Yan Feng, Blood River

The duel in the arena began swiftly. Qiang Lan's fighting style possessed a violent kind of beauty—broad, sweeping movements with devastating power. With every gesture, the earth shattered and mountains and rivers collapsed; the entire arena was plowed over.

His Sea Moon Clan opponent, Yan Liu, was the complete opposite. His aura was gentle as water, and every move he made carried a soft, docile quality.

But anyone who had made it into the top thousand was no harmless sort. Beneath those clear blue ripples and shadows, the killing intent was equally intense.

Their battle was not as fast as Qin Heng's. They fought for a full seven or eight minutes, evenly matched and spectacular from start to finish.

In the end, Yan Liu defeated Qiang Lan by the narrowest margin. A thin trickling stream passed through Qiang Lan's body, grinding him away into bloody water.

The third match was between a Plant Lifeform and a Rock Lifeform.

The two were also evenly matched. They fought fiercely back and forth for over ten minutes.

When the former attacked, Law Power urged all things to grow. The ground that Qiang Lan had just reduced to a mess became lush and verdant once more, thick with flourishing grass and trees.

When the latter attacked, torrents of flame surged forth and heavenly fire crashed down, burning the freshly formed forests and grasslands back into ash.

The earth was the victim of clashes between the strong, bearing witness to their strength, weakness, victory, and defeat.

Numbers slowly appeared beneath the names of the thousand geniuses: "1."

There would be five hundred matches in the first round. Everyone would fight once before the second round began.

Qin Heng had finished first, and his next match was still far away.

He used only half his attention