2730 Change of rules

Zhou Yan had been tricked.

He had just realized it when he saw Ling Han burst out with power. Peng! The latter had already caught up to him, and next was a series of furious blows.

After this series of moves, Zhou Yan finally could no longer hold on, and collapsed on the ground, unable to stand back up again.

Ling Han obtained his second victory easily.

In the other battles, those rookies from before continued to play the roles of dark horse, similarly winning easily.

The most astonishing one among them was still Wu Haoyang. His opponent was an elite ranked 6th on the recent leaderboard, and he was just a little bit away from breaking through to become a genuine Heavenly Venerate, but Wu Haoyang still beat down on him. His opponent couldn't even counter a single move, and he could only forfeit the battle in the end.

And in these two battles, Wu Haoyang had used a total of three Heavenly Venerate Techniques, not inferior to Ling Han.

This stunned everyone. That was three Heavenly Venerate Techniques; if they used it one after another, who would be able to block it?

Ultimately, Pseudo-Heavenly Venerates still had "Pseudo" in their name, meaning that they were not real Heavenly Venerates.

It looked like Ling Han and Wu Haoyang should both be able to obtain a Seven Deaths Seven Explosions Pill… as long as they did not encounter each other before reaching the top four. If they did, one of them would definitely be eliminated.

Why were the Ninth Heaven Celestial Kings all so terrifying?

Once the battles for the second round were over, there were only 32 participants left that could continue in the tournament. Several days later, the third tournament round began, and Ling Han met his third opponent.

"Yu Bolong," his opponent introduced himself. He had a head of yellow fur, his eyes slitted snake-like pupils that were flashing with green and yellow light. His skin also bore serpent scales, while there were a pair of wings sprouting from his back and a long tail dragging behind him.

"Recent leaderboard, 7th!"

The elites in the top 10 could be considered big shots.

In truth, Yu Bolong was indeed one of the big shots here. It was said that his general results were already close to climbing the general leaderboard. His time of fighting on the first spatial level far surpassed any other person.

It was rumored that he had not broken through to the Heavenly Venerable Tier yet because he wanted to leave his name on the general leaderboard.

After all, the recent leaderboard would be updated every 1,000 years, and one's name could only remain there for a million years at most, so how could it be compared with the general leaderboard?

Ling Han nodded. "Ling Han. Please."

Yu Bolong did not waste time on words, and moved directly.

Boom! With a flap of his wings, a powerful hurricane was created. Dust and dirt flew everywhere, and vision was obscured.

Ling Han was slightly surprised because dirt and dust normally could not obstruct the eyesight of a Pseudo-Heavenly Venerate, yet he actually could only glimpse Yu Bolong's vague figure, which naturally was abnormal.

What had his opponent done?

Xiu! Right at this moment, the powerful winds assailed Ling Han, and he watched as Yu Bolong charged towards him, with his wings flapping strongly behind him. He held a spear in hand, which he stabbed towards Ling Han.

Ling Han went forwards to meet the attack. Peng, he threw a punch, but his fist directly passed through Yu Bolong's body, and did not land a solid hit at all.

Ling Han had used full power in this punch, but it had missed, which immediately made him feel extremely terrible. Thankfully, he had a body of Divine Metal, or this punch missing would even cause his arm to dislocate.

Illusion?

Ling Han's eyes narrowed slightly. This was quite interesting.

He caught sight of the figure in the cloud of dust. Xiu! This figure suddenly became larger, and approached him closely.

Yu Bolong had reappeared. This time, however, he was holding a sword in hand, and he stabbed it at Ling Han.

Ling Han clenched a fist and threw out a punch in response. Peng! It was just another virtual image.

Thankfully, Ling Han was prepared this time, and dissipated the force of his blow in time, so it did not cause him any suffering.

However, this illusion technique was quite amazing because Ling Han had no way of distinguishing if the person attacking him was the real one or just a false double. If he did not move to parry, and it was actually the real person attacking him, and he was hit with a powerful attack from a Pseudo-Heavenly Venerate, that would definitely be no joke.

…Divine Metal would also become scrap when faced with the destructive power of the Heavenly Venerable Tier.

Yu Bolong continuously appeared and attacked, and Ling Han also continuously countered, treating every single attack like it was one coming from the real body.

This would exhaust some of Ling Han's power, but he had abundant stamina now, so this was no big deal. As long as he took note to dissipate the power of his blows when necessary, and did not injure himself, it would be fine.

Peng, peng, peng! Over 100 of his punches missed their target in a row.

Xiu, as usual, Yu Bolong swept out his saber, and Ling Han met this blow, but it was still a miss. This was not strange at all, but quickly afterwards, another figure appeared. It was still Yu Bolong.

At this time, Ling Han was dispersing his power. His figure twisted; this was the moment when his defense would be at its utmost weakest.

"Break!" Yu Bolong moved. The weapon in his hand was a sharp dagger, which he delivered in a stab directed under Ling Han's ribs.

This was a Celestial Tool, which was flickering with countless seals.

The real one had finally attacked.

Ling Han had expected this. This kind of battle tactic would definitely be a mixture of truth and falsehood, wanting him to panic on his own and reveal a gap in his defense. Weng! Circles of golden seals immediately appeared around his body, and wrapped all around him.

Zhi!

The sharp dagger stabbed the golden seals, but only endless bits of light sparked. There was no way to pierce through Ling Han's defense at all.

Yu Bolong had not landed his strike, so he immediately withdrew to retreat, wanting to distance himself, and find another chance to make a second attempt.

"Get over here!" Ling Han moved, grabbing out at Yu Bolong's wrist.

This grab was incredibly and extraordinarily fast.

Yu Bolong was searching for chances all the time, but wasn't Ling Han doing the same?

Pa! Yu Bolong turned around to attack Ling Han, naturally not willing to surrender his "hand" to Ling Han.

Both of their hands danced and flipped fluidly—tapping, pressing, pushing, and striking, conducting an intense contest with each other in a small range.

All Ling Han had to do was to cling to his opponent. With a battle cry, his entire approached fluidly.

Peng, peng, peng! The two of them continued an endless exchange of blows.

At this time, Ling Han's advantage was fully displayed—he had a physique of Divine Metal.

He would not be greatly affected with every punch, kick, or even a strike from the Celestial Tool, but it was a different story for Yu Bolong. If a punch landed on him, his bones would definitely break and his skin would tear.

In this kind of close-quarters fight, neither of them had a chance to use a Heavenly Venerate Technique. Even if this would only take half a heartbeat, they were fighting too intensely, so what time would they have for this?

Who knew how many blows they would sustain if they had to delay this little bit of time?

Of course, Ling Han could do this. What would it matter if he was hit a few times? His body was akin to Divine Metal; as long as he was not struck by someone with Heavenly-Venerable-Tier battle prowess, there would be no issue.

Yu Bolong was hit repeatedly. Peng, peng, peng! A series of 17 punches landed consecutively on his chest. His whole face instantly turned crimson, and even his eyes looked close to popping out.

"I forfeit!" he declared.

Ling Han stopped and watched as Yu Bolong hurriedly retreated several hundred kilometers away, coughing repeatedly, and bringing up blood with his coughs, which dyed his chest red.

Yu Bolong looked meaningfully at Ling Han, then turned, and left. A Pseudo-Heavenly Venerate had lost to a Ninth Heaven Celestial King; even if he felt great dissatisfaction, and had 10,000 reasons to explain, how could he bring himself to say it?

In the other battle stages, the dark horses continued their invincible legends; all of them had yet to lose.

However, after the top 16 were decided, the tournament rules suddenly changed.

Originally, the next round was to produce the top eight and then the top four, who would then battle among themselves to decide the first, second, and third. The three Seven Deaths Seven Explosions Pills would naturally then have their owners. But now, the tournament rules had changed so that one person would be eliminated every day, until there were only three people left at the very end, and that would be the end of the tournament. There was no first, second, or third place—just the top three.

The rules were very simple. 16 people would have one day's time to contend for 15 spots. After the day was over, the person who had not managed to get a spot would be eliminated. Next, it would be 15 people contending for 14 spots, and so on.

Ling Han was quite intrigued. Under such regulations, it was possible that situations of two against one, five against one, or even 15 against one, wherein the majority would work together to eliminate certain people from the tournament, would arise.

The tournament would take place three days later.