The position they sat in was located exactly halfway between the eye of the array and the edge of the arena. This was the core of the Soul Power’s impact, the place where it could be felt most clearly. From here, they could better perceive the subtleties of the Soul Power transmitted by the great array and capture the information it contained.

It wasn’t impossible to move further forward, but with each step, the Soul Power they had to withstand would increase significantly. For the contestants, it simply wasn’t worth it.

For a moment, a peculiar scene unfolded on the arena. The twenty-some seeded contestants were all sitting cross-legged around the halfway point, while the remaining four hundred or so were at the edge.

They were more concerned with playing it safe, so they didn’t dare advance rashly.

"Huh? How come there are only twenty-four seeded contestants? Is someone missing?"

Just then, a sudden cry of surprise rang out, drawing the surrounding people’s attention.

Everyone turned to look. After a careful count, they confirmed it: there were indeed only twenty-four seeded contestants. One was missing.

"The missing one seems to be the team leader from Liuyun Kingdom."

Finally, a sharp-eyed observer realized who was missing and spoke up. A large crowd immediately began searching for any sign of Ye Xuan, and it wasn’t long before they found him sitting cross-legged at the very edge of the arena.

"Pfft! Is this kid really a seeded contestant? Why is he hiding at the edge of the arena?"

"I knew it. What kind of skill could someone that young possibly have? Now he’s just embarrassing himself."

"Look at him. You don’t think he’ll be able to withstand even the first round’s impact, do you?"

It wasn’t just the audience below; even many of the contestants on the arena itself were looking at Ye Xuan with odd expressions, unable to suppress their laughter.

"Heh heh, kid. You’re a seeded contestant? To me, you just look like a coward who’s hiding in his shell." The hook-nosed man from Dongsheng Kingdom, one of the five geniuses who had previously clashed with Ye Xuan, let out a sinister laugh, his voice dripping with mockery.

"Haha, my friend here is right. This contestant from Liuyun Kingdom is either a coward or a total pansy. It seems the reputation of the so-called five great kingdoms is undeserved."

Chen Jueming, the top genius of the Fire Crow Kingdom, was always eager to stir up trouble. Hearing the hook-nosed man mock Ye Xuan, he couldn’t help but sneer as well.

As a genius from the Fire Crow Kingdom, he would never pass up an opportunity to take a jab at the Liuyun Kingdom.

Faced with everyone’s mockery, Ye Xuan remained expressionless. With his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, he seemed to have blocked out the outside world entirely.

"Haha! So he’s not just a coward, he’s an ostrich burying its head in the sand. Utterly useless."

The taunts from Chen Jueming and the others made the faces of He Xuting and the other contestants from Liuyun Kingdom flush with anger. Even the many Soul Refiners from the Liuyun Kingdom delegation who were observing looked grim.

"Who’s spewing all this crap? The stench is unbearable." Yun Aoxue could finally take no more and let out a cold snort.

"Oh? You dare talk back?" Chen Jueming sneered repeatedly. "He’s a seeded contestant, yet he’s sitting at the edge with everyone else. So what? I can’t call him useless? I guess the Liuyun Kingdom really is fresh out of talent. The other contestants don’t dare to make a peep, and in the end, it takes a woman to speak up for them. Tsk, tsk. If I were him, I’d be so ashamed I’d just kill myself."

"Enough. This is an arena, not a street corner for you to hurl insults," Xia Qixi of the Celestial Gold Kingdom said icily.

Chen Jueming’s expression froze for a moment before he snorted. "Xia Qixi, others might be afraid of you, but I, Chen Jueming, am not. In this Floating Light Assembly, it’s still anyone’s game."

Throughout their clash, Ye Xuan, the subject of their conversation, remained perfectly composed, as if they weren’t talking about him at all.

Unlike the ordinary Soul Refiners, who focused on the Soul Power’s impact, Ye Xuan’s attention was currently fixed entirely on the array creating the Soul Power Storm.

As time passed, the array’s power gradually increased, and the intensity of the Soul Power Storm slowly rose with it.

PFFT!

A Soul Refiner at the edge of the arena suddenly turned pale and spat out a mouthful of blood before tumbling off the platform, his face the color of ash.

After the first Soul Refiner was eliminated, more and more contestants began to fall. As the Soul Power Storm intensified, a steady stream of Soul Refiners found they could no longer hold on and dropped from the arena. They gasped for breath, their pale faces quickly regaining some color, and the Soul Power auras around them even seemed to have grown a little more condensed.

’I was right.’ Ye Xuan was secretly shocked. ’This Soul Power Storm array doesn’t just test a Soul Refiner’s strength. It also helps them condense their Soul Power. The longer one can endure it, the greater the benefits.’

From the moment the Soul Power Storm began, he had sensed something was different.

The Soul Power within the storm wasn’t just a simple assault; it carried a refining effect. Simply put, this was more of a trial than an attack. Ye Xuan had never encountered a Soul Power array like this before.

This immediately piqued his curiosity, making him want to comprehend the array in its entirety.

Sitting where Xia Qixi and the others were would indeed allow one to better sense the fluctuations of Soul Power, but it wouldn’t provide as clear a perception of the array as a whole. That was why Ye Xuan had sat at the edge, to perceive it in detail.

Wisps of hazy, white light pulsed out from the array’s eye at the center of the arena. In just a quarter of an hour, nearly a hundred Soul Refiners had already been thrown from the platform.

These were all Soul Refiners with weak foundations in Soul Power. Their fall not only signified their failure in the first round but also their disqualification from the rest of the competition.

After all, the first round was designed to cut the number of contestants down to just three hundred.

At the edge of the arena, every remaining Soul Refiner was gritting their teeth and silently enduring.

Suddenly, Ye Xuan’s body swayed, immediately attracting the attention of countless spectators.

"Is that kid about to give out?"

"He’s sitting at the very edge, a position much safer than where the other twenty-four seeded contestants are. None of them are showing signs of weakness, yet he’s already about to fail? How pathetic can you get?"

"Haha, it would be hilarious if that kid got eliminated right now."

"A seeded contestant who can’t even pass the first round? If word of this gets out, the entire Liuyun Kingdom will become a laughingstock."

"Come on, come on, let’s place some bets! How much longer will he last? I’ll say five minutes."

"Five minutes? You’re giving him too much credit. I’ll bet two minutes. Didn’t you see how he was swaying just now?"

Originally, most of the audience had been focused on top contestants like Xia Qixi. But after all this discussion, more than half of them had turned their attention to Ye Xuan.

They weren’t watching to see how far he could go, but to see how long it would take for him to be eliminated.

If Ye Xuan were to be eliminated before the number of contestants dropped to three hundred, it would be a huge joke. A seeded contestant from one of the five great kingdoms, unable to even pass the first round—without a doubt, the Liuyun Kingdom would become the laughingstock of the Thirteen Nations Alliance.

Under the watchful gaze of the crowd, Ye Xuan’s body swayed again, looking unsteady.

Everyone held their breath. There were still over three hundred twenty contestants on the field, which meant over twenty more had to be eliminated. They were all wondering if Ye Xuan would be one of them.

On the arena, the intensity of the Soul Power Storm continued to rise.

PFFT!

More and more Soul Refiners were thrown from the arena. Yet, by the time the number of contestants reached three hundred, Ye Xuan, who had been swaying the whole time, was still on the platform.

The crowd, having been denied the spectacle they were hoping for, actually felt a pang of disappointment.

’Even though he’s lasted this long, he must be at his limit,’ many in the audience guessed. ’A boy in his teens can’t be more than a First Grade Soul Refiner. He won’t be able to hold on for much longer.’

WHOOSH!

The Soul Power Storm continued to strengthen.

Two hundred fifty contestants left!

Two hundred!

One hundred fifty!

One hundred!

Fifty!

As the Soul Power’s impact intensified, more Soul Refiners were eliminated. To everyone’s astonishment, Ye Xuan—the one they all thought would be eliminated at any moment—was still on the arena.

By now, the intensity of the Soul Power Storm had reached the level of a Peak of First Grade Soul Refiner.

How was this possible?

The spectators who had been waiting for a show were utterly stunned. They never would have guessed that Ye Xuan could hold on for so long.

Based on age alone, besides Ye Xuan, there were no contestants left on the arena under the age of twenty-two.

Just then, Ye Xuan, still cross-legged at the edge of the arena, suddenly opened his eyes. And then, to the crowd’s bewilderment, he stood up.

This move left countless Soul Refiners dumbfounded. A glint appeared in their eyes as they thought, ’Is this kid playing weak to ambush the strong? Is he actually thinking of moving forward now?’

With the Soul Power Storm at its current intensity, even a few of the other twenty-some seeded contestants were beginning to waver, stumbling backward. Could this kid really move forward?

But amidst their speculation, Ye Xuan didn’t move forward. Instead, he walked over to the opposite edge of the arena and sat down cross-legged once more.

The jaws of everyone present collectively hit the floor.

Moving from one edge of the arena to the other... what was this kid doing? The eye of the Soul Power Storm’s array was in the center. No matter which edge he sat on, the impact’s intensity would be the same. Ye Xuan’s action was completely and utterly pointless.

Not only did the audience fail to understand, but even President Zhu Tianlan and the others on the high platform were completely baffled, with no idea what Ye Xuan was doing.

As the Soul Power Storm continued to intensify, another group of contestants failed to hold on and were eliminated. Now, only about thirty people remained. Even seeded contestants like Li Wanpeng from the Liuyun Kingdom, whose Soul Power was at the Peak of First Grade, had been forced to retreat to the arena’s edge, where they now swayed precariously under the immense Soul Power assault.