Shi Jin noticed that Lu Yan seemed to have a real fondness for wind-type beasts.

The Gale Demon Lion was wind-type, the Azure Spirit Wind Bird was wind-type, and now this elf-race undead was wind-type too.

That made three wind-type beasts already.

Fine, if Lu Yan had a wind-type enhancement talent, but the thing was, she had a telepathy talent—normal people basically never played it this way.

Was wind really that much fun?

Shi Jin's gaze settled on Lu Yan.

Beneath the starlight of the vortex condensed from wind elements, the wind wove itself into a white robe; her garments had turned entirely white, radiant and shining.

From what Shi Jin remembered, the elf race of Tingxiang—apart from a few special breeds like the blood elves—were mostly darlings of nature, with extraordinarily outstanding elemental talents.

Right now, the power of the wind element was Lu Heng's finest weapon; with the whirlwind rising against the current, she easily withstood the might of the stone pillars.

"Thirty seconds now."

Soon, thirty seconds had passed since Lu Heng stepped onto the platform; below, Bai Xi was quietly counting.

Up on the raised platform, the two recorders were swallowing hard as they watched the raging spectacle before them.

Thirty-one... thirty-two... thirty-three... thirty-four...

Lu Heng was surpassing Bai Xi's result with remarkable ease.

"So this is Dr. Lu."

The bystanders had only heard of Lu Heng's great name, knew her as the young generation's most likely legend—but they had never seen her strength with their own eyes.

Yet now, as she displayed power surpassing everyone before her—even master-level contestants—she simply left people awed.

At this moment, Lu Heng seemed wrapped in a vast domain of wind; the semicircular wind domain and the earthen-brown pressure of the stone pillars crushed against each other, a sight of tremendous grandeur.

Rumble!!

Where the wind domain and the domain of intimidation collided, brown arcs of lightning burst across the sky, proof that both sides stood at an extremely high tier of power. But the Terrace of Dominion, after all, had been established by the Martial Emperor, and it gave no one the slightest chance to slacken.

Even Lu Heng, with an elf possessing her and a storm-like power surging in her body, knitted her brows as time wore on and the intimidation grew ever more absurd.

Boom!!

The wind pressure Lu Heng had raised began to be pushed back, the domain enveloping her gradually shrinking. The next moment, a pale purple miniature summoning array appeared on her hand, and a single seed fell from it and merged into her palm.

In an instant, within her pale purple pupils, the veins shifted slightly, forming the pattern of a flower with a complex structure.

"That's Lu Yan's Emperor's Concubine Flower..."

"The seeds of the Emperor's Concubine Flower can merge into a beast tamer's body and strengthen their mental power."

Below, Bai Xi explained to Shi Jin.

And Shi Jin, arms folded, discovered that the "new race" energy value with Lu Yan as its subject had indeed broken through once more.

Boom!

In that instant, Lu Heng's momentum surged once again, and she herself radiated a fierce intimidation that merged into the wind pressure. Unfortunately, the move only bought her two more seconds; soon the intimidation came sweeping back in full fury.

Moments later, no one knew how many seconds had passed—though Lu Heng had tried her hardest, the wind domain collapsed outright, and the berserk intimidation pressed straight down toward her body.

"Ah." Finding that she too could not hold out against the might of the stone pillar, Lu Heng was helpless. At that moment, everyone held their breath, wanting to see how Lu Heng would struggle against the final intimidation—but...

What happened next left everyone utterly dumbfounded: as an even stronger intimidation swept in, Lu Heng simply vanished, flashing out of existence to appear outside the arena.

The intimidation, left without a target, stood there dumbstruck.

Everyone: ???

Lu Heng: "That's about the limit. Let's leave it here."

If she kept resisting, she would end up as bedraggled as Bai Xi. Her result would surely get her into the main tournament anyway, and Lu Heng had no interest in displaying her limits before so many people.

With that, she walked slowly toward the stunned Shi Yan and Bai Xi, the elf's element fading from her body as she returned to normal, and smiled.

"Holy shit."

"She just went down?"

"She went down on her own?"

Seeing Lu Heng's move, the audience was struck dumb. That was allowed?

Compared with how the others had ended, they could not believe for a moment that this was Lu Heng's limit—even struggling, she could have struggled another second, surely.

But Lu Heng seemed to have no such intention.

Every gaze turned to the two recorders.

At that moment, their expressions turned somewhat sour. Damn, this was the first time anyone had pulled something like this in the strength assessment of the Martial Fighting Tournament — voluntarily withdrawing???

To be able to retreat unscathed in an instant under that kind of pressure — and you call that his limit???

But the key thing was...

"Shi Yun, thirty-seven seconds twenty-one."

After one of the recorders spoke, he himself fell into silence.

At once, Lu Heng's result placed him directly at the top of all the contestants who had undergone the assessment so far.

Even though he was already in his forties, he still felt like calling Lu Heng 'boss.'

Was this the arbitrary privilege of a big shot?

With a result like that, holding on for one more second, getting himself all bedraggled and wasting a supplement — it really didn't mean much.

"Thirty-seven seconds... that's, that's three seconds more than me!"

While the other bystanders were stunned, Bai Xi turned to Lu Heng with a tearful, whining look.

"Once you break through to my level, you'll definitely do better than me," Lu Heng said with a faint smile.

She had mainly benefited from her higher tier; in terms of individual physical constitution at the same tier, she was certainly no match for Bai Xi.

"Um, do you want a supplement?" Shi Jin figured Lu Yan probably didn't need one.

"You'd better save it and eat it yourself later."

After this brief exchange between Shi Yan and Lu Heng — though they were greatly shocked by Lu Heng's result and thoroughly caught off guard by this uninvited guest at the Martial Fighting Tournament — the strength assessment still had to continue as quickly as possible. The two recorders on the raised platform could only go on:

"Number 111, Shi Jin."

At this moment, the crowd was still mired in Lu Heng's performance and had yet to recover, murmuring among themselves about Lu Heng's earlier possession display. But as Shi Jin was about to take the stage, they all paused, stopped their discussions, and turned as one toward Shi Qi.

As for Shi Jin, after taking a deep breath, he walked toward the arena with a nervous heart.

Compared to Lu Yan and Bai Xi, who knew for certain they would make it into the main tournament, he had no such confidence.

One of them was a top-tier master, the other an ordinary master-level — and Shi Tan, a high-level beast tamer, was trembling with nerves.

His goal wasn't high either; just getting close to Senior Bai Xi's result would do.

He just didn't know whether his own limit could reach that far...

Unlike Lu Heng, he intended to see exactly where his limit lay.

Shi Jue was quite interested in these training facilities; after all, there would be archaeological work to do next, and he wanted to establish as deep a connection with these facilities as possible and explore more of their power.

But all of that depended on whether the Iron-Eating Beast knight combo of Shi Yi and Chi Tong could deliver.

Before long, Shi Jin stepped onto the arena.

"I'll give it a try too!"

Once on the arena, Shi Zhao's thoughts raced as he looked toward the stone pillar.