173: The battle begins, and the golden elixir is shattered with one palm!
“There are two dynasties to pay attention to this time,” Nangong Jing said softly from behind Meng Yun:
“The first is the Xia Ya Dynasty, which has risen abruptly. I don't know what medicine they took this time, but their strength is incredibly fierce.”
“Do you see that golden-haired Zhou Huang?”
Meng Yun nodded slightly; he could see him all too well.
“Hmm, it's said that he successfully killed a Transformation Spirit cultivator while still in the Nascent Soul mid-stage. Now that he is at the Nascent Soul Peak, his strength will undoubtedly be even more formidable!”
Zhou Huang was certainly powerful!
If he wasn't strong, how could he have emerged from the Three Saints Palace, filled with experts, and claimed the position of First Saint Son in the last simulation?
However, fighting above one's level was by no means exclusive to Zhou Huang alone.
Meng Yun, Chen Jintong, and others could also easily achieve it.
Who would emerge victorious remained to be seen.
“Mere chickens and dogs,” Chen Jintong commented indifferently.
“Exactly, mere chickens and dogs,” Meng Yun repeated.
“...You must not be careless,” Nangong Jing was quite speechless at their reactions:
“Another dynasty worth noting is the Shui Yue Dynasty. In the last ranking battle, they were repeatedly matched against strong opponents, which is why they didn't make it into the rankings.”
“They're just unlucky,” Meng Yun commented indifferently.
“The Shui Yue Dynasty's Lan Zhiqing and Lan Zhixi, the two sisters, are at the Nascent Soul and Transformation Spirit Peak respectively. Their strength should not be underestimated either.”
“I will kill Lan Zhiqing,” Chen Jintong said coldly.
Meng Yun: “...”
No, buddy!
Don't be so murderous all the time!
Those are two incredibly beautiful women!
Following Nangong Jing's gaze, two slender female figures, one in white and one in pink, stood gracefully not far from Meng Yun.
At this moment, they were surrounded like stars by many male cultivators with doting expressions, their gazes fixated on them.
The younger sister in pink, Lan Zhixi, frowned slightly and said to her older sister in white, Lan Zhiqing, with dissatisfaction: “Sister, look at these stinky men...”
“Just ignore them,” Lan Zhiqing's demeanor was calm and serene. Already at the Transformation Spirit Peak, she had long been able to disregard external matters.
“But...”
Just as Lan Zhixi was about to argue further, Lan Zhiqing suddenly fixed her clear, autumn-like eyes on a certain spot.
It was a pair of eyes filled with sand and devoid of any emotion, belonging to a young man.
Lan Zhiqing's heart stirred slightly.
Over the years, she had witnessed countless gazes.
Among them, there were gazes of admiration and awe, greed and lust, and conquest and possession.
Of course, there were also many malicious and hostile gazes.
But it was the first time she had seen such an undisguised, naturally pure murderous intent, like that of the young man.
These were eyes born only for slaughter.
As if any stumbling block in his way would be ruthlessly trampled to pieces by him.
Lan Zhiqing couldn't help but feel a touch of curiosity about the owner of these eyes.
So she met his gaze, unwilling to show weakness.
Hmph, isn't it just murderous intent? She had it too.
For a moment, an invisible sharpness began to clash between Lan Zhiqing and Chen Jintong.
Chen Jintong silently withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes to rest.
“Sister, what are you looking at so intently?” Lan Zhixi asked Lan Zhiqing curiously, smiling brightly.
Lan Zhiqing also withdrew her gaze at this moment, smiling and shaking her head without speaking.
“Hmph, I'll see for myself...” Following that direction, Lan Zhixi also looked over.
Then she met eyes with a handsome young man.
Meng Yun looked at the sweet and charming girl in pink looking his way, and his mood brightened. So he grinned, revealing a brilliant smile.
He had just used black toothpaste this morning!
His teeth sparkled in the sunlight, directly blinding Lan Zhixi's eyes.
“This guy... he's quite handsome?”
“And, his eyes don't have that kind of hidden, lustful thought like other men...”
Lan Zhixi was startled by this fleeting thought and immediately averted her gaze.
However, from then on, she began to subtly pay attention to Meng Yun's side.
As the assembly for entry was completed, the next step was the drawing of lots for matches.
A solemn-faced envoy from Central Plains stood silently to the side, his Combination Realm aura emanating from him, resolutely preventing any cheating.
Meng Yun and the others were at ease; since they had a bye in the first round, they were just there to make an appearance and go through the motions.
“Well, then, let's begin.”
The Central Plains envoy's indifferent words fell, and a specially made jade slip appeared out of thin air.
Such jade slips could block spiritual energy and divine sense detection, possessing infinite profundity.
“No one? Then I'll go first.”
Zhou Huang, representing the Xia Ya Dynasty, was the first to step onto the stage.
He looked at the jade slips suspended in the air, casually grabbed one, and held it in his hand.
A line of small characters slowly appeared and was broadcast to all corners of the plaza by the projection array:
Sixteenth.
Which meant they were the last group to enter the arena.
“Tsk, my luck isn't so good,” Zhou Huang clicked his tongue, his expression seemingly quite depressed.
As he walked off the stage, he still didn't forget to give Meng Yun a thumbs-up, then rotated it 180° downwards.
Pure provocation.
This arrogant posture was faithfully recorded by the array and broadcast live.
“This Zhou Huang is a bit arrogant.”
“Damn it, kill him!”
“Is he provoking... Yu Jingshen?”
“Yu Jingshen, that crony? I hope Zhou Huang wins instead.”
Meng Yun looked at Zhou Huang, smiling without a word.
And this posture, in the eyes of the audience, was undoubtedly an even more serious sign of a guilty conscience.
After all, Meng Yun had only defeated Tang Zhiqiu, who was in the early Nascent Soul stage!
Now he was representing all Nascent Soul cultivators in battle!
How could he win over the crowd!
“Heh.”
Zhou Huang, with a triumphant smile, turned and returned to his team.
Soon, each team completed their draw. Lan Zhiqing of the Shui Yue Dynasty drew number eight and was matched against a weak dynasty.
Shangguan Jing of the Changli Dynasty drew number ten and was matched against another equally weak dynasty, letting out a sigh of relief.
Zhou Huang's group was matched against a medium-strength dynasty, and their chances of winning were very high.
With the drawing of lots concluded, the preliminaries officially began.
The rules of the preliminaries were incredibly simple and brutal: in the Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Transformation Spirit groups, three matches would be held in each, and the winner would get one point.
The one with the highest final score would advance.
The first to start was an unknown dynasty, and their opponents were a group of strange individuals wearing black hoods who refused to show their true faces.
First up was the Golden Core stage.
The Golden Core cultivator from the unknown dynasty had just stabilized himself when he was casually struck by the black-robed cultivator opposite him, his Golden Core shattered before he was knocked off the arena.
The entire venue erupted in an uproar.
“Can I withdraw now?” Meng Yun said to Nangong Jing: “Are you guys playing this big?”
Nangong Jing's face was equally solemn: “Be careful. These people are from the Dark Crow Dynasty, a dynasty that struggled for a thousand years under the Demon Seed and only recently gained liberation...”
“I see...” Meng Yun mused.
With a Golden Core cultivator crippled in an instant, the match was urgently called to a halt just as it began.
Even the envoy from Central Plains looked displeased at this moment.
Everyone here, one could say, represented the highest level of combat power of a dynasty; not a single one could afford to be lost!
“Well done!” Zhou Huang's ill-timed cheer suddenly rang out.