On the arena, as the beast’s shadow gradually emerged behind the burly man, a dull roar filled the air.
With his beast-transformation Primordial Spirit activated, the burly man’s Primordial Spirit power instantly boiled over, carrying the essence of a myriad beasts roaring and the concept of survival of the fittest. The Primordial Spirit power converged on his fist and he slammed it fiercely towards Jing Xiu who stood before him.
Jing Xiu’s eyes narrowed. The Primordial Spirit Needle held in her right hand twitched ever so slightly, and in the next moment, invisible Primordial Spirit power flowed from the needle, connecting to dozens of points on the burly man’s body.
That was Jing Xiu seizing the moment the burly man released all his power to activate the Primordial Spirit Needles she had sneakily inserted into his body earlier.
As the Primordial Spirit Needles were stimulated, the burly man felt piercing pain throughout his muscles and bones. His body stiffened on the spot, and he said somewhat surprised, "When did this happen?"
Jing Xiu said, "The Primordial Spirit Needle can be hidden or shown. When you enveloped your whole body with Primordial Spirit power earlier, even if I triggered it, it wouldn’t have mattered. But now..."
On the burly man’s body, spots where the Primordial Spirit Needles had been inserted flashed with crimson light, continuously restricting his physical body and even starting to impede the flow of the burly man’s Primordial Spirit power.
"You’ve been controlled by my Primordial Spirit Needles. You’ve lost."
Just as Jing Xiu wondered why her teacher Sun Yuzhen hadn’t declared her the victor yet,
the beast’s shadow behind the burly man became more solid. He slightly curled his lips into a sinister smile and said, "Good, this is getting interesting. But your Primordial Spirit Needle technique was designed for humans. What about beasts?"
In the next moment, thick fur erupted all over the burly man’s body, his muscles swelled violently, his cheeks elongated, and teeth protruded from his mouth.
As the burly man transformed into a beast, the Primordial Spirit Needles gradually became ineffective. The burly man, now completely covered in thick fur, continued to throw punches. Amidst the explosive atmosphere, his fist, charged with rampant Primordial Spirit power, struck Jing Xiu hard.
Amidst the roar of a myriad beasts, Jing Xiu’s body burst with a loud boom, and she was violently thrown off the arena, hitting the ground.
Only then did Sun Yuzhen’s voice ring out from the air, "Kong Zheng wins."
"A genius in the entrance test...is nothing more than this." Kong Zheng glanced at Jing Xiu, who lay on the ground, then turned and left, thinking to himself, "My goal is Zuo Dao. Only by defeating Zuo Dao can I, Kong Zheng, prove that I am the strongest of this batch and deserving of the best cultivation, to contend with the Heavenly Demon in the future."
Zhou Bai and Xia Li rushed toward Jing Xiu, only to see that the medical staff on standby had already swooped in to administer emergency treatment to her.
Although she had lost miserably, Jing Xiu’s injuries weren’t considered severe for a cultivator. With the help of the medical staff, her condition quickly stabilized. However, her left arm was severely fractured and, despite the emergency treatment, she likely wouldn’t be able to use that arm in the upcoming fights.
Zhou Bai looked down at Jing Xiu, lying on the ground, a hint of sorrow showing on her face.
Xia Li asked, "Jing Xiu, are you alright?"
Jing Xiu shook her head, "I’m fine." She said with a bitter smile, "It’s just... a bit disappointing."
"Disappointed?" Zhou Bai looked at the burly man leaving the arena. He was a student from Sun Yuzhen’s class, meaning he had a Primordial Spirit value below 99 before the entrance test, and was behind Jing Xiu at that time.
But now, he had surpassed Jing Xiu, and not by just a little.
Facing such disparity, Jing Xiu’s feeling of disappointment was inevitable.
Zhou Bai could only console her, "It’s okay, if you’ve lost this time, you can win it back next time. Besides, your Astral Diagram hasn’t reached the poison techniques, so it’s not really practical for combat to begin with. There’ll be other opportunities."
Jing Xiu managed a feeble smile, and then the medical staff carried her to the rest area.
Several more rounds in the arena followed, but with all 600 participants being only 0th Realm cultivators, their combat techniques were limited and their Primordial Spirit values weren’t exceptionally high, so the fights generally ended quickly.
By noon, the five rounds of preliminary competition among the 600 students had all finished.
After lunch, when everyone returned to the field, they could see the rankings of the 600 students displayed on the big screen, organized by their performance in the combat trials.
Zhou Bai’s gaze directly swept toward the top of the ranking list, then he slightly furrowed his brows, "First place, Zuo Dao."
Zhou Bai hadn’t encountered any strong opponents in all five rounds, each time using his exceedingly powerful Primordial Spirit to instantly finish the battles, but several other genius students also continuously dispatched their adversaries in seconds. In this round, Zhou Bai couldn’t widen the gap.
Or rather, the top ten, even the top fifteen, all had similar results, differing only by the slimmest margins of time, and Zhou Bai did not take first place.
He looked down:
Second place, Qian Wangsun
Third place, Zhou Bai
Fourth place, Liu Xian
Fifth place, Yun Shi
Zhou Bai casually glanced at the rankings; the top twenty or so places were almost all monopolized by students from his class. The only surprise was the eleventh place, Kong Zheng.
Zhou Bai’s eyes tightened slightly, Kong Zheng was the very man who had previously defeated Jing Xiu. Although he was only ranked eleventh, Zhou Bai knew his strength was definitely not limited to the eleventh place.
It was just that the first round’s rankings, if having the same 5 victories, looked at time consumption, so it wasn’t a ranking of absolute strength.
Zhou Bai pondered silently as he looked at the names above him.
Elsewhere, Xia Li was the first to leap up, "Zhou Bai, that guy, actually ranked third?! Damn it, he must have had a stroke of dumb luck, drawing five weaklings."
In the crowd, Du Bing chuckled, "Classmate Zhou Bai’s theory score is a bit lacking, but it looks like his cultivation is stronger than that of an ordinary student."
Not far away, standing in the shadows, Zuo Dao was utterly indifferent, not even bothering to look at the rankings; in this session, no one was his match.
Kong Zheng, looking at the names of those ranked at the top, had a hunter’s gleam flashing in his eye, "Zuo Dao..."
On the other side, standing with his companions, Liu Xian with slicked-back hair looked at the names on the leaderboard and frowned slightly, feeling discontented, ’The first round is too much about luck. Damn it, if I hadn’t drawn a classmate, first place should have been mine.’
"Everyone’s ranking is quite impressive," said Jing Xiu, manipulating the Primordial Spirit Needle to accelerate the healing of her injuries while looking at the names on the rankings, she thought to herself: "Too bad, I can’t make it to the top 16."
All of the top 16 competitors had achieved five victories, and with Jing Xiu losing to Kong Zheng, she was no longer in contention for the upcoming matches.
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As the rankings for the drawing match were revealed, the students who had ranked high became even more eager and competitive, eyeing their rankings with glints of excitement and anticipation.
The next moment, the big screen showed only the names of the top 16 students. After a series of random changes, the 16 students were assigned to eight arena matches.
Zhou Bai thought to himself, ’So next are the quarterfinals, semifinals, and then the elimination rounds for first and second place, huh?’
As the practical second part of the competition began, the 100 arenas in the field underwent a series of transformations and combinations until they merged together to form a gargantuan arena, more than a hundred meters wide.
Zhou Bai mused, "Is this an Array?" He looked up in Sun Yuzhen’s direction, "I see, so Teacher Sun Yuzhen had set up the Array in advance, controlling the entire arena."
"The top 16 arena matches now begin," Sun Yuzhen said, looking down at everyone, "The order of the matches will be determined by a draw."
"The first match..."
Then, on the giant screen, two names suddenly popped up.
"Zhou Bai versus Yun Kong."