"Our opponent is Takamanopara," Cao Potian said as he returned, having drawn lots for Luo Yu.
"I know."
Luo Yu did not show the slightest surprise, which astonished Cao Potian and the others.
"God's Child, did you already know we would be facing Takamanopara?"
"Of course."
Luo Yu opened his eyes and sneered coldly, "The ones we're fighting are these little Xiao Bagagas, a bunch of worthless dogs, the most annoying kind."
Instant enlightenment dawned on Cao Potian and his companions—there was more to this than met the eye.
Nonetheless, none of the four were old-fashioned in their thinking and immediately began active preparations for the battle against the Xiao Bagagas.
The manner of the combat was quite simple—it wasn't a team battle but an individual one.
Both sides would continuously send fighters into the arena, with the loser leaving the field and the winner staying to face the next challenger.
The battle would only end when all the contestants from one side had been defeated, and the other side declared the victor.
From the rules, it was clear that the power with more God's Children was at an advantage.
Cao Potian and his comrades' faces fell.
They sighed.
"This time the competition for our Great Xia is not going to be easy. There are only five of us."
Zhao Yunliu glanced at the line-up of other teams and shook his head as well.
Pride is one thing, but one has to acknowledge the objective gap—these foreign powers truly possessed overwhelming strength.
"The first match of the preliminaries: Mount Olympus versus the Temple of Pallas."
A young man wearing a white sacrificial robe flew towards the main battlefield high above Mt. Li.
His body radiated a holy light as if he could soothe all pain.
Sounds of the sea waves soon emerged from the rest area of Mount Olympus, the surroundings turning into vast expanses of azure, as if a blue ocean had materialized out of thin air.
"Boom!"
A youth with blue skin soared into the sky, an heir of Sea God Poseidon.
Without any pleasantries, the two initiated their clash in the air.
Luo Yu and contestants from other major forces all looked up from the ground, not a single one below the Transcendence cultivation level. Even at a distance of a kilometer, they could clearly see the battle unfold.
In the far distance above, several First Rank Summit of Great Xia were floating, shouldering high-definition cameras encased in an alloy shell, risking their lives to broadcast the event live to audiences around the world.
"Boom!"
The heir of Poseidon could command all the moisture in the air, condensing it into numerous spheres of light that rained down on his opponent from the Temple like droplets.
The Temple contestant, like an ancient shaman, summoned various exotic and mythical beasts to attack.
But they were scattered by the spheres of light, dissipating into Divine Power.
"Come!"
The Poseidon heir gestured, and the power of the Sea God coalesced into a cyan Trident, causing the surrounding moisture to surge toward it as the space vibrated.
"Go!"
He hurled the Trident, the motion simple yet decisive, locking down the space and aiming straight for the Temple contestant's chest. Despite desperate resistance, it was all in vain.
"Boom."
The Temple contestant was impaled through the chest and exploded in mid-air.
At the very moment the Temple contestant exploded, billions of viewers watching the live stream on the internet gasped.
Not because he was easily burst, but because when he exploded,
there wasn't a single drop of blood inside his body—it was all white, viscous energy.
It showed that the opponent was no longer within the realm of humanity.
"Swoosh!"
After his body exploded, the Temple contestant did not die.
The white energy from all directions gathered back together, and his body instantly regenerated.
Restored to its original state.
Luo Yu frowned from down below—these God's Children had likely become mutated, forfeiting their fleshly bodies.
But in return, they gained tremendous Divine Power and terrifying healing abilities.
Whether this exchange was good or bad, Luo Yu did not wish to judge. In the short term, it seemed beneficial.
In the long term, who could say?
After all, the Amaterasu he had encountered was entirely energy-based, with an undying source and immortal body.
"Why are you guys staring at me so strangely?" Luo Yu noticed the looks from Cao Potian and the others from the corner of his eye.
"You... you're not human anymore, are you?" Zhao Yunliu and the others hesitated to ask.
Luo Yu rolled his eyes, "Buzz off, kid. I'm nothing like these freaks."
"You're cursing people!" Cao Potian said, astonished.
"Buzz off. Can't a god's child curse? Even fairies fart, you know." Luo Yu snorted, "Simple foul mouthing, the ultimate pleasure."
Even though Luo Yu cursed, his image began to take shape in the hearts of Zhao Yunliu and the other three.
The descendants of the gods from the other major forces were all as haughty as can be, with their noses in the air, looking down on everything.
"To be honest, the way you're acting, you seem less like a god's child and more like a person," Cao Potian spoke his mind.
"Buzz off!"
"Haven't I always been a person?"
Luo Yu was speechless, but while they were talking, a figure in the sky came crashing down like a meteor.
"Boom!"
The most solid alloy ground was blasted open like rotten copper and iron, with a temple contestant lying in the pit.
"Clang——"
The descendant of the Sea God Poseidon held a blue trident enveloped in divine light, piercing through the temple contestant's neck, nailing him firmly to the ground, unable to struggle, unable to counterattack.
"You've lost."
The descendant of the Sea God said coldly, his eyes filled with indifference.
The temple contestant's eyes bulged, but he eventually gave up resistance and admitted defeat.
Mount Olympus achieved the first victory.
But it didn't cause a sensation, as they were the hot favorites to win the championship anyway, and it was expected they would defeat a temple contestant.
"Swoosh!"
Four more temple contestants charged out consecutively, all displaying terrifying transcendent combat power.
But it didn't cause much of a stir—they were all defeated by the descendant of the Sea God.
For a moment, the might of Mount Olympus trembled.
Out of the fourteen great gods' descendants, just one had taken action and had captured the entire combat power of a nation.
The descendant of the Sea God was like a towering mountain in front of them, and just when you manage to climb over one, you despair at the sight of thirteen higher ones behind it. That was quite intimidating.
Cao Potian couldn't help but curse, "Those guys from Mount Olympus are a little too freakish."
"Are you scared?" Luo Yu raised an eyebrow.
Cao Potian shook his head, "I'm not scared, I just really can't beat him. That guy showed the same monstrous strength as you did earlier, we have to admit the objective gap in strength here."
Xiang Kunlun's fists were already clenched tightly.
Once he thought he was invincible within the Great Xia Realm, only to be completely outmatched by Luo Yu. Now, seeing the power of the foreign gods' children, a tremendous pressure weighed on him, so stifling it left him gasping for breath.
Zhao Yunliu glanced at Luo Yu, his throat moved slightly, but he still held back from speaking.
"What, worried I'm not a match for these guys?" Luo Yu asked with a smile, seeing through the other's thoughts.
"A bit," Zhao Yunliu said dryly.
"Hahaha." Luo Yu laughed heartily. He could tell that the other's heart held more than just a 'bit' of doubt.
They probably thought he wouldn't win at all.
Online, the Citizens of Daxia were originally cheering for Luo Yu, believing that even though outnumbered, the Da Xia Godson would be invincible, but the first match ended in a crushing defeat.
Shattering their illusions.
Mount Olympus was too strong, defeating other forces' god's children as if it were cutting up melons and vegetables, with barely any effort.
The morale for arguing on the internet had begun to falter.
They seemed rather blustering but inwardly lacking confidence.
"The second match: Bermuda Society versus Pantheon Temple."
The members of the Bermuda Society, with their black-scaled skin, were like the most primitive of barbarians; they didn't come from a nation but from tribes that worshipped the most native gods and were endowed with divine power.
They lived in the mysterious behemoth, the Bermuda Triangle.
Then such hidden-tribe warriors easily fell to one of the Seven Sacred Angels of the Pantheon Temple, the descendant of the Blazing Angel, who killed them in a blink of an eye.
The Bermuda Society sent six contestants in succession, and the descendant of the Blazing Angel made only six moves.
The match was over.
Flames covered the sky for a long time, with no signs of subsiding.
The giant Thirty-Six-Winged Blazing Angel's Dharma Aspect remained visible for a long time, shocking the entire venue and dazzling the people of the world.
"The third match, Great Xia versus Takamanopara!"
As the announcement sounded, the hearts of the Citizens of Daxia suddenly tensed up, reaching peak levels of nervousness.