“START THE BATTLE ROYAL!!”

As the elder’s voice thundered into everyone’s ears, all the disciples down below couldn’t contain their excitement as this was the final match.

However, something was different about the atmosphere surrounding the disciples on stage.

Before, they were tamed and were just battling with their agendas hidden, but since Xi Shen’s words had pointed out what most of them were thinking, their battle intent was fully ignited and they were determined to show their battle prowess here and now.

However, something went tragically wrong for a few of them.

As soon as the elder’s voice echoed out, Ming Shiming suddenly attacked two of the eight disciples who were wearing the Sword Pavilions' white robes that were close by.

And that wasn’t the end of it because a laugh suddenly echoed out from Xiasheng, who was a contender for the top spot like Guiren, before he suddenly threw himself at Dong Sin and another disciple, both of which were in the Blade Pavilion’s red robes.

This sudden turn of events left all the disciples completely taken aback.

One of the disciples that Shiming suddenly attacked yelled in anger, “You! Wh-What are you doing… Agh!”

However, before that disciple could completely finish his sentence, Shiming's foot landed squarely on his chest which sent him flying off the stage, all before he could even draw his sword from its scabbard by his waist.

Shiming then wordlessly shifted his attention to the other Sword Pavilion disciple and with speed even greater than he had shown previously when fighting Guiren, he appeared in front of his wide-eyed opponent and throw out his fist back by the physique and Internal Qi.

That disciple didn’t even stand a chance as he was unable to react to Shiming’s blow in time and thus fail to stop his fist from landing on his chest, the force of which broke his sternum and sent him flying off the stage as well.

Over on Xiasheng’s side, one of his opponents was already on the ground clutching at his leg which was bent at a strange angle. As for Dong Sin, his clothes were ruffled up from Xiasheng's previous attack, but he had managed to draw his saber and fend off his follow-up blows in time.

As someone who was in the same league as Renxiang, Dong Sin was quite powerful among the senior Inner Disciples. However, he was a second year while Xiasheng was closing on his third year in the Celestial Academy, meaning he was slightly weaker than Xiasheng.

Xiasheng clicked his tongue when he saw that he hadn’t knocked out Dong Sin as easily as Shiming had done with his two opponents.

With a burst of speed, he approached Dong Sin unarmed and sent a fist towards his face.

With blood at the corner of his lip, Dong Sin blocked Xiasheng’s fist with the flat side of his blade, but he was still knocked back by the force.

From that, he could tell that he was no match for Xiasheng, and unwilling to be beaten like this he chose to surrender.

Xiasheng upon hearing Dong Sin’s forfeit paused his movement towards him.

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After watching Dong Sin leap off the stage with an ugly expression on his face, the crowd slightly came out of the dazed state they were in.

Of course, they knew how a battle royal worked, but this outcome completely took them by surprise. They didn’t expect Shiming and Xiasheng to immediately knock out four participants just like that.

They had expected to see a full-on brawl with various techniques being used, along with swords and sabers flying everywhere as they all fight each other in an intense all-for-one battle. But the results as one can tell were a totally different outcome than what the disciples had envisioned in their minds.

Xi Shen who was watching on from his Pavilion had an amused smile playing on his face. When he had suggested the battle royal he had pretty much predicted that something like this would have happened, where the stronger ones would go for the weaker ones and immediately knock them out.

This was because if given the chance, those weaker ones might have teamed up and tried to beat either of them with numbers before fighting amongst themselves.

It was smart of Ming Shiming and Xiasheng to foresee this and immediately acted to prevent that outcome.

And from how the four disciples were beaten so easily, one could see the difference in experience fighting in group battles instead of a one versus one battle.

This also shows the validity of Xi Shen's point, and even though he might have been blowing certain things out of proportion to get this situation set up, it still didn’t discredit the fact that if those four were a bit more experience in these types of battles, they would’ve probably been able to team up against Shiming and Xiasheng in an instant and overpower them with their combine strength.

Instead, their focus was only on themselves resulting in them being beaten so horribly.

Now for them, instead of showing off their prowess, they were showing off how lacking their battle experience and instincts were.

On the stage, Xiasheng turned to Shiming and said with a chuckle, “I didn’t expect you would think of the same thing I did.”

Shiming didn’t respond and only gave him an indifferent look.

Within the crowd of disciples, the commotion hadn't yet died down due to what had just happened.

“Senior brothers Xiasheng and Shiming are really smart! It wouldn’t be a surprise if either of them won the competition!”

“Hey, your forgetting about the sudden dark horse that appeared, look he’s still on the stage as well!”

A disciple said while pointing at the motionless Yang Su.

“Yeah that right’s, the three of them are the main event of this competition!”

“Huh? What are you talking about, there is another disciple on the stage over there, look he’s wearing the Blade Pavilion’s red robes.”

The disciple who had just been corrected was suddenly taken aback by that statement, his eyes then trained on the other person he had totally missed before he suddenly said, “W-What?! Who is he? How come he’s on the stage?!”

That disciple who had just realized this new participant cried out in confusion.

Another disciple who was nearby suddenly turned to him and asked, “What are you talking about, he is one of the participants.”

Now several disciples turn to look at the one that had just cried out with confused expressions. They wondered what the hell was wrong with this idiot, can’t he count? Was he blind or something?

However, that disciple suddenly shook his head vehemently and said, “No he’s not! Including the four disciples that senior brother Xiasheng and Shiming just knocked out, and counting everyone else that would make it nine of them on the stage.”

A disciple next to him frowned and was ready to curse at this idiot for speaking gibberish, but another voice suddenly exclaim in surprise, “No wait! He’s right who is that person?! Guys remember in round one that Zhang Xiang had been disqualified and was unable to move on to the second round because of the injuries he suffered in that explosion. With him gone the number of participants should have been down to sixteen, not the same seventeen!!”

When everyone heard that and was reminded of Zhang Xiang their faces suddenly turn dumbfounded as they looked towards this unknown disciple.

As it turns out they were the ones who couldn’t count.

Now everyone was wondering what the hell was going on, round two was held with seventeen people, where did an extra participant suddenly come from?

As the disciples down below mutters got louder and louder, it reach the ears of Xiasheng, and he frowned before shifting his gaze towards that extra disciple.

Looking at this unknown youth that held a placid expression on his face while he stood off to one side of the stage. He had straight black hair that ran down his shoulder, and his face could be said to be very generic. If he was placed in a crowd he wouldn’t stand out that much. This could be seen from the simple fact that his presence had gone completely unnoticed until now.

Even the experts up above turned to look at him in confusion, they were occupied with observing Ghuanyu’s new method of cultivation that they had also overlooked the fact that someone had joined the competition mid-way.

A confused Ming Shiming turned to the elder in charge of the competition and asked, “Elder what's going on? Why is there an extra person on the stage?”

Everyone’s gaze in the venue then turned to the elder to understand what the hell was going on, but even after a long moment of silence, the elder didn’t open his mouth.

Everyone was extremely taken aback by this.

None of them knew exactly what to make of his silence.