GAMMT - Chapter 81
Chapter 81: The Oriole
People were accustomed to predicting the outcome of a battle by comprehensively evaluating both sides based on their level, aptitude, arcane proficiency, and other factors. Perhaps, in addition to gossip, gambling was also part of human nature. Everyone always trusted their own judgment.
However, while it was common for the strong to defeat the weak in real life-or-death combat, it wasn't unheard of for the weak to overcome the strong.
The key lay in timing and opportunity.
In the first three seconds, as the summoner duo celebrated the glory of their first-second kill and extended an invitation regarding a watermelon in the second and third, only one person was ready.
A duo. Assassinate one, and the other is useless.
They weren't invincible.
Their weakness was glaringly obvious, but the opportunity had only lasted for those brief two seconds. Had she chosen the wrong moment, she would have failed.
Fortunately, her gamble paid off.
Now, she was the only one who could pick up the backpacks dropped by Yun Baobao and Zhang Doudou.
They were right in front of her.
The reason Yun Baobao had let her guard down was not just the success of securing the kill, but also her confidence in Zhang Doudou. She had the number one battle maniac here on her side; no one else could compare. Fu Chuan and the others had to admit that, based on their respective peak combat strengths at that moment, Zhang Doudou alone could take on her, Li Cang, and Xie Yiyuan combined.
If they failed to coordinate, he would have picked them off one by one.
And the first one he would have killed would undoubtedly have been Fu Chuan. Even with her turtle shell gene talent, she couldn't withstand his attacks; her defense was the weakest of the three.
When a person has overly strong protection, they themselves grow correspondingly weaker.
This referred to a laxity of mind, a loss of reason, and also the treasure dropped by the just-defeated Ape Demon BOSS.
She had been in a hurry to grab it.
She got it and successfully placed it in her backpack. But it was precisely because of this success, this moment of joy, that she died.
But the items had to be collected.
Items dropped by criminals had temporary ownership rights, but those from fellow candidates were first-come, first-served. Fu Chuan bent down directly to pick up the backpack...
She could have clearly used her light streams to reel in the backpack, so why bend over herself?
Of course, this cunning schemer was setting a trap, waiting for anyone who wanted to snatch the backpack to launch a sneak attack.
But no one moved.
Neither Li Cang nor Wei Mingtang made a move, and naturally, no one else did either.
They didn't move, but someone else did.
The light streams of the birdcage suddenly shot madly toward one person. As they flew, Fu Chuan's prepared sequence of skills and Arcane Truths—Light Glory, Explosion, and more—followed suit.
The target, after all, possessed a powerful dark insight technique and sensed it instantly. Her expression changed. The current Fu Chuan was no longer beneath the top three contenders; she was firmly among them, the one with the strongest survivability, or at least the best combat record. Wei Mingtang had no desire to clash head-on with Fu Chuan. She chose to wrap herself in black mist, which, like a cloak, pulled her body into the darkness of space, allowing her to go into stealth.
The other side of space was a turbulent flow of darkness. In a sense, dark arcane arts were related to space arcane arts. This move from Wei Mingtang clearly showed she could indirectly escape through space.
As she dodged, Fu Chuan's light streams pursued her relentlessly. Seeing her dare to take the initiative, Yue Mingze knew she was retaliating for their previous encounter. He gritted his teeth and quickly entered a stealth state, intending to counter-track and assassinate Fu Chuan.
Seeing this, Xie Yiyuan shouted, "Xie Keli, do you have any team awareness at all? If you kill us all now, what happens next?!"
Fu Chuan feigned a stunned look. "Next? What next? After I kill you all, I'll be number one!"
She was arrogant and domineering, her attacks ruthless, looking as if she intended to annihilate everyone to monopolize the points. This enraged the crowd, but wary of protecting themselves and fearful of Fu Chuan's group-attack birdcage and light streams, they could only grit their teeth and retreat, afraid of getting caught in the crossfire if they got too close to Wei Mingtang.
"A bunch of idiots! Only by working with me can Wei Mingtang track Xie Keli! If she dies, I won't be able to see where he's hiding, and you'll all just be picked off by Xie Keli's assassinations!"
Xie Yiyuan hit the nail on the head, pointing out the most crucial point, which finally jolted everyone to their senses. They then focused their attention on Fu Chuan, attacking her collectively.
Swoosh. Fu Chuan decisively went invisible and entered stealth.
By this time, Wei Mingtang and Xie Yiyuan had already joined forces to track her. They quickly found her and placed an arcane brand on her, guiding everyone's attacks in her direction...
Suddenly, they heard a loud bang, followed by the ground shaking and cracking. In an instant, without giving them any time to react, it collapsed completely.
An immense, bloody aura blasted through the floor between the second and third levels.
After they fell, they realized the sound they had heard earlier came from a large group of criminals who had taken the opportunity to escape during Fu Chuan's infighting after the Ape Demon BOSS was killed. They had run into a scattered group of fourth and fifth-tier candidates who were cautiously farming points from smaller mobs.
These were candidates from various tiers, struggling to survive across the seven floors. Compared to fighting against top contenders like Hong Yan and the first-tier experts, they preferred to hunt in the wild, playing it safe to at least retain some points and items.
So, this group of people was quite cautious.
Among them were Lin Hangjing, Liu Yun, and others. They wouldn't have dared to venture to the first or second floors, which were teeming with experts. But on the third floor, they suddenly collided with a group of criminals who looked like they had seen a ghost coming down from above.
What was happening?!
Why had they run down here? Could Xie Yiyuan and his group be so formidable that they had already defeated the sixth-floor BOSS, scaring all these criminals away?
If these criminals, without the support of the Ape Demon BOSS, were a disorganized mob before Fu Chuan and her group, then to Lin Hangjing's group of thirty or forty people, they were ants.
More than a dozen were killed in the first encounter.
Just as they thought they were about to die, the situation changed. The ground trembled, and the floor below the fourth level shattered. A towering wave of blood-red energy surged upwards. As Fu Chuan and the others fell through the collapsing floor, Shen Qixi's group experienced something similar.
It was as if the entire prison was collapsing.
As it caved downwards, the building materials seemed to be sucked into a bottomless pit, rumbling and continuously breaking apart below.
They were falling, but something was rising.
"What is that?!"
A sea of red.
Amidst the roaring and shaking, everyone was forced by gravity into the soaring pillar of bloody energy.
The bloody aura was thick and viscous, making them feel as if they had plunged into an ocean. And just as they entered...
Instantly, everyone was notified that they had been poisoned.
Including Fu Chuan.
Hidden within the pillar of blood were strange, small curse talismans that entered everyone's bodies, meaning the curse had already taken effect. This was one of the signature techniques of a blood Arcanist.
[Ding! You have been afflicted with the Blood Devouring state. You will lose blood every second... Depending on your constitution, continuous blood loss will severely impair your combat effectiveness until you face death.]
Whoosh!
Anyone above level 30 immediately spread their wings, attempting to fly out of the collapsing prison pit. But a coquettish voice, as if from hell, echoed in their ears.
Yes, coquettish.
The voice was androgynous, yet slightly playful.
"Little friends, since you're already here, won't you let me kiss your necks?"
It was like the sound of a cello reverberating through a winding, enclosed corridor... Everyone tried to fly up, but they felt a massive suction force pulling at their feet.
It wasn't just a feeling; it was real.
Looking down, they saw that the continuously falling stone slabs at the bottom were being manipulated with ease... constantly shifting to the sides. As they moved, a scene below was revealed. Amidst the ruins of a lavatory, a handsome and delicate young man sat on a toilet, exuding a mysterious and terrifying bloody aura. His skin was deathly pale. In a rather undignified posture, he forcefully tore off the chains around his neck and body. Then, with his freed left hand raised, he flicked his fingers, manipulating the stone slabs.
He was controlling... gravity?
And with such effortless control?
"It's a Composite Arcane Truth Field!"
If the skills and Arcane Truths Fu Chuan and the others were currently learning were direct—like attacks or elemental support, singular and specific, at most forming combo skills for stacked damage—then a gravity Arcane Truth was different. It was a composite, fused Arcane Truth that could only be mastered after thoroughly comprehending at least seven other Arcane Truths, such as Earth, Light Earth, Heavy Earth, Vital Body Control, and Material Body Control. It didn't require the individual application of those preceding Arcane Truths; one could directly cast the fully formed gravity Arcane Truth. It was highly sustainable and consumed far less mental power than stacking the individual Arcane Truths.
And the gravity Arcane Truth was hailed as one of the seven great and powerful energy field Arcane Truths.
Magnetic Field, Gravity Field, Slaughter Field, Illusion Field, Healing Field, Cultivation Field, and Defense Field.
Because he controlled a Composite Arcane Truth Field, Fu Chuan and all the others were being sucked down.
As they fell, the young man squatting on the toilet licked his upper palate, revealing the gums beneath his lips.
They were bloody and pale, and his teeth had sharpened on their own. His eyes turned blood-red. The next second, a massive wave of blood energy erupted from behind him. With a great whoosh, a pair of blood-red bat wings unfurled, allowing him to take flight instantly as a silent, empty cry issued from his throat.
Just for a moment.
A terrifying sonic attack. If they were hit by this and entered a stunned state from the sonic shock, they would probably be...
Suddenly.
Interrupt!
Yes, the Interrupt skill.
Fu Chuan, relying on her almost freakishly precise judgment, interrupted the skill. Her agility had already shot past 300,000 due to the fusion, making such an interruption even more effective. Perhaps she had known the moment the young man began to emit the sonic shock; otherwise, it would have been impossible to time it to that exact second, cutting off his bat-like sonic attack.
Something was wrong!
The young man's eyes flashed, as if he realized something. Had this little girl already... His reaction was swift. He instantly transformed into a dense swarm of red bat-like shadows. Each bat was a small avatar of him, and anything entering his range would be devoured alive, like an elephant being consumed by army ants.
His attack was swift, faster than even Zhang Doudou at his peak fusion state.
Fu Chuan had no time to dodge, but in the next second, the young man's expression changed drastically. Something was growing wildly inside his blood.
He was terrified. With such a major internal problem, how could he continue his attack?
There was something wrong with the blood.
In the one or two seconds he was constrained, turning his attention to the blood that had been delivered through the formation on the wall and had now entered his body, his ears suddenly twitched.
He saw it.
In the first second, Big Red activated its energy field. Within the master-pet energy field, Fu Chuan and Little Yellow had already transferred all their mental power and arcane summoning energy to Big Red.
Skill 3: Energy Field!
Skill 4: Exploding Little Bird! Detonate on the spot!
Who was the target?
A certain person among the crowd of candidates.
That person's face changed slightly. He turned and unleashed a powerful elemental aura, spreading his wings. Defense, speed, space, formations... all sorts of measures were being prepared to be unleashed.
But it was too late.
Because Big Red didn't fly from Fu Chuan's side to attack. It was already hiding right next to him, protected by the invisible tendrils Fu Chuan had released as she fell.
During the fall, the chaos was immense, and the air was thick with the smell of blood. As everyone was being poisoned, no one noticed that Fu Chuan had already commanded Big Red to go invisible and hide, following just one person.
This person was cooperating with Xie Yiyuan, which meant he himself lacked insight abilities like pupil techniques. This wasn't surprising; the two were complementing each other's functions to pull off something big.
Since he lacked this ability, he naturally couldn't discover Big Red hiding right beside him.
From the very beginning, Fu Chuan had locked onto her target.
BOOM!!!!
Big Red, having drained Fu Chuan's accumulated mental power and energy, plus its own, self-destructed. The power of this on-the-spot explosion was close to 70% of Zhang Doudou's destructive force.
It ranked as the second most powerful attack at present.
With such a terrifyingly powerful attack exploding right behind your head, could you possibly defend against it?
This person never expected... In an instant.
BOOM!
He was sent flying by the blast.
It was like having a cannon his own size strapped to his back.
The explosion was a spectacle of fire and flames, with a massive shockwave that swept across a large area of the pit, even pulverizing numerous stones.
Big Red, meanwhile, reverted to a pet egg and returned to the pet space.
The blasted man's flesh and blood splattered in mid-air, most of his body disintegrated. But all his defensive power had been concentrated on the back of his head, barely protecting it from being instantly vaporized. In that moment of extreme pain, on the verge of fainting, his control was still freakishly strong. Even as he was being blown apart, he managed to instantly cast a white light healing spell. He had a healing Arcane Truth!
It was the Divine Light Restoration!
Just as the Divine Light Restoration was about to take effect and heal his injuries...
In mid-air, separated from his arms and legs, he saw Xie Keli in the distance manipulating a beam of light... and he also saw another terrifying explosion.
It turned out that the moment Fu Chuan made her move, someone else had acted as well.
Xie Yiyuan had locked onto Fu Chuan's back and was about to launch a powerful sneak attack, but... someone had sneak-attacked him first.
Wei Mingtang.
She was already not far from Xie Yiyuan's side due to their cooperation. No one expected her to suddenly strike, and at Xie Yiyuan, no less.
They were on the same level to begin with. If a dark Arcanist were to launch a sneak attack, it would be the very definition of stealth and mystery.
Pet, 1st Sequence, everything—she unleashed it all.
She held nothing back. The blow struck Xie Yiyuan squarely in the back.
Caught off guard, he was still wearing armor, though it shattered instantly.
Pfft!
Xie Yiyuan spat out a large mouthful of blood... but he quickly entered the blood-burning state of his Green Bloodline to withstand his collapsing body from the severe injury. A massive amount of elements swept in from the surroundings. He turned to look at Wei Mingtang, and a terrifying blue ray of light shot out from his pupils...
BOOM!!
Wei Mingtang couldn't dodge in time, and her shoulder was pierced through, but!
A shadow appeared behind Xie Yiyuan.
The dark arcane art, Shadow Tether.
The shadow flickered into existence, holding a pitch-black dagger dripping with corrosive liquid, and swiftly slit Xie Yiyuan's throat from behind.
Slash. It was smooth and sharp.
Xie Yiyuan clutched his neck, frantically summoning light and water-based healing arcane arts. However, he found that the wound on his throat was corroded. This dark corrosive poison was not something that ordinary healing spells could repair.
Unless it was a high-end skill like Luminous Body.
He opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to make a sound... but his gaze fell upon his companion, whose flesh and blood were being pulverized in the sky.
Their eyes met.
The latter shouted, "Wei Ran! This is a trap, make your move!!"
Wei Ran saw the beam of light controlled by Fu Chuan's fingertips. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly teleported in front of her.
In that instant, Fu Chuan's right index finger was still pointing at the person falling from the sky. If time were frozen or slowed down, one could see that her left hand was also moving.
"Thousand-Net Star-Sucking, activate!"
Whoosh. Her left hand controlled the Thousand-Net Star-Sucking Vine, which began to grow wildly, absorbing the blood energy from within Wei Ran's body.
Wei Ran, who had just rushed in front of Fu Chuan, never expected such a... backlash!
Not good!
He saw a red substance growing out of his own body.
"Pervert! They actually put that dead pervert Wei Ran in this exam! He's a level 49 evil Arcanist, with an elite LV combat power that's already reached the level 50 threshold! It would take Hong Yan and a whole group of them to beat him."
"What is that? A vine?"
"It looks like the Thousand-Net... He actually mastered the Thousand-Net Star-Sucking Vine! Is it a gene or a plant pet? But did he put the vine into the blood? How did the blood-eater Wei Ran not notice?! Impossible!"
"If it had been hiding in his own blood, he might have noticed instantly. But now, it was likely hidden in the complex, mixed blood of these candidates. Xie Keli probably discovered the secret of the blood exchange and preemptively placed the Thousand-Net Star-Sucking Vine into the trace amounts of blood or the blood-filled air being channeled and transported by the formation on the wall. Because that blood was already a mixture from many candidates with mixed genes, Wei Ran couldn't have detected it. This also implies that the Thousand-Net Star-Sucking Vine must be a gene-type substance, which proves it's likely Xie Keli's gene talent."
The counter-proof hypothesis was 100% correct.
And that was the truth. At that time, Fu Chuan had indeed considered not alerting the enemy and had come up with another method.
If this was an exam, then this was undoubtedly a bonus question.
To do it, or not to do it?
If she didn't, her current points might not give her an advantage. If she did, she might not get it right and could lose her assets in the process.
She, of course, chose the former.
Because she had already made a name for herself and had infringed upon the interests of those Orange Blood families.
When you take one step forward and reach the position of the crown prince, if you cannot advance further, you will die.
Fu Chuan knew she had no choice, so she could only choose to act.
This led to the subsequent arrangements, and then the screening of her companions' identities...
The people outside still couldn't understand what was happening, but the battle on the screen had already reached its peak.
As Xie Yiyuan's body faded away, his eyes still held a trace of unwillingness.
The cooperation was negotiated, the BOSS was successfully released, and he was just one step away, just one step, yet he was assassinated by a sneak attack!
Damn it!
The last thing Xie Yiyuan saw was Wei Ran, with vines growing out of his body, choosing not to release the gene blood tainted by the Thousand-Net Star-Sucking Vine. Instead, he endured the backlash and, while his energy was still present, unleashed a wave of the gravity field directly at Fu Chuan.
Blood Reversal + Gravity Tear.
His arcane level was already high, and his level was superior. Normally, Fu Chuan would have had no chance of winning. But after the backlash, it was a different story. His strength was reduced by at least half, and it would rapidly dwindle to 30% over time.
But his arcane art against Fu Chuan... she felt the pain of her blood flowing in reverse and her flesh and bones being torn apart. Then, she was violently pulled by a tremendous force...
Fu Chuan was completely unable to resist. After being forcefully dragged down, bang! Fu Chuan half-knelt on the ground, which shattered beneath her. Blood gushed from her kneecaps, but the gravity from below was still intensifying. It seemed she couldn't even move... Damn it, so strong!
Wei Ran transformed into a swarm of blood bats and completely surrounded her. But just as she was about to be eaten alive, Xie Yiyuan's companion, who had finally escaped death, landed and was about to consume a potion and use a healing spell.
Suddenly.
...The gravity field abruptly weakened.
Both Wei Ran and the other man were stunned, frowning slightly. They suddenly felt the elemental energy in the entire space disappear.
With the elements gone, all energy fields naturally weakened.
"Damn it, it's that move!" Hong Yan couldn't help but jump up and shout, followed by a string of curses.
The elements were frantically drilling into the ground.
They were being absorbed.
But they saw the person half-kneeling on the ground raise her blood-soaked left hand.
Her hand was raised upwards, but it was aimed at the prison ceiling above.
On the highest ceiling, a dense network of Thousand-Net Star-Sucking Vines appeared.
And the vines, like brilliant fireworks on a summer night, descended as a cascade of crimson, fiery light... converging into the palm of her left hand.
At this moment, many people suddenly realized that if she could preemptively place the Thousand-Net Star-Sucking Vine into the blood Wei Ran absorbed, and also deploy it in the surroundings during the recent fierce battle to create an elemental vacuum at any moment, she would naturally have placed them in the area with the highest energy concentration beforehand.
"Wei Ran, is it? You needed blood, so I helped you out and gathered a wave of energy in the process. But I need something else more."
"And you have to give it to me."
So, when Xie Yiyuan had stirred up trouble and gathered everyone on the first floor for a chaotic battle, causing them all to summon vast amounts of elements... what he wanted was the blood generated from the brawl.
And Fu Chuan had taken the opportunity to absorb that immense elemental energy.
And then.
A crude Arcane Truth diagram appeared in her palm.
How crude was it? Just a circle with a dot in the middle.
It was no wonder it was so crude; she had only been exposed to Arcane Truths for a very, very short time. For the sake of killing, she could only comprehend the simplest, most garbage-tier Arcane Truth diagram at the fastest possible speed.
A circle was the simplest shape, and that dot was...
Buzz!
A straight beam of light shot out instantly.
Swoosh!
In a flash, it pierced through the heart of the already severely wounded Wei Ran.
"Your life."
Then it looped around, heading for the other person who had frantically healed half his injuries and was turning to flee.
"And you, Que Baimo."
One line, a double kill!
Que Baimo desperately wanted to know where he had slipped up, how this person had identified him in advance. Even if she had foreseen their cooperation with Wei Ran and made preparations, Wei Ran and Xie Yiyuan were logical connections—the former was the final link in this exam, and Xie Yiyuan had been setting the pace on the first floor. But how could she have discovered him, the most hidden piece of the puzzle?
He had orchestrated this plan and considered himself quite clever. To be sniped like this, he couldn't accept it!
Unfortunately, Fu Chuan had no time for mid-battle chats to explain the details. The main reason was that there was simply no time.
She was indeed wary of them and just wanted to kill them as soon as possible to end it once and for all.
But just as Fu Chuan achieved her terrifying double-kill record... she heard a subtle movement behind her.
She dodged abruptly, but a beam of light still pierced through her abdomen.
In her line of sight, Wei Mingtang's body had also been impaled by a sword of light. She frowned. The man standing behind her used his other hand to cast his 1st Sequence at her.
It was a cross.
The light emanating from the center of the cross was a special Arcane Truth from the light system that was extremely difficult to resist: "Penance."
Penance was already a semi-composite Arcane Truth. By fusing it with two other primary Arcane Truths, it could form a light-based Slaughter Arcane Truth Field.
More importantly, his energy was too strong.
Why was it so strong? Was he level 40 or 50?
No, he was only level 35.
He was so strong simply because behind this person... were four light element spirits, fully charged with light-based elements.
Four of them!
This was why his team was composed entirely of light Arcanists.
As Wei Mingtang was eliminated from the competition, Li Cang gave Fu Chuan a slight, refined, and polite smile. "I'm very sorry, Brother Xie Keli. I don't have any watermelon."
"But I can treat you to a funeral."
This scene shocked everyone. Shen Qixi and the others were still embroiled in a chaotic battle with the criminals, completely unable to participate in the slaughter among these top-tier experts. When they heard the commotion and saw this scene, their pupils trembled.
Was this the game of the strong?
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. Fu Chuan was that oriole, but the true hunter had been waiting all along.
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