And the chaotic space around him had been sealed shut, leaving him utterly unable to move.

His expression was one of shock and panic.

At this moment, Qi finally understood what Shi Jin had meant about being confident.

BOOM!

After the strike, she looked silently at the ruined world before her, then at the weapon now in her hand—the Blade of Piercing the Void.

It was a weapon forged by Eleven, whose strength was at the overlord level, using the Hardening and Space-Shaking skills at full power, and then enchanted by Chongchong with the phantom of the Space Butterfly.

"Gelin, how can her equipment still change form?!"

"It's actually a spatial weapon!"

"And this power—this is no mere level-five equipment. Level six? Level seven?!"

"Just who gave her that weapon?"

Master Gelin was silent too. She knew she had been wrong—not level five? Did this Dr. Shi Jin have a divine ore mine at home or something?!

Outside.

As Qi passed the eighth stage, everything had descended into utter chaos. One royal genius after another stared blankly at Qi's name, which had leapt above so many others, unable to comprehend it.

"What on earth is happening?"

The ninth stage already had a king-level guardian.

Generally speaking, even the geniuses of the Tingxiang Royal Family found it very difficult to win at this stage against a higher level.

Because the guardians of this stage had, almost without exception, mastered Intimidation to no small degree of proficiency.

Intimidation was usually the greeting offered by the guardians of stages nine through twelve.

It was there to test whether a guardian was qualified to reach this stage and issue a challenge.

But for Qi, who possessed the Umbrella of Time, this stage was actually simpler than the ones before.

The tachi reverted to the form of an umbrella, and Qi walked step by step into the ninth stage. The instant she set foot inside, an overwhelming kingly aura and a wave of mastery-level Intimidation swept over her!

BOOM!

Qi opened her umbrella, and a miniature black-and-white panda metal charm materialized at the tip. Then, a terrifying Intimidation that shook heaven and earth erupted from the opened umbrella shield!!

BUZZ!

A white, substantiated wave of Intimidation, like lightning, devoured the Intimidation of the ninth stage's guardian king in an instant and pressed onward. Before the guardian of the ninth stage could even react, its pupils turned white, and it was knocked unconscious by the backlash from Qi's mental defense equipment, the panda charm.

"So strong..."

By now, Qi was growing more and more excited. Was this really just defensive equipment?

This panda charm, wreathed in a technique-verging-on-the-Dao-level Intimidation wave and carrying Eleven's overlord will—never mind the Intimidation of a king-level savage beast; even a standard overlord-level Intimidation could not break through its protection of Qi.

After all, with this max-level Intimidation-wreathing technique, the Martial Emperor had built the Iron-Eating Beast training relic that had lasted two hundred years, and to this day the Intimidation wave from that stone pillar still had a will of its own.

At this very moment, Shi Yu and Lin were studying the possibility that Qi was the reincarnation of the Time Elf, completely unaware that Qi, using the peerless equipment they had given her, was already slaughtering her way through the Tingxiang Royal Trial.

Outside the trial secret realm, a crowd of young royal geniuses stared at the eleven stars after Qi's name, their mouths already hanging wide open.

Qi had still not come out, which meant she was challenging the twelfth stage.

As they called their friends over in disbelief and incomprehension, more and more Tingxiang royal geniuses arrived at the news, staring in shock at Qi's name on the secret realm ranking board.

Qi—an awakening-level elf who had never mastered transcendent power—how had she reached the eleventh stage?

How was that possible?

Even if she could wield level-seven legendary equipment, she still could not defeat a king.

Equipment and weapons were, at most, the icing on the cake.

They could make up for some of the shortcomings of a pet beast or beastmaster—allowing a low-level lifeform to withstand the Intimidation of a high-level one, for instance, or rounding out one's attributes—but they would never be too outrageous. They could not surpass the enhancement granted by one's beastmaster talent, nor could a piece of equipment's strength exceed the transcendent abilities of a transcendent lifeform itself.

Otherwise, equipment would long since have become the mainstream.

"I don't understand."

"I don't understand either."

"Don't tell me Qi is holding a legendary weapon or a divine artifact!"

"Don't be ridiculous. Where would she get something like that? I'm more inclined to believe the secret realm is broken."

The guardian of the twelfth stage was a top-tier king capable of briefly matching an overlord—extremely difficult to defeat.

Its base energy value alone reached eight million. Its race was the War Giant Tree, an overlord race at king level.

In a one-on-one fight, only four among the current new generation of Tingxiang could defeat it.

In the forest region of the twelfth trial, defeating it was undoubtedly extremely difficult—yet within the twelfth trial at this very moment, a scene was unfolding that most people could hardly imagine.

"Da-da-da-da-da!!!!!"

The opponent in the twelfth trial was indeed very strong, and Qi had fallen into a bitter struggle.

She carried a heavy, massive machine gun, on which dazzling light bullets kept gathering, spewing light energy at a rate of several thousand rounds per minute.

This machine gun had been built by Ginseng Baby and Rin together, applying mechanical theory and botanical knowledge; it could photosynthesize directly, condensing light bullets through charged beams to strafe wherever there was light.

Its item spirit was Ginseng Baby.

The reason she had brought out this weapon was that the War Giant Tree was too strong—the entire forest was its hands and feet, attacks came from every direction, and Qi found it hard to fend them off with her other weapons.

"￥%#%￥ damn it, what is with this little brat?"

At that moment, the War Giant Tree, hidden behind the scenes, was cursing inwardly. Watching the plant legions it controlled being shredded by that absurd weapon, its heart turned cold and desolate.

It poured all its power into a single vine, which shot out from cover like a bullet, trying to pierce through this machine gun—or to bind that short pink-haired elf girl. But just as the vine drew near its limit, a surge of cold air rose swiftly around the girl's body!

It froze the vine to pieces, guarding the little girl.

Susu's variant power of the Water of Guardianship!

At present, in the form of a teardrop-shaped ornament, it stood guard over Qi alongside the panda charm—a guardian skill likewise tempered to the point of possessing its own consciousness.

"I don't understand!" The War Giant Tree, who had few rivals even among Monarch-level beings, stared incomprehensibly at this Awakened-level elf girl. That she could reach the twelfth trial, that she could command so many weapons and equipment—it simply could not understand.

"The Umbrella of Time really is strong!" Commanding the machine gun, Qi's face was flushed red, her baby-fat cheeks filled with madness and excitement, her delicate, cherry-blossom-petal lips pressed tightly together—she was gradually entering her groove.

.........

Of course.

At this moment, the most dumbfounded of all was Master Green, who had watched Qi grow up.

At first it had been fine, but once Qi began instantly killing the space-attribute elves of the eighth trial, everything had started to go wrong.

The Monarch-level guardian of the ninth trial likewise lost its will to fight at the first encounter.