The shift in the air was palpable. Compared to the palpable alarm gripping many in Class A, or the simmering resentment from individuals like Zhan Xuandong who had their own history with Ox, the faculty and top-tier students like Zhao Ranxue remained relatively unperturbed. The former observed with academic detachment; the latter, for now, felt no immediate threat from a mere 60,000-point gain. Eight hundred thousand total was still a comfortable distance away.
On the screens, Ox's name, after its brief, meteoric leap, had gone still. Within seconds, it was overtaken, slipping back to 141st.
A flicker of satisfaction, cold and sharp, passed through Que Baicen's eyes. His gaze, laden with a twisted mix of obsession and bitter resentment, swept over Lang Hao's distant, seated figure before settling on Fu Qiang. "Brother Fu," he began, his tone deceptively light, "your prowess in commerce is undeniable. A family always needs its savvy merchants. It's just a pity… Ah, never mind my ramblings. I merely always believed someone like Lang Hao required a man of strength to shield her. Some may show decent aptitude, but surrounded by enemies on all sides, who knows when disaster might strike? They're like bean sprouts—you watch them, thinking they'll shoot up overnight, only for them to wither before dawn, never reaching their potential. Utterly useless."
The unspoken comparison to Li Wukun hung in the air—seemingly perfect, yet felled so easily by family machinations.
A shadow deepened in Fu Qiang's eyes, though his smile remained as warm and guileless as ever. "What can one do? You have to be a sprout before you can be chosen. Whether it withers or not… that's a concern for later."
Que Baicen's expression darkened briefly before another smile, tighter this time, surfaced. "A fair point. Then I won't trouble myself to leave. The food here is quite good. You don't mind, Brother Fu?"
"Mind? This establishment isn't a Fu family venture," Fu Qiang chuckled, waving a dismissive hand. "I was just worried our two academies might come to blows over little old me. I'm hardly worth the fuss."
His words, a blend of self-deprecation and audacious cheek, hung in the air. To the discerning, his intent was clear: to shield Lang Hao's reputation, to prevent gossip painting her as a femme fatale inciting conflict between academies.
Que Baicen's restraint stemmed from Fu Qiang's backing—the Provincial Commerce Guild, a conglomerate of capital, its president a notoriously shrewd old crocodile with vast networks. A slight bottleneck in business channels could mean catastrophic losses for the Que family. The idea of simply 'eliminating' an Orange-Blood was naive; other Orange-Blood families would intervene, the Economic Ministry would investigate. Many a retired Guild President had ascended to the Ministry's highest seat. That was the true source of their power.
Forced to concede face, Que Baicen stayed. But knowing Ox was coming, he wouldn't leave easily. Between Ox's humiliation of his brother Que Baige during the re-selection, his connection to Lang Hao, and the waves he'd made since arriving in Bellrock, Que Baicen's disdain festered. It was class prejudice, pure and simple—contempt for a bastard scraped from a garbage star.
While Western Jin and Dongguan had a long-standing rivalry, they usually maintained a veneer of civility, aware that open conflict would benefit the other two academies. But Que Baicen's vendetta was personal. His presence shifted the atmosphere in the dining hall. Students from lesser academies huddled nervously; only Dongguan dared show indifference.
In Dongguan eyes: Western Jin? A bunch of resource-spoiled brutes, all flash, no substance.
In Western Jin eyes: Dongguan? Scheming cowards who never dare a real fight.
"It's like everyone has a grudge against this Ox," a student from a minor academy whispered to his friend. "Drama follows her everywhere."
"Flies don't swarm a seamless egg," his companion sneered. "It takes two to tango. She's the one making a spectacle."
The psychology was twisted yet common: the vices of the elite were expected, even excused, but let an upstart from the lower rungs step slightly out of line, and they were met with scorn. Even those of middling status often accepted nobles above them but seethed at the success of those they deemed beneath.
Amidst the hushed chatter, Lin Hangjing and Pang Ci exchanged looks. Pang Ci grimaced, instinctively scanning the room, half-expecting the 'Duck King' Xie to materialize.
Lin Hangjing picked up a slice of pickled vegetable with his chopsticks, chewed thoughtfully, and spoke, his voice cool and measured. "Recently, the city's academic networks have been flooded with information about Ox. The narrative often links her garbage-star origins to surpassing noble scions. Under such propaganda, any elite groomed by the aristocratic system would instinctively resent her. Even if they're stronger now, it's seen as their due. If she catches up, it's an insult. A losing proposition. That's the root of the targeting."
"The major clans themselves wouldn't spread this. Likely, it's a third party, hoping they'll fight and weaken each other."
"Both the major clans and Ox are likely aware. Will they be willing pawns? Given time to investigate, the truth will surface."
"Gentlemen, you might also be considered part of that 'third party.' I'd advise caution in your words."
Having delivered his analysis, Lin Hangjing picked up his bowl and moved to another table. Pang Ci shot the group a scornful look and followed. They wanted no part of the potential fallout.
Their departure left the others in awkward silence. Some were embarrassed, others nervous, a few sneered. "Of course they'd defend her. Hometown loyalty. Probably hoping for scraps from her table."
"Scraps? She can barely protect herself. Look, she's dropped to 146th. No stamina."
Reassured, they returned to their meals. "This pickled fish is quite good—cough!"
One student choked, spewing bits of cabbage onto his companion's face.
"Damn it! What's wrong with you?!"
"Look! Up there!"
All eyes snapped to the Dongguan rankings displayed overhead.
Earlier, when Lang Hao placed three condiment bowls, Zhao Ranxue and others had pondered her meaning. Zhan Xuandong, sitting opposite, masked his irritation. He'd been worried about a sudden surge, but seeing Ox's rank slip, he couldn't resist. "Lang Hao," he said, voice laced with mockery, "perhaps remove one of those bowls? Or shift them aside. The table is rather crowded."
The teachers present said nothing. Inter-academy tradition dictated non-interference in student rivalries. Even Zhao Er, despite his displeasure, couldn't intervene without facing the Dean's wrath. They were spectators.
Lang Hao met Zhan Xuandong's gaze, showing neither anger nor anxiety. She simply looked away, her attention caught by the commotion at another table—the choking, the cries of alarm. She didn't glance at the rankings, instead focusing on stirring the condiments before her.
Fu Qiang, however, was less composed. "Heavens! A-Zhe, A-Zhe! Keli's rank 99! Holy crap! An 80,000-point jump in one go!"
A ripple of shock went through the room. Everyone looked.
Zhao Ranxue's eyes narrowed, calculating. "She cleared the Arcane Pagoda's fourth floor. And her composite coefficient must be high."
Increments of hundreds or thousands came from monster kills. Tens of thousands meant breaking through a floor barrier. The fourth floor cleared meant she'd reached the fifth—solidly within the top echelon of Class A's Arcane practitioners.
Zhan Xuandong's earlier smugness evaporated, replaced by a cold tension. His own Arcane talent wasn't top-tier in S-Class. He'd only just cleared the fifth floor and was stuck on the sixth. If Ox cleared the fifth… The gap between three months and four years would be a humiliation beyond bearing.
Just as his anxiety peaked, Yao—bruised and battered—finally fought her way out of the fourth floor's cavern and into the fifth. She barely had time to register her surroundings before a swarm of lesser axiom-creatures detonated around her in a coordinated blast.
Damn it!
Instant failure. Kicked out at the doorstep of the fifth floor.
"Too tough. My axiom foundation still needs work. Haven't even started Spirit Awakening." Two months, split between alchemy and other pursuits—she wasn't a god. She accepted it without bitterness, downing recovery potions. Her total: just over 160,000 points. Rank 99.
A glance at the top of Dongguan's board showed the top fifteen all came from S-Class. The lowest S-Class member currently had 280,000 points.
Her goal wasn't to break into that rarefied air yet.
"Dongguan's reward tiers: First place. Then 2–5. 6–20. 21–100…" Each tier offered unique treasures unavailable to lower tiers. Within a tier, rewards differed in quantity. She aimed for the best she could achieve within her current limits. The fifth Arcane floor was beyond her for now. No point wasting points re-attempting.
Where to gain points then? Alchemy Pagoda was a resource sink. That left World Studies, Combat, and Control.
She descended, ignoring the few remaining students in the lobby, and strode purposefully towards the Control Pagoda.
News travelled fast. In the central plaza, a group of girls shopping, arms linked and phones in hand, saw the blurry photo of someone entering the Control Pagoda.
"So she cleared three floors today? Over 140,000 points?"
"Wait, clearing three floors shouldn't give that many points. Unless… Dongguan's scoring is different?"
"Impossible. Provincial standards are set by the Education Bureau for funding. Only one explanation: Ox's clearance coefficient is exceptionally high. She's relying almost purely on axioms."
"That's insane!"
The buzz was electric. Envy and resentment simmered among male students who silently willed Ox to fail in Control.
"She can't possibly replicate her Arcane streak in Control, right? What was her previous floor?"
"Who knows? Damn this privacy protection in the Pagodas!"
Amidst the vibrant, noisy city, the Control Pagoda's second floor was a realm of absolute stillness. Yao selected the 'Control-Specialist: Long-Range' assessment.
Whoosh.
She entered and unleashed everything. Unlike the Arcane Pagoda, there were no purity restrictions here. All abilities were allowed, but the system would score based on control flow efficiency: combo fluidity, energy expenditure, damage intake-to-output ratio, ability synergy, sustainability.
This was her forte.
The second floor fell in under a minute.
"Floor 2 Cleared. Composite Coefficient: 10.0. Points Awarded: +20,000."
Control Pagoda points were more valuable, as evidenced by the reward. But the difficulty scaled brutally. The third floor made her brow furrow.
Five Level-50 Blue-Grade boss simulations, each replicating elite human controllers from history.
"Five-thread parallel control mode?" Yao cursed inwardly. No wonder the Control Pagoda was dubbed the nightmare of Dongguan. This was only the third floor?!
Gritting her teeth, she deployed her trinity of Light, Wind, and Space, immediately followed by elemental deprivation. Infinite Control. Lock it down!
Five grueling minutes later, the last controller-boss was trapped within a dual-gravity field starved of elements, slowly whittled down. But a final, long-range spatial cannon shot from the boss shattered her defenses. Even with her Restoration Field, the impact made her cough up blood.
The system granted five minutes for recovery. She gulped potions frantically. Time up, she was fully restored, spirit and body.
"Floor 3 Cleared. Composite Coefficient: 6.0. Points Awarded: +60,000."
The coefficient was lower, the points less. Her Infinite Flow was still incomplete, only 10% of the old Dean's envisioned ideal. The true form required four integrated fields: Mirror-World, Vortex-World, Restoration, and Gravity. The score was fair.
Then came the fourth floor.
Her eyelids twitched violently as she materialized. Three four-meter-tall muscle-bound brutes, all following the 'Vajra Guardian' profession path. But her ocular skill glimpsed a healer-mage concealed within a spatial fold. It sensed her detection and vanished deeper.
She wanted to eliminate the support first, but the three Guardians were upon her.
BOOM!
Space, earth, and fire elements erupted simultaneously. Her spatial field was directly countered and shattered. The Restoration Field's integrity was corroded by the hidden mage's decaying-energy axiom. The mage then began constantly healing the Guardians.
Yao fought back, rebuilding fields as they were destroyed, absorbing, converting, and reabsorbing energy. A grueling stalemate of ranged and close-quarters combat ensued.
Minutes ticked by. Several times, she nearly killed a Guardian, only for the mage to fully restore it.
Back to square one.
Frustration boiled. But the hidden mage was equally exasperated. What kind of infinite-flow leech is this? A perpetual motion machine that also heals itself? Damn it!
As the time limit approached… Yao's eyes narrowed. Her ocular skill flashed.
Anti-Axiom!
The mage, caught off-guard, was silenced. A crucial heal was missed. Yao seized the opening, unleashing a concentrated blast. One Guardian disintegrated, breaking their perfect formation. She lunged for the remaining two.
Suddenly, the mage smiled, a sinister curve.
"Corpse Detonation."
Yao's heart lurched. No!
BOOM!!!
The exploding Guardian's remains engulfed her. KO.
"Floor 4 Failed. One Guardian Eliminated. Points Awarded: +30,000."
"Continue?"
Continue? The only viable strategy was clearly to kill the mage first. Killing any Guardian triggered the detonation. Unless you had insane defense, you were done.
Head aching, Yao finally understood Dongguan students' curses. The Control Pagoda had granted her 110,000 points, pushing her total past 270,000. Rank 16.
Oh?
The next second, the entire ranking board flickered and updated.
From 15th place (the lowest S-Class) downward, scores shifted dramatically. The 20th place now showed 420,000 points. Yao's rank plummeted to 35th.
The hidden reserves of Class A's top ten had been unleashed in a panicked, reflexive display.
"Unbelievable!"
"Scum! Dongguan's full of sneaky bastards!"
"I wondered why their three-month scores seemed low. Thought they'd all regressed!"
"Holy hell!"
It was a brutal psychological blow. Thinking you'd broken into the top fifty, even top thirty, only to have everyone above and below you suddenly add hundreds of thousands of points while you were out enjoying a meal.
Even some honest Dongguan students slammed their tables in frustration. Dongguan, you're too damn sly!
Yao, equally speechless, headed for the Combat Pagoda.
"She's heading to the Combat Pagoda?" In the plaza, Chen He, now rank 3 in Class A, was already in a foul mood. The whispers about Ox, a three-month freshman, threatening to break into S-Class, making veterans like him look like paper tigers, grated on him. He'd made disparaging remarks about Ox before, mostly out of casual disdain. Now it was personal. S-Class slots were limited. If Ox and Wei Mingtang got in, where did that leave him?
Wei Mingtang was low-profile, a recluse, and a beauty—harder to confront. But Ox… she'd likely try the Combat Pagoda.
Wiping his mouth, Chen He found an excuse and left. He wasn't the only one. Several from Class A were heading back.
At a sushi bar across the plaza, Lang Xisi of Northern Plate, elegant in a white suit, swirled his wine glass. "Dongguan's Class A students are returning to intercept her. If they fail, they'll truly lose face."
"Letting a three-month freshman climb over their heads? An entire Dongguan Class A, pierced through by one newcomer?"
"A disgrace unparalleled."
"If this happened at Northern Plate, we'd never hear the end of it."
His words found agreement. Elsewhere, a certain black cat in a tiny waistcoat, belly rumbling, eyed a distant mouse. The mouse stuck out its tongue and scurried into the Arcane Pagoda. The cat, Tom, grumbled and headed for the Talent Pagoda instead.
The Combat Pagoda's mechanism was straightforward: duel other students currently testing. No floor progression—just continuous matches, with opponents and point rewards scaling based on win streaks.
This was Yao's first foray here. The first two matches were trivial, ending in seconds. The third matched her against a Class B student.
"Ox? Been wanting to fight you. Hope you don't disa—"
A cage of light and omnidirectional gravity crashed down.
Eighteen seconds later, Yao advanced.
"You!"
Zhang Donglin's eyes blazed with recognition and fury. He gathered his strength for a mighty strike.
KO. Even less than eighteen seconds.
Matches five and six added points in the thousands. By the seventh, the rewards jumped to ten-thousand increments. Eighth match: 15,000 points. Her rank climbed from 35th to 28th.
With hidden scores revealed and others at their limits, Ox became the sole name moving on the largely static leaderboard. A single, relentless climber, systematically overtaking those ahead.
The metaphorical 'violation' was felt acutely by those sitting in the same restaurant, not far from his 'fiancée.' A wife of stunning beauty, sitting in silence, only amplified the sting of humiliation, jealousy, and rage for many.
"I hope those who went back succeed. Otherwise, we're really…"
Students who previously disliked Ox for her aloofness now found their thoughts unified in desperate hope. They stabbed at their salmon with forks as if it were Ox himself.
Que Baicen gritted his teeth. If Ox were at Western Jin, I'd have crushed her long ago. Dongguan, always boasting about strategy, are just paper lanterns—flashy but hollow. Letting her get this far, even losing a million points to her… Look at her now! Her progress is fueled by that very resource! They nurtured a tiger at their own doorstep.
"Utter fools," he muttered coldly.
Capital, ever-sensitive to opportunity, had secured broadcast rights to Dongguan's Combat Pagoda duels. Sensing the hype around Ox, they locked onto her channel.
The diners in the hall now watched as Ox entered her eighth match arena.
Yao felt the shift in opponent strength immediately. This fighter was far above Zhang Donglin—steady, silent, a grinder. Seeing Yao, he spoke calmly, "I faced Wei Mingtang earlier. Couldn't withstand her soul attacks. But here, I think the outcome will be different."
Wei Mingtang was a bug, an anomaly that defied conventional power scaling. Ox was different.
He summoned three mechanized combat pets, unleashing a furious assault of gravity fields while he himself slipped into a spatial fold, evading her ocular lock.
He's skilled at this too? Yao grew wary, enveloping herself in a gravity field to negate ambush chances. Simultaneously, she released threads of light, using their subtle feedback to map his position. A flick of her finger, and the threads responded.
On the screen, the previously transparent space near the opponent shimmered, crisscrossed with countless golden filaments—beautiful, lethal embroidery.
Forced to exit the fold, the opponent went all-out. Against a controller with ocular skills and light threads, only overwhelming force would work. His three pets merged. His attributes skyrocketed to an average of 1.5 million. A Spirit-Awakened weapon materialized in his hands—twin sabers. He crossed them, then unleashed a devastating, planar-cutting wave of blade energy that seemed to shear through space itself.
Yao hovered within her field, manipulating gravity and the suction of her light-tentacles to distort the local elemental flow, creating air currents that diverted the blade waves' trajectory. The terrifying part was that the deflected waves were swallowed by a vortex that suddenly manifested behind her.
The vortex churned, digesting the energy, then spat it back out.
Whoosh!
A storm of shattered blade fragments!
What the hell?
This was a First-Sequence manifestation—a special kind where axiom fields merged with genetic sequences, becoming a remotely controlled force field, independent of elemental manipulation, appearing and vanishing at will. This particular one involved devouring and conversion, turning absorbed attacks into new ones. Efficient and unpredictable.
It was a brilliant move. Yao hadn't anticipated it. Neither had the audience. The storm of blade shards, now twice as potent, pierced through her gravity field's influence, surrounding her…
Just as it seemed she'd be shredded—
Four mirror-cubes materialized, forming a 360-degree barrier.
Reflect.
Simultaneously, Yao merged with her own abilities. She drained all ambient elements, then unleashed a pre-prepared composite axiom—Dizziness + Fear (borrowed from a boss) + Ocular Deterrence—woven into her light threads and shaped into a birdcage. It enclosed her opponent the instant the mirrors activated.
Hit by multiple control axioms at once, even with some resistance, he was locked in place.
Bad!
Immobilized and stripped of elements…
Bang!
A single, precise shot ended the match.
The opponent faded, a wry smile on his face. "Wrong place, wrong time. Meeting you two freshmen is a nightmare."
"Don't say that," Yao replied. "I'll forget the names of most I face today. But I'll remember yours—Lin Chen. So will Wei Mingtang, probably. Doesn't that feel a bit better?"
He was skilled, likely not supremely gifted but hardworking and steady—a kindred spirit. She respected that.
Lin Chen paused, then chuckled. "I suppose. Maybe one day I'll wear this defeat as a badge of honor. But a warning: the tenth match is a threshold. The system sends someone… formidable."
Respecting your opponent was a form of grace. Lin Chen felt it.
The ninth match saw Yao, relying on her mirror defense, element deprivation, and sustainable recovery, defeat an even stronger opponent than Lin Chen.
Two matches added 50,000 points. Total: over 350,000.
Then, the tenth match.
The atmosphere was tense. But something more shocking happened. Another name skyrocketed on the leaderboard.
Wei Mingtang. 18th place. 520,000 points.
Holy shit!
Chopsticks clattered to plates.
Even Zhao Ranxue and the S-Class were stunned. A quick check of internal data confirmed it: Wei Mingtang was storming the Arcane Pagoda. Her points had been skyrocketing while they were focused on Ox.
Zhao Ranxue, having pushed those limits himself, understood the math. "She just added 300,000 points. That means she cleared the fifth and sixth floors consecutively. She's on the seventh now."
The seventh floor?
S-Class members exchanged glances. Only about half of S-Class had reached the seventh. Others, like Zhan Xuandong, were still on the sixth.
So, before they could even successfully intercept Ox, they'd already been overtaken by Wei Mingtang.
The teachers were dumbfounded.
"Three months in, and she's reached the seventh Arcane floor? Now I understand why the Dean took her as a direct disciple. A prodigy in the Death element, perhaps. Her axiom comprehension must be monstrous. She'd rank top five in raw talent across all four academies."
"Absolutely."
A hushed awe fell over the restaurant. Que Baicen and the others' expressions shifted. This was no longer just a crisis for Dongguan's S-Class aspirants. The S-Class elites of the other three academies felt a collective, icy clench.
This Wei Mingtang was the real threat. They'd been distracted by Ox.
"But you can't intercept someone in the Arcane Pagoda… Damn it! Dongguan hit the jackpot. Bet our Deans are kicking themselves."
They were. In the academy, the Vice-Dean was practically preening, legs crossed as he video-called the Dean, who was on a provincial trip. "See? I told you Wei Mingtang was special! My recommendation was spot on, right?"
The Dean's voice was youthful, elegant, with a cool, mint-like quality. "I recall you strongly recommending Ox."
"Ah… I recommended both! But then I learned of your… history with Zhou Miao, so I dropped it. But that kid, while not as good as Wei Mingtang, has immense potential. Future S-Class pillar material, I feel it."
"Not as good? Perhaps not." The Dean's laugh was light, but it gave the Vice-Dean pause.
Surely not?
He'd analyzed Wei Mingtang, even tested her with the Dean. She was a natural-born Death affinity genius, her axiom comprehension nearly perfectly interconnected, a true Necromancer prodigy. The Northern Plate Vice-Dean had been badgering him, offering insane resources to 'transfer' her, claiming they were 'holding her back.' Dream on.
Ox, by comparison, while excellent, wasn't in that league. Great genetic lineage (a Xie family boon), a formidable system path, a technical fighter. But against Wei Mingtang's all-round excellence? In a contest where strategy and will weren't vastly different, innate talent always trumped hard work. A brutal truth.
The Dean sighed. "Zhou Miao's eye is sharper than mine."
The Vice-Dean was speechless. Just because of that?
"And ignore the other academies' complaints. They've hidden talents of their own. It's strange. This year's crop… it's as if a golden age is dawning. The capital is even more outrageous. I wonder if it's a blessing or a portent." The Dean's tone grew somber, complex.
The Vice-Dean sobered. When things deviate from the norm, there must be a cause. Only those at the highest levels sensed the undercurrents.
Back in the restaurant, the silence was broken by a murmur. "Well, at least Ox is about to be intercepted. She's matched with Chen He."
Chen He couldn't believe his luck. Wanting to intercept Ox, and the system delivered her.
He cracked his neck, looking at his opponent. "Ox. This is where you stop. Go have dinner with your wife after this."
He didn't hold back. Three Blue-Grade peak pets merged—land, sea, air—boosting his Power, Constitution, and Agility to an average of 2.2 million. Then, two elemental spirits: one Fire, one Mental!
Damn it!
Yao's scalp tingled seeing his lineup. Years in the academy weren't wasted! With millions of points, you could acquire powerful pets and spirits. Three pets, two spirits! This was the strength of Class A's number three. Worse, both spirits were equipped with Orange-Grade spatial concealment artifacts, hiding in folded space, providing continuous support. Untargetable.
Chen He drew his own manifested axiom weapon—a vermillion tasseled spear. Molten lava coalesced around it, forming two terrifying, flowing wings.
"Inferno Burst!"
The wings flowed, merging with the spear… Attack Speed +200%.
It lanced forward. Even with her ocular skill, Yao barely registered its trajectory. Instinct took over. Defense.
A vertical piercing strike from above…
Multiple defensive layers—dual fields, turtle-shell amulet, vortex, mirrors—encapsulated her.
A series of shattering sounds…
Bang!
A flash of searing red filled her vision. Her instinct was to activate Anti-Axiom, but she suppressed it hard. Using that would blow her cover. The incident with Qin Minfeng that night would become a fuse, leading to investigations from multiple departments…
She regretted selling the Lesser Heavenly Scripture to Wei Mingtang. She could have broken through another axiom layer. It was a long-term play, but she hadn't expected such terrible luck—to be intercepted by Class A's number three.
So…
BOOM!
In that split second, she twisted her body. The spear, wreathed in superheated magma, still tore through her, obliterating an arm and half her shoulder. The tip stopped a finger's breadth from her heart. The magma clung, burning, searing inward.
The smell of her own cooked flesh filled her nostrils. The pain was blinding, threatening to plunge her into darkness. Sweat poured down her face as she used light threads to yank her body sideways, soaring into the air.
"Crippled trash still trying to run?!" Chen He had known she was no match, but he'd gone all out to preserve Class A's dignity. He was annoyed he hadn't secured an instant kill. Contempt laced with killing intent. He hurled the spear again.
Too fast.
Hovering, Yao watched the second spear hurtle towards her. The stump of her shoulder writhed. Little Huang + Vines + Non-Density Tentacles all activated at once.
Whoosh!
Her arm regenerated in an instant. Her newly formed hand thrust towards the space, towards the incoming spear.
A hundred vines shot out, grasping the spear. Its power was enough to pierce through most, but a third managed to latch on.
Yao clenched her fist.
"Drain!"
The energy-rich spear was rapidly siphoned by the remaining vines.
Boom!
The vines were still punctured, but the spear's force was drastically weakened, finally caught by her wind vortex and mirrors.
Chen He's face changed.
The restaurant erupted.
"What was that? Since when did she specialize in Life-affinity arts? That's a Life-specialist's signature—body regeneration!"
"Incredible! An all-rounder?"
"Already has insane sustain, now body regen… An unkillable undying? Is she or Wei Mingtang the real Necromancer? I heard there's an Immortal sub-path."
"Don't be ridiculous. It's a combination of her pet's talent, her First Sequence, and her genetic talent."
"Hey, Frolos, say something."
In a high-end boutique in the plaza, a young man in a grey suit, features reminiscent of a Western comic-book prince, looked up from a magazine at his chattering friend. He assessed the outfit his friend was trying on.
"Passable."
"I was talking about Dongguan's Ox. That kid is interesting. Body regeneration isn't easy to master."
Frolos looked back down at his magazine. "Don't know her. Don't care. Talk to me when she breaks into Dongguan's top twenty."
"Tch. Thought you only acknowledged the top ten across all four," the tall, striking green-haired woman teased, adjusting her dress.
"Arrogance is not a virtue," Frolos said softly, turning a page. The printed words seemed to echo in the suddenly charged air. The real battle, it seemed, was just beginning.