The Battle for the Top Ten Begins, with a Crimson Moon Omen Pressing Down on the City

At the Great Zhou Martial Arena, the ancient tournament stage had been completely restored, with dark gold defensive array patterns flowing across it like rippling water.

The Martial Arts Tournament had finally reached its most brutal, pure, and prestigious stage: the Top Ten Ranking Battles.

Those who had survived the crucible of the auditions, preliminaries, and team matches, and even endured Wang Hao's insane round of political background checks to remain standing, were without exception the true dragons of this younger generation.

Above in the firmament, the winds and clouds surged. Down on the stage, myriad phenomena manifested.

The first match was between the Northern Barbarian First Prince, Wanyan Gu, and the Southern Border Gu cultivator, Chu Wuxia.

Wanyan Gu's vitality surged into the heavens. His nine-foot-tall frame looked like a war god cast from pure gold. With every punch he threw, even the void shattered with spiderweb-like cracks, accompanied by the roars of primordial behemoths.

On the other side, Chu Wuxia moved like a phantom. Thousands upon thousands of Gu insects transformed into a colorful cloud of mist that tightly entangled Wanyan Gu. The poisonous miasma corroded the void, emitting a teeth-aching sizzling sound.

Exhilarating! This is a true battle of heaven's chosen!

Terrifying! Wanyan Gu's physical body is probably already on par with a body cultivator in the Dragon Transformation realm!

The million-strong audience watched, utterly mesmerized and with their blood boiling. Countless martial cultivators even experienced sudden enlightenment on the spot, sitting cross-legged to break through to the next realm.

However, amidst this blood-pumping atmosphere, the scene atop the nine-tiered high platform was bizarre to an outrageous degree.

Wang Hao was leaning comfortably against the dragon throne, holding a vermilion brush in his hand. Placed before him was a specially made Great Zhou Talent Asset Evaluation Ledger.

His eyes were slightly narrowed. What gleamed in his pupils was not an appreciation for peerless martial arts, but the greed of an old landlord looking at his fattened New Year's pigs.

Your Majesty... Wei Zhongxian leaned in, carefully watching his master write and draw.

Look at this Wanyan Gu, Wang Hao pointed at the barbarian on the stage who was currently roaring at the sky and repelling the Gu cloud with a single punch, evaluating him. His combat ceiling is extremely high. He would make an excellent heavy infantry commander charging enemy lines. But as for his potential... his brain is full of muscles, making him easily manipulated as someone else's weapon.

He drew a circle next to Wanyan Gu's name in the ledger. Loyalty malleability: Low. Recruitment cost: Extremely high (requires beating him into submission and starving him). Recommendation: Squeeze dry his surplus value, then sell him back to the Northern Barbarian Royal Court for three black iron mines. He isn't worth a core position.

Wei Zhongxian swallowed hard. Then... what about that Chu Wuxia?

A poison cultivator, a sharp weapon for area-of-effect attacks. If we put her in Demon Suppression City to use as a biological weapon, it will save the military expenses of a million-strong army. Wang Hao's eyes lit up as he quickly wrote. Loyalty malleability: Medium. Recruitment cost: Build her a high-level poison laboratory. This woman can enter the inner sect. Valuation: One spirit vein.

Down on the stage, the matches proceeded one after another.

Sword lights tore through the sky; vital energy surged like the sea.

For the second match, Lin Tiechuan stepped onto the stage.

This youth in coarse clothes, hailing from the bitter wastelands, displayed no flashy magical phenomena. He was facing a direct descendant of an aristocratic family, a young master in luxurious robes who had mastered Heaven-rank martial skills.

My fate is determined by me, not heaven! How dare a mere commoner try to outshine the sun and moon?! The luxuriously dressed young master, surrounded by the rising phenomenon of a grand sun, was insufferably arrogant as he shouted and charged at Lin Tiechuan.

Lin Tiechuan remained silent. He simply raised his callus-covered fist and took a step forward. His bones and muscles thrummed in unison, like an ancient divine mountain rising from the earth.

Bang!

With just one punch, an extremely plain and unadorned punch carrying a deadly resolve and tenacity to shatter everything, he forcefully smashed apart that grand sun phenomenon, sending the arrogant young master flying out of the arena, violently spewing blood.

The entire audience was shocked! Countless commoner cultivators cheered madly.

Watching this scene, Wang Hao smiled so broadly that his eyes nearly narrowed into slits.

Good! Good! Good! Wang Hao praised repeatedly, using his vermilion brush to draw three large red stars over Lin Tiechuan's name.

Did you see that, Grand Companion Wei? What is this called? This is called ultimate cost-effectiveness! Wang Hao pointed excitedly at Lin Tiechuan. Combat ceiling: SS-rank. Potential: Limitless. Loyalty malleability: Extremely high. Recruitment cost: Room and board, a damn meal of meat, and promising him the pie-in-the-sky dream of bringing joy to all the commoners in the world!

This kind of employee won't jump ship and won't complain. As long as you give him a righteous cause, he will smash the Heavenly Dao to pieces for you! How is this a person? This is the Great Zhou's most precious harvester of national destiny!

Wei Zhongxian felt his scalp tingle. Down below, they were fighting life-and-death battles, yet here you are calculating KPIs?

Your Majesty, Wei Zhongxian wiped his cold sweat, that young master from the aristocratic family who was just defeated... his talent is actually quite good too.

Wang Hao sneered and drew a large red cross over the name of the aristocratic young master who had shouted, My fate is determined by me, not heaven.

His rebelliousness value is too high, his obedience is extremely poor, and he likes to shout slogans. Wang Hao's tone was icy. This type of person is the most prone to causing team division. Put him on a priority observation list and dispatch him directly to the Demon Suppression frontlines in the southwest to serve as cannon fodder for mine clearance. He wants to defy heaven? Let him go defy the Eldritch horrors.

In the audience seats, the three women, Shen Xue, Yun Meng, and Ren Mingyue, were also watching the matches with rapt attention.

Shen Xue watched Xiao Chen's unstoppable sword aura, a strange light flashing in her eyes; Yun Meng marveled at Ye Guyun's desolate chill that seemed capable of freezing even the soul.

They are truly too stunning, Ren Mingyue sighed softly. After today, these people will surely become famous throughout the world, and all the major factions will extend olive branches to them.

Shen Xue, however, suddenly sneered, her gaze drifting darkly toward Wang Hao on the high platform. Do you think that just because they have won fame, they can independently choose their own futures? Look at that man's expression.

Ren Mingyue and Yun Meng looked up.

They saw Wang Hao up on the high platform, holding a cup of tea and looking down at the peerless twin stars Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun on the stage. The smile on his face made him look exactly like a black-hearted foreman gazing at two indestructible super tractors.

No matter who wins, Shen Xue's voice was chilling, yet carried a trace of helpless awe, the one who profits the most will always be him, the house. These people will never escape his grasp in this lifetime.

Just as the Top Ten Battles reached their most white-hot phase, and Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun were about to have their fated encounter, pushing the atmosphere of the entire capital to its boiling point...

Rumble!

From above the firmament, an incredibly muffled clap of thunder suddenly echoed.

It was not ordinary thunder.

The previously clear daylight was suddenly shrouded by an impenetrably thick scarlet hue. In the southwestern direction, a bizarre, crimson demon moon had actually shattered the barrier of the void in broad daylight, projecting its glow from afar right over the capital!

Hehehe...

Faintly, it sounded as if billions of demonic souls were laughing malevolently deep within the clouds. A trace of extremely terrifying Crimson Moon demonic energy seeped through the cracks in the void like a venomous snake, penetrating the capital's defensive grand array and pressing down upon everyone's hearts.

The cheering of the million-strong crowd came to a screeching halt, replaced by ultimate terror.

A great terror had descended.

What is that?!

A crimson moon in the sky! Demonic energy leaking! It is a riot at the Crimson Moon Demon Sect's Demon Suppression Abyss on the northwestern border!

How is this possible? Is the Great Zhou's Patriarch not guarding Jiayu Pass with the border army? Run! The tournament cannot continue!

The entire Great Zhou martial arena instantly plunged into immense panic. Millions of spectators turned pale, and some cultivators with low cultivation bases even coughed up mouthfuls of blood and slumped to the ground under the oppressive force of the Crimson Moon's demonic aura.

On the arena stage, Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun, who were just about to clash, stopped simultaneously. Treating it as a formidable enemy, the two stared fixedly at the twisted, blood-red rift in the sky, the hairs on their bodies standing on end.

Even chosen geniuses seemed incredibly insignificant in the face of a worldly tribulation and the phenomenon of a demonic tide.

The big shots of the hidden sects shouted angrily, Emperor of Great Zhou! The arrays are in chaos, and anomalies have appeared! Immediately halt the martial arts tournament, activate the ultimate city defense grand array, and evacuate the crowds!

Chaos. Absolute chaos.

If an ordinary emperor encountered such a sudden, ominous sign, they would likely have panicked long ago and ordered a retreat.

But Wang Hao, standing on the nine-tiered high platform, did not show a single trace of panic. Instead, his eyes erupted with an unprecedented, fanatical gleam.

He did not order the activation of the defensive grand array.

He even deactivated the true qi shields around the high platform.

Wei Zhongxian! Wang Hao snatched the highest-powered voice-amplifying spiritual artifact, the Thunder Sound Conch. His voice trembled slightly with excitement. Tell the Ministry of Revenue to immediately bring out the one million Demon-Suppressing Evil-Warding Protective Bronze Medallions that were previously stored in the warehouse, and set up a hundred sales points outside the venue!

Wei Zhongxian was almost scared to the point of wetting himself, his legs trembling madly. Your, Your Majesty, at a time like this, you still want to sell merchandise?! That is demonic aura! People will die!

Die my foot! That is just a wisp of residual aura refracted from the anomaly; the physical entity cannot cross over at all!

Wang Hao kicked Wei Zhongxian aside. Following that, the true qi of his peak seventh-stage martial arts cultivation explosively erupted, his black-and-gold dragon robe fluttering wildly in the fierce wind. He took a step into mid-air, like an insufferably arrogant god, facing the sky full of blood light, and let out a furious roar that shook the nine heavens:

What are you panicking for?! Everyone, halt!

This furious roar instantly overpowered the demonic sounds from the horizon, exploding in the ears of millions of people, and actually forcefully stopped the rioting crowd in their tracks.

Everyone looked up, shocked as they gazed at the tyrant bathed in the intertwining blood light and golden radiance.

Wang Hao pointed at the crimson moon in the sky, his voice solemn, grand, and filled with a blood-pumping inciting power:

Flee? Where can you flee?!

That is the bizarre aura of the Night Nightmare's remnant body from the Demon Suppression Abyss! It is the great enemy of our human race! Today it can reflect upon the capital; tomorrow it could trample your sects flat and swallow your wives and children alive!

Everyone! Why do you think I expended the nation's strength to forcefully hold this martial arts tournament? Was it really just to rank the chosen geniuses?

The millions of spectators were stunned. The geniuses on the arena were also stunned. Could it be... it was not to earn gambling funds and harvest the commoners like leeks?

Wang Hao thumped his chest, putting on an awe-inspiringly righteous look, as if he had broken his heart worrying for the common people of the world:

It is because I calculated long ago that the bizarre tide is arriving! The great tribulation is impending!

This martial arts tournament was never an entertaining event for fame and fortune! This is our Eastern Wasteland's human race, at the juncture of life and death, conducting an early vanguard selection of the world's heroes!

As soon as these words came out, the entire venue fell dead silent. Immediately after, a thing called sense of mission began to swell madly in the chests of countless people.

Look at the heavens weeping blood! Wang Hao pointed at the crimson moon and roared angrily. Even the bizarre entities have felt the threat of you geniuses! They are terrified! They are attempting to use this mere anomaly to interrupt our vanguard selection and make us surrender in fear!

I ask you, citizens of Great Zhou, backbones of the Eastern Wasteland, are you afraid?!

Not afraid!!! No one knew who took the lead to roar, but immediately after, the furious roars of millions converged into a torrent that shot straight into the clouds, actually forcefully dispersing that wisp of demonic aura in the sky by a fraction!

The corners of Wang Hao's mouth curled up imperceptibly. Then, he waved his large hand fiercely, pointing at the top ten contestants on the arena.

Good! Since you are not afraid!

I announce that the martial arts tournament finals will not only not be interrupted, but will instead proceed as usual under this demonic moon!

Today, the first place on this arena will not merely be the first among you youths, but also the future of my Great Zhou, and even the entire Eastern Wasteland—the Vanguard Standard-Bearer of Demon Suppression!

They are not competing in martial arts; they are planting the flag against the bizarre entities on behalf of the common people of the world!!

Madness! Absolute madness!

With just these few sentences, Wang Hao directly and forcefully elevated a commercial competition filled with under-the-table manipulations and gambling syndicates to the epic heights of the survival of the human race and the rise and fall of the world.

This was not called a speech; this was the ultimate, invincible, supreme moral kidnapping!

On the arena, a few sect holy sons who had originally just come to go through the motions and snag a ranking were now being stared at by millions with the fanatical gaze of looking at saviors. Each of their faces flushed red, their chins raised higher than the sky, wishing they could charge into the Demon Abyss right now and perish together with the bizarre entities.

Even someone as cold and arrogant as Ye Guyun, or as composed as Xiao Chen, could not help but feel their blood boil at this moment, sensing the surging tide of public sentiment and righteous cause enveloping them.

Is... is this the grand trend?

In the VIP seats, Shen Xue's delicate body trembled slightly, her beautiful eyes reflecting Wang Hao's invincible posture standing proudly in mid-air. She was thoroughly convinced. She finally admitted that in front of this man, any sect's schemes were like children playing house. He could turn the clouds with a flip of his hand and summon rain with a turn, even using celestial phenomena for marketing!

Yun Meng was even more swayed by this epochal wave-like atmosphere, murmuring, Is he... is he really a foolish ruler? Perhaps, he truly is planning for the common people of the world...

Only Ren Mingyue silently watched the eunuchs who had popped up out of nowhere on the periphery, screaming themselves hoarse: Demon-Suppressing Protective Bronze Medallions! Consecrated by His Majesty! Essential for resisting the Demonic Moon! Only a thousand taels of silver each! Limited to one million pieces, first come, first served!

Ren Mingyue closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She became increasingly clear that following this man would absolutely lead to winning in the end, but she would also absolutely be squeezed dry of her last shred of value, living a life of utter exhaustion.

Boom!

Right at this moment, the atmosphere on the arena had been elevated to its absolute peak.

The other contestants, having gone through tragic and fierce battles, had already exhausted their strength and left the stage. In the center of the arena, only the two fated individuals remained—Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun.

The two stood facing each other, swords drawn and bows bent, their imposing auras climbing to the extreme beneath the demonic moon.

Wang Hao looked down from above and slowly dropped the final blockbuster:

Xiao Chen! Ye Guyun!

Today, I am changing the rules!

Today's champion will no longer merely hold an empty title.

The victor will be directly conferred the title of Chief Walker of the Chosen Geniuses Gang! Holding my golden medallion, they will patrol on behalf of the heavens, command the younger generation of the Eastern Wasteland, suppress all demonic and bizarre anomalies, and be bestowed the title of Bizarre-Suppressing Envoy!

As his voice fell, it was not just Xiao Chen and Ye Guyun; the eyes of all the sect leaders of the major powers present turned completely red with desire.