Chapter 1278 – The Finals Begin
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“Junior-apprentice Sister Xiao Moxian is fierce, truly fierce! Wonderful! I’m filled with admiration!”
As Xiao Moxian was about to leave, Vast Cosmos’s disciple, Zhao Ji, walked towards her with a face full of smiles. “I am Zhao Ji. Junior-apprentice Sister, it is truly my lucky chance to meet you here.”
“Who are you?”
Xiao Moxian glanced over at Zhao Ji, clearly not interested in bothering with him.
“I am a disciple of Vast Universe Heavenly Palace’s Vast Cosmos.”
Zhao Ji put forth his master’s name, but his status wasn’t able to arouse any interest from Xiao Moxian. Xiao Moxian singly gave a light, “Oh,” before pulling Fairy Frost Dream’s arm and leading her away from the crystal platform.
Zhao Ji was left behind by himself, his hands cupped against his chest. This caused him to feel extremely awkward.
In truth, from start to finish, Xiao Moxian hadn’t even bothered to glance at the surrounding martial artists. From this, Lin Ming could faintly feel that even though Xiao Moxian had a lively and childlike innocent demeanor, her playfulness only extended to those she was familiar with. Strangers, and in particular those strangers that were ordinary in talent, were treated the exact opposite. After all, arrogance was something bred into her bones.
Xiao Moxian had tested herself just now because she thought it was amusing. She didn’t do so to demonstrate her ability like the other martial artists here, because doing so had no significance. This was just like how a human felt superior to a pack of ants. They weren’t even on the same playing field.
“Let’s go.”
Lin Ming said to Purple Blade. As they were about to leave, he suddenly saw a black-clothed martial artist with a strangely curved sword on his back, walking towards the crystal platform. This person was Dragon Fang.
“Dragon Fang, he also wants to test himself?”
Lin Ming just had this thought when he saw Dragon Pang’s palm thrust out. This palm actually had the feeling as if the flow of time were shifted around it. Suddenly, the crystal platform lit up. The first four levels shined with a dazzling light and even the fifth level shimmered, shining for several dozen breaths of time before slowly dying down.
“That’s Dragon Fang! For him to have the fifth level of the crystal platform shine for so long, his Laws must have reached the fifth level Concept!”
“Compared to Xiao Moxian, his result is far worse, but that’s still amazing.”
“This person came in second place at the Gravemoon Star semifinals, only inferior to Lin Ming! Rather, it should be said that his potential is worse than Lin Ming’s. As for his strength, no one knows.”
Those that could recognize Dragon Fang also came from Gravemoon Star’s contest arena. Although Dragon Fang had been completely beaten by Lin Ming, he had still left a profound impression on everyone.
To be more accurate, Dragon Fang and Lin Ming were already on a completely different level.
“Large success of a fifth level Law; I fear that is the strongest result you’ll find under the Empyrean descendants!”
“There are even some weaker Empyrean descendants that are weaker than him! How come those from the Gravemoon Star semifinals are so strong. Isn’t there still Lin Ming, who is even stronger?”
The participants of the other contest areas discussed. As those from Gravemoon Star heard about this, they felt a certain sense of pride. They already knew that Lin Ming and Dragon Fang were fierce, and now those that had suspected them had actually seen them with their own eyes.
Several hundred feet away, Lin Ming witnessed the entire scene.
“Dragon Fang… he actually used the Time Laws on that crystal platform.”
Lin Ming took a deep breath. Before now, he only knew that Dragon Fang’s most outstanding ability was his mastery of the Space Laws. Nether Limitless had been able to create four spatial mirror images, but Dragon Fang had been able to use eight of them. The disparity between someone who just touched upon the fifth level Concept and someone who steadily entered the fifth level Concept could be seen from this.
And now, Dragon Fang’s Time Laws had already reached the fifth level. It was unknown just what boundary his Space Laws had reached!
The Time Laws and Space Laws were two of the most difficult Laws to comprehend. Correspondingly, they were also two of the strongest Laws. Of these two, the Time Laws were far more abstract and elusive, and faintly superior to the Space Laws.
“Dragon Fang… he’s a terrifying opponent! In these past months his comprehension of the Laws has reached an even higher level and his cultivation has entered into the late Divine Sea realm. I still have no idea what cards he’s holding back. In terms of comprehending the Laws, I can’t compare with him at all.”
In terms of Laws, Lin Ming was indeed inferior to Dragon Fang and far more inferior to Xiao Moxian. But, true combat didn’t depend on just one’s comprehension of the Laws; there were many other aspects that influenced one’s comprehensive combat strength.
……….
10 days passed in the blink of an eye. Besides the unfathomably deep Frost Dream and Xiao Moxian, Lin Ming saw several strong Empyrean descendants.
As the sun rose on the 11th day, Lin Ming was sitting in meditation in his palace. He suddenly heard a voice spread through his mind.
“All participants of the finals, gather in the square. The finals of the First Martial Meeting shall begin today!”
A solemn voice spread through every palace. Lin Ming opened his eyes. Today, the beginning of the finals had come at last.
The entire martial field was filled with 10,000 young elites. All of them had come from their respective palaces and were gathered at the central square.
Here, dozens of World King powerhouses had gathered. They were all the presiders of the various semifinal contest areas, and even Xiao Daochild was included amongst them. With several dozen World King powerhouses gathered together, the might of their aura could be imagined!
10,000 geniuses stood quietly, waiting for the finals to arrive.
“Everyone!”
After everyone had gathered, a strong and tall man in white robes descended from the skies. His figure was tremendous and his aura was pressuring. His entire body emitted a breathtaking pressure.
“I am Empyrean Vast Universe’s direct chief disciple, Vast Cosmos. I represent Vast Universe Heavenly Palace in welcoming you all here. You are all truly outstanding!”
“Vast Cosmos?”
“He is Vast Cosmos? If we can enter the top 10 ranks of the Earth Proclamation we can enter Vast Universe Heavenly Palace and also obtain his tutelage?”
“Senior Vast Cosmos has a half-step Empyrean cultivation. He is more than qualified to guide us. Even the Great World King of a first-order world has to pay deep respects to Senior Vast Cosmos.”
The young geniuses present secretly discussed with true essence sound transmissions. For many of them, Vast Cosmos was the fiercest character they had yet to see in their lives.
“Now, I shall announce the rules. The lot of you have already been divided into groups for elimination.”
As Vast Cosmos spoke, he flourished his hands and a massive curtain of light appeared in front of everyone. This curtain of light was 1000 feet wide and had 10,000 names displayed on it. Each name had a number following it – these were the palace numbers that everyone had lived at.
Of 10,000 people, they were divided into 10 groups with 1000 people each.
“1000 people? How do we fight? Could it be an elimination trial like the Divine Seal Altar?”
Lin Ming immediately thought. If they carried out a round-robin tournament to ensure absolute fairness, then everyone would have to fight 999 other people. This seemed too troublesome.
But at this time, he also discovered that each group of 1000 people was also divided into two parts. The first part had 30 people written in red, and the second part had 970 people written in white.
Lin Ming’s name was red, and many of the Heavenly Palace core disciples were white.
In the skies, Vast Cosmos said, “Every great group is divided into two smaller groups depending on your results in the semifinals as well as the strength you’ve displayed so far. The first group has 30 people and the second group has 970 people. For those in the second group, they have three chances to challenge someone from the first group. If they can win in any single one of these battles, they may swap positions with their opponent. Otherwise, if you are defeated in all three challenges then you will be directly eliminated! As for those that are defeated and replaced in the first group, they also have three chances to challenge someone from the first group again. If they lose all three challenges, they too will be eliminated! This will continue until all those from the second group have lost their qualifications!”
Upon hearing these rules, those that were selected to enter the second group felt uncomfortable. To put it in other words, Vast Universe Heavenly Palace did not believe those from the second group had any chances of winning and wanted to directly eliminate them from the tournament. This round of eliminations was developed as their final chance.
“They really think we’re useless trash.”
“Although we can’t enter the top 10 of the Earth Proclamation, we still shouldn’t be directly placed in the elimination group!”
Out of the 10,000 participants, there were only 300 people in the first groups. 200 of them were Empyrean descendants and Heavenly Palace core disciples, and the other 100 were the young elites chosen from the 30 semifinal contest areas.
This caused many of the third and fourth ranked participants of the semifinals to be placed in the second group.
There were even some contest areas with bad luck that had their second ranked participant placed into the second group.
This caused them all to immediately fume with anger.
“What is the meaning of this? I came in second in my semifinals contest area, so why am I in the second group? There are some people that were ranked fifth in their contest area that are still in the first group!”
“These grouping rules are too random!”
These people were referring to Gravemoon Star’s contest area. The fifth placed Purple Blade was placed in the first group, much less Lin Ming and Dragon Fang.