Pop!
The battle was about to erupt.
Bai Chen hurriedly withdrew the part of his body wrapped around Lin Luoluo's lower legs.
He stopped absorbing her star energy.
This was the fundamental reason Bai Chen's combat power had increased so greatly after absorbing Lin Luoluo's star energy.
The key lay in his stamina in battle.
Before, as a member of a top-tier demon god race, Bai Chen had consumed star energy extremely quickly in every battle.
So he had needed to devour large numbers of Slimes from time to time to replenish it.
Now, however, he could draw it from Lin Luoluo at any time during battle.
His stamina had improved by far more than a little.
Facing the swarm of scorpions before him, Bai Chen suddenly extended countless thick, powerful black tentacles from his body, just as he had before.
He was about to activate his third ability, Hard Skin,
then sweep away the Crystal Scorpions before him with his hardened tentacles, just as he had before.
But the instant Hard Skin began spreading from the tips of his tentacles—
Whoosh!
A sharp whistle tore through the air!
From over ten meters away, the enormous Crystal Scorpion King actually flouted all martial honor and lashed its tail, launching the huge purple crystal at its tip!
The crystal spun toward Bai Chen like a cannonball!
Bang!
Bai Chen had never expected his opponent to have a ranged attack like that!
Controlling dozens of tentacles while using Hard Skin at the same time consumed an enormous amount of star energy.
Bai Chen was also reluctant to keep drawing energy from Lin Luoluo without restraint.
So he had always concentrated the hardening on the front ends of his tentacles for attacking.
That bit of thrift had now become Bai Chen's weakness.
On top of that, Hard Skin needed time to cover his entire body.
The crystal caught Bai Chen completely off guard. It instantly pierced his jelly-like body, leaving a huge hole through the middle, then shot into the stone wall behind him without losing momentum.
"Xiao Bai!" Lin Luoluo let out a terrified scream.
Crack!
Meanwhile, in the hall.
After a burst of electrical static, the giant screen broadcasting live footage of the exam abruptly went black.
The Crystal Scorpion King's attack, simulated using the Federation's cutting-edge technology, had pierced Bai Chen's body and happened to hit the surveillance camera in the examination room.
Now there was no way to keep watching what was happening inside.
The entire hall fell deathly silent, then erupted in an uproar.
But everyone had seen the moment the crystal pierced Bai Chen's body with perfect clarity.
"It's over... that Slime was pierced straight through!"
"That poor girl's going to suffer!
I don't know how they held out until now, but creatures like Slimes basically have no fighting power.
Even if they split into several after taking fatal damage, all they can do is stall for time."
"How pitiful... this isn't the difficulty of a normal examination at all!
To hell with the examination rules. I say Jiang Ruoxue is deliberately targeting that girl!"
"Shh... keep your voice down. Do you want someone from the Jiang Family to hear you?"
The discussion was full of sympathy for Lin Luoluo and veiled dissatisfaction with Jiang Ruoxue.
"Wait, did any of you notice just now,"
someone with sharp eyes suddenly said,
"there seemed to be a lot of tentacles extending from that black Slime!
But the picture was too dark, and the Slime was black too, so it was hard to see clearly."
Once someone mentioned the strange sight, the others began to recall it too.
"Now that you mention it... I think you're right! I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!"
"What was that? An ordinary Slime couldn't possibly have anything like that, could it?"
"Could it be an Evil Contract Spirit?"
The crowd's discussion instantly took a strange turn.
At that moment, Liu De, who had been busy calling every high-ranking Federation official he could reach in an attempt to stop Jiang Ruoxue, instantly changed expression upon hearing the discussion and hurriedly stepped forward.
He had just been rebuffed, and he absolutely could not let things take a turn for the worse now.
"Everyone, don't misunderstand!"
"Lin Luoluo's Contract Spirit is a C-rank mutated Slime. Its different color and extra tentacles compared to an ordinary Slime are all normal, documented mutations!"
This was the second time Liu De had explained it in front of everyone, so he was quite practiced at it.
The consequences of being branded an Evil Contract Spirit contractor were too severe.
If things went badly, even he, the mayor who had vouched for Lin Luoluo back then, might be implicated.
Sure enough, after the mayor's explanation, the crowd still found it surprising, but they immediately put aside their suspicions about an Evil Contract Spirit.
After all, given his position as mayor, no one believed he would dare lie about something like this.
Only when he saw that the crowd had stopped dwelling on it did Liu De secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Then he turned with a dark expression and walked straight toward Jiang Ruoxue, whose face was impassive.
"Miss Jiang,"
Liu De said, his voice filled with suppressed anger and a deep sense of helplessness,
"Luoluo is just a child who grew up in the slums. Her parents died when she was very young.
She has neither power nor influence, and she poses no threat to you. You... please let her go."
He had just called several important people he knew.
But as soon as they heard it concerned the Jiang Family's eldest daughter, they all stiffly changed the subject and hung up.
The Jiang Family's power in the Underground City was hardly any less than that of a local emperor.
Jiang Ruoxue, too, was thinking about the tentacles that had extended from the black Slime.
Yesterday, tentacles like those had whipped her Cold Moon Fox into a trash can,
and the humiliation was still fresh in her memory. She had simply been too angry at the time to give it much thought.
But after hearing Liu De's explanation, Jiang Ruoxue thought no more of it.
It was only a C-rank mutated Slime. Even if it was a little unusual, what of it?
Now, seeing Liu De come forward to plead with her, Jiang Ruoxue curled her lips into a cold, mocking smile.
"Mayor," she said, her voice dripping with mockery,
"I'm merely acting according to the examination rules. Everything is in accordance with procedure, so what do you mean, let her go?"
"If you continue making baseless accusations and smearing my and the Jiang Family's good name, I'll have to tell my father and ask him to bring up with the important people in the Upper City whether you're still fit to remain mayor..."
Every word Jiang Ruoxue spoke stabbed into Liu De's heart.
This was no longer a hint, but a blatant threat, and yet there was nothing he could do about it.