As a Bio Booster, Baelin’s gains from inheriting the Bio Boosting armour of an ancestor was not limited to a significant boost in strength. Having the armour with him was like carrying around an old grandpa who would help him with his knowledge and experience.
“No wonder I feel uncomfortable, we are being watched!” Baelin nodded, and left the marshland quickly.
Just when he reached the edge of the marshland, Baelin heard something and pointed his cross blade at the bushes nearby. “Who’s there? Get out!”
“Don’t! We mean you no harm!” Two Magi stepped out who were similar in appearance.
“Lord Baelin, we were just teleported here.” “We are only trying to help any Magi who have fallen into swamps!” “Also, Lord Baelin, we admire your strength from the bottom of our hearts. How could we dare to harm you?”
“Yes! Yes!” The twin Magi spoke one after the other without pause, leaving no chance for Baelin to say anything himself.
In fact, Baelin’s power with his cross blade and fleshy armour left deep impressions on the competing Magi. The respect of the very Magi he once feared left Baelin feeling quite smug.
“Lord Leylin should feel satisfied after watching this scene! In fact, Lord Leylin was on the judging platform all this while. Maybe I should find an opportunity to talk to him…”
Baelin venerated his Master from the depths of his heart. Not for a moment would he suspect Leylin of being the traitor among the upper circle of Magi. Had he not been stopped by Vinas, Aaron, and Memphis, he would have gone to Leylin’s mansion the moment he’d arrived.
“Haha…Haha…” Baelin stroked his head embarrassedly, a smirk on his face.
Seeing this, the twin brothers glanced at each other, a strange look flashing past their eyes.
“Lord Baelin!” One of them said as he approached him, “Since this place is so dangerous, how about we stick together?”
*Pang!* Just as he finished his words, several green brambles stuck out of the earth, tying Baelin’s feet up.
“Now!” he shouted.
“Profound energy blast!” The younger brother standing behind him crushed a crystal rune. Together with a chant, a powerful attack was launched.
A ball of purple liquid, filled with corrosive white bubbles, rushed directly towards Baelin’s head.
The twins had gathered intelligence about the awesome power of this armour, so they had aimed instead at Baelin’s unprotected head.
The twin brothers’ co-ordination was perfect, and their final strike reached an offensive power of around 60-70 degrees! Such an attack could even corrode mountains.
“Haha! Stupid! Even if you are more powerful than us, this is a competition! Why wouldn’t we take a gamble?” The elder brother laughed, looking at Baelin with a little excitement.
He was not pleased when Baelin stole the limelight, and this chance for vengeance made him happy.
“Master!” The second before the corrosive liquid ball arrived, eyes arose from every parts of Baelin’s armour.
These eyes were smaller, but they blinked with wisdom. Now, they were showing signs of rage.
*Pang!* A membrane of flesh formed like a helmet around Baelin’s head, protecting it.
As the profound power blast hit the membrane, Baelin’s body was launched backwards. But weirdly, not a drop of blood flew out.
While Baelin was still in the air, his armour changed significantly.
Flashy membranes hardened to form real armour, and the dozens of eyes merged into thirteen big ones that were scattered along it. This terrifying appearance, was the most powerful form of the Bio Boosting armour.
*Bzzz!* The purple corrosive energy still attacked Baelin’s body, but it was nothing in front of his armour. There wasn’t even a tiny depression formed.
This fact stupefied the twin Magi. They looked at each other, and immediately came to an accord. “Run!”
Magi who could defend against a joint attack of theirs were far more powerful than they could handle. They did not want to be thrown out this easily.
“You!” Baelin was about to blow his top, and jumped forward in a rage.
*Crack!* Pits were formed under Baelin’s feet as his jump landed him in front of the twins in an instant.
“Die!” Baelin raised his cross blade. Baelin’s strength was already at the peak of rank 1 Magi, approaching the boundary of rank 2. Once he made up his mind, it was easy to kill mere semi-converted Magi like them.
*Pup!* The cross blade ran through the neck of one Magus, then a light came out of his body.
His body was covered by a milky light column, and disappeared immediately.
“You go along with him!” Baelin took no pity on them this time, and shoved his cross blade into the other’s heart.
*Peng!* This one disappeared into the white lights as well.
After killing the twin brothers, Baelin took a milky amulet out of his pocket.
*Beep!* After a flash, the number in this amulet turned from 1 to 3. Baelin stared at this in a daze, a wry smile on his lips…
Outside the secret plane, in the middle of the arena.
A light column burst out, an indistinct figure inside it.
“Quick! Medicine!” The host ordered with experience.
Several Magi dressed in milky robes with the symbol of a snake and cross rushed around.
After the light dissipated, the Magus who was eliminated first showed up, his face pale and the wound on his neck bleeding.
“I will stop bleeding first, prepare the life spell!” The medical team consisted of healing Magi, several of whom emitted energy fluctuations at the peak of rank 1.
A milky light bathing him, the wounded Magus was cured and the wound on his neck disappeared.
A second later, his younger brother was also sent out, and the medicine team took care of him as well.
Up in the platform, what happened just now was seen by Leylin, but he had an impulse of cover his eyes.
“Very adaptable, but still stupid! It seems that the years of exile and adventure taught him nothing. Fortunately, I didn’t tell anyone that I taught him! What an embarrassment…”
“Look! Haylon and Carl ran into each other!”
“The stars of the competition meet, this should be a good show!” Some Magi smiled gloatingly.
Teaming Up
Leylin turned his attention to another screen.
In the sky above a verdant forest, Longbottom, disguised as Green-robed Carl, had run into Haylon.
These were two favoured dark horses had a large possibility of gaining victory. This immediately attracted attention.
Many contestants had already been eliminated in a short period of time. With fewer participants remaining, the remaining screens had increased in size.
……
Within the secret plane.
“Green-robed Carl?” Haylon glanced at the strange youngster in front of him.
“I’d originally wanted to skip the trouble of defeating you guys one by one, and had decided to wait to make a move and harvest a large number of points at once, but forget it. I’ll make an exception for you and take your point right away.”
Longbottom looked at Haylon in front of him, a sinister smile on his face. Now that he was getting closer to the goal, he did not have to disguise himself so carefully. His opponent’s identity as a genius made Longbottom, who had been born a commoner, feel a sense of disgust.
“You seem to hate me?” Haylon’s brows furrowed, “It’s alright, anyone who obstructs my path shall die anyway!”
“Jeje, who do you think you are!” Longbottom laughed weirdly, and released part of the bindings on him.
Cold! Powerful!
A berserk wave of spiritual force swept across like a hurricane.
“Peak rank 1?” Haylon’s expression that had always been as cold as ice was immediately smashed through.
Longbottom’s ‘burst’ had also caused a frenzy outside the plane.
“Peak ra
nk 1? I remember Green-robed Carl is only forty-five years old, right?” A judge wearing reading glasses asked a Magus behind him, “Fano, when did you reach the level you’re at?”
The Magus by the name of Fano was an old geezer with a white beard. He looked ashamed as he spoke, “Your subordinate is ashamed. After training hard on the Icy Throne for 70 years, I reached this realm at 115 years old.”
“If he studied on his own, this Carl really is a genius!” This judge raised his spectacles, “Run checks on him. If there’s nothing wrong, we can consider enticing him into entering our guild.”
Leylin, who was also on the judge panel, saw that many of the other judges had sent down the same order and couldn’t help but laugh inside.
If this was a few days ago, they might be able to find out about Longbottom, but now? By the time they had run their checks, Longbottom might already have achieved his goal. What use was it then if they found out?
”You’re already at the peak of rank 1!” Haylon blurted out, unable to maintain his indifference any longer.
“This is the expression! This is the expression!” Longbottom chuckled aloud, “I want those people who look down on me to realise how wrong they are!”
He laughed crazily, flushing red as if he were sick.
“You’re crazy!” Haylon’s voice became cold, and large numbers of silver-white light blades appeared from his robes, swirling in formation.
“Go!” Haylon pointed at Longbottom, and the many light blades formed a dense mesh and tried to pull Longbottom in. Meanwhile, he turned into a black shadow and disappeared into the sky.
“You overestimate yourself!” Longbottom snorted coldly, a layer of green mist surging forth.
*Tss tss!* Great numbers of silver-white light blades entered the mist and immediately produced sounds of corrosion, dissipating one by one.
“Come here!” Longbottom’s right hand became a phantom image and reached deep into the air.
Next, a black shadow was pulled out from the surrounding space.
Haylon’s expression was that of disbelief. “That’s impossible. This concealing technique is my master’s special technique! How could it…”
“That strong aura of life on you betrayed you!” Longbottom explained, his expression showing his disdain.
Meanwhile, Haylon went limp, as if this was a huge blow to him.
“Kid, you’re very luckily. If we’d met earlier, you’d long since have turned into a corpse, but now?” Longbottom halted his intentions of using Life Absorption and turning him into a dried-up corpse.
This was still within the secret plane, and he was being monitored by the Magi outside.
If he hid his true strength, he could pass it off as being exceptionally talented or having gained some inheritance. Whatever it was, Twilight Zone was huge and it was no surprise to have some fortuitous encounters.
However, Life absorption was a dark-elven meditation technique. If it was exposed, the competition would be halted, and he would be faced with several rank 2 Magi who would combine their efforts to kill him.
“But I really don’t want to just let you off!” While lifting Haylon, a smile appeared about Longbottom’s lips.
This smile was enough for Haylon’s hair to be raised, and he immediately thought of using the spell pattern for escape. However, it was too late!
A green light sword ripped through Haylon’s forehead, and with the corrosive force invading, he could only cry out miserably.
“Ah…” Amidst the painful screams, Haylon’s body was bound in light pillars and transported out.
Longbottom took out his own amulet and saw the number rapidly rise to thirty, and revealed a satisfied expression. After closing his eyes for a short while, he began to hurry towards another location.
*Thud!* Outside the secret plane, Haylon’s body fell to the ground, large amounts of black blood flowing out of his orifices.
“His mind has been damaged! Quick, get Master Dojek here!” The healing Magus who came over took a look and quickly shook his head.
A moment later, Dojek narrated something to Leylin and the other committee members at the judging area.
“His sea of consciousness has been destroyed? There’s no cure?”
“Yes, Haylon’s sea of consciousness has completely been destroyed by a corrosive spiritual force. There is no way to restore it. At most, I can only save his life. From hereon, he can only live on as a commoner…”
Dojek’s expression was dim. Haylon truly was a genius, but he had not realised that no matter how amazing the genius, they could fall before they truly matured.
However, his long life had allowed him to experience much, and with a sigh, he left.
Leylin and the committee members had a brief exchange regarding the issue, before they promptly tossed this matter to the back of their minds.
The final competition carried the risk of death! Just crippling a Magus wasn’t much.
What they were more interested in were the methods Longbottom had used to heavily injure Haylon before he had been transported out.
“It seems to be a combination spell. By instantly transmitting large amounts of energy particles to destroy the composition of the sea of consciousness…”
There was a flash in Leylin’s eyes.
He felt that after large numbers of geniuses had fallen in this competition, the force of destiny shrouding the area had become richer till the extreme.
The surging river of destiny was like a giant gunpowder warehouse. With just a little spark, it would explode violently.
“I didn’t expect the three of them to meet. Time for a good show!”
Right after, Leylin realised something else and changed his focus to a screen at a corner.
“Based on the guide of destiny!”
Three voices sounded in unison, with both male and female voices.
Aaron, Vinas, and Ernis who were all training in Sacred Flame, the geniuses Leylin had created himself, finally came together.
If anyone had been focusing on these three Magi, they would realise that after entering the secret plane, they had not fought with any Magi and instead, had been hurrying forward.
Just as they were about to encounter enemies, they could predict and evade them.
Hence, the three somehow passed through half of the secret plane and met at a corner on the plains.
“It’s the first time we’re meeting in real life! I’ll introduce myself. My name is Ernis!” There was a smile on Ernis’ face. His gaze swept past Vinas and Aaron, and stayed on Aaron’s ring and Vinas’ multi-coloured necklace for a long while.
“Aaron!” “Vinas!”
“Are you going to repent for all you have done?” Aaron asked, standing with Vinas.
Though they were competing against each other, he and Vinas were on the humans’ side, and had no good feelings towards Ernis of the dark elven camp.
“I’m just used to looking at issues from a different point of view!” Ernis laughed, obviously not wanting to say more.
After all, there was a large group of Magi watching. How could he expose himself?
“Then die!”
Just a moment before, they had speaking nicely, and in the next, Aaron immediately became hostile and attacked.
A silver cross blade hilt appeared in his hands, and was only a third as long as a regular cross blade. It had lost its sword blade and point, but a sharp energy fluctuation burst out from it.
A ray of light streaked through the air, bringing about with it numerous ripples and aimed at Ernis.
Ernis seemed to have predicted it and dodged, looking delighted at the sword hilt in Aaron’s hands.
“So you’ve forged it too! I won’t have to conceal anything anymore.”
A silver-white slender long sword tip appeared in front of Ernis. The sharpness it emanated was even above that of Aaron’s attack.
“Go!” Ernis pointed at Aaron, and great amounts of silver light shot out from the tip of the blade.
Formless ripples collided with the silver light and quickly dispersed, as if nothing had happened.
However, the surrounding grass had become much shorter, cut through smoothly as if it had been sliced through in that instance by some light.
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