179: Chapter 178: The number of participants has drastically decreased; only the fittest survive!

Chapter 178: Sharp Decline in Numbers, Survival of the Fittest!!

The last three drunken words spoken by Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) poured a basin of cold water over everyone whose eyes were previously shining and whose hearts were burning, instantly calming them down.

This national tournament—or perhaps it should be called a global tournament—was unquestionably of paramount importance.

The largest mystic realm in history, which concerned the division of interests within this mystic realm among the five nations and major noble families, all spoke of the extraordinary nature of this mystic realm exploration.

Especially since this bizarrely large mystic realm could actually restrict the levels of Card Makers, and even mighty figures at the Titled Card Maker level were unable to crack it—something that had never appeared before.

Furthermore, in this tournament concerning national interests, Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) did not mention words like unity throughout the entire process, nor did he set any rules stating that teams from the same country must prioritize a united front against outsiders.

After simply announcing the most basic rules, he only said three words: "Stay alive."

In Sun Po's view, this meant that the authorities believed this mystic realm exploration had an extremely high mortality rate, even for teams composed of the top three from each province.

But Sun Po felt no fear regarding this; he was confident that his strength was already the absolute peak among these people. If even he couldn't survive, then the other contestants stood even less of a chance.

Then this national tournament wouldn't be a tournament at all, but rather a mass murder.

The expressions of many contestants visibly darkened. Their strength was barely adequate to deal with purple-tier monsters, but they fell short when facing orange-tier monsters.

Now facing a mystic realm where purple monsters formed the baseline, these people had to think very carefully, even if it was only for seven days.

What should they do if they ran into an orange-tier monster the moment they went in? It was even entirely possible that they would plunge straight into a monster horde composed of purple and orange monsters.

After all, the area of this mystic realm rift entrance could be called unprecedented; any kind of danger wouldn't be surprising.

Moreover, Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) had said before that only those below the intermediate Card Maker level could enter this mystic realm exploration.

In other words, even if they encountered danger, no one would rescue them.

If one's skills were lacking, one would genuinely die after entering the mystic realm.

Especially since most of these contestants came from various noble families. Growing up to this point had consumed too much of their families' effort and resources; their lives were long no longer just their own, but family property tied to the rise and fall of their families.

Thus, someone spoke up: "Honorable [Coachman], if I withdraw at this moment, I wonder if I can retain my current Gaokao ranking?"

Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) narrowed his eyes, looked at the person who spoke, and said: "Only son of the southern Miao Family, for a fellow like you, entering really means a slim chance of survival."

"Fine, the people from the Card Association have made arrangements for this matter. If you feel your strength is insufficient, you may voluntarily withdraw right now. Those who withdraw will engage in an arena tournament, fighting one-on-one to determine rankings, though they will certainly be ranked behind the contestants who survive and come out of the mystic realm."

Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) rarely said an extra sentence: "Right, those who withdraw only need to battle contestants from their own country; there is no need to fight against withdrawing contestants from the other four nations. Think it over carefully."

To be honest, Ranger Xuanyuan's ([Coachman]) words already carried an obvious guiding intent.

One choice was entering the largest unknown mystic realm in history without any rescue available, fighting and competing against monsters, elites from other countries, and even contestants from one's own country, with an extremely high risk of losing one's life.

The other was withdrawing right now to safely participate in the arena tournament, without having to face opponents from other countries, guaranteeing at least a top-one-hundred ranking nationwide, with almost no risk of losing one's life.

It seemed that Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) was intentionally guiding these contestants to choose to give up.

"I give up and choose to participate in the arena tournament."

The only son of the Miao Family who had previously asked the question was the first to withdraw.

"I'm withdrawing too——"

"And me, my cards aren't good at group battles."

"I'm withdrawing too, I love fighting in arena matches!!"

Contestants quickly left the huge mystic realm rift entrance. In the blink of an eye, only a third of the people remained standing before the rift.

Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) seemed to have anticipated this. He then added: "Due to changes in the personnel of some teams, a special supplementary rule is added.

For teams with fewer than three people exploring, for every missing member, the score for killing monsters will double."

As soon as these words came out, the surrounding atmosphere instantly became subtle.

This rule shaved off another portion of the already meager number of explorers.

Especially some teammates whose strength was lacking; they were directly and forcibly "persuaded" to withdraw by certain difficult-to-get-along-with team leaders.

For instance, the young man dressed in a black and gold dragon robe let out a cold snort at the very first moment. Behind him, a young man wearing a Confucian scholar's robe looked unwilling, but still called out: "I withdraw!"

Li Tiance laughed and said: "Qin Wudao this guy really can't tolerate anyone holding him back."

Sun Po took a few more glances at the tall, straight young man with a high nose and thin lips. He had heard this name before during the provincial tournament.

Legend had it that this person came from the Qin Family, one of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, and was a teenage genius on par with Li Tiance. Sun Po only learned later that there was a common saying within the circle of the Five Surnames and Seven Clans used to describe the most famous geniuses among them:

"The Qin Family's dragon, the Li family's phoenix, the Song family's stubborn donkey who doesn't cultivate the Dao, the Yuan Family's mastiff biting heads, the Jin family's bandit fate hard to end."

Among them, the "Qin Family's dragon" referred to the youth wearing the black and gold dragon robe right before them—Qin Wudao.

Rumor had it that he was transformed from a dragon pearl birthed from the mouth of that old ancestral dragon of the Qin Family. The people of the Qin Family all claimed that he was the dragon breed with the strongest bloodline in the Qin Family to date, an unprecedented and unsurpassed existence in the Qin Family, and the destined entity who would suppress an entire era and end the calamity of the mystic realms.

It was further rumored that he was born with great power. At the age of eight, he had single-handedly blocked an orange-tier monster for three days and three nights, ultimately trapping and capturing the monster alive to make it his mount. From this perspective, his battle record was even more dazzling than Li Tiance shooting an orange-tier monster to death with a single arrow.

After all, capturing alive and taking as a mount was far more difficult than killing.

Such a teenage genius naturally looked down upon everyone, so it was hardly surprising that he would abandon teammates of insufficient strength for more favorable scoring rules.

The youth wearing the black and gold dragon robe strode forward first, touched the colorful rift entrance, and entered the mystic realm alone.

The giant, behind whom phantom images of various beasts and flying birds flickered into existence and vanished, summoned the phantom of a giant mastiff, frightening the teammates behind him into retreating repeatedly until they finally had no choice but to withdraw from the exploration.

The giant also contentedly put away the giant mastiff phantom and stepped into the mystic realm alone.

Next was the plump young boy wearing coarse cloth and sleeping on a donkey cart. Only then did Sun Po notice that there was also a skinny fellow driving the donkey cart, whose facial features looked seven or eight parts similar to the plump boy's, appearing to be brothers. Their teammates seemed to have given up exploration a step ahead, so the two of them leisurely drove the donkey cart straight into the mystic realm.

Jiang Cha of the Shennong Jiang Family also entered the mystic realm alone; her two teammates had never appeared from start to finish.

A scholar surrounded by a giant scroll, a slovenly Taoist surrounded by a pack of wild dogs,

a swordsman eating long swords from his material pouch like snacks, a youth sitting on the shoulder of a giant puppet, and other such eccentric talents all entered the mystic realm one by one, stirring a surge of heroism in Sun Po's heart.

With divine cards in hand and a dragon rhinoceros by his side, this was precisely the time to meet and battle the heroes of the world!!

Thinking up to this point, Sun Po chanted in his heart: "Black Rhino Armor!! Combine!!"

A mysterious black armor instantly wrapped around Sun Po completely.

He had already developed the habit of combining armor before entering a mystic realm; this was a habit left over from when the Water Element in Sun Po's Five Elements Bloodline was extremely prosperous.

Now, although he felt he might have become a bit more impetuous, he still stuck to some of his old good habits.

However, Sun Po already felt that after the successful creation of the flame dragon armor, the Black Rhino Armor had also undergone changes.

In addition to the stronger sense of power the armor brought Sun Po, there was also a very profound sense of harmony, making the armor feel more like a part of his body.

In the past, when Sun Po wore the Black Rhino Armor, although it felt close-fitting, he could still feel the existence of the armor. But now, wearing the Black Rhino Armor, Sun Po almost forgot that he was even wearing armor.

Sun Po twisted his wrists and looked at the increasingly powerful Black Rhino Armor with some pleasant surprise in his heart. Then he turned his head and saw Li Tiance, who was surrounded by a layer of earthy-yellow light barrier by his side.

Obviously, the other party also cherished his life very much and activated a life-saving skill in advance to prevent becoming a box the moment he landed after entering the mystic realm.

Only Liu Jianren was bold and completely unconcerned, still urging Sun Po: "Brother Po, hurry up and go in. One step slow means every step slow; in a while, those people will have taken all the advantages once they go in."

Li Tiance, however, said: "No worries. In a mystic realm like this, the moment to decide victory is by no means in this split second. It's just that I have a question now. It might be a bit offensive, but I still have to ask Brother Liu. And I believe Brother Sun also has this question."

Sun Po instantly understood Li Tiance's question; this was a lack of confidence in the strength of the newly resurrected Liu Jianren.

Li Tiance spoke up: "Brother Sun's current strength naturally goes without saying: a gold-quality field card, plus two solid gold-quality deity cards. Even if they are just newly stepped into the gold quality, I believe you will find it hard to match opponents in this tournament.

Along with an orange-quality defensive armor and a true name card of Xiang Yu, protecting yourself is more than enough."

Hearing this, Sun Po didn't explain either. His current strength was actually far from what Li Tiance described.

Although Overlord Xiang Yu was only an orange-quality card, its combat power had actually touched the threshold of gold quality.

But Li Tiance had not entered the Jinshan Temple mystic realm and hadn't seen the formidable nature of Overlord Xiang Yu, still thinking it was still that unawakened Double-Pupil Warrior.

Not to mention that Sun Po had just perfected the Five Elements Bloodline and successfully loaded the flame dragon armor.

Sun Po believed that if even his strength couldn't ensure self-preservation, then I'm afraid none of these contestants could protect themselves.

However, since Li Tiance had already used words like self-preservation, it was obvious that he also felt the danger of this mystic realm exploration, which was why he wanted to ask Liu Jianren.

Li Tiance continued: "Tiance also made breakthroughs after the provincial tournament. Currently, the Xuanwu Gate field card in my hands has reached gold quality, and Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong in my hands have both advanced to orange quality. Golden Phoenix and White Phoenix have also reached gold one-star quality. Tiance also has some self-protection methods, so self-preservation should be without worry. I just don't know how much of Brother Liu's strength remains after his resurrection?

If your strength has not recovered, making a timely retreat may not be an unwise strategy."

Sun Po had experienced the Jinshan Temple mystic realm together with Liu Jianren, and in his heart, he knew that the other's resurrection was not simple. Liu Bang, Son of the Red Emperor should have left behind a handsome inheritance for Liu Jianren, and perhaps not just the *Dragon Transformation Technique*.

Therefore, Liu Jianren's strength not only probably hadn't decreased, but instead had even increased.

Just as Sun Po was about to speak up to smooth things over, Liu Jianren laughed heartily and said: "Young Master Li Er, don't worry. I am not what I used to be now; even you might not necessarily be my opponent anymore, hahahaha."

This was somewhat unexpected to Sun Po. He originally thought Liu Jianren would be a bit annoyed, considering that Li Tiance's attitude was essentially a form of underestimating him.

But Liu Jianren's seemingly indifferent attitude actually made Sun Po feel that Liu Jianren probably really had a huge improvement.

After all, when others said you were weak, knowing you had the strength to slap their faces, you naturally wouldn't care about a little doubt and misunderstanding, because such minor misunderstandings could be shattered with a flick of a finger.

But if you didn't have that strength, you would most likely feel embarrassed and angry, which was actually the psychological reaction of being furious out of humiliation because you knew your strength was inadequate.

Sun Po then spoke up: "Brother Tiance, no need to worry. Jianren's resurrection this time truly has other fortuitous encounters. Perhaps what you understand is not entirely the same as what he experienced, but I can be certain that Jianren can handle it."

Liu Jianren cast a grateful look. Seeing that Sun Po also spoke up to vouch for Liu Jianren, Li Tiance no longer tried to dissuade Liu Jianren.

Just as Sun Po was about to move to enter the mystic realm, he saw Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) walking toward him, swaying as he said: "You brat, how did you quietly become [Vermilion Bird]'s student?"

This was already the second time Sun Po had been misunderstood; the girl named Jiang Cha previously had also said things like "aunt" and "successor."

Sun Po replied: "That chaos fire seed was indeed a gift from Honorable [Vermilion Bird], but Honorable [Vermilion Bird] and I have not established a master-disciple relationship."

Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) let out a soft exclamation of surprise and said: "That's rare. I heard that you hatched that chaos fire seed. In this world, if anyone could successfully hatch that chaos fire seed, I'm afraid it would only be [Vermilion Bird] herself. You guys aren't teacher and student, yet she actually taught you such a vital thing? No wait, the two of you——"

Seeing Ranger Xuanyuan's thoughts wandering further and further astray, Sun Po couldn't be bothered to explain.

Only Sun Po knew that this chaos fire seed was hatched by the mod loading system.

And what neither of them knew was that even Jiang Yan ([Vermilion Bird]) herself couldn't actually successfully hatch that chaos fire seed.

But those were stories for another time; right now, it was time to enter the mystic realm to explore.

After exchanging pleasantries with Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]), Sun Po stepped into the huge colorful rift together with Li Tiance and Liu Jianren.

Watching Sun Po's receding figure, Ranger Xuanyuan ([Coachman]) took a swig of wine and said: "Kid, go ahead. Once you cross this hurdle, your future will truly be boundless."