Unrivaled Martial Emperor

In the outside world, someone whispered, "I understand the rules now!

"They send their will into the ancient monument and cultivate the power within. Inside, they can't rely on their own strength, only on the Dao within the monument. That puts everyone on equal footing."

"Exactly! And they can only move onto the next row after defeating an opponent. Lǚ Wangxian should have comprehended the power in the first ancient monument, won his fight, and moved on to the second. That gives him a clear lead."

"The third stage puts their comprehension ability and talent to the test."

A sharp light shone in countless people's eyes.

By now, most had grasped the structure of the third test: whoever could comprehend the ancient monument's power faster and better would gain the upper hand.

Lei Meng was still attacking Chen Fan relentlessly; now, he could no longer threaten Chen Fan. The golden-winged roc was growing stronger.

The roc was about to counterattack!

The pressure on Lei Meng was at its peak, as he could sense that his opponent was growing stronger with each passing moment.

At first, he could injure him. Now, he couldn't even keep up.

Lei Meng's heart turned cold. He knew that Chen Fan was about to fight back.

Chla!

The golden-winged roc shot across the sky and dove down. Golden light flooded the air as radiant runes shone from his wings.

With a sudden burst of speed, the roc appeared beneath Lei Meng.

Next, everyone outside saw that the black dragon, which Lei Meng had transformed into, was cleaved.

Pfft.

Lei Meng's true self spat out a mouthful of fresh blood on the ancient monument, which turned dim. He opened his eyes and stared in Chen Fan's direction, his expression hideous.

He had failed.

Chen Fan had instantly defeated him; he couldn't even react in time. Lei Meng had wanted to defeat him quickly, but the outcome had been devastating.

"What? What happened? How did Chen Fan win in a flash?"

The Tianwu Continent residents, their eyes stuck on Chen Fan, were dumbfounded.

Chen Fan's opponent had been thoroughly suppressing him, forcing him to flee. Yet, the situation had changed near-instantly, leaving them struggling to understand what had happened.

"Impossible! Senior Brother Lei Meng clearly held the upper hand. How did he lose suddenly?"

The Jinyang Continent residents, their eyes stuck on Lei Meng, were also instantly dumbfounded. They couldn't believe that Lei Meng had actually lost.

"Do you still not get it? To cultivate the power within the ancient monument, one needed comprehension ability and talent. However, how well one could cultivate their power is also very crucial."

"That's right. Lei Meng only had a surface-level understanding. He was more focused on ending the battle against Chen Fan quickly. However, Chen Fan avoided fighting from the start, not because he was no match, but because he wanted to continue comprehending the power and strengthen himself."

"I see. So Chen Fan launched a counterattack only after thoroughly understanding the monument's power, defeating Lei Meng in an instant. This is the huge gap in strength between the two's comprehension of the Dao art."

"Comprehension speed doesn't equate to concrete strength."

Many people saw through the essence underneath and discussed fervently.

Chen Fan kept his eyes shut, fully immersed in comprehending the ancient monument's power. Quite a few people were like him, acting prudently, comprehending, and not fighting.

As time passed, a steady stream of victors advanced to the next row of ancient monuments.

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

Some people launched an offensive, obtained a victory, and eliminated their opponent.

Others attacked but lost badly, becoming stepping stones for their rivals.

A few ended in stalemates, entered a truce, and continued comprehending the Dao art in their respective ancient monuments to raise their strength.

"My god, the Tianxuan Continent's Lǚ Wangxian has already defeated three people in a row and is walking towards the fourth row of monuments. He is too monstrous. No one else is even near that row!"

Spectators from every continent stared at the sky-screen, stunned.

Lǚ Wangxian's performance in the first and second stages hadn't been eye-catching. His ranking was also below average. However, at the third stage, he simply went on a rampage. He left his competitors trailing behind in his dust, defeating three people in a row and coming in first place.

His immortal affinity had already reached four hundred feet, surpassing Chen Fan and ranking first on the leaderboard.

Chen Fan, after defeating Lei Meng, had gained ninety-nine feet of immortal affinity. His total length reached two hundred and eighty-two feet, falling from first place to twentieth.

However, Lǚ Wangxian wasn't the only one drawing eyes. The Ziyang Continent's Zi Dongyang wasn't weak either. He was already fighting his third opponent and held the absolute upper hand.

Huang Wuji had also defeated two people. He was currently in front of an ancient monument, comprehending its Dao art, and was the fastest among the eight disciples of the Peerless Peak.

Di Chen, Duanmu Lingxing, and the others had also defeated one person and had gone up to the second row of ancient monuments.

Zi Dongyang defeated his third opponent and opened his eyes, glancing at Chen Fan and the others. He didn't conceal the icy killing intent in his eyes as he murmured, "I hope you people won't disappoint us. In the last test, I, Zi Dongyang, shall take all your immortal affinity and lives!"

As the prodigies shone in the third test, the outside world buzzed with excitement.

The people from many continents paid attention to Lǚ Wangxian, Zi Dongyang, and a few others.

These people were too amazing. Whenever they were almost done comprehending, they would choose to fight with someone and send them out.

The crowd also realized something important: those ahead could challenge anyone behind them. If the challenger lost, they weren't eliminated outright; instead, they lost a portion of their immortal affinity and dropped a level.

Everyone went up to the ancient monuments at the same time. It was fair for all of them. If someone fell behind and got defeated, they had no one to blame.

Another three days later, the eighteen hundred participants had dropped to twelve hundred.

Four hundred more people must be eliminated to reach the eight hundred people limit.

However, no one wanted to be eliminated. So, they comprehended the Dao art within the ancient monuments as if their lives depended on it to make themselves stronger.

Some chose a different strategy: focus entirely on mastering a single Dao art, fortify their domain, and avoid combat. They would simply defend and wait and let others fight and fall.

It couldn't be helped.

If they failed in their challenge, they would have no path of retreat and would fail.

Meanwhile, Chen Fan remained in front of the first row of monuments, drawing confused looks.

He had dominated the first and second stages, ranking first on both leaderboards. That kind of performance made him impossible to ignore.

However, the crowd never expected Chen Fan to still be in front of the first row of ancient monuments after a few days had passed, forming a juxtaposition with his previous performance.