Qingmo lost.

This fight had not managed to achieve a heaven-defying result.

Both piloting gold constructs, Wanmo’s piloting ability was a hundred times better than Yangping’s; and both gold constructs, Wanmo’s Flesh-and-Blood “man-eating ogre” was a hundred times mightier than Yangping’s gold sub-dragon “Thorn-Back.” The same combo, the same moves, that had worked on Yangping proved wholly useless against Wanmo. The Flesh-and-Blood Construct—able to attack, defend, self-enhance, and even self-heal—showed its strength to the world for the first time!

Had Ji Wuri not set the standard before him, people might even have reckoned Wanmo’s Flesh-and-Blood Construct the mightiest construct of the past decade.

Even the platinum construct Ranfeng had unveiled earlier seemed, by comparison, somewhat inferior.

Unlike Hauge’s grueling hours-long fight against Ranfeng, Qingmo—after half an hour of combat, upon finding it useless—suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, turned to the arbiter and conceded, abandoning the match.

Though he couldn’t defy the heavens, and lost the fight—

—it did no harm to Qingmo’s fame.

Indeed, through this very battle, the students grew all the more convinced of Qingmo’s superb strength.

Had it not been Qingmo—had it been some other opponent instead—that opponent would likely have been savaged by Wanmo into blissful agony from the very start…

“Why not fight? Silver can’t match gold, sure, but Qingmo still has two gold constructs! Not to go all-out with Wanmo in a fight to the death, just bowing out like this—it really lets that fellow off far too cheap!” Chimu huffed in displeasure. He knew Qingmo possessed at least two gold constructs—and with Yue Yang’s monstrous ability to casually “plant” constructs out of the earth, even if Qingmo wrecked both gold constructs, he could replenish twenty by tomorrow, with no fear at all of a war of attrition against Wanmo.

“That’s deliberately hiding his strength—what the hell do you know!” Hauge laughed heartily and reached over to smack Chimu on the head.

“It’s not that I don’t get it—I’m just unhappy about it!” Chimu couldn’t help huffing back a couple of retorts.

In a war of attrition against Wanmo, Qingmo truly had nothing to fear.

But displaying too much strength would easily rouse the wariness of Wanmo, Ranfeng, and even Ji Wuri behind them.

Had it not been with so many students watching, but rather a solo duel in secret somewhere, then given Qingmo’s temperament, it would be a wonder if he didn’t go all-out and play for keeps against Wanmo! For now, letting Wanmo be smug for a few days was no great matter, because Yue Yang needed time and materials to develop more constructs—and if that fellow Ji Wuri fixed his eye on them too early, there’d surely be some impact.

One Ji Wuri was headache enough; how much more so with an evil god eyeing them like a tiger besides.

Competing for rank was fine, but there was no need to display too exaggerated a strength.

What’s more, even if Qingmo fought and beat Wanmo, the next round would pit him against Yue Yang—so better to leave Wanmo for Yue Yang to deal with, indirectly raising Yue Yang’s prestige.

The bouts went on.

Ranfeng’s and Yue Yang’s opponents, feeling themselves powerless to defeat such formidable foes as Ranfeng and Yue Yang, both forfeited.

The two advanced straight to the next round.

The smug Jinji, too, easily beat his opponent and successfully advanced.

Ren Tiange and the Silver-Eyed Great Sage bowed out of their fights. But Phantom, Blood Shave, and Golden Bones were not so easygoing as Ren Tiange and the Sage; each used a silver wolf to beat his opponent half to a wreck, and only when the opponent, savaged to the point of weeping without tears, was about to surrender and concede did they suddenly announce their own withdrawal—leaving their opponents caught between grief and joy, at a total loss, and leaving the presiding instructors caught between laughter and tears. At any rate, a busy, bustling day passed; and because of Qingmo and Wanmo’s magnificent battle, the later bouts, however fiercely fought, couldn’t rouse the spectators’ spirits—including Jinji’s cool-guy showboating victories, which all seemed to pale into insignificance.

A minority held that if Qingmo had used a gold construct to fight Wanmo, whose the deer would fall to was still anyone’s guess.

But the students supporting Wanmo laughed them to scorn.

They held that whatever construct Qingmo used, he was foreordained to be unable to defy the heavens—because that gorgeous combo Qingmo prided himself on was utterly useless against Wanmo!

Though not everyone thought so, still—the victor is king and the loser bandit; since Wanmo had already won and Qingmo had conceded, admitting himself the lesser before all those watching eyes, there was thus no way to prove to everyone that he could truly defy the heavens.

However the truth stood, at the very least Qingmo had lost this fight.

A day passed.

The fiercer bouts still lay ahead, tomorrow.

After returning to the Grimoire World, Yue Yang at once sought out Princess Qianqian and the others to confer—not on account of Wanmo’s Flesh-and-Blood Constructs, but for another reason: the projection-energy the evil god had granted Wanmo, Ranfeng, Jinji, and the rest in the evil-god bargains.

“That evil-god energy actually has such power?” After hearing Yue Yang’s description, Qianqian knit her valiant, dashing brows slightly.

“It seems this evil god is a god of puppets!” Fengxian was bolder still, deducing straight toward a certain direction.

“Or it could be because of the Divine Stones!” After careful study by Yue Yu, Qianqian, the Drunken Cat Imperial Lady, the Southern Wilderness Demon King, and the Sick Beauty, they’d discovered that the Divine Stones’ energy was some kind of extension of Human Valley’s Law. An existence like the evil god was surely adept at using Divine Stone energy—and by the same token, an evil-god projection could likewise grasp and command this endless energy source of the Divine Stones.

“Powerful as an evil-god projection is, surely they wouldn’t dare use it openly in the bouts?” The beauty Luohua still harbored some doubt in her heart—did they take Human Valley’s instructors and students for blind men?

“I’m not talking about the fights in the bouts, but private duels off the record.” Yue Yang shook his head and waved a hand.

“You’re worried that if we finish off Wanmo and the evil-god projection, the true evil god will sense it and put up a guard?” It was still Qianqian who understood Yue Yang best.

“It’ll definitely sense it. My one misgiving is whether the evil god might be deliberately sending projections into Human Valley for me to kill, producing some kind of sacrifice or guidance that lets its own divine consciousness awaken all the faster, or break through some restriction… Think about it—if that weren’t so, bargaining with Ji Wuri alone would have sufficed. Why bother bargaining with Ranfeng and Wanmo too? And bargaining with Ranfeng and Wanmo, fine—after all, they’re powerhouses—but why go and strike a bargain with Jinji? A piece of trash like Jinji, the evil god couldn’t possibly think worth its notice; yet it gave Jinji at least a hundred-thousandth of its projection-energy all the same. That’s what I can’t help finding suspicious!” Through careful observation from outside the fights, Yue Yang had found that the projection-energy Wanmo and Ranfeng received was each about a ten-thousandth of the evil god’s own body, while Jinji had only a hundred-thousandth.

But never mind a ten-thousandth—

—even a hundred-thousandth, owing to the strength of the evil god’s own body, made this projection-energy exceptionally terrifying.

Both piloting gold constructs, Chimu—who could once have beaten Jinji by a street—would, under the influence of a hundred-thousandth of the evil god’s projection-energy, surely no longer be able to bring down the present Jinji; and with a moment’s carelessness, he might even suffer a crushing defeat, finding even a draw hard to achieve.

The Light Alliance’s Young Lord Yangquan, Mige the Tall Tower War Wolf, and other elite students, too, could no longer be Jinji’s match now.

The ones who could thoroughly defeat Jinji were none but Qingmo or Young Lord Mingzhu.

Otherwise, even the powerfully strong Hauge—

—would not find it easy!

After all, a hundred-thousandth of the evil god’s projection-energy was too terrifying. Back then the evil god had used but a single finger and nearly one-shotted everyone save Yue Yang; from this one could see the strength of an evil-god projection. Were it not that Jinji himself was middling in strength, his piloting far inferior to peers like Mige, Yangquan, and Chimu, a hundred-thousandth of projection-energy would have raised his strength even further!

“As for this—if all else fails, use your small Law-power to one-shot him. Whatever the outcome, there’s nothing wrong with weakening the evil god’s power.” Fengxian, the Divine Punishment Empress, laughed, taking it all in stride. “If the situation really turns dire, at worst we retreat into the Grimoire World and hide for a year or so; once our strength has risen, it won’t be too late to go out and settle things with him. Of course, we’re not yet so desperate as all that.”

“During the day, I went to visit Sister Yingluo, and spoke with her about the Human Valley situation. She seems to have agreed to meet with the big scoundrel.” Little Inan gave everyone a piece of good news.

“When did you go find her?” Qianqian was stunned—a person she herself couldn’t manage, and this little sister Inan could?

“Bing’er and I went together. Since I felt I couldn’t be much help anywhere else, and idling about every day was rather useless, I decided to go straight to Sister Yingluo and have a talk—perhaps it would help—so I boldly went. Fortunately, Sister Yingluo was very gentle and didn’t refuse, so we were both very happy about it!” At little sister Inan’s words, Qianqian was overjoyed, nearly hugging her and planting a hard kiss on her.

“Mm, we’ll support Brother too!” Yue Bing in truth had no idea at all what it was everyone was discussing with the Freedom Queen Yingluo; she only hoped she could lend her brother a hand.

“She really agreed?” The Drunken Cat Imperial Lady still didn’t quite dare believe her ears.

“…” Yue Yu and the Sick Beauty, too, looked at each other in blank astonishment.

Had it not been Inan and Yue Bing saying so—had it been anyone else—they truly wouldn’t have dared believe it.

Just what sort of person was the Freedom Queen Yingluo? Gentle on the surface, her temper soft as water, but her inner character was in truth the most fiercely unbending in all the world; once she’d fixed on a thing, there was simply no possibility of persuading her.

How on earth had Inan and Yue Bing talked Yingluo around?

What’s more, given this muddleheaded little air about Bing’er—who plainly had no idea at all what her brother was about to do to Yingluo—how had she done any persuading?

Everyone looked at one another in bewilderment, and in the end even Yue Yu was a bit uncertain. She spoke up to break the silence. “Ah—this is a good thing. Inan and Bing’er deserve commendation. Little Third, go visit Yingluo in a while. Set aside for now whether the matter succeeds or not—Yingluo has this much goodwill, so you ought to go and thank her!” Because everyone was present, Yue Yu was too embarrassed to put it too bluntly; what she meant was for Yue Yang to go see her first, build up the relationship, and once Yingluo agreed a hundred percent, then carry out that special “god-making” plan.

Yue Yang, too, suspected Inan and Yue Bing might have gotten the wrong idea.

But toward the two of them, who were so eagerly helping, he couldn’t very well raise a doubt outright, so he offered a couple of words of praise.

Given this affirmation, the two girls were so delighted their little pink fists flew about in a flurry.

Brimming with joy.

Radiant with lovely smiles.

Under Fengxian and the Southern Wilderness Demon King’s strike-while-the-iron-is-hot urging, Yue Yang pressed down the bewilderment in his heart and sped off to find the Freedom Queen Yingluo.

Truth be told, this Freedom Queen—there was no telling how much breath and tongue had been wasted on her, but her disposition was firmer than bedrock; once she fixed on a principle, no amount of talking did any good. Earlier she’d refused Yue Yang’s help to restore her body; later, when the god-making plan came up, Yue Yang, Qianqian, and the others had all tried many times—Yue Yu had even come forward to plead in person—not a bit of use.

Had Inan and Yue Bing truly convinced this Freedom Queen?

And what method had they used?

This really was an unexpected success!

(End of Chapter)