Upon the square, a myriad of youths, each with their own unique aura and formidable strength, stood proudly.
Their eyes, detached and indifferent, emitted a special yet powerful vibe.
Among them, the Pantheon Temple, Mount Olympus, Dark Council, and Ancient Buddha Holy Land were the most conspicuous.
The Pantheon Temple deployed a total of fifteen God's Children, led by the descendant of God Jehovah himself, needless to say; the other fourteen had terrifyingly prestigious heritages.
The Seven Sacred Angels and the Seven Fallen Angels each possessed distinctly different abilities.
Mount Olympus, on the other hand, had sent the God's Children of the Fourteen Great Gods, each of whose powers represented the pinnacle of a kind of Divine Power.
The Dark Council was the most mysterious, openly acknowledging only the God's Child who was a descendant of the Progenitor, Cain; all the rest shunned publicity, but no one dared to underestimate them.
Although the Ancient Buddha Holy Land's monks all had shaved heads, their backing wasn't God's Children but figures of substantial renown, with hidden depths no less profound than those of the Dark Council.
The apparent strength of other Foreign Forces seemed somewhat weaker than these four powers, but who could guess what ace cards they concealed? Without fighting to the very end, the riddle would remain unsolved.
The least favored, naturally, was Great Xia.
They truly lacked presence.
They had merely sent five individuals into battle, the fewest in number; four of whom were Mortals.
Only Luo Yu was a God's Child, yet the backing Deity never manifested a God's Child before.
Aside from the Citizens of Daxia, foreign forums were already abuzz, mocking Daxia for merely filling the numbers in the competition, and courting humiliation.
Such disparaging and belittling comments naturally provoked fierce rebuttals from the Citizens of Daxia, but the opposition would suppress them with the sheer number of God's Children with manifested miracles.
It was indeed hard to argue in such disputes.
The opening ceremony wasn't complicated, and there wasn't even any performance.
Because such a competition was captivating enough to draw worldwide attention without any prelude; even from yesterday, the live stream had already amassed billions of viewers.
Citizens from all over the world were flocking in, entering early to wait.
This was far from a mere competition, nor simply a clash of the youth.
Victory or defeat directly impacted the major powers' underlying strength and their very survival.
After the host had introduced the participating teams and Luo Tiance had made a speech lasting less than half a minute,
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The final round of salute cannons fired in unison, thundered across the sky, bursting into clusters of white smoke.
The smoke coalesced, eventually forming a line of conspicuous letters in the sky.
"The World Youth Martial Arts Competition officially begins."
"This must be the simplest opening ceremony in the world, even elementary school sports meets have longer openings."
In White Jade Square, Luo Yu's gaze shifted from the sky to his surroundings.
No one was paying attention to his direction.
These God's Children, who had been provoking him online, had all fallen silent upon arriving in Daxia.
Not a single one came to speak to him.
Luo Yu understood that these fellows were just showing off, not that they didn't want to find him, but they were displaying a disdainful stance of not bothering to engage with him.
They planned to crush him fiercely in the arena.
Tsk, quite interesting.
Seeing the crowd of posers around him, Luo Yu licked his lips and revealed a significant, excited smile.
"Hey, Luoshenzi, why do you look so creepily happy?" Cao Potian shivered.
Luo Yu glanced at Cao Potian beside him, "If you can't speak well, then speak less, bro. This is excitement."
Cao Potian was silent.
He hadn't misseen it; there was something eerie about the God's Child's smile, as if he were looking at a group of powerful God's Children as mere food on a plate.
"Speaking of which, aren't you four nervous at all?"
The truth was, even Luo Yu felt pressured seeing so many God's Children gathered together.
After all, it didn't matter much if he alone perished, but behind him were the billions of Citizens of Daxia.
If he failed, the whole of Daxia might consequently suffer an irrevocable downfall.
Zhao Yunliu said, "If you're not nervous, we obviously aren't panicked."
Xiang Kunlun nodded, "Out of us four, the one who should be most tormented must be you."
"In fact, we all understand that it's hard for our strength to make it to the very end in such a competition since you've already taught us a lesson that day."
"But we're also part of Daxia and want to contribute our strength."
Cao Potian added, "Contribute my ass. What can we contribute, our heads as a score?
"It's just that we hope to survive in the battles by luck, then improve ourselves; the gap will only get wider if we keep to our own training. Trying to narrow the gap is the right path."
Hearing this, Luo Yu nodded, feeling an increased sense of approval for the four.
A timid person might have hidden outright behind him, not daring to compete.
But these four showed no fear of death, embodying the spirit of Daxia.
If the backbone of Daxia's people were gone, then no matter how powerful he, the God's Child, was, he couldn't raise them up.
Lack of strength could be compensated for, but if the spirit collapsed, revival would be difficult.
After the opening ceremony, there was a draw.
To decide the opponents for the preliminary rounds.
This competition was conducted with each major power battling each other.
There was no limit to the number of competitors when registering; in theory, you could have as many participants as you'd like.
Therefore, nearly all the God's Children of the significant powers arrived.
From the number of God's Children, the depth of a power's foundation could also be discerned.
In the rest area, Luo Yu had his hands clasped behind his head, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, resting.