The Immortal Emperor had arrived to participate in their tournament. But then what? After nearly a hundred fights, he hadn’t even changed his stance.

Against every enemy, it was always a single, simple move with his Flying Sword. He never needed to use any other abilities. It was impossible to discern his combat limits or methods. His battles, aside from proving just how strong he was, yielded no useful data whatsoever.

"I’ll go handle this!"

After a brief exchange in a private group chat, the Divine Artifact holder from Country F immediately began contacting the tournament’s organizing committee.

Having witnessed the Immortal Emperor’s power, everyone else fell silent. The spectators in the arena were silent. Even on the new Forum’s live thread, which constantly updated with match results, the post announcing another victory for the Immortal Emperor failed to make much of a splash.

Honestly, everyone had just grown numb to the Immortal Emperor’s Combat Power. On the Forum, the only ones posting congratulatory messages and showering him with praise after his latest win were a group of Immortal Court members, identifiable by the [Immortal Court] suffix on their usernames.

DING!

"Match 1,654: Great Xia’s Taiyi Zhenren vs. Great Xia’s Immortal Emperor!"

A second later, the new match-up appeared. As the names were announced, the two contestants, who had been on standby, instantly materialized inside the arena’s dimensional Secret Realm.

Both Taiyi Zhenren and the Immortal Emperor were left speechless. Staring at their opponent, Huang Yi and Zhao Li were stunned. They never imagined the two of them would be matched against each other. Although all the fights were supposed to be random, the probability of them being paired up was just too small. Instantly, a strong sense of conspiracy washed over both of them.

By now, after thousands of matches, some of the more powerful figures had acquired new nicknames. The Immortal Emperor, for instance, was called the Great Xia Sword by players from other countries. Taiyi Zhenren was known as the Shield of Xia. One had an invincible offense, having yet to meet an opponent who could last a single round. The other had an invincible defense, not having lost a single match with his defensive counter-attack strategy.

And now, the two of them had been pitted against each other.

Since one of you is Great Xia’s unstoppable sword and the other is Great Xia’s incredibly tough iron shield, why don’t you two fight it out? We’ll see whether the sword is sharper or the shield is stronger.

"Protest!"

"Protest!"

"Protest!"

Before Huang Yi or Zhao Li could say a word, the Forum’s live thread was instantly flooded with a massive outcry. Everyone knew that both of them were Great Xia’s top contenders. For them to be matched up now was far too coincidental. Although the netizens from Great Xia also wanted to see them fight and find out who was stronger, they presented a united front against outsiders in an arena filled with players from other countries.

Even if our two champions have to fight, that’s Great Xia’s internal affair. How could we possibly let them do it in front of all of you?

When the two of them fought, one would inevitably lose. Regardless of who it was, seeing either of them get a loss on their record was not something the Great Xia netizens wanted to see. The moment the new match-up was announced, they instantly flooded the chat. The members of the Divine Capital’s Tourism Management Office and the Immortal Court, in particular, completely blew up.

"Announcement: All matches are randomly generated by a computer, using a third-party system for fairness. The results are real, valid, and cannot be changed!"

Unfortunately, no matter how much they protested, the match-up would not be changed. Following the quickly posted announcement, the referee blew the whistle, signaling the start of the match.

Upon seeing that the match-up was unchangeable, the view count for their live match video instantly skyrocketed. Everyone wanted to see how these two undefeated contestants from Great Xia would fight.

However, they were disappointed.

The referee blew the whistle, but the arena fell into an awkward silence. The Immortal Emperor did not release his Flying Sword, and not a single one of Taiyi Zhenren’s Defense Towers descended. The scene was eerily quiet.

Five seconds later, Taiyi Zhenren said something that left everyone dumbfounded:

"I forfeit!"

Sensing they were being targeted, Huang Yi and the Immortal Emperor shared a tacit understanding and made no move as the match began. A few seconds later, Huang Yi, being the more tactful of the two, chose to forfeit directly. He refused to give those people the satisfaction of watching a spectacle.

Of course, there was another reason Huang Yi chose to forfeit: he didn’t think he could beat the Immortal Emperor. It wasn’t that he was incapable of putting up a fight, but ninety percent of his Defense Towers were currently deployed back in the Divine Capital’s Neutral City. He only had 50 Defense Towers with him, and none were the specific type needed to counter the Immortal Emperor’s Flying Sword. Therefore, Huang Yi forfeited without a second thought.

"Huh?"

Huang Yi’s forfeit took everyone by surprise, even Zhao Li, who stood opposite him. Zhao Li’s original plan had been for them to tacitly agree not to attack, run down the clock, and end the match in a draw. He never expected Huang Yi to be so bold as to just forfeit.

"Match-fixing!"

"Match-fixing!"

"Match-fixing!"

"Disqualify them!"

"Disqualify them!"

"Disqualify them!"

After a few seconds of stunned silence, the netizens from other countries furiously spammed all sorts of messages, demanding that Huang Yi and Zhao Li be disqualified from the tournament.

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t know that the very purpose of this competition was to probe Great Xia’s strength. Even if Huang Yi and Zhao Li were genuinely cheating, they would never be disqualified as long as their full capabilities hadn’t been revealed. Besides, the two of them hadn’t cheated. The rules never said forfeiting wasn’t allowed.

"Reasonable!"

"Boss Taiyi is a real man!"

"Boss Taiyi has integrity!"

"Nice, nice. As expected of a big shot from the Tourism Management Office headquarters. His level of thinking is on another plane!"