Today, nearly one-fourth of the arena was packed, with more than 50.000 outer disciples having already sat down in the audience seats ready to watch this faction war.

At the center of the arena, 2 groups were facing each other, while the white-robed Elder Teng stood in the sky overseeing everything silently.

Today's faction war wasn't a normal one, but a war between Peng Chao's faction, a faction ranked in the top 300 in the faction wars, and the newest faction that had managed to enter the top 1000 rankings in less than 6 months!

A tall young man with long black hair was surrounded by 6 more people as he stood at the center of the arena with his back straight, staring at Shun Long's group that was right in front of him with his eyes narrowed.

Shun Long also stared at this young man seriously, but even after a few moments had passed neither of them spoke, as they simply looked at each other silently.

Shun Long knew that this long-haired young man in front of him was Peng Chao, a powerful outer disciple who had reached the peak of rank 8 in the Nascent Soul already.

Shun Long could feel that the aura coming from Peng Chao's body was extremely powerful and unrestrained, much stronger than even some of the rank 9 Nascent Soul cultivators that Shun Long had seen back in the Night star continent!

And yet, this Peng Chao only stared at Shun Long's group silently without saying a word.

In the past 5 months, Peng Chao knew that Shun Long's faction had skyrocketed in the faction rankings, reaching the top 1000 in less than a half a year.

This was a terrifying thing that hadn't happened before in the past, spreading the name of Shun Long's faction throughout the entire Holy sect!

Even those powerful factions at the top 100 rankings had finally started to place some attention to this new faction that was rising through the rankings of the faction wars without a single defeat yet!

What had shocked everyone was that after the first faction war, Shun Long had never fought again in the faction wars, as Liu Mei, Xie Xingyi, Bai Longtian, and Jiang Chen, had all destroyed the enemy factions by themselves.

However, what was even more terrifying was actually the rate of growth that Liu Mei and the rest had.

The long black-haired Peng Chao, stared seriously at the 5 people in front of him, completely ignoring the excited cheers from the crowd that were waiting for the faction war to start.

Peng Chao could clearly feel the powerful auras coming from Liu Mei and Jiang Chen that had reached the peak of rank 7 in the Nascent Soul, while Xie Xingyi and Bai Longtian seemed to be just a step away from that level as well.

In these past 5 months, Liu Mei's and the rest growth of advancement had shocked everyone in the Holy sect, including their own masters!

The biggest bottlenecks for a disciple of the Nascent Soul stage, was firstly, breaking through to the middle stages of the Nascent Soul, and then breaking through to the late stages.

Breaking through to the early rank 4 of the Nascent Soul wasn't too surprising for normal geniuses after they experienced the trials of the sect for the first time, but reaching the late stages so quickly had alerted even the inner court Elders of the Holy sect!

After all, even if a disciple was a genius who took less than half a year to advance from the early rank 4 of the Nascent Soul to the peak of rank 6, reaching the early rank 7 of the Nascent Soul was an entirely different matter altogether.

Unlike the middle stage, breaking through the barrier of the late stage to reach the rank 7 of the Nascent Soul was something that could take anywhere from a year to tens of years of cultivation, but even the most extreme geniuses in the Holy sect would need at least one year to do this.

No one had ever heard of someone doing this in less than half a year's time like Liu Mei and the rest did!

After all, to break through this barrier and reach the late stage of the Nascent Soul not only required a cultivator to accumulate enough qi in their dantian, but the comprehension of their Dao and their spiritual strength also needed to have reached the late stages of the Nascent Soul as well!

Even if Liu Mei and the rest had been cultivating in the courtyards of their respective masters in the inner court and had managed to accumulate enough qi in their dantian for their breakthrough, managing to bring both the comprehension of their Dao and their spiritual strength to the late stages of the Nascent Soul in this small amount of time was practically inconceivable!

Just as Peng Chao and the rest of the disciples among his faction were staring at Shun Long and his group, Bai Longtian and the others were also staring at their opponents seriously, before Elder Teng raised his right hand in the air, silencing the crowd, as he said in a booming voice that reverberated throughout the entire arena

''Shun Long's faction vs Peng Chao's faction. The match will now begin.''

Hearing Elder Teng's voice, Peng Chao stared at Shun Long seriously for a few moments, before he opened his mouth and spoke for the first time

''Shun Long, I admit that your faction has been rising extremely quickly, but it's too early for you to fight against my faction. It's time for you to learn that the top 300 factions are in a completely different league from the rest in the top 1000.''

Liu Mei and Jiang Chen both narrowed their eyes as they stared coldly at Peng Chao, but the long-haired peak rank 8 Nascent Soul stage expert didn't pay any attention to them, as he turned around and led the members of his faction deep inside the forest behind him.

Some of the members of his faction threw challenging looks at Jiang Chen and the others, but they still followed Peng Chao inside the forest a moment later.

Shun Long didn't say anything as he simply stared at Peng Chao's back for a few moments, before he turned around and led Liu Mei and the rest into the forest behind him.