Now, the hearts of the ordinary school teachers present were also closely tied to Lin Ran.
After all, a vast majority of their students were still trapped in the City of Ruins!
If Lin Ran couldn't stop these Fallen, then the elites they had brought this time would likely be annihilated…
This was a consequence that no one could accept.
Yet, the more unacceptable something was, the more it tended to be reality.
In their predicament, they were utterly incapable of stopping the brutal Fallen, only able to watch as the Fallen turned the entire City of Ruins into a slaughterhouse.
Lin Ran's appearance, coupled with his beating of Ling Xiao, had served as a perfect shot of adrenaline for them.
To them, Lin Ran was the light that stood proudly in the sky, severing despair.
How could this not stir them?
Now, they wished they could transfer their Yuan Qi to Lin Ran, urging him to quickly destroy the portal and slaughter all the Fallen.
This was a stark contrast to their earlier expressions, where they had been eager for Lin Ran to be eliminated.
"Good lad! You've really got it!"
Lin Miao's constantly clenched heart finally relaxed.
Lü Qiufeng also smiled:
"It still has to be him…"
"To speak a potentially heretical word, I feel that when our boss was young, he was also far inferior to Xiao Ran."
Lin Miao chuckled:
"More than that? With this performance, let alone our boss, I'm afraid only one person in the entire world can be compared to him."
Upon hearing Lin Miao mention this person, Lü Qiufeng's expression became slightly more serious:
"Indeed…"
"Apart from him, it's truly impossible to find anyone who could be considered Lin Ran's equal at the same stage…"
Trest, staring at the screen, clenched the High Council Medal hidden in his hand so hard that it creaked.
If not for the medal's excellent material, it would have undoubtedly snapped under Trest's powerful grip.
Trest couldn't remember how many years it had been since he had felt such a surge of excitement.
Lin Ran's incredibly exhilarating battle had completely ignited his memories of his youth.
This young fellow was astonishingly monstrous…
Even he, now a Ninth-Tier Awakened, felt utterly ashamed when he horizontally compared himself to Lin Ran at the moment Lin Ran had just broken through to Fourth-Tier.
Even if he extended the comparison to Fifth-Tier or even Sixth-Tier, he still didn't feel entirely confident.
Could he, at Sixth-Tier, have defeated Lin Ran in his current state…
Trest took a deep breath.
It seemed that the Xuanlong Executor he had been searching for all year had finally shown himself!
…
On the Internet.
The speed at which the incident of this Fallen invasion escalated was astonishing.
After all, the Fallen were targets everyone wanted to strike down, and the New Student Exchange Competition was a highly anticipated event.
Coupled with Lin Ran, a major breakout star this year, and Xiang Chu's bold decision to hold the survival match in the City of Ruins, the event had broadened its appeal significantly.
When these four factors combined, it spread across the entire internet in an instant.
The number of viewers currently glued to various devices watching the live broadcast accounted for at least one-tenth of the entire Dragon Country's population.
For the vast majority of them, who were common folk with insufficient talent to become Awakened, they couldn't discern many subtleties.
The only thing they knew was that Lin Ran had severely beaten Ling Xiao, that arrogant and overbearing Fallen.
Satisfying!
That frustration had been vented so comfortably!
"Lin Ran, go! Stop the Fallen's plot!"
"Please, young man! You must drive the Fallen back and save my son's life!"
"How can he be so handsome!"
"Goodness me! Turning the tide against a falling tide, supporting a collapsing edifice! Too strong! God Ran!"
"When I awaken my talent, I will also become a hero who can stand on his own!"
"His courage to face the entire Fallen army alone is worthy of the highest respect!"
"Exactly! Regardless of the outcome, Lin Ran will surely be etched into the annals of our Dragon Country!"
"…"
The public opinion online was fermenting wildly.
Lin Ran's fearless charge had ignited the passion and hope of all viewers.
They were sincerely wishing, praying, and staring intently at Lin Ran on the screen, their minds filled with countless thoughts.
…
Inside the venue.
"Ahhhhhh!"
Ling Xiao screamed and finally managed to reattach his severed head, repairing some of his damaged body.
Upon noticing Lin Ran's gaze directed towards the portal, his heart trembled. He ordered the nearly seven thousand Fallen who had just exited the portal:
"Defend the portal with your lives! Absolutely do not let him destroy it!"
"We still have a large number of our brothers on the other side of the portal. If the Blood Sacrifice Portal collapses, it will cause immense harm to those of us participating in the teleportation!"
After their direct confrontation just now, Ling Xiao had gained a full understanding of Lin Ran's strength.
He did not doubt that Lin Ran possessed the ability to destroy the portal alone, which was why he quickly issued the warning.
However, seeing the tense Ling Xiao and the actively moving Fallen, Lin Ran remained unfazed. Instead, he smiled mysteriously.
The memories he had obtained from Yao Feng contained all the information about the Fallen's current operation.
Due to Ye Yun's powerful intelligence system and Yao Feng's cautious nature, before choosing to cooperate with the Fallen, she had obtained a relatively detailed intelligence through a series of methods such as questioning, investigation, interrogation, and counter-espionage.
Therefore, Lin Ran knew that the number of the Fallen's vanguard force dispatched this time was around twenty-five thousand.
This was also an arrangement to ensure their efficiency in slaughter.
After all, the Quiet Meteorite Iron could not eternally seal the teachers within the fortress, and human reinforcements would not necessarily arrive forever.
Moreover, the portal they were using was a very special kind of portal.
The Blood Sacrifice Portal!
Lin Ran, who possessed the natural heart infused with temporal and spatial power, knew that opening a portal was an extremely difficult task; it wasn't something you could just do at will.
Especially a portal large enough for over twenty thousand people to pass through, it was even more so.
Just as Lin Ran needed to expend a significant amount of temporal and spatial power to open a single-person portal, it was even more so for them.
Therefore, to maximize efficiency, reduce costs, and speed things up, the Fallen had resorted to the Blood Sacrifice Portal.
The biggest difference between a Blood Sacrifice Portal and an ordinary portal was that the Blood Sacrifice Portal devoured the flesh, blood, and life force of every creature that passed through it to supply the energy consumption.
Furthermore, before the Blood Sacrifice Portal completed the entire teleportation process, all those participating in the teleportation could not leave within a thousand meters of the portal, as their souls and consciousness were connected to it.
This was why the Fallen's vanguard, after arriving, did not immediately disperse to kill but continued to wait.
Additionally, there was the point Ling Xiao just mentioned: external damage to the portal would cause them considerable harm.
This led to Lin Ran forming an extremely audacious plan in his mind…
To take down the entire Fallen legion in one fell swoop!