"Chen Xuan! Chen Xuan! Chen Xuan!"
As Zhou Wenyuan's voice fell, earth-shaking cheers instantly erupted from the surrounding stands.
A hundred thousand spectators rose to their feet at once. Applause, shouts, and whistles intertwined into a deafening tidal wave of sound, making the entire Heavenly Martial City tremble.
On the streets, martial artists who had failed to buy tickets looked up toward the Martial Arts Arena, their eyes full of urgency and curiosity.
"Who came first?"
"Chen Xuan! It's Chen Xuan! The Alliance Leader's seventeen-year-old disciple!"
"Chen Xuan defeated Situ Lie, True Martial Temple's number one prodigy? Is that real?"
"Absolutely true. So what if Situ Lie cultivated a Fourth-Turn Golden Core and cleared the eighth floor of the Star Tower? He was still no match for Chen Xuan."
The news seemed to sprout wings, spreading through every corner of Heavenly Martial City in an instant.
In streets and alleys, taverns and teahouses, brothels and gambling dens, everywhere was discussing the same name—Chen Xuan.
In the Guiyuan Sect's section of the Martial Arts Arena's VIP seats, the atmosphere was as lively as New Year's.
Supreme Elder Zhong Yuan stroked his beard, his eyes narrowing into slits with laughter as even the wrinkles on his face relaxed.
"Good, good, good!" He said "good" three times in a row, his voice brimming with gratification. "Number one on the Hidden Dragon Ranking at seventeen. In over eight hundred years, when has our Guiyuan Sect ever produced such a prodigy?"
"Not in over eight hundred years," an elder beside him replied, his voice trembling. "Forget the Guiyuan Sect. Looking across all of Cloud Province, no such monster has appeared in more than a thousand years. To say something outrageously presumptuous, Chen Xuan's talent has already surpassed that of our founding patriarch."
"Although Chen Xuan