When Lu Yin saw Xiao Qing’s Azure Silk Swordsmanship, it was a glimpse as to her true strength. Although Hui Santong did his best to avoid her attacks, he was still defeated by a sword aimed directly at his throat.
However, there were certain aspects of their battle that seemed rather strange; Hui Santong was just too weak, much like Lan Si when he had been fighting against Yuhua Mavis. They both had been rather powerless.
The next battle featured the Greenmen Duo’s Skinny Bro, and the moment he appeared on the battlefield, he yelled out, his voice echoing down to Fat Bro. The audience was irritated by his behavior, and Skinny Bro’s opponent was actually another person from the Sixth Mainland; Young Master Changbai, whom Lu Yin had fought before.
Dismay appeared on Young Master Changbai’s face. He was an old acquaintance of the Greenmen Duo, as they were all from the Progenitor of Secret Arts’ Territory’s Brahma Realm. However, one was from the Azure Realm while the other was from the Bright Rainbow Realm.
Young Master Changbai had always looked down upon the Greenmen Duo, and it wasn’t until ZENITH started that he learned just how powerful the two actually were.
On the second layer, Hui Santong was unreconciled with his loss as he looked up at Xiao Qing on the first layer. He had not lost to Xiao Qing’s swordsmanship, but rather another aspect of the battle. She was not an easy opponent.
Xiao Qing seemed to feel something, and when she noticed Hui Santong’s stare, she returned a smile to him.
Hui Santong averted his gaze, looking back over to the battle between Young Master Changbai and the thin man.
Young Master Changbai used everything he had in this battle: his innate gift, his imprint, his battle techniques, his secret techniques, and everything else. He used his entire arsenal, but he still ended up losing to the skinny man.
The thin man’s defense was unexpectedly robust, and he used a palm-based battle technique that broke through Young Master Changbai’s innate gift and techniques surprisingly easily.
The fat man had a similar level of strength, but unfortunately, he had run into Wu Taibai.
Skinny Bro punched Young Master Changbai in the face, marking his unwilling defeat.
It seemed that every round of the elimination matches would end with some powerhouses fighting it out. The final match of the first elimination round had been between White Silkworm and Yao Xuan.
Although their fight had ended quickly, it had still revealed Yao Xuan’s strength.
For the final match of the second elimination round, it was Toolwielder against Wang Yi.
Toolwielder was the heir of the Sixth Mainland’s Toolcasting family. This family focused on forging weapons, and Toolwielder was the Realmling of the War Martial Realm. He looked down upon all his peers, and he was even able to seize control of other people’s weapons.
Lu Yin’s biggest impression of the Realmling was that he liked Wendy Yushan.
The Toolcasting family had once been led by Toolwielder Ancestor, one of the most powerful experts in the Sixth Mainland. But during the invasion of the monsters, their ancestor had died, causing the Toolcasting family to fall in prominence and the family to leave everyone’s attention. Still, Toolwielder was a Realmling.
Toolwielder clenched a fist as he stared across the arena and at Wang Yi. Yao Gu’s tragic fate was still vivid in his mind. What’s more, he had also climbed up the north face of Zenith Mountain, and he had actually been somewhat close to Wang Yi at the beginning of ZENITH.
However, Toolwielder had not even been able to glimpse Wang Yi’s attack.
This battle’s conclusion was already foreshadowed and not very dependent on luck.
Wang Yi’s eyes looked out of focus. Like when he had faced Li Zimo, Wang Yi was just standing there without attacking. No one knew what was going through his mind at this moment.
It did not take long for Toolwielder to make a move, and his imprint appeared as he did so. He no longer had his ancestor’s imprint. Instead, the imprint was from one of his family’s World Imprinter elders. Within the Toolcaster family, the elder was considered a ninth stage Augmenter.
A martial imprint also appeared as Toolwielder raised his hand and aimed it at Wang Yi. In an instant, the sky and the earth were torn apart, seemingly as though the starry sky had been cut away.
Toolwielder had not been able to see how Wang Yi had attacked Yao Gu, so he knew that he would only have one opportunity to attack Wang Yi. If this attack missed, then Toolwielder would suffer a similar fate as Yao Gu.
Not even a Void Thunderbeast had been able to dodge Wang Yi’s attack, so there was no need to mention Toolwielder.
Toolwielder’s attack struck out, and on the first, second, and even the third layer of Zenith Mountain, many people felt their weapons tremble, as though from the echo of an attack.
Wendy Yushan stared up at the first layer. She had first run into Toolwielder in the Daosource Sect’s ruins, and at that time, Toolwielder had used Wendy’s sword to kill an enemy. She would never be able to forget that scene; someone else had moved her sword.
At this moment, the weapon control that Toolwielder wielded was truly amazing.
On the other side of the battlefield, Wang Yi’s eyes regained their alertness as he watched the person opposite him charge at him while tearing through the void. Wang Yi took a few light steps backwards and disappeared. When he reappeared, he was behind the charging Toolwielder. Toolwielder’s movements grew sluggish until he slammed into the ground. He had already lost.
Some distance away, Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed as he observed the fight. Wang Yi’s speed was unprecedented, and it surpassed everyone’s that Lu Yin had seen before. He had moved at a staggering speed, and the power of his attack had also been truly terrifying. Wang Yi had simply severed Toolwielder’s energy channels with one hand.
Lu Yin had been carefully watching Wang Yi the moment Toolwielder appeared on the battlefield, and he had even used Truesight to see the situation more clearly. It was likely that no more than ten of the contestants had been able to clearly see Wang Yi’s attack.
He was pretty scary.
Elsewhere, Wu Taibai stared at Wang Yi with evident surprise in his eyes.
Shang Qing’s eyes narrowed, and he suddenly appeared a lot more dignified.
So far, aside from Shang Qing, who was still the unquestionably peerless participant in ZENITH whom no one could defeat, very few people had managed to shock everyone. However, Wang Yi’s speed had managed to do so.
He had made everyone cautious of him.
As the second round of the elimination matches drew to a close, an alarm was heard, drawing everyone’s attention to the peak.
At the top of Zenith Mountain, a huge statue that was tens of thousands of meters tall suddenly rose up. It had no face and or any distinguishing facial features, but the statue had been crafted in a pose that seemed to suppress all others with a single hand.
Beneath the statue, ten stairways descended from the area just beneath the mountain’s peak. Those stairs were the only way to access that area.
Those ten staircases represented ten people. Only ten people would be able to climb up those stairs to reach the top of the mountain, and those ten would be the ten finalists of ZENITH.
As for the featureless statue, it had been left for the eventual champion and Pinnacle Youth. Once an ultimate victor was determined, the features of that one person who was truly invincible within their generation throughout the entire universe would appear on that statue.
Everyone raised their heads to look up at the huge statue with excited eyes.
Throughout their life, how many opportunities to stand at the peak of the universe would a person have? This sight could only be seen by someone who was truly peerless, and their moment of ascension would be seen by the whole universe.
At this moment, even Shang Qing felt his blood heat up a bit; after all, it would not be long before that statue assumed his appearance.
The moment the statue appeared, a new round of betting exploded in the entire universe’s major markets. Everyone started guessing who would be the Pinnacle Youth and the other members of the top ten.
At the foot of Zenith Mountain, Yao Gu woke and looked up. The statue was very far away from him.
On the third layer, Ce Jiu felt helpless. It was shocking to think that he, an inheritor of the Seven Courts’ Ce family and someone who had received the best resources and had even comprehended a secret technique, would not even have the chance to touch that statue.
Ku Lei gritted his teeth. No matter how hard he tried, he just ended up moving farther and farther from the top.
Lei Nü was very calm. As the Hall of Honor’s second Honor Chosen, she knew that her defeat had drawn harsh criticism from some people. But the simple truth was that she had been defeated. There was nothing more to say.
On the second layer, Xia Luo appeared calm. He looked as though he was doing the same as everyone else and wondering about whose face would appear on that statue.
Mira’s eyes betrayed her complex emotions. She was determined and had clearly hoped to enter the top ten.
Nong Zaitian’s mouth fell open as he stared at the statue in a daze. If his face could appear on that statue, it would be amazing. What an honor that would be to his ancestors! Damn that Fifth Mainland woman.
Ling Que’s eyes hid a terrible amount of envy. If the statue could take his appearance, he would never need to pay his cheerleaders, as countless beauties would freely join to cheer him on. What a beautiful scene that would have been.
Sleeping Prince was sleeping.
At this moment, there were still fifty contestants fighting in ZENITH. They needed to reduce their numbers to twenty before fighting one last round for the right to climb up the ten staircases.
However, the solution had already been given, which was a third round of elimination matches. This time, there would be ten, three-person battles. For this round of ZENITH, not only strength was needed, but luck too.
Luck was an illusory thing. It was ephemeral yet indispensable.
Lu Yin remembered that someone had once told him that if he entered the top ten of ZENITH, luck was needed to advance further.
Luck was also a part of the ultimate test.
Just what sort of chance could make luck this important? Lu Yin was very curious.
Of the fifty people still standing on the first layer, some were lucky while others had been amazingly lucky. There was actually a Limiteer among them, which certainly drew some eyes.
Siggy was the Limiteer’s name. He was from a small island in the Cosmic Sea. As expected, he had worked very hard on his cultivation, and he was also especially lucky. Even in the harsh environment of the Cosmic Sea, even when his sect had been destroyed, he had still managed to survive and make it to the Innerverse.
When ZENITH had been announced, Siggy had registered just for the fun of participating. Truthfully, for his cultivation realm, his strength was excellent. If not for ZENITH, he had planned to find some powerhouse at the bottom of the Top 100 Rankings to challenge.
Siggy had believed that his strength was enough to become famous during ZENITH, but once the competition started, he had been stunned. What kind of freaks were these people? There were Explorers, Cruisers, Hunters, and even Enlighters running around all over the place!
When he saw that, Siggy had felt like his decision to join ZENITH had been a mistake. Siggy had watched as some powerful guy from the Sixth Mainland with arrows had flown ahead, only to suffer a miserable fate. That sight had left a mental scar on Siggy. He intended to forfeit the competition at that stage, but the gatekeeper, Lu Yin, had not made any moves to stop the people when Siggy had approached the checkpoint. He had watched many other people pass through the checkpoint, so he tried it as well and got lucky enough to make it through.
For someone who had intended to give up on the competition, nobody had expected him to make it all the way to the first layer, especially since he was a Limiteer, just a Limiteer!
Even if Siggy was not able to see it, he could feel countless eyes staring at him, filled with envy, jealousy, and all kinds of emotions.
He was truly suffering a tremendous amount of pressure given that he was surrounded by veritable monsters.
The participants were given a day off to rest, and on the next day, the third round of elimination matches began.
Siggy’s eyes flashed, and he appeared on a distant battlefield with someone in front of him. This person looked young, and his eyes were timid, giving off the immediate impression that he would be easy to bully. Siggy felt that his chances of winning were great.
“He- hello,” the young man said.
Siggy smiled. This person even stuttered, so they had to be easy to deal with.
However, the appearance of another figure plunged Siggy into the abyss. A Three- three- three-way battle?
With only fifty competitors remaining, there would be ten three-person battles and ten two-person matches. Siggy had not expected to be unlucky enough to have been selected for a three-way battle. The cowering stutterer was not Siggy’s only opponent.
Buuuuurp!
Siggy looked up to see one of the Innerverse’s Ten Arbiters: Liquor Hero. It was just like seeing a ghost. How was Siggy supposed to deal with such a monster? He was just a Limiteer! There was no point in fighting against such a powerhouse. How was he supposed to fight Liquor Hero? What a joke!
Across the arena, the stutterer was similarly stunned. “Li- Li- Liquor Hero?”
The first match was a three-person battle featuring a stutterer, Siggy, and Liquor Hero.
