Alexandra stared at Irana dryly. She wasn't going to lower herself to argue with an irrelevant girl. Her mother, standing next to her, snorted and said, "Girl, be quiet and let your mother handle it. Don't let your emotions loose when it's not the right time."

Irana was clearly outraged by the situation. But she could only swallow it and trust her mother.

Seeing that, Camille smiled slightly, "I agree with her. The matter between Darian and Vanh is personal. Besides, it was obvious to everyone: Vanh was trying to imitate Darian's deeds from the first match, but was being way more brutal and humiliating toward the people from the New Arcadia Empire. All out of envy."

"I don't care about their reasons. Rules are rules. Darian could've just stopped the fight, but he chose the wrong place to retaliate without thinking. If we let this slide, we'll lose a lot of face." Alexandra said coldly.

Blaine sighed, "He does deserve punishment. But I don't agree it should be now and during this tournament. That would be unfair to my whole empire and just too much."

"Unfair? What a joke. That boy has no respect for authority. He should be taught a serious lesson." She replied without hesitation.

"Don't be childish and let your emotions take over, you're just embarrassing yourself." Nikolai said flatly, clearly mocking her and drawing a parallel with Irana's earlier outburst. Alexandra's expression turned grim.

"The point of this tournament is to select the Earth's top talents so they can receive the blessing of Heaven's Will. We might lose some face, but we're not going to sabotage the brightest star of Earth over something this minor. Him receiving that blessing is crucial for Earth's future."

Tian Yu nodded, "I agree. Blaine, just give Darian a heavy punishment and announce it publicly later. Case closed."

"I won't accept that. The honor of my empire, which is hosting this tournament, is at stake," Alexandra said seriously.

Clearly, that wasn't the real reason — but she simply couldn't let Darian off the hook, or the Wube family would retaliate brutally in the future.

"Well... forgive me for stepping in again," Irana's mother spoke calmly, "But what happened here is already suspicious enough. Darian showed up without a group... then your empire's judge clearly tried to favor someone and sabotage others... and now you're dead serious about punishing him... if you really have honor, I'm starting to question it a bit now."

Alexandra stared at her, tense. That was a clear threat. If she pushed this too far, that powerful woman would start a fight and support a full investigation into all the shady things going on in this tournament.

Was the Wube family powerful? Yes — everyone on Earth and even outside had to tread carefully around them. But... this Planet Number 22 of the universe was definitely more trouble than expected.

Alexandra's situation was tricky now. There was no good way out. All of this... because everyone wanted to protect Darian for some reason.

Talent? That wasn't all. Talents were everywhere. But everything Darian had done showed what kind of person he really was — whether in that special mission or in this tournament. He only went overboard in the first match because the other guy provoked him. Even then, he hadn't been that harsh.

He even jumped onto the martial stage to protect his empire's honor, not caring about the consequences. But Vanh? He was clearly driven by nothing but envy and malice.

"Blaine, I'll announce that you'll handle this later," Alexandra said, as if trying to suppress all her frustration and anger.

The entire arena and martial stage were silent. Everyone understood that the empire leaders were judging the case and waited.

The entire discussion in the VIP room had lasted just under five minutes. Thomas was still frozen, and Darian remained calmly standing in the center of the martial stage.

Niara had already canceled her transformation and was back on Darian's shoulder. Everyone watched that with bated breath. Even his pet... was incredibly unique and powerful. Her quick movement and attack earlier made it clear that her combat power couldn't be underestimated.

A loud voice echoed out for everyone.

"In the name of the Solar Federation Empire, I declare the verdict."

Everyone took a deep breath, tense.

"The judge of this tournament acted deliberately wrong and failed to stop the battle in time. He'll be arrested and punished according to the rules. As for the intruder, his actions were excessive and disproportionate. Vanh will receive full treatment from the empire so he can fully recover. As for Darian, he'll receive a severe punishment in the future, which will be issued by his own empire and publicly announced to all of Earth."

Darian scoffed dryly. He only regretted not being able to kill that bastard. As for Thomas, he was sure he'd get off pretty much unscathed, which was fine — Darian wanted to deal with the guy who dared touch his family personally.

The voice added coldly, "The winner of this match was the Solar Federation Empire. The second day of the tournament has come to an end."

The moment she said that, several figures rushed from the arena to the martial stage. All were high-ranking military officers from that empire, who picked up Vanh and carried him away without looking back.

Darian turned to Nayara and held out his hand to help her up.

She looked him in the eye, and deep disappointment rose in her. In the end, it was still a humiliating loss. If Darian hadn't stepped in, it would've been a thousand times worse for her.

"Don't worry about that stuff. I promise I'll make him pay for it—way more. That was just a warm-up." He said calmly, and she took a deep breath and nodded.

This had been a big wake-up call. It showed just how far behind she was and shattered whatever pride she had left. From that day on, she'd train even harder so she'd never feel that useless again.

As she grabbed his hand and stood up, she suddenly felt a warmth spread through her body. It was the white power that healed her completely. Darian then turned to the other four who had been beaten badly and healed them too.

Within seconds, every one of the defeated group looked brand new.

He didn't say a word, just walked off the martial stage… with the eyes of absolutely everyone in the arena locked on him.

***

If on the second day the arena was already packed way beyond expectations, now on the third day, the Solar Federation Empire had to bring in twice as many space artifacts just to fit more people in.

The entire Earth was fully focused on this tournament. It was the day of the semifinals, with only three groups left in the running: Group One from the Solar Federation Empire, Group One from the Polar Circle Empire, and the surprising Group Two from the New Arcadia Empire.

There'd only be one match today, and the winner would fight in the final tomorrow.

In theory, the ten members from the two finalist groups were already considered winners, no matter the outcome. That was before. Now, everyone wanted to see the fights—especially the final—because it was worth way more than expected.

When the sun hit the center of the sky, inside the fully rebuilt martial stage, a new figure stepped in.

She was a short, average-sized woman. A powerful military officer not many people knew, but it was clear she wasn't much weaker than Thomas.

Military officers weren't as well-known or famous as regular Spiritual Guardians—Thomas was a rare exception—but even among high-ranking officers with eight rings, only a few had recognized names or were public figures.

"Hello, everyone. I'm Fenella. I'll be the judge for the last days of the tournament."

She introduced herself calmly. Then she took out an artifact that floated above her, projecting lights that displayed the names of the three remaining groups.

"As per the rules already announced, most of you should know this, but I'll make it clear. The first factor in deciding who fights today is the number of remaining members in each group. Since New Arcadia's group has only one person left, they'll have to fight today. As for Solar Federation and Polar Circle, both have five fighters ready. The second tiebreaker is how fast they won their previous matches. In that case, Solar Federation's Group One had the fastest victories. They're going to the final tomorrow."

Everyone in the arena had expected that result.

"With that said, today's semifinal will be between the Polar Circle Empire and New Arcadia Empire!"

The whole arena roared with excitement. Expectations were sky-high. Everyone was betting it'd be at least a decently close fight.

The Polar Circle Empire stepped in first.

Leading the group was a very striking and beautiful woman. She was the star of that group, which had performed incredibly and should've been the center of attention… if not for that one-man group.

Right after her entrance, a lone figure walked calmly toward the martial stage.

He stepped up to the center under everyone's watchful eyes, then stopped, taking a deep breath.

"Darian, right? Hi, I'm Amara Rorik."

A calm female voice spoke, and Darian lifted his head, looking for the source—until his eyes landed on the group leader.

And just like that, his eyes widened in shock.

'What the hell…?!'

She—and everyone in the arena—saw that reaction and were stunned. He hadn't even looked closely at this opponent until now?

Truth was, he really hadn't been paying attention to anything lately and had let Niara handle all that for him. Now, he was finally sizing up the people from the Polar Circle Empire.

And that beautiful woman standing in front of him…

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