Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On the viewing gallery, many influential figures revealed enthusiastic expressions.
Before the Nine State Forum had begun, everyone thought that the Barren State was just here as a formality and would be eliminated quickly, becoming a witness to the Nine State Forum. The people from the Eastern State had also felt that the Barren State was only here to make up the numbers. However, at this moment, the Barren State had shown an extremely strong side. Although they had the least people, they were very resilient.
On the other hand, the holy land from Yu State, Zhisheng Cliffs, had fallen into an awkward position. They were very likely to be the first holy land to be eliminated from the Nine State Forum. Even if some of their disciples managed to enter the top 100 because of luck, they would probably not do well. Moreover, they could have no one in the top 100.
If that was so, the Zhisheng Cliffs’ reputation would suffer on the Nine State Forum.
The crowd knew the enmity between Zhisheng Cliffs and the Barren State was because of the Zhisheng Cliffs bullying the Barren State. However, on the Nine State Forum, they were suppressed by the Saint-less Barren State. They wondered how the ninth on the Sage Ranking, Kong Yao, would feel.
After a round of battles, the Barren State had participated in three of the nine battles and won two of them. Their only defeat was Zui Qianchou losing to Xihua Sacred Mountain’s strongest person, Hua Yunshu. This was already a very good result. After all, their opponents were all prodigies and they had defeated the two strongest members of the Zhisheng Cliffs.
Next, it would be the Eastern State’s turn to battle again. This time, the Eastern State did not challenge the Barren State. In reality, since the start of the battle until now, the seven people remaining in the Barren State had all proven themselves. Although Phoenix and Yi Xiaoshi’s strength were not that convincing, the others all had battles that proved themselves, such as Yuan Zhan defeating Kong Qing. If that was so, it was unwise to target the Barren State. At least, among those remaining, there were still people weaker than the Barren State.
Moreover, the battle between the Barren State and Zhisheng Cliffs was not likely to end soon. The other holy lands were unwilling to be a part of it and would rather be onlookers.
What was interesting was when it was Yu State’s turn to battle, it was not Zhisheng Cliffs’ disciples that battled, but the Stone Saint’s. However, when it was the Barren State’s turn, Yi Xiaoshi stepped forward and looked in the direction of Zhisheng Cliffs.
On the viewing gallery, Ye Futian and the rest all looked towards Yi Xiaoshi, and they saw the fatty raise his head and point at one of the disciples of the Zhisheng Cliffs and say, “I challenge him.”
“Cough, cough.” Ye Futian supported his head with his right hand and turned around. The others also had speechless expressions. They had thought that the arrogant fatty would challenge one of the strongest remaining disciples in the Zhisheng Cliffs. However, they did not expect that the fatty would select one of the weakest disciples.
This… What an interesting fatty. The Barren State’s styles were too different.
“Second Sister, Seventh Brother is smart indeed. He found the weakest opponent in the Zhisheng Cliffs with one look, ensuring that he can defeat the opponent. He has learned well from Teacher to develop such good vision,” Ye Futian looked at Zhuge Mingyue beside him and said.
“Yes, little Seventh is smart indeed. His skin is also getting thicker. It seems as though he is in need of a lesson,” Zhuge Mingyue grinned and replied.
I said nothing, Ye Futian secretly thought to himself and turned back to watch Yi Xiaoshi.
On the battle arena, Yi Xiaoshi had the chills all of a sudden and thought, could it be that someone is talking bad about me?
However, on the battle arena, Yi Xiaoshi defeated his opponent decisively.
In the next few rounds of battles.
Hua Jieyu challenged a Zhisheng Cliffs disciple and won.
Ye Wuchen challenged a Zhisheng Cliffs disciple and won.
Xu Que challenged a Zhisheng Cliffs disciple and won.
Phoenix challenged a Zhisheng Cliffs disciple and won.
The four challenges were all victories. Moreover, all their victories were based upon Zhisheng Cliffs’ defeat.
On the viewing gallery, Zhisheng Cliffs’ disciples all had grim expressions, especially the leading Kong Yao. He felt that he had lost all face in front of the people from the Nine States. Moreover, they had gone through six rounds of battling. In the 54 battles, 108 people had participated and 54 had been eliminated.
The remaining seven people in the Barren State had all participated in the battles. According to the rules, before all 300 remaining participants had battled once, they would not be able to battle again.
The Barren State was the first to make it to the next round.
The holy lands from the other eight states continued to battle, and many confrontations between experts broke out. A few experts started to reveal their hidden strengths. Evidently, they had not given their all in the previous battles.
Yu Sheng and the rest looked quietly, observing everyone’s strength.
As time passed, the atmosphere became tense, even solemn. The battles also became more exciting, with each battle thrilling the crowd even more. When everyone had participated in the battles, the number of people on the Nine State Forum had decreased by half. Only 180 people remained.
There were about 30 holy lands participating in the Nine State Forum. Adding on those from the Eastern State who were not from a holy land, every faction had about six people.
Next, about half of them would be eliminated.
The Summer State, Qi State, and War State had the most people remaining on average. Yu State’s Zhisheng Cliffs had the least people remaining among all the holy lands with two people.
Previously, when the Barren State had targeted Zhisheng Cliffs, the other factions had seen that Zhisheng Cliffs was weak and had challenged them. The two remaining people had challenged others and won in order to stay in the forum. However, everyone knew that in the following battles, everyone would rush to challenge the weakest few. Zhisheng Cliffs was likely to be the prime target. There was an extremely high chance that they would be eliminated without a single person entering the top 100.
What was even more interesting was that the Barren State’s Holy Zhi Palace had more people than the average amount of all the holy states remaining.
Although the Barren State was a state, it had only one holy land participating. If they were calculating purely by holy lands, the Holy Zhi Palace still had seven people remaining. As long as they won another battle, they would enter the top 100.
Not just them, but it was the same for everyone else. As long as they won another round, they would enter the top 100. Only 80 battles were needed for the 180 people, so 20 people could automatically enter the top 100 without battling.
However, even without anyone challenging the remaining seven people from the Barren State, they only needed 63 battles to complete a round. So, it was impossible for the participants from the Barren State to automatically advance. They needed to obtain a victory to enter the top 100.
“Continue,” the elder announced. Without selecting the top 100, the battles would not stop. Countless people waited in anticipation. Now, every battle would decide a person in the top 100.
An expert walked out from the Eastern State and challenged one of the remaining two from Zhisheng Cliffs. He did not have a grudge against Zhisheng Cliffs, but under the current scenario, it was naturally best to challenge the easiest person to defeat now and secure himself a spot in the top 100.
The Eastern State’s expert was victorious.
An expert form the Summer State also challenged Zhisheng Cliffs’ expert and won.
As such, the participants from Zhisheng Cliffs were all eliminated.
Zhisheng Cliffs was also the first holy land to have no disciples in the top 100, and it was very likely that they would be the only one.
Next, an expert from the Qi State stepped forward. The person who stepped forward had an elegant demeanor and was dressed in a red robe. He had shoulder-length red and black hair to express his personality.
He was the Jixia Holy Palace’s disciple, Wang Yu. He was extremely strong.
After Wang Yu had stepped out, his gaze landed in the Barren State’s direction, and he said, “I challenge the Barren State’s Yi Xiaoshi.”
Previously, the fatty had challenged one of the weakest participants in the Zhisheng Cliffs and had been extremely wretched. Many people had remembered him, so Yi Xiaoshi was naturally a prime target for this round. If they could defeat this fatty, they could enter the top 100 of the Nine State Forum.
The fatty appeared lacking in self-confidence and no longer had the arrogant attitude he had when he dealt with Zhisheng Cliffs. He walked out slowly and stared at Wang Yu.
“The Jixia Holy Palace’s Wang Yu wishes to spar,” Wang Yu said.
Yi Xiaoshi stood upright and said in a solemn voice, “The Holy Zhi Palace’s disciple, Yi Xiaoshi wishes to spar.”
Wang Yu’s body rose slowly into the air. In an instant, an invisible flame current wafted in the air. The area suddenly became extremely hot and Wang Yu looked at Yi Xiaoshi, saying, “My specialization is fire while yours is wood.” He had previously noticed that Yi Xiaoshi’s Life Spirit was an ancient tree, and fire countered wood.
“The Tree of Emperors,” Yi Xiaoshi added.
“It’s the same,” Wang Yu smiled and replied. As his voice landed, the dark flames suddenly started burning everywhere, surrounding Yi Xiaoshi within. The flame current even rushed towards Yi Xiaoshi. The entire world had turned into a hell-like flame dimension.
Behind Yi Xiaoshi, his Life Spirit the Emperor’s Vine flourished and golden vines surged forth rapidly towards all directions, constricting Wang Yu. Wang Yu’s eyes appeared to have flames in them as boundless flame currents flowed. A giant flame pattern had formed under Yi Xiaoshi.
“Hellfire, burn!” Wang Yu spat in a cold voice. As his voice landed, the flame pattern engulfed the entire area, turning into a flame whirlpool, submerging the area, surrounding Yi Xiaoshi’s body within. The Emperor’s Vines were destroyed and reborn under the Hellfire and were extremely resilient.
Yi Xiaoshi was surrounded by Hellfire and let out a sigh of dejection, mumbling to himself, “The fatty is easy to bully?” His eyes turned golden and a mysterious golden glow surrounded his body. At the same time, boundless energy started to gather above him.
“Godly Creation of All Things,” Yi Xiaoshi said out loud. In an instant, boundless golden light gathered at one point and a strong Spiritual Will energy merged with Yi Xiaoshi’s body.
Gradually, a golden ancient God appeared around his body. However, compared to the Godly Creation of All Things that Bai Luli had used during his battle with Gu Dongliu, the ancient God was much smaller.
“A miniature?” Zhuge Mingyue saw the scene and had a strange expression.
“Grow,” Yi Xiaoshi spat. In an instant, the golden ancient God grew rapidly.
Zhuge Mingyue looked at the rapidly growing ancient God that had exceeded Bai Luli’s back then and blinked. However, Yi Xiaoshi seemed to have no intention of stopping and continued saying, “Grow, grow, grow!”
The ancient God got even larger, blocking out the skies like a real god. The crowd on the viewing gallery looked at the giant figure and their gazes all froze.
Wang Yu also looked at this scene in astonishment. This was the rule of growth that was created by the wood element.
“Trample him.” At that moment, Yi Xiaoshi’s dissatisfied voice sounded out. See if you dare to bully fatties again.
Wang Yu’s expression appeared stiff as he looked at the giant ancient God raising its leg and stomping down. His heart clenched as its foot encompassed the entire area.
How was he going to burn this with his flames?
