“Insane… those people really joined up?”
“There’s no chance for anyone else….”
“Those five are the strongest of all, right?”
“Of course. At the very least, the ones from the Skyway worlds are all from deific-class worlds, and they’re the strongest under thirty. As for the divine wonderian, that’s even crazier. Every time they send someone to join, they’ll definitely take first or second place. The only question mark is the mysterious woman.”
“Is there any information about her?”
“Nope.”
“What’s her name and origin?”
“Nobody has seen it since they didn’t dare to approach her. They could only tell that she’s a woman.”
Tianming listened as they talked, quite curious how powerful this party would be.
“I heard they even have a party name. They’re called Celestial Beings,” Zhong Yirou said.
“Wow, what a badass name.”
Tianming’s party had also gotten a new name. Now, the words above Tianming’s head read ‘Violetglory Star Disciple Li Tianming, Team Rou’. Naturally, Zhong Yirou was the one who had come up with it. Bai Feng couldn’t be bothered with it, so anything that Bai Feng didn’t feel like doing, Zhong Yirou took up. After all, Bai Huai and Qiao Xingzhou were her lackeys. Tianming did acknowledge that she was cute, but she was quite a drama queen and very annoying to get along with.
“That name sounds really punchable,” Ying Huo said.
As for Tianming, he didn’t have much to do in the days leading up to the start of the event, so he finished mastering the Kilofold Starcluster Fist. Though, that appeared to be last minute preparation to the eyes of Zhong Yirou and Qiao Xingzhou, so they rolled their eyes at his seemingly futile efforts.
As time passed, the atmosphere at the lobby got more and more intense. Countless worlds, Violetglory included, were anticipating the upcoming fight! On the very last day leading up to the event, Violetglory was in a state of charged excitement. Not because of Tianming, however, but rather Ye Chen! What they didn’t expect was how he finally managed to kill a hundred people two days ago. After lasting a full day, he went to the third level of the Tranquil Battlefield! For someone as powerful as him, the third level wasn’t an obstacle at all. He endured the trial of the Myriadeyes Wonder and easily ascended it, finally making it into the absolute lobby a few hours before the start! Though the Violetglorians didn’t hold out any hope for him, he had persevered and made it through.
“Looks like he made it after all. However, will Ye Chen even be able to find a party to join?”
Tianming was with Bai Feng the entire time, so he didn’t know about any newcomers. Time continued to pass, and eventually, a vortex appeared above the lobby that led to the Astralium Battlefield. The parties huddled together as they ascended, vanishing from the eyes of others.
“Let’s go! Quick!” Rou impatiently said.
“Come on,” Bai Feng said. To prevent being flung apart by the vortex, they had to hold hands as they ascended. Zhong Yirou held Bai Huai’s hand with her left and Qiao Xingzhou’s with her right. “Let’s do our best!”
“Alright. We’ll fight till the end,” Bai Huai said.
“We’ll have to do more than fight.” Bai Feng rolled her eyes and held Bai Huai’s hand, then stretched the other out to Tianming. “Lead the way, friend.”
“Easy peasy.” The moment he held her hand, the five of them joined the other parties and ascended into the vortex.
……
A white-robed youth in the distance could be seen with four other guys.
“What’re you looking at, Ye Chen?” asked a one-eyed man with a bandage covering the other.
“I think I saw someone I know.”
“Oh? Someone from your star?”
“That’s right. He’s called Li Tianming. Have you seen him?”
“I have. I don’t have to hold back against him if we meet on the battlefield, right?”
“Not at all.” Ye Chen nodded, black flames burning in his eyes.
……
“It’s starting!”
Countless cheers could be heard from all across the astralscape. Tianming couldn’t even begin to imagine how many people were watching them. It wasn’t just a matter of billions of people, but possibly billions of worlds! He hadn’t been to the Mysterium Cluster before, so there was no way he could fathom the scale. Perhaps the worlds in that cluster were loudly cheering for their own youth representatives as well. No doubt this was among the most prestigious events in the whole of the known astralscape, perhaps even comparable to the ninth level of all three battlefields.
Every world had its own wondersky realm, and like Violetglory’s, they were all filled to the brim with spectators. Even the sovereigns of the worlds watched the matches. Tianming alone was ignorant to the fact that he had wandered his way into such a grand event. Now, all he could feel was Bai Feng’s powerful grip; it felt no different from holding a man’s hand. It wasn’t that her palm was rough, but rather forceful enough that he felt a slight pain from it. It was almost like she was secretly harboring a grievance against him.
“Each party of five will be sent to a sealed battlefield to fight another team. I wonder who our first opponents will be,” she said, her deep voice ringing in Tianming’s ears as their bodies lightened and appeared in a different location.
They stood firmly on the ground. Tianming looked around and saw the familiar green fog that was as dense as it was on the second level, which limited their range of vision to some degree. If Ying Huo and the rest were to come out now, the fog would shroud them in mystery. The environment allowed for sudden ambushes from enemies whose location they didn’t know. Even with the strong winds, it didn’t help as the whole place was already covered in fog. The wind just made it sound like there were people snickering around them.
Zhong Yirou yelped and buried herself in Bai Huai’s embrace the moment she appeared, appearing like a helpless bunny.
“Shut up,” Bai Feng said and glared at her. She was alert and in work mode. She quickly scanned her surroundings for something.
“Over here.” Tianming waved at them. There was nature all around them, much like the first two levels. Trees and cliffs were visible from where they were, and Tianming was standing outside a cave. The other four quickly went to him.
“It’s an astralis! We found it!” Zhong Yirou said. When Bai Feng glared at her again, she shut her mouth. The five of them surrounded a small formation.
“Even though this formation is small, it’s a grade-seven divine formation. It’ll take quite a bit for us to break through,” Bai Feng said. This was an Astralium Formation. Unlike normal defensive formations, it had no formation spirit threads, but they were similar at their core. They were beneficial, as they could be made rather easily.
“So the thing inside is an astralis, right?” Zhong Yirou asked quietly and carefully.
“Yeah.” Bai Huai was the only one who nodded. As for the others, they ignored her pointlessly obvious statements. There was a sphere with a diameter of one meter inside the formation. It looked a little jagged, much like a meteorite, and its surface was worn with age and time.
“It’s said that the astralis is a miniature version of Astralium,” Qiao Xingzhou said. It seemed like a smaller version of where the second part of the event would take place. “All we need is to protect it.”
Bai Feng said, “Alright, let’s not waste words. Get into a defensive formation according to our plans.”
“Understood.”
The reason they had to defend the astralis was that it was the key to victory. The rules of the Astralium Battlefield weren’t as simple as running into others and killing them. Instead, each team would have their own astralis and Astralium Formation. Any team that has their astralis destroyed would be completely eliminated. Both sides only knew the location of their own astralis, but not the opponent’s. The fog was there to encourage an active search for the enemy team’s astralis, so that necessitated a few people leaving the base.
They would have to split roles according to their strengths. Should one send out too many and not keep anyone at the base to defend the astralis it would be destroyed once it was found. Apart from that main method of elimination, there were other rules. The first was that the astralis would light up and give away its location once two members of a team were eliminated. The astralis would also let out a loud sound if it was attacked as a reminder for those who left the base. All of that made for quite the exciting match to watch. It also gave weaker teams a chance to defeat stronger teams! As Bai Feng was average in terms of attack power in the party, she would be holding the fort.
