From the chaotic sea of ​​stars, it began to wreak havoc on all the heavens.

Chapter 221 The Clown
He himself cultivates the Crimson Flame Divine Art and its matching Crimson Flame Palm, which are high-level Earth-grade martial arts that only the sect leader, young master, core elders, and Grand Elders of the Star Realm can cultivate.

Furthermore, he cultivated this Crimson Refining Divine Art to the tenth level.

Originally, he had planned to make a name for himself on this year's Hidden Dragon Ranking, but unexpectedly, he encountered Qin Sheng, a ruthless character who didn't even put Sikong Sheng in his eyes.

However, since the start of the Hidden Dragon Ranking competition, there has never been a precedent of someone conceding defeat in the very first match.

"Take this, Iron Hand!"

He roared, his inner energy erupted, creating a blazing wave of fire. Then, an enormous palm of inner energy burst forth, igniting red flames, and slammed heavily towards Qin Sheng.

boom!
With a flash of cold light, the giant palm of true energy shattered, turning into ice crystals scattered all over the ground. Qin Sheng didn't even draw his sword, but instead pressed forward step by step towards Meng Chao.

He wanted to experience firsthand the melting and iron-refining power of the Crimson Flame Palm.

"hateful."

A flicker of panic crossed Meng Chao's eyes. Although he knew the Iron Refining Hand technique wouldn't affect Qin Sheng in the slightest, they both cultivated high-level Earth-grade techniques and martial arts, and were both at the late-stage of the Embracing Yuan Realm.

They couldn't even force the opponent to draw their knife.

This was quite a blow to him.

However, when he saw Qin Sheng walking towards him step by step, the panic on his face was instantly replaced by anger.

That's incredibly arrogant.

Do you really think you can't do anything to him?

"Heavenly fire spreads across the plains."

When Meng Chao pushed the Crimson Refining Divine Skill to its limit, his body erupted with a sun-like flame. Within the flame, his hands seemed to be filled with lead, each palm heavier than the last, relentlessly striking Qin Sheng. The overflowing red flames swept outwards, burning the ground into a crystalline state.

"Let's see how you block this." Before he could finish speaking, Meng Chao's expression froze. Before the massive, scorching palm of true energy could fully unfold, Qin Sheng casually cleaved it in two with a single slash, turning it into countless ice shards. Then, a dazzling white blade light filled his vision, obscuring everything else.

With a soft "poof," the scorching protective energy, like a miniature sun, shattered into countless tiny ice shards.

Meng Chao was thrown out and crashed into the light screen in Fengtai.

One-hit kill.

Seeing this, Mo Yan's expression turned somewhat unpleasant. Although Meng Chao's strength was not as great as Wei Jinglong's, his defense was far superior. If it were him, he would never have been able to break through Meng Chao's defense so easily without attacking the weak points of his true energy.

Then he realized that Qin Sheng's move just now was simply a straightforward strike from the powerful beings Han Jue and Ba Jue, without any combat techniques whatsoever.

I felt much more relaxed.

If that's the case, then I still have a pretty good chance of winning.

"Qin Shengsheng."

After announcing the results of the match, a group of referees wore faint smiles on their faces, impressed by the domineering knife skills.

Looking at the entire Hidden Dragon Ranking, only Yan Chihuo, who was second in the previous edition, can rival him.

The audience below the stage was both expecting and surprised by what they saw.

"Amazing, that slash was incredibly fast."

"It's not just the speed of the blade; that terrifying ice-type true energy alone is incredibly powerful. It even froze Meng Chao's fire-type true energy from the Crimson Refining Divine Art. It's simply unbelievably strong."

"Among the younger generation of swordsmen, I estimate that only Prince Huoling can fight him."

Hearing what everyone said, Yan Chihuo revealed a cold smile.

His skill level was indeed very high, and his swordsmanship was also very strong.

However, if the sword intent doesn't keep up with his pace, even if it's only by a fraction, it won't be a match for him in three rounds.

Without using the trump card, the Nine-Turn Fire Spirit Attack, or the Seventh-Turn Crimson Flame Battle Body, three strikes are enough.

This was even when the opponent's sword intent reached 50%.

Otherwise, with only 60% of his own sword intent, he could have suppressed his opponent to the point where they couldn't even draw their swords. Qin Sheng, who had already stepped down from the stage, ignored the reactions of the crowd.

As a cultivator, he had already reached the level of photographic memory.

What he needs to do, besides personally experiencing his opponent's martial arts, artistic conception, and combat skills in each match, is to...

It means observing the battles of the participating contestants as much as possible.

This is to make up for his current lack of knowledge in martial arts.

Thinking of this, he looked at a female disciple of the Ice Absolute Sect who was assigned to the same group as him.

"Junior sister, could you introduce me to those two people?"

This female disciple is about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Her cultivation has reached the peak of the mid-stage of the Embracing Yuan Realm. She was the fifty-first ranked expert on the previous Hidden Dragon Ranking and is a popular candidate for this year's Hidden Dragon Ranking.

However, she appeared extremely reserved when facing Qin Sheng.

"Alright, Senior Brother Qin, the two people competing over there are... One is Yan Beifei, the eldest disciple of the Wind Sword Sect, a seventh-rank sect of the Black Dragon Empire. His martial art is the Wind Sword Sect's mid-level Earth-rank sword technique, the Fire Dance Whirlwind Sword Technique. The other one is..."

After being stunned for a moment, she began to introduce Qin Sheng one by one.

Qin Sheng listened intently from the side, occasionally asking the Ice Absolute Sect disciples beside him to explain things.

Until the end of the first stage of the knockout rounds.

He has already studied almost all the unique techniques and artistic conceptions of the major sects.

He summarized some of them, among which the most important to him were the Ice and Wind concepts, which allowed his Wind concept to be directly perfected.

The artistic conception of ice is almost there.

Once we finish watching the second stage of the knockout rounds, it will be pretty much a complete experience.

This is the benefit of having a strong enough divine consciousness, or soul power.

With his current soul power far exceeding that of any of the Spirit Sea Realm experts present.

It's just that his martial arts skills are not good enough.

Otherwise, even if a profound martial art were placed in front of him, he could comprehend most of it in a short time.

Aside from the concepts of ice and wind, he also paid attention to martial arts with other concepts.

For example, Yan Chihuo mainly cultivates the artistic conception of fire and cloud.

The Thunderous Artifact of Qian Yun, the Second Disciple of Luoxia Sect.

The imagery of Lin Yun's "Heavenly Fall".

Murong Qingcheng's dark and chaotic artistic conceptions, etc., will all be beneficial to his future martial arts improvement.

Meanwhile, with the conclusion of the first stage of the elimination rounds, the ranking of the top ten rising stars on the Hidden Dragon List has also been released.

Qin Sheng and Tuoba Ku tied for first place, while Qian Yun, the second disciple of Luoxia Sect, and Gu Youyun, the second disciple of Xuankong Mountain, tied for third place.

Tang Xiaoshan, who had grasped 50% of the sword intent, ranked fifth. Ye Chen, who did not reveal his sword intent, ranked sixth. The seventh and eighth were disciples of two sixth-grade sects. Xu Jing, Ye Chen's girlfriend, ranked ninth. Gao Feng, who had grasped a minor level of sword intent, ranked tenth.

After a rest of about an hour, the second stage of the elimination rounds began amidst great anticipation.

The original twelve groups, each with at least fifty people, were suddenly reduced to only twelve.

Mo Yan advanced with a perfect record because he did not face Qin Sheng in the first stage of the knockout rounds.

Besides Qin Sheng, there were two other people who also achieved a complete victory.

However, the second stage of the knockout rounds has been combined into two groups. The 24 who advance will compete against 10 randomly selected 23 other players, so the chances of them meeting are still quite high.

(End of this chapter)