Chapter 12 First Battle

Xu Jingming gently tapped, ready, let's begin. With a hum, the system had already selected an opponent.

The information of both sides appeared on the interface.

Opponent's information:

Name: Shupula

Wugou Star Alliance Ranking: 21927

Hunter Cosmos Domain Ranking: None

Cosmic Overall Ranking: None

"Also from the Wugou Star Alliance," Xu Jingming thought to himself, as the scene in front of him changed, and he entered the combat preparation space.

Within the preparation space were only Xu Jingming and a tall, dark man; they both looked at each other.

"This build..." Xu Jingming was quite knowledgeable, but he was still a bit surprised.

Shupula was over five meters tall, considered tall even among the cosmic human race, and his build was very burly, as if he were a standing giant bear.

"Is this Shupula's actual build, or is he deliberately disguising it?" Xu Jingming wondered. In the life evolution game, names can be changed, and so can body shapes and appearances.

Xu Jingming, for example, now looked like he did during the Mysterious Land selection, which was much sharper and colder than his real-life self.

After all, he was still discreetly disguised as a seventh-order Starry Sky life on Blue Star.

In the Cosmic Peak battle, he would naturally use the identity of Wu Ming.

"You're called Wu Ming?" Shupula said with a hearty laugh. "Just letting you know in advance, I specialize in great hammers."

Xu Jingming directly selected his weapons and equipment.

Wearing light armor, carrying a shield, and holding a spear, Xu Jingming glanced at Shupula.

"Little brother is really straightforward. Got it, you're good with spears and shields." Shupula also chose a set of heavy armor, with nine short spears on his back and a great hammer in each hand. He raised his eyebrows at Xu Jingming.

The giant bear-like opponent's eyebrow raise was quite comical.

"This human-stage limit opponent is pretty excited," Xu Jingming thought.

At that moment, the viewing space was filled with a dense crowd of cosmic citizen spectators.

"Shupula, hammer him to death!"

"Let the great hammer dance!"

"I watch Shupula's peak battles every day. His hammer techniques look simple, but why can't I learn them?"

"Shupula is going to win this round again. His opponent is also from the Wugou Star Alliance, ranked only in the thirty thousands! Seems like he's weaker than Shupula."

The numerous spectators chatted, with a large stream of information flowing by.

Shupula, a long-time participant in the Cosmic Peak battle, had amassed a large fan base as an eighth-order limit expert. For example, in this match, the number of cosmic citizens watching exceeded ten million.

Ten million cosmic citizens watching simultaneously was already considered very high popularity.

"Hmm?"

Xu Jingming also noticed the number of viewers, "10,085,621," fluctuating.

"What, over ten million cosmic citizen viewers?" Xu Jingming glanced at the giant bear-like Shupula in surprise, thinking, "Didn't realize he was a star expert."

He had played very few times before, and there were very few viewers paying attention to him. It would be great if a hundred people came to watch today.

The reason why millions of people were watching was naturally because of his opponent.

"I wonder why he has such popularity." Xu Jingming casually checked the opponent's detailed information.

Good heavens.

The number of people following Shupula exceeded 1.8 billion!

As both sides finished selecting their weapons and equipment, they directly entered the battle map.

Battle, start!

******

This was a planet with a diameter of over 30,000 kilometers.

Boom.

Xu Jingming transformed into a shooting star, landing on the peak of a high mountain.

Xu Jingming looked into the distance. As an eighth-order limit Starry Sky life, his eyes clearly saw Shupula's figure over a thousand kilometers away.

"This planet has no other life." Xu Jingming's gaze swept across, instantly viewing the entire planet, and then locked onto Shupula.

"Hahaha!"

Accompanied by laughter that resounded throughout every corner of the planet.

Shupula's entire body erupted with dazzling light, rapidly becoming enormous, changing from his original height of about five meters to a towering giant fifty kilometers tall. The clouds were only at his knee level, and his eyes seemed to look down from outer space, with a strong sense of oppression.

"Physical body energy transformation."

"Giant Shupula!"

Countless spectators were somewhat excited. After all, only eighth-order Starry Sky life could achieve physical body energy transformation.

Relatively few eighth-order limits were willing to become 'giants,' and Shupula was one of them, which made many viewers like him.

"Physical body energy transformation, using energy to condense into a giant..." Xu Jingming saw through the opponent's actions at a glance, frowning slightly. "Condensing energy into a fifty-kilometer-tall giant greatly reduces the energy density. His strength has decreased rather than increased."

The fifty-kilometer-tall towering giant looked terrifying.

But as an eighth-order limit, Xu Jingming knew very well that normal height was the strongest state.

A few meters in height might look ordinary, but the terrifying power was completely condensed, making every move extremely powerful.

"Wu Ming, take a few hammers from me!" The towering Shupula laughed, wearing heavy armor, and his pair of great hammers also became huge, larger than mountains.

In the Cosmic Peak battle, the selected weapons and equipment could be enlarged or reduced.

At that moment, Shupula walked over step by step, crossing mountains, lakes, plains, and deserts.

Xu Jingming solemnly stared at his opponent.

No eighth-order limit could be underestimated.

"This Wu Ming is still standing there. It seems he doesn't understand the power of the great hammer."

"The giant hammer technique has defeated many eighth-order limits."

"The giant hammer technique is unavoidable; you can only withstand it head-on. This Wu Ming is going to suffer a great loss later." Among the tens of millions of cosmic citizen viewers, besides a few neutral ones and the hundred or so fans following Wu Ming, the rest were all Shupula's fans.

Shupula's fans knew very well the moves that Shupula excelled at.

……

"Here it comes." Xu Jingming watched as the towering giant, clad in heavy armor, approached step by step. When he got close, the towering giant grinned, and the great hammer swept over with a whoosh.

"This..."

Xu Jingming immediately sensed the special nature of the opponent's hammer technique.

"This great hammer covers too large an area, making it difficult to avoid." Xu Jingming had inherited the Light chapter from the *Yuanchu Star Conjecture*, one of the three strongest inheritances of the cosmic human race, and was very skilled in speed.

If he really wanted to avoid it, Xu Jingming could still dodge.

But he was unwilling to dodge.

"What if he condenses energy into a giant? The strength won't increase." Xu Jingming swooshed towards the great hammer, taking the initiative to meet it head-on.

"Haha..." The towering Shupula laughed, wielding a pair of great hammers, hammering at the ant-like little man.

"Boom," "Boom," "Boom," "Boom," "Boom!"

The two great hammers hammered down frantically.

The great hammer covered a very large area. Even eighth-order limit opponents could only withstand Shupula's bombardment head-on.

Head-to-head confrontation was what Shupula was best at in his life, and in this aspect, he had defeated many eighth-order limits.

"The hammer technique is a bit interesting." Xu Jingming, this tiny figure, completely withstood the bombardment of the great hammers. "But it's just these nine hammer moves over and over again."

Swoosh.

Xu Jingming used his movement technique.

A stream of light streaked across the sky, flying past the edges of the two swinging giant hammers, heading straight for the towering giant's head.

"What?" Shupula widened his eyes in shock. His eyes were already large, and this widening made him look even more comical.

"He dodged the hammer technique."

"This person avoided such a large hammer."

"The giant hammer technique has been broken."

"Shupula's giant hammer technique has been cracked. This is as fast as a beam of light."

Countless cosmic citizen viewers' eyes lit up.

Xu Jingming's flying speed was too fast, and the trajectory was too unpredictable. In the blink of an eye, he had reached the towering giant's head. The head was the only part of the towering giant's body that was not protected by armor.

Boom!

The slender spear instantly pierced into the towering giant's head. Although the head was large, the energy density was low. Under Xu Jingming's spear, it instantly collapsed.

"Boom."

The head exploded, turning into dense energy.

The entire towering giant rapidly shrunk, and a large amount of energy was retracted, returning to normal human height.

In the instant Shupula recovered, he continuously hurled short spears. The nine short spears on his back tore through dozens of kilometers of space, successively attacking Xu Jingming in an instant.

The short spears were as fast as teleportation.

With a flick of the spear in his hand, Xu Jingming deflected the nine short spears.

"Oh no, hidden weapons are useless too." Shupula shook his head upon seeing this, holding the two great hammers. "I have a premonition that I'm going to lose this match."

"So cowardly so quickly?"

"Shupula, go head-to-head with him! Who's afraid of who?"

The viewers were all talking.

At that moment, Xu Jingming's figure, like a stream of light, had already attacked.

Shupula became much more solemn, and no longer interacted with the audience. Instead, he faced Xu Jingming.

"Peng, peng, peng."

The weapons of both sides collided, and after only a dozen exchanges.

"This person's spear technique is too fierce; I can't block it." Shupula turned and fled, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh! Instantly, dozens of Shupulas appeared.

Xu Jingming's figure also changed, so fast that dozens of him seemed to appear simultaneously.

"There's no escaping."

Amidst Shupula's miserable cries.

He was eventually pierced through the chest by a spear, and his body exploded, with part of it annihilated.

"I admit defeat, I admit defeat." Shupula immediately clicked to admit defeat.

Holding his spear, Xu Jingming, who wanted to continue attacking, looked at his opponent with some confusion.

Eighth-order Starry Sky life, with physical body energy transformation, had no vital points. Even if part of the body was annihilated, it could still recover. He would have to stab him several more times to completely kill him.

"Eighth-order limit battle, and he just admits defeat like that?" Xu Jingming sighed inwardly. He was earnestly facing such battles, but his opponent clearly wasn't.

Whoosh.

Xu Jingming immediately disappeared and left.

"Lost." The bear-like Shupula sat down with a thud, saying helplessly, "Don't scold me, don't scold me. There's a reason why I admitted defeat early."

"Come, take a look."

Shupula swiped to review the battle, starting to look back at the fight.

"See that? My giant hammer technique can also be considered unique, and many eighth-order limits have fallen to it. But this Wu Ming... clearly has a strong movement technique, but he insisted on confronting me head-on at the beginning. He withstood my nine ultimate moves, but none of them were effective." Shupula shook his head. "He then used his speed movement technique to quickly get out of the range of my hammer, destroying my giant body."

"Look, I released hidden weapons, and he easily blocked them."

"I deliberately ran away, fully displaying my movement technique, wanting to find an opportunity to counterattack. See that? He completely suppressed me in terms of movement, every fake clone was pierced, and my real body was pierced." Shupula shook his head. "Even if I struggled ten or a hundred more times, I would still be pierced through the body."

"So I admitted defeat in advance. I could see clearly that I had no chance of winning in this battle."

Shupula said, "I can be sure that this Wu Ming rarely participates in peak battles; otherwise, his ranking would definitely be more than thirty thousand. If I'm wrong, I'll write my name backwards."

While interacting with the audience, Shupula also watched the reviewed battle footage.

"This Wu Ming has such a serious look." Shupula sighed inwardly.

"I used to be this serious too."

"Unfortunately, I'm old, and there's no hope of becoming a Source life. I can only find a way to earn some money to subsidize my weak home civilization." Shupula thought to himself, "After all, I'm the only eighth-order in my home civilization's history."

Eighth-order limits who truly focused on making money had very high incomes.

Shupula looked at the audience's information stream and laughed. "Alright, everyone, guess whether I'll win or lose in the next match." Saying that, he entered the preparation interface again.

For others, the Cosmic Peak battle might be a kind of tempering, a pursuit of their own limits.

But for Shupula, it was just a job, a job to earn money.

His somewhat ridiculous body shape and appearance were all deliberately modified. In the virtual world network, only by making the audience happy and entertained could he gain enough fans.

Whether he won or lost! As long as the audience was happy, Shupula's income would be higher.

……

The battle with Shupula was Xu Jingming's first after leaving the Demon Subduing World, focusing on the Cosmic Peak battle, and he won easily.

Because he defeated a star expert, the number of people following Xu Jingming climbed to over eight hundred thousand. Xu Jingming didn't care and continued to start his next battle.