Chapter 474: Spots Filled
“Xiu!”
After a short wait, Xiao Chen’s final opponent showed up. When he saw who it was, his eyes could not help but brighten. He did not expect his final opponent to be Zuo Mo.
It looked like this match would not be as simple as he imagined. Things had just become interesting.
Zuo Mo, on the other hand, had a slightly bitter smile on his face as he stood across him. He said, “I know that you will find this boring but I will be forfeiting. I already have enough points to rank in the top twenty. There is no need for me to fight a pointless battle. See you in the Ancient Desolate Tower.”
Xiao Chen smiled, “Now, it has become somewhat difficult for me to find a fight. See you in the Ancient Desolate Tower then. Let’s consider this a draw? After all, we have not figured out a victory between you and me yet. Sooner or later, we will have to fight each other.”
Zuo Mo nodded and said, “There is still one and a half years until the next Five Nation Youth Compet.i.tion. At that time, we will definitely meet. We can fight to our heart’s content then.”
The two shook hands and agreed before walking off the arena together. Then, they started to watch the other fights, waiting for the second round of selections to come to an end.
When the matches finally ended, Xia Xiyan walked over to Xiao Chen with a smile on her face. Clearly, she was very confident in her results.
“How did it go? There should be no problems, right?” Xiao Chen asked.
Xia Xiyan nodded and said, “I lost two rounds and had one draw. There should not be any problems. However, I will still have to see the final results!”
After that, the final match on the arena came to an end. All the contestants anxiously waited in antic.i.p.ation.
The Heavenly Extermination Union had a person who specially tracked the results of the contestants. Furthermore, they had invited leaders of the various powers to monitor the fights. Thus, they could guarantee the absolute fairness of the final results.
The results were quickly tabulated. After s.h.i.+ Hailong and the others saw it, they instructed someone to start reading it out.
“The results are out! The first is Chu Chaoyun. In his thirty matches, he has one draw and victories for the rest, with a total of 59 points. The second is Xiao Chen. He has two draws and victories for the rest. He has a total of 58 points. The third is Ding Fengchou. He has three draws and victories for the rest, totaling 57 points. The fourth is Jiang Zimo…”
Nothing unexpected happened. Aside from Chu Chaoyun, the other top then were the people who stood at the top of the previous gathering: Jiang Zimo, Mu Xinya, Zuo Mo, Chu Mu, Ding Fengchou, Xia Xiyan, and the others.
At this point, everyone still had calm expressions. After the top ten names had been read out and all the top geniuses got a spot, the rest started to become nervous.
It was now their turn. In fact, for the rest of the crowd, the twenty spots were only ten spots. Those were all they could compete for, given the strength of the top geniuses.
When the old man finished reading out the list, s.h.i.+ Hailong said with a serious expression, “Those whose names have been not read out, step back. Those who have been called out, please step forward.”
The outstanding talents that had not get a spot all had very disappointed looks on their faces. They sighed and stepped back.
They looked enviously at Xiao Chen and the others who had stepped forward and had extremely unsatisfied looks in their eyes.
They knew that this act of them stepping forward or backward meant that the distance between them and these people would become something they could never catch up with.
s.h.i.+ Hailong swept his gaze through the crowd. Then he flicked his finger and a jade pendant with mysterious talisman inscriptions fell into the hands of the top twenty.
“You will not be able to enter the Ancient Desolate Tower without this jade pendant. I have already given you the opportunity. As for how far you can go, that will depend on yourselves,” s.h.i.+ Hailong said expressionlessly in a deep voice.
“Open the tower!” s.h.i.+ Hailong ordered, and the four old men behind him went in front of the Tianwu Emperor’s sculpture and made hand seals.
A pure Essence came from the four old men and slowly infused into the sculpture. The Tianwu Emperor sculpture started glowing with a golden light from bottom to top.
When the golden light completely covered the sculpture, a boundless sword Qi rushed out from the sword in the Tianwu Emperor’s hand.
“Weng! Weng!”
A humongous and grand formation appeared in the sky. Countless lines formed a profound image.
The golden sword light rushed into the formation. When the sword Qi reached the formation center, it slowly spread out and all the lines turned golden.
The golden light s.h.i.+ned down and an inverted image of the formation s.h.i.+ned on the plaza. It was a huge ancient formation. When everyone, including Xiao Chen, felt the vast Spiritual Energy of the formation, they were astonished. At this moment, they felt very small.
In the distance, where Xiao Chen had once seen the ancient tower, the buildings vanished one by one.
The Ancient Desolate Tower now appeared before everyone, astonis.h.i.+ng them even more.
The Ancient Desolate Tower turned out to be within the Tianwu Plaza. However, due to some formations creating an illusion, no one could find its real location.
“Boom!”
The lower doors of the Ancient Desolate Tower opened. s.h.i.+ Hailong said in a deep voice, “Enter!”
When the tower appeared, Xiao Chen and the others placed the jade pendant around their chest and immediately headed to the entrance of the first floor.
Although the doors were open, there was a membrane of light blue energy flickering with a dim blue light around them.
“Chi! Chi!”
Four or five impatient people rushed in front of the ground and entered. When their hands touched the membrane, the jade pendant with the mysterious talisman scripts immediately lit up, and they pa.s.sed through.
It seemed that the blue energy membrane had the ability to differentiate those with the jade pendant from those who tried to barge in forcefully without one.
Xiao Chen was not in a rush to enter the Ancient Desolate Tower. He stood outside and looked at the tower.
The tower had nine floors and was more than four hundred meters tall. Spiritual Energy revolved around the foot of the tower, forming an overwhelming aura.
Just by standing at its feet, one could feel an ancient and vast aura creating a strong pressure.
In the past, the Thunder Emperor only managed to go to the seventh floor. For so many people to be so nervous about it and be filled with antic.i.p.ation, what exactly is in this Ancient Desolate Tower? I wonder how many floors I will be able to climb up?
Xiao Chen took a deep breath. He walked to the energy membrane and stretched his right hand out.
“Xiu!”
Xiao Chen’s figure trembled and he felt like he was going through a waterfall. Then, he appeared on the first floor of the Ancient Desolate Tower.
“Boom!”
Just as Xiao Chen landed on the ground, he felt a huge pressure crus.h.i.+ng down on him.
It was a formless pressure that came from the air, pressing heavily on Xiao Chen’s shoulders like a pair of huge hands. It felt like his entire body was pushed down.
Xiao Chen got caught off guard and fell to one knee. The pressure nearly pushed him to the ground.
After Xiao Chen reacted to it, he circulated his Vital Qi around his body. He straightened his back and allowed that pressure flow onto him. However, he remained motionless.
This pressure is not that strong, Xiao Chen thought to himself. As long as I am not pressed to the ground immediately, it is quite easy to resist.
Xiao Chen looked up. The first floor was very vast. There were carvings of many people on the wall, staring at the people who came to challenge the Ancient Desolate Tower.
Xiao Chen continued looking further up. He saw a barrier of light separating the first and second floor like a ceiling.
Several cultivators flew into the air, fighting the pressure. They slowly moved towards the light barrier above them.
The barrier was at a height that they would normally be able to cover in a couple of breaths. However, it now felt extremely difficult to move even one meter.
The air felt very dense and sticky, ruthlessly pressing down on them.
“Can anyone help me up!”
Xiao Chen saw an unfortunate fellow about a meter in front. He was pressed flat on the ground, trying to push himself off the ground with his hands.
He tried to stand up, but could not even after a long time. His only option was to call out for help.
The pressure in the first layer was not so great that it could not be resisted. However, if one let down their guard at the very start, they would be pressed flat on the ground.
It would be very difficult to rely on their own strength to stand up again.
The surrounding cultivators were all climbing up nervously. No one cared about him at all. Even if they heard him, they just ignored him.
All of them were compet.i.tors here. It was hard to say whether if they helped him, he might end up becoming stronger than them.
Xiao Chen shook his head, It is not easy to enter this Ancient Desolate Tower. It would definitely be unfortunate if one gave up here.
“Bang!”
Xiao Chen stomped heavily on the ground and pushed off the ground with a huge force. He used his force to slowly fly up.
The cultivator laying flat on the ground also used this force to get up to a bow. He looked at Xiao Chen, who was in the air, and quickly thanked him.
“Hu! Hu!”
Xiao Chen broke through the seemingly solid pressure and slowly rose up. At first, he moved rather slowly. Then, he got used to it.