After the outer sect elders finished explaining the rules, they asked, "Are there any further questions? If not, the Lord Battle can commence."
"Elder, I have a question, I'd like to ask..."
Several students still had questions, which the elders diligently answered. Once all a dozen or so questions were addressed, no other students had any more inquiries.
This was because all the pertinent questions had already been asked.
"I declare the Lord Battle officially begins!"
With the elder's command, all the new lords transformed into beams of light and were teleported into the mysterious space to begin their competition.
The senior students began to discuss, "Who do you think will win first place this time?"
"Individual combat relies on personal strength, but the Lord Battle is entirely dependent on the development of one's territory."
"It also depends on luck, doesn't it? It's not a safe place inside, there are monsters too. What if they can't even defeat the monsters and get eliminated? That would be incredibly frustrating."
"The highest-level monsters inside are only level 30. As long as their luck isn't exceptionally bad, they should be able to get by, right?"
"It's hard to say who will take first place this time. What if Ye Bufan is attacked from all sides as soon as he enters? He could be eliminated immediately."
"Exactly. I've heard that things like this have happened several times, so it's really hard to predict the first place in this Lord Battle."
"This not only depends on individual luck but also on the strength of their territory and their tactics. If they're unlucky and get surrounded by many lords, they'll be eliminated quickly too."
"The location of the territory is also crucial. Where they are teleported depends on their own destiny."
...
In territory battles, both luck and strength are very important.
Because apart from themselves, everyone else is an enemy. Protecting one's own territory while eliminating opponents is incredibly difficult.
After all, everyone's troop numbers are very limited. If they send troops to attack an enemy and their home base is raided by someone else, their crystal destroyed, wouldn't that be tragic?
Therefore, in such a situation, everyone has the same idea: first explore the fog around their territory, and then take the next step.
This is a free-for-all battle of nations. They cannot contact others, nor can they seek alliances. They can only rely on themselves to eliminate their opponents.
This leads many to be hesitant to attack, choosing only to hide within their territories.
After the students were teleported in, they immediately began to summon their territories.
They dared not seek suitable places to summon their territories, as the elders had said there were still monsters inside. What if they encountered powerful monsters before they even managed to summon their territories? That would be a shame.
This is because once a lord is in combat, they cannot summon their territory.
Being teleported into the fog, summoning their territory, then dispatching their territory's people to explore the surrounding fog, surveying the entire terrain, understanding their environment, and then waiting for an opportune moment to act – this is the best course of action.
However, this does not include Zhou Yan.
Everyone saw Zhou Yan, and the first thing he did upon entering was not to summon his territory. Instead, with bold confidence, he took out a long spear and began to explore the surrounding fog.
He was exploring the fog alone with just a spear!
"Is this Zhou Yan trying to find a suitable place to summon his territory?"
"He probably thinks his strength is great and there's no danger, so he wants to find a suitable place to summon his territory."
"That's not a bad idea, but it's still quite risky. What if he encounters a powerful monster, then it's troublesome."
"This has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that he can avoid being sandwiched between many lords. The disadvantage is whether he encounters too strong a monster and can find a suitable place."
"With such a large area of fog, he's searching alone, he can't possibly cover a large enough area. I think this is a very unwise move."
...
Zhou Yan didn't follow the conventional path. Upon arriving, he didn't summon his territory immediately. Instead, he had already notified the soldiers of his territory to gather their troops and prepare for battle.
He, on the other hand, took out a golden-tier long spear called the Golden Scale-Piercing Spear and proceeded into the fog with his weapon.
Everyone assumed Zhou Yan was looking for a suitable place to summon his territory, so they didn't pay much attention to him.
Most of them turned their attention to Ye Bufan, who had already started building his territory.
After building their territories, they could no longer see anything within them, as everything within each lord's territory was confidential. They could only see Ye Bufan dispatching manpower to explore the fog.
They observed the entire fog-covered area and found that Ye Bufan's location wasn't ideal. There were many territories around him, putting him in a situation where he faced enemies from all four directions.
But no one knew who the surrounding lords were, what their troop types were, their strength, or even the defensive situation and troop numbers of their territories.
Everyone remained stationary, waiting for an opportune moment to act.
However, many lords were attacked by monsters immediately after summoning their territories, and they began to eliminate these monsters.
In the entire fog-covered area, the only one who had not yet begun to construct his territory was Zhou Yan.
He encountered monster attacks, and not just one or two, but swarms of them.
Seeing this, the students exclaimed, "I knew running around blindly was unwise. He's now in the middle of a monster horde, let's see how he escapes."
"No matter how strong one person is, they can't face so many monsters. This Zhou Yan is in danger."
"Could he be directly killed and eliminated by these monsters? These lizardmen look quite strong."
"It's a shame. He's in combat right now and can't summon his territory. Otherwise, he could use the territory's defense towers to fight these monsters."
Zhou Yan also didn't expect his luck to be so good, to run into a group of monsters.
The monsters, seeing Zhou Yan, were not polite. In their eyes, he was just food that had delivered itself.
So, one of the monsters quickly called out to its companions, shouting, "Brothers, charge!" And with that, the monsters attacked Zhou Yan in a rush.
This was a group of level 20 lizardmen, numbering in the hundreds. Each lizardman was armed.
The students believed Zhou Yan couldn't handle so many monsters because they had never fought so many monsters before and assumed that sheer numbers would guarantee victory.
But what happened next showed them that being numerous didn't necessarily mean victory.
Zhou Yan, wielding the Golden Scale-Piercing Spear, charged forward and unleashed the Overlord Spear Technique, sweeping it across. The spear directly struck several lizardmen, sending them flying. The immense power once again shocked everyone.
They hadn't expected these seemingly ferocious lizardmen to be so weak, with several killed by a single blow from Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan's spear technique was sharp and domineering, simple and direct. Each attack inevitably killed or sent flying several lizardmen.
His speed was also incredibly fast. He plunged into the monster group, his powerful spear technique continuously sweeping out, quickly defeating all these monsters.
These monsters did not drop treasure chests, so nothing was left behind, and they were quickly refreshed and disappeared.
However, the shock that Zhou Yan brought to everyone remained, leaving them unable to calm down.
Zhou Yan was simply too formidable.