Battle Against the Starry Sky Giant Tortoise Race

The countdown ended.

Xing Pan did not rush to attack. He slowly unfurled his Earth Domain, its fifth layer of ocher light enveloping his body. At the same time, he let out a low shout. The secret patterns on his shell lit up, and a thick suit of ocher energy armor covered him from head to toe, sealing him airtight.

"Double defense." Silver Horn narrowed his eyes.

But Xing Pan was not finished. He retracted his limbs and head into his shell, leaving only two dark green eyes fixed firmly on Silver Horn. The massive shell sprawled across the center of the arena like a mobile fortress.

"Come on! You can't break my defenses!" Xing Pan's muffled voice came from within the shell.

"Triple defense?" Silver Horn was speechless.

But he did not rush to attack.

He paced around Xing Pan, searching for an opening. The opponent's defenses were indeed formidable: the fifth layer of the domain, the secret art armor, and the tortoise shell itself—three layers stacked atop one another. His dagger was sharp, but against defenses of this level, a frontal assault would likely accomplish little.

Moreover, the spatial fluctuations had become calm under Xing Pan's influence. If Xing Pan were another one or two realms stronger, he might even be able to suppress spatial fluctuations entirely.

I need to find a way to make him reveal an opening, Silver Horn thought.

He suddenly stopped walking, a faint smile curling his lips.

"Since you won't come out, I'll force you to."

The power of Space Law was not limited to teleportation. It could also cut.

Silver Horn closed his eyes, deeply merging his spiritual power with his Space Domain. Rather than spreading the domain over the entire arena, he focused all his perception around Xing Pan, on that patch of space suppressed by the Earth Domain.

"Open."

Silently.

Three feet to Xing Pan's left, a black fissure as thin as a strand of hair split open in the void. It was a spatial rift. Though tiny, it contained a terrifying force capable of tearing apart anything.

In the spectator stands, a sharp-eyed genius cried out, "A spatial rift? He can open a rift while under the suppression of the Earth Domain?!"

Several World Lords leaned forward slightly, surprise flashing through their eyes.

But Silver Horn knew that was not enough. The rift was too small and too far from Xing Pan to touch his defenses at all. He tried to widen it and push it toward Xing Pan's body. However, the closer it got to Xing Pan, the more stable the space became. The instant it came within three feet, it shook violently and nearly collapsed.

"The Starry Sky Giant Tortoise Race's Earth Domain suppresses space far too strongly." Silver Horn gritted his teeth.

So he changed strategies. Rather than pursuing the size of a single rift, he increased their number.

Dozens of tiny spatial rifts appeared around Xing Pan at once, surrounding him layer after layer like a spiderweb. The rifts resonated with one another, slowly merging and expanding, letting out soundless howls.

Xing Pan's pressure abruptly increased.

He could feel that although those rifts could not yet tear open his shell, they were constantly eroding his domain. Cracks began to appear along the edges of the Earth Domain, and fine scratches surfaced across the energy armor.

This can't continue, Xing Pan thought grimly.

If Silver Horn kept stacking rifts, there would eventually come a time when his defenses were torn open. He could not simply sit and wait for death.

Who said the Starry Sky Giant Tortoise Race could only defend?

If they only knew how to defend, they could never have become one of the eighteen imperial races.

Xing Pan moved.

His neck shot out with shocking speed, like a dark green venomous snake lunging straight for Silver Horn's throat! This strike had been planned for a long time, its angle vicious and its timing precise. It came at the exact moment Silver Horn was devoting his full attention to controlling the spatial rifts and had no focus to spare.

"Die!"

Xing Pan opened his huge maw. Ocher energy glowed between his stark white fangs. If he bit down, he could tear apart Silver Horn's throat along with his protective energy.

Just as his teeth came within an inch of Silver Horn's skin, Silver Horn opened his eyes.

"Finally couldn't hold back, could you?"

His voice was calm, without the slightest trace of panic.

Xing Pan's pupils suddenly constricted. He saw the faint smile on Silver Horn's lips. There was no fear in it, only the composure of a scheme succeeding.

At some point, Silver Horn's dagger had appeared in his hand. He did not block or retreat. Instead, he met Xing Pan's extended neck head-on and swept the blade sideways.

The sound of cutting hide was dull and piercing. The scales on Xing Pan's neck were thick and tough, and every inch the dagger cut through met fierce resistance. But Silver Horn did not stop. He poured origin energy into the blade, concentrating the cutting power of Space Law along its edge.

"Break!"

A line of blood burst open across Xing Pan's neck.

Though Silver Horn's dagger had failed to sever Xing Pan's head in one stroke, it had ripped open a sufficiently deep wound. In the next instant, Silver Horn flipped his palm, and vast origin energy surged madly through the wound into Xing Pan's neck, exploding inside his body.

Xing Pan let out a muffled groan. His extended neck froze in midair, and his entire head drooped weakly. The Earth Domain fluctuated violently, while the energy armor shattered inch by inch.

Silver Horn won!

The arena vanished, and Silver Horn was teleported back to the plaza once more.

Below the stage, there was silence.

Then, deafening discussion erupted.

"The Starry Sky Giant Tortoise Race actually lost? That's an imperial race famed for its defenses!"

"That Silver Horn actually forced Xing Pan to attack with spatial rifts, then killed him in a single blow?"

"It wasn't a head-on clash. He won through strategy. He knew he couldn't break the defenses, so he deliberately exposed an opening to lure the snake from its hole."

"What's terrifying isn't just his strength, but his brain."

Lei Yu stood among the crowd in silence. He had watched Silver Horn defeat two opponents with utterly different styles in two completely different ways—one with a predicted instant kill, the other with tactical ingenuity.

This was not luck.

He sighed, turned, and quietly walked away. Though unwilling to accept it, he recognized the gap between himself and Silver Horn.

In the distance, among the World Lord seats high above, World Lord Chang Jiu's gaze lingered on Silver Horn for a moment. The corners of her lips lifted slightly.

"Interesting."

She spoke softly, her voice so quiet that only the few World Lords beside her could hear it.

After winning two consecutive matches, both in such impressive fashion, no one questioned Silver Horn's strength anymore. He waited for a long time, but no one else challenged him.

Since no one was challenging me, then I'll challenge someone else.

Silver Horn raised his head. His gaze passed over row after row of names on the rankings, sweeping past rank seven hundred, then five hundred, before finally settling on a number: one hundred.

Perhaps he stood a chance against rank seven hundred or five hundred. But what would be the point? Earth level was still Earth level. Although its treatment differed fundamentally from Profound level and Yellow level, within Earth level itself, the resources of the top hundred and the bottom nine hundred differed little.

Only Heaven level represented a true qualitative leap.

And rank one hundred happened to be the final threshold for Heaven level geniuses.

Silver Horn knew that he would most likely lose. But he still wanted to see just how far he remained from those geniuses standing at the very pinnacle of the Demon Race.

Rank one hundred: the Reincarnation Jade-Eyed Snake Race, one of the eighteen imperial races.

In fact, the vast majority of Heaven level and Earth level geniuses came from the twelve imperial races, with only a small number coming from other races. The Reincarnation Jade-Eyed Snake Race ranked in the middle among the twelve imperial races and was known for being strange and difficult to deal with.

Silver Horn searched his mind for information about this race.

They were enormous. At the World Lord level, they could reach several thousand kilometers in length. Even at the Stellar level, their bodies were measured in thousands of meters.

Their scales were dark purple, each inlaid with golden circular patterns. From afar, they looked like flowing stars. Six jade-shaped compound eyes sat atop their heads, and whirlpools seemed to turn slowly in the depths of their pupils. Staring at them for too long would leave one deeply unsettled.

They excelled at soul attacks and Reincarnation Law. Sinister and ruthless, they were skilled at concealment and surprise attacks, making them the most difficult enemies to guard against on the battlefield.

Moreover, their physical defenses were also extremely strong. It was not the purely hard defense of the Starry Sky Giant Tortoise Race, but rather a combination of scales and Reincarnation Law that dispersed, redirected, and reflected force, often causing attackers to suffer backlash from their own strength without realizing it.

Silver Horn took a deep breath. This would be the strongest opponent he had faced in this Ranking Tournament.

"Win or lose, I at least have to force out his true abilities." He muttered softly, battle intent blazing in his eyes.

He opened the challenge interface and selected that name.

"Silver Wing Race—Silver Horn, ranked eight hundred and twenty-third, has issued you a challenge."

"Bastard! Do they all think rank one hundred is easy to bully? Every piece of trash comes to challenge me!" Huan Cong, the Reincarnation Jade-Eyed Snake Race genius who had grown sick of being challenged by more than a dozen Earth level geniuses, let out an angry roar!