"Only seventeen people passed?"
"
"What on earth happened in there?"
After a brief moment of silence in the grand hall, every major superpower's representatives turned their gaze toward
It was true that the qualifying rounds didn't necessarily have to produce exactly one hundred passers. If not enough Battle God Tokens were found, the number who cleared the stage could fall short of that mark. But even so, the figure should have been at least eighty or above.
Now only seventeen people had made it through. That number was far beyond anything the major superpowers had anticipated.
The four great guilds—Heavenly Dragon Fortress, Proud Empire, Demon Emperor Palace, and Divine Miracles—were completely dumbfounded. They had no idea what had happened inside the qualifying rounds.
They had paid an enormous price to hire four of the Six Fire Dragon Masters, peerless powerhouses who were supposed to guarantee their success in this allied battle. A top-four finish was supposed to be a foregone conclusion—yet now, not a single one of their allied members had even passed, let alone placed.
And what made it truly unbelievable was that Zero Wing's people had returned completely unscathed, while not a single person from their four guilds' allied forces had come back. How could they possibly accept that?
"Find out—find out immediately! I need to know what happened in the qualifying rounds right now!"
Almost simultaneously, representatives from Heavenly Dragon Fortress, Proud Empire, Demon Emperor Palace, and Divine Miracles began frantically reaching out to their allied members.
"Vice Guild Leader, do you think something went wrong with the qualifying rounds?" Yu Bai stared at the central stone stele, his eyes full of astonishment.
At Yu Bai's question, Cold Light Poetry Shadow glanced at Shi Feng in the distance, then looked back at the four guilds in commotion. It was clear that even their people had no idea what had happened.
"Something definitely went wrong in there—I just don't know what tricks Zero Wing pulled." That was the only conclusion Cold Light Poetry Shadow could draw: this bizarre outcome had to be connected to Zero Wing somehow.
Nine hundred people had gone in, and only seventeen had come back. No matter how fierce the fighting inside had been, it was impossible for so few to return—let alone for every single survivor to be from Zero Wing.
While the major superpowers in the hall scrambled to investigate the matter behind the scenes, Frost Heaven's Sword was equally bewildered.
"Guild Leader Black Flame, what exactly happened in there? How is it that only you came back?" Mu Xin couldn't help but ask Shi Feng directly.
Though Frost Heaven's Sword could conduct its own investigation, having the person who actually knew the truth standing right in front of them made asking directly the better option.
"That's right—what happened in the qualifying rounds?" Yu Cang fixed his gaze on Shi Feng, pressing him one question after another. "What about Huo Tian and the others?"
If Zero Wing's mere seventeen people could return completely unharmed, then how could the Seven Sin Blossom, with eighty-three members and Huo Tian—a Domain master among them—fail to even make it back?
As Mu Xin and Yu Cang fired off their questions, the rest of Frost Heaven's Sword turned to Shi Feng as well, curiosity burning in their eyes over what had transpired inside the qualifying rounds.
Shi Feng completely ignored Yu Cang's interrogation and turned to Mu Xin instead.
"Nothing out of the ordinary happened in there. Just some routine team battles, and you can see the results for yourself," Shi Feng said flatly.
His words were simple and straightforward, his logic airtight—not a single flaw to be found. Yet not a single person from Frost Heaven's Sword believed him. Even Mu Xin felt like Shi Feng was pulling her leg.
"Black Flame, do you take us all for fools? You actually expect me to buy that?" Yu Cang erupted in anger.
He had already been irked by Shi Feng's outright disregard of him. Now he felt as though his intelligence was being ground under Shi Feng's boot and trampled into the dirt.