Chapter 882: Audience Count Exceeds the Prodigy Competition! Arrogant Meng Ke!

"Good, I hope you don't disappoint me."

Xu Jingming nodded slightly.

"Understood, sir!"

Hearing Xu Jingming's tone, slightly encouraging.

Fu Xingye's expression grew even more excited, then vanished instantly with a stealth move.

"Sending Fu Xingye to handle this—aren't you afraid he'll mess it up and make Li Gang even more cautious?"

After Fu Xingye left, Su Qingli, who had remained silent throughout, finally spoke with curiosity.

"His enhancement ability leans toward assassin-type skills; he rarely fails."

Xu Jingming smiled faintly, "Besides, even if he fails, it doesn't matter—aren't we still counting on Teacher Ling?"

Li Gang is just a minor player; unless absolutely necessary, I won't ask Teacher Ling to act.

If he truly fails, it means Fu Xingye lacks the ability.

Afterward, he'll only be useful as a public bodyguard.

No other important tasks will be entrusted to him.

"S-Class, Meng Ke of the Xinhuo Temple has responded—the match is set for tonight at nine."

At that moment, Eva's holographic projection emerged from her smart armband, reminding him.

"Good."

Xu Jingming's tone was calm.

He wasn't particularly concerned about tonight's battle.

Among the three prodigies of the Xinhuo Temple, he cared only about the strongest—the eighth-rank Zhongweida Master, 格林.

"It seems tonight's online population in the virtual world will skyrocket."

On Su Qingli's pale, lovely face was a hint of anticipation.

Because of Xu Jingming's position at number one on the Fearless Challenge leaderboard.

The Lei Ting Martial Arts Gym, and even Greater Xia, have faced heavy criticism across the international network.

By tonight, all this skepticism will vanish.

When Meng Ke set the match time.

In the sky of the virtual world, above the central purple leaderboard, a countdown instantly appeared.

"Xinhuo Temple—Meng Ke vs. Greater Xia—Xu Jingming, Countdown: 6 hours 12 minutes 07 seconds!"

"Here it comes! Tonight at nine, there'll be a huge battle!"

"The number one prodigy of Blue Star versus the mysterious Xinhuo Temple—who will win?"

The news that Meng Ke and Xu Jingming would fight spread like a hurricane across the entire virtual world.

Countless people were passionately discussing it, even logging into the virtual world early to wait for the battle to begin.

In the real world, Xu Jingming waited until only ten minutes remained before the match, then put on the neural helmet with Su Qingli and others, entering the virtual world.

Ling Shuang, Song Qiuyun, and Jiang Chuxuan had already left the Wild Zone and teleported back at six p. m., so they joined as well.

"Ding, detected that you are about to engage in a match against the Xinhuo Temple. Would you like to be teleported to the VIP seat?"

As soon as he entered the virtual world, a clear chime sounded in his ear.

Without hesitation, Xu Jingming selected Su Qingli and the others as invitees, then clicked confirm.

His consciousness blurred; when he came to, he was already inside a luxurious VIP room.

In front of the VIP room was a massive transparent floor-to-ceiling window, through which he could see below a sea of dark, packed figures.

This was atop a stadium!

Their VIP room hung suspended directly above the rightmost upper section of the stadium's spectator seats!

Opposite them, on the leftmost lower section of the stadium's spectator seats, lay the Xinhuo Temple's VIP section.

"Lei Di has arrived!"

"It's Lei Di!"

"Lei Di is the strongest!"

"Go Lei Di, crush those bastards!"

"......"

When Xu Jingming teleported in.

Above the entire stadium, a massive holographic projection appeared.

The hologram showed Xu Jingming clad in black battle armor, gripping a dark-gold spear.

Behind him, a golden ring slowly rotated, golden lightning flickering and dancing across his skin.

His gaze firm and steady, standing like a Lei Shen.

This was a scene from Xu Jingming's battle during the Global Prodigy Exchange Competition.

Yet now, it was being used as a promotional image to announce his arrival!

And following it was a roar of cheers from the entire stadium, surging like a tidal wave!!

"Are there really this many people watching the match? Feels like more than the Prodigy Competition!"

Xu Jingming was surprised.

He felt the cheers during the Prodigy Competition weren't nearly this loud.

"When the Xinhuo Temple first appeared, no one took them seriously.

But as they kept winning, defeating prodigies like Catherine and Andre,

more and more people began paying attention—I estimate there are at least four or five hundred million people in this stadium now."

Su Qingli explained with a smile.

The world will never be short of people who crave attention.

In the virtual world, there are no shortage of those similar to the Spark Divine Temple, who position themselves by challenging the top talents.

But those people never even got the chance to be taken on by someone of Catherine's caliber before being defeated by others.

Only the Spark Divine Temple fought their way through, winning battle after battle.

Coupled with the three peak ninth-order powerhouses backing them, they drew even more attention.

Everyone wanted to know which country they came from, and who would be the one to defeat them.

"Four or five hundred million viewers — those Second Civilization Era fellows are about to embarrass themselves big time."

Hearing Ling Shuang snorted coldly beside him.

She had already learned the origins of the Spark Divine Temple from Xu Jingming.

Given that group's previous behavior, naturally she had no pleasant expression to offer...

"Xu Jingming has arrived."

In the VIP hall on the other side, Meng Ke and the others also saw Xu Jingming's promotional image on the holographic projection.

"Setting aside talent and strength, that face of his is quite handsome."

Gazing at the upright figure on the holographic projection, even Meng Yu, who was his opponent, couldn't help but smile and offer praise.

"Just a pretty boy. I only hope he's not living up to an empty name.

Otherwise, this battle would be far too dull."

Meng Ke still did not regard Xu Jingming as an opponent.

"Please have both contestants enter the arena!"

Time slipped by swiftly. Soon, when there was less than half a minute left until nine o'clock in the evening, a grand prompt tone rang out above the stadium.

At the same time, a teleportation button also appeared before Xu Jingming's eyes.

After pressing confirm, he was teleported to the very center of the stadium arena.

This was an arena with a diameter of up to 10 kilometers; Xu Jingming was positioned on the right-hand side of the arena.

After he teleported over, the cheers from the crowd instantly grew much louder.

And roughly 5 kilometers across from him, Meng Ke's figure slowly materialized.

Compared to Xu Jingming, his build was somewhat larger.

Standing there like an iron tower, his entire body radiated an overwhelmingly powerful sense of pressure.

Upon noticing Xu Jingming's gaze, he likewise looked back.

After merely a sweeping glance, his contemptuous voice was heard ringing out across the entire arena:

"Blue Star's number one talent, Xu Jingming?

I thought you'd keep playing the cowardly lizard forever — I didn't expect you'd actually have the guts to accept the challenge.

Fine, I'll let you natives see for yourselves what a true top talent really is."