"Oh my god! This is unbelievable, that little girl actually defeated Quinn head-on! Our defending champion!"

Reed shouted loudly.

Though his words were filled with shock and surprise, his face was all smiles of excitement.

"Such a ferocious attack, could she be the dark horse of this competition?!"

As the host finished speaking, the dueling arena erupted into a frenzy.

While the audience wanted to see a bloody and violent scene, unexpected situations could make people even more excited and eager.

If they couldn't see the defending champion crush the delicate young girl, it was better to see them crushed by her instead.

In the stands, Mort regained his senses along with the other spectators: "What's her profession, what tier is she?"

Li Ang smiled: "Tier Four, a special swordsman legacy."

Mort turned his head, glaring at Li Ang. "Even so, it can't produce such an attack. That Niu Nan could become last year's champion, must at least have high Tier Five power. Did you give her an energy source, or is there something special about her weapon?"

"You could say that," Li Ang replied.

"Looks like you're really taking this team seriously."

"What do you mean? Are you implying that until just now, you suspected me of harboring ill intentions?"

Mort turned away.

"Hey, speak up." Li Ang tapped the shoulder of the young man with beast ears, but the latter only kept his eyes fixed on the field.

In the arena, a shaman from the Rock Breaker Team, clad in chain armor, raised both arms and summoned a Healing Water Wave, splashing it onto Quinn who had fallen.

The burly Niu Nan barely lifted himself, while the shaman dragged him away, intending to heal his wounds and get him back into the fight.

Two warriors from the Rock Breaker Team rushed at Zoe with swords in hand, one of them shouting, "You little brat! Dare to be arrogant with just an equipment advantage!"

He swung his sword forward with both hands, with a faint trace of a blade's edge gleaming on its surface.

"Hey! The Rock Breaker Team is still impressive!" Reed praised, "Every one of them can harness the blade's edge!"

The host referred to the blade's edge as a skill mastered by close combat professions above Tier Four.

The main manifestation of power for professionals in the Transcendent Realm is shaping matter with magic power. For casters, this is usually shown through the creation and control of magic elements and energies.

However, close combat professionals can only channel a small amount of magic power. For those in Tier Three and below, it's used to strengthen the body to unleash fierce strikes. After Tier Four, very few can imbue their attacks with elements.

With Zoe's special Elemental Swordsman legacy, she can often directly condense elemental attacks within her slashes, as she naturally wields elements.

It was after stepping into Tier Four that she could slash out flames with her sword and unleash wind element attacks using Wind Swordsmanship to draw out the escapement of the Jadestone Beam.

Before this, her Wind Blades were reliant on the Wind Breath Sword, a dormant Tier Three Treasure, which was inferior in both quantity and quality compared to the recent attack.

Most ordinary close combat professionals, under most circumstances, use magic power to reshape their weapons' blades, forcing out a cutting edge notable stronger than the weapon itself, qualifying them as competent Transcendent Realm warriors.

Mort shook his head: "The Flashing Field is nonetheless within the Four Major Aerial Realms; blade's edge is still rare."

Zoe raised the Wind Breath Sword, the Earth Element made the sword broad, steadily defending against the approaching swordsman, while holding the hilt of the Passion Talent Imitation Sword in the other hand, her wrist flicked, and the Flaming Sword Blade burst forth.

The fiercely burning Fire Blade performed a rapid series of slashes, forcing the assaulting Rock Breaker Team warrior to retreat, with several spots of their skin scorched.

Li Ang thought that Zoe's Secret Technique appeared also to be evolving.

The prior "Gale Slash" was based on mastering Wind Swordsmanship and holding a Wind Treasure. Now that the Four Elements were complete, she was on a whole new level.

The other two from the Rock Breaker Team bypassed Zoe, launching a charge towards Dorothy.

The half-elf didn't appear adept at movement, and holding a magic staff, the strategic approach was to target casters first during combat.

The lady in the golden robe swung her staff, as if attending a ball, and the golden sand pattern around her flowed downward, suddenly raising a Golden Sand Tent. The two warriors, unprepared, charged directly into it.

The swirling golden sand began to move instantly, and the fine, solid, beautiful sand suddenly transformed into sharp blades, etching countless tiny wounds on the two warriors' bodies, leaving them covered in blood.

The pair hastily attempted to escape the range, as ALulu, holding a shield, charged and knocked them flying away with a strike of the shield's surface.

Mort said to Li Ang, "This whole set of magical equipment amplifications directly endowed that priest girl with powerful spells both offensive and defensive. I just saw Farlonio's store, did you commission the equipment from her?"

"If I told you I made it myself, would you believe me?"

Staring at Li Ang's face for a while, Mort sighed: "Although I can't figure out how you mastered equipment creation in less than a month since leaving The Soul Apex, I honestly wasn't too surprised. You can help them get first place and wield spells controlling Fukate's mind, so other feats seem almost normal."

"It's not that impressive, just a suggestion really."

Mort pointed to the field: "What about that young girl from the Horned Race? I feel like she's not even in the Transcendent Realm, relying solely on brute force. What's going on?"

"Innate gifts," Li Ang replied.

"It seems your team is destined to cause huge waves in the Demon Disaster Realm someday," Mort said, pausing for a moment before asking, "Will you head to the Lupus Island Country later?"

"Hmm? Did I mention that?"

"I simply asked if you wanted to go, but judging by your response, it seems like you are going."

"Is something happening there?" Li Ang asked.

Mort lightly shook his head, "Once this is over, we can talk more."

Seeing the young man with beast ears acting strange, Li Ang couldn't figure it out and didn't press further.

In the arena, the captain of the Rock Breaker Team, Quinn, returned to the battlefield after continuous treatment from the Mage.

This time, he didn't dare to underestimate his opponent. With the cooperation of the other two, he swung his Bone Blade, attacking Zoe together.

The Bone Blade in his hand was considered a decent weapon, possibly originating from some special Demon. Under the stimulation of magic, the surface bone blade became longer and sharper, capable of even cutting through the auto-emerging Autonomous Earth Shield when slashing at Zoe.

"Hah!" ALulu shouted, swinging her hammer in a sweeping motion, forcing back the Rock Breaker Team, and shielding Zoe with the Shield.

A flutter of fabric revealed that the tiny tip of the snake tail originally exposed behind Zoe disappeared, replaced by an ice-blue beast's tail.

"Oh? It's strange, isn't it? I can't see clearly, but why does the little girl using the sword seem to have a completely different aura?" Reed commented.

Zoe raised her hand, and around her, ice condensed into dozens of sword blades, spinning and shooting out.

"Does she even know Tier Six moves?" Mort raised his eyebrows.

After a Professional reaches Tier Five, their ability to mold magic into material increases. The most efficient use of this power is transforming it into a Material Shield, attaching it to armor on the body, or levitating it by the side.

Similarly, Tier Five equipment begins to have the ability to transform. Simple transformation involves layering the material structure on the surface to form multi-layered defense. Both Lanslow, who worked with Li Ang, and Fukate, whom he defeated, used this method to defend while wearing standard equipment.

If the equipment is well-made, it can change forms, but blind transformation may not work and could even reduce defense.

High-level artisans only attempt effective equipment transformation when they can ensure successful results.

Currently, Dorothy is in this state. Her equipment, under the effect of the Rock Array, elevated to Tier Five, has its Floating Dust Gold Sand transformed and detached, converging to form a spell that manipulates specific materials.

Upon reaching Tier Six, both Professionals and equipment gain a higher mastery of magic control. This time, the efficient choice is to condense material weapons.

On Satus Island, Li Ang once shaped an Elemental Ice Sword, and Lanslow used a standard Multiblade Sword, which could transform into floating blades.

However, Zoe's Secret Technique—Extreme Cold Punishment, cast with the energy from the Light of the Star Soul, is essentially learned through resonating Eden's power. At her stage, it can be seen as prematurely mastering a Tier Six attack method.

The Ice Blades rotate and shoot out, their edges performing horizontal slashes simultaneously. The Rock Breaker Team members immediately ducked to dodge, but such evasion almost entirely surrendered the chance for victory or defeat.

Under the successive onslaught of the three young girls, the Rock Breaker Team quickly met defeat.

"Today's event is amazing! Even the defending champion seems insignificant. Can they fight their way back from the loser's bracket?"

Reed shouted, "Audience, wasn't this year's event worth witnessing?! One more winner's bracket match remains, then it's time for the loser's bracket rounds—will there be more surprises?

"Everyone, don't forget to grab your tickets for tomorrow!"

After four winner's bracket matches, the loser's bracket will play three consecutive rounds, eliminating four teams in the first round. The four winners will face the four losing teams from the winner's bracket, then the remaining eight teams duke it out, deciding two victorious teams and thus concluding today's events.

These two teams from the loser's bracket will await the two losers from the winner's four teams' battles tomorrow.

Tomorrow, the Star Flower Travel Corps will face the winner between the Defender Knights and the Great Demon Team in their first match.

After the group's match was finished, Li Ang didn't plan to watch the subsequent battles and left the spectator seats to greet them at the Dueling Arena's entrance.

The entrance was crowded with a variety of spectators, some of whom hadn't even bought tickets and were simply listening outside for information.

Neither the Sandbone Group nor the Platinum Ace had the same appeal as the Star Flower Travel Corps' three members who defeated last year's champions.

Thus, escorting them away was quite the effort.

"You three, where are you from? Why participate in the Flowing Silver Combat? Do you think you can win?"

"Hello, nice to meet you. My family is one of the three leaders of the Flashing Field. We funded the Flowing Silver Combat..."

"Want to grab a meal together and exchange Swordsmanship lessons? I think you have room to improve."

"The latter rounds of the competition have strategies involved. Could I get your contact info? I have a lot of experience in the Combat Competition."

"Are you the Sky Cavalry? Are you recruiting? Or perhaps join us, we have high rankings and accumulate merit quickly."

Encountering such a situation for the first time, Zoe and ALulu, who were full of spirit in the arena, suddenly felt at a loss.

Dorothy strained to keep herself from rolling her eyes, driving back all these ulterior-motivated individuals with her Golden Sand Mist.

Li Ang pushed through the crowd, waved to them.

The three's troubled expressions instantly changed to bright smiles, and Li Ang drew the crowd's attention.

Before they could say anything, they suddenly found themselves unable to move.

Li Ang smiled and pressed down with his palm.

Wide Area Slowdown, kid.

Li Ang stepped forward, leading the girls through the immobilized crowd, draping wide Cloaks over them, and together disappearing into a position beyond the crowd's sight.

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