The wheat-skinned woman they called Xiaoyou glanced at the young man who had spoken, pushing down her dejection to force a smile. "Anyi, is this your first time in the regional arena tournament?"
Hearing her voice, Anyi looked a little nervous. He swallowed hard before nodding. "Yes, Sister Xiaoyou. To be honest, I never thought the Chairman would pick me. After all, I only reached Tier Four a little while ago, and my strength isn’t that great..."
Xiaoyou smiled and walked over to pat his shoulder like a reassuring big sister. "The Chairman is investing in your potential. Do your best. Whether or not we can hold our ranking this time depends on the Tier Four and Tier Five groups. The power gap between our Tier Six group and the others is just too wide. I doubt we’ll last more than a few rounds..."
At this, Xiaoyou gave a bitter laugh. "If I’d known, I would’ve said we should just send in the two seniors, Deng Ankang and Qian Zhong. At least then we wouldn’t lose so embarrassingly!"
The group broke into a flurry of discussion.
Linjiang itself wasn’t a major city. Before Su Ruobing’s arrival, its performance in the regional arena tournaments had always been rather poor, consistently ranking near the bottom.
In recent years, thanks to Su Ruobing’s tireless efforts, Linjiang’s results, while not dramatically different overall, had begun to show a distinct upward trend.
...
As Li Chang’an stepped off the airship and was led by Secretary Wang Miao to the area designated for the Linjiang Reincarnator Association’s contestants, all eyes involuntarily turned to him.
When they saw that the person following behind Wang Miao was a young man who looked to be less than twenty years old, the other eight contestants from the Linjiang Reincarnator Association were utterly confused.
Of course, not everyone among the competing Reincarnators was a stranger to Li Chang’an.
A small number of them had met him before in Cangxuan City.
Caozhuang Anyi was not only Li Chang’an’s senior from school but also a customer who had purchased the Super Electromagnetic Cannon and Energy Particle Beam Cannon that Li Chang’an developed. He had even paid Li Chang’an a deposit two months prior.
Because of this, Anyi was astonished when he recognized him. His jaw dropped. "Chang’an, what are you doing here?"
Anyi, like Li Chang’an, was from Linjiang Second High School.
However, he was a grade above Li Chang’an.
Anyi had even been friendly to him in a group chat before.
Later, after Li Chang’an developed the Super Electromagnetic Cannon and the Energy Particle Beam Cannon to kill a Tier Five Exotic Beast, Anyi had come to inspect the specifications for both weapons at Su Ruobing’s invitation.
That was the one and only time the two had met in person.
So, they were more or less friends.
Seeing Anyi greet him, Li Chang’an quickly walked over, extending his hand. "Anyi, long time no see. I’m here for the regional Martial Arts Arena too, of course!"
Hearing Li Chang’an’s words, Anyi looked him up and down, then glanced back at the team of contestants.
There were nine people in total, split into three groups.
At the moment, eight of those spots were filled.
The only opening was the one left by Tian Hualuo, who had just been replaced.
’But the thing is, Tian Hualuo was on the Tier Six Evolver team!’
’Did something get mixed up?’
Anyi was stunned for a long moment before his face took on an expression like he’d seen a ghost. "You’re here to compete... Don’t tell me you’re joining the Tier Six group?"
Li Chang’an nodded.
Seeing him actually admit it, Anyi stumbled back several steps. After a long moment, he clutched at his chest and forced out the words, "Li, if I remember correctly, you only graduated a year ago and became a Permanent Reincarnator... right?"
Li Chang’an nodded.
Anyi felt his heart give a painful lurch. He took several deep breaths before he could continue, "So... does that mean... in just one year, you became a Sixth Rank Evolver?"
Li Chang’an knew this question would draw a lot of attention.
But things had already come this far; it was impossible to hide it even if he wanted to.
So he simply nodded. "Yeah, I got pretty lucky. My reincarnation ratings this past year were all quite high. Plus, I raised some resources by selling weapons and was fortunate enough to break through to Tier Six..."
Hearing this, Anyi could no longer contain himself. He plopped right down on the ground, his face a mask of existential crisis, and muttered, "How is that possible? How... How could that be? It’s impossible..."
Hearing the exchange, everyone else nearby stared wide-eyed in disbelief.
Even if they hadn’t seen Li Chang’an in person, they had all at least heard of him; he had been the talk of the town recently.
And now, this Champion Scholar had become a Sixth-rank Reincarnator in just one year...
The mere thought was enough to make them gasp.
No wonder Chairman Su had suddenly swapped out a member at the last minute, right before the regional arena tournament was about to begin. A young genius like him was certainly worthy of such special treatment!
All sorts of thoughts raced through the other contestants’ minds. At the same time, every eye in the group was involuntarily drawn to Li Chang’an, as if he had a magnet embedded in him.
The complex emotions in their gazes were like that of someone staring up at the night sky, only to suddenly see an alien descend from the stars and into reality!
All the intense stares made Li Chang’an subconsciously rub his nose.