A Little Probing

This grand event attracted everyone's attention from the very beginning.

Perhaps it was because the recent war had been so oppressive, or perhaps it was a desire to temporarily forget the fear of war through the excitement, but many people came to watch. Moreover, the news that Her Highness the Holy Maiden would personally attend made the already bustling arena even more anticipated.

In the competition, the paladins engaged in relatively formal one-on-one duels, while ordinary people obviously didn't receive the same treatment. Furthermore, although ordinary people were allowed to participate in this grand event, many didn't intend to antagonize the Temple at this time. While there were strong individuals among the common people, they weren't mindless idiots. If they ultimately made it to the finals, it could very well cause the Temple to lose face. After all, the Temple's attitude was extremely important in the current war against the Magic Empire, so any strong person with a modicum of sense wouldn't seek fame in this way. Therefore, the ordinary civilians consisted mostly of second-rate figures, some genuinely eager to hone their skills, and a few with ulterior motives.

For example, Li Lin and Angela.

Unlike the paladins' one-on-one matches held in broad daylight, the matches for ordinary teams were not. After all, the venue was limited, and people were more interested in the battles between paladins than the ordinary adventurers. Therefore, the organizers of the tournament handled the situation rather casually, arranging the fifty contestants into groups of ten for mixed battles, with the final winners having the right to challenge the paladins.

Li Lin and Angela qualified as expected; there was absolutely no suspense involved. Their match was even less interesting. Li Lin simply threw all his opponents out of bounds, while Angela, contrary to her usual heavy-handed style, only knocked her opponents unconscious and stopped (Li Lin had put in a lot of effort to avoid attracting the Temple's attention by being too conspicuous).

Of course, these five finalists didn't attract much attention from the Temple. Firstly, there were hidden talents among the common people, and secondly, they had considerable confidence in their paladins. After all, paladins could wield divine power in battle, while ordinary people could only rely on their own skills and weapons, inherently disadvantaged and unable to defeat them. Naturally, the clergy had already planned that even if these ordinary people were defeated, they could receive a consolation prize or something similar, expressing the Temple's benevolent spirit of treating everyone equally, thus gaining the trust of the common people.

Until just now, things were proceeding as they had predicted.

"It seems that's all there is to it."

Watching the third challenger surrender without a doubt to the paladin's sword, Li Lin raised an eyebrow. He had already scouted these people beforehand; while their skills were not weak, they weren't strong enough to compare to the paladins. Moreover, the final winner of this trial would receive the saintess's personal blessing. Therefore, most of the paladins who participated were talented individuals. Furthermore, if they were to lose to an ordinary person, they would lose face, as would the Temple. Thus, they would absolutely not hold back.

Therefore, ordinary adventurers have absolutely no chance against them.

Ordinary.

"Angela, you go first."

After the next paladin took the stage, Li Lin made a decision.

"Remember, stop when you've got enough. Don't let those officials throw you out before you make it to the finals."

"I understand."

Hearing Li Lin's order, Angela nodded, a cold smile on her face.

Then, under the astonished gazes of the crowd, she walked into the arena.

When the petite figure appeared, everyone gasped in surprise. Although there had been rumors of a little girl defeating the other nine opponents after the qualifying rounds, everyone's attention was focused on the battle between the paladins, and such rumors were too exaggerated to be credible, so almost no one believed that a little girl could really do that.

But now, a lovely girl has indeed walked through the Challenger's Gate and stood before the Paladin.

Looking at the girl, the paladin's expression turned somewhat awkward. He never expected that his opponent would be such a petite and adorable girl. God above, she wasn't wearing armor or carrying a weapon. How was he supposed to fight her? After all, swords and blades have no eyes. If he injured this girl, even if he won, it probably wouldn't mean anything to him or the book.

The crowd around the arena had the same thought. They whispered among themselves, all wanting to see how the paladin would defeat the little girl. After all, she was just a child of about ten years old; no matter how he fought, it seemed unlikely...

The paladin hadn't yet figured out how to respond, but Angela had already made the decision on his behalf.

"Not planning to come?"

As soon as she finished speaking, everyone suddenly felt a blur before their eyes, and then Angela's figure vanished from the vast arena!

What did she do?

Everyone stared in astonishment, their eyes wide with disbelief. They had never imagined things would turn out this way. And then, something even more shocking happened.

"Then, I shall proceed."

A clear, melodious sound, like a wind chime, rang out again. This time, it took everyone a while to realize that the little girl had somehow appeared behind the paladin!

This time, the paladin seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation and that the little girl was not as simple as she appeared. Just as Angela spoke, he quickly jumped forward, trying to turn around to block any possible attack from Angela. It must be said that this subconscious decision was somewhat crude, but given Angela's unpredictable speed, being able to react in this way was already quite remarkable.

However, Angela clearly had no intention of giving him that chance.

That's enough.

Angela suddenly appeared behind the paladin, and with a light flick of her fan, struck the paladin on the head.

The paladin, without uttering a sound, simply collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"..."

A hush fell over the arena. No one could believe their eyes. What were they seeing? What a joke! That was a paladin, and the opponent was just a little girl!

Moreover, no one saw clearly what had just happened. From their perspective, it was simply that Angela suddenly disappeared, then the paladin suddenly jumped away, then his body went limp and he collapsed to the ground, and the little girl reappeared.

It's that simple.

What's going on here?

Soon, two more paladins rushed onto the stage. They quickly checked the unconscious paladin and, after confirming he hadn't suffered any fatal injuries, carried him away from the arena. Angela, meanwhile, stood obediently there, waving her fan, awaiting the referee's announcement. Faced with this bizarre scene, the clergyman acting as referee was stunned for a moment before declaring Angela the winner.

This was arguably the most bizarre start to the entire competition. No one knew what had happened; even the defeated paladin had no idea how he had been defeated. But the details didn't matter; all they wanted to know was who that little girl was.

Of course, to prevent anyone from infiltrating and causing trouble, the Temple naturally used divine magic to check the ordinary participants before the competition began. Their level of holy light posed no threat to Angela whatsoever. Therefore, these people naturally did not realize just how terrifying a person they had let participate.

Compared to Angela's high-profile entrance, Li Lin clearly intended to maintain a low profile. He not only wore a mask but also fought the paladin he was facing for dozens of rounds before finally "barely" securing a victory. Because Angela's performance had been so impressive, Li Lin's victory didn't attract much attention. Most people believed that while the young swordsman was skilled, that was all he was capable of, and judging from his difficult start, he clearly didn't have much of a chance later on.

Meanwhile, people outside the arena were also watching their battle.

What do you think?

Walast looked at the young knight beside him and asked.

"That young lady... is indeed very strong."

After thinking for a moment, the young knight finally spoke.

"To be honest, I seriously doubt if she's even human; that's something no human could do."

"That's something ordinary people can't do."

Walast shook his head.

"You must remember, some people are born strange. They possess abilities that ordinary people can never reach, like you, and that lady... It's strange, I feel like I've seen her somewhere before, but I can't remember..."

At this point, Walast shook his head. Whenever he saw that silver hair and those bright red eyes, he felt something stirring in his memory, but he couldn't quite place it. After all, what impressed people most about Angela wasn't her delicate and lovely appearance, but rather her tyrannical and arrogant temperament. In the previous match, Angela had completely concealed her aura, so even Walast hadn't been able to detect the little girl's true origins.

"Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore."

Walast shook his head and changed the subject.

"And what about the other person?"

"Another one..."

Upon hearing this question, the young knight frowned and carefully recalled Li Lin's match just now.

"To be honest, he won very hard, Lord Walast. I think he's very likely to be eliminated in the next round. Although his victory was very lucky, such good fortune can't last forever on the battlefield."

"That's right."

Walast nodded, but a hint of hesitation flashed across his face.

"But my gut feeling tells me that this person might not be so easily defeated."

The young knight didn't say much to Walast's words. He watched Li Lin's retreating figure as he turned to walk back, his expression becoming quite serious.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.

Li Lin and Angela naturally didn't let the young knight's match go unnoticed. After all, he had the ability to acquire one of the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys, so he must have some skill. However, upon seeing the young knight's match, both of their expressions turned rather sour.

"His steps are too disordered."

"Too slow."

"The accuracy is too poor."

"The power was not used properly."

"There were also errors in the assessment of the opponent."

"Master, this guy is an idiot."

Ultimately, Angela made this judgment, completely unaware of how vast the disparity was between her and Li Lin's combined combat experience of hundreds or even thousands of years and a mere twenty-something-year-old boy. In the little guy's view, powerless trash had no right to demand fairness. Of course, if someone had lived for hundreds or thousands of years and was still such a waste, then they might as well find a place to die.

Such a match was utterly uninteresting, and Li Lin and Angela ultimately returned disappointed. Of course, Li Lin still held onto a sliver of hope and joked with Angela.

"Maybe he's the type of person who gets stronger when facing stronger opponents and weaker when facing weaker ones."

"Master, you simply don't want to accept the fact that your weapon is in the possession of a piece of trash."

Angela bluntly pointed out the core issue.

"Perhaps so."

Although Angela, Li Lin's expression remained unchanged.

"No matter what, now that you're here, the game has to go on... and there will be plenty of opportunities for you to shine in the future."

According to Li Lin's plan, Angela's appearance was to be low-key. However, the little one was clearly not suited to a tactic of keeping a low profile. So, in the end, Li Lin had to adjust his tactics. He didn't mind Angela enjoying the admiring gazes of the crowd, but he didn't want it to go too far. Fortunately, the little one still knew how to be mindful of boundaries. Otherwise, with the little one's killer skills, that one strike would have been enough to blow the poor paladin's head off, creating a bloody scene on the arena.

Of course, the little one's docility wasn't solely due to Li Lin's orders. She understood that only by temporarily restraining herself could she gain more attention in the future, and only the terror she exuded after reaching the pinnacle could make the vast majority of humans tremble and prostrate themselves at her feet. It would be strange if the little one, having lived for over a thousand years, didn't understand this principle.

Of course, her so-called "low-key" is different from the ordinary sense.

The following days of competition were uneventful, with no paladins able to withstand Angela's overwhelming power. Li Lin, too, opted for a perfectly balanced victory and a perfectly balanced battle, suppressing everything to the point where it seemed his strength was only slightly superior to his opponent's.

However, this was clearly not good news for the Temple. Leaving Li Lin aside for the moment, Angela's strength far exceeded their expectations. Some paladins even pointed out to her face that she was not human at all and demanded that Angela accept the baptism and examination of holy light.

Then the little one passed through just like normal, especially after she had drunk blood.

Li Lin's performance was quite the opposite. As their match progressed, the opponents they encountered became increasingly stronger. After all, the later the match went, the stronger Li Lin's opponents became. Moreover, their opponents preferred to lose to their own people rather than let Li Lin, an outsider, receive the Holy Maiden's blessing, so they fought with extraordinary ferocity. This caused Li Lin's battles to continue to be prolonged—although he would ultimately emerge victorious.

The young paladin wielding the Seven Ring Spirit Envoys also made it all the way to the finals. Although Li Lin and Angela saw various flaws in him, as a young, rising force, this paladin had already demonstrated considerable strength. At least among young people, he was already considered a fairly good figure.

However, the Temple was not unprepared for this situation. They were also unwilling to watch Angela and Li Lin advance triumphantly in the competition. So, after the round of 16, Angela and Li Lin finally faced a situation that they had long been prepared for and that the two of them had anticipated.

They were "coincidentally" placed in the same group, and "coincidentally" will be facing off in the next round.

In any case, at least one of these two ordinary people can be eliminated.

This is the Temple's plan.

However, the Temple did not expect that Angela and Li Lin were already prepared for this move.

Finally, it was time for the match.

As the sun rose high in the sky, almost everyone in the Temple gathered to watch the match. After all, Angela's battles these past few days had left the Temple members somewhat disgruntled. If she were to lose to another ordinary adventurer, it would be a cause for celebration. Conversely, even if the strange little girl continued to win, at least one other person would be eliminated, thus creating another spot for a paladin – a good thing nonetheless.

With this in mind, bishops, priests, and paladins all came to the competition venue, eager to see who the final winner would be.

Li Lin had already entered the arena when the sun was high in the sky. As before, he wore a leather mask that concealed his face and held an ordinary standard longsword. As always, he waited motionless for his opponent. Although the paladins believed that this man had no chance at all, it was always good to have a glimmer of hope.

Ten minutes passed.

Half an hour passed.

An hour has passed.

An hour and a half has passed.

There wasn't a single person opposite Li Lin. The group exchanged bewildered glances; the scene they had anticipated hadn't unfolded.

Angela didn't come.

"How is this possible?"

Faced with the scene before him, the young knight's eyes widened in surprise. In fact, unlike the others, he didn't think Li Lin was weak. Li Lin consistently managed to defeat his opponents by a narrow margin, a skill that was incredibly difficult to achieve. He had watched all of Li Lin and Angela's matches during this time and had long considered them his inevitable rivals. But he never expected things to turn out like this. Where was the little girl? Why didn't she come to the match? Had she forgotten the match time?

Although no one knows why the little girl didn't participate in the competition, one thing is certain.

That is, Angela abstained.