216: Chapter 216 Award Ceremony (Part Two)

However, Qian Mo didn't react as strongly as he did last time at the underground bar.

He merely raised his hand, which was tightly held by the White-haired girl beside him, and with a provocative smile on his face, he countered from across the distance.

Mu Changqiu's smile dimmed slightly, but he still pretended as if nothing had happened and turned to walk toward the fourth-place position on the stage.

Xing Yaoyan naturally noticed the silent "battle" between the two men immediately. After inwardly calling them "childish," she didn't pull her hand back from Qian Mo's sudden grasp.

The holographic projection in the sky played a short clip of his and White-Robed Mysterious Person's battle against the Star Cult Priest. In the footage, he floated in the air with a confident smile, surrounded by countless bizarre, multicolored light orbs.

His fingers suddenly moved rapidly, and following his gestures, the light orbs swarmed toward the white-robed figure in front of him, triggering a series of terrifying explosions.

The footage ended abruptly there, clearly being an incomplete recording.

However, the elegant battle scene, reminiscent of playing a piano, still drew gasps of admiration from the spectators.

Seeing this, Mu Changqiu secretly stifled a yawn, wondering when this public execution staged by his Master would finally end.

His task this time was to take his Junior Sister around to show off. Following his Master's instructions, he had yielded most of the credit to her, so his only truly valid achievement was forcing back the Star Cult Priest alongside White-Robed Mysterious Person. Factoring in the weight coefficients, his ranking wasn't actually that surprising to him.

But... even if he only had this one valid achievement, the points it yielded were more than many others combined...

In that case, besides his Junior Sister, whose points he already knew were higher than his, who were the other two?

"Third place..."

To be honest, Yun Long was starting to lose a bit of confidence.

He had planned White-Robed Mysterious Person's debut for a long time.

First, under the guise of an exchange program with the Yao Race geniuses, he sent the high-level Genius Espers from the capital's major factions to the Kingdom of Myriad Demons to study. Simultaneously, he timed the start of this plan for when public resentment toward the Star Cult and Star Beasts had reached its peak following the "Amusement Park Incident."

Later, he specifically used intelligence from the Security Bureau to arrange for White-Robed Mysterious Person to "leech assists" across various battlefields, even finding an excuse to prevent Xing Yan and the others from the Yao Race from intervening in the matter...

According to the plan, her taking first place should have been a sure thing...

Finally, a name appeared on the projection.

"Longxiang Academy's Qian... Qian Mo! Congratulations to student Qian Mo."

Yun Long's voice was a bit unnatural at first, but he quickly adjusted.

"Huh?"

Xing Yaoyan looked in surprise at the youth slowly standing up beside her, feeling a strange sense of being backstabbed by a good brother.

When did this guy go off to do missions these past few days...

Because their relationship had been solidified not long ago, Xing Yaoyan would excitedly drag Qian Mo to the small woods every night to... fight.

Don't get the wrong idea; it was just simple sparring.

She had long wanted to learn Qian Mo's endless array of combat techniques that were no less effective than battle skills.

Every day when she arrived at the meeting spot, Qian Mo was already there, very punctual. Moreover, his breathing was steady and he showed no signs of battle on his body. She thought he was just doing some odd jobs at most, certainly not encountering battles of that level like they had last time.

And now you're telling her that this guy's mission points actually ranked him third?

Had he done something big without her noticing?

Xing Yaoyan quickly looked up, her eyes fixed on the projection in the sky, hoping to see the reason for Qian Mo's high ranking.

Soon, Qian Mo's name vanished, and the footage of him and her "slaughtering" Mutant Speciess at the underground bar was displayed before everyone. She hadn't paid much attention before, but now Xing Yaoyan quickly sensed the deeply hidden, special spiritual energy fluctuations in the footage.

This should be a Spiritual Artifact made by an Esper capable of "Scene Retrospection," which could replay the combat scenes from that time...

Xing Yaoyan couldn't help but marvel once again at the highly advanced human technology of this world.

Fortunately, the footage only showed combat scenes. If it could trace back a bit further and show that terrifying little girl, Taotie...

While Xing Yaoyan was lost in thought, the crowd below the stage was already erupting in gasps of amazement.

Among them were students from the same year as Qian Mo, who were frantically bragging to everyone about his glorious deeds during military training and after enrollment—things like defeating geniuses from various academies during training, or fighting a mysterious senior to a draw in a duel...

At this moment, the "mysterious senior" everyone was talking about was on stage, looking at Qian Mo with a scrutinizing gaze. That's right, it was Mu Changqiu.

Back then, due to the Star Cult's sudden attack on the military training, he had taken a mission to provide support, only to find the enemy had already fled.

Following the principle of "since I'm already here, I might as well cause some trouble," he put on a mask and chose a very provocative way to stir things up—noob stomping.

Indeed, under the pretext of putting pressure on his juniors, he suppressed his strength to the Fourth Rank and began a spree of noob stomping in the training camp.

He would mock them relentlessly before fighting to draw a crowd for a group attack. During the fights, he only used Qi to strengthen his body without using his Superpower. After winning, he would continue to mock them, mainly to vent the resentment of being exploited by his "dear Master."

Since his strength on the surface was Fourth Rank, his juniors felt it was only natural to lose and wouldn't develop any Heart Demons.

However, after a few days of having his fun, Qian Mo found him, surrounded by a crowd. Before he could even get a few insults out, he was shocked to find the surrounding scenery changing. He had actually been pulled into a bizarre space by the Third Rank Esper in front of him.

But that wasn't all. In the next instant, the youth's figure blurred and he lunged straight at him with extreme speed.

He had wanted to say the other was overestimating himself, thinking that pulling him into this space meant victory without even using Qi. But he suddenly discovered to his shock that the flow of his Qi was facing immense obstruction.

Of course, for a Sixth Rank Esper like him, this bit of obstruction was nothing. But for him at the Fourth Rank, this intensity of obstruction was undoubtedly enough to completely seal off all of his Qi.

Tsk... such a strange Superpower. But... my Master is Yun Long. In a pure contest of physical stats and combat techniques, would I lose to you?

That was what Mu Changqiu thought at the time.

But... clearly, he was wrong...