64: Chapter 64 Backroom Dealings

The holder of such a forbidden divine kingdom was a heaven-defying dark horse and top genius in the short term, but in the long run, they were a highest-level time bomb that could detonate and destroy a region at any moment; no one could guarantee that he would not lose control, fall into demonic ways, and slaughter everywhere in the future.

The high-ranking officials of the military and government exchanged glances, their expressions growing increasingly solemn, and the alert level in their hearts was raised once more, having already classified Lin Ye into the key observation list.

"Sigh! What a pity..." sighed a powerhouse from the military.

Amidst the crowd, Ye Feng stared fixedly at Lin Ye on the arena stage, his heart tightening in waves. Far from having the slightest timidity or wavering, the paranoia, killing intent, and sinister ruthlessness in the depths of his eyes instead grew increasingly intense. The irreconcilable destiny grudge between him and Lin Ye had long taken deep root in his heart.

Outsiders did not know, but he had long secretly utilized his network resources to send people to assassinate Lin Ye. The hatred and grievance between the two had long descended to a life-and-death level, leaving not a shred of room for easing, but how could he himself not know?!

Previously, Lin Ye's strength was mediocre and not yet worth fearing, but now Lin Ye had risen rapidly with heaven-defying combat power, having already grown to the point where he could crush Quanzhou's S-rank prodigies.

For Ye Feng, such a terrifying threat had to be completely nipped in the bud, and he could by no means allow him to continue growing.

He had clearly watched the entire crushing battle and had to admit that Lin Ye's growth speed was horrifyingly shocking, having solidly cultivated an S-rank primary combat vassal race, yet fear had never once arisen in the depths of his heart.

In his deeply ingrained cognition, in vassal race duels, rank suppression and attribute restraint would always supersede pure combat power amplification.

Even if Lin Ye's Shahun Hound possessed explosive combat power and an unsolvable baleful Qi, its origin evolved from the lowest-level Scavenger Hound, and its innate bloodline rank was inherently a notch weaker than his Hell Three-Headed Hound.

His S-rank Hell Three-Headed Hound possessed the triple destructive attributes of thunder, flames, and venom, naturally restraining all baleful Qi ferocious beasts, making it a solid dual suppression of rank and attributes.

Coupled with the A-rank Thunderstorm Berserk Rhino as a solid foundation with both offense and defense, and the dual vassal race linkage forming an offensive and defensive closed loop, in his view, Lin Ye's newly emerged Shahun Hound could simply not stir up any storms at all.

Even if Lin Ye had hidden his clumsiness until now and his combat power had skyrocketed, even if he could crush Lu Zhou without injury, in Ye Feng's eyes, he was still just a piece of trash relying on bizarre methods to leapfrog levels with a hollow foundation. He had confidence in his Hell Three-Headed Hound; after all, the Hell Three-Headed Hound surpassed ordinary S-rank vassal races and was even just a tiny bit away from being SS-rank.

On the arena stage, Lin Ye's expression was calm. With a thought, he recalled the Shahun Hound, Iron-Bone Turtle, and Shadow Fox back into his divine kingdom, his posture composed and detached, without the slightest bit of arrogance or impatience.

The first round of matches continued to advance as the prodigies from various cities took turns to step onto the stage for duels. S-rank top-tier matches unfolded one after another with dazzling moves and explosive combat power, making the entire audience boil with excitement. Sitting in the contestant seating, Lin Ye quietly watched the battles, finding them equally fascinating and watching with burning eyes.

After multiple rounds of watching, among the fifty prodigies in the audience, there were three who caught his special attention. Each of their foundations and vassal race systems far surpassed ordinary S-rank geniuses, making them truly deserving of being Quanzhou's ceiling.

The first was the peerless prodigy with the venue's only SSS-rank divine kingdom rating—Bai Ruoxue.

She came from Nanling City, the capital of Nantan Prefecture. She was universally recognized as the number one person of the new generation in Quanzhou, with a talent crowning the ten cities that no one could match.

And what truly caused Lin Ye's mind to tremble was her primary combat vassal race—the Six-Winged Angel.

Holy, pure-white wings unfolded tens of thousands of feet of spiritual light, and divine pressure swept across the entire arena. The humanoid divine race vassal race possessed a pure bloodline and a noble aura, with comprehensive, flawless capabilities in offense and defense, secret techniques, and purification.

Top-tier divine race vassal races like the Six-Winged Angel only existed in the ancient texts and legends of Lin Ye's past life, representing a top-tier bloodline bordering on myth. He had not expected to witness it with his own eyes on this State Competition arena in this lifetime, which was enough to show just how terrifying Bai Ruoxue's foundation was.

The second was the top ceiling of Cangnan City—Xiao Qingwu.

Her SS-rank divine kingdom foundation was rock solid, and her natal vassal race, the Xueli Ice Luan, was aloof and dust-free. Its extreme freezing power was unbeatable, and its airspace suppression, long-range absolute kill, and defensive barriers were all top-tier. Having walked all the way without tasting defeat, she remained calm and composed even when facing top prodigies from various states, her aura steadily suppressing the entire audience.

The third was an SS-rank rated prodigy from Xihe City, Zhou Mingzhi.

His vassal race system was extremely bizarre, belonging to the extremely rare undead faction.

Countless skeletal warriors and necromancers covered the sky and earth, and the most unsolvable aspect was their undead exclusive talent—Undying Resurrection.

Once ordinary vassal races had their combat power collapse and bodies shattered, they would completely fail. However, after his undead vassal races fell to the ground, the remaining bones would rapidly converge and the undead origins would reorganize, reviving from dead silence to fight again time and time again. Their endurance and kite-fighting capabilities could be called unsolvable, and they stubbornly relied on this bizarre system to crush multiple formidable enemies, steadily securing a spot in the upper echelons of the arena.

The divine race, the ice system, and the undead—three completely different top-tier systems, and three peerless prodigies who each dominated a domain, completely ushered the originally contested State Competition into a true peak game of chess.

The dozens of duels in the first round of the points match all came to a close. After layers of high-intensity slaughter among the fifty top prodigies of Quanzhou, the point rankings completely solidified, and half of the contestants were regretfully eliminated. In the end, only twenty-five people defended their match qualifications, stepping into the new round of competition for the top 10 out of 25.

At this point, the competition in the arena completely entered a white-hot state. Every single duel concerned the ownership of the top ten seats, and the fault tolerance rate was close to zero. The losers would directly stop at the State Competition and miss all subsequent peak matches.

In the contestant rest area, the remaining twenty-five prodigies concentrated on resting and adjusting, readying themselves for action. Only Ye Feng was alone in a corner, with extreme paranoia and sinister ruthlessness churning in the depths of his eyes, having completely no mind to rest.

Ever since the conclusion of the City Tournament until now, he had endured for days, suffering for days, watching helplessly as Lin Ye made a counterattack all the way as a dark horse, stunning the entire audience, and watching the other party rely on an F-class divine kingdom to crush all sorts of S-rank prodigies and reap the attention of all. The unwillingness and killing intent in the depths of his heart had long accumulated to the absolute limit.

He had secretly plotted assassinations several times, all of which were quietly resolved by Lin Ye, and their irreconcilable hatred had long penetrated deep into his bone marrow.

Compared to the ranking and rewards of the State Competition, what he desired most at this moment was to defeat Lin Ye head-on, tear apart all his auras, and return the humiliation, suppression, and defeat of recent days a hundredfold!

During the previous multiple rounds of random matching in the points match, the two of them had always missed each other in pairings, leaving him without an opportunity to strike.

But now, during the crucial drawing of lots for the top 10 out of 25, he had long mobilized all his network resources in advance, bribed the event backend, and secretly rigged the matches behind the scenes.

In a blind spot where no one noticed, the staff quietly swapped the drawing tags, firmly binding his battle number with Lin Ye's.

No matter how random the drawing process was, the final result had long been predestined.