68: Chapter 68: The Freshman Cup Begins! The Yin-Yang Pisces Strategy!

In the blink of an eye,

time had arrived the next morning.

"Fellow viewers, what you are seeing now is the entrance to the competition realm for this year's Freshman Cup!"

"The Tianxiang Secret Realm!"

"This secret realm was personally crafted by a mysterious great power of our Great Xia. In a moment, our vibrant and talented students will present us with a spectacular competition here..."

The main station's host was passionately introducing the competition venue, building up the atmosphere for the upcoming match.

And the effect was truly significant.

Not long after the broadcast began, the popularity in the live stream instantly soared, heading straight for the viewership records of previous years.

All the major offline viewing venues across the nation also experienced a complete sell-out crowd.

Of course.

This was naturally not entirely the host's credit.

The greater credit primarily went to those extremely popular students from the ten major universities this time.

Foremost among them were those S-Rank Talent Holders.

S-Rank Talent Holders held immense appeal in the eyes of ordinary people.

Ordinary people only knew that S-Rank Talent meant unlimited potential and the chance to leap over the dragon gate.

But they rarely had the chance to witness the scenes of S-Rank Awakeners fighting firsthand.

After all, not every Freshman Cup featured S-Rank New Students, and even if there were, there had never been this many before.

This time, across the ten major universities combined,

there were a total of six S-Rank Awakeners!

Beidi had three, Qingqiong had one, Nanhua had one, and White Sand had one.

With such a lineup, just looking at the surface level, it was already packed with highlights!

And without a doubt.

These six were currently the ones with the highest public support for the individual competition champion.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

The students from the ten major universities had already arrived at the outer plaza of the secret realm aboard their buses.

There were many cameras set up in the plaza, and the staff alone numbered over a thousand.

The students soon began disembarking one after another.

Looking at the scene before them, they were undoubtedly both nervous and excited.

After all, this was the first time they had seen such a grand occasion with so many cameras pointed at them.

Thinking about the tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of viewers watching nationwide,

they became even more nervous and excited.

And never mind them, even Li Fan, whose mentality was always extremely calm, felt a slight trace of nervousness.

But very quickly, his gaze was drawn to the incomparably huge secret realm entrance in the distance.

It must be said, purely judging by the size of the entrance, this secret realm was even more vast than the Level 100 secret realms he had seen!

In the live stream, the camera switched, slowly panning across the bodies of several S-Rank students.

Instantly.

The bullet comments exploded.

"Yun Ming! I see Yun Ming from Azure Vault University! He is really handsome!"

"Look, it's Ye Tianxue from White Sand University, the S-Rank Wood Talent holder!"

"The one next to her who doesn't stand out much seems to be Luo Chen from Nanhua, right? He is also S-Rank!"

"Holy crap! I see my Goddess Youwei!"

"As expected of Lin Youwei, that cold and stunning aura is absolutely perfect!!"

"Look! That's Di Yun from the Di family! He's an S-Rank Fire Talent holder! I saw some of his videos online; his strength is terrifying!"

"I see He Wenguang! I heard his mentor is the God of Fire!"

"No way! His mentor is the God of Fire? That's outrageous?!"

"Wait a minute, who is that kid next to Goddess Youwei?"

"That's Li Fan! The top New Student from North Emperor University! His mentor is Vice Dean Zhu!"

"Damn! There's another expert? This kid's mentor is actually Vice Dean Zhu?"

"It's average. I heard he's just someone whose physical body is a bit outrageous. Being first back then was probably because he benefited from the early strength of his physical body talent. This thing becomes less and less useful the later it gets. I'm not optimistic about his ranking this time."

"Something's not right. Why is Goddess Youwei looking at this kid? Could it be that Goddess Youwei has something going on with him?"

"Good heavens?! The Goddess likes guys with strong physiques?"

...

The successive appearance of the six S-Rank New Students truly gave the long-awaiting audience in front of the screens a feast for their eyes.

Of course, Li Fan also appeared in the camera's view.

But in terms of national recognition, Li Fan was indeed far behind the other six, so he didn't cause much of a ripple.

The focus returned to the scene.

As the students arrived one after another.

The chief examiner for this league also made his appearance.

As soon as the chief examiner appeared, he cast an array pattern over all the students.

The purpose of this array pattern was mainly for safety considerations.

With this array pattern, if the students encountered a life-threatening danger inside or had the thought of withdrawing from the competition, they only needed to silently recite "Withdraw" three times in their hearts to be automatically teleported outside the exit.

"I assume everyone already knows the rules."

"Then I won't waste any more time. Go in."

"I'll see you in five days!"

The chief examiner's powerful voice echoed above the plaza.

As soon as this voice fell,

the students from the major universities excitedly swarmed towards the giant vortex entrance.

Li Fan turned back to look at Gu Ling and Lu Qilai and the others.

"Brother Fan, don't worry about us. You go ahead. We'll just go in for a stroll and come right out."

Lu Qilai scratched his head and said with a smile.

The other three echoed in agreement.

Seeing how determined they were, Li Fan didn't hesitate any longer and stepped towards the entrance.

Actually, originally, Li Fan had wanted to take them with him to form a team to earn points. After all, with his current strength, he basically didn't need to fear encountering any situation.

However, Lu Qilai and the others had always been unwilling, saying they didn't want to be a burden.

Even now, the group was still unwilling.

Having no choice, Li Fan could only enter first by himself.

Not long after,

all the New Students from the ten major universities had entered the secret realm.

Simultaneously.

The points ranking of the New Students was displayed in the upper right corner of the large screen, densely packed.

However, the current ranking naturally held no reference value whatsoever.

This league competition lasted for a total of five days.

To see rankings with any real reference value, one would have to wait until at least the afternoon of the second day, or the start of the third day.

And besides the points, which was a major point of interest, another point of interest was already revealed before the audience's eyes.

It was none other than the scenery inside the secret realm.

This was an extremely vast secret realm; mountains, rivers, jungles, swamps, deserts—basically every terrain visible in the outside world was present inside.

But the most important thing was not this rich terrain.

It was the layout of the terrain.

Viewed from a God's perspective, this was a giant Yin-Yang Twin Fish diagram, not only looking majestic and grand but also full of Dao intent, as if it were a work of art.

But just as the Freshman Cup finally ushered in its grand opening,

thousands of miles away from the Tianxiang Secret Realm, in the deep sea, the corner of a shadow's mouth curved into a strange arc.

The shadow's body gently churned, and the water currents within a hundred miles instantly surged and trembled, reaching the surface as tsunami waves thousands of meters high.