“How is this possible?” Ye Yu’s face twisted with unwillingness. Before the competition, he had considered the championship his own.
But now, it had slipped into someone else’s hands, leaving him unable to accept it.
A sudden sense of emptiness welled up in his heart.
At that moment, Meng Sheng, Feng Huo, and others froze as well. Deep down, they had all hoped Ye Yu would win.
“I told you long ago, you youths of the Lanlan Empire aren’t qualified to compete with me for the championship. Your empire’s refining skills can’t even compare to my Moyu Empire’s!”
Yunfeng boasted wildly, his face brimming with triumph as he scanned the jade platform. When his gaze swept over the youths in the arena, it dripped with mockery and thick disdain.
The dignitaries on the jade platform darkened, each a lofty figure. Yet today, they were being scorned by a mere junior with such a look.
Chen Yan, Feng Lanyue, and others on the platform also wore icy expressions. They were among the Lanlan Empire’s top talents, just not adept in spiritual power, and they bristled at Yunfeng’s swaggering attitude.
The youths in the arena seethed silently. Yunfeng’s contempt targeted the entire younger generation of the Lanlan Empire, a national insult that included them.
At the same time, he subtly mocked the Lanlan Empire’s overall refining prowess as inferior to the Moyu Empire’s.
“A super spirit controller genius from the Moyu Empire, huh? I wonder if you’ll make it out of the Lanlan Empire alive, heh…”
On the jade platform, Meng Ying watched the smug Yunfeng, a cold laugh echoing in her mind.
Though the Moyu and Lanlan Empires maintained a surface peace, they were locked in covert struggles. For a Moyu genius to dare provoke the Lanlan Empire, Meng Ying, a key figure in the imperial family, wouldn’t let such a talent return home to pose a future threat to her reign.
“But Heimu hasn’t finished yet…” Meng Ying’s gaze shifted to Lin Xiao. Having the championship snatched by a Moyu outsider was a profound embarrassment for the imperial family. She could only hope Lin Xiao might work a miracle.
Others shared her hope, instinctively glancing at Lin Xiao, only to see him still fusing a single herb. Their optimism faded instantly.
Lin Xiao was just a third-grade elementary spirit controller. No matter what, he couldn’t outdo Yunfeng’s near fourth-grade elixir.
It was even uncertain if he’d refine a single elixir to secure a decent rank.
“What’s that? I said your Lanlan Empire’s young spirit controllers can’t match me from the Moyu Empire, and you’re still not convinced?”
Yunfeng’s arrogance flared as he pointed at Ye Yu, “Ye Yu, do you submit now?”
Ye Yu’s expression hardened. Being singled out and questioned in front of everyone was a blatant humiliation!
Yet, the facts stared him down, leaving him speechless.
His fists clenched, his eyes practically blazing with fury.
Seeing Ye Yu’s reaction, Yunfeng grew even more smug, laughing to himself, “Hahaha, I, Yunfeng, am the champion of this refining competition. The Serpent Blood Void-Breaking Elixir is mine!”
The crowd stiffened again. The humiliation was too raw, and everyone itched to rush up and throttle Yunfeng.
“Finally fused!” Just as the scene grew unbearably awkward, an out-of-place sigh of relief broke the tension.
All eyes turned toward the source of the sound.
A少年 gazed at a green fruit, taking a deep breath.
“…” Everyone was speechless.
After all this time, someone was still refining, seemingly so absorbed as to be unaffected by the chaos.
But the comment left them torn between laughter and tears. Others had finished, with Yunfeng producing a near fourth-grade elixir, and he’d only just completed fusing his herbs.
Only one incense stick’s worth of time remained in the competition.
Even Yunfeng paused, then glanced at Lin Xiao’s fruit still floating there, bursting into laughter, “He hasn’t even condensed it yet, hahaha…”
Yet Lin Xiao ignored all the stares and voices, casting a brief look at the jade platform and saying, “There’s still one incense stick’s time!”
With a deep breath, he unleashed his cyan fire spiritual energy, directing it to calcine the Green Flame Evil Fruit.
“Chi! Chi!” As the cyan fire neared the fruit, it was instantly swallowed up.
Immediately, Lin Xiao summoned more cyan fire spiritual energy, enveloping and pouring it into the Green Flame Evil Fruit.
“What kind of elixir is this, swallowing spiritual energy?” The crowd’s eyes flickered with curiosity, watching Lin Xiao’s every move in stunned silence.
But no matter how much cyan fire he summoned, the green fruit devoured it all. The onlookers saw sweat pour down Lin Xiao’s face, his body drenched and visibly weakening.
“He can’t hold on much longer!” After a quarter of an hour, someone exclaimed.
“Refining an elixir this long and pushing spiritual energy so hard, even a fourth-grade spirit controller couldn’t sustain it!”
“With just a quarter of an hour left, he probably won’t succeed.”
“With his dazzling talent, he might not win the championship, but he could’ve aimed for a top rank. Now, failing to refine an elixir, he’ll end up at the bottom with no high rewards. What a pity…”
Voices of regret rippled through the crowd.
Forget the elixir’s quality, Lin Xiao seemed too exhausted to finish condensing it.
But just as the cyan flames from his brow ceased, and everyone thought he was about to collapse…
A mass of pitch-black energy, like dark fire or liquid, erupted forth. It danced chaotically, as if a shapeless monster had burst from Lin Xiao’s brow, flailing wildly.
“Chi!”
The moment this energy appeared, the space within a dozen meters dimmed instantly. A terrifying aura surged outward, the air itself seeming to tremble. An inexplicable pressure radiated in all directions, a chilling, eerie force gripping everyone’s hearts.
In that instant, everyone felt as though a colossal beast loomed before them, ready to devour, their hearts quaking involuntarily.
Looking at the black flame before Lin Xiao, they saw something akin to an unknown, terrifying creature.
“That’s the spiritual energy aura from the Sky Demon Scorpion’s scales!”
Ye Fenghua was the first to leap from his seat, his eyes blazing with intensity.
He’d once stormed the Sky Scorpion Clan’s lair, battling them for this spiritual energy, only to come up empty-handed. How could it be in Heimu’s possession?
His mind churned with questions.
“The power of devouring!” Chen Wendao and others widened their eyes, strange lights gleaming within.
“One person with two spiritual energies?” Le Zheng Hongmao and the others lost their composure. Lin Xiao had previously wielded cyan fire spiritual energy, so how had it suddenly shifted to another type?
Spiritual energy was a rare marvel of the heavens, encountered once in a millennium. For one person to possess two kinds, it was unthinkable!
Could it be an exceptionally unique spiritual energy, capable of manifesting two distinct attributes?
