The live chat platform was flooded with comments.

Wang Teng’s name on the Zone 7’s stone plate jumped from no. 621 to no. 10. It was an incredible feat.

Those who weren’t paying attention to the young hero didn’t know how that happened. All they saw was Wyld Perez, the original tenth place holder, being pushed down.

Those watching the latter were shocked.

“What happened? Why did Wyld’s name drop?”

“Wang Teng rose to tenth place! What happened? How could such a huge change happen so suddenly?”

“Hahaha, this is fun. I knew I should watch Wang Teng. Look at what he’s done!”

“Watch the playback if you don’t know what happened. Stop asking around.”

“But Wang Teng is a little shameless. How did he come up with such a dirty trick? Parkers’ warrior no.1 was ripped off.”

“Haha, I like that name.”

“I bet he’ll boil in anger if everyone calls him that.”

“Report! A clone has reached rank 10. There must be a problem; I don’t believe it.

“The idiot above, this is not against the rules. Don’t speak if you’re ignorant.”

“That’s right. Being able to do this is also a kind of strength. Didn’t you see his concealment method? The wind eagles couldn’t find him; that was the crux of the matter. Do you think a normal warrior can take the chestnut out of the fire in a similar situation?”

“Makes sense. I was too busy watching the show and didn’t realize this.”

…

The crowd was divided on the virtual universe’s live chat platform; there were people who doubted the young hero, while others acknowledged him.

However, his clones weren’t eliminated, proving that he wasn’t cheating.

Many who had not noticed him before started to pay more attention to him.

As for the Perez family, they were frustrated.

Wyld was an extremely talented warrior from their family. He fought hard to reach the top ten and was just about to go further, but then Wang Teng shot up and pushed him down.

At first, the Perez were gloating.

One of the Parkers met Wang Teng and gave up the match. The family lost one candidate over nothing.

This happened on the fifth day. There were still twenty-five more days; the martial warriors lagging behind would definitely catch up.

Parkers’ warrior no. 1 gave up, so his points would be halved. That meant he had no chance to squeeze into the top ten thousand.

Still, they didn’t expect Wang Teng to rise and replace Wyld Perez. What kind of luck is this?

The Perez were exasperated.

They couldn’t blame Wang Teng, since he didn’t clash with their warriors, there was no confrontation.

Also, he rose quickly because he killed enough wind eagles; they were all low-tier imperial level and above.

Honestly, considering his ability, he would have needed to spend more effort if he tackled the wind eagles on his own.

What’s more, there was a risk of not succeeding!

The flock of eagles wasn’t easy to defeat.

Good thing he had Parkers’ warrior no. 1 taking care of the frontline. All he did was to piggyback on the fellow’s effort and his points skyrocketed. The process was simpler than hunting for star beasts himself.

One could imagine the amount of points he gained by sacrificing one warrior from the Parkers.

The duped fellow from the Parkers was teleported out of the forbidden zone and returned to Ring 1. The medical staff rushed over to treat him.

“Damn it!” Parkers’ warrior no. 1 punched the ground with bloodshot eyes. He was furious.

He knew he had lost the right to enter the next round of the League of Talents, and along with it his ticket to enter the Seven Stellar Academies.

Wang Teng ruined his future prospects!

I hate him!

Unfortunately, his anger was useless. There was nothing he could do.

Honestly, based on the grudges between the Parkers and the young hero, he would have done the same had he met Wang Teng in a similar situation.

In summary, no one could be blamed!

Onboard the Parkers’ spacecraft—Furious Flaming Universe Lord was raging. “Useless. There was no other group of wind eagles. Wang Teng tricked him into admitting defeat due to fear. Useless!”

Sinclamon and Valteru exchanged stares. They too were angry, but they knew they couldn’t blame that martial warrior.

Even if the fellow hadn’t admitted defeat, Wang Teng wouldn’t have let him go. Continuing the fight would only mean giving the enemy more benefits at the expense of his health. After being seriously injured, he wouldn’t have been able to continue the match and would have to eventually give up.

The vice-presidents of the Great Qian Academy were shocked. They were caught off guard when Wang Teng’s clone reached tenth place.

They had previously felt that creating clones was an unwise decision, but Wang Teng’s clone in Zone 7 rose in rank in the blink of an eye.

They felt a little awkward after being proven wrong.

The vice-presidents, Bao Dewen and Qi Yunxia, glanced at each other, mutually noticing embarrassment in each other’s eyes.

In Zone 1—Wang Teng received the attribute bubbles sent by his clone exploring Zone 7 and felt refreshed. His constellation wind Force rose again, from the seventh to the eight level of the celestial stage.

Constellation Wind Force: 34600/80000 (celestial stage, eighth level)

Wang Teng blinked. He touched his chin, as an amazing idea popped in his mind.

He sent this to the other three clones.

The three working in Zones 2, 3 and 5 froze for an instant. Then, their eyes shimmered as they darted in a certain direction.

“Look, Wang Teng’s clones are acting weird!”

“Why are they suddenly moving so fast? What are they planning?”

“Wow, I think he’s going to do something big.”

“Are they powering up because the clone in Zone 7 reached tenth place?”

…

Many were astounded by the clone’s sudden actions.

There had to be an ulterior motive underfoot.

However, the clones didn’t stop killing star beasts. Although moving faster, they would still stop and kill star beasts they met along the way.

Thus, no one knew what the young hero wanted to do. They just assumed he didn’t want the rest of his clones to fall too far behind.

Time flew, many days passing. Soon, it was the twentieth day.

More than 90% of the candidates had been eliminated. The population density within the ten forbidden zones dropped drastically.

The acrid smell of blood pervaded the air. Numerous star beasts were killed within those twenty days. The ground was stained with their blood.

There were also casualties. Most warriors gave up in time to be teleported away, there were some unwilling to admit defeat and died in the hands of the star beasts.

But, the outstanding talents remained outstanding. Some instances included Ling Yangxu, Yuan Hong, Leng Qianxue, Gaunt, Berkshire…

Those talents continued to hold the number one position. No one caught up.

As for Zone 1, competition was extremely intense. The crown prince, Strachey and Landon from the Parkers, the princes, the martial warriors from the Xiahou family, the Jis, the Jins and the Rodriguez had slaughtered their way to the top thirty. The place was packed.

Wang Teng’s ranking also rose steadily. He had the thirty-sixth spot, close to the top thirty. That was a great improvement compared to his previous results.

His rankings in the other forbidden areas didn’t drop; they also went up.

No. 56 in Zone 2.

No. 48 in Zone 3.

No. 42 in Zone 5.

No. 6 in Zone 7.

The last rank was the highest. He had risen four more places and reached the sixth spot.

Many people were taken aback.

After all, the young hero’s method was ‘inappropriate’; many had predicted that his ranking would drop.

This was a tight slap to their faces!

“This is unprecedented!”

“His main form and the clones are rising in rank. This is scary.”

“How is he doing it? This doesn’t make sense.”

“Do you think he can surpass the crown prince’s points if we pool all his points together?”

“Oh my god, it’s still below what the crown prince had, but he could be in the Zone 1’s top five!”

“The crown prince has 356,850 points while Wang Teng has 213,120 points in total. This is a few hundred points higher than the fifth place holder in Zone 1.”

“Impressive! Exceptional!”

“That means that Wang Teng’s ability is within Zone 1’s top five!”

“That’s not the case. It’s easier to hunt for star beasts in the other forbidden zones because of how heated the competition in Zone 1 is. That’s why his ranking in Zone 1 is further behind.”

“That makes sense. Wang Teng is only the 36th in Zone 1, which is far apart from the top 5 talents.”

“Well, he’s asking for it. He would have had the chance to if he sent all his clones to Zone 1; at least getting to the top fifteen.”

“That’s right. Being in the top 15 shouldn’t be a problem with all his clones.”

“I wouldn’t have wasted my efforts like this if I had a clone skill!”

“Come on, you’re not Wang Teng. You wouldn’t have fared better if you were in his shoes. Talk is cheap.”

…

Wang Teng’s performance was exceptional, so he steadily ranked second in terms of overall popularity. More people were paying attention to him than to talents like Yuan Hong, Ling Yangxu, and the others. At the same time, there were heated debates about him.

But, no matter how his popularity rose, he couldn’t surpass the crown prince. He was forever number two.