Just as the few people below the stage were talking, the battle on the platform underwent a world-shaking change. After trading punches with Pei Yan, the one whose body was sent flying back and brushed past him wasn’t Nero, but his two companions, Ivan and Di Xin, who split left and right to pincer Pei Yan.
Nero, who had steadied himself, stepped on the void and, with a late start yet an early arrival, folded his body midair and in an instant caught up to the other two, joining them in a siege on Pei Yan. Seeing this, Pei Yan remained calm and unhurried, bent his waist, and slamd a punch down onto the ground.
The three who were still charging forward imdiately felt the massive energy erupting from the arena beneath their feet and had no choice but to forcibly halt their advance. In the next instant, the arena that had been expanding suddenly shattered. All of the arena’s planks were shaken into the air by the violent tremor of the earth. At the sa ti, one stone pillar after another, bristling with spikes, burst from the ground and shot straight toward the three who were retreating.
The shockwave of the arena’s tremors spread beyond the venue for the first ti. Most of the spectators on site were people of high cultivation and were not overly flustered by this; they controlled the seats beneath them and floated backward to avoid the backlash. In contrast, the Investigation Bureau had brought too many non-combat personnel this ti to watch the battle, and for a mont they were thrown about in a complete ss. Fortunately, Wang Wenze and the others reacted quickly, hurriedly shielding Engineer Li and the others and escorting them back.
After retreating to the safe zone and seeing the originally empty arena now sprouting countless pillars out of thin air, Wang Wenze, while helping Engineer Li and the others raise their seats to get a better view of the match, sighed, "This should be Pei Yan’s resonance ability, right? I knew he had this ability—before the match he could only shatter people’s defenses, and I’ve seen him shatter earth and mountains and such. But since when could he, while triggering tremors, also activate such orderly stone pillars?"
"Huff! Huff!" Still a little excited after the series of changes just now, Engineer Li panted as he exclaid, "This is one of the results of the modification: earth-elent Arrays from the Magic Realm etched inside and outside Pei Yan’s body. While boosting Pei Yan’s defense, they also amplify and modify his own attacks. What you’re seeing now is only the tip of the modified iceberg." As he spoke, Engineer Li looked toward the other side of the arena and sighed, "Azote must be feeling very smug and proud seeing this scene right now."
Putting aside Azote, who, just as Engineer Li said, was currently bragging about this modification thod to his colleagues on the left and right, on the arena, amidst the sheer walls of stone, three attacks were launched in unison. Another string of attacks and violent explosions rang out as shattered rocks constantly exploded and kicked up a cloud of dust that surged all the way toward Pei Yan’s position.
Standing atop a stone pillar, Pei Yan didn’t even look in the direction of the rising dust. Instead, he turned his head toward the relatively quiet side of the stadium. While observing the changes on the battlefield, his right hand didn’t stop; his wrist swayed slightly back and forth, yet no tangible attack could be seen being released.
"Here they co?" As the dust cloud from the distant, earth-shaking explosions drew closer and was about to blow apart the stone pillar in front of Pei Yan, two figures suddenly shot out with a whoosh from two silent stone-pillar entrances he’d been staring at.
The explosions in the distance were nothing but a charming smokescreen; the real offensive was hidden in the dark. Pei Yan completely ignored the assailant coming from the left. Fixing his gaze only on the right, he snapped the silk threads off his fingertips, then raised both arms—one hand unleashing an electromagnetic cannon, the other firing a compressed Source Qi Bomb.
In the blink of an eye, dozens of electromagnetic cannons and Source Qi Bombs swept across the battlefield like a machine gun barrage. Let alone Nero, who bore the brunt of the attack and imdiately started cursing in his heart, even Wang Wenze and the others, who knew Pei Yan very well, were clicking their tongues at such a high-frequency bombardnt. A fourth-tier awakening trump card that others treated as their ultimate move was now being used by Pei Yan like a basic auto-attack.
Nero could tank this kind of attack, but there was no need to. With a twist of his body and a few bounding leaps, he dodged this round of sweeping fire. Seeing this, identical looks of mockery appeared on the faces of Pei Yan on the platform and Ye Ruozai and the others below it.
"Hehehe, I get what Pei Yan is up to now!" Ye Ruozai folded his arms and chuckled.
"Ah, I see it now too." The slow-on-the-uptake Wang Wenze finally caught on at this mont and smiled.
"What? What’s he up to? What are you talking about?" Engineer Li, who had been full of confidence in Pei Yan just monts ago, was now completely lost after hearing the two of them.
"Engineer Li, watch the arena—you’ll understand in a second!" Jiang Feiyang, not caring about being rude, pressed down on Engineer Li’s head as he was about to turn to ask questions, forcing him to keep his eyes on the field as he explained.
At the instant Nero was temporarily forced back, Ivan, having encountered no obstruction, successfully rushed up to Pei Yan. However, the attack he launched failed to inflict any real damage. Pei Yan still turned a blind eye to him. With a leap, he jumped down from the top of the stone pillar toward the ground.
Seeing things were going south, Ivan wanted to give chase, but he sensed a vicious wind at his back. In his urgency, he had no choice but to suspend his attack and turn to et the incoming strike. In the gap as one retreated and the other moved, the ground at Pei Yan’s feet suddenly split open and Di Xin burst forth from underneath. Unfortunately, the three-pronged pincer attack in their original plan had turned into a solo charge.
Not only that, but the mont he showed his head—before he could even shout—he felt as if countless blades were slicing across his body. With a miserable scream, his just-risen body fell back down to the ground again. Only then did he realize that his entire body was enveloped in a giant Source Qi net so fine it was invisible to the naked eye.
After several matches in which he’d suffered the most humiliations and setbacks, Di Xin’s heart had long been filled with poisonous resentnt. The pain of his wounds didn’t make him flinch; it instead stoked his ferocity. With a furious roar, Source Qi erupted from his body, and the Source Qi net around him was shattered to dust in an instant. Freed from his restraints, he leapt up, but he had only jumped halfway when he ran straight into Pei Yan, who was descending from above. A pair of iron palms slamd firmly onto his chest, and with a dull thud as they hit the ground, Pei Yan drove him back into the earth.
"You little bastard, rember what I said? I’ll take back every bit of the vengeance for my teammates, and the thing on you that never should’ve been yours in the first place—I’ll reclaim that too. Today, it’s ti to keep my promise and make you pay up!" Straddling Di Xin, Pei Yan spoke murderously.
Seeing this, Ye Ruozai, outside the arena, opened his mouth to explain, "Just like Nero said in the earlier match, there’s only competition between these people, no sense of camaraderie. They chose to cooperate purely for their own and their organization’s interests. Everyone saw the battle just now. With Nero’s physical attributes, tanking a few rounds of that attack wouldn’t have caused him much harm at all. He was completely capable of taking the hits and continuing to attack. But, used to acting alone, he didn’t do that. Which really screws over his teammates who kept pushing their offensive—the carefully synchronized joint assault they’d planned turned into a joke because of him."
"Exactly. If it were any one of our squad in the sa situation, none of us would choose to back down. We’d step up and shoulder it." As Wang Wenze spoke, his face was full of pride.
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