When they saw Xu Renjie's spear shaft strike Lin Hao, all the Presented Scholar Seeds present who could keep up with their speed and react thought the outcome was settled.
But the sudden turn that followed instantly silenced the entire arena.
Song Xian's "Enough!" still echoed in their ears.
Yet all they could do was stare blankly at the headless corpse standing there with its spear.
Only the soft thud of Xu Renjie's head hitting the ground brought the candidates back to their senses.
As they watched blood spurt from the corpse, disbelief filled their faces!
Xu Renjie was dead!
That Xu Renjie, Zhili's strongest Provincial Examination Laureate, who had killed someone at Force Gathering and Embrace the Elixir?
The Top Scholar Seed who had ranked first in both Force Measurement and Speed Measurement?!
Dead in his very first match?!
Deaths were not unheard of in the Martial Examination Metropolitan Examination. In the first round especially, plenty of low-scoring candidates who refused to concede were killed or crippled. Being killed in an instant was nothing unusual!
But this was different. The person ranked first had been killed in an instant-
Unprecedented. Unheard of!
Some candidates who had only come to participate now stared wide-eyed, feeling that coming had been the right decision!
This really was earth-shattering news!
The sort that people might not even believe-
"Sorry, I was going to stop, but Grand Secretary Song's Force Pressure suddenly startled me-"
Some of the spraying blood had stained Lin Hao as well. With an indifferent expression, he tossed aside the Wooden Sword, ignored Song Xian's reaction, and jumped straight off the platform.
"Next one up."
But after Lin Hao's casual closing remark, no new candidates came forward in order to take the platform. He turned back in surprise, saw the expressionless