At this moment, the final sixteen candidates drew lots in order to determine their opponents in the first round of battle. When it was Rocky's turn, it seemed that he actually picked one of the ten high-grade Spiritual Emperors, whose strength was ranked in the top three of the Sky-suppressing Mansion. It was none other than Jude.
"Seriously? Do I already have to face such a strong opponent off the bat? It seems that I will be forced to show some of my real strength to defeat this one. I'm afraid I don't have the luxury to keep a low-profile in this match." Rocky let out a frown, but later on, he also thought that the result was just reasonable. After all, ten of the sixteen candidates were all high-grade Spiritual Emperors. Hence, the probability of encountering a strong opponent from the start was really high. So, whether his first opponent was strong or not, it did not matter. Eventually, he would have to face all of them.
Of course, ideally, Rocky did not want to expose his real strength so soon. Thus, he decided that he would do his best to defeat his opponents by only using his trump cards at the most crucial moments.
Besides, no matter how powerful Jude was, he was just a high-grade Spiritual Emperor. At Rocky's current strength, it was absolutely easy for him to win this match.
In fact, what he was worried about was that he might hit his opponent too hard. If that happened, the other candidates might become too wary of him, thinking that he had been hiding his real strength. This was something that he wanted to prevent, at least for the time being.
However, in the eyes of the audience, they were already confident that Jude would actually bag the victory in his first match. Since Rocky just participated in the challenge competition before as Basil, most of the spectators today did not know this Basil guy's true strength. At the back of their minds, Basil was just a middle-grade Spiritual Emperor, so there was no way that he could defeat Jude.
But of course, they were yet to see something that would instantly change their minds.
After everyone had already finished drawing lots, the sixteen candidates went to eight different sites, where their first battle would happen.
All eight battles were going to be held at the same time, so it was impossible for the spectators to watch all battles at the same time. They could only choose one battle at a time. Logically, they would choose a battle between powerful high-grade Spiritual Emperors, thinking that it should be the most exciting one, or perhaps a battle between the most beautiful participants.
It also meant that not many people went to see Rocky's first battle.
At this time, Rocky and Jude already stood at the center of the battlefield.
Both of them exchanged looks and had completely different expressions on their faces. Jude was wearing a serious one, while Rocky was just calm and indifferent.
"Aren't you the legendary Basil?" Jude asked directly. Although it was just his first time meeting Rocky in person, he had already heard about him before. Jude's eyes were full of disdain, and he didn't expect that he would meet someone like Rocky in this contest.
"Oh, I did not expect that you already heard about me," Rocky replied with a faint smile.
"Yeah, a bit. It seems that you are not someone weak. But even so, I'm afraid that you are not a match for me. Why don't you make your life simple? You can admit defeat right now so that you can preserve your strength for your next battle. After all, your efforts and injuries will be in vain since you'll lose to me," Jude said haughtily, thinking highly of himself.
"Well, thank you for your concern. Unfortunately, this is my first battle, so I cannot do that. After all, I will look very disappointing in front of all these people. Why not just fight me if you're so confident that you will beat me? Consider this as a warm-up. We still have fourteen more matches after this."
"Fine. But out of consideration, I won't go all out to beat you. However, I can't promise you that you won't get badly hurt. Try to defend with all your might because you're in for a beating!" Jude exclaimed arrogantly.
"Sure. You don't need to hold back. After all, if you lose, others might think that you just deliberately let me win," Rocky retorted in a subtle way of mocking him.
Of course, Jude knew exactly what Rocky meant. Then, the next moment, he released a powerful aura that shook the space around him.
"Look at that! No wonder Jude is one of the most promising high-grade Spiritual Emperors of the Sky-suppressing Mansion. His aura alone is already terrifying!"
"On the other hand, that Basil's aura is too weak! I thought he is strong enough that he was given an exemption to participate in this final round? It seems like Jude can knock him down in just a single blow!"
"He might have become afraid after seeing Jude's overwhelming aura!"
The spectators were in an uproar even before the match began. All sorts of discussions and predictions could be heard around the arena.
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