Yuhua Mavis managed to rush forward a thousand meters before finally meeting an opposing force that pushed her downwards. At the same time, a fierce wind began to howl from the peak, and the first person to be struck by it was naturally Yuhua Mavis.
However, she was not overly affected by the wind, though she was still forced downwards by the force, preventing her from simply leaping up the mountain.
Aside from Yuhua Mavis, a lot of other participants similarly wanted to fly towards the peak, but they all met with the same fate. Some unfortunate Limiteers were even heavily injured.
Lu Yin’s brows rose up, and his gaze grew sharp as his pupils transformed into runes and scanned the mountain. He could see an endless amount of runes floating around Zenith Mountain, and the number far exceeded what he had seen on the Frost Emperor or Leader Hong. This meant that there were Envoys surrounding Zenith Mountain, ready to ensure that Zenith Mountain would not be destroyed by the various attacks.
Even a mere Limiteer was able to destroy an entire planet, let alone an Enlighter.
Since Zenith Mountain had been chosen as the location for ZENITH, it was definitely tough enough to withstand many attacks.
Additionally, cosmic rings were forbidden during ZENITH, and all external items were similarly restricted the moment the participants stepped onto Zenith Mountain, as a means of ensuring that the competition remained fair.
However, there were certain items that would not be restricted, such as fatesand and personal weapons. These were allowed as long as they were not power vessels.
Although Yuhua Mavis had been forced back, she was still the person closest to Lu Yin, as her first leap had been very powerful.
Yuhua Mavis looked up and locked eyes with Lu Yin. Her eyes flickered, and she bent her knees to jump once again, but then, she suddenly heard some weird noises right next to her. When she turned to the side to look, she saw that some strange lines had transformed into birds, insects, animals, and plants.
These strange creatures suddenly exploded as a weird noise rippled through the area. Yuhua Mavis was momentarily dazed and rooted to the ground.
In addition to Yuhua Mavis, thousands of people on the eastern side of Zenith Mountain were also affected by the explosion, and most of them immediately vomited blood and collapsed. This attack had been launched by Bai Ling, the Realmling from the Sixth Mainland’s Grand Martial Realm with her martial print. In the past, she had made quite a name for herself in the Starfall Sea.
This was the first time that Yuhua Mavis had been hit by such an attack, but fortunately, she was very physically strong. Thus, Bai Ling’s attack did not greatly affect Yuhua Mavis.
The Treeheart Descendant looked into the distance while Bai Ling looked back at the same time. Bai Ling raised a hand, and Yuhua Mavis felt all sound around her disappear. The sound then transformed into strange lines that took various forms.
“Get down,” Bai Ling calmly ordered. She then clenched her fists, and the lines around Yuhua Mavis exploded once again.
Suddenly, Bai Ling’s figure flashed away as a huge fist formed from grass appeared right where she had just been standing while a terrifying power sent shockwaves rippling throughout the area. Although Bai Ling managed to dodge the fist itself, the shockwaves still forced her to retreat.
Yuhua Mavis’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t go looking for trouble.”
Bai Ling’s expression chilled as she raised an index finger. An invisible force expanded outwards a thousand meters, ten thousand meters, and then a hundred thousand meters…
The entire eastern side of the mountain fell within her attack range, and she intended to use sound to deal with all of the other contestants on this side of the mountain.
Any place with sound was a place where Bai Ling could use her power.
At that same moment, a domain spread out that covered the eastern face of the mountain.
Bai Ling was shocked, and she turned to face a certain direction. Unseen Light had raised his head high. “This is the Fifth Mainland.”
His domain transformed into a forcefield that took the shape of a giant that attacked Bai Ling.
Bai Ling’s expression grew cold. Countless lines combined to form an enormous beast that clashed against the forcefield.
There was a loud bang.
The eastern face of Zenith Mountain shook, and the millions of cultivators on it were impacted by the powerful shockwaves. Most of them were unable to withstand the force and either directly fainted or were thrown down the mountain.
The battle between Unseen Light and Bai Ling drew the attention of many people watching from beyond Zenith Mountain.
Many cultivators screamed as they watched the situation on their screens.
Everyone had known that ZENITH would be a thrilling competition, but most people had not expected the competition to start off with such a bang. A Realmling from the Sixth Mainland and an Arbiter from the Fifth Mainland had already clashed; they were both elites.
Lu Yin watched their battle from atop the pass that he protected on the eastern side of Zenith Mountain.
Although the battle looked intense, neither one of them had unleashed their full strength, as they were aware that the true competition would take place later on. They both wanted to make it into the top ten, and they knew that having an all-out battle at this point in time would just benefit others.
However, even though they were just casually feeling each other out, their battle was not something that the other participants were qualified to join, as they were simply on vastly different levels.
Yuhua Mavis did not bother stepping in to fight Bai Ling. Instead, she continued rushing up—her only goal at this moment was Lu Yin.
She had not forgotten about Lu Yin’s comment, and in truth, everyone from the Mavis family was very impulsive. Although Yuhua Mavis had a quiet appearance and loved to read on a grassy plain, that was simply because nobody was able to ruffle her. However, Lu Yin had succeeded. She wanted to know why Lu Yin would say such a thing and why he was qualified to be one of the five gatekeepers.
At the same time, thousands of meters away from Bai Ling and Unseen Light’s battle, Gu Xiao’er excitedly stared at a Celestial Ice Phoenix flying above him. It was the most beautiful creature that he had ever seen.
Gu Xiao’er had always wanted to capture an impressive and beautiful creature to use as his mount, and this looked like his best chance.
This Celestial Ice Phoenix was Feng Liu, and she had just flown past Gu Xiao’er. She had been added to Skymender’s List to replace someone who had died as she was the strongest member of the Celestial Ice Phoenix clan’s younger generation, and she far surpassed Feng Jiu, who had participated in the Tournament of the Strongest.
Most of the participants in ZENITH were from the Fifth Mainland’s Human Domain, and since the Human Domain was enemies with the Astral Beast Domain, most of the human participants targeted the participating astral beasts in an unspoken agreement.
However, since Feng Liu was one of the Astral Beast Domain’s representatives, she was far stronger than most of the humans, and she had frozen thousands of participants in one move, including some people from the Sixth Mainland.
The Celestial Ice Phoenixes possessed both tricolored rays as well as extremely cold ice. Their rays could melt everything, and the stronger the phoenixes became, the stronger their tricolored rays would be.
As tricolored rays swept through the area, Gu Xiao’er yelped out and quickly dodged away.
“You’re going to be my ride. Don’t run!” Gu Xiao’er screamed as he chased after Feng Liu.
Feng Liu’s beautiful eyes grew cold, and a pale blue light radiated out from her body that spread out, freezing the sky.
Gu Xiao’er started huffing and puffing, and soon, a strange smoke appeared. Although it looked quite delicate, the smoke managed to isolate the cold, and Gu Xiao’er followed the path opened up by the smoke to leap onto Feng Liu’s back. “Hahahaha! Now I have a ride!”
Lu Yin was stunned; this guy was too obnoxious! He suddenly remembered that the Ghost Monkey had always claimed that the Celestial Ice Phoenixes were a part of his harem. If that monkey saw Gu Xiao’er riding Feng Liu, he would be livid.
Lu Yin was unaware that the monkey had indeed seen this scene and was absolutely furious.
As the Ghost Monkey stared at the screen showing Gu Xiao’er riding on Feng Liu, the monkey screamed, “I won’t forgive you, you bastard! Don’t let me meet you, as I’ll kill you! How dare you touch Feng Liu! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”
The monkey was angry whereas Feng Liu was humiliated. “You stupid human, die!”
Feng Liu transformed into a beautiful, long haired girl wearing a blue dress.
Before Gu Xiao’er could even react, Feng Liu raised a hand and tapped her finger against the sky. A terrible cold froze the sky around Gu Xiao’er.
However, the cold was held back by Gu Xiao’er’s smoke and was unable to hurt him.
Feng Liu was shocked to discover that this smoke was powerful enough to withstand her attack.
Although the smoke was not frozen, Gu Xiao’er could still feel how cold Feng Liu’s ability was. He suddenly realized that the phoenix he was targeting was not an easy opponent. “Hey, I’ll just leave for now. Remember my name, it’s Gu Xiao’er.”
He then shrouded himself in smoke and turned around to flee.
Suddenly, a huge shadow covered Gu Xiao’er’s entire body. He raised his head, and his mouth fell open in shock. “What a huge lion.”
A huge blue lion stared down at him. His left eye was made of wind while his right eye was made of fire, and his body emanated a terrifying aura. The lion then swiped a paw at Gu Xiao’er.
Gu Xiao’er was instantly slammed to the ground.
Cursewind was the one who had attacked Gu Xiao’er. This blue lion was another powerhouse on Skymender’s List, and he had recently become an Enlighter, making him one of the strongest competitors in ZENITH.
Feng Liu grew annoyed. “Cursewind, I don’t need your help.”
Cursewind answered in a cold voice. “You’re too gentle.”
“You from the Astral Beast Domain, so prepare to die.” Someone suddenly attacked both Cursewind and Feng Liu.
Cursewind snorted, and although he did not make any large movements, a storm suddenly appeared and descended upon the area. Although it did not look very powerful, any cultivators that tried to attack Cursewind screamed the moment they touched the storm.
A bone chilling wind and soul burning fire—this was Cursewind. He was a powerhouse comparable to Yao Gu and the others on Skymender’s List, and he could absolutely compare to the Ten Arbiters.
Up on the mountain pass, Lu Yin watched the battles breaking out beneath him. His attention was drawn to Cursewind, as Lu Yin had a strong impression of the blue lion. Cursewind had been one of the first powerhouses among the younger generation that Lu Yin had ever fought. He lifted his finger and gently flicked it.
People were always paying attention to Lu Yin, as the various broadcasts that were being played around the universe showed the various scenes taking place across the mountain, and most cameras were focused on the most powerful youths.
There were also feeds entirely focused on the five gatekeepers. Even if the five were not moving, there would always be cameras focused on them.
The moment Lu Yin moved his hand, countless people switched their focus onto him.
A breeze was sent out by his finger flick, and it landed at the foot of the mountain and struck Cursewind.
Cursewind turned and saw the approaching breeze. When he looked to see where the wind had come from, he instantly saw Lu Yin’s arrogant expression and grew furious. “You’re insane.”
The lion’s bone chilling wind grew into a powerful gale that moved to clash against the breeze.
When the breeze struck the gale, the gale was shredded apart in a mere second. The breeze then swept past Cursewind’s enormous body and pierced into the mountain, leaving behind a deep cave.
Cursewind stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. How was this possible? It had been less than ten years since the two had last fought, and back then, there had been a huge power difference between them. Even though humans improved faster than beasts, it still was impossible to reverse the power gap in such an extreme manner.
Lu Yin smirked and turned away from Cursewind to focus on another part of the mountain’s eastern face. He had noticed the Thirteen Swords appearing there, as Liu Tianmu had launched an attack against Xin Nü.
