The Grey Wolf King still held a considerable advantage among its pack. Seeing Jiang Chen hurtle toward it with terrifying speed and murderous intent, it instantly knew things were bad.
It frantically rallied its subordinate grey wolves, sending them crashing into Jiang Chen one after another like living projectiles. Two wolves, five wolves, ten — they rammed at him like cannonballs in rapid succession.
Jiang Chen's heart tightened. He could tell the Grey Wolf King was growing desperate. But at this point, the full extent of his superior movement technique came into play.
In the open air, he was like a gust of breeze — dodging left and right at breakneck speed, his movements fluid and practiced as he weaved through the wolves like a butterfly threading between flowers, drawing ever closer to the Grey Wolf King.
The Grey Wolf King was utterly stunned. It had deployed every ounce of strength it could muster, yet it still couldn't slow Jiang Chen down in the slightest.
Just then, Jiang Chen's speed surged again. In a flash, he landed squarely on the Grey Wolf King's back.
The wolf king let out a furious roar, its entire body shuddering violently as it tried to shake Jiang Chen off. At the same time, it whipped its head around, attempting to snap at Jiang Chen with its gaping, blood-red maw.
But these efforts were obviously futile.
Jiang Chen reached out and gave the wolf's forehead a light tap. The Grey Wolf King felt its mind buzz violently, as if its very soul had been frozen in place. It stood there dazed and sluggish, unable to resist any longer.
Jiang Chen plucked three wolf hairs in one smooth motion.
Right on cue, his jade slip lit up, notifying him that the second mission had been completed ahead of schedule.
Jiang Chen rolled the three wolf hairs between his fingers and laughed, then transformed into a bolt of lightning and descended outside the valley. Everything on this second island had gone smoothly. The jade slip confirmed that Jiang Chen had cleared the second restricted island.
The speed left even Jiang Chen himself feeling a little sheepish.
Based on his observation, many of the other participating geniuses were probably still struggling through the mist of the first island, while he was already nearing the third.
Outside, every jade slip issued to the geniuses had its progress registered. When the evaluators noticed that one slip had apparently broken through two restricted islands in barely an hour, they were floored. The speed was nothing short of staggering.
However, the judges could only see the broad performance metrics for now — they had no way of knowing exactly who had produced such remarkable results, nor any specific details.
For a moment, all the judges exchanged bewildered glances, each wondering whether the display might have glitched.
This genius's performance was almost too good to be true.
"Two islands breached within a single hour — whose genius could this possibly be?"
"Who could it be?"
Before the answer was revealed, many sacred lands would indulgently assume it must be their own genius.
The Eternal Sacred Land's Grand Sovereign was clearly thinking the same thing. Her instincts told her that whoever was performing this brilliantly was most likely Jiang Chen.
As for everyone else, the Grand Sovereign had already stopped placing her hopes on them. She had a fairly good idea of where the Five Young Masters stood. Even Sui Chen had performed so poorly, and the others were even weaker than him — expecting them to achieve anything impressive was unrealistic.
The Eternal Sacred Land could only look to Jiang Chen now. Jiang Chen was their only hope.
"Oh my, Fellow Daoist Qi — what are you thinking about? Could it be that you believe this top-performing genius is your Eternal Sacred Land's Jiang Chen?" someone asked in a deliberately loud voice.
The Grand Sovereign didn't even deny it. She smiled and said, "Based on what I know of Jiang Chen, the one capable of such a performance very well might be him."
"No way! I think it's Luming Ye of the Hundred Sacred Land."
"I think it's the Poison Fairy, Shi Qinglu."