Chapter 214: Empress vs. Chu Sheng Again: A Head-on Confrontation

The Shadowland.

Generally speaking, for most Secret Realms, the entrance is also the exit. They are one and the same spatial Wormhole.

But the Shadowland was special.

Its entrance Wormhole was a random teleportation mechanism, while its exit was a specific location on the edge of the core area.

At this moment, all the eliminated contestants were gathered at the Secret Realm Exit in what was called the Elimination Waiting Area.

They had to wait for the competition to end before their instructors would lead them out together.

What no one noticed was that there should have been 138 eliminated contestants here, but now, a few people were missing.

A few of the specially invited foreign participants... were gone.

...

There was also a screen in the waiting area, allowing the eliminated contestants to watch the rest of the competition.

Right now, all the eliminated contestants were dejected. Only Su Li, her face still pale, had a bright light shining in her eyes!

’This is great!’

’My efforts weren’t in vain!’

’I helped the academy secure second place! The Beast Taming Academy won’t be last, so it won’t be demoted!’

’And the Beast Taming Academy even has a chance to fight for first place!’

’The Divine Locust hasn’t been eliminated yet.’

’It’s down to a one-on-one now. The Divine Locust beat the Future Empress last time in Spirit Martial Eternity. Can it do it again this time?’

As Su Li thought this, the voices of others drifted over.

"Let’s go. Time to get ready to leave. There’s no point in watching the rest."

"Pah, what rotten luck. We can accept losing to Lin Zhixia, but being beaten by the Beast Taming Academy... I’m fucking speechless!"

The person who said this glanced over at Su Li.

"Heh, surely some people aren’t still hoping that cockroach thing will come out, defeat Empress Lin, and take first place, are they?"

"Dream on. You should be thrilled just to have scraped by with second. Lin Zhixia’s combat power is on a completely different level than before. That big cockroach’s previous win was fishy, so there’s no way it’ll happen again!"

"True, real combat is different from a game. Lin Zhixia is the Future Empress for a reason. She’s terrifying..."

"I just want to see how long that cockroach plans to hide. Even if it secretly killed a few Demon Beasts, the Inner Core Points in its Storage Ring couldn’t possibly exceed 800."

"It’ll probably just hide until the very end. If it comes out, it’ll just get one-shotted anyway."

Listening to the back-and-forth chatter, Su Li’s expression dimmed.

Once, like all the other students of the Beast Taming Academy, she had believed in the Divine Locust without question.

But now, she didn’t dare to believe anymore... ’Maybe just taking second place is already good enough.’

Su Li lowered her gaze. The severe drain on her Mental Power was making her a little dizzy.

Suddenly, a cry of surprise erupted from the crowd:

"Look, that giant cockroach actually showed up!"

...

In the core area, a giant cockroach slowly crawled out from a patch of grass not far in front of Gu Yuexi.

Arcs of lightning flickered around the giant cockroach’s body as it approached Gu Yuexi.

Gu Yuexi’s eyes lit up.

"You damn cockroach. You finally decided to show yourself."

The giant cockroach:

"HISS HISS."

Gu Yuexi said coolly,

"You’ve seen the current Points situation. I have eight hundred. No matter what you’ve been doing, it’s unlikely you’ve surpassed that score."

"So, if you want to win, there’s only one way."

"Eliminate me and take the Inner Cores from my Storage Ring."

"I lost last time in Spirit Martial Eternity. This time, I absolutely will not lose!"

As Gu Yuexi finished speaking, the aura around her changed abruptly.

The pride of an Empress would never allow her to lose to the same person twice.

As a Master, she especially could not allow herself to lose to her own Contracted Beast!

This time, Gu Yuexi really wanted to win.

As her voice fell, the air around them began to vibrate faintly.

BZZZT!

A beam of white light, condensed from Mental Power, shot toward the giant cockroach.

The giant cockroach was, of course, Chu Sheng.

"Nether Flame Battle Armor!"

The moment the white light drew near, a phantom of red armor surged around Chu Sheng. The upgraded Nether Flame Battle Armor had even greater Defense Power than before.

But as soon as the white light touched the battle armor, Chu Sheng sensed something was wrong! He quickly used Instant Teleportation to dodge!

In just a split second, the white light had sliced a huge gash into the Nether Flame Battle Armor, bringing it to the brink of collapse. And where he had just been standing, a massive crack, like a sword scar, had appeared in the ground!

"You damn cockroach, you’re doomed to lose."

"We’ll see if you dare to disobey me in the future."

Gu Yuexi muttered to herself, but her hands didn’t pause in the slightest as she formed another Finger Technique. Her subsequent attacks grew sharper and more relentless!

Under her onslaught, Chu Sheng seemed only able to dodge, looking like he was in constant peril!

"Hmph, all you know is how to dodge!"

"Don’t think you’re invincible just because you’ve reached Minor Success in your Spatial Realm!"

As she spoke, Gu Yuexi suddenly thrust out a single hand, aiming it at Chu Sheng.

"This time, let’s see you run!"

As her voice fell, a giant, transparent Void Cage suddenly enveloped Chu Sheng. Countless complex runic patterns flowed across the barrier, which pulsed with the aura of several Realms at Perfection, and even Great Perfection.

"Celestial Tier Intermediate Secret Technique—Divine Prison Without End!"

"Unless you’ve comprehended the Spatial Realm to the Perfection Level, you won’t be able to escape this cage, even with Spatial Movement!"

As she spoke, Gu Yuexi slowly closed her hand. With this motion, the spherical cage imprisoning Chu Sheng began to shrink.

...

Inside the Void Cage, Chu Sheng tried to use Instant Teleportation but slammed directly into the transparent, runic barrier.

’Damn, this woman really got a lot stronger after reaching the Fourth-Grade.’

’Even in my real body, if I got caught off guard by this move, I’d probably be in trouble.’

’Maybe I should just let her win this once?’

As the Void Cage shrank, Chu Sheng’s room to move dwindled. Soon, the cage had contracted to the same size as his body.

From the outside, it looked like a giant cockroach trapped inside a crystal ball!

"Come here!"

With a grasping motion of her hand, the shrunken Void Cage flew over and hovered above her palm. She held the cage and looked at Chu Sheng inside, her previously cold and tense face finally breaking into a smile.

"You damn cockroach, still going to run?"

"Come on, just nod your head, and this... this Future Empress will let you out!"

However, inside the Void Cage, Chu Sheng the giant cockroach completely ignored her. Instead, he turned his head away and aimed his rear end at her.

Gu Yuexi snorted coldly.

"You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!"

She extended a finger from her other hand and slowly poked it into the Void Cage, pressing it right against Chu Sheng’s cockroach head.

"I told you, this time, I absolutely will not lose."

White light erupted from Gu Yuexi’s fingertip, and in an instant... the Guardian Aura on Chu Sheng’s Combat Suit was triggered!

"You’ve lost..."

A faint, hissing voice spoke from behind Gu Yuexi. "Is that so?"

At that very moment, the countdown for the academy competition reached zero.