Such hostile gazes brought little emotional turbulence to Jiang Chen. He had heard Commander Yan mention that behind the Blue Mist Island Domain, there seemed to be a divine-path powerhouse pulling strings, so he was pondering just how much ambition the Blue Mist Island Domain had brought to this gathering.
However, for the time being, Jiang Chen clearly had no intention of exposing anything. After all, without concrete evidence, if he spoke up and it didn't go well, he would only put himself in an extremely passive position.
This selection round had attracted two to three thousand young geniuses. But after one or two rounds of elimination, the numbers had dwindled to just one or two hundred.
These remaining one or two hundred could naturally be considered relatively elite.
Jiang Chen made a rough assessment. Though these geniuses were indeed somewhat elite, among them, those who had broken through to the Celestial position were fewer than one in ten. In other words, out of these one or two hundred top-tier geniuses, only around fifteen or twenty had actually entered the Celestial position.
After all, even the top geniuses of second- and third-rate powers were utterly incapable of comparing with those of the Ten Great Sacred Lands, let alone the first-rate families and sects of the Ten Great Divine Kingdoms.
To Jiang Chen's surprise, both the Huichun Island Domain and the Sancai Island Domain had managed to get one genius each into this final elite group of one to two hundred.
The Tianzhao Island Domain had two slots. The Blue Mist Island Domain, meanwhile, had a remarkable five.
Both were second-rate powers, yet the gap between the Tianzhao Island Domain's brand of "second-rate" and the Blue Mist Island Domain's was immediately apparent. The Blue Mist Island Domain was approaching first-rate status — its strength was already enough to rival first-rate powers. Hence, its number of geniuses far exceeded that of ordinary second-rate forces.
From here, these geniuses would compete in successive rounds of matches, after which their rankings would be calculated precisely based on their various performances.
Even Jiang Chen felt this selection process was excessively tedious.
But everyone else seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it, apparently delighted to see such precise rankings. Though Jiang Chen considered it a waste of time, he had no choice but to sit through it patiently.
"Chen Shao, do you find this ranking rather boring?" Zi Che Min asked with a smile.
"The Genius Grand Tournament is primarily a stage for the geniuses of the Ten Great Sacred Lands. Don't you think this selection has been made overly elaborate, somewhat losing sight of the main event?" Jiang Chen's tone was measured.
"Heh heh, under normal circumstances, it certainly wouldn't have been done so elaborately. But this time, the Ten Great Sacred Lands, in order to recruit talent and give second- and third-rate powers a sense of participation, deliberately made everything this complex. Put simply, one reason was to win hearts and draw in those second- and third-rate forces. The other was to take their measure — to get a sense of their depth, and form a rough estimate and projection of each faction's strength and the overall power balance of Myriad Abyss Island."
Zi Che Min explained at length, and Jiang Chen came to understand the reasoning.
Myriad Abyss Island was home to countless island domains scattered like stars across the sky, with powers too numerous to mention. Under normal circumstances, there was almost no opportunity for them all to gather together.
Without a formal summons from the Ten Great Sacred Lands, assembling this many at once would have been impossible.
As a result, just how much strength Myriad Abyss Island truly possessed — its overall power — had always remained an unsolved mystery. This event provided a chance to take the measure of most second- and third-rate powers.
Though some among them would certainly hide their true strength, the majority of powers were willing to put themselves on display, hoping to catch the attention of the Ten Great Sacred Lands.
At a time like this, a power attempting to conceal its strength was nearly unheard of. If any did, it could only mean they harbored other intentions, other designs.
Because the selection details were so meticulous and precise, the time required was considerable. After a full half month of selections, the final rankings were finally announced.
Of course, these rankings applied only to the geniuses who participated in the selection, not to their respective factions.