As Ying Xiong realized he had won, he jumped up in the air with his hands out. He hugged his mom and gave Zhou Fan a high five.
Eventually, he settled down and the loser of the battle walked into the stands.
After a minute passed, two more tokens flew into the air. They were the number 5 and 6 tokens.
Hong Yen walked on to the stage as her opponent nervously followed. While Bai Hun had not been out in public much and Ying Xiong had never been seen fighting, their opponents weren't nervous.
Hong Yen, the daughter of Fairy Hong Yun, was much different. Her reputation was known throughout the entire Zhou Galaxy.
As expected, the battle ended in just a single minute. Although Hong Yen's opponent was able to resist for a while, it was clear he had no chance from the beginning.
Hong Yen won her battle and the number 7 and 8 tokens floated up.
The number 7 token was held by Ao Wen, while the number 8 was held by an unnamed person.
From the moment the battle began, Ao wen held a slight upper hand. Despite that, his opponent was able to struggle for 5 entire minutes before falling to a surprise dragons breath.
The next fight was between Lernean and someone from the Heaven galaxy.
Lerneans fighting style was different from the others. The moment the countdown finished, he transformed into his supreme beast form.
Without hesitation, his giant body breathed down 9 different breaths of different elements. His opponent struggled to even react properly.
When he used a water barrier to block the fire, ice froze the barrier and earth shattered it. When he used a wind barrier, lightning and dark Qi attacked it. Even when he tried to use a barrier made from non elemental Qi, the nine breaths rained down upon him at the same time.
Before even showing any offensive methods, Lerneans opponent was defeated. Lernean was different from those like Yao Mun, Ying Xiong, and Guang Fu. From birth, he had been trained in battle. Even before his birth, he was meant to be a powerful weapon.
Every youth attending the assembly immediately put Lernean near the top of their danger list.
He struck first, fast, and powerfully.
The next battle was between Guang Fu and one of the unnamed people. Zhou Fan payed a little more attention to this battle.
Despite Guang Fu's attendance, he was one of the more untalented people. Even now, his meridians were only of god rank. Only later would they grow stronger.
Guang Fu put up an unexpected resistance, almost defeating his opponent, but he unfortunately lost.
The next battle was between two unnamed people. Surprisingly, the battle was quickly won by one of them. He was essentially a perfect counter to his opponent.
The next battle was the final battle in the first round. Finally, Yao Mun got to fight. As the sole person of the demonic path attending, many paid attention to him.
As the number 15 and 16 tokens floated up, Yao Mun and his opponent jumped on stage.
As the numbers counted down, Yao Mun stared at his opponent with his eyes wide open. Even the talented opponent felt chills go down his spine as he looked into Yao Mun's unmoving eyes.
The moment the 1 turned into fight, Yao Mun exploded with power towards his opponent. He arrived in front of his opponent in an instant and leaped towards him with his sword raised high. His body was completely horizontal.
Yao Mun's opponent quickly took out a sword from his spatial ring and swung upwards at the sword. The moment he did, Yao Mun's eye activated, sending a piercing flame directly at his opponent's stomach.
Within a few seconds of the battle starting, they were both teleported out of the ring. Silence filled the stadium as even the announcer's voice seemed to be silent for a second.
Yao Mun had absolutely decimated his opponent without even giving him a chance to retaliate.
Soon, the announcer spoke.
"The first round of fighting is over. The 16 contestants have turned into 8. After 30 minutes of break time, the second round will begin."
After he finished speaking, another white door appeared. After seeing the cultivators in the stand entering the white door, the newcomers followed.
They were greeted with the same banquet hall as before. Everyone got some food, found a seat, and sat down.
After spending some time with Ying Xiong, Zhou Fan excused himself and walked over to Yao Mun's table. He was sitting alone and in the process of eating what seemed like an entire beast of food.
As Zhou Fan sat across from him, Yao Mun looked over for a moment before he continued eating.
Zhou Fan had no intention to talk with him. He simply stared at Yao Mun to see what he had become so far.
"Do you need something?" Yao Mun asked after a while.
"No. But you are quite interesting." Zhou Fan answered.
Zhou Fan didn't talk to Yao Mun like he talked to others. When speaking to someone else, he would often act kind and even smile in order to make them feel better around him.
For Yao Mun, however, all pretenses were dropped.
Zhou Fan looked at him with absolutely no emotion in his eyes. Even when speaking, it was the most flat and basic voice.
Yao Mun didn't speak afterwards, so a long moment of silence passed.
Eventually, Zhou Fan spoke again.
"I heard you want to kill Heaven." Zhou Fan said. "He is right over there."
As he spoke, Zhou Fan pointed at Heaven. Heaven was sitting with Tian Ren and Guang Fu as they ate.
His words got Yao Mun's attention as he looked over. After staring for 30 seconds, he looked away and continued eating.
Zhou Fan laughed and got up from his seat. He could tell that Yao Mun, while seemingly calm, had an immense amount of rage boiling inside him as he looked at Heaven.
The moments he spent staring were actually him memorizing Heaven's face.
'This level of hatred is quite irrational.' Zhou Fan said to himself. 'But he was never meant to be rational. That's the point.'