51: Chapter 51: Grinding down the opponent's manpower bit by bit

Everyone silently prayed to avoid strong enemies in the first round, safely secure their first win, and firmly establish themselves.

Only Lin Ye maintained a relaxed mindset, standing calmly in the waiting area without a shred of tension.

He had originally intended to fight a low-profile battle in the first round, concealing most of his strength, steadily advancing through the schedule, and avoiding exposing all his trump cards too early.

But the moment the final match list was finalized, the entire audience instantly erupted into a monstrous uproar, countless gazes locking fiercely onto Lin Ye's matchup information!

Lin Ye's first-round opponent was unexpectedly a seeded powerhouse of this City Tournament, a genuine S-rank Divine Kingdom genius—Su Mingzhe!

Everyone in the audience was dumbfounded.

An F-rank Divine Kingdom dark horse directly colliding with an S-rank top genius in the first round!

This was the most mismatched and cognitive-shattering matchup since the start of this City Tournament!

Su Mingzhe steadily ranked at the forefront of the city's genius rankings, his talent, resources, and dependent species grade comprehensively crushing ordinary A-rank and A+-rank geniuses; he was a recognized powerhouse who had locked in his State Competition spot ahead of time.

No one favored Lin Ye; everyone felt that Lin Ye's dark horse path would most likely come to an abrupt halt in the first round.

Across the arena, Su Mingzhe walked slowly onto the stage, his posture upright and aura steady, surrounded by the heavy coercion unique to an S-rank Divine Kingdom, his expression solemn without a shred of contempt.

He had never underestimated Lin Ye, the F-rank dark horse; since the other party could pass the school selection to arrive here, they definitely possessed corresponding strength.

Without waiting for the referee to speak, Su Mingzhe's divine sense moved, directly fully opening his Divine Kingdom passage without the slightest reservation, starting in full-power mode right from the beginning!

Hum—!

Vast water-attribute energy swept across the entire stage, water mist permeating and cold currents surging.

Two major dependent species legions appeared simultaneously, covering the entire stage!

The leading main dependent species was a full five hundred and fifty S-rank water-type Nagas!

They had human bodies and fish tails, their skin emitting a deep-sea dark blue luster, their hair flowing like water ripples, and their eyes cold and profound, carrying endless mystery.

Every Naga was entwined with pure water-type spiritual power around her body, her water control arts having reached perfection; water blades, water prisons, and water arrows moved at will, their slaughter restrained yet extremely lethal.

What was even more heart-palpitating was that each Naga held a cold-patterned long sword in her hand, combining long-range suppression by water-type spells with close-combat sword slaughter, integrating offense and defense with extremely comprehensive combat power.

In addition to the core Naga legion, Su Mingzhe also summoned two hundred and forty A-rank Six-Armed Valkyries, each holding short blades in their six arms, with swift and fierce postures and extremely strong close-combat abilities, serving as auxiliary combat power to surround and contain.

Upon appearance, Su Mingzhe revealed his attitude: facing Lin Ye squarely, holding back no trump cards, crushing him with full force, and eliminating all possibilities of a comeback!

Beneath the stage, discussions rose and fell one after another.

"Too exaggerated! Su Mingzhe actually opened up his full combat power right at the start! He is treating Lin Ye as a peer enemy of the same level!"

"Five hundred and fifty S-rank Nagas plus two hundred and forty A-rank Valkyries, this lineup is peaked to the extreme!"

"If an ordinary A+-rank genius were to step up, they would be instantly killed directly, with no power to fight back at all!"

Ye Feng stood within the crowd, staring fixedly at the stage, his eyes full of gloom and anticipation.

He wished nothing more than for Su Mingzhe to personally crush Lin Ye's arrogance, causing this F-rank trash god to completely fall from the altar.

On the stage, Lin Ye raised his eyebrows slightly as he looked at the overwhelming top-tier dependent species legion opposite him.

He had originally wanted to keep a low profile and conceal his clumsiness, exposing his strength step by step, but encountering an S-rank top-tier formidable enemy in the first round meant there was no longer any need to conceal his strength.

Since the opponent was going all out, he would take it head-on!

Lin Ye's gaze was calm, his divine sense abruptly driven, pitch-black fiendish aura soaring into the sky around him, and his Divine Kingdom passage completely wide open!

Roar—!!!

A heaven-shaking and earth-shattering fierce beast roar echoed through the arena, pitch-black fiendish aura rolling and surging, densely packed Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds galloping out, standing upon the fiendish aura, their fierce might towering to the heavens!

A full one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight adult Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds all manifested in the world!

Every adult demon hound had a formidable physique and condensed fiendish aura, its fangs emitting cold light, surrounded by a pitch-black fiendish aura that corroded everything, far surpassing the naive form of the intramural competition, suppressing the entire audience with its fierce and evil aura!

A thousand hounds stood together, densely covering the stage, their fiendish aura as biting as a prison, the sense of oppression instantly maxed out, forcibly suppressing the opponent's water-type coercion!

"Holy shit! This is fiendish aura! There are actually living beings surviving inside a fiendish aura Divine Kingdom?!" Everyone was shocked.

But the referee didn't care about that; hesitating no longer, he declared loudly: "The first-round match, officially begins!"

The moment the battle began, Su Mingzhe decisively gave the order without a shred of procrastination!

"The Six-Armed Valkyries engage in close-quarters containment, the Naga legion provides full coverage with water-type spells, blade charge, annihilate all demon hounds!"

As the command fell, two hundred and forty A-rank Six-Armed Valkyries charged out first, their figures flashing with afterimages, their six short blades flashing with cold light, heading straight to assault the demon hounds' formation.

But in the next second, the cruel suppression was fully revealed.

The short blades of the Six-Armed Valkyries hacked onto the fiendish aura shells of the Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds, only splashing a few sparks; they were completely unable to break through the demon hounds' heavy fiendish aura defense, and couldn't even injure their skin and flesh.

The offensive of the A-rank dependent species was completely equivalent to scraping away dead skin in front of the adult Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds, posing no threat at all!

On the other hand, the S-rank Nagas completely displayed the terrifying combat power of top-tier S-rank dependent species.

Water blades filling the sky piercing the air, water prisons imprisoning, long swords slashing, the water-type spiritual power was fierce and overbearing; every attack landing on the demon hounds could tear apart the surface fiendish aura, heavily injure the demon hounds' flesh, and cause substantial severe damage!

Lin Ye's on-the-spot command was extremely calm, rapidly formulating tactics where all demon hounds teamed up in groups of three, forming a three-to-one encirclement formation to make up for the individual combat power gap with quantity, tightly entangling every single Naga.

Three demon hounds surrounded one Naga, trading lives for injuries, fighting with consumption, crushing the opponent at all costs.

The battle situation on the stage fell into an extremely tragic slaughter.

Throughout the entire arena, the only one capable of head-on single-combat contending against or even suppressing ordinary Nagas was that commander-grade Marrow-Eating Demon Hound whose physique far surpassed its peers and whose fiendish aura was condensed to the extreme.

Seeing its peers continuously falling, that commander-grade demon hound let out an endless roar, and the fiendish aura all over the bodies of all the Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds suddenly surged, becoming even more frenzied.

The battle situation was extremely tragic, with fiendish aura and water mist intertwining across the sky, corpses littering the stage, and Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds being continuously slain by water-type long swords or torn apart by violent water blades.

Over one thousand five hundred Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds died in battle for the most part during the short few minutes of fierce fighting, their numbers plummeting sharply and losses being extremely heavy.

But Lin Ye's expression was calm and waveless from beginning to end, without a shred of heartache or regret.

He knew extremely clearly in his heart that the City Tournament was just a soul simulation battle, the destruction of dependent species was all virtual data, there was no real death, no consumption of the Divine Kingdom origin, and there was no need to have any concerns.

As long as they could win the match, all sacrifices were worth it.

Relying on the price-no-object crowd encirclement and the targeted breakthrough of the commander demon hound, Lin Ye forcibly fought a fierce battle with low health, grinding down the opponent's active forces bit by bit.

One, ten, a hundred...

The formidable S-rank Nagas fell one after another, the water-type offensive decayed layer by layer, and the Six-Armed Valkyries had long since been completely slaughtered.