1034 Number 3
All 40 participants stood on the stage after Giant Emperor Kulas announced the end of the qualifiers when the Ancestral Tablet was destroyed.
"The 40 of you will now fight against each other until only one of you remains undefeated. We will decide the matches through a lottery system." Giant Emperor Kulas snapped his fingers, summoning someone onto the stage.
This person was holding onto a metal tray that had 40 storage pouches on it.
"Every storage pouch will have a number inside, from number one to twenty. Those that have picked the same number will be fighting against each other. Simple, right? Go ahead and choose your pouches."
Yuan and the other participants went to grab their storage pouch.
Once everyone had one in their grasp, they opened it to retrieve a piece of paper with a number on it.
'Number three…' Yuan read the number on his paper in his head.
"If your number is not one, get off the stage." The judge on the stage said to them a moment later.
Everyone there but the two male giants with the number one left the stage.
The judge handed each of them a Body Cleansing Pill to swallow and a pair of white uniforms to change into.
Once the pill took effect and they changed clothes, Giant Emperor Kulas signaled the beginning of the fight.
BOOM!
The two giants on the stage immediately began striking each other with their bare fist, each of their strikes causing the stage to tremble and creating ripples in the air.
Yuan swallowed nervously after seeing the fierceness of these giants. Compared to Sorgi, these two were on another level, perhaps several levels higher even.
"H-Hey… Yuan… Are you sure you'll be fine? Each of their strikes feels strong enough to shatter a real mountain…" Huang Xiao Li tapped his shoulders and asked him in a nervous voice.
"Let's hope so…" Yuan said with a bittersweet smile on his face.
Despite having a perfect physique, he wasn't completely confident in winning the tournament, as he had underestimated the difficulty of it.
Over the next two hours, the giants on the stage would repeatedly strike each other without stopping for more than a few seconds, almost as if they had unlimited stamina and their bodies were indestructible.
Their bodies began turning red after three hours, and in the fourth hour, the spectators could finally see blood being shed.
Yuan and the Huang Family expected the fight to end soon in their condition, but to their absolute shock, these two giants continued to abuse their bodies for another three hours.
The whole fight had lasted 7 hours, and by the end of the fight, not a single bone in their body was left unharmed with most of them shattered into many pieces.
"How in heaven's name will they continue to fight the next match in such a condition?" Huang Xiao Li mumbled to herself after seeing their broken bodies.
It was a miracle that neither of them had died, but they were definitely on the verge of death.
"Winner— Warrior Kozus!" The judge announced.
After the fight ended, the judge handed both of the participants a pill that Yuan had never seen before.
During the next few minutes after they swallowed the pill, their bodies could be seen recovering at a rapid rate, and by the end, their bodies looked completely fine, almost as if the match had never occurred.
While the giants healed their injuries, some of the servants went on the stage to clean the blood until it was essentially new.
Once the first two participants left the stage, the next two entered the stage.
This time, it was a giant against a human— a female human at that.
However, nobody there dared to ridicule the female human, as she had qualified to stand on the stage by cracking the Ancestral Tablet, something the majority of the people there had failed to achieve.
The two of them changed into a white uniform and consumed a Body Cleansing Pill a few minutes later.
After bowing to each other, they started punching each other.
The giant was over 20 meters tall while the female human was only around 1.65 meters— it was like watching an ant fighting an elephant. However, despite the difference in their sizes, the female human did not immediately lose to the giant and even gave up a good fight.
Although the fight lasted only half as long as the previous match, it was still very shocking to the spectators, as the female human had actually managed to defeat the giant!
"Winner— Warrior Mu Shiying!"
"She actually won…" Huang Xiao Li muttered in a dazed voice as she stared at the tall beauty standing on the stage, her body soaked in sweat and blood.
While the participants for the second match recovered their injuries, Yuan prepared to enter the stage.
"You're next, right?" Huang Xiao Li asked him.
"Yes, I am." He nodded.
"Then take this. It'll help you." Huang Xiao Li suddenly retrieved a wooden box from her spatial ring and handed it to him.
"Huh? You know I cannot use any treasures before the match." Yuan raised his eyebrows.
"Just take it." She urged him.
Yuan accepted the box and opened it.
His eyes widened when he saw what was resting inside the box.
"Good luck, Yuan." Huang Xiao Li said to him with a smile on her face.
"Yes… Thank you."
Yuan smiled back at her before absorbing the golden orb of light inside the box.
After absorbing the orb of light, Yuan could feel his muscles becoming even sturdier.
<+500,000 Physical Strength>
<+500,000 Physical Defense>
"The next participants may enter the stage!" The judge's voice resounded a moment later.
"I'll be right back." Yuan said to the Huang Family before approaching the massive platform, and he could feel the gaze of everyone there staring at him.
The moment he stepped onto the stage, the scenery began to change, and Yuan found himself back at the Stairway to Heaven a few seconds later.
"What a place to stop the trial…" he sighed out loud.
