A boring match

As soon as the match began, Long Haochen and contestant number twenty-nine moved at the same time.

What puzzled the spectators, however, was that number twenty-nine chose to summon his mount immediately.

Any knight eligible for the Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament had to be an outstanding knight who had broken through the third tier before turning twenty and visited the Knight Sacred Mountain to obtain a mount.

Long Haochen, meanwhile, held his shield before his chest with his left hand and pointed the tip of his heavy sword toward the ground with his right. His knees bent slightly, and a thick layer of golden light mist began rising from his body.

Build Momentum was a skill shared by Guardian Knights and Retribution Knights. By compressing spiritual power, it increased the damage of the user's next skill.

Seeing Long Haochen use Build Momentum, the senior members of the Knight Temple on the dais could not help feeling surprised. After all, it was not an ordinary skill that just any knight could master, but one of the Knight Temple's secret techniques.

"Hm?" Han Qian, who stood on the dais, gave a soft exclamation when he noticed the Inheritance Ring on Long Haochen's finger. "Whose boy is this? How come I've never seen him before?" He turned to the other senior members of the Knight Temple on the dais.

When they all shook their heads, Han Qian supposed that made sense. They were old comrades who had worked together for years and knew one another's family situations well. Besides, as far as he was concerned, how could these fellows' genes possibly produce such a handsome youngster?

Taking the contestant information handed to him by a nearby staff member, Han Qian spotted Long Haochen's name at once.

Han Qian sucked in a sharp breath. "Don't tell me this is Old Long's kid."

On the arena floor below the dais, Long Haochen's opponent, number twenty-nine, had summoned his Snow Spirit Horse, but he was still no match for Long Haochen.

Haoyue had entered seclusion after swallowing the Stone Ball purchased earlier at the Temple Alliance Auction House and could not come to Long Haochen's aid. Still, with Long Haochen's current strength at the peak of the eighth level of the fourth tier, even without a mount's assistance, a knight who had only recently broken through to the fourth tier could not defeat him.

Under Long Haochen's relentless assault, number twenty-nine soon found himself unable to hold out and was knocked off his horse.

"First match: number ninety-seven wins." With the outcome settled, the referee stepped into the center of the arena.

After that brief announcement, the referee continued in a deep voice, "We will now proceed with the second elimination match. Begin the draw."

The moment the referee finished speaking, the golden orb appeared directly above the Knight Trial Grounds again. Light flickered across its surface as the second draw began.

Seeing this, Long Haochen put away his sword and stood straight. He gave number twenty-nine and the referee a Knight's Salute each before heading toward the rest area.

Why did these elimination matches feel so dull?

Yue Shen yawned in boredom. The entire match had basically consisted of watching Long Haochen crush his opponent single-handedly. It had lasted less than a minute from start to finish and had been utterly uninteresting.

After nodding to Long Haochen as he passed the first row of contestant seats, Yue Shen glanced over the seats reserved especially for Fifth Tier contestants like himself. He discovered that he was the only Fifth Tier contestant present today.

Before long, the golden orb overhead stopped flashing and displayed the two contestants for the second elimination match.

Yue Shen activated the Identification Tool and scanned the two contestants in the second match.

[Name: ??? ×2]

[Age: ??? ×2]

[Tier: Third tier, ninth level; fourth tier, second level]

Goodbye.

At that, Yue Shen immediately rose to leave. No wonder the other Fifth Tier contestants had not bothered coming to watch the first day's elimination matches. There really was no point in watching these weaklings peck at each other.

"Ah."

On the dais, Han Qian sighed softly. "I never imagined Old Long's family would get all the good fortune. It was one thing for Yue Shen to receive their family's inheritance because he primarily trained as a Retribution Knight, but now they've even produced a fourteen-year-old Grand Knight.

"His talent isn't much worse than Yue Shen's. I just wonder how high this child's innate internal spiritual power is, and whether he has a divine shelter constitution too."

"Pass down my orders," Han Qian said gravely. "Classify this Long Haochen's information as a Knight Temple secret, just like Yue Shen's. His age, in particular-change it to eighteen."

"Heaven truly smiles upon our Knight Temple." A middle-aged knight beside him smiled. "In that case, among this generation of young people in our Knight Temple, we already have two who are practically assured of becoming Divine Seal Knights.

"And there's your grandson too, Brother Han. Hasn't he also broken through to become a Fifth Tier Earth Knight? Your Han family might produce a Divine Seal Knight as well."

"Don't even mention that disappointing brat." Han Qian merely shook his head with a rueful smile. "Look at Yue Shen. Of the five Fifth Tier contestants representing our Knight Temple this year, he's the only one who came to watch."

With that, Han Qian turned to look at the first row of contestant seats below...

"Where is he?"

Having just left the Temple Alliance Grand Trial Grounds, Yue Shen had nothing to do. He found a deserted spot and, with practiced ease, changed into a black cloak and put on the mask he had bought a few days earlier.

Before long, Yue Shen's originally pale golden eyes turned a beautiful azure blue. Since he had nothing else to do, he might as well take Sol along for another stroll around the Holy City.

After all, despite having been here for quite some time, he had made few friends. The only people he was relatively close to were Long Haochen and the others with whom he had completed the assessment mission.

But they were all busy preparing for the preliminaries right now. How could they possibly have time to wander around with him?

Walking along the streets of the Holy City, Yue Shen occasionally communicated with Sol through his thoughts, introducing this great city to it.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

A rather strange sound reached Yue Shen's ears. Sol, which was currently using one of his eyes to observe the Holy City, was also curious and urged him to turn around.

Yue Shen turned slightly, though he was already almost certain who he had run into.

Not far away, a girl holding a Green Bamboo Staff in her right hand was walking slowly. The strange sound came from the Green Bamboo Staff tapping against the ground.

The girl had long purple hair tied neatly behind her head. A black cloth covered her face, concealing her features.

The black cloth did not cover her eyes, leaving them exposed. Yue Shen could clearly see that they were grayish-white, without the slightest spark in them.

Sensing the confusion Sol conveyed to him, Yue Shen began explaining.

The girl before them was blind. Her eyes could not see, so she needed the Green Bamboo Staff to help her get around.

Sol still seemed unable to understand, so Yue Shen raised his hand and covered the eye Sol was currently using.

"Like this."

After explaining, Yue Shen lowered his hand and surveyed his surroundings.