Chapter 247: One Person Crushing Twenty, Has Great Xia Won?

The voice wasn’t loud, but it possessed a strange, piercing quality that reached the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity.

It was cold, majestic, and proud.

Ye Qingzhou and Chen Shouzheng were the first to react upon hearing the voice.

That voice, especially the pride that seemed to emanate from its very core!

Only one person possessed such a tone.

And that was... Gu Yuexi!

Astonished, the crowd looked up in the direction of the voice.

There...

Above the now-closed exit of the Spatial Secret Realm,

a peerlessly beautiful figure clad in magnificent Battle Armor was gazing down at the crowd with an air of pride.

A somewhat listless giant mosquito was perched on her shoulder.

"Gu Yuexi?!"

"It’s her! It’s really her! She’s not dead—she made it out!"

Pulled from the depths of despair to this sudden glimmer of hope, Gu Yuexi’s figure seemed blindingly radiant to everyone in the Great Xia camp.

Even the people from the Philippines and Yue Country camps were stunned into a momentary, awestruck silence upon seeing Gu Yuexi in her Empress Battle Armor.

After a brief hush, the contestants from the Great Xia camp erupted into excited cheers.

The Patriarchs of the Ten Great Clans also breathed a secret sigh of relief.

The exception was Mu Xiong. Seeing that it was Gu Yuexi who had emerged, and not Mu Linyuan, his expression instantly turned hideous.

Ye Qingzhou was also overcome with relief.

’As long as someone made it out!’

’At least we’ve secured one candidate for the Future Empress.’

’And since Gu Yuexi is out, there might still be a chance to win!’

Amid the cheers of the Great Xia contestants, Gu Yuexi’s figure flashed as she flew down and landed back within the Great Xia camp.

「At the same time.」

Hu’an and Ruan Jin were also slightly surprised to see Gu Yuexi appear.

However, they weren’t concerned.

Hu’an looked at the cheering Great Xia contestants and sneered.

"Heh, I wonder what they’re so happy about?"

"So what if this Gu Yuexi is out? It’s just one person. How many Crystal Cores could she possibly bring out on her own?"

Ruan Jin chimed in.

"Exactly. I don’t see what there is to celebrate."

"Even if their score isn’t zero, they’ll still be in last place!"

Perhaps it was Gu Yuexi’s pride that gave Ye Qingzhou courage, but after being mocked for so long, he finally snapped.

"Hmph."

"We’ll see who’s in last place after the scores are tallied."

"I advise you both not to celebrate too early!"

Hearing this, Hu’an chuckled.

"City Lord Ye, I really don’t know where you get your confidence. Since you’re so sure, let’s tally the scores again."

"According to the rules, Great Xia was first last year, so you still get to reveal your results first."

"Come on. I’d like to see just how many Crystal Cores this Gu Yuexi of yours managed to bring out!"

As his voice fell, all eyes focused on Gu Yuexi.

She was the last hope of the "entire village."

Permanent control of the Ancient Sunken Star Secret Realm was at stake, as was the honor of Great Xia.

At this moment, everyone’s nerves began to tense up again.

Although most people felt the chances were slim with Gu Yuexi alone...

...it was precisely because that last person was Gu Yuexi, the Future Empress, that they couldn’t help but cling to that faint, final hope.

Under everyone’s watchful gaze,

Gu Yuexi calmly deactivated her Empress Battle Armor. She then took a step forward and, without any unnecessary words, began to take out the Star Source Crystal Cores from her Storage Ring.

One, two, three...

With every one Gu Yuexi produced, the Great Xia contestants counted silently in their minds...

Seven, eight, nine...

When the count reached eight, faint smiles began to appear on their faces.

Fifteen, sixteen...

When Gu Yuexi produced the sixteenth, everyone present was utterly shocked.

Based on the results from the past few years of the Three Kingdoms Grand Competition, the total score for a country’s entire twenty-person team was usually only around a dozen or so.

And yet Gu Yuexi, all by herself, had collected so many?

But she wasn’t finished.

With a calm expression, Gu Yuexi continued to pull out Star Source Crystal Cores one by one.

Twenty-two, twenty-three...

By this point, the Great Xia contestants were no longer counting silently. They were now counting aloud in unison with Gu Yuexi’s movements, their voices thick with unconcealable excitement.

’We’ve won! We’ve already won!’

In the past three years—no, in the entire history of the Three Kingdoms Grand Competition—the best score any of the Three Kingdoms had ever achieved was only twenty.

And now, Gu Yuexi’s count had already reached twenty-three, and she still wasn’t done.

This was basically a declaration of victory!

"Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!"

Amid the excited shouts of the Great Xia contestants, Gu Yuexi finally pulled out the last Star Source Crystal Core.

A full thirty of them!

That was a full 50% more than the previous all-time record!

Even if the Philippines or Yue Country had foreign aid from the Island Country, Goryeo Kingdom, or White Eagle Empire, and their scores were higher than in previous years...

...they would absolutely not exceed thirty!

In that moment, the Great Xia contestants erupted completely.

After being suppressed for so long, they could finally stand tall and hold their heads high!

"Heh, I’d like to see who dares to say Great Xia’s score is zero now! Who dares to say we should be eliminated early."

"Yeah! Let’s see if those monkeys from the Philippines and Yue Country are still screeching now! They hired some crappy foreign aid and really thought they were hot shit. What a joke!"

"Gu Yuexi is a beast! She said one person could take first place, and she actually did it! So awesome!"

"For real. Worthy of the Future Empress. But it looks like we’re all just freeloaders who got carried, sigh. We didn’t bring a single Crystal Core out of the Secret Realm."

"So what if we’re freeloaders? I’m happy to be carried! Who told our Empress Gu to be so damn amazing?!"

「In an instant.」

The tables had turned.

It was now Great Xia’s turn to celebrate, while the people from the Philippines and Yue Country camps fell silent.

Hu’an and Ruan Jin’s faces were grim. They exchanged a look, a subtle, imperceptible meaning flashing in their eyes.

「Just then.」

Having held back for so long, Ye Qingzhou began his counterattack.

"Heh, Hu’an, Ruan Jin. It’s your turn to show your results."

"However, if you know you can’t compete and don’t want to waste any more time, you can just take your teams and go home."

"Just remember, from now on, you are forbidden from ever setting foot on Sunken Star Island again!"

As he finished, Ye Qingzhou let out a cold snort, the force of it actually pushing Hu’an and Ruan Jin back several steps.

Hu’an also snorted coldly.

"City Lord Ye, don’t celebrate too early."

"We won’t know who’s won or lost until all the scores are tallied."

Last year’s second place had been the Philippines, so it was their turn to count their Star Source Crystal Cores.

A representative from the Philippines Team stepped forward and began to take Star Source Crystal Cores from his Storage Ring.

One, two... eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one.

That was it.

Among the foreign aid on the Philippines Team was someone with an exceptionally strong Perception Ability, so their score had also broken the previous all-time record!

But it was still nowhere near Gu Yuexi’s score by herself!

Seeing the representative from the Philippines unable to produce another Crystal Core, the Great Xia side erupted into cheers once again.

However, Gu Yuexi’s gaze was fixed on the man, and a flicker of unease crossed her calm face.

She had thought of a possibility.

A way they could still lose!