Chapter 231: The Free-For-All Begins

However, no matter how enraged Phoenix was, he couldn't do anything about Zhang Lie at the moment. The Void Cup had its own rules, and even if he were the prince of the winged, he still had to obey these rules.

The competitors would be separated into four arenas by an incorruptible AI, so even if the winged had the ability to kill Zhang Lie and the other competitors from Earth, they would all have to be assigned to the same quadrant first.

Furthermore, even if that were the case, they would have to search through all the competitors of the quadrant to find the Earthlings, a tedious task to accomplish within the timeframe of the first round.

That was why Phoenix gritted his teeth.

The remaining three prime races also made their appearance.

Their bodies surrounded by a film of water, the aquatic race took the stage with a huge wave of water. Their leader, the strongest of the younger generation of the aquatic, known as the most beautiful princess in the Milky Way, Princess Lianna, strode into view.

She and her teammates were all clad in sapphire-blue satin and a diaphanous gauze of water. The aquatic race was female-only, and the aquatic competitors who took the stage were at the prime of their strength and health. Their appearance immediately drew heated roars and whistles from the crowd.

After the aquatic race came a few races only slightly below the level of the four prime races, but although the crowd still cheered for them, it was hardly at the level of applause that the winged, the aquatic, or even Zhang Lie's Team Zenith, had received. Finally, the nightdemons and starbeasts took the stage.

The nightdemons had dark exoskeletons; from the distance, they didn't look like living creatures, but rather statues carved out of obsidian. Most were around two to three meters tall, with a frightening aura surrounding them all. A majority were humanoid, but some took the form of beasts.

Shortly after the nightdemons' appearance came the starbeasts. They boasted the highest base stats of all known lifeforms in the Milky Way; some of the top-tier members of the race were able to travel through space with no protection beyond their skin.

Most looked like beasts from Earth, but they were no less intelligent than any other lifeform present at the arena. The runic inscriptions on their skin, with bright starry spots, made them look mysterious and arcane.

Their leader, Stellar Dawn, was the strongest member of the younger generation of starbeasts, as well as one of the most likely candidates for the starbeasts' next clan head. He was a gigantic qilin over three meters tall, with scales as bright as silver and streaked with dark whorls reminiscent of space.

The appearance of the starbeasts caused the crowd to howl. Respect was afforded to the strong, no matter their appearance.

The four prime races had all gathered within the competition grounds. However, the tournament had yet to begin in earnest, because the competitors had to be sorted into their respective quadrants.

.

Lines of data filled the large screen onstage, listing out the top teams in each of the four quadrants. The same information was transmitted to each competitor's transceiver.

The four quadrants each represented a distinct ecosystem: desert, swamp, forest, and ocean. Each was unique in its own manner, and different teams would be stronger or weaker depending on the environment. For instance, the aquatic competitors would exhibit a very different performance in the desert quadrant compared to the ocean quadrant.

As for Zhang Lie and the others, the forest quadrant would be most compatible with them, and the worst would be the desert or swamp quadrants.

"Forest—wonderful!" Yang Ze called out. The other hunters heaved a sigh of relief, but Zhang Lie's eyes flashed.

"Don't get too excited just yet. Have you seen the 1001th team in the same quadrant?"

The hunters looked through their transceivers and rapidly found the relevant line of information. "Ah, the nightdemons?!"

"At least we didn't encounter the winged, but..." Chu Feng murmured.

"Not just enemies, but allies as well. Team 1545 is the night spirits!" Yun Bing added.

"Allies? Can we really rely on them? After all, the night spirits are an offshoot of the nightdemons, and we'd be lucky if they didn't help out the nightdemons against us instead," Sun Mengmeng murmured.

Zhang Lie laughed. "You're not wrong, Mengmeng. We're just business partners, if that. As for the nightdemons, we don't have to discuss a strategy against them immediately. The battlefield's so large that we might not even come across them during the first round. Furthermore, it wouldn't be a big deal even if we really had to fight. The nightdemons know that we're not a force to be trifled with, and it's in both our and their interests that we keep out of each other's way," Zhang Lie continued, ending the discussion.

The competitors claimed specialized wristwatches from the tournament officials as they stepped into a teleportation array, through which their entire team would be sent to a randomized location in the arena.

Each competitor was worth one point. There were around 170,000 competitors in each quadrant, which meant that the average score to advance would be 170 points.

That meant that each competitor would have to defeat an average of 170 elites from all over the galaxy to advance, a task of overwhelming difficulty. Furthermore, there were few restrictions on the competitors' manner of fighting—poison, traps, trickery, fighting, brawling, and even assassination were all permitted.

Team Zenith stepped forward into the teleportation array, a sight that Fu Bo, Ye Mo, and the others were paying close attention to.

Fu Bo roared out, "Mistress, the Earthling ants have just stepped into the forest quadrant. Let's hurry up too!"

Pu Kui didn't deign to respond, but she did speed up.

Fu Bo was very petty. After being treated like a clown during Ye Mo's banquet, he had returned maligning the Earthlings. Accordig to him, the Earthlings were arrogant, prideful, and completely idiotic, and the theory of limit fragments that Zhang Lie had devised was riddled with inconsistencies, with nothing to show for it. His mistress, convinced by his words, naturally had a warped impression of Zhang Lie and the others.

As more and more competitors crowded around the teleportation array, the night spirits stepped forward after seeing the nightdemons. As an offshoot branch of the nightdemons, they had little agency against the nightdemon competitors; indeed, if necessary, they would be forced to give up their accumulated points to the members of the main branch.

Under these circumstances, it was ridiculous to expect that they could help out the Earthlings. The most that Ye Mo would be able to do was to warn them of impending conflict.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

The other competitors in the forest quadrant quickly stepped into the teleportation array, and the free-for-all began in earnest.

Zhang Lie and his team found themselves teleported to a small, burbling creek, with tall, deciduous trees all around them.

"Yang Ze, weave a fog of water all around us, and Zhou Ying, use the plants all around us to help search for possible targets. Everyone else, stay alert!" Zhang Lie commanded.

In his past life, Zhang Lie certainly didn't boast the qualifications to enter this sort of competition, but that didn't deter him from making rapid, decisive commands now. In a free-for-all brawl, they had two main objectives, first, to protect themselves, and second, to accumulate whatever points they could.

The soft glow of water-attuned genetic energy suffused Yang Ze's body, and clouds of fog began to spread out around him. The fog traveled surprisingly quickly, and the region around him, a kilometer wide, was soon shrouded from sight.

As for Zhou Ying, she was reaching into the earth and sensing the tremors and life of the land within five kilometers of her. If anyone were to step into her domain, she would notice immediately.

Zhou Ying's root network and Yang Ze's cloud of fog were both techniques that Zhang Lie had taught them. Under his instruction, their understanding of their elemental attunement, along with the flexibility and precision of their elemental manipulation, grew tremendously.

Not half a minute later, Zhou Ying found their first prey. "Captain, there's an enemy team three kilometers to the northwest!"