Reaching the pinnacle from Doupo

Chapter 352: Finalists, Soul Wind's goal, and first opponent

More Tower, fourth floor.

In the center of a rather majestic palace, there stands a green stone platform about ten feet high. Sixteen crystal jade tokens are quietly suspended above it, emitting wisps of soft silver light.

Not far from the stone platform, on a cushion a few dozen meters away, Mang Tianchi was sitting upright with his eyes closed, practicing.

At a certain moment, he suddenly opened his eyes with a flash of surprise in his eyes. Then he slowly stood up, his eyes passing through the hall to between the two huge stone pillars on the outside.

"The triple test that I carefully set up was broken through so quickly?"

Before he finished speaking, the calm space where his gaze fell suddenly began to ripple and quickly became distorted.

A moment later, Lin Yuan's elegant and calm figure slowly walked out of the distorted space.

His gaze swept across the hall, across the central stone platform, and finally stopped on the old man who was waiting not far away. With a flash of his body, he stood lightly in front of the latter.

"Meet the Dean..." Lin Yuan bowed, a faint smile on his face, "The result of the preliminary round should not disappoint the Dean, right?"

“Lin Yuan, it’s you…” Looking at the familiar face, Mang Tianchi was slightly surprised, and then he was delighted: “Haha, you are the first one to pass the preliminaries. You are worthy of being my favorite student.”

Although he said this, he actually felt a little awe-inspiring in his heart.

The three levels of the preliminaries were all set up by him personally. Although it was not difficult to pass them, being able to break through at such a speed... Lin Yuan's previous boast of winning the championship seemed to be not groundless. He might really be Lei Dong's strong rival.

On one side is his outstanding student, and on the other side is the outstanding descendant of the family.

Thinking of this, Mang Tianchi secretly shook his head in his heart: "This is really a happy trouble. I don't even know who to cheer for!"

"Lin Yuan, congratulations on making it through the preliminaries!" He pointed to the stone platform not far away and said in a deep voice: "Take any numbered jade token and then return to the venue! As the first person to pass the preliminaries, go and welcome your little glorious moment..."

Hearing this, Lin Yuan nodded slightly, clenched his hands in the air, and the numbered jade order on the stone platform flew out and landed in his palm.

"Master Dean, I'm leaving now!"

After paying a polite salute to Mang Tianchi, Lin Yuan looked around for a moment, then moved and swept into the space passage behind the hall.

"Masters of both Dan and Wu, this conference... is going to be interesting..."

After Lin Yuan left, a faint sigh sounded in this empty hall.
-
The venue for the martial arts ceremony.

Above the arena, dozens of silver mirrors flashed images of many contestants. The exciting battle scenes made everyone in the square marvel.

As everyone was talking to each other, circles of space ripples suddenly appeared in the sky.

"laugh--"

A sound like tearing cloth was heard, and a dark crack suddenly appeared in the center of the space ripples.

The next moment, an ice-blue stream of light flew out from the pitch-black crack and landed directly on the ring. The light dissipated, and Lin Yuan's tall figure appeared, immediately causing exclamations from the audience.

"Yao Jun, I didn't expect that he would be the first one to pass the preliminaries... Oh my god, this time, he won't really be the champion of the Earth Ranking, right?"

"What are you thinking about? Lei Dong has divine bloodline..."

"That's right, this is just the preliminary round, Yaojun is just a few points faster... it's not about overall strength!"

"Yao Jun is an alchemist, and his perception ability is naturally strong. Naturally, he can take advantage of this kind of competition. When the ten real battles come, you will find that Lei Dong is the strongest..."

"Can an ordinary person really be so talented? Refining medicine and practicing cultivation, the heavens have blessed him with top-level talents in two paths at the same time."

"The number one genius in Zhongzhou is indeed worthy of his reputation..."

The comments of the audience, whether they were amazed, appreciative, suspicious, or jealous, did not cause the slightest ripple in Lin Yuan's heart.

Looking around at everyone, Lin Yuan nodded slightly to Zi Yan and the others and gave them a reassuring look.

Then, he raised his head and looked at the picture in the sky, with a flash of surprise in his deep eyes: "Although Qing'er just told me through a message, I didn't expect that the Thunder Clan really came up with this kind of 'live broadcast' technology..."

As a person who prefers research, Lin Yuan was quite excited to see the emergence of "black technology" similar to that in his previous life in this Douqi Continent.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and suppressed the thoughts churning in his mind.

"Only the absolutely strong are qualified to decide the direction of the development of the entire world... It's not the right time yet, wait a little longer! When I reach the top, I can paint and transform this world as I please according to these ideas in my heart."

Thinking of the many scenes in his mind, Lin Yuan's eyes became more determined, and his obsession with reaching the top became stronger.

In a world where the strong are respected, fists are power, absolute power.

Even Lin Yuan couldn't help but be extremely excited about the right to make the world run according to his own ideas... However, the road still needs to be taken step by step.

He shook his head and looked at the picture in the sky, his eyebrows slightly raised: "The quality of the contestants this time is quite good!"

From what we can see, more than twenty people have successfully entered the third level of the Morel Tower trial.

At this moment, these twenty or so people were fighting against a guarding Dou Zun Thunder Creature.

Some people suppressed the Thunder Guards throughout the fight; some people fought against the Thunder Guards on equal terms; and some people were chased away by the Thunder Guards.

Facing Lin Yuan, these thunder creatures had little ability to resist due to some natural defects in their souls.

But at this moment, facing those who were not good at soul attacks, the flashes of lightning contributed to a pretty good battle feast.

In one secret space, the lightning spear in Lei Dong's hand pierced through the lightning creature that was fighting with him; and in another secret space, the fist of soul wind and black flames slammed into the head of the lightning creature...

As time went by, the results of the battlefields of all parties emerged one after another, and the contestants flew into the space channel one by one.

Finally, when the fifteenth person passed through the space channel, the picture "projected" in the sky suddenly trembled violently, and then completely dissipated in a wave of ripples.

At this moment, all the audience realized that the preliminary round of the martial arts ceremony was over and the main competition was about to begin!
Soon, as everyone looked on eagerly, dark space cracks appeared in the sky, and figures flew out of the cracks and landed lightly on the stage. Finally, a bolt of lightning struck from the void, and the figure of Mang Tianchi appeared.

He exchanged a glance with the Ninth Elder, then took a step forward and announced loudly: "The preliminaries are over. Those holding numbered jade tokens, take out the jade tokens... and step forward!"

As soon as he finished speaking, figures suddenly mixed on the stage. Some left dejectedly, while others walked towards the center of the stage with great enthusiasm.

Sixteen people stood in front of Mang Tianchi, all of them exuding the aura of Dou Zun or above.

In the crowd, Lin Yuan glanced at the people standing side by side, and a hint of emotion flashed in his eyes - except for himself, the other fifteen people who passed the preliminaries, without exception, were all descendants of various ancient clans.

Among these fifteen people...

Four people from the Ancient Clan: Three-star Dou Zun Gu Qingyang, Two-star Dou Zun Gu Yao, One-star Dou Zun Gu Xing, One-star Dou Zun Gu Hua;
Two people from the Thunder Clan: Five-star Douzun Leidong and one-star Douzun Leiyun;
Two people from the Yan clan: two-star Dou Zun Huo Zhi, two-star Dou Zun Huo Xuan;

One person from the Spirit Clan: Two-star Dou Zun Ling Yuner;
One person from the Shi Clan: Two-star Dou Zun Shi Yi;

The five members of the Soul Clan: five-star Dou Zun Hun Feng, four-star Dou Zun Hun Yu, three-star Dou Zun Hun Ya, two-star Dou Zun Hun Dan, and two-star Dou Zun Hun Ming.

Based on the information provided by Qing Lin, combined with everyone's performance in the secret realm, and some of his own information, Lin Yuan had a basic understanding of these fifteen people. And this understanding was enough to shock the powerful people of the ancient clans present.

In general, the power displayed by the younger generation of the Soul Clan is overwhelmingly powerful, and can almost suppress the combined power of the six clans including the Ancient Clan.

Above the square, many powerful men lowered their eyes, with countless thoughts and calculations flowing through them.

The powerful men of the Imperial Clan looked at Hun Feng and Hun Yu, who were obviously not older than Lei Dong but had extremely outstanding cultivation. Combined with some rumors they had heard about the Hun Clan, they had some uneasy guesses about the quality of their bloodlines.

Just thinking about that disturbing possibility, murderous intent unconsciously emanated from everywhere.

While on the stage, feeling the looming murderous intent, Hun Feng was not at all panicked. Instead, he was secretly delighted... The plan was going well!

He and Hun Yu came here this time, not only with the mission of winning the championship and gaining glory, but also shouldering an important task - to mislead all ethnic groups.

During this martial arts ceremony, he and Hun Yu will perform outstandingly so that all parties can deduce a conclusion - time belongs to the Soul Clan, and the future also belongs to the Soul Clan. As long as the Soul Clan develops steadily for decades or hundreds of years, its strength will increase dramatically!
This led to a misjudgment among the other races, who mistakenly believed that because they had to wait for him and the Soul Jade to grow, the Soul Clan would tend to act conservatively and would not start a war in the next few decades.

By taking advantage of this misjudgment, we will have the opportunity to buy some time after the Millennium Plan begins.

After all, compared to the Soul Clan, which has two divine bloodlines waiting to grow, the Ancient Clan, which has been fighting with the Soul Clan for a long time, seems to be more motivated to start a war.

In this way, the trust of various ethnic groups in the ancient clan will be undermined to the greatest extent, and the progress of the ancient clan in winning over other clans will be slowed down.

The biggest purpose of Hunfeng and Hunyu's trip is to mislead various ancient clans by using their own strength and powerful bloodlines to contribute to the millennium plan.

For this purpose, they also need to display their divine clan emblems once in a great battle.

If it weren't for the purpose of sharing the credit, Hun Yu, whose strength is not as good as Hun Feng's, would not have come to participate in the Chu Lei Ceremony this time.

After all, for Hun Yu, losing to Hun Feng in public was not a good thing for his competition for the young clan leader, but... in the context of the great plan of the millennium, no one would care about the thoughts of a mere descendant of divine bloodline.

Feeling the hidden murderous intent coming from all directions, Hun Feng curled his lips into a disdainful smile.

In order to become the young patriarch of the Soul Clan, he had a good understanding of the other six clans - before the Ancient Clan stepped in, the other clans who wanted to sit on the sidelines and watch the fight did not have the courage to take action against him.

And the Ancient Clan...will that steady clan leader Gu Yuan be the first to attack himself and the Soul Jade?
Thinking of this, Hun Feng narrowed his eyes slightly, and even his mind couldn't help but be excited a little bit - Hun Feng, who was called a "madman" by his tribesmen, liked this feeling of walking on the edge of a knife very much!

"cough--"

In the indescribable atmosphere, a light cough containing fighting spirit sounded in everyone's ears. Suddenly, the whispers began to decrease, and after a moment, they completely dissipated.

"Now that the sixteen contestants have been decided, it's time for the main competition to begin." Mang Tianchi glanced at the sixteen people in front of him and said lightly: "Before the competition, I want to remind you that I hope you will try not to kill during the competition."

"This is a place for competition, not a place for fighting! You are all honored guests of my Thunder Clan, I hope you can control the situation..."

Hearing this, some contestants, including Lin Yuan, nodded slightly politely.

However, most contestants were noncommittal - what a joke, if they were trying to restrain themselves while fighting each other, how could they unleash their full strength?

Seeing this, Mang Tianchi shook his head helplessly.

These geniuses from different races are more arrogant than each other, and getting them to listen to me... is simply impossible! In the end, I still have to keep an eye on these young people. If anything happens to any of them, it will be a big trouble.

Thinking of this, Mang Tianchi stopped talking nonsense: "Since you are all ready, then decide on your opponents."

"This time, your opponents and the order of battle will be determined by drawing lots."

"When you get the numbered jade tokens, the drawing of lots is complete... These sixteen jade tokens are the lots you drew!"

"Among these sixteen jade tokens, there are eight blue tokens and eight red tokens, and the numbers are all from one to eight! According to the rules this time, people with the same number of red and blue tokens are opponents. For example, the holder of blue token number three will have his opponent be the holder of red token number three."

"Next, let me open your jade orders and show you your respective numbers!"

As he spoke, Mang Tianchi gently waved his sleeves, and sixteen numbered jade orders slowly floated up from the hands of the crowd and hung above their heads.

"Show!" With a low shout, Mang Tianchi flicked his finger and a beam of lightning shot out from his fingertips.

The moment the lightning left his fingertips, it split into sixteen beams of light, which shot into the sixteen numbered jade orders. Under everyone's gaze, the sixteen numbered jade orders flashed with silver light, and simultaneously shot out a silver beam of light.

Afterwards, sixteen silver beams of light converged into a beam as thick as an arm, penetrating into a black stone tablet in the north of the arena.

The black stone tablet trembled, and the next moment, it released a dazzling light.

When the light faded, when everyone looked at the stone tablet again, a clear picture of the battle had already appeared on it.

"My number is red number 3, and blue number 3..."

Lin Yuan was stunned at first when he saw the battle picture on the stone tablet. Then a playful smile appeared on his lips: "Is it an ancient monster?"

(End of this chapter)