He vaguely sensed that somewhere deep inside the Ruins Sect, a powerful, mysterious force was lurking—so intense it made his heart race. And what really caught him off guard was that his Primeval Heavenwood suddenly started glowing with a strange light, which meant there might actually be another branch of the Primeval Heavenwood hidden inside these ruins.
Ryan Ling hadn’t expected this at all. His Primeval Heavenwood had already grown and flourished after several evolutions, but if he could find another branch, the Heavenwood would probably undergo an earth-shattering transformation. He couldn’t even imagine what that would look like, but one thing was for sure—it’d be a massive upgrade for him!
But just as Ryan was getting hyped up inside, a glare full of pure hatred suddenly swept over from the side. No surprise—it was none other than May Xia’s sworn enemy, Shawn Qin!
He actually showed up for the Ruins Recruitment too!
“Don’t worry, young master! This time, he’s not getting away. We’ll make sure he dies, no matter what!” Some of the Qin clan’s goons had already locked their eyes on Ryan.
“Benefactor!” At that moment, May Xia spotted him too, and beside her, Celia Xiao and Joanna Long also noticed what was going on. It was classic—enemies meeting face-to-face, and the tension was off the charts!
“No worries. Since we’ve run into them already, the timing’s perfect!” Ryan looked at Shawn Qin and his crew, totally confident, secretly laughing to himself. These idiots wanted to take him out? Too bad they didn’t have the skills. If it came down to a real fight, they’d be toast.
Back on the streets of Ruins City, Ryan hadn’t wanted to make a scene—killing someone out there would’ve caused a huge uproar. But now things were different. In the Ruins Recruitment, there was a newbie challenge tournament, and everyone had to sign a life-and-death waiver before fighting. So basically, Ryan had just landed the perfect chance to help May Xia get her revenge!
If someone got killed in the arena, the Qin clan wouldn’t have any excuse to come after him for revenge later!
“Relax, May. That bastard’s as good as dead today!”
“Exactly! There’s no way he’s a match for Ryan!”
Celia Xiao and Joanna Long were getting fired up too, clearly thinking the same thing as Ryan—Shawn Qin was basically asking to get himself killed!
“Mm!” May Xia nodded quickly—she totally trusted Ryan.
Soon, all the Ruins Recruitment contestants started entering the arena. The whole tournament was split into three big brackets: Heaven Bracket, Earth Bracket, and Human Bracket—each based on the contestants’ strength. Anyone at the Heavenly Immortal Realm was placed in the Heaven Bracket, which meant they were practically guaranteed a spot in Ruins Sect.
As for the Earth and Human Brackets, those were for the Earth Immortal Realm contestants. Ryan didn’t show his full power—he still didn’t want to attract too much attention—so he picked the Human Bracket. Shawn Qin, on the other hand, was ranked among the top five in the Earth Bracket!
That guy’s strength was probably at Earth Immortal great-perfection, and he was definitely hiding something. His real power was probably already at the half-step Heavenly Immortal level.
Looking at him all smug and self-satisfied, you’d think he was some genius. But to Ryan, he was just a pile of crap—if Ryan really wanted to stomp him, he’d be mush in seconds!
With the brackets sorted, the Ruins Recruitment tournament finally kicked off!
Most of the crowd was glued to the Heaven Bracket—no surprise, that’s where all the heavy hitters were. The Earth Bracket came next, and nobody really cared about the Human Bracket. Ryan just wanted to get into Ruins Sect; he didn’t give a damn about his ranking!
But he knew perfectly well—Shawn Qin wasn’t going to let him walk out of that arena alive. He’d definitely look for a chance to challenge him!
The next round was a breeze. Ryan didn’t even break a sweat—he casually wiped out three opponents and qualified, officially becoming a Ruins Sect disciple!
Of course, more people made it through the Human Bracket—maybe a few dozen. But those who got in this way could only start out as third-generation disciples. The Heaven Bracket elites, on the other hand, might get promoted straight to first-generation disciples, or even become Protectors if they were monsters. Not that many managed that, though!
The Earth Bracket was done too—ten disciples advanced. Shawn Qin had performed like a champ, clearly prepping hard beforehand. He took third place, and a bunch of Qin clan folks went wild cheering for him, saying he’d brought glory to the family!
But just then, Shawn Qin locked eyes with Ryan. Without a hint of hesitation, he said coldly, “I challenge that disciple!”
A lot of people were a little surprised by Shawn’s move, but nobody freaked out—in this crazy arena, revenge matches happened all the time. Since everyone had signed the life-and-death waiver, nobody would step in.
Besides Shawn’s challenge, there were similar call-outs happening in the other brackets too!
Same-level challenges were whatever—the outcome could go either way. But if you got called out by someone from a higher bracket, all you could do was suck it up and pray you didn’t get wrecked!
“Do you accept the challenge?” one of the tournament judges asked Ryan.
It was obvious the judge didn’t care about Ryan at all. The arena was brutal, survival of the fittest was the law, and based on what Ryan had shown so far, he looked way weaker than Shawn Qin. Nobody expected anything from him!
“Sure!” Ryan nodded, totally expressionless.
“Kid, you really aren’t afraid to die, huh?” Shawn Qin sneered when Ryan agreed so quickly, clearly thinking Ryan was out of his mind.
With the Qin clan cheering him on, Shawn Qin swaggered over to Ryan. He didn’t even bother looking at Ryan—clearly, he thought Ryan was beneath notice.
He was way more interested in the women behind Ryan—May Xia, Celia Xiao, and Joanna Long. This bastard didn’t just want to kill Ryan in the arena; he wanted to steal all three women for himself. Just thinking about spending the night with them had already made him giddy with excitement!
“Judge, just to confirm—if I kill him right now, I won’t be held responsible, right?” Ryan glanced over at the judge.
The judge sneered, clearly wondering if Ryan was crazy, but replied impatiently, “Don’t worry. You won’t be held responsible!”
“Great, then I’m good!” Ryan said, not hesitating for a second. He shot into the air, unleashing a wild burst of power straight at his opponent!
Shawn Qin was still daydreaming, totally unprepared for Ryan’s sudden, lightning-fast attack!
Before he could react, Ryan had already kicked him to the ground.
“No way!” The whole arena erupted in shock—based on what Ryan had shown before, nobody expected him to have this kind of power. Even the judge was stunned as Ryan’s explosive punch left Shawn Qin totally helpless.
“Damn it, he actually launched a sneak attack…” Shawn Qin gritted his teeth, still trying to get up for another round. But Ryan wasn’t about to give him a chance—he kicked straight at Shawn’s head, and with a sickening crack, Shawn’s skull exploded, his body flying out of the arena!
“Holy crap, how is this possible? The Qin clan’s young master just got kicked to death! He was supposed to be third place in the Earth Bracket!”
“No way, I must be seeing things. Who was that guy? Wasn’t he just ninth in the Human Bracket?”
“No, no, this guy’s obviously a hidden master. There’s no way he’s just Human Bracket level!”
At that moment, everyone saw how quickly Ryan had won!
All eyes in the arena turned to him!
Even some of the Heaven Bracket elites were staring at Ryan—lots of them were close with the Qin clan!
“A life for a life! He killed our young master—I want him dead!”
“That’s right, we can’t let him go—he has to die!”
Suddenly, the voices of the Qin clan started shouting all around…