The game begins.

【The star Cultivators for this match are: Realm Master Lu Ze, Li Moran, and Twilight.】

"Holy crap... what's going on? Why is the skill bracket for this round so high???"

Zhong Yi was shocked when he saw the list of star Cultivators.

His assets were at a mid-tier level, while Li Moran and that Loose Cultivator named Twilight were bona fide top-tier!

"This is bad, why am I teamed up with Old Zhong? Looks like I'm having a rough day!"

Zhou Yue covered his eyes, pretending to be distressed.

"You... you..."

Zhong Yi was so angry his teeth itched.

"Stop worrying about us for a second, Junior Brother Lu is in this round too... keep an eye out so you don't get killed by his foot-shooting!"

"Two Senior Brothers, are you talking about me?"

Lu Ze popped up from behind them, speaking out of the blue.

Zhong Yi and Zhou Yue turned around in unison, only then noticing the ID above Luna's head: 【Realm Master Lu Ze】.

"Holy crap!?! Junior Brother Lu???"

The three of them spawned at the Ascension Platform, chatting as they ran.

Zhong Yi's assets were around 50 million, all earned through his hard work at Knife-Run.

He had no delusions about reaching a higher ranking.

He just wanted to advance to the second stage of the competition to prove that even in high-pressure games, Knife-Run was still viable.

Originally, he estimated that 50 million would be enough to advance to the second stage, which is why he had been commentating for four consecutive days.

However, with the proliferation of various First Saint playstyles, the asset threshold for advancement had started to climb higher than he expected; it would likely take around 55 million to secure a spot.

To ensure his advancement, he had to give up commentating today and try to push for the threshold.

Unexpectedly, because he hadn't played in a match for so long, he forgot to turn off the auto-match teammate mode and accidentally ended up matched with Lu Ze and Zhou Yue.

Zhou Yue's assets were even lower than Zhong Yi's, at only 46 million.

His KD ratio was quite high, but he always failed to extract for some strange reason, causing his ranking to lag behind.

At this moment, he was nearly 10 million short of the advancement threshold.

For the past few days, he had spent the first half of the night watching Lu Ze's matches and the second half secretly trying to rank up...

Of course, the result was that his assets kept dwindling because the campers were impossible to guard against.

"Junior Brother Lu, how did you end up matched with teammates? Haven't you always been a solo player?"

Zhou Yue looked at Lu Ze with suspicion.

"You aren't planning to use some First Saint strategy to ambush people again, are you..."

Since Lu Ze had given the term "First Saint" a new meaning, it had become increasingly popular in the cultivation world, and Zhou Yue blurted it out without any discomfort.

"You aren't planning to ambush us, are you? Hahaha... Junior Brother Lu, why aren't you laughing??"

Halfway through his laughter, Zhong Yi suddenly became vigilant and instinctively pulled back his feet.

"How could that be? You two are my good Senior Brothers!!"

Lu Ze quickly forced a smile.

Pfft!

I actually was thinking about ambushing my teammates at the start...

But running into Zhou Yue and Zhong Yi made that impossible.

After all, they had a deep bond as fellow disciples.

It was definitely not because he couldn't beat them in a real-life fight.

"Junior Brother Lu, how do you think the three of us should play this round? We'll listen to you!"

Zhou Yue said to Lu Ze with a smile.

Regardless, Lu Ze not being an opponent was a great thing for him.

At the very least, he wouldn't have to check every corner eight hundred times just to cross a control bridge.

"Listen to me?"

Lu Ze raised an eyebrow.

He looked at Zhong Yi.

Like him, Zhong Yi had also changed his character after discovering he was matched with acquaintances.

Originally he was a Knife-Run Bee Doctor, but now he was an Urulu.

"The way I see it, we spawned at the Ascension Platform, it's a bridge-breaking start, and Senior Brother Zhong just happened to pick Urulu..."

"How about..."

"Why don't we just block a bridge while we are at it?"

Heavenly Dao Livestream.

The moment the list of star Cultivators was revealed, the entire arena erupted.

【Holy crap, this is a high-quality match!】

【10 out of the 18 people are in the top 50... this match is going to be interesting!】

【Let the betting begin!】

【Fairy Li, hurry up and behead Old Devil Lu!!】

【It would be a miracle if Old Devil Lu can actually shoot someone's foot in this match.】

【Will Old Devil Lu even survive this?】

【Holy crap! Old Devil Lu is teamed up with a Genius Cultivator!!】

【Is that unlucky guy "No Breaking, No Standing" there too?】

【Isn't this the Lingxiao Sect's three direct disciples? This match is really interesting.】

【What three direct disciples? It's clearly the First Saint Old Ancestor + the idiot jinx + the top-tier unlucky guy...】

【It would be a victory just for this combination to reach the core area!】

【They don't seem to have reached the core area...】

【What do you mean they occupied a spot on the bridge right at the start???】

【Bridge-blocking in a match like this, how First Saint of them!!!】

Ascension Base, Immortal Bridge.

"Old Zhong, do we really have to do this..."

Zhou Yue paced back and forth on the Immortal Bridge, feeling anxious.

He always felt a bit guilty about it.

Although the first team to ever block a bridge in this world was Zhong Yi and Zhou Yue, they were young and ignorant back then.

Now that he was older and wiser, he couldn't bring himself to do such a thing.

"Senior Brother Zhou, you don't want to fail to advance to the second stage and be mocked by your sister, do you?"

Lu Ze raised his voice slightly, unhurriedly.

Zhou Yue's fists clenched immediately.

Zhou Qiaoling, relying on her Heaven-Defying luck, would just fill her insurance and extract, and her assets were already ranked in the top 100...

Looking at himself, he was still /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ 10 million short of qualifying!

Judging by his recent extraction rate, this was not a small amount...

Seeing Zhou Yue wavering, Lu Ze was delighted.

With the three of them unprepared, only Bridge-blocking could bring him some First Saint points.

Moreover, after a month of time, Zhong Yi and Zhou Yue's reputations had long since moved past their Bridge-blocking days.

One was the Ancestral Master of ratty, the other a man of few words and ruthless actions; their public reputation had always been quite good.

From another perspective, if he could drag them along to block a bridge, the audience's First Saint evaluation of him would be even higher.

With that thought, he added:

"If Senior Brother Zhou doesn't agree, I'll just go throw my gear, extract, and crouch-camp as a ratty..."

"I agree! I agree!! Don't do something so First Saint!!"

Zhou Yue agreed hurriedly.

In such a high-pressure match, Bridge-blocking was actually not that First Saint.

Because the opponents were all dual-wielding assault teams, Bridge-blocking was just occupying a slightly advantageous position.

Compared to throwing gear, extracting, and crouching in green pants...

That was just too First Saint!

Zhou Yue glanced at Lu Ze's gun.

It was another foot-shooting gun, but due to the higher combat readiness requirements, it had evolved from 【Zishu 18】 to a large-drum 【Pear Blossom Needle】.

One was Lu Ze with poor equipment, the other was Zhong Yi who was a bit clumsy...

With this balance, blocking a bridge wasn't too excessive, right?

Zhou Yue's inner conflict gradually faded.

Meanwhile, Zhong Yi, who had been observing the information from the Urulu position, suddenly shouted:

"Old Zhou!! Someone is coming from the garden!!!"