139: Lin Heng again

After experiencing battle after battle, time quickly arrived at the final day of the one-month period.

The Combat Department also had its pride and never intended to rely on attrition warfare to defeat Xu Yan. Therefore, students at the Commander Rank with comparable strength—like Jing Xing and Mu Jin—were not scheduled to challenge Xu Yan on the same day. Instead, their challenge times were separated, allowing Xu Yan to maintain sufficient energy and combat strength when facing each opponent.

However, this final day was ultimately different.

On one hand, if Xu Yan could win the challenge on this final day, he would have completely swept through the Combat Department's first-year students at the Third Academy. Neither the teachers nor the students of the Combat Department wanted this to happen.

On the other hand, after a month of resource investment and intensified training, coupled with having Xu Yan—this "public enemy"—hanging in front of them, the Combat Department students, who were already geniuses from various regions, progressed extremely quickly. Many successfully took the final step, stimulated by the countdown of the "final day."

Therefore, in the challenges on this final day, the first four challengers Xu Yan faced—whether their Spirit Beasts or the Beast Tamers themselves—had all reached the Commander Rank.

Moreover, although these challengers had only recently broken through to the Commander Rank and their combat strength was not comparable to people like Jing Xing and Chen Yan whom Xu Yan had faced before, they possessed a greater sense of determination compared to his previous opponents.

Xu Yan could clearly feel that this determination was not born from coercion or temptation; they genuinely wanted to protect the dignity of the Combat Department and were fighting with all their might to force Xu Yan to expose more of his capabilities, allowing subsequent challengers to gather more information and formulate appropriate countermeasures.

It was precisely because of this determination that, even though their strength was not the greatest among the Commander Rank opponents Xu Yan had encountered, their fighting style—which nearly burned themselves out—deeply shocked Xu Yan.

They didn't even fall under the attacks of Wuxiang and Xiong Nian. Instead, during the battle with Xu Yan, they maintained a full-power burst state for so long, coupled with the damage received from Wuxiang and Xiong Nian, that their bodies could no longer withstand this nearly overloaded fighting style, causing them to be directly teleported out by the battlefield's protective measures.

Although their goal was ultimately not achieved due to the disparity in strength—Xu Yan did not expose anything new beyond what he had already shown—their fighting style still left a profound impression on him.

After the fourth challenger disappeared from the battle arena because their Innate Talent overloaded and their body could no longer bear it, Xu Yan chose to rest and recover for half an hour before facing the final challenger of this event, his old acquaintance, Lin Heng.

Although Lin Heng's personality was a bit eccentric, he was chased and beaten by Xu Yan throughout the Entrance Examination last semester and ultimately suffered a rather miserable defeat. Furthermore, it seemed he had not contracted any Spirit Beasts other than the Void-Fleeing Rat.

Yet, relying solely on the Void-Fleeing Rat, Lin Heng's own strength has not been surpassed by those Combat Department students who benefit from multiple Spirit Beasts. He remains in the absolute leading position.

Moreover, whether it was the Final Examination last semester or the Opening Test this semester, Lin Heng secured first place with absolutely overwhelming strength, even more easily than Xu Yan had handled his previous battles. He is truly the undisputed number one among the Combat Department's first-year students.

Naturally, Lin Heng became the Combat Department's final trump card and Xu Yan's last opponent in this event.

Lin Heng, entering the battle arena, was not as eccentric as he was when interacting with Xu Yan or in group chats. Instead, he stood opposite Xu Yan with a serious expression, awaiting the start of the battle.

"Identities confirmed. Combat Department's Lin Heng versus Cultivation Department's Xu Yan.

Battle start."

As the voice of the electronic referee fell, this time Xu Yan did not choose to summon his Spirit Beast directly as before. Instead, he communicated with the Power of Heaven and Earth, turning himself into a breeze and dissipating from his original spot.

Unlike the opponents Xu Yan had faced before, no matter how fast he summoned his Spirit Beast, when facing the Commander Rank Void-Fleeing Rat of the Space Element, the Void-Fleeing Rat could not only emerge from the Beast Taming Space but also launch at least one attack against Xu Yan, regardless of distance, all within the time it took Xu Yan to summon his beast.

In this situation, standing still to summon a Spirit Beast would simply make him a target. The best outcome would be that the Spirit Beast was just summoned, but the Beast Tamer had already fallen to the Void-Fleeing Rat's Space Cutting. This was one of the strengths of the combination of Lin Heng and the Void-Fleeing Rat.

The opponent would be taken out before they even had time to summon their Spirit Beast, let alone engage in combat.

The situation on the battlefield proved this: almost simultaneously with Xu Yan's disappearance, over a dozen Space Blades immediately covered the area where he had been. It was imaginable that if Xu Yan had stood still to summon his Spirit Beast as before, he would have been instantly taken out by these erratic Space Blades.

On the other side of the battle arena, Lin Heng's expression was calm upon seeing that his preemptive attack had missed Xu Yan, showing no signs of disappointment.

His fighting style had already been exposed during the previous Final Examination, so it was normal for Xu Yan to know about it and be prepared. Lin Heng had only made the move with the thought of, "What if it hits?"

The next moment, a Mechanical Greatsword and various weapons appeared directly above the sky, and endless artillery fire poured down toward the location of Lin Heng and the Void-Fleeing Rat.

However, just as the artillery fire was about to hit Lin Heng, it instantly twisted and reappeared behind him, triggering a violent explosion. Neither Lin Heng, the Void-Fleeing Rat standing on his shoulder, nor the area they occupied were affected by the aftershock of the explosion, not even a speck of dust.

It was as if the two sides were fundamentally existing on different layers; the attacks launched by Wuxiang simply couldn't land on Lin Heng and the Void-Fleeing Rat.

While ignoring the artillery strike, the Void-Fleeing Rat standing on Lin Heng's shoulder casually waved its claw. The space above the sky was immediately cut out and began to rapidly collapse. The Mechanical Greatsword and other weapons within that space instantly turned into dust as the space collapsed.