As a result, the new and old first place holders of the Prodigy Roll like Yu Kun Lun, Yang Jun Hao, and Cao Tian Yi all pa.s.sed without a doubt. It was the same for young geniuses like Ling Han and Lu Yang. Obviously, the Jiang Clan was optimistic about them and did not want them to be knocked out in the first round.
Unfortunately, the Jiang Clan only had one key. If not, they did have quite a number of young girls of marriageable age in their clan.
The first round ended, and the main namelist of thirty-two partic.i.p.ants finally emerged. Though only men could partic.i.p.ate in this Marriage Tournament, one look at this namelist and it was clear that this was definitely an even more awesome tournament than this time’s Prodigy Tournament.
There was a considerable number of generations of the top ten from the Prodigy Roll, and together with an extreme monster like Ling Han, there was another that had drawn public attention. Yet no one knew what he looked like.
That was because he wore a mask, but his build seemed to be quite small, and was obviously half a head shorter than the average person.
His name was Zhang Shan, which was obviously a false name.
Ling Han glanced him over, and was sure that the latter was in the ninth layer of the Spiritual Pedestal Tier; he also faintly had an aura that Ling Han disliked.
The second round of battles began. Ling Han was the seventh to fight, and his opponent was the White-Robed Sword King, Shen Zhong Cheng.
The previous few battles quickly concluded because the organizer had tried their best to arrange it so that it would be a very powerful partic.i.p.ant against a much weaker opponent. For the battle between Ling Han and Shen Zhong Cheng, did they think that Ling Han was at an absolute advantage, or at an absolute disadvantage?
Ling Han ascended the stage and nodded at Shen Zhong Cheng. He had a slightly favorable impression of this particular swordsman.
“Please!” Shen Zhong Cheng said seriously. He had seen Ling Han’s moves previously, and knew that the latter was very powerful.
Ling Han clasped his hands together and said, “Please!”
Shen Zhong Cheng drew his sword. Qiang , a brilliant sword flash soared to the heavens, and instantly, an additional seven flashes of Sword Qi appeared, which all swept towards Ling Han.
Ling Han did things simply and roughly. He faced the oncoming attack directly and raised his fist to deliver a series of fierce punches.
Peng, peng, peng. He merely shot out a consecutive seven punches and had not even circulated Fist Qi yet when the impact of his strike caused the long sword in Sheng Zhong Cheng’s hand to fly out of his grasp—and with that, he was defeated.
Shen Zhong Cheng, twenty-ninth on the last Prodigy Roll. In this tournament, he managed to advance even further and squeeze into the top ten. He reached the eighth place this time. The name of the White-Robed Sword King resounded all over the world, and with him being merely in his early twenties, it was highly possible that he would become one of the leaders of the new generation of the north region.
And it was precisely this kind of outstanding genius that was completely suppressed and thrashed easily by another. A consecutive bout of seven punches was enough to defeat him; what kind of concept was that?
A shocked stillness fell upon all the spectators. How did the Winter Moon Sect come to possess such a freak? Against an opponent in the same cultivation level, seven punches were enough to defeat Shen Zhong Cheng. If he actually broke through to the Spiritual Infant Tier, then wouldn’t that mean that he could sweep away all those in the same cultivation level and be invincible for an era?
“I’ve lost!” Shen Zhong Cheng coughed up blood. Though he had not suffered too serious an injury, he had still been attacked quite harshly. However, a heated battle intent continued to burn within his eyes. “I will make you my aim, and one day, I will definitely defeat you!”
“I wish you good luck,” Ling Han said, smiling. He wouldn’t be using this ident.i.ty for too long, and in future, Shen Zhong Cheng would have to seek out an inexistent person for a battle. Just the thought of it made Ling Han pity him a bit.
Shen Zhong Cheng stared at Ling Han for a moment longer before finally turning around and leaving.
“Heavens, so powerful. If this guy actually took part in the Prodigy Tournament, he’d definitely have the ability to attempt seizing the first place?”
“Perhaps he does not think the Prodigy Roll is important at all?”
“That’s right. I remember there was a powerful guy who previously delivered a palm strike worth twenty Stars of the Spiritual Infant Tier of battle prowess, but he absolutely disdained taking part!”
“What, twenty Stars of Spiritual Infant Tier? Are you kidding me?”
“Hehe, you can make some casual enquiries. Who else doesn’t know about that?”
“With that kind of ability, there is of course no need for him to partic.i.p.ate in the Prodigy Tournament. That would practically be playing around with kids, and much too degrading.”
“That may not be the case. That person said that he had used a Spirit Tool which was what allowed him that kind of battle prowess.”
“Hehehe, I, too, am more willing to believe that theory.”
In the midst of the conversations of the spectators, the battles proceeded.
The senior elite cultivators had indeed not wasted their years spent cultivating. Even if they had similar battle prowess of the same cultivation level with their opponent, their cultivation was much higher, and they had all reached the ninth layer of the Spiritual Pedestal Tier. Furthermore, they had all stayed at this level for a certain period of time and strengthened their foundations to an incredible extent.
Thus, the senior elite cultivators all qualified for the next round, and only a very few rookies managed to display outstanding performance with even more powerful battle prowess.
For example, Lu Yang, combined with his pet Demonic Beast, possessed amazing battle prowess. There was also Yang Jun Hao—obviously, this was his first time taking part in the Prodigy Tournament, yet he had the “peak” cultivation of the ninth layer of the Spiritual Pedestal Tier. They did not allow the mature generation to be the only outstanding people. In addition, there was also Ling Han and that masked man. The vigor of the younger generation was in no way inferior.
The second round of battles concluded, and the third round quickly began right after. This time, Ling Han’s opponent was Lu Yang, ranked second in the Prodigy Roll this year.
Being able to defeat Zhu Xuan Er, someone whom many had expected to be the first place this year, there was of course no need to doubt Lu Yang had powerful battle prowess. However, the person he now faced was Ling Han, whose battle prowess had surpa.s.sed the upper limits that could be calculated in the Spiritual Pedestal Tier. Obviously, he was destined for a tragic ending.
He and his pet Demonic Beast, Frost Clouded Leapard, ascended the stage together and stood unyielding like a mountain.
Lu Yang was a powerfully built man. In such cold weather, he had still worn a short robe, which exposed his broad shoulders. It was as if they were forged from rock; he seemed like he could topple the mountains and crack the earth with a casual punch.
And the Frost Clouded Leopard looked even mightier. Its body was three meters long and reached a height of two metres. It was completely covered with a snow-white fur coat like it was excellent fine satin. With every exhalation, frost would immediately appear in the surrounding cold air, which rustled down onto the stage.
“Han Lin, I cannot help but admit, you are the strongest opponent I have ever faced!” Lu Yang stared at Ling Han. “You are worthy of a full-effort battle from me. I’ll use a powerful move that I had not used even in the Prodigy Tournament some days ago!”
When they heard his words, the spectators were all astonished. This guy had already charged all the way to the second place of the Prodigy Roll, and he actually had not used all his ability? He actually still had a powerful move in reserve? Hiss, why hadn’t he used it then? Could it be that he did not want to take the position of first place?
“Wrong. Since it’s the most powerful move, he will of course not use it easily. Otherwise, if others knew of it beforehand, they could stay on alert in advance.”
“En, it’s fine even if he was ranked second in the Prodigy Tournament. Anyways, the rankings would be rearranged again next year, and he would only need to show enough battle prowess and he’d still be able to turn the tide around and get first place.”
“Now, for the sake of the key to open up the Twelve Heaven Mystery Realms, he can no longer afford to care about that.”
“Of course. As long as he could obtain the inheritance inside, he could possibly become an ultimate cultivator of the Shattering Void Tier in future. Anyone would put their best effort in for that kind of reward!”
“Ya, I had initially thought that Han Lin was definitely going to win this battle, but there seems to be a bit of suspense for the end of this battle now.”
“Hehe, it’ll be more exciting with a little suspense!”
Ling Han smiled and said, “Oh, then I hope you will not be disappointed!” He currently was invincible among all those in the same cultivation tier, and felt a cold solitude. If there was somebody who could give him some trouble, he would in fact be very pleased.
“As you wis.h.!.+” Lu Yang declared darkly. He suddenly leaped and charged towards Ling Han in attack, his hands forming a seal, and shouted, “Three Lives Three Destructions, Life and Death Reincarnation Seal!”
Hong , his palms formed uncountable numbers of tiny patterns which transformed into multiple simple, unadorned letters. Then they all shot out and shadowed Ling Han. This really was a little omnipresent, and cut off all paths of retreat for Ling Han.