiered open-air circular platform, large enough to accommodate thousands of people standing there at the same time.

The surface of the altar is paved with green jade, and the circles of white jade columns and railings are not carved with dragons that symbolize the majesty of the emperor, but with snakes one after another!

The eyes of each snake are inlaid with enchanting rubies, and the tips of the two fangs are a breathtaking purple, more enchanting than amethyst and more gorgeous than violet.

Right in the center of the top floor of this circular altar, a pitch-black snake sword floats above it with its tip pointing downwards.

At the end of the hilt is a lifelike black snake head.

The entire sword seemed to be an extension of its limbs.

This is the Black Snake Sword, the sacred weapon of the Houtu Empire!

(End of this chapter)