140: Lin Heng 2

Watching the mechanical construct on the dome of the sky turn into dust along with the spatial collapse, while marveling at the power of the Space Element, Xu Yan immediately abandoned the idea of summoning Xiong Nian to fight Lin Heng and the Void-Fleeing Rat alongside Wu Xiang.

After all, Xiong Nian was not like Wu Xiang, which had a small enough body and possessed strong self-preservation capabilities as long as its summoned mechanical constructs remained on the field. Summoning Xiong Nian in this situation would only make it a target, leaving it vulnerable to the opponent.

Thinking this, Xu Yan stopped holding back. While recalling Wu Xiang to the Beast-Taming Space, Zhu Yan appeared on the Battle Arena.

Seeing Zhu Yan appear in the Battle Arena, whose aura clearly reached Marshal Rank Upper Grade, both Lin Heng inside the arena and the spectators outside were somewhat shocked.

Especially those spectators outside who had been defeated by Xu Yan in previous challenges, they looked as if they had been struck by lightning, particularly the nine challengers who had entered the arena before Lin Heng today, nearly exhausting themselves.

Their various struggles and probes earlier were merely attempts to force Xu Yan to reveal more, allowing Lin Heng, who would appear later, to gain more information and make appropriate countermeasures.

Although their previous plan failed, as Xu Yan did not expose anything new during the nine consecutive battles, they had already resigned themselves to sacrificing themselves. Even if they failed, they would at most feel that their strength was insufficient and needed further effort, so their morale wasn't severely affected.

However, Zhu Yan's appearance dealt them a heavy blow.

Having gone through the entrance examination last semester, they knew Xu Yan had a total of three Spirit Beasts, so Zhu Yan's existence was not a secret.

Being Xu Yan's initial Spirit Beast meant that Zhu Yan's bloodline rank would not exceed Shuai Rank Middle Grade. Furthermore, Zhu Yan was clearly not among the known Spirit Beast information—it was either a new Spirit Beast or a mutated form—and regardless of which it was, evolving in a short period was not easy.

For this reason, coupled with the powerful combat strength shown by Wu Xiang and Xiong Nian, the fact that Xu Yan did not send out Zhu Yan in previous battles, only summoning Wu Xiang and Xiong Nian, did not raise much alarm among the crowd.

Most people speculated that this was because Xu Yan's initial Spirit Beast was about to reach its bloodline limit, its growth rate had slowed down, and it had failed to break through to the Commander Rank alongside Xu Yan's other two Spirit Beasts, thus providing little assistance to the other two, which was why Xu Yan hadn't summoned it.

Furthermore, those who understood Xu Yan, like Jing Xing and Mu Jin, and disagreed with the previous people's statements—believing Xu Yan was hiding a trump card—guessed that since Zhu Yan was hidden by Xu Yan, its strength would definitely not be weaker than Wu Xiang's, but they never expected Zhu Yan's strength to be this formidable.

When the vast majority of people were still at General Rank, and the absolute peak batch had only broken through to Commander Rank for less than two months, the strongest among them was merely the Void-Fleeing Rat in the Battle Arena, which had just broken through to Shuai Rank Middle Grade. The rest were still “struggling” at Commander Rank Low-grade.

However, in this major version of the game, Xu Yan directly brought out a Spirit Beast that had reached Marshal Rank Upper Grade. This could already be considered surpassing the current version's standards.

The stark reality informed them that the strength Xu Yan had previously displayed—nearly sweeping the entire First-Year Combat Department—was only a small fraction of his true power. His previous battles weren't even about hiding techniques; at most, he was merely training his other two Spirit Beasts while conveniently earning some academic credits from them.

This realization dealt a tremendous blow to the spectators outside.

Returning to the Battle Arena, Lin Heng recovered quickly after a brief moment of surprise upon seeing Zhu Yan, who was radiating the aura of Marshal Rank Upper Grade.

No matter how high Zhu Yan's rank was, it was still at the Commander Rank and had not reached the qualitative transformation level of the Monarch Rank. While other Spirit Beasts might find it difficult to defeat Zhu Yan, it was not an overly difficult task for the Space Element Void-Fleeing Rat.

Thinking this, Lin Heng once again commanded the Void-Fleeing Rat to attack Zhu Yan in front of it.

As the Void-Fleeing Rat swiped its claws, that familiar sensation reappeared: the space where Zhu Yan stood seemed to be cut off individually, becoming incompatible with the surrounding space.

Furthermore, as the Void-Fleeing Rat swiped its claws, the space that was already unstable after being cut off immediately began to collapse, attempting to bury Zhu Yan in the spatial collapse just like the mechanical constructs before.

Facing the collapse of the space it was in, Zhu Yan's two foremost spider legs began to weave and shuttle back and forth. Although there was nothing between Zhu Yan's two spider legs, it seemed as if some invisible substance was being woven between their interactions.

Following Zhu Yan's movements, the extremely unstable space around it, which was rapidly collapsing, seemed to find a pillar and became stable again. The collapsed sections also recovered quickly.

This was precisely the new ability Zhu Yan mastered during its evolution and acquisition of the new Space attribute: Space Weaving.

As the name suggests, the effect of this ability is to Space Weaving. It can weave Spatial Rifts and traps, dragging enemies into them like a spider web to be crushed, or it can weave and repair damaged space, as it is doing now.

Although Zhu Yan, whose Space Element only accounted for ten percent of its attributes, did not control spatial power as well as the purely Space Element Void-Fleeing Rat, Zhu Yan still had the advantage in strength.

While it might be inferior to the Void-Fleeing Rat in tearing and destroying space, in the domain of stabilizing and repairing space, Zhu Yan was definitely a leader, thanks to the existence of the Shadowlight Realm associated with itself.

If Zhu Yan wished it, the area where it stood was equivalent to a small Secret Realm suppressing the surrounding space.

To directly collapse the space where Zhu Yan was located would be equivalent to collapsing a small Secret Realm, which the Void-Fleeing Rat's current strength was still unable to achieve.

By directly controlling the spatial collapse using the suppressive power of the Shadowlight Realm, and then utilizing its Space Weaving skill to repair the collapsed space, Zhu Yan easily neutralized the Void-Fleeing Rat's attack.