Leilin shifted his attention to another screen.
Above a sprawling green forest, Longbaton—disguised as the Green-robed Gel—had run into Heilong by chance.
These two wizards were both the most favored dark horses with championship potential, and the encounter immediately drew intense attention.
In this brief time, many wizards had already been eliminated, freeing up additional screens, which grew considerably larger.
…
Inside the Secret Realm.
"Green-robed Gel?" Heilong looked at the strange youth wearing green wizard robes before him.
"Forget it—accumulating points one by one is too much trouble. I was planning to harvest them all at the end, but since it's you, I'll reluctantly take them now!"
Longbaton looked at Heilong before him, a savage grin spreading across his face.
Now that he was drawing ever closer to his goal, he no longer needed to be so cautious with his disguise. And the other's status as a genius only deepened the disgust that Longbaton, born of common blood, felt.
"You seem to hate me?" Heilong's brow furrowed. "But it doesn't matter. Anyone who stands in my way will die!"
"Heh heh! You think you can manage that?!" Longbaton let out an eerie cackle, releasing part of the restraints on his body.
Ice-cold. Overwhelming.
A torrent of berserk Spiritual Power swept through like a hurricane.
"Peak of the first rank?!" The icy composure that Heilong always wore was instantly shattered.
And Longbaton's "outburst" immediately sent waves of shock through the viewing area outside.
"Peak of the first rank? I recall Green-robed Gel is only forty-five this year?" A judge wearing reading glasses asked a wizard behind him. "Fano, when did you reach that level?"
The wizard called Fano was a white-bearded old man, and a look of shame appeared on his face. "I'm ashamed to say it took me seventy years of bitter cultivation on the Frost Throne to reach this level at the age of one hundred and fifteen…"
"If he's self-taught, then this Gel really is a genius!"
The judge adjusted his glasses. "Look into him. If there's nothing suspicious, we should consider recruiting him into our school…"
Sitting on the same Judgment Seat, Leilin noticed that many of his colleagues had issued the same orders, and couldn't help but smile inwardly.
A few days earlier, they might have uncovered Longbaton's true identity. But now? By the time their investigations concluded, Longbaton would have long since achieved his goal. What good would knowing then?
"You've actually reached peak of the first rank!" Heilong could no longer maintain his cold, aloof image—the words blurting out involuntarily.
"That's the expression! That's exactly what I wanted to see!" Longbaton laughed uproariously. "I want every person who ever looked down on me to realize just how wrong they were!!!"
He laughed wildly, a sickly flush rising to his cheeks.
"You're insane!" Heilong's voice turned cold as massive silver-white light blades materialized from within his robes, crisscrossing and slicing through the air around them.
"Go!" Heilong pointed at Longbaton, and the mass of light blades formed a dense net hurtling toward him, while Heilong himself transformed into a black shadow and vanished into thin air.
"You overestimate yourself!" Longbaton snorted coldly as a layer of green mist surged outward.
Ssss!
The moment the silver-white light blades plunged into the mist, they emitted corroding sizzles and dissolved into the air one by one.
"Come here!" Longbaton's right hand phased into the void, reaching deep into the air itself.
Then a black shadow was forcibly "dragged" out of the spatial fold.
Heilong's face was filled with disbelief. "Impossible—this concealment technique is my mentor's unique skill. How could you…"
"That dense Life Energy on you gave you away long ago!" Longbaton said with undisguised contempt.
Heilong's entire body went slack, as if this revelation was a devastating blow.
"You're lucky, kid. If we'd met earlier, you'd already be a corpse. But now?" Longbaton suppressed his urge to drain the opponent into a dried husk with Life Siphon.
They were still inside the Secret Realm, under the surveillance of the wizards outside!
Hiding his true strength could be excused as extraordinary talent or some acquired inheritance—after all, the Dark Extreme Region was vast, and encountering rare opportunities wasn't unusual at all.
But if his Dark Elf secret high-level Meditation Method, Life Siphon, were exposed, the entire competition would almost certainly be halted immediately, and he would be hunted down by numerous second-rank wizards working together.
"But letting you off just like that doesn't sit right with me!"
Longbaton held Heilong by the collar, a smile suddenly curling at his lips.
That smile made every hair on Heilong's body stand on end. He tried to activate his escape talisman immediately, but it was already too late!
A dark green light sword instantly sliced across Heilong's forehead, and the corrosive force that invaded his body drew a scream from his throat.
"Ahhh…" Amid his screams, Heilong's body was enveloped in a pillar of light and teleported out.
Longbaton pulled out his amulet, saw the number had surged to thirty, and revealed a satisfied smile. After closing his eyes briefly to savor the moment, he headed toward another location.
Boom!