Chapter 176

No one expected that the moment Yan Xiangbei activated his high-grade magic treasure, Lin Jing would decisively choose to self-destruct the mecha, opting not to continue hard-clashing with him.

On the arena, white flames drifted and scattered in a mess. Yan Xiangbei stood on the stage, covered in blood, looking miserable, his energy exhausted.

Activating a high-grade magic treasure required him to go all out. Who would have thought that after activating it, it wouldn't be used for offense, but for defense.

He looked at the giant mecha that had completely vanished, blown to pieces without even a speck of dust left, and couldn't help but reveal a smile. It was just that this smile was at himself—laughing at himself for actually losing to a beast tamer, and this beast tamer... had defeated him using a mechanical construct.

No... that wasn't it. The spatial movement of the opponent's pet was the key to defeating him!

But so what? He had still lost.

"You win." Standing on the arena, Yan Xiangbei retracted the Nirvana Treasure Lamp. Looking at Lin Jing, who was slowly descending, he lost consciousness, but before he did, he looked toward the spectator stands.

The personnel from the Refining Immortal Valley who had come with him were all in disbelief, unable to accept the result.

As the strongest genius of the ancient kingdom's top artifact-refining sect, he had actually lost to a disciple of a third-rate sect that had been sealed!

Before this, they wouldn't have even dared to imagine such a thing.

"I concede." Lin Jing looked at his opponent. Before he could even mourn the Mosquito-Powered Mecha, Tian Huihua's voice rang out: "Winner of the third group, Lin Jing!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the audience, who hadn't yet reacted, erupted into an uproar. At this moment, the intense sound of the explosion still rang in their ears, and the blinding light still filled their eyes!

"He really won?"

"It's over? The third-ranked genius lost?"

"Does this count as an upset?!"

"Terrifying. This Lin Jing calculated it perfectly. As long as Yan Xiangbei activated his high-grade magic treasure, he would inevitably have no energy left to use the magic treasure that restricted spatial arts. At that moment, he just had to abandon that mechanical construct and use its final moments to drain Yan Xiangbei's magic power, and victory was within his grasp!"

"This Lin Jing is so decisive. If it were me, I would definitely have wanted to clash with the high-grade magic treasure using such a powerful mechanical construct. But he... gave it up without a second thought."

"But he won, and everything was worth it. After this battle, without any accidents, he will definitely be able to rank in the top five, or even the top three of the Heaven's Pride List!"

The cultivators fell silent, as if they were about to see a new supreme genius rise. What was most terrifying was that Lin Jing, standing on the arena, had almost no injuries on his body!

Right now, many of the geniuses were actually quite happy with this result.

The third-ranked genius who possessed a high-grade magic treasure had been eliminated by Lin Jing, unable to advance to the third round. And Lin Jing, in order to counter Yan Xiangbei, had destroyed his powerful mecha, leaving his combat strength greatly diminished.

Most people believed that Lin Jing couldn't possibly have two such powerful mechanical constructs.

Even if Lin Jing could rebuild it in the future, most people believed it definitely couldn't be done in a short time. Rebuilding it would surely consume immense mental effort, and the mechanical materials must be extremely rare and in short supply.

Therefore, they could probably set their minds at ease.

After defeating Yan Xiangbei, Lin Jing would inevitably become famous throughout the ancient kingdom. Next, if they could defeat Lin Jing, who had lost his powerful trump card, it would be a huge temptation for some geniuses.

After becoming the winner of the third arena, Lin Jing returned to his seat to rest and recuperate. Although he hadn't done much throughout the whole process—it was the Ice Soul Gu that resisted the charm magic treasure, and the Pine Needle Rat that controlled the mecha and helped him dodge the explosion—Lin Jing still felt he had worked hard.

"You..." The Long Gong members looked at Lin Jing in silence.

They really wanted to ask when the Long Gong would be renamed "Mecha Long Gong."

Next, the competition continued. The winner of the fourth group was the fourth-ranked genius, a genius from the Zhao family, an ancient cultivation family in the Ancient Domain. He was a graduate of the Academy, having entered at over ten years old and left at twenty-one to serve as a City Lord.

The Zhao family was the largest cultivation family in the ancient kingdom besides the ancient clans. Most family members entered the imperial court as officials, and their influence was immense.

As a possessor of the Innate Fountain Body, the fourth-ranked genius had an inexhaustible supply of magic power and recovered extremely quickly. This allowed him to practice most spells to perfection in his daily life, making him handle battles with ease without having to worry about magic power consumption.

The fifth group, like the third, was a direct upset. Although there was a fifth-ranked genius in the group, the winner was not him, but a hidden genius invited by the Heavenly Secret Tower. He was the descendant of a hidden loose cultivator at the peak of Soul Transformation, possessing the Innate Five Elements Body.

The Five Elements Body was comparable to a combination of the five major elemental spirit bodies and ranked on the Divine Body List, being incredibly powerful.

The sixth group was another upset. The winner was also not a genius who grew up in the ancient kingdom. He came from the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect and possessed the Innate Poison Body. He had followed his master to the Cloud Sea Mountain Range at the age of twelve to train and returned at twenty-seven. After fifteen years of bitter cultivation, he became famous as soon as he returned to the kingdom.

The seventh group had no upset. The seventh-ranked genius won, but the victory was extremely difficult. It was the hardest of the seven groups. He was also an early graduate of the Academy and was currently serving as a City Lord.

The eighth group had no upset. The winner was the Innate Heavenly God Body from the Long Gong, Wang Xiao. After reaching the peak of Foundation Establishment and having the King-Blood War Tiger to assist him, he became the second person from the Long Gong to enter the third round. The audience wasn't surprised that he won; after all, he was also an Innate Divine Body. In this battle, Wang Xiao didn't fight too hard, but his War Tiger fought hard, blocking spells for him the entire time and ending up covered in wounds, which made the audience fall silent and see once again the benefits of having a pet.

Of the eight final winners, four had attended the Profound Heaven Academy, which showed the influence of the Profound Heaven Academy.

"The third round will adopt a challenge mode. The Heavenly Secret Tower will randomly select one person to serve as the 'Arena Master' to welcome challenges from other geniuses. The loser is eliminated, and the winner inherits the spot until no one challenges them. The Arena Master will become the final winner of the Heaven's Pride Battle."

Tian Huihua announced that the third round of the Heaven's Pride Battle would also take place seven days later. Compared to the previous eight-person melee, this third round tested luck and strength even more.

If someone became the first Arena Master, they would be in big trouble, possibly having to accept challenges from seven people. In a wheel battle, even if their strength was originally the strongest, they might not be able to stand until the end.

But fortunately, the one who would receive the Star-Universe Turtle's blessing was not the winner of the Heaven's Pride Battle, but the first place on the Heaven's Pride List, which the Heavenly Secret Tower would update based on the performance of the geniuses during the battle.

"Seven days. I should be able to exchange all the spirit stones from auctioning the Dragon-Rising Pills for high-grade vegetation. Currently, the Pine Needle Rat's Azure Emperor Longevity Art is at a bottleneck. If I'm lucky enough, within seven days, its Azure Emperor Longevity Art might reach Great Completion!"

"After the Azure Emperor Longevity Art reaches Great Completion, the Pine Needle Rat will possess the plant-manipulation ability of a Golden Core-stage plant spirit. Combined with its Demon King True Form and spatial arts, the power it can display should surpass the Mosquito-Powered Mecha..."

Judging from the performance in the Heaven's Pride Battle so far, Lin Jing felt that the strongest one might still be that Innate Dao Body. He didn't know if relying solely on the Pine Needle Rat would work when dueling him...

"Lin Jing." After the second round ended, just as Lin Jing was about to return to prepare for battle, a group of people stopped him. It was the Divine Machine Shanzhuang group led by the second-ranked genius, Mo Qianyi.

Behind Mo Qianyi were a group of Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators, but Lin Jing didn't sense any hostility.

"Miss Mo, is something the matter?" He saw Mo Qianyi wearing plain cloth and felt it was strange to call her a fairy, so he addressed her as Miss.

He had perhaps already guessed their intentions.

"Saint Son Lin, the Divine Machine Shanzhuang wants the design blueprints for the mechanical construct you displayed just now. Of course, the Divine Machine Shanzhuang won't take your things for nothing. As long as it's something the Divine Machine Shanzhuang can provide, just name your requirements," Mo Qianyi said. "The Divine Machine Shanzhuang can exchange them for design blueprints of other mechanical constructs, or rare mechanical materials."

"You are a beast tamer, right? The Divine Machine Shanzhuang also has many powerful mechanical beasts... and even methods to make mechanical beasts gain intelligence and become mechanical lifeforms. I believe that although you displayed Buddhist arts and mechanical arts, you should... still be a beast tamer, right? Are you interested in contracting a mechanical beast with life? Can we talk about it?"

The mechanical cultivators of the Divine Machine Shanzhuang were interested in Lin Jing's Mosquito-Powered Mecha.

At the same time, on Shen Song's branch, Long Li suddenly sneezed.