Chapter 191: I Have A Trump Card

For the Spell segment of the event, the young representatives of the Garden of Eden were the first to take the stage.

Shirley, Augus, and Arthur, all three of them were people that An Lin was quite familiar with. After all, they had just had lunch together the day prior so he had a chance to communicate with them then.

Arthur was Spirit Nurturing Final Stage and he was the first to take the stage. He brought out a silver longbow and the vital energy between heaven and earth suddenly began to swirl violently before forming a golden arrow which he shot forth from his bow.

Boom!

The arrow struck the stone plaque with a resounding boom, sending tremors through the ground with the explosion of energy.

The spell formation surrounding the stage severely dulled the effects of the shockwaves from the collision, so An Lin and the others could only feel a strong breeze pass by them instead of any substantial force.

The stone plaque remained unmoving after the strike as an evaluation appeared on its surface: Earth level, Initial stage.

“Arthur, seven points!” Bodhisattva Hui Ming announced.

The next person to take the stage was Shirley.

She narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked up at the sky as if she were a beautiful maiden receiving blessings from above.

Immediately after this, flashes of white light began to appear, intertwining around her body like a light breeze. This was the embryonic stage of a domain!

Orbs of light imbued with powerful vitality appeared in her hands and floated toward the black stone plaque, before merging into the plaque.

The plaque trembled for a moment before another message was displayed: Earth level, Final stage.

“Shirley, nine points!” Hui Ming announced again.

Last, Augus took the stage.

He was once able to knock both An Lin and Da Bai out of the sky in one hit, so his combat strength was definitely not to be scoffed at. In fact, he was a Soul Formation Stage cultivator just like Wang Xuanzhan.

The spell he unleashed this time was still the same Divine Punishment— White Swirling Heavenly Pillars.

But this time, he did not hold back. White rays of divine light imbued with terrifying power descended from the sky before colliding with the stone plaque, and the resulting explosion of light had everyone looking away or covering their eyes.

Even with the protection of the spell formation, the stage still cracked open under the might of the pillar of light. Devastating power radiated outwards, and even though he was quite far away from the stage, it caused An Lin to involuntarily retreat two steps.

“Heaven level, Initial stage.”

“Augus, ten points!”

This time, cries of surprise began to erupt from the audience.

As the first group to take the stage, the Garden of Eden had put on a scintillating performance. Their total tally settled at 26 points, exerting a lot of scoreboard pressure on the remaining three teams.

After that, the representatives from the Hall of Creation took the stage.

Hong Dou, Dong Yan, and Huang Shan each received seven, eight, and nine points respectively for a total of 24 points.

As expected, Hong Dou who was able to fight on par with him was the weakest from his group. An Lin was starting to panic a little.

The representatives from the Buddhist Kingdom also took the stage. Qing Zhi, Qing Yan, and Qing Xin each received nine, eight, and eight points respectively, equating to a 25 point total.

The three teams were neck and neck, with the Garden of Eden holding a slight temporary lead.

It was time for the Heavenly Court representatives to take the stage.

An Lin looked around toward the other teams to find Hong Dou smiling at him with a gloating expression as if to say: “So what if I only got seven points, you’ll be the one at the bottom of the pack anyway.”

F*ck, was he being looked down on by an underachiever?!

An Lin did not know why, but his chest tightened slightly at the sight of Hong Dou’s face.

Wang Xuanzhan was the first to take the stage. He had the blood of the Dragon Clan running through his body, granting him great mastery over lightning spell techniques. His thunderous dragon domain was like an eruption of thunder and lightning, instantly shocking the audience into an uproar.

The evaluation he received, in the end, was “Heaven level, Initial stage”, the same as Augus.

Wang Xuanzhan’s lips curled a little as if he was a little unhappy with the score, but he still returned to stand beside An Lin.

Next, it was Liu Qianhuan’s turn.

She was number two on the university’s Heaven Roll, the embodiment of both beauty and power. Apparently, she was also at Half-Step Soul Formation Stage.

If Liu Qianhuan could produce a good performance, then An Lin would feel a lot more relaxed.

But for some unknown reason, An Lin was unable to bring himself to rely on Sister Liu.

“Hehehe, finally time for me to shine!” Liu Qianhuan walked toward the stage with a light smile, her purple eyes flashed brightly like stars.

Liu Qianhuan’s instantly attracted the cheering from tens-of-thousands of male spectators when she took the stage.

She stared at the black stone plaque and inhaled deeply before extending both palms towards the stone plaque in the distance.

A six-feathered staff quickly turned as it levitated by her side, accumulating an extremely terrifying power.

“Eat this, Final Spark!”

Her clear, crisp cry was accompanied by a blast of energy shooting forth from her staff, forming a pink pillar of life which struck the stone pillar like the blast from a laser cannon.

Boom!

The blast of energy exploded with extremely high temperature as the wind howled around the plaque.

An Lin breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of this. With such devastating destructive power, this was at least worthy of an evaluation of nine points.

A messaged began to display itself on the plaque: “Earth level, Initial stage.”

Bodhisattva Hui Ming announced again, “Liu Qianhuan, seven points.”

“Wh… what, only seven?!”

An Lin’s eyes widened in incredulity.

Not only him, but the tens-of-thousands of spectators gathered in the plaza were also all shocked into silence before a loud chorus of boos erupted.

“That’s bullsh*t! Why is it only seven points? My Final Spark is unmatched in its power, it should be at least eleven points!” Liu Qianhuan furrowed her brows and argued in a loud voice with Hui Ming.

Hui Ming grimaced slightly as he put his palms together in front of him. “Patron Liu’s spell technique does indeed have amazing destructive power, but it is lacking in substance. It’s like a forced imitation of something. There’s only an outer shell, but no concept or sense of enlightenment within.”

His voice was not very loud, but every member of the audience heard his explanation.

There were mighty figures of the Return to Void Stage in the audience anyway, so if there was an incorrect judgment made, there would definitely be someone to dispute the decision.

The students weren’t idiots either. They soon began to quiet down following Hui Ming’s explanation, but expressions of disappointment still lingered on their faces.

Liu Qianhuan walked back to An Lin’s side with a pout as she muttered to herself under her breath, cursing everyone for their inability to appreciate beauty.

There was a ten-point result as well as a seven-point result from the Heavenly Court, giving everyone the impression that their strongest and weakest members had just taken the stage.

Especially the Hall of Creation, they had originally thought that they would be ranked last this round, but they didn’t anticipate that the Half-Step Soul Formation Stage student from the Heavenly Court would only get a meager seven points…

They suddenly felt like they had this in the bag!

Hong Dou chuckled to himself. “An Lin is at best on par with me, so his result will probably be either seven or six points.”

The tens-of-thousands of students in the plaza also felt like they had this one in the bag.

“Ten plus seven plus twelve makes a total of 29…”

“They couldn’t even get thirty points, what a shame.”

“It’s fine as long as we come first. If we perform too well, the other three powers won’t want to participate anymore.”

“That’s true, God An should hold back a little bit and get something like ten points. It makes the competition more enjoyable to watch if the scores are close…”

…

It was finally An Lin’s turn to take the stage.

The spectator stands instantly erupted into raucous cheers, and this was something no other contestant had been treated to.

Hong Dou was startled by the sudden eruption of cheers. “What the hell, why is An Lin so popular?!”

The representatives from the Hall of Creation were all weird creatures, so they had next to no interactions with the other students. As such, they did not know just how breath-taking the legend of An Lin was.

The cheers from the spectators instantly placed a huge amount of pressure on An Lin.

He did have thick skin, but he still had an ego, and he really didn’t want to disappoint everyone.

Among the four powers, even those who had performed slightly below par, like Hong Dou and Arthur, they were still the finest prodigies of their respective power, so the spell techniques they used were certainly not mediocre by any means.

By his estimation, if he were to use the Mountain Quaking Fist, it would only be around five points. If he were to perform the Mountain Quaking Lightning Fist well, it would probably be around six or seven points. This kind of result would place him at the bottom of the pack.

As for the Six Strikes of the War God, the first technique was quite deep and profound, but it was lacking in power. If he were to use the Evil-Slaying Sword to boost the power of the technique, the plaque would definitely take that in consideration and display a standardized evaluation.

It seemed that he had no choice but to use his trump card…

As long as he was careful, he should be fine.

An Lin took a deep breath and finally made up his mind. He made his way toward Wang Xuanzhan. “Senior Wang, I’m going to be using a trump card next, so I hope you can stay by my side to protect me.”

Wang Xuanzhan was in a slight stupor after hearing this. He then exclaimed in shock, “You’re going to use your full power?! No, wait… If you’re using your full power, why would you need my protection…”

“I’m still Spirit Nurturing Initial Stage.”

“But the spell technique I’m about to use… I’m a little scared of it myself.”

“So I want to implore you to protect me from the aftermath,” An Lin said earnestly.

Wang Xuanzhan did not know why, but he felt a chill run down his spine at An Lin’s sincere expression, making him a little fearful and reluctant to agree.

“Woah! An Lin, are you going to use a big technique? I’ll protect you as well, I’ll use my Prismatic Barrier!” Liu Qianhuan volunteered excitedly.

Wang Xuanzhan’s lips twitched in a grimace. Even Liu Qianhuan had volunteered, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and agree.

Thus, An Lin made his way toward the stone plaque under the eager gazes of all the spectators.

This time, he had to carry the team!