Translator: CinderTL
Virtual Cosmos World.
Independent Cosmos!
This time, Jiang Ye didn't appear in the resting hall after entering. Instead, he was immediately teleported into the competition arena.
Whoosh!
As soon as Jiang Ye materialized, his figure appeared at the center of a massive arena.
There were no other arenas nearby.
The five hundred arenas set up for the preliminary rounds were spaced far apart.
Your opponent is entering the competition arena. Please wait patiently.
"Opponent?" Jiang Ye closed his eyes to conserve his energy, indifferent to who his opponent might be.
His goal was first place.
Even if the preliminary rounds pitted him against opponents like Shen Changxi or Liu Wanxiao, he would still claim victory.
Of course, that was highly unlikely.
According to the competition rules, the preliminary rounds typically matched strong competitors against weaker ones. Only those ranked in the middle tiers would face opponents of similar skill.
The purpose was to eliminate the weakest contenders first.
This principle applied to virtually all elimination-based competitions.
After a brief wait, Jiang Ye's opponent finally appeared.
Whoosh! A figure materialized across the arena.
"Brother Jiang?" A startled cry rang out.
Swish! Jiang Ye's eyes snapped open.
"Brother Lin?" Jiang Ye's expression flickered with surprise.
Standing opposite him was a young man with an enormous head and a face riddled with pockmarks—a truly unsightly figure.
Jiang Ye's opponent in this preliminary round was none other than Lin Yushu!
"Brother Jiang, I never imagined I'd face you in the preliminaries," Lin Yushu remarked with a sigh. "This is going to be a tough fight."
"Me neither," Jiang Ye replied with a smile.
Lin Yushu had ranked in the five hundreds during the Entrance Trials, placing him at the level of a C-grade student.
According to the competition's principle of "strongest against weakest, mid-tier against mid-tier," Jiang Ye's matchup against Lin Yushu indicated that the system had assessed his strength to be between A-grade and Mid A-Tier.
This was reasonable, considering Jiang Ye's last evaluation had been the previous month, before he had reached the first breakthrough peak.
"Brother Jiang, how are things going with Teacher Zhu?" Lin Yushu asked, showing no urgency to start the match.
The cultivation atmosphere at Penglai University was incredibly intense.
Moreover, with Jiang Ye in the Heaven-Tier Zone and Lin Yushu in the Profound Zone, their dormitories were far apart, making casual conversation rare.
In the three months since the semester began, this was their first proper conversation.
"Things are going well," Jiang Ye replied.
"Teacher Zhu is very dedicated," Jiang Ye said with a smile. "What about you? I heard you've taken on a Sword Dao teacher."
"I'm not qualified to have a master," Lin Yushu replied with a shake of his head and a laugh. "C-grade students all attend classes in the large lecture hall."
"But I am indeed practicing swordplay."
"After all, I'm not much to look at, so I might as well make my fighting style look cool," Lin Yushu joked.
As he spoke, a confident glint appeared in his eyes. "In these past three months, my swordplay has already reached Small Success. Don't underestimate me, Brother Jiang—you might not even be my match."
"Hahaha, good! Then let's have a proper match!" Jiang Ye roared with laughter.
Match Start. Please select your weapon.
A holographic screen materialized.
Without hesitation, Jiang Ye chose his familiar Black Dragon Spear.
Across from him, Lin Yushu selected a silver longsword.
Match Start!
As the announcement flashed across the screen, the two fighters on the arena transformed into blurs, hurtling toward each other.
The battle had begun!
As Jiang Ye's match commenced, intense combat erupted simultaneously across all 499 other arenas.
Meanwhile...
In a specially designated space, five hundred projections displayed the battle footage from the five hundred arenas.
Elder Bai, Zhu Honglie, Chen Yuntian, and other high-ranking university officials were gathered here to observe the matches.
"The preliminary rounds have begun," Elder Bai said with a cheerful smile, watching the screens. "Let's see how many promising talents this year's freshmen class holds."
From his perspective, the Freshman Competition was far more significant than the Entrance Trials.
A good performance during the Entrance Trials merely indicated decent high school grades.
The Freshman Competition, however, was the true measure of Penglai University's educational standards.
Whether students had improved, and by how much, were crucial metrics for evaluation.
"Old Zhu," Elder Bai suddenly turned to Zhu Honglie beside him, smiling. "What's the real strength of that Jiang Ye you took under your wing? I'm quite curious."
"Patience," Zhu Honglie replied with a shake of his head. "You'll see soon enough."
"You're such a secretive fellow," Elder Bai chuckled, shaking his head.
"Old Zhu's been acting like he's hiding treasures these past few days," Chen Yuntian added with a raspy laugh, "guarding his students as if we might steal them. He's clearly planning for them to make a spectacular debut."
"Hahaha!" The other teachers joined in the laughter.
Everyone knew that Zhu Honglie's students rarely achieved fame.
Although Jiang Ye had placed first in the Freshman Trials, his subsequent combat performance suggested he was only at the mid-stage of the first breakthrough.
From the teachers' perspective, Jiang Ye likely wouldn't even make the top hundred in the upcoming competition.
Old Zhu's reaction to that outcome would undoubtedly be a spectacle.
"Time for some entertainment," several teachers chuckled, their faces lit up with anticipation.
For these high-ranking faculty members, beyond their daily cultivation and teaching duties, the most amusing thing was witnessing their colleagues' failures.
"Hmph."
Faced with his colleagues' expectant gazes, Zhu Honglie merely snorted, completely unconcerned.
"Look, Jiang Ye's match has already started," a plump teacher suddenly announced.
Instantly, all the teachers turned their attention to one of the projection screens.
Elder Bai waved his hand, enlarging the image.
Clearly, he too was keenly observing Jiang Ye's performance, given his first-place finish in the Freshman Trials.
On the screen, two afterimages collided in a violent explosion of sound.
Just three seconds later, only one figure remained.
Match over!
Elder Bai, Chen Yuntian, and all the other teachers froze in stunned silence.
"It's over?"
"So fast? Less than three seconds?"
"Jiang Ye... he's already at the first breakthrough peak?" The teachers stared in disbelief at the screen projection.
Unexpected!
The battle had seemed to unfold in an instant, like two afterimages colliding violently, too fast to follow.
But the teachers present had seen it clearly.
Jiang Ye's combat power had fully reached the standard of the first breakthrough peak!
That was why he had annihilated his opponent in under three seconds.
"I remember during the Entrance Trials, Jiang Ye was only at the mid-stage of the first breakthrough, right?" the chubby teacher said incredulously. "Now he's already at the peak?"
"This can't be right!"
"Jiang Ye has a Primitive innate talent? How could he improve so quickly?"
"Old Zhu, you really know how to keep a secret! How could you hold onto such a bombshell for so long?" The teachers erupted into a clamor.
Before this, everyone had assumed Old Zhu was about to drop some minor news, but the reality had far exceeded their expectations!
Even Elder Bai's eyes flashed with surprise. "From mid-stage to peak in just three months? That's astonishingly fast."
"He seems to have just broken through, but it's still remarkable."
"Old Zhu, no wonder you've been so secretive! You really were holding back something big!" Elder Bai exclaimed in admiration.
Zhu Honglie's face remained impassive, but the corners of his mouth twitched despite his efforts to suppress them. He chuckled lightly, "What's this? It's just the preliminary round. Wait and see what happens later."
Elder Bai nodded. "It seems this child truly has a chance to make it into the top ten."
"Top ten?" Zhu Honglie smiled without answering.
The top ten? That was far from his expectations for Jiang Ye.
Not enough. Not nearly enough!
(End of the Chapter)
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