Suspicion

The matches that followed came one after another, averaging about one every half hour.

Yu Xian and Zhang Shou had a great time watching. Every beast-fighting warrior who took the stage was formidable. Though their strength and speed might not surpass Yu Xian's, their experience was incredibly rich.

Footwork, angle control, tempo control, predictions—the battles were spectacular. It was an entirely different experience from watching videos, especially when it came to the finer details of exerting force. Without seeing them in person, it was almost impossible to spot the subtleties.

"Dear audience, was that battle exciting?"

"But next comes tonight's grand finale! This is a super monster our hunting team captured just today—a transcendent white ape with human intelligence!!!"

As the host spoke, a cage slowly rose into view. Inside was a muscular white ape standing three meters tall.

The white ape kept its head lowered, its eyes hidden in shadow. Its back alone gave the audience immense pressure. Though it was merely a low-level transcendent creature, no one dared underestimate it.

"And our contestant is the Thousand-Victory King, the Iron God, Bai Jinlong!!!"

On the other side, a burly man nearly 1.9 meters tall walked out. He looked at the surrounding audience, smiled faintly, and raised one hand to wave at the stands. In an instant, the entire venue erupted with cheers of "Iron God!"

In the private room, Yu Xian was reading Bai Jinlong's profile.

The arena had provided the information. The tablet connected to the power cable on the chair made it easy to access.

Bai Jinlong, thirty-two years old, Bee Rank, superpowered. His ability allowed his entire body to transform into a black iron alloy. Not only was he highly experienced in battle, but he was also immensely strong. Against opponents his abilities countered, he could even fight above his rank.

"This guy is strong!"

Yu Xian looked at the information and thought to himself.

He estimated that even if he used every means at his disposal, he probably could not break Bai Jinlong's defense. Though Bai Jinlong could not kill him either.

Then the match began.

After the electric cage powered down, it slowly opened, and the white giant ape raised its head to look at Bai Jinlong.

Zhou Tai could never have imagined that one day he would be dreaming of ruling the world, and the next he would be easily captured by a hunting team of superpowered individuals. The other bodies had tried to cover his main body's escape, only to be effortlessly killed by those bastards.

Now, his nine personalities were respectively inhabiting weak animals such as rats, rabbits, his main body, sparrows, and so on. His strongest body had instead become humanity's captive, forced to perform like a clown.

"Come on, big guy!" Bai Jinlong beckoned to Zhou Tai and said with a smile.

Zhou Tai felt rage erupt from his chest, and he wanted nothing more than to tear every human apart. Among all his personalities, his third personality was the most domineering. Its dream was to rule the world. Unlike those idiots who only wanted to kill people or play games, it understood that only by becoming the king of the world could it do whatever it pleased.

Skinning people alive, murder, arson—once that time came, no living thing would dare stop it from doing anything!

With a roar, it immediately threw a punch at Bai Jinlong. However, Bai Jinlong had anticipated the move the moment it jumped and easily evaded the attack.

To show off his skill, he had not even used his superpower while dodging.

Zhou Tai's punch shook the ground, and the surrounding audience immediately burst into cheers. To Zhou Tai, those sounds felt like mockery.

"Again!"

Bai Jinlong smiled at Zhou Tai.

It was worth noting that Zhou Tai was not controlling an Aberrant Insect, but a Brain-Hugging Neural Worm. Therefore, this white ape was actually still alive; every movement it made was simply under Zhou Tai's complete control.

"Human, you have thoroughly enraged me!" Zhou Tai stared at Bai Jinlong and said in a highly unnatural voice.

Bai Jinlong froze for a moment. The next second, Zhou Tai's arm swept into him, sending him flying backward. He slammed heavily into the superalloy steel cage and violently spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Die!"

Zhou Tai rushed forward, rapidly launching punches with both hands. He wanted to take advantage of Bai Jinlong's injury and kill him in an instant.

But he soon felt that something was wrong with the impact. Taking a step back, he saw that Bai Jinlong had already become a pitch-black iron man. His previous attacks had not even amounted to a scratch.

"It can actually talk. That truly caught me by surprise!"

Bai Jinlong got up from the ground, looked at Zhou Tai's imposing body, and explained to the audience.

Quite a few transcendent creatures could indeed speak human language. Some parrots, for example, could not only talk, but speak exceptionally fluently. Yellow weasels seeking canonization could speak human language as well.

Bai Jinlong simply had not expected a white ape to speak. Caught off guard, he had been successfully ambushed.

Now that he was prepared, the white ape could not possibly pose any threat to him.

Inside the private room.

Yu Xian and the others had also been startled when the white ape spoke.

Yu Xian especially could not explain why, but the white ape's voice gave him a sense of familiarity.

No.

It was somewhat familiar, yet also different.

It was probably like hearing two brothers: he had heard the younger brother's voice, so the elder brother's voice felt familiar.

He frowned, carefully trying to recall where he had heard that voice before. But the white ape's voice was too deep and strange, so nothing matched.

This was probably more like intuition. There was no way to figure it out through comparison.

"Yu Xian, do you have the feeling that its voice... sounds like someone we've heard before?" Nora frowned, her eyes fixed on the white ape as she asked Yu Xian.

Yu Xian was taken aback. "You feel that too?"

"Mm, but I just can't remember where I heard it," Nora nodded.

Yu Xian looked at the white ape and guessed, "Zhou Tai?"

He and Nora had met many people together, but there was only one suspicious person. So Zhou Tai was the first name that came to mind.

"Zhou Tai? The voice doesn't sound alike, but the feeling... does seem a little..." Nora said uncertainly.

Yu Xian watched the white ape fight Bai Jinlong. Once the suspicion took root, the more he watched, the more suspicious the white ape seemed—especially since its fighting style centered on sneak attacks and catching opponents off guard.

If Bai Jinlong could not transform his entire body into iron alloy, he might not necessarily have been the white ape's match.

"It's definitely Zhou Tai. Could this white ape already be controlled by a Brain-Hugging Neural Worm?"

Yu Xian's gaze gradually turned serious. Silver light flickered deep within his pupils as he confirmed that there were no tentacles beneath the white ape's skin, and he could not help thinking to himself.

There had never been a case of an Aberrant Insect parasitizing a transcendent creature before. If this white ape truly was Zhou Tai, then the situation was serious.

Once the match ended, he would definitely examine the white ape's corpse. If he confirmed that the white ape was Zhou Tai, he would report it to the Qilin General Bureau immediately.