Lu Yin turned to look at the other arenas on the screen, but then his expression suddenly changed. He saw Ce Jiu collapse, revealing Liquor Hero standing before him.
Liquor Hero looked as drunk as usual, but Ce Jiu had been defeated.
Before, Lu Yin had been paying attention to Wu Taibai and Shu Jing’s battle, and he had not even noticed the fight between Liquor Hero and Ce Jiu.
Ce Jiu was from the Seven Courts’ Ce family, and he had also mastered a secret technique: Astral Chessboard. Thus, he should not have gone down without a fight.
Of the Ten Arbiters, Lu Yin had seen Liu Tianmu, Wen Sansi, Lan Si, Ling Gong, Unseen Light, and Jin He fight before, so he had an idea of their limits. Liquor Hero, on the other hand, was the only remaining mystery to Lu Yin. She had never shown herself during the battles in the Mountain and Seas Zone.
Lu Yin had looked into Liquor Hero in the past, but he had not managed to uncover any information.
However, it appeared that she had to be quite powerful if she had defeated Ce Jiu this easily.
Many people had the same thought as Lu Yin. Although Ce Jiu was not the most powerful of the Seven Courts’ inheritors, the Ce family had still spent a tremendous amount of resources to help him raise his strength after he was selected to enter ZENITH. Thus, at the minimum, he should have been able to enter the top thirty of the competition.
Despite his recent increase in strength, Ce Jiu had still been defeated quite quickly, which made Liquor Hero appear extremely threatening.
Half of the people on the second layer had now been eliminated. There was a much higher chance of two powerhouses running into each other on the second layer. So, while Lu Yin and the rest of the audience had watched some of these exciting fights, they had also neglected some of the other competitors.
Wen Qian’er looked fearfully at a worm crawling in front of her. Although it looked negligible, this worm had already pierced through everybody else in the arena.
Blood continued to leak from her abdomen, and she was in a great deal of pain.
This worm was Bai Mai, and people had already been talking about it before ZENITH’s start. However, nobody had been able to find it after the competition had started.
In this arena, Hua Xiao had also been defeated despite being the Cosmic Sect’s third disciple. His power was comparable to the Ten Arbiters, and he had also built up an impressive reputation while fighting in the Cosmic Sea.
As soon as Hua Xiao had arrived on the second layer, the other participants in his arena had all attacked him at once since he had been predicted to end up in ZENITH’s top thirty.
Despite the group attack, nobody had expected Hua Xiao to suddenly be defeated by a sonic attack. His eardrums were torn apart, and blood bled out from his ears. If not for his opponent holding back, he might have died.
Hua Xiao bitterly looked at the man sitting in front of him. This man was not from the Sixth Mainland, which meant he was from the Fifth Mainland. However, he also was not from the Neoverse.
Since when had so many hidden powerhouses existed in the universe?
Ku Lei had also been defeated by Bai Ling.
Ku Lei would not have been defeated so easily if not for the injury that he had suffered from Star Devourer. As a result, Ku Lei had only been able to use half of his power, which led to him losing to Bai Ling despite them both having the same cultivation.
No matter how indignant Ku Lei felt, he had still been defeated.
Meanwhile, Ku Wei was ecstatic. He had been lucky enough to not be grouped with any elites. Thus, he had actually emerged victorious again on the second layer.
However, he became even happier when he saw that Ku Lei had lost. Ku Wei was so happy he wanted to break out in song.
The battles had already concluded in half of the two hundred arenas, and the ones with elite powerhouses had concluded much earlier. As for the arenas where there were contestants with comparable strengths, it took them much longer to determine a winner.
Lu Yin looked around, and he eventually focused on one specific arena, as he had seen someone familiar there: Tian Hou.
Lu Yin had known beforehand that Tian Hou was participating in ZENITH, but he had not expected the Cosmic Hou to encounter a formidable opponent.
In one corner of an arena of the second layer, dozens of people had collapsed onto the ground. Only ten people were left in the arena, and they all looked at Tian Hou while trembling before turning to look at the fatty who was close by.
Where had this fatty come from? His defenses were incredible!
Tian Hou was a unique creature that was actually a vortex. Nobody could actually attack such a being, and after the competitors had realized that their attacks were ineffective, they had given up on attacking. For a lack of a better target, they had turned to attack the fatty, as they found his size intimidating.
However, the fatty had not been injured in the slightest. In fact, all of the attacks had been reflected as though they had landed on a rubber ball, instantly eliminating dozens of participants.
“Skinny Bro, Fat Bro got even fatter today! I’ll unleash my power, and we’ll meet in the finals!” the fatty roared as he rushed at the competitors around him.
The fatty did not care about using things like battle techniques or innate gifts, and he simply rushed at his opponents.
He bulldozed up to seven competitors at a time while the rest of the people ran around the arena, trying to escape. Most of them ended up behind Tian Hou.
Tian Hou suddenly attacked the fatty, his Phantom Soul Strike enveloping the entire arena. In an instant, all of the remaining competitors had collapsed.
But the fatty was completely unaffected and continued to charge at Tian Hou.
Eventually, the fatty landed on the ground with a bang. He was not able to touch Tian Hou at all.
Tian Hou looked down at the fatty and used his Phantom Soul Strike multiple times.
This attack was similar to Shockwave Palm, and the more attacks that were stacked up, the more powerful the final blow would be. However, Phantom Soul Strike also produced illusions.
Countless Phantom Soul Strikes struck the fatty headon. Most people in his position would have been unable to bear such an onslaught. After all, Tian Hou and the fatty were both Cruisers, but Tian Hou was essentially invincible within his realm.
Despite that, the fatty was also nearly invincible, and Tian Hou’s attacks were completely ineffective against him.
The fatty’s enormous size made him look like a ball, and nothing happened to him no matter how Tian Hou attacked.
The fatty rolled over and shouted, “Fat Bro is invincible! Attack me! Attack me! Just keep trying!”
Countless people were speechless; this fatty was so thick skinned.
Lu Yin carefully observed Tian Hou. He still remembered that Tian Hou’s innate gift was devouring. This Cosmic Hou was able to devour objects, items, battle techniques, and even emotions.
When Tian Hou had devoured Lu Yin’s will during their fight in the past, Lu Yin had been overcome by fear at that moment. That was Tian Hou’s most terrifying ability.
There were even rumors claiming that one of the Sword Sect’s elders had once been devoured by a Cosmic Hou.
When Tian Hou turned to face the fatty, the people who knew about the Cosmic Hous’ abilities all stopped watching. The battle was already over; the fatty’s five senses and will were all about to be devoured.
However, the very next moment, something surprising happened.
The fatty screamed like a madman, and a middle aged man in a green robe appeared behind him. That man was the fatty’s imprint.
After his imprint appeared, the fatty’s hands struck Tian Hou and sent him flying backwards.
Everyone who saw this was stunned; what had just happened?
Lu Yin was similarly astonished; how had that fatty hit Tian Hou?
Tian Hou was a vortex, a unique being, so how had he been hit?
This was not the first time that Lu Yin had seen the Greenmen Duo. Xu San had mentioned the pair to Lu Yin in the past, and he had also mentioned that they were quite powerful.
However, at the time, Lu Yin had not paid attention to the two as he had simply thought that they were just weirdos.
Regardless, he was shocked by the fatty who had overpowered Tian Hou with a punch.
Lu Yin could see Tian Hou’s rune lines from his position on the second layer.
Tian Hou’s runes started to rapidly diminish, and his vortex also began to disappear.
A unique being like Tian Hou possessed an extremely high resistance to most forms of damage, but he had actually been defeated by a single attack.
Then, Lu Yin turned to look at the fatty. His rune lines had increased greatly after his imprint appeared. Both the fatty and the skinny were true elites.
Off in the distance, Wang Yi was feeling quite rattled. This was not because of how powerful the fatty was, but rather because of the battle technique that he had used. “How does he know that move?”
All of the rumors about Cosmic Hous were true; one of them really had devoured one of the Sword Sect’s elders who had mastered the Thirteen Swords. The rumors surrounding this creature had been built upon the defeat of countless people from the Human Domain, as it was incredibly rare for a human to defeat a Cosmic Hou within the same realm as them, especially since the creatures’ resistance to most attacks increased as they grew stronger.
The fatty had astonished everybody by defeating Tian Hou with one attack.
Those from the Astral Beast Domain were the most shocked, as they were the most familiar with the Cosmic Hou’s resistances and abilities. How had the battle ended so quickly?
The skinny guy screamed from where he was on the second layer. “Fat Bro! Fat Bro, you’ve won! You’re even fatter now!”
The fatty vaguely heard these words, and he excitedly shouted back, “Am I fatter? Really? Skinny Bro, you must have grown thinner, too.”
“Fat Bro, I can hear you! We’re brothers forever.”
“Skinny Bro!”
“Fat Bro!”
The people next to the two were all flabbergasted; these two had to be insane.
Everyone watched the two compliment each other and rave about being fat or thin. It was quite a disturbing conversation.
You should die quicker, some people secretly cursed the two.
Tian Hou’s defeat had caused another few bookmakers to be cleaned out. These people had started taking bets after seeing who had ended up in each arena, as they did not have the ability to even attempt predicting the overall winners.
Most people were unaware of the rumors regarding Cosmic Hous, so these particular bookmakers had set good odds for Tian Hou’s defeat in order to lure people into betting against Tian Hou.
However, they had not expected Tian Hou to actually be defeated at this stage.
A huge surge of star energy destroyed an entire clan on a planet, leaving only an elder remaining.
The elder cried out as he looked at a screen, “I shouldn’t have taken those bets! How? How could Tian Hou have been defeated?”
Another man shot the elder a cold look. “If you can’t pay me, then die.”
He then pressed a hand down, causing the entire place to burst into flames.
More such scenarios would occur as ZENITH progressed.
Nothing was certain when it came to gambling, and this applied to both the betters and the bettors. Although the bookmakers had access to more information than the average person, ZENITH far exceeded the scope of the level of information that these bookmakers had access to. Thus, the whole event was a gamble for them as well. Since it was a gamble, then there was clearly the possibility of them losing everything.
Countless people throughout the universe scolded and cursed the fatty when Tian Hou lost.
Arch-Elder Zen calmly watched the fatty’s fight on a screen in the Honor Zone. “That’s a complicated battle technique, though it looks familiar.”
Highsage Grandmaster was also watching a screen on Eversky Island. Only the top ten in ZENITH would receive that reward, and only ten people from the Fifth Mainland had ever tried to do so since ancient times. However, only a handful from them had ever succeeded, though those who had succeeded would become comparable to him.
The top ten from this competition would become the strongest of all time, since ZENITH included the youths from both mainlands.
In the Cosmic Sea, waves surged beneath a dark sky.
A rugged old ship bobbed atop the waves, constantly being tossed into the sky by them.
This ship was old and seemed like it would be capsized by the waves at any moment, but this ship had existed for a long time. This ship belonged to one of the four most powerful crews in the Cosmic Sea: the Soldier Crew.
