[Battle Start]

WHOOSH!

Wreathed in a gale, the opponent charged straight at Lu Cang!

A Mage, yet they wanted to fight in close combat.

’So they’ve also multiclassed as a Warrior...’

Lu Cang began to chant, "Howling Wind."

WHOOSH!

A tempest erupted!

However, he saw countless streams of wind swirling around the opponent’s Magic Staff!

WHOOSH!

With an upward strike, she actually slashed out a Wind Blade!

It cut through the gale Lu Cang had casually thrown out.

’Casting a Wind Blade with a Combat Skill, infusing the blade with the power of a slash... A pretty good idea,’ Lu Cang thought.

The wind Lu Cang had casually summoned was just an ordinary Wind Blowing Technique.

It wasn’t Beyond Magic, after all.

Lu Cang retreated lightly, chanting, "Water of Resistance, Entwining Wood, Swift Flash..."

He was only pretending to chant.

CLANG!

BOOM!

BANG!

An Ka, Magic Staff in hand, charged relentlessly after Lu Cang, pressing the attack.

She spun her staff, conjuring dancing flames!

’Dancing Flame Technique...’

’A Low Tier spell, paired with a shortened chant... Judging by her movements, she seems to have had specialized training.’

But unfortunately, after a few probing attacks, he saw nothing in her movements worth learning.

"Light of Instant Flash."

SWOOSH!

Lu Cang pointed a single finger, and a ray of light shot through An Ka’s body, piercing her heart.

An Ka stared at her chest in disbelief.

She couldn’t understand... why she had been killed when there had been no sign she was about to lose.

[Winner: Lu Cang]

An easy victory.

The War God Cup was a tournament for the entire Ruelun Continent. Although he was famous in the City in the Circle now...

...across all of Ruelun, probably not many people knew of him yet.

So, Lu Cang didn’t plan on revealing too much of his strength.

He would just use abbreviated chants and cast a few random spells to kill his enemies.

The battle ended.

His next opponent hadn’t finished their fight yet.

Lu Cang waited where he was and took out a yellowed manuscript.

[An Zheng’s Manuscript]

His Perception swept over the manuscript, and its information resurfaced in Lu Cang’s mind.

"Decryption Scholar Talent—Divine Level Information Tracing"

The notebook’s original records were restored in Lu Cang’s mind.

’As I thought...’

This notebook originally had entries on every page, but... someone erased them later.

Lu Cang didn’t know who had erased them.

From 4997 A.D. to 5025 A.D., there was an entry for every single day in January...

It was a massive amount of information.

Just then, the [Opponent Ready] prompt sounded in his mind.

He looked at the person before him.

It was a Warrior.

"A Level 3 Mage from Lorren?"

"A Level 3 coming to this kind of tournament? Haha, you might as well just surrender. There’s no way you can win."

"I’m the leader of an Adventurer’s Guild in Ruijia, known as the Tiger of the East Wind."

’Tiger of the East Wind? Never heard of him.’

’Do all you people from Ruijia like to run your mouths so much?’

Lu Cang lamented inwardly.

He waited for the countdown to end. The battle began!

"Light of Instant Flash."

Lu Cang recited it monotonously.

Then, from the tip of his cheap Magic Staff, a flash of light shot out.

It instantly pierced through the man’s body, destroying his heart.

’So weak...’

After this battle ended, he had to wait again for the next opponents to finish their fight.

Lu Cang thought for a moment.

With a slight shift of his consciousness, he became one of the spectators.

He began searching for Lu Luwei’s battle arena.

Soon, Lu Cang found it.

Her opponent had just appeared, and they were still in the ten-second pre-battle chat phase.

But while her opponent spouted taunts, Lu Luwei didn’t respond at all.

The moment the countdown ended, she simply raised her bow.

BOOM!

It was that move again—the one that pierced through the city, tore through layers of ruins, and annihilated everything in its path.

...

The third match, the fourth, the fifth...

Lu Cang had a feeling that she was also coming to observe his arena after her battles ended.

Both of their fights seemed so simple and unadorned.

Lu Luwei used only that one move. Similarly, against opponents who seemed to have no special qualities, Lu Cang would just chant "Instant White Flash" for an instant kill.

They both used only their simplest moves.

The number of participants in the War God Cup was around 1,000...

After seven consecutive rounds, not many people were left.

Each round of battles eliminated half the participants.

After seven rounds, and accounting for byes...

...only eight people remained.

’That was pretty fast...’

It had only been four hours in total. The main delay was a guy with ridiculously high Defense Power who had dragged out a fight with his opponent for a full two hours.

He managed to win by attrition, then dragged out his second match for a long time as well.

This person was a Warrior multiclassed as a Defender...

A total tank.

And surprisingly, both of his Professions had already reached Level 4.

Looking closely at the opponents who had made it to the final stage, it seemed they were all Level 4 Dual Professions...

A Level 4 Dual Profession was already equivalent to the combat power of a Level 5.

’As expected of the War God Cup. There are some skilled fighters after all.’

Besides himself, there was one Root Mage, two Extreme Intent Warriors, one Traceless Assassin, one Ultimate Archer, and also a Summoner and a Puppet Master, which were Secret Scroll Professions.

Not only had they comprehended concepts like Root Source and Extreme Intent...

...but they had also multiclassed into a second Profession and trained it to Level 4 as well.

’Have to admit...’

’This world does have its share of powerful people.’

These people were probably all the top-ranked fighters from their respective cities.

However, in terms of score, they probably weren’t as dominant as him and Lu Luwei.

[Your opponent is ready.]

Lu Cang looked at the opponent before him. He wore a large hat with the brim pulled down low, obscuring his face.

His hands were covered in gray gloves.

Lu Cang’s Perception swept over him, and he discovered that this wasn’t a real person, but a puppet.