— Morning —

The Martial Exchange official tournament round had begun, and Wei Chen had already started the broadcast early in the morning.

In the early morning, there was nothing fancy. It was just the registration of the participants' names and the monikers they would use, similar to stage names.

On this day, many flying arks from famous sects had arrived, including the Sacred Flame Valley, Heaven Spire Sanctuary, and the Azure Sky Conglomerate. Even though the latter was a conglomerate, as one of the main sponsors of this event, it was granted slots for its own people.

All in all, those who came were all from the righteous path, and none of the factions that arrived belonged to the demonic path.

Wei Chen floated above the stadium, watching the hustle and bustle below. Since today was the official tournament, the venue had prepared two commentators to excite the audience.

This was also good for Wei Chen, as he was not skilled at sports commentary and was not as knowledgeable as the professional tournament commentators of this world.

He would control the camera orb to broadcast alongside the commentators, following their narration, and helped audiences who were not present see the full picture of the tournament while capturing exciting moments.

The event unfolded as the random matching began. The results of the matching were half fixed. The fixed part applied to the early stage, where the matching deliberately arranged contenders from both provinces to fight against each other.

This was in line with the purpose of the tournament, since it was called the Martial Exchange, which meant the exchange of martial prowess between provinces.

After half an hour, all the matchings were completed, and the names of the participants along with the aliases they chose to use were displayed on the large spirit screen in the stadium.

The tournament began. The first few matches were not very exciting, as the contenders were not the aces of the tournament like Yun Feng or Zhang Tianlong. They were only second rate participants, present mainly to fill the numbers.

They lost quickly and were escorted off the stage soon after their defeat.

At this time, Wei Chen's eyes narrowed as his mind drifted to the warning from yesterday. Most of the people who lost had not even put up a fight. At this rate, the matches might end before the event was over.

Wei Chen had already caught sight of four contenders who lost quickly and had already retreated from the tournament. They were from the Heaven Spire Sanctuary and the Gu Clan of the Azure River Province. On the other side, the Murong Clan and the Sacred Flame Valley had both lost their participants.

Now, it was Yun Feng's turn to step onto the stage to fight against a challenger from the other side. That opponent was someone from the Sacred Flame Valley, the second participants of their sect.

As the disciple of the Sacred Flame Valley stepped onto the stage, one of the commentators spoke.

"Here we go, the fourth round of the tournament today! I never thought that so many big names would lose on the first day of the tournament. This Martial Exchange has been very unexpected!"

"That's right! This time is full of surprises, but we still need to see it through to the end to find out whether this year will truly produce a dark horse as the champion!" the other commentator added.

"As you say, Mr. Li. This round also has a cultivator who might become a dark horse." The commentator paused, waiting.

Right on cue, Yun Feng walked out from the rest area toward the stage. As he stepped onto the platform, the commentator announced loudly.

"This round's challenger, I present to you, Yun Feng, the Edgelord!"

"Cough, cough, COUGH, cough!" Wei Chen, who was munching on a barbecue drumstick, choked as a piece of meat went down the wrong way. He even had to spit some of it out through his nose.

"What the hell?" he blurted out after clearing his throat with a gulp of water from his waterskin.

He stared at Yun Feng with the same expression one would have when seeing a macho man dressed in a ballet leotard. It was that ridiculous.

What the hell, man? You do not need to declare it to the whole world like that. I already know what you are, alright? Wei Chen thought.

Contrary to Wei Chen's thoughts, the announcement caused cheers to erupt. Yun Feng had already gained a number of fans due to his performance in the qualification round yesterday.

"Edgelord! Edgelord! Edgelord! Edgelord! Edgelord!"

Hearing the cheers, Wei Chen felt his worldview being challenged by the norms of this world. Could it be that he was the only one who found the name Edgelord ridiculous here? It should't be… right?

While Wei Chen was questioning his own worldview, Yun Feng stopped on the stage opposite his challenger. The disciple from the Sacred Flame Valley eyed him calmly, without a smirk, pride, or the usual look of disdain commonly seen among disciples from major sects.

Instead, he let out a tired sigh, as if he did not even want to be here.

"Let's make it quick, shall we?" said the Sacred Flame Valley disciple.

Hearing this, Yun Feng felt anger rise within him. "Are you looking down on me?"

The Sacred Flame Valley disciple smirked, but said nothing.

The referee on the stage looked at the two of them, then raised his hand to signal for them to get ready. "The fight begins!"

With the referee's declaration, Yun Feng rushed toward the Sacred Flame Valley disciple. His attack was sharp and precise, but the Sacred Flame disciple avoided it. Before he could react, a second strike followed immediately.

It was a vertical slash that cleverly linked with the first strike. Dodging the first attack would lead straight into the second, guaranteeing a hit.

But the Sacred Flame Valley disciple showed no alarm. He simply raised his hand to block.

Seeing this, Yun Feng quickly prepared a follow up in his mind. It seemed he would need to put more strength into the strike.

Boom!

Before anyone could react, the attack struck squarely against the Sacred Flame disciple's guard. His body was sent flying out of bounds, landing outside the stage.

"Out of bounds! Yun Feng, the Edgelord, wins!" The referee's voice echoed through the arena.

Most of the audience was stunned, as the result was beyond their comprehension. Some cursed loudly after losing their bets on the Sacred Flame Valley disciple.

"What?" Yun Feng himself was stunned. He never imagined the match would end like this.

The Sacred Flame Valley disciple smirked at Yun Feng before walking back to his side.

Wei Chen narrowed his eyes as he witnessed the incident. The Sacred Flame Valley was not even trying to hide it anymore. They had blatantly thrown the match without caring about appearances.

It seemed that what Ximen Hao told him was true.

Wei Chen took out his U Phone and decided to warn Mo Xingyao. After a few rings, Mo Xingyao picked up the call.

"Yes? Aren't you in the middle of the broadcast? Do you need something?" Mo Xingyao's voice came from the other side. Wei Chen frowned. It might have been his imagination, but he thought he heard a trace of happiness in her tone.

Meh. It was probably just his imagination.

"Yaoyao, listen to me. I have a warning for you." Wei Chen then began telling Mo Xingyao everything Ximen Hao had told him.

….

Under the green canopy of the forest, the ground was rife with dead leaves, grass, and moss covered logs. The fragrance of freshly fallen rain and the sound of a light waterfall in the distance revitalized the fatigued, rain soaked body of the Wolf King, before it violently shook the water off.

It was the morning of the second day since Max had begun following that scent. Now, its sensitive nose caught the familiar yet distant fragrance once again.

The fragrance of the heavenly tasting drumstick clung to its tongue like a curse, a curse that it did not want to be separated from.

Max sniffed the air and slowly followed the trail of that fragrance toward its source.

The journey was not long, only one human day at Max's full speed, and it soon arrived at a large human structure.

Max's eyes glinted and its mouth drooled as it thought of the heavenly fragrance, the heavenly taste it missed and craved. It sensed many human life signals within this colossal structure. Lots and lots of humans.

Looking at the colossal stadium in front of it, Max could not help but think that this human structure must be a new type of thing called a human town. No, with this many humans, it must be a human city.

With so many humans, this structure must have many human chefs. No wonder it could smell that heavenly fragrance.

With this in mind, Max wagged its tail and skipped happily toward the stadium, the structure that contained dreams and hope, the hope of the heavenly drumstick.

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