Richest Man: "Against who?"
Was this woman losing her mind?
Virtual Battle Arena? Was that really something they could touch?
Was she someone who couldn't find an opponent in her own world?
Ordinary Group Leader: "."
Ordinary Group Leader: "Pretend I didn't say anything."
Tony had only asked one question, but Su Yunqing felt like her heart had been stabbed.
Right — who would she even fight?
Compared to when she first joined the group, her current self was incomparably stronger. But that only made her position in the chat group more awkward.
Above her were powers far beyond her reach. Below her were the group's weakest members.
Finding someone at her level? There simply wasn't one.
Opening a Virtual Battle Arena to虐 others, or to get虐 — which was it going to be?
Fifth Division Captain: "@Child of Nature. Interested?"
Surprisingly, Aizen had actually invited Baxuan.
Aizen was formidable, yes — and given his old schemer nature, it was impossible to gauge his true strength. But no matter how strong he was, he couldn't possibly surpass Baxuan, the actual cheater here.
Aizen never did anything without reason. There had to be a motive behind this.
Was it that he wanted to see the gap between himself and a true "god"?
Baxuan had stepped into the realm of divinity. It was entirely plausible Aizen would want to know.
Child of Nature: "Sure."
Baxuan didn't refuse.
As for Aizen — Baxuan was also curious. After being in the chat group for so long, and having been mostly dormant all this time, just how far had his strength progressed?
"Ding. Group member [Fifth Division Captain] has opened the Virtual Battle Arena."
"Ding. Group member [Child of Nature] has entered the Virtual Battle Arena."
Real world. Vantora City.
"I still don't know where you got the confidence. You actually had the nerve to challenge us all by yourself?"
Firewing sat on a stone, watching Zhao Feng pinned beneath the Fire Beast Lion with a blank expression.
Everyone understood exactly how Luo Yang had managed to make it back to Vantora City alive.
Zhao Feng had clearly wanted to draw the attention of First Sequences like themselves — get the First Sequences to chase after this traitor of humanity.
They could also guess that Zhao Feng had exposed his hidden location with full confidence he could defeat whatever First Sequence came for him, then absorb their talent and abilities to strengthen himself.
Firewing admitted she'd felt a slight flutter of unease at first.
Fear wasn't quite the word. What worried her most was the possibility that Zhao Feng had joined or built some faction hostile to humanity.
A lone deserter was nothing to fear.
No matter how strong, he wouldn't surpass Baxuan.
But a powerful faction set against humanity — that was a different matter.
Firewing had even asked Zhang Hai to lurk in the shadows.
If anything went wrong, she could have him use Spatial Teleportation to bring Chris Frost, Skyler Quinn, and the others over immediately!
Then they'd wipe the whole group out in one shot.
But Firewing had never expected it to genuinely be Zhao Feng alone.
It wasn't possible that the rest had fled after sensing her strength… right?
But if it really was just Zhao Feng alone…
How the hell did he have the audacity?!
"Why is the gap between us this enormous?"
Zhao Feng showed no anger at being restrained. He was simply deeply puzzled by the disparity between himself and Firewing.
Both were First Sequences — there should be a gap, but it shouldn't be this vast.
Let alone that he'd spent recent days constantly pushing himself through life-and-death training to grow stronger.
If it weren't for Ziling's healing, he would have died long ago.
And yet he'd been defeated by Firewing so easily.
More staggeringly — the pressure Firewing was exerting now was even greater than when they first met.
He was spending far more time training than Firewing!
As the head of Vantora City's Spirit Energy Bureau, he refused to believe Firewing had invested more time in cultivation than he had.
"Did you really think that just a little more time would close the gap between us?"
Firewing said coolly.
"Not to mention the gap in talent — even among First Sequences, there are ranks."
"I have the full resources of the nation behind me. What do you have?"
Her talent outstripped Zhao Feng's. She had resources he could never access. If she were weaker than him, that would be the real mystery.
The most she could say was that the time she personally spent training was less than his — but effort of that kind could be compensated for easily by superior resources and talent.
"Forget it. I'm not going to waste words on you."
"If you have any trump cards, use them now. If not, then prepare to be locked away for the rest of your life."
Firewing stood, looking down at Zhao Feng.
Even though First Sequences were few, and the nation needed them, that didn't mean they'd simply welcome a esper who killed freely for their own gain.
Zhao Feng might have stood a chance if he were just an ordinary First Sequence — but he wasn't.
No one wanted a teammate they'd have to watch constantly, someone who might kill them at any moment and steal their abilities.
"Tigerflame."
Hearing Firewing's words, Zhao Feng knew there was no point in continuing to talk.
"ROAR!"
A savage roar rang out through the forest. The Fire Beast Lion sitting on Zhao Feng hesitated for a moment — then let out its own lion's howl. In the next instant, flames erupted across its body.
"ROAR!!!"
In Firewing's somewhat startled gaze, the sudden flames that appeared actually suppressed the Lion's own fire — searing into its flesh. No amount of thrashing could shake it off.
In the end, the Fire Beast Lion had no choice but to shift into Divine Weapon form to barely disperse the flames.
The Fire Beast Lion's flames had been tested. Though they weren't at First Sequence level, they were more than a match for an ordinary Second Sequence. The flames of its Divine Weapon form boosted Firewing no less than Demon Appearance · Demon Blood boosted Chris Frost.
That a single burst of fire had forced the Lion to transform into its Divine Weapon just to break free clearly meant another First Sequence was at play.
"So there really was backup…"
Firewing rubbed her temples, voice pained.
She glanced in the direction where Zhao Feng had been — and, as expected, he was gone.
"Pin the attack on the east, strike the west?"
Firewing wasn't particularly surprised. She hadn't expected this to be their one chance to capture him.
The man had exposed his own location to their sight. There was no way he'd done that without preparation.
She was just curious how he'd managed to vanish without a trace.
"The enemy has the same space-type ability as me."
Zhang Hai's figure appeared beside Firewing. His brow furrowed slightly as he gazed at the spot where Zhao Feng had disappeared.
Space-type abilities were rare — but not that rare.
No matter how uncommon an ability, with China's enormous population, there were bound to be quite a few cases.
The trouble was that the vast majority of space-type espers had weak talents. They weren't just unable to reach First Sequence — there weren't even any who could match a Second Sequence like Zhang Hai himself.
(End of Chapter)
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