Chapter 653: The Second Round of Replays

Early the next morning, everyone arrived at the competition site well before the scheduled time. According to the rules explained by the chief referee, those who failed to arrive in time at the start of the match would be considered to have withdrawn. Naturally, no one dared take this lightly.
When the match began, under the chief referee’s instruction, everyone stepped onto the ring. A few who failed to arrive in time had their participation canceled, leaving them filled with regret.
Everyone in the guest seats also took their places.
Only Fat Jin noticed that Gu Tiannan and Ji Xiaoru both wore a ring on their left ring fingers. Since the two hadn’t returned overnight, he had no way of asking how things had gone. But seeing the rings on their hands, he felt relieved, knowing their relationship had progressed. He winked at Gu Tiannan and gave him a thumbs up, to which Gu Tiannan simply smiled foolishly.
“Lao Gu, why do I feel you’re different today? Usually you’re so serious, like everyone owes you money. Why can’t you shut up today?” Yun Zhonglong also noticed the change and guessed that the tactics he had taught Gu Tiannan must have worked.
“Not at all,” Gu Tiannan hurriedly denied it.
“Who do you think will score the highest in this match?” At that moment, Ji Xiaoru interrupted the teasing of Gu Tiannan. After their relationship was confirmed last night, she naturally protected her man wholeheartedly. Her gaze toward Yun Zhonglong carried a hint of threat.
Although Yun Zhonglong was stronger in terms of ability, if Gu Tiannan and Ji Xiaoru teamed up, he definitely wouldn’t be able to win. Her expression clearly meant, “If you tease my man again, I’ll castrate you.” He awkwardly shut his mouth, stopping any further teasing of Gu Tiannan.
“I think it might be Ye Feng. As everyone can see, his defense is excellent—he’s hardly likely to lose points. Only by attacking others can he score.” Fat Jin continued the conversation along Ji Xiaoru’s line, also to prevent Yun Zhonglong from bringing up Gu Tiannan again.
“Not necessarily. His Destruction Law has strong attacking power and fast speed, but he only scores one point per hit. But the Enmity-Slaying Sword Qi is different—it’s a area attack. With one strike, he can score at least ten points.”
“There’s no need to argue. The one with the highest score in this match isn’t necessarily the strongest,” Yun Zhonglong said. “But any strong fighter with great skills in offense and defense can stand out.”

Amid the guests’ discussions, the chief referee struck the bell to start the match. Everyone in the arena quickly got into fighting mode. Long Tian and the others performed exceptionally well. Long Tian used the wind-based repulsion technique—each time he struck with his palm, a large group of people were knocked down. Zhen Zhu still relied on her long whip; as soon as it was drawn, many people were hit, making it a area-of-effect attack. Bai Yiyi, on the other hand, used soul hypnosis—those affected would automatically jump off the arena under her control, and her score increased the fastest. Shi Tuo swept with his long stick, sending many people flying off the arena. Xiao Yu activated a seal, and black feathers like nightmares attacked different people like flying knives. Bernard stepped onto the ground, causing plants to emerge from beneath and drag people out of the arena. Qing Wen simply charged through the crowd, leaving almost no opponent standing against her.

“Ye Feng’s friends are all extremely strong,” the guests in the seating area finally noticed Long Tian and the others. Yun Zhong Long couldn’t help but exclaim in awe.

“Indeed. Although they’re all at the Star Sea level, their strength far exceeds that of other peers at the same level,” Ji Xiaoru nodded.

At that moment, Ye Feng seemed unhurried as he looked around. Long Tian and the others already had scores of around 100, while Ye Feng’s score remained at zero.

It could only be blamed on Ye Feng’s outstanding performance earlier, which made others automatically ignore him when choosing opponents.

Suddenly, someone rushed at Ye Feng from behind, probably thinking he wasn’t prepared. Just as the person’s fist approached Ye Feng’s body, something strange happened—Ye Feng, who was originally facing away, turned around in an instant and grabbed the fist. Then, numbness spread through the attacker’s abdomen, followed by intense pain, causing his body to fly out of the arena uncontrollably.

The person who tried to ambush Ye Feng had no idea what had just happened, but this scene made many in the seating area gasp in shock.

“Good heavens, is Ye Feng even human? He’s mastered the wind-based speed technique to such a degree!” Yun Zhong Long couldn’t help but marvel.

“He’s simply monstrous—delivering 328 punches in that single instant, with the last punch transforming into a wind-based repulsion technique to throw his opponent off the arena. In less than one-tenth of a breath, his score already reached 337 points.” Fire True Man was utterly shocked; he had never imagined anyone could be this monstrous. After knocking that person out, Ye Feng hadn’t even stabilized himself when two others targeted him simultaneously, launching attacks almost at the same time. Yet Ye Feng remained calm. As they closed in, he simply stretched out his hands and pushed, causing them to spin uncontrollably on the arena floor. His attacks didn’t stop there—he sent punches in different directions at both men, and after hundreds of punches, used repulsion techniques to throw them off the arena as well. “The wind-based Wind Eye technique is already so proficient…” Old Bai couldn’t help but exclaim. “He controlled those two in an instant… When I was at the Star Sea level, I was already called a natural talent, but back then, my mastery of techniques wasn’t even one-tenth of his…” “If he’s at the False Void level, none of us eight could possibly match him,” Yun Zhonglong sighed. “Those two just gave him another 533 points. His total is now over 800, while the highest score among the others is less than 200,” Ji Xiaoru carefully recorded all of Ye Feng’s points. Eventually, Ye Feng shifted from a passive to an active role—each opponent he targeted contributed at least 200–300 points to his score. Against him, they could only be toyed with, utterly powerless, as they were on a completely different level. Each of Ye Feng’s attacks took at most about one breath to complete; most of his time was spent finding targets. Due to his ferocity, many people stayed far away from his reach. Even so, in one hour, Ye Feng attacked nearly 200 people, earning over 50,000 points. Meanwhile, Long Tian, who was in second place, had only just over 5,000 points. As the number of people on the arena decreased, those who remained grew stronger and more familiar with the rules. Ye Feng and the others gradually slowed down in gaining points. Still, after a day, there were still over 800 people left on the arena. According to the rules stated by the chief referee earlier, it wasn’t just about who remained—it was about rankings.

When the twelve hours were up, the bell signaling the end of the competition rang. Everyone immediately stopped fighting, as continuing to fight after the deadline would be considered a violation and result in disqualification from advancing. They silently watched the rankings displayed on the projection not far away.
1. Ye Feng: 213,681
2. Long Tian: 35,829
3. Bernard: 32,768
4. Bai Yiyi: 31,652
5. Ye Yu: 28,703
6. Shi Tuo: 28,629
7. Qing Wen: 26,585
8. Zhen Zhu: 25,398
9. Qiu Duanhun: 18,911
…
Among the top ten, Ye Feng and his group firmly occupied the first eight positions, while Qiu Duanhun was in ninth place.
“The top 128 on this ranking will advance to the arena battle competition. Everyone else is eliminated!” announced the chief referee. “The arena battle competition starts tomorrow. It’s a knockout tournament—winners advance automatically to the next round, while losers are eliminated immediately. The order of matches will still be determined by drawing lots. During the matches, No. 1 will fight No. 2, No. 3 will fight No. 4, and so on. Also, strong fighters from the higher realms will come to watch tomorrow’s matches. Those who perform outstandingly may catch the attention of these higher realm fighters and be chosen as their successors. Everyone, do your best!”