“Swish!”
At that moment, another figure flew over.
This was a man in his early thirties named Di Hanqiu. The mid-grade seventh-level spiritual power aura on his body was completely unrestrained, and the terrifying power of his spiritual force was noticeably stronger than that of Lü Si.
“You go fight for second place.” Di Hanqiu said directly to Lü Si upon arrival. Clearly, he had overheard Lü Si’s earlier words.
Lü Si’s face immediately darkened.
He had naturally paid attention to Di Hanqiu’s battle in the previous round. Di Hanqiu was a dark horse who had eliminated a seeded player. The combat power he displayed on the stage was very strong and caused quite a stir. Lü Si could clearly see that his own strength was far inferior to Di Hanqiu’s.
Originally, by drawing two young opponents, he had a good chance of advancing directly to the next round.
Who would have thought this dark horse would end up in the same group as him?
As a result, his direct advancement spot was gone.
One moment of joy followed by sorrow made Lü Si feel as if he had climbed to the peak only to plummet into the abyss in an instant.
So close, so very close to advancing directly!
Now, second place meant he would have to compete for one of the remaining five spots.
Those five spots were completely random draws, with no distinction for seeded players.
In this first wave of the fourth round, at least five seeded players would be pushed to the second wave.
Competing then would give an even smaller chance of securing an advancement spot.
“I hope the second wave draw brings better luck. With good luck, there might still be a chance to advance.” Lü Si sighed inwardly once more.
“Di Hanqiu?” Yan Huashu’s already darkened face turned even more puzzled.
“Di Hanqiu drew Mu Haoran’s group? Haha, looks like Mu Haoran is done for.”
“That’s right. Di Hanqiu is a dark horse who defeated a seeded player. His debut was stunning, and his strength is terrifying. Mu Haoran is only at sixth-grade advanced spiritual power. No matter how strong he is, he absolutely cannot be Di Hanqiu’s match.”
“Mu Haoran cannot fight for first in the group. Even if he has the strength to take second, competing for those five spots will be much harder.”…
The crowd began discussing heatedly again. If one were to say who shone most brilliantly in the previous round, Di Hanqiu would certainly qualify.
Now that Di Hanqiu had drawn Battle Platform No. 6, the others on that platform were in trouble.
Although Mu Haoran’s strength was not weak, there was clearly a huge gap between him and Di Hanqiu.
“Lin Xiao has finally met a real opponent.”
“Di Hanqiu’s strength is very formidable. Lin Xiao’s chance of winning is less than forty percent.”
“What a pity he did not encounter one of Yangzhou’s seeded players. That would have let Lin Xiao die on the stage.”
“Killing him would be letting him off too easily. Besides, he still carries news of that forbidden land and those two Martial Saints. He cannot die yet.”…
The group from Yangzhou who bore grudges against Lin Xiao whispered among themselves. Even though they knew Lin Xiao’s trump cards, they still did not believe he could defeat Di Hanqiu.
Amid the crowd’s discussion, the referee elder above Battle Platform No. 6 took out four bamboo slips, controlled them to fly above the heads of Lin Xiao and the other three, and said, “Four people draw lots. Whoever draws number one goes first.”
The four of them summoned their spiritual power and each drew a bamboo slip in front of themselves.
Lin Xiao pulled his open, saw it was a blank slip, and shook his head with a helpless smile. It seemed he would not get the chance to choose an opponent first this time.
Lin Xiao turned to look at Yan Huashu, who also shook his head. “Not me!”
At that moment, Di Hanqiu in the distance held up his numbered bamboo slip for all to see. The referee’s voice immediately rang out, “First to appear, Di Hanqiu. Who do you choose?”
“Di Hanqiu goes first?”
“Haha, now there’s a good show. Di Hanqiu will definitely choose Lin Xiao, or rather Mu Haoran. After all, Mu Haoran is the number one genius of the Nine Provinces. The other two simply do not qualify to fight Di Hanqiu.”
“Drawing Di Hanqiu, and having Di Hanqiu choose first, Mu Haoran is quite unlucky this round. The number one genius of the Nine Provinces participating in the Spirit Controller Grand Competition is about to stop here.”
“Whether early or late, Mu Haoran is bound to lose once. But I prefer it early, so he gets beaten so badly he has no chance to appear in the next match!”
“I hope Di Hanqiu can thoroughly humiliate Mu Haoran.”…
The watching crowd grew excited. Most people’s gazes focused on Battle Platform No. 6.
Beside Battle Platform No. 6, Lü Si thought to himself, “He should choose Mu Haoran or Yan Huashu.”
Just when everyone thought so, Di Hanqiu spoke to the referee, “I choose Lü Si.”
“Uh…”
In that instant, everyone was stunned.
Logically, Di Hanqiu should have chosen Mu Haoran. Why did he specifically choose Lü Si?
Lü Si was also stunned, his face full of confusion. Di Hanqiu chose him first?
At this point, Di Hanqiu looked disdainfully at Lin Xiao and said, “To many people, trampling the number one genius of the Nine Provinces would be an honour. But to me, in terms of spiritual cultivation, you are not even worthy of my attention.”
Lin Xiao was caught off guard. This guy was truly arrogant!
Then Di Hanqiu turned to Lü Si and said, “You can sweep these people. I’m too lazy to deal with them myself.”
“So that’s it. He simply does not take Mu Haoran seriously at all.”
“This Di Hanqiu truly deserves to be called a spiritual control genius. He only recognises spiritual power, not vital force. No matter how famous Mu Haoran is in vital force, Di Hanqiu disdains even trampling him.”
“He just thinks the two are too weak and not worth his effort. But since Di Hanqiu thinks that old man is barely worth noticing, the old man’s combat power should not be weak. He can probably defeat Mu Haoran. Letting the old man sweep both saves Di Hanqiu from having to act multiple times.”…
The crowd gradually understood.
Lü Si realised what was happening, and his face looked somewhat ugly.
However, Di Hanqiu choosing him to sweep the others was, from Di Hanqiu’s perspective, indeed a good choice.
“I forfeit!” At that moment, before Lü Si even stepped onto the platform, he spoke directly.
Di Hanqiu crossed his arms with an expression that said he had expected this.
“The one who forfeits continues to challenge. If they lose another match, they are directly eliminated.” The referee’s voice rang out.
This was a strength ranking battle. Losing twice meant ranking third with no further chance to advance, so that was direct elimination without needing to fight again.
Lü Si snorted coldly.
Lose another match?
That was absolutely impossible!
Although first place was gone, second place would still be his.
Lü Si’s gaze swept over Lin Xiao and Yan Huashu, finally settling on Yan Huashu. He said, “Little Yan, are you forfeiting directly, or do you want to come up?”
Lü Si choosing Yan Huashu surprised no one.
Yan Huashu had directly forfeited against Mu Haoran in the previous round, making him clearly the weakest in this group. He could be dealt with easily. Letting Yan Huashu choose someone to fight would be pointless anyway.
Yan Huashu had forfeited to Mu Haoran upon taking the stage in the last round, so there was no need to fight this one either.
Di Hanqiu would not even need to fight.
Yan Huashu would have no choice but to forfeit. Once he forfeited, he would have lost to two opponents and be directly eliminated.
In other words, Yan Huashu would hardly even get a chance to appear on stage.
Lü Si would eliminate Yan Huashu first. In the next match, no matter who he chose, it would inevitably be Mu Haoran. Di Hanqiu might not even need to step up.
“No matter what, I am still a genius. Forfeiting like this is too humiliating. I absolutely will not forfeit.” Yan Huashu said unwillingly.
“Then come up. It will only take one or two moves.” Lü Si said no more and flew onto the platform.
“I will avenge you. I will defeat him in one or two moves.” Lin Xiao smiled at Yan Huashu.
Yan Huashu’s face darkened. He flew onto the battle platform.
“Hmph!” The moment he rushed onto the platform, Yan Huashu immediately summoned a stone spirit form and smashed it toward Lü Si. The stone spirit form was extremely fast and reached Lü Si in the blink of an eye.
“Sneak attack? Get lost!”
Lü Si spat disdainfully. He summoned a giant hammer spirit form. Vast spiritual power fluctuations surged out instantly and smashed horizontally into Yan Huashu’s stone spirit form.
Seeing this, the crowd shook their heads. In such a scene, how could there be any chance of a sneak attack? Even charging up and attacking immediately would not succeed in ambushing.
From this momentum alone, it was clear that Yan Huashu’s spiritual power was far inferior to Lü Si’s. He would be defeated in just one move. Going up or not going up made almost no difference.
Boom!
However, just when everyone thought Yan Huashu would be blasted off the platform, that giant hammer spirit form was instantly shattered by the seemingly unremarkable stone spirit form.
The stone spirit form did not dissipate. Instead, it heavily smashed into Lü Si’s chest.
“Pfft!” Lü Si spat out a large mouthful of blood. His entire body shot backward and flew straight off the battle platform.
