In the end, Tang Ze not only won first place, but he had ended up creating a new record.
Mo Yan won second place, with Li Zhi being a close third to him. Li Zhi felt she possibly could've come in second had she tried harder, but had been too demoralized during her race to show her full potential by how much faster Tang Ze was than her.
With that, the Rising Phoenix Sect was the first sect to have won two of the events!
Now, all eyes really were on Tang Ze, as one who had won first place in two of those events. People from his sect came by to visit him often, usually just to congratulate them. He tried to not appear too bored during these conversations but it was a bit of a chore for him.
The next two events were Fencing and Swordplay, respectively.
Fencing was fighting with another person one-on-one, though the fencing rules for this world were slightly different from back on Earth. It was not as simple as 'anything goes.' As for Swordplay, it was not about pitting people against each other, but them demonstrating their mastery of various techniques in front of a panel of judges who gave them points based on their performances.
It was here that a sect that Tang Ze had paid very little attention to up till now started to really make its presence known - namely, the Swift Sword sect.
The sects controlled vast amounts of territory and ruled over a large number of people. As such, they also drew their members from a huge pool of people with varying talents, which meant that none of the sects really specialized into anything. There were occasional exceptions to this, but they usually arose out of powerful individuals and not necessarily out of sect policy.
As an example, the current Supreme Elder of the Emerald Floral sect was an Eternal Soul cultivator of the Qi path. She was extremely talented with the Qi path and had made several major discoveries and secrets regarding the Qi path; knowledge that trickled down to the lower-ranking members of Emerald Floral sect. As such, currently four out of ten members of the Emerald Floral sect trained in the Qi path because of the fact that they could piggyback off of their Supreme Elder's innovations making it relatively easy to advance. Additionally, it was natural for humans to emulate those in positions of power like the Supreme Elder, so many people within the sect took up the Qi path as they were inspired by her achievements at being one of the few Eternal Soul cultivators in the Raswatian Empire and wanted to emulate her.
This ended up creating something of a self-perpetuating loop, as more people specialized in the Qi path resources and information on that path became more accessible, and so even more people joined it out of practicality.
But, this was because of the talent and fame of a significant figure in their sect. Once this Supreme Elder passed away, although the Qi path would still flourish in her sect for some generations to come simply out of her legacy, other paths would begin to rise up.
If Xian Yue succeeded in ascending to the Hinayana realm, she could automatically become the Supreme Elder of any of the eight sects - as a matter of fact they would fight over recruiting her, though she had last been a member of the Emerald Floral sect and she could easily depose the current Supreme Elder after ascending to the Hinayana realm. Following which, it would be highly likely that a good majority of the Emerald Floral sect's disciples would then begin cultivating the Soul path in earnest.
For most people, joining one sect or the other made no major difference as it was possible to specialize in whatsoever one wanted in any sect. The sects themselves also did not like to heavily push any of the paths as having a large variety in talents among their members could be useful in some scenarios.
People usually joined whatever sect whose territory they were living under or the sect which their family members had joined, not out of other considerations like specialization or their own talent as they would not be restricted in those matters.
There was an exception to the above - the Swift Sword sect. They specialized wholly and unapologetically in the Dao of the Sword. Here were some things that Tang Ze had heard from their members during the brief moments he had tried to interact with them up till now:
"The Dao of the Sword is the only Dao that matters."
"Every other Dao is inferior to the Dao of the sword, or is just a subsidiary of it."
"The sword is the only proper weapon for real men - all other weapons are for femboys."
"Senior, as a femboy let me assure you that the cute femboys all carry swords, only the ugly ones go for other weapons."
"I wish my sword could transform into a woman so I could marry it..."
"That's right - the minimum requirement for becoming my girlfriend is that the girl in question should be able to transform into a sword!"
"Hmph! Juniors, your comprehension of the Dao of the Sword is still lacking if you need a woman to fulfill your desires! Simply hollow out the hilt of a sword, and modify it with an accessory so that you can use it instead!"
As you can tell, their dedication to the sword bordered on fanaticism.
Their camp had been quiet up till now, but once the two swordplay events were coming up, it burst into activity and they quickly became the loudest and most obnoxious of the eight sects there.
They were basically the only sect that hyperspecialized into a specific domain - and that also meant that anyone in the Raswatian Empire who wanted to become a swordsman was better off joining their sect, and so the cycle perpetuated until they had become what they were now.
There were always at least two events involving swordplay in the tournament - and the Swift Sword sect won then almost every single time.
The Swift Sword sect was the sect closest to the Imperial Family. One reason for that was the blood relationships between some of their higher-ups and the Imperial Family, and another reason was that they were strong, but not particularly politically astute. They had a tendency to simply march in step with whatever the Imperial Family asked for, not to mention they were one of the few sects with an Eternal Soul cultivator in the Empire. Given this, they punched above their weight when it came to influence with the Imperial Family - who always guaranteed that two of the events in the tournament would involve swordplay in some way.
The other sects would occasionally grumble about this, but had otherwise come to terms with the fact that the Swift Sword sect was always going to win two events. For their part, the Swift Sword sect did not seriously participate in any of the other events, so no one felt like they were reaching beyond their boundaries.
As it was, it wasn't like the Swift Sword were absolutely guaranteed to win. If the other sects wanted, they could train their own swordsmen for the event.
Though once again, simply because the Swift Sword sect was so widely known to be fully dedicated to the sword, nearly any aspiring swordsman would want to join them rather than any other sect.
This meant that they did, in fact, end up nearly always winning those events.
As for Tang Ze, he knew a few swordsmen he could cosplay as, but they were required to wear their sect uniforms while participating in the events. He also didn't have a magical blade, and though he was strong, fencing was more about form and technique than brute strength. He did not really have any way to get those in any small point of time. Even in a costume, he could get a fictional swordsman's powers; but not their skill, experience, or technique with the blade.
As expected though, the Swift Sword sect did eventually win both the events. The real point of the event, it seemed, was as a platform for members of the Swift Sword sect to fight each other rather than against the other sects and demonstrate their prowess before the elders of their own sect.
Tang Ze saw many impressive swordplay performances - and many impressive magical swords as well. Some of them were heirlooms and extremely powerful - Tang Ze personally felt that that seemed like cheating because it was a way that someone who was already rich or powerful could almost guarantee their victory.
He even voiced this kind of concern to a Swift Sword sect member who was spectating along with him as they watched a fight, to which he was told, "There is no strongest blade - only the strongest swordsman! A good blade is only a tool, and there are hundreds of stories throughout history where swordsman with far inferior blades have beaten opponents with even legendary swords!"
Tang Ze took his word as fact, once again, given just how dedicated the entire sect was to studying the blade. He figured they had to be right about this one thing.
As a matter of fact, while the Swift Sword sect was quite loud and obnoxious during these two events were going on, they also seemed to be the people there who were enjoying themselves the most during the tournament.
They were not worried about competing with the other sects, only with each other - and even then they didn't seem to take it too seriously.
Tang Ze had wandered into their camp, and while they did recognize him as the victor of two events, they really didn't care to give him a second glance. In a way, it was quite relieving, because that meant that he could move among them freely.
He even contributed to a certain debate that was going on.
"Right - once again, let's talk about this - what is the right way for a flying sword to face? With the tip forward, or with the hilt forward?"
Tang Ze had given his own opinion: "If you're flying while in combat, the tip should be forward so it's easier to strike your enemies with it, while if you're just traveling normally the hilt should go forward."
There were several contemplative looks when he gave his opinion. They did not dismiss his opinion because he was an 'outsider' so to speak but still gave it the weight it was due, even if they didn't fully agree with him.
Some of them later approached him, asking him various questions regarding swords, though it was immediately obvious how shallow his own knowledge was.
Still, after dealing with them, Tang Ze felt that if he hadn't joined the Rising Phoenix sect and didn't have his innate talent, he would've joined the Swift Sword sect instead.
By the point the two sword-related events were over, he had relaxed quite a bit.