74: Chapter 74 Damn, what a huge loss!

On the arena, Lin Ye looked at Ye Wujiang, whose face alternated between pale and livid as he desperately suppressed his rage. A flash of extreme mockery swept through Lin Ye's eyes as he spoke casually, his tone mild yet piercingly cutting: "With a military commander presiding over a fair judgment, rules come before authority. So now, leader, may I leave?"

This sentence seemed like a concession, but in reality, it was a fierce slap across Ye Wujiang's face in public.

Moments ago, he had relied on his real power, high position, and true god realm cultivation to wantonly coerce and manipulate Lin Ye's future. Now that the military had stepped in to take charge, all that overbearing pressure instantly collapsed, and he didn't even dare to utter half a harsh word.

Rage surged within Ye Wujiang's chest, and his pride was completely shattered. Yet, facing an audience of 100,000 spectators, countless prodigies, and high-ranking military officials, he didn't dare to show even a shred of temper.

The cultivation pressure of the true god realm was tightly restrained, leaving only a thick shadow of gloom and grievance in the depths of his eyes.

He stared fixedly at the calm Lin Ye, gritting his teeth to emit an ice-cold snort. This was his last bit of dignity.

The next second, he abruptly reached out with a large hand and grabbed Ye Feng, who was standing beside him in a daze and stiff all over.

At this moment, Ye Feng had long lost a shred of his arrogance as a top prodigy. His divine kingdom was rotting, his dependents were nearly wiped out, his family's foundation was completely destroyed, and his ugly display of reneging after losing in public had been witnessed by everyone. His spirit had entirely collapsed, and like someone who had lost their soul, he let Ye Wujiang drag him by the back of his collar while stumbling unsteadily.

Unwilling to stay a moment longer, Ye Wujiang turned and strode away carrying a body full of wretchedness and humiliation. His once upright back now appeared incomparably rushed and wretched, completely vanishing into the arena passageway.

The entire venue was silent; no one stopped him, and no one dared to voice any taunts.

A generation of real-power bigwigs in Quanzhou city, along with the talented junior cultivated by exhausting the family's resources, had completely lost a crushing defeat in this arena today.

Lin Ye couldn't be bothered to pay attention to the ugly antics of the Ye family's grandfather and grandson. With a calm expression, he turned and walked off the arena, pacing steadily as he slowly returned to his spectator seat and sat down.

The clamor gradually subsided, and everyone's gazes slowly withdrew from the departing Ye family, landing entirely upon the youth who had achieved godhood in a single battle. A mixture of awe, apprehension, and shock intertwined within them, and no one dared to show the slightest bit of contempt again.

Settling into his seat, Lin Ye sank his mind into himself at the first moment to investigate the depletion of his dependents within his divine kingdom.

During the bloody battle just now, he had killed like a madman, with everyone going berserk and fighting to the death. His mind was entirely filled with the obsession to destroy Ye Feng's path, leaving him no time to care about his own casualties. Now that the dust had settled, the truly tragic casualty data instantly flashed into his mind.

With just a single glance, Lin Ye's body violently swayed, his scalp tingling and his blood churning as he nearly went blind before his eyes and collapsed in a faint on the spot!

The losses were far more tragic than he had estimated!

Previously, the 2,789 Shahun Hound with formidable combat strength and extremely fierce physical bodies had served as the absolute main force for frontal charges, stubbornly resisting countless divine punishment lightning strikes and thunder-fire self-detonations while fighting bloody battles to the end. Counting them now, only around 1,300 remained, a loss of nearly half.

The Plague Seed Mosquito, which were greatest in number and responsible for spreading the plague across the entire region and rooting in the enemy's divine kingdom, had sacrificed themselves through massive self-detonations without hesitation in order to spread the epidemic source and conduct reverse erosion. Fewer than one in ten survived, the black fog blanketing the sky vanished entirely, and in the end, only a remnant of just over two thousand remained.

Serving as the core for preemptive crowd control and soul suppression, the Soul-Devouring Owl had been specifically targeted and globally purged by Ye Feng's thunder-fire legion, suffering the heaviest casualties. Originally numbering 1,678, only 486 remained after the intense battle, causing their combat strength to plummet precipitously.

As for the three auxiliary combat dependents—the Demonic Blood Python, Iron-Bone Turtle, and Shadow Fox—they had all suffered losses exceeding half, losing their elite forces entirely, and their overall combat strength shrank drastically.

Behind what seemed like a crushing and complete victory was a tragic result bought at the cost of exhausting the foundation of most of his dependents.

Looking at the dilapidated and desolate dependent lineup within his divine kingdom, Lin Ye felt a sharp pang of heartache and couldn't help lowering his voice to mumble very genuinely: "Damn it, I took a huge loss."

His voice wasn't loud, but it was heard clearly by the prodigies sitting in several adjacent seats nearby.

In an instant, the surrounding air plummeted in temperature, and an inexplicable, bone-chilling sinister wind swept across the area.

All the top prodigies of Quanzhou stiffened all over, their backs instantly turning cold as an extreme chill inexplicably rose from the depths of their hearts. Everyone simultaneously shrank their necks, held their breaths, and silently shifted their bodies backward without a word, quietly pulling a large distance away from Lin Ye.

They were truly frightened.

What kind of ruthless person was this?

He had crushed Quanzhou's top-tier prodigy head-on, crippled his opponent's divine kingdom foundation, destroyed one-fifth of the Ye family's generational foundation, slaughtered eight thousand high-tier dependents until nearly the entire force was wiped out, and forcefully forged a crushing overall victory—yet he actually felt like he took a huge loss?

At this moment, everyone completely recognized Lin Ye's terrifying nature.

This was a ruthless character who was decisive in killing, spared no cost, and was extremely willing to risk his life. Being enemies with him meant that even if one won the battle, they would still feel a heartache over the losses. One could only imagine how miserable the ends of his opponents who died at his hands must be.

After putting some distance between themselves, everyone looked at Lin Ye sitting quietly alone, the apprehension in their eyes growing even deeper. No one dared to casually gaze or whisper about him anymore.

On the other side, Lin Ye, who was secretly heartbroken over the loss of his dependents, suddenly thought of Ye Feng's battle situation. The grievance and heartache in his heart instantly dissipated by more than half, and his mood balanced out quite a bit in an instant.

Although his losses were heavy, he had managed to retain most of his foundation, and his dependent system remained relatively intact.

But what about Ye Feng?

At the start, he had a full 8,000 top-tier dependents—4,500 S-rank Hell Three-Headed Hound, 2,000 A-rank Thunderstorm Berserk Rhino, plus various auxiliary dependents. Resources were piled up, time-flow acceleration was applied, and talents provided a safety net, pushing top-tier configuration to the absolute limit.

Yet after the unyielding bloody battle, plague erosion, close-quarters slaughter, and continuous self-detonation consumption just now, the opponent's surviving dependents were definitely few and far between.

Lin Ye understood clearly in his heart and silently estimated that Ye Feng's currently surviving dependents, at most, numbered five or six hundred, and definitely did not exceed six hundred!

The 8,000 elites were nearly completely wiped out, and most importantly, Ye Feng's divine kingdom had been thoroughly rooted into by the plague.

Furthermore, every single one of his dependents was injured, and the plague's venom had fully infiltrated them. If they weren't cleansed in time, I'm afraid all the remaining dependents would die!

Even his divine kingdom would become completely barren!

In comparison, his own little dependent losses were simply not worth mentioning.

Thinking of this, Lin Ye slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, suppressed the heartache in his heart, and his gaze calmed down once more.

This battle, even if it was a pyrrhic victory, was still a complete victory.

The price paid by Ye Feng and the Ye family was a hundred or a thousand times heavier than his.

Arena staff quickly entered the field to tidy up the venue. The barrier was reset, order was restarted, and the interrupted provincial league schedule officially continued to advance.

However, after experiencing that clan-annihilation-level bloody battle that had subverted everyone's understanding and fought to the death, the mindset of the 100,000 spectators in the entire arena had completely changed.

The subsequent prodigy duels, even though they were also top-tier contests among peers with controlled offense and defense, exquisite moves, and commendable dependent coordination, were ultimately far too bland and gentle in everyone's eyes.