54: Chapter 54 The Crows of Sorrow Appear

Clear rules echoed throughout the entire government hall, and the detailed regulations were announced one by one, fair yet cruel.

The top ten contestants adopted a round-robin random pairwise battle mode where every contestant would face the remaining nine one by one, totaling forty-five ultimate showdowns throughout the entire process.

The battle scoring rules were transparent and uniform: winning a single match earned one point, while a loss earned zero points.

After all the round-robin matches concluded, the total scores of the ten contestants would be tallied, and the top five contestants in total score rankings would officially secure entry qualifications for the Nantan Prefecture League, while the remaining five would regrettably stop at the City Tournament.

This scoring round-robin system discarded the contingency of single-match upsets and single-game-decides-life-or-death, completely testing the contestants' true hard strength, vassal endurance, and tactical reserve foundation, making it the ultimate rule best suited for screening top geniuses.

After all, the State Competition was a real Divine Kingdom duel, requiring top powerhouses capable of sustained fierce battles with deep foundations, rather than dark horses relying merely on a single trick or luck to pull off an upset.

Once the rules landed, the atmosphere of the entire venue instantly tightened to the extreme.

State Competition spots, the top five in the entire city—this was the ultimate glory dreamed of by all geniuses and the only stepping stone leading to a higher stage!

Xiao Qingwu firmly occupied the ceiling, leaving no suspense for the championship; geniuses with deep foundations like Dong Junyan and Zhao Feng, who were S and A+ rank, steadily occupied the favorites for advancing.

Meanwhile, the group of duels most anticipated and anxious for by everyone in the audience was finally placed before everyone.

Lin Ye VS Ye Feng!

The fated grudges that had been entangled since the intramural hegemony tournament, countless secret competitions, remote confrontations, and mutual apprehension were finally going to welcome their first true head-on collision on this ultimate stage of the City Tournament!

Amidst the crowd, the gloomy and violent aura around Ye Feng completely erupted, the killing intent and excitement in the depths of his eyes intertwining as he locked tightly onto Lin Ye on the other side of the arena.

The forbearance, jealousy, and grievances of the past few days, coupled with the absolute restraint of divine lightning countering evil aura personally stated by the principal, made his confidence burst at the moment, with battle intent soaring to the skies.

Having bitterly cultivated for three days and overdrawn family resources to strengthen the Thunderstorm Berserk Rhino while polishing the thunder origin, he had tailor-made a counter-tactic specifically for Lin Ye, waiting precisely for this ultimate battle!

Under the gaze of everyone, he wanted to personally shatter Lin Ye's dark horse myth and prove that he was stronger than Lin Ye!

In the waiting area beside the arena, Lin Ye raised his eyes, his detached gaze meeting Ye Feng's gloomy line of sight from afar, with no ripples in his heart, only a trace of calm expectation.

Along his journey, he had repeatedly faced targeting, apprehension, and hostility from Ye Feng, who went against him everywhere, plotting secretly, despising him wantonly, and carrying out assassinations. The accumulated grievances had piled up for a long time.

Now that the top-ten-to-five round-robin tournament had started, he could finally fight a match against Ye Feng.

However, a rather vicious thought suddenly arose in Lin Ye's heart.

The prelude to the ultimate fated duel in Cangnan City slowly unfolded with the official start of the top-ten points round-robin tournament.

The referee took the stage and the voice fell; the first-round battle roster was immediately publicized, the top-ten contestants took the stage one by one to fight, and the points scramble officially kicked off.

Lin Ye's first battle in the top-ten round-robin tournament was paired against Lu Kai, a veteran S-rank genius from Cangnan No. 1 High School.

Lu Kai steadily ranked at the top of the city's genius list with a solid foundation and maxed-out resources. He was a recognized powerhouse who would steadily secure a State Competition spot, and also one of the contestants with the strongest physical combat power in this City Tournament.

After taking the stage, Lu Kai did not hide his skills at all. With his divine sense fully open, a mighty earth coercion swept across the entire arena, and thick, majestic earth-attribute spiritual power spread out.

Hum—!

Muffled, heavy stomping sounds echoed one after another, the earth trembled, soil and rocks rolled, and four hundred and twenty S-rank Barren Mammoth Giant Elephants, with figures as towering as mountains, stepped into the world!

Every mammoth giant elephant stood over ten meters tall, their thick grayish-brown animal hide as hard as refined iron, covered with layers of scale armor. Their four slender tusks gleamed with a pale, cold light, and every time their giant feet rooted in the arena moved, the platform trembled slightly.

They possessed no fancy long-range skills, nor bizarre secret arts blessings, only ultimate physical bodies, heaven-defying defense, and brute force capable of crushing everything. Under a charge, they could trample mountain rocks and shatter barriers, and no vassal of the same rank dared to take them head-on. They were the purest physical-crushing top-tier vassals.

"Four hundred and twenty S-rank mammoth elephants! This physical strength is too outrageous!"

"Lu Kai's mammoth legion is renowned for its strength and defense, making head-on team battles almost unsolvable. No one of the same tier dares to take them head-on!"

"Lin Ye's Marrow-Eating Demon Hound relies on evil aura corrosion to break armor, but the mammoths' physical bodies are too thick and might not be rapidly eroded to break through the defense. This match is going to be a good fight!"

The audience instantly focused on the arena, everyone concluding that this would be an extremely tragic, protracted bloody battle.

Facing the crushing-grade physical legion, Lin Ye's expression remained calm, with no intention of taking them head-on.

Meeting brute force head-on was the most foolish fighting style; he would never be confined to a single combat power duel.

"Come out."

Lin Ye's divine sense moved slightly, and the divine kingdom passage opened simultaneously.

Pitch-black evil aura rolled and surged out, and thousands of Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds stepped out amidst the evil aura, arranging themselves into an orderly battle formation with a piercingly cold and fierce aura.

At the same time, black fog rose across the sky, and countless strange birds with small figures, black wings, and dark green eyes soared and circled through the air, their shrill crow cries faintly echoing above the arena.

It was precisely Lin Ye's hidden secondary vassal—Soul-Crying Crow!

The Soul-Crying Crow was not good at physical close combat and did not possess the power of corrosion and armor-breaking, but it possessed the extremely rare talents of soul disturbance and divine sense disorder, making it the natural enemy of all flesh-and-blood living beings, especially countering giant beast vassals that fought relying on instinct and physical bodies.

Seeing this, Lu Kai sneered, his eyes filled with disdain: "Mere low-tier crow tribe, and you want to shake my Barren Mammoths? Futile! All forces charge, trample the demon hounds and crow flock!"

As the order fell, the four hundred and twenty Barren Mammoth Giant Elephants stepped forward and charged together, their heavy physical bodies enveloping monstrous brute force, rolling forward with the momentum of the earth with a terrifying aura, as if capable of crushing all obstacles.

Just as the mammoth legion was about to collide with the demon hound formation, the Soul-Crying Crows all over the sky suddenly cried out in unison!

Caw—！！！

The sharp and piercing crow cry instantly pierced through the eardrums, and an invisible soul fluctuation suddenly swept across the entire arena!

The Soul-Crying Crow's soul interference could not be considered formidable, and its duration was even extremely short, lasting for merely a split second.

But this split second was already enough.

The Barren Mammoth Giant Elephants currently charging wildly all stiffened their massive bodies together, their fierce beast pupils instantly turning turbid and dull. The violent combat instinct in their minds suddenly went into disorder, and their charging figures were forcibly stuck in place, their movements experiencing a fatal stall.

Without any living being controlling them and without any instinctive resistance, in an instant, all the mammoth giant elephants fell into a brief state of soul trance.

It was precisely this fleeting flaw that brought the absolute kill opportunity for the Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds completely!

"Kill！！！"

Lin Ye gave the order in a soft voice.

Thousands of Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds instantly rushed out explosively, the pitch-black, thick evil aura surging and covering them like a tide, entirely wrapping around the bodies of the stalled and tranced mammoth giant elephants.

The previously indestructible thick-skinned scale armor began to break under the attacks of the Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds, and the evil aura crazily infiltrated their physical bodies, corroded their bloodlines, and putrefied their internal organs!

The previously unsolvable physical brute force and ultimate defense completely became a joke under the flaw of soul trance.

Just as the mammoth elephants were reacting, another sharp and piercing crow cry rang out.

In a short span of one minute, one towering and massive S-rank mammoth giant elephant after another grew rigid all over, their evil aura collapsing their bodies, and their massive bodies crashed heavily to the ground one after another as their earth-attribute spiritual power completely disintegrated.

The whole process took no more than two or three minutes!

The four hundred and twenty top-tier S-rank Barren Mammoth legion was completely wiped out!

Lu Kai's pupils shrank abruptly, his complexion turned as pale as paper, and his whole body stiffened in place, his heart filled with extreme absurdity and disbelief.

His physical legion, of which he was extremely proud and which dominated the City Tournament with no solution, was defeated in such a bizarre manner without experiencing a shred of fierce combat?!