At that moment, even the Immortals were shocked by Luo Fan's strength.
What surprised them most was the speed of his improvement.
They could all tell that the technique he used was the fourth form of the Tidal Blade, the Sea of Blades.
That move required a very high level of comprehension of the laws.
Back in the Trial Tower, Luo Fan had barely managed to execute it.
Now, he wielded it with complete ease.
…
Soon, all ten matches came to an end.
One after another, the victors of the ten arenas appeared:
Luo Fan, Bolan, Luo Feng, Qianshui, Lancelot, Jiang Mo, Wuka, Long Yun, Ai Chen, and Rong Jun.
The man in the cyan battle robe and purple scales floated into the air, his invisible pressure drawing the attention of all one thousand human geniuses.
"Congratulations on reaching the top ten. Your prize money has been raised to one thousand mixed yuan units," he said with a smile. "You also gain entry to the 'Initial Secret Realm.'"
"The battles this time were truly exciting. A few of you even managed to surprise me."
At that moment, all one thousand young geniuses and one thousand and eight powerful Immortals stood quietly, listening to the man known as the Nine Sword Venerable.
"Luo Fan, Bolan, Luo Feng, Qianshui, Lancelot, Jiang Mo, Wuka, Long Yun, Ai Chen, and Rong Jun, congratulations to you ten."
"In a moment, the five finalists will be chosen from among you. From those five, the top three will be decided."
He continued smiling. "As for how you'll be paired off…"
"According to the Virtual Universe System's preset rules, your earlier battle completion times varied."
"The fastest will face the slowest, the second fastest will face the second slowest, and so on."
As soon as Rong Jun heard the pairing method, his eyes blazed with fighting intent.
By those rules, the matchups were clear:
Luo Fan versus Rong Jun.
Bolan versus Ai Chen.
Luo Feng versus Long Yun.
Qianshui versus Wuka.
Lancelot versus Jiang Mo.
"Rest for a while. The arena battles will begin shortly," the Nine Sword Venerable's voice echoed in everyone's ears.
…
At that moment, many of those watching looked at Rong Jun with a hint of pity.
They had thought Rong Jun had a good chance to win a spot in the Primal Secret Realm.
But now that he was matched against Luo Fan, they knew his chances were gone.
He was simply unlucky.
Rong Jun, however, didn't care about their gazes or their murmurs.
He walked straight up to Luo Fan.
"Luo Fan, fight me with everything you've got. I want to see the gap between us!"
His eyes were full of excitement and determination.
Luo Fan smiled. "Alright."
…
Soon, the Nine Sword Venerable gave the signal, and the match began.
Luo Fan and Rong Jun stood at opposite ends of the arena.
The moment "Begin!" sounded, Rong Jun charged without hesitation.
With one strike, a massive blade of yellow earth energy shot toward Luo Fan.
Luo Fan raised his blade to block.
Boom!
The impact sent a heavy wave through the air, and Luo Fan immediately felt the gravity around him shift.
It was as if a great mountain had been placed on his shoulders.
But it hardly affected him.
Just as Rong Jun prepared to press forward and swing again, Luo Fan countered.
He swung the Tidal Blade.
Countless arcs of light erupted from the weapon, merging into a vast ocean of blades.
Rong Jun hadn't seen this technique earlier, his previous match had ended too late.
But after this strike, he and Hong would certainly have something in common to talk about.
In that moment, Rong Jun felt as powerless as an ordinary person.
Before him, the sea of blades surged like a colossal tsunami.
There was nowhere to run, and despair began to take hold.
"Ahhh! Break!"
Rong Jun roared, slashing again and again.
His strength as a martial artist was higher than Hong's, and he tried desperately to fight back.
But each of his slashes only canceled a small portion of the overwhelming sea.
The next instant, the roaring tide engulfed him completely.
A flash of light, and Rong Jun appeared outside the arena.
He looked at Luo Fan with lingering battle intent in his eyes.
He didn't fear defeat.
This battle had shown him exactly how vast the gap between himself and a true genius was.
And even so, deep down, he still believed he could catch up.
…
On the five arenas, the next matches followed quickly one after another.
Before long, the top five had emerged: Luo Fan, Luo Feng, Bolan, Jiang Mo, and Qianshui.
In the original story, Luo Feng had lost to Long Yun.
That was mainly because of Long Yun's strong defense.
Luo Feng's main attacks had relied on his spiritual force, but as the battle dragged on, the arena gradually shrank in size.
When it became small enough, Long Yun relied on his physical defense and close combat to defeat him, which was why people had called Long Yun "lucky" back then.
Now, however, Luo Feng's power had advanced by an entire tier.
He broke through Long Yun's defenses and won outright.
"Excellent. The top-five battles were truly impressive," said the Nine Sword Venerable, smiling at the gathered geniuses. "Take a break. Soon, we'll begin the top-five round-robin."
"In that stage, each of the five will fight the other four once. Each victory earns one point. The top three will be chosen by total points."
Moments later, the round-robin began.
In the first round, Luo Fan rested while Bolan fought Luo Feng, and Qianshui fought Jiang Mo.
Soon, the results came out: Bolan and Qianshui won.
The match between Luo Feng and Bolan had lasted quite some time.
Now, Luo Feng could split into hundreds of clones with his Thousand Thread Flow, and their strength was quite close.
But Bolan had managed to close the distance, and once that happened, Luo Feng lost.
Everyone could now see clearly.
The top three would most likely be Luo Fan, Bolan, and Luo Feng.
The next round was Luo Fan versus Luo Feng, and Bolan versus Jiang Mo.
The two brothers had fought countless times before.
And as always, Luo Feng charged first.
Luo Fan blocked.
Luo Feng charged again.
Luo Fan countered.
Luo Feng fell.
From below the arena, Luo Feng looked up at Luo Fan, muttering under his breath.
"Why did I lose again?"
"My opportunities were so great…"
"And yet I still can't surpass my brother!"
…
Before long, Luo Fan had defeated three opponents, leaving only Bolan.
At that point, Luo Feng and Qianshui both had two losses and one win each, with one match left between them.
Bolan and Luo Fan, both undefeated with three wins, had already secured two of the Primal Secret Realm spots.
This round, Jiang Mo rested.
Luo Fan versus Bolan.
Luo Feng versus Qianshui.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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