The Opponent in the First Match

Under the bright sun, the Tai'a Divine City, which had been covered in snow for several days, finally felt a touch of warmth.

It was the ninth day of the rookie ranking competition, at noon!

There was a short lunch break during the ranking matches, but the spectators in the arena didn't leave at all. For martial artists, as long as they had enough internal energy, it wouldn't matter if they didn't eat for a few days.

And most importantly, there are two more heavyweight matches in the afternoon.

It was a battle between Qiu Niu and 2,800 veteran trial participants ranked on the Earth Ranking.

Another, even more outrageous battle was Chu Xiaoran challenging the 2,600th ranked player on the Earth Ranking!

Both of them had just broken into the top 3,000. Many people who could rank at this level had already been in Tai'a Divine City for four years!

These people are basically all Purple Blood Peak level experts, and they are all extremely outstanding among martial artists of the same realm!

Moving up from 3,000 places is no easy feat, and the competition is becoming increasingly fierce!

People naturally want to see a battle like that.

Compared to Qiu Niu and Chu Xiaoran, the other newcomers all became mere supporting characters.

In fact, with these last two days, there aren't many matches left for other newcomers. At this point, if you don't challenge those ranked in the top 7,000 on the leaderboard, you'd be embarrassed to even step onto the stage!

They're playing against players ranked in the top 3,000, and you're playing against someone ranked outside the top 10,000? How can you even bring yourself to challenge them?

"I think Qiu Niu has a chance of winning against the 2,800th person, but Chu Xiaoran, challenging the 2,600th person is too daring, and the chances of her losing are very high..."

People were sharing their opinions; they had been discussing the outcome of the matches between Qiu Niu and Chu Xiaoran for quite some time, and everyone had their own perspective. The atmosphere was incredibly lively.

Just then, someone suddenly said, "Hey... isn't that Yi Yun walking over there?"

People were taken aback and looked in the direction of the sound. They saw a Linen-clothed Youth stroll leisurely to his seat in the stands not far from the arena.

This young man was none other than Yi Yun!

"It really is Yi Yun! He's finally here!"

The rookie ranking competition is almost over, and it's already the second to last day, but Yi Yun is still only ranked 10,030.

People were speechless. Looking at Yi Yun now, he showed no sense of urgency whatsoever, and was still sitting leisurely in his seat!

If he weren't good enough, that would be one thing. But he clearly had a chance to make it into the top three.

"Yi Yun still has four matches left, he actually has enough time... If I were him, I would first fight one of the top 8,000 to secure a minimum ranking, then challenge the 6,000th on the Earth Ranking and win that match. On the last day, the first match would be against Gu Mu! If he wins, everything will be settled; if he doesn't, he still has one more match to fight for ranking, and securing fourth place shouldn't be a problem."

Someone spoke up, and upon hearing it, everyone agreed that it made sense.

Those of them who are less skilled need to go through a dozen or so matches to experiment and find their place.

Yi Yun is stronger, so he can be more capricious. He can use the Gu Mu as a benchmark. After three rounds, he can basically lock in his ranking.

At this moment, people saw Yi Yun draw the Thousand Army Saber from his Space Ring, unsheath it, and begin to meticulously polish its gleaming blade.

Seeing this, people were speechless.

That's incredibly calm of them.

Yi Yun slowly wiped the blade. In fact, it is only ordinary people who need to wipe their blades with an oilcloth to keep them sharp, but a treasured blade like the Thousand Army Saber basically does not need to be wiped.

Yi Yun continued wiping meticulously, bit by bit. This wasn't a wasted effort; it was Yi Yun revisiting his insights from the Blade Tomb and organizing the thoughts in his mind.

He uses the action of wiping the knife to achieve a greater connection with it, while simultaneously emptying his mind to allow for optimal understanding.

Yi Yun silently polished his knife for almost half an hour. At this time, the afternoon's competition was about to begin.

Yi Yun stood up, took a form, filled it out a few times, and then looked up—

"Referee!"

Yi Yun called out, and in an instant, many people around him focused their attention on him.

They knew that Yi Yun would most likely choose their opponent!

In the days leading up to the rookie rankings, many people were eyeing Yi Yun, a popular player, because everyone wanted to challenge him. Therefore, the number of matches needed to be arranged in advance, and challenge cards were issued to everyone to ensure that no one had more than twelve matches per day.

However, this situation did not exist in the last few days of the rookie ranking matches, as almost all the players who could compete had already played their matches.

This makes the competition time very flexible. You can decide which opponent to challenge on the spot without any problem, as long as the opponent is present, you can even start the fight immediately.

"Who do you think Yi Yun will challenge in his first match?" someone asked.

"For the first one, we should choose a senior trial participant ranked around seven or eight thousand; that would be safer."

"Hey, I think that's impossible. Yi Yun dared to use a brick against Liu Yuxing, which shows he's incredibly confident. Seven or eight thousand is nothing to him. He might challenge the top five thousand right from the start, or even challenge Gu Mu!"

"Challenge the Gu Mu? A decisive blow? That's impossible... Yi Yun disappeared for several days. Now that he's reappeared, his first battle should, in principle, be against a worthy opponent. Winning the first match steadily would boost his morale. If he's been holding back for so long and loses the first match, he'll feel ashamed!"

People felt that it would be better to start the first game with a winning result that would guarantee a victory.

But the person who spoke earlier remained stubborn, saying, "Just wait and see. Think about Yi Yun's glorious history of knocking down Liu Yuxing with a brick. It's not impossible for him to challenge Gu Mu in his first match..."

The referee looked at Yi Yun and asked, "Do you want to take the challenge?"

"Yes." Yi Yun handed over the challenge form he had just filled out.

The referee took it, glanced at it, and immediately showed a strange expression. "Are you sure?"

"OK!" Yi Yun nodded and sat back down in his seat.

The referee didn't say anything more; it was the contestant's prerogative to challenge whomever they wanted, and he couldn't stop them.

The referee began to arrange the order of the next matches.

Everyone is curious about who Yi Yun's opponent will be in his first battle.

The referee quickly provided the answer: Yi Yun would be the first player to perform in the afternoon's match!

Yi Yun had been absent from the rookie ranking competition for so many days, yet he was the first to go on stage on his very first day! It seems even the referees wanted to see Yi Yun's performance.

People were all on high alert. Compared to today's match between Qiu Niu and Chu Xiaoran, which was Yi Yun's first battle after his comeback, people were incredibly excited.

However, when the referee announced Yi Yun's opponent, everyone was stunned!

"Divine Desolation Stage, number 1003, Yi Yun! Challenges number 2980— Qiu Niu!"

What!?

Challenge Qiu Niu!!

Everyone was stunned. His first match was neither to solidify his ranking nor to challenge Gu Mu, but to challenge Qiu Niu, who was currently ranked second among the newcomers!

Challenging the Gu Mu was already outrageous enough, but he actually went and fought Qiu Niu? What was he thinking?

Before anyone could react, Gu Mu, the third-ranked newcomer on the stage, frowned.

He had always considered Yi Yun his biggest rival in this rookie ranking competition. Now that Yi Yun had appeared, he was mentally prepared to fight a bloody battle with Yi Yun. He had accumulated a lot of combat experience in the rookie ranking competition these past few days, and he was confident that he could defeat Yi Yun.

Unexpectedly, Yi Yun completely ignored him, bypassed him, and challenged Qiu Niu directly.

This made Gu Mu very uncomfortable; he had been completely ignored!

"This Yi Yun is ignoring me. Does he think I'm no match for him?"

Gu Mu clenched his fists. This is utterly disrespectful!

He made thorough preparations for the fight, but the other party didn't take him seriously at all.

"You've got guts... Wait until you fail to challenge Qiu Niu, then I'll fight you again. I'll show you the consequences of ignoring me!" Gu Mu thought to himself, his gaze towards Yi Yun filled with fighting spirit.

"Challenge me...?" Qiu Niu was also quite surprised. He glanced at Yi Yun, then laughed, "Interesting! You're so young and arrogant. I thought you would only fight me after you defeated Gu Mu!"

Qiu Niu stood up; he had always been very interested in Yi Yun.

But he never expected that Yi Yun would have the audacity to challenge him in the very first match.

"Since you're so confident, I'll respond to your challenge with my Dark Gold Armor; that's enough respect for you!"

As Qiu Niu spoke, he took out the enormous gauntlet from his Sumeru Ring and put it on his right hand.

"Snap!"

Three steel claws sprang out of the gauntlets, gleaming coldly!

At the same time, Qiu Niu's left hand was also equipped with that giant shield.

Then, with a thought, Qiu Niu's two round metal blocks on his chest and back flashed, and a set of black gold armor appeared, seemingly imbued with sentience, covering Qiu Niu's entire body!

In just a few breaths, Qiu Niu enveloped himself in his Dark Gold Armor, fully armed!

"Drink!"

Qiu Niu roared and leaped into the air!

He was wearing an enormous Dark Gold Armor weighing countless pounds. He leaped from a distance of more than ten feet from the arena, his entire being resembling a soaring tiger!

"Boom!"

Qiu Niu crouched down to cushion the impact, braced himself with one hand, and slammed heavily onto the ring like a meteorite!

The loud bang sent the entire arena trembling, causing the crowd to gasp in surprise.

Beneath Qiu Niu's feet, the thick Purple Tungsten Steel floor tile visibly dented, demonstrating the force of Qiu Niu's jump.

Leaving aside Qiu Niu's attack, this leap alone, if it landed on someone else, could shatter them to pieces!

"How terrifying! It's practically a humanoid ancient beast!" someone exclaimed. Judging from Qiu Niu aura, he was already intimidated before the battle even began. Ordinary people simply couldn't fight him.

Even the unexpectedly strong newcomer Gu Mu didn't dare challenge Qiu Niu, because Gu Mu knew he was far from being good enough and couldn't possibly beat him!

Qiu Niu stood up. Standing at 1.9 meters tall with a burly build, his muscles bulged with twisted, earthworm-like veins, as if they were about to explode, all covered in heavy armor!

...(To be continued~^~)