Chapter 203 — The Legion of the Time-Tassel Dragon

It wasn't that the opponent couldn't break the Spatial Shackles; it would probably just need a super-tier skill or a combination technique. But Shi Jin clearly was not about to wait for the opponent to simply break the Spatial Shackles!

He did not have Buggy trigger spatial tremors for an attack, but instead chose to have it strengthen the shackles' intensity. He himself drew a deep breath, planning to switch to another attacker!

"Battle Soul Bathed in Fire, Blazing Charge, Horn of Fire!"

Across from him, Qu Lishi grinned through gritted teeth, deciding he could not let that little monster Shi Tan look down on him.

His bottom line had already been more or less probed clean by Shi Jin last time anyway; since that was so, he might as well go all out from the start.

Proficient-tier Battle Soul Bathed in Fire for all-around attribute amplification, masterwork-tier Blazing Charge to boost burst power, masterwork-tier Horn of Fire to pierce through space, plus the absolute advantage of 200,000 energy as the foundation...

Boom!

The Bull-Head Beast King erupted as if swelling, its muscles surging violently.

It charged with a boom straight through the Spatial Shackles.

But at that very moment, Qu Lishi's gaze happened to drift across the arena, happened to catch what Shi Ying was doing...

He could not help but start in sheer astonishment.

Across the way, in the breeze, Shi Ying's red cloak rippled and billowed.

He reached out his hand, and in midair a great mass of black matter appeared out of nothing, swiftly condensing in Shi Jin's grasp into a black longsword.

As Shi Jin gave it a light flick, beside him Little Crimson Eye quickly dissolved into a streak of red light and merged into Shi Jin's body, taking possession!

At the same time, Eleven, perched on Jue's shoulder at a mere three-tenths of a meter, began to evolve into Edge Mode, unleashing the power of hardening together with lightning to arm Shi Jin from head to toe.

Weng!

An instant later, the hardened longsword in Shi Jin's hand was a lattice of black and red, as though freshly drawn from a forge, wreathed in crackling arcs of lightning.

Space itself seemed to shudder; the air hummed and buzzed.

Around Shi Jin, the world blurred into searing heat, and slowly Shi Ying's eyes and hair alike turned the color of blazing fire.

With a "boom!", countless threads of flame converged, and a spiritual energy fierce as the fire of the sun wrapped itself around Shi Jin's whole body in a cloak of blazing aura!

"Qu Lishi, a familiar state, isn't it? I did the same thing during the professional examination..."

"Except now, the equipment has been upgraded..."

Gulp.

Watching Shi Ying's transformation, Qu Lishi was dumbstruck all over again, and suddenly sensed that something was off; his eyes nearly burst from their sockets.

What was this now, what was this? A style he knew, and yet did not know!

In that instant, the Bull-Head Beast King, which had just launched a frenzied assault on the spatial shackles, also sensed something wrong. From Shi Jin it felt a terrifying, searing aura far more formidable than even the Dreaming Butterfly's — and as a fire-type pet beast, it was exquisitely sensitive to such things...

"Moo-wow-wow-wow-kakaka!!"

In the spectator stands, Bai Xi, by contrast, grew wildly excited.

Feng Jin's eyes lit up as well.

So this was the Sword Spirit Possession Mode?

On the field, Chongchong sensed Shi Ying's state and gave a silent nod.

Against Eleven, Shi Jin, or Little Crimson Eye alone, it was confident it could hold its own. But when all three combined their strength, the power they unleashed was more than it could handle even at full combat strength.

The Iron-Eating Beast Knight combo was simply too strong.

No — this could not remain a leader's exclusive trick. One day it would materialize an ice dragon and make Shi Jin a Dragon Knight; that was the proper way to unleash Little Crimson Eye.

Because Feng Jin and Senior Bai wanted to see both the Dreaming Butterfly and Little Crimson Eye in action during this battle, Shi Jin had no choice but to adopt this tactic.

Chongchong would play support; he himself would be the main damage dealer!

"Qu Lishi, here we come."

Shi Jin slowly raised the black-and-red longsword and swung it toward the Bull-Head Beast King, which was already colliding with the spatial shackles.

At that moment the Bull-Head Beast King, clad in its arcane power, smashed the spatial shackles to pieces in one blow — but the instant they shattered, the violent recoil of spatial shockwaves left it dazed in place for a heartbeat.

Chongchong was too strong now; even a support skill had wrought enormous havoc on the enemy.

Yet what truly made Qu Lishi's and the Bull-Head Beast King's eyes nearly burst was not Chongchong's spatial shackles, but the sword stroke Shi Jin swung toward them.

Shua!

A dazzling red light burst forth, fierce as a crimson bolt tumbling through thunderclouds.

"Boom!"

A blade of lightning and blazing flame, five or six meters tall, flared like the bursting radiance of an exploding star, instantly blotting out everyone's vision.

It bore down on them with an indescribably terrifying aura, with a momentum that shook the soul.

The sword light crushed the earth beneath it, utterly savage — this was Shi Jin, with a physique near the legendary tier, armed by max-level hardening, channeling super-tier skills like the Sword of Intersection and the super-tier Concealed Edge into a single explosive strike.

The power of the three parties had, in that instant, triggered a special reaction; the vast shockwave rocked heaven and earth. Caught within it, Chongchong, for all that it had grown so much stronger, still felt its heart quail — and as for Ginseng Baby, it was nearly blown clean away, scared half to death, and only just managed to steady itself with Earth Chain.

As for Feng Jin and Bai Xi, they were now utterly frozen, for this strike seemed enough to break the defense of an even mightier Monarch!

Never mind a transcendent-race Monarch with two hundred thousand energy value — even a commander-race Monarch with a minimum of five hundred thousand energy value would likely have to tread with extreme caution before this blow, and would not dare meet it with flesh alone.

The entire examination ground was quaking. Across the way, the Bull-Head Beast King, feeling the sword force that left it breathless, turned pale with shock.

Was this the kind of attack a commander-tier opponent could produce?

"What the hell." Qu Lishi's heart, too, was reeling.

Frightened stiff by Shi Ying's transformation and by his attack.

It should have been a familiar look, the style of the Iron-eating Beast Knight — so why was it so different from the professional assessment?!

This time, it wasn't a sword-light special effect...

It was, holy crap, an actual sword light! Five or six meters big!

What on earth had Shi Jin been through?

The blue lightning and red flames devoured the Bull-headed Beast King almost instantly. In Qu Lishi's mind, all that remained was the Beast King's final psychic roar.

You idiot beastmaster!

If I ever trust you again, I'm the idiot.

Next time, if you don't leave your Grandpa Bull 500,000 energy for the intermediate assessment, and 1,000,000-plus for the advanced one, I won't play with you anymore — and my name isn't Bull!

BOOM!!

Soon the Bull-headed Beast King fell silent. One second it was still contending with that terrifying cross-slash sword that had split the exam ground in two; the next, the energy leaking from its body was annihilated in an instant. Its battle soul was extinguished almost at once, and it sprawled out its limbs helplessly, howling in agony amid the terrifying fluctuations.

In that moment, Qu Lishi even forgot to return the Beast King's power. Part of it was spite — the pet beast had called him an idiot — and part was sheer shock at the power Shi Ying had unleashed.