57: Chapter 57 Ye Feng's Backup Plan

"A futile struggle!" Wan Tianlu looked down coldly, eyeing the cawing flock gathering momentum in mid-air with utter disdain. "No matter how your crows build up their power, the soul barrier of my Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagle is as solid as a fortress. We have nothing to fear from low-end soul secret techniques!"

As his voice fell, the four hundred Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagles accelerated once more, blades of wind stacking layer upon layer across the sky as they prepared to dive and encircle the Soul-Crying Crows and Shadow Foxes in the lower altitude.

Right now!

A cold glint flashed in Lin Ye's eyes as he gave a deep command: "Crow King, lift the restriction, Soul Aggregation Strike!"

Caw——!!!

A piercing, mournful caw that pierced the clouds burst across the sky!

Unlike the previous fragmented and scattered cries, this single crow cry condensed the entire soul origin of the entire Soul-Crying Crow legion. An invisible spiritual storm instantly swept across the entire arena airspace, overbearing, condensed, and exquisitely swift!

High above, the Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagles, which had originally possessed nimble expressions and ample resistance, all shook violently in unison!

Their originally indestructible soul barriers instantly cracked and shattered under this highly aggregated soul impact!

Even though the souls of the Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagles far surpassed mammoths and their resistance was top-tier, they simply could not withstand the ultimate fatal blow formed by the gathering of over a thousand crows!

The actions of the four hundred high-speed circling S-grade Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagles stagnated simultaneously, their wings stiffening and their beast pupils instantly turning turbid and absent. The entire invincible aerial combat legion plunged into a brief soul rigidity, their massive bodies no longer able to maintain high-altitude circling as they fell from the firmament one after another like broken kites.

The flaw was fleeting!

"Shadow Fox, instant kill! Marrow-Eating Demon Hound, harvest!"

Seizing the sole tactical opportunity, Lin Ye gave the decisive order.

Hiding in the gales and shadows, the Shadow Foxes instantly erupted with ultimate speed, countless pitch-black afterimages slicing through the sky. Taking advantage of the fatal gap where the sacred eagles were dazed and unable to dodge, they precisely clung to the base of each sacred eagle's wings and the vital parts of their spirit cores, their sharp shadow claw blades unleashing fatal sneak attacks back-to-back.

Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

Crisp tearing sounds densely echoed across the entire venue as one Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagle after another had its wings broken, spirit cores shattered, and spiritual power dissipated.

Once they fell to the ground, the Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds, which had been poised for action all along, immediately swarmed up to surround them. Monstrous killing intent instantly eroded their flesh, completely crushing their remaining vitality and leaving no room for a comeback.

The entire process took mere seconds!

Relying on the Soul-Crying Crow leader's one-time-only aggregated soul breakthrough, paired with the perfect triple system of Shadow Foxes conducting high-altitude assassinations and Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds harvesting on the ground, the four hundred S-grade Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagle legion that dominated the Cangnan airspace with extremely strong soul resistance was completely wiped out!

The arena instantly fell dead silent, the audience watching in utter stupefaction. The next instant, earth-shaking uproar completely ignited the competition grounds!

"Turns out the Soul-Crying Crows weren't useless! Lin Ye has just been concealing his moves all along! The Crow King's aggregated soul strike is way too absurd!"

"A fatal breakthrough with just this one strike! It precisely seized the Wind-Feathered Sacred Eagle's short board of resistance, fighting a fast battle to end it quickly without giving the opponent any chance to stall!"

"The three-familiar linkage can be called unsolvable! Soul defense-breaking, ground harvesting—the process forms a perfect closed loop!"

"Who dares to say Lin Ye has a single trump card? This tactical brain and familiar pairing completely crush geniuses of the same tier!"

Wan Tianlu froze in the center of the arena, his complexion as pale as paper, his entire body ice-cold, and his eyes filled with incredulous defeat.

The soul resistance and airspace suppression he was certain were unsolvable were completely cracked by Lin Ye's tactic of a charged strike and instant-kill speedrun.

The advantages he thought he had were, from start to finish, merely the breakthrough timing Lin Ye had deliberately waited for.

"Wan Tianlu's familiars are completely annihilated. Lin Ye wins and earns one point!" the referee proclaimed loudly, echoing through the entire venue.

Lin Ye raised his hand to retract all his familiars. The Soul-Crying Crows had exhausted their spiritual power and all returned to their nests, the Shadow Foxes hid into the shadows, and the Marrow-Eating Demon Hounds restrained their fierce auras. The entire process was calm and breezy, without a single ripple of disturbance.

He was well aware that this kind of whole-legion aggregated soul strike came at a massive cost and could only be used once. Using it to rapidly break a formidable enemy was just right; it neither wasted excess combat power nor exposed all of his foundation.

The match schedule rapidly advanced. In the subsequent rounds of battle, Lin Ye still maintained an extreme posture of concealment.

Facing other A-grade and A+-grade opponents, he either won quickly with minimalist tactics or moderately abstained to preserve his strength, no longer easily exposing new combat power.

And when the much-anticipated fated match between Lin Ye and Xiao Qingwu arrived, the two once again tacitly chose to hold back.

Xiao Qingwu remained aloof and untainted, directly stating her abstention. She was unwilling to clash trump cards with Lin Ye in the City Tournament mock battles and waste each other's foundational assets.

Lin Ye readily agreed, similarly preserving all his strength while quietly awaiting the real showdown at the State Competition six days later.

The two ceiling-tier powerhouses avoiding battle the whole time made countless audience members sigh with regret, yet they looked forward even more to the unreserved peak collision between the two at the State Competition.

Several rounds of round-robin matches came to a close, and the scores gradually finalized. Lin Ye won two matches, abstained from several, and intentionally lost one match to Ye Feng, ultimately locking his cumulative score firmly at 7 points. He steadily resided in the upper reaches of the leaderboard, securing a spot in the top five in advance.

And the most explosive turning point of the entire round-robin appeared in the finale match of the schedule—on Ye Feng's final duel stage.

Ye Feng, who had fought bitterly all the way relying on his lightning familiars to accumulate points, encountered the fierce offensive suppression of S-grade genius Jiang Mingliang in this round. The three major A-grade lightning familiars under his command suffered consecutive damage, their combat power teetering on the verge of collapse, and he was about to lose.

In this desperate situation, Ye Feng finally stopped concealing his skills and completely detonated his ultimate trump card!

Rumble——!

The pitch-black lightning divine kingdom passage expanded violently. An oppressive might far exceeding any previous time swept across the entire venue, dark black mist entangling with purple-gold lightning gushing forth, and the terrifying roars of ferocious beasts shook the arena slightly.

Nearly five hundred massive, ferocious, and terrifying Hell Three-Headed Hounds stepped onto the arena!

Their entire bodies were covered in pitch-black scales, and their three ferocious heads each swallowed different abilities. The left mouth spewed sky-burning flames, the right mouth spat corrosive poisonous mist, and the center head lingered with destructive dark lightning. The three ultimate attributes intertwined into one, sending monstrous ferocity surging and an oppressive might echoing through the entire competition grounds!

It was precisely Ye Feng's hidden ultimate trump card—the S-grade Hell Three-Headed Hound!

The entire venue instantly exploded, with all the audience members, instructors, and leaders rising to their feet in utter shock!

"It's actually an S-grade Hell Three-Headed Hound! Ye Feng has hidden it far too deep!"

"A triple-attribute omnipotent fierce beast familiar, equipped with flames, toxins, and lightning, and it's even a pure canine-type troop!"

"I finally understand his confidence! Lin Ye made a name for himself relying on canine-type demon hounds, yet he specifically cultivated a top-tier S-grade canine family familiar. This makes it blatantly clear that he intends to use dogs against dogs and crush Lin Ye head-on!"

Everyone instantly saw through Ye Feng's intentions.

Knowing that Lin Ye's core combat power was the Marrow-Eating Demon Hound, he had expended countless resources and lain dormant for a long time to cultivate the top-tier S-grade canine familiar, the Hell Three-Headed Hound. It was precisely for targeted suppression, using a purebred high-tier fierce beast hound to crush Lin Ye's malefic demon hounds and completely shatter Lin Ye's myth!

On the arena, Ye Feng, holding his ultimate trump card, completely inflated in mindset. All his previous humiliation and unwillingness transformed entirely into extreme exhilaration and confidence.

He crushed and staged a comeback to defeat Jiang Mingliang, steadily securing a point as his score skyrocketed, thoroughly locking down his spot in the top five.

As the finale match ended, the gazes of the entire venue focused uniformly on Lin Ye, everyone waiting for an ultimate canine-type showdown.