As soon as Shun Long stepped on the platform, the lazy look instantly disappeared from the Grand Elder's eyes, as he looked at the young man at the center of the arena with eyes filled with expectations.
The head Elder, Sun Wen, along with Elder Xuan and Cao Ling, were now also staring at the young man who was standing alone at the center of the large empty platform.
Even they were curious as to who Shun Long was going to pick as his opponent.
Normally, only the 'weakest' 300 outer court disciples in the Martial Roll of Honor would be challenged by those who had reached the top 1500 during the Martial Roll of Honor tournament.
After all, more than a third of the other disciples would either be injured from their previous fight, or they wouldn't feel confident enough to challenge the top 1000 just yet, which left around 300 of those disciples fighting against the 'weakest' 300 of the top 1000.
And yet, those 'weak' 300 were only weak in comparison to the rest of the geniuses ranked in the Martial Roll of Honor. Normal outer court disciples wouldn't have a chance to even compete against them.
In Elder Sun's and the rest's eyes however, Shun Long was probably strong enough to challenge even those in the top 600. Although he wouldn't be able to win, he could probably give those disciples a good fight.
Xuan Jiao and Elder Sun believed that although Shun Long's strength wasn't enough to get him to the top 600, the top 700 was definitely possible.
In these Elders' eyes, the top 700 was already extremely high considering that those in the top 800 and above had all reached the peak of rank 9 in the Nascent Soul long ago.
As for those at the top 600, nearly every single one of them was only a step away from breaking through to the Dao King realm in their Dao comperehension.
At the same time, some of those disciples ranked in the top 1000 and had yet to be challenged, suddenly turned tense the moment they saw Shun Long stepping on the platform.
Even the burly Wu Tao who had just won his fight and had also entered the top 1000 was now staring at Shun Long seriously from the audience seats.
Shun Long's eyes scanned the disciples in the surrounding platforms with a serious look, while the arena had already turned silent.
Many of the outer disciples in the surrounding platforms felt Shun Long's gaze that was no different from sharp daggers trying to slice through their bodies, while others met his gaze calmly with either uncaring looks or looks of contempt in their eyes.
Naturally, those disciples those who were ranked in the top 600 and above wouldn't pay too much attention to a small middle rank 7 Nascent Soul stage cultivator right now.
Although Shun Long may indeed be worthy of their attention in the future after reaching the rank 9 of the Nascent Soul, at least for now, he wasn't qualified.
Shun Long didn't pay any heed to those gazes as he thought seriously for a while before choosing his opponent.
No matter what, the main reason he had decided to join the Holy sect instead of roaming around the central continent by himself and Liu Mei, aside from obtaining resources, was also because he would be able to fight with the best geniuses of the sect.
Only by sparring with the strongest disciples and pushing himself to his limits would he be able to become stronger even faster.
However, Shun Long also understood that challenging those outer court disciples who were ranked in the top 600 or the top 500 would be extremely difficult even for him.
After all, he already understood that every single one of those disciples had already reached the peak of rank 9 in the Nascent Soul long ago, while their Dao comprehension was most likely just a step away from reaching the Dao King realm.
As for the strongest among those disciples, Shun Long estimated that even if they weren't able to win, they would be able to fight against average early rank 1 Dao King realm experts without being defeated.
As for those at the top 400 and above, without question, every single one of them had already reached the Dao King realm.
Shun Long could sense the auras of more than 300 Dao King realm experts among those outer disciples on the surrounding platforms.
''The top 600 huh?'' As he mumbled this to himself, a bright smile soon appeared on Shun Long's face, as his gaze finally landed on the figure of a thin young man with short brown hair.
Actually, even before coming to the arena today, Shun Long had already thought about whom he wanted to challenge.
He then remembered that there was a certain type of cultivators that he had yet to fight even until today, and since information about most of the disciples who were ranked in the top 1000 rankings of the Martial Roll of Honor was common knowledge inside the sect, Shun Long knew that this young man that he was looking at was precisely the person that he had chosen to challenge this time.
The young man frowned when he saw Shun Long's gaze stopping on him before a look of anger clouded his face a moment later.
He was clearly angry that Shun Long was even thinking of challenging him.
As for the disciples in the audience seats and even those among the top 1000 around the brown-haired young man, they all stared at Shun Long with disbelieving looks in their eyes.
''Say... Shun Long wouldn't really dare to challenge senior brother Qiu Yun, would he?''
''Probably not... Unless he doesn't know who senior brother Qiu is that is...''
At this moment, even the person ranked 1st in the Martial Roll of Honor, Yang Hui looked at Shun Long with an amused look in his eyes, as he said smilingly
''How interesting.''