Although Lin Jinyu won this match, she had no strength left to fight. Lin Jinyu sheathed her sword and returned to the rest area. Before she could say anything, she coughed up another mouthful of blood. Wen Yuncheng quickly supported her, but the next second, Lin Jinyu collapsed into her arms.

“…Leave the rest to me.” Wen Yuncheng clenched and unclenched her right fist, gently patting Lin Jinyu’s back before handing the Little Ice Mountain over to Qiu Fei. Qiu Fei quickly fed her a healing potion. Wen Yuncheng wanted to say more, but the referee on the stage was already calling for the next contestants to enter. She could only grit her teeth and walk onto the stage.

Damn it. To think they injured Little Ice Mountain so badly.

“Yo, I hear you have some gear that lets you fly? But you’ll soon find out it’s useless against me.” The one who came on stage was another first-layer Star Master from Yaoxing Academy, Li Yiyu. “That guy Di Yuanhao got too excited and screwed up. I won’t be as irrational as him.”

“Are you people from Yaoxing Academy all talk?” Wen Yuncheng sneered sarcastically.

“Ha, you’ll find out soon enough.”

“Let the match begin!”

“I’ll show you what a one-hit kill looks like!” A white jade bone spear appeared in Li Yiyu’s hand. Propelled by Star Power, the spear shot directly toward Wen Yuncheng. He followed close behind, his right hand forming a claw that condensed with white Star Power fluctuations. It seemed he really intended to end this quickly.

“Tch.” Wen Yuncheng directly summoned her Mechanical Apostle. A large surge of Star Power gathered in front of her, and in an instant, a big, black-lacquered figure appeared before her! “Number One, Annihilation Mode, melee.”

“Affirmative.” Number One’s voice echoed in Wen Yuncheng’s mind. Its body surged with Star Power. Seeing the bone spear and Li Yiyu rushing toward it, it stomped the ground, and a pale blue light shield appeared in front of it! Then, Number One’s figure shot out like a cannonball, directly knocking the bone spear away.

If Li Yiyu hadn’t seen the bad situation and hastily dodged, he probably would have taken a nasty fall. However, this wasn’t the end. Number One’s attack wasn’t Wen Yuncheng’s only attack. As the shield appeared in front of Number One, Wen Yuncheng had already activated her Mechanical Wings and risen into the air, closing in on Li Yiyu. Seeing him dodge in a hurry, she directly threw a stun grenade down at him.

“Number One, prepare freeze rounds.”

Number One: “Ready.”

Wen Yuncheng controlled her Mechanical Wings to swoop close to Li Yiyu, throwing a flame exploder and a grenade in an instant. He used a movement technique to nimbly dodge, then swung the bone spear horizontally in front of him. Infused with Star Power, it actually fired a beam of Star Power directly at Wen Yuncheng!

“Fire freeze rounds.” Wen Yuncheng deactivated her Mechanical Wings to drop quickly, then used their thrusters to land steadily on the stage. While giving the command to Number One, she executed a launching slide to approach Li Yiyu. The guy didn’t expect such a sudden attack to be dodged, and in his peripheral vision, he saw the swift blue light projectiles fired by Number One, but it was too late to evade! He could only erect a Star Power shield in front of himself and erupt with Star Power to resist the attack.

The rounds hit and exploded. Countless streams of cold energy swept over him. Li Yiyu was momentarily frozen stiff, then launched into the air by Wen Yuncheng’s sudden launching slide.

While performing the launching slide, Wen Yuncheng raised her hand cannon and fired two shots at him. As she got up, she threw her remaining two grenades, used a combination of an upward kick and a piercing kick on the airborne Li Yiyu, and then Number One charged again, knocking the dazed Li Yiyu, who had just landed, right off the stage.

Wen Yuncheng stood on the stage, looking down at the grim-faced Li Yiyu as he struggled to his feet. She held out her right hand, gave him a thumbs-up, and then slowly turned her wrist downward—the exact same taunt Di Yuanhao had used.

However, a taunt before a match and a taunt after a victory are completely different in nature.

“Li Yiyu, you’re nothing special.”

“You (expletive)—” Li Yiyu’s eyes turned red with anger, and he was about to charge back onto the stage. But a sharp rebuke from their Yaoxing Academy instructor made him return to the rest area, his eyes still red.

Taunts? Letting their own student “have some fun”? Looking down on Lin Jinyu? Talking big? Wen Yuncheng swept a cold gaze over the Yaoxing Academy rest area. Who couldn’t talk trash? But when it came from the victor, it felt entirely different from the strained shouts of a red-faced loser.

Maybe trash talk was a tradition at Yaoxing Academy, but so what? It pissed Wen Yuncheng off.

Wen Yuncheng sat down on the stage. She had Number One stand beside her, refilled its energy, and then recalled it. During a match, such actions had to be performed after the match had started.

Wen Yuncheng had three skills for controlling Number One. The first was to summon it, the second was to instantly switch places with it, and the third was to teleport it directly in front of her if it was already active. But all three skills had long cooldowns! The summoning skill’s cooldown was only five minutes, which was manageable. The other two practical skills, however, had fifteen-minute cooldowns. They were crucial trump cards for survival.

Number One also had modes like melee/charge/tank and ranged/Star Power cannon/bullets. Currently, Number One didn’t have much combat experience, so it couldn’t fight very effectively on its own. But if Wen Yuncheng didn’t have the energy to control it, Number One could still fight autonomously.

Five minutes later, another contestant from Yaoxing Academy walked onto the stage. It was a tall girl, holding a whip-sword. She remained silent, but Wen Yuncheng couldn’t stand the sight of anyone from Yaoxing Academy right now:

“What, no more tough talk?”

“…Don’t go too far.” The girl’s voice was a bit soft, but unfortunately, Wen Yuncheng had no intention of showing her any tenderness.

She put on a contemptuous expression. “Too far? …Heh, beating trash like you can hardly be considered going too far. You were the ones who started with the taunts. What, you must be enjoying the taste of losing four matches in a row, right? Too bad I’ll never get to experience that feeling.”

Her words immediately angered her opponent. The people in the Yaoxing Academy rest area couldn’t help but frown. Wen Yuncheng guessed they must think she wasn’t acting like a man, that she lacked a gentleman’s grace—Pah! She couldn’t care less about that nonsense.

[…Isn’t this girl pretty?]

She is. Wen Yuncheng replied to 1947. Too bad everyone from Yaoxing Academy looks hideous to me right now.

“Let the match begin.”

Instantly summoning Number One, Wen Yuncheng still planned to end it quickly. She ordered Number One to strafe with flame rounds and quickly assembled a Rolling Thunder.

The old Wen Yuncheng would never have initiated melee combat, but now… it might be worth a try.

The girl raised her hand and flicked her whip-sword open, using a surge of Star Power to block every single flame round. The blocked flame rounds then erupted in a series of explosions, leaving the ground covered in flames. It was somewhat similar to the flame exploder.

Wen Yuncheng had Number One charge forward while she herself threw a flame exploder toward the right, where she predicted her opponent would dodge. As expected, the girl dodged to the left, but with a slight hesitation. That tiny moment of hesitation meant that although she wasn’t hit by Number One, she wasn’t very far from it either. At the moment the distance between Number One and the girl was shortest, Wen Yuncheng used her position-swap skill. A launching slide, accompanied by three spinning Rolling Thunders, not only launched the opponent into the air but also hit her three times with a “bang, bang, bang.”

The instant her opponent was airborne, Wen Yuncheng followed up with a combo of an upward kick and a piercing kick. She saw the opponent’s face twist in pain and guessed she might have triggered the stun chance—it didn’t matter. She immediately followed with a grenade barrage, then used a stun grenade to stun her again, and pressed her mechanical armguard against the opponent’s neck, forcing the referee to call an emergency stop.

“Wen Yuncheng… was she always this fierce?” Li Kongyi was completely dazed.

Qiu Fei said nothing. She vaguely remembered that Wen Yuncheng had gotten into Star Academy through the back door, yet now she had grown to this level. She glanced at Yan Ling, who had a look of approval in her eyes, and bit her lip. She really had sent a good disciple to Yan Ling.

From the Wen Yuncheng of the past, with her limited moveset and terrible physical condition, who would scramble and fall in all sorts of unsightly ways on the stage, she had now become someone capable of shaking genius-level opponents of the same age.

Sweet victory.

Wen Yuncheng took a short rest and, to be safe, refilled Number One’s energy. She didn’t actually like talking trash, but since she’d already started, she had to be 120 percent serious about the match. No matter her opponent’s strength, she had to face them in her best condition.

The next opponent was another male student. He walked onto the stage with a grim face, his eyes practically shooting fire at Wen Yuncheng.

[His favorability toward you is ‘Disgust.’ It changed when you taunted the girl from the last round.]

Wen Yuncheng: …Oh? Are they a couple or… does he have a secret crush? Or is he just a simp?

But it didn’t matter what he was. Wen Yuncheng stood up. This time, too, she had to end it quickly.

She was going to completely crush Yaoxing Academy!

“Let the match begin.”

Again, she started with the Mechanical Apostle. Wen Yuncheng had Number One charge forward and immediately use its freeze rounds. As for the point cost of the bullets? A few points were nothing in the face of a satisfying victory. She had once given Lin Jinyu a cake worth 150 points. Now, to vent her anger for Little Ice Mountain, the two points for a set of special bullets were just pocket change to her.

Wen Yuncheng activated her Mechanical Wings and began to form a G-2 Rolling Thunder in the air. However, she hadn’t expected that after he used a movement technique to quickly dodge Number One’s charge, he would suddenly throw something at her in the air—a chain? A grappling hook? Wen Yuncheng felt something tighten around her body, and the wind on both sides rushed past her! Her position-swap skill was still on cooldown—she watched as the guy revealed a slight smile and began to charge up Star Power, seemingly intending to kill her in one blow…

“Number One, charge again.”

Number One, despite having already reached the edge of the stage, immediately charged forward again. And in that instant, Wen Yuncheng used her skill to summon Number One directly in front of her—

The fully charged, all-out Star Power slash came straight for Number One. The blue, shockwave-like defensive shield in front of it was instantly shattered! The slash left a deep gash on Number One’s body, but it didn’t stop its charge. At that same moment, Wen Yuncheng threw her stun grenade. She unhooked the grappling hook and then heard a distinct impact—a sound that seemed to carry the crack of breaking bones.

Bang—

Number One slammed directly into the opponent, who was too shocked to react. The guy was sent stumbling backward by Number One—and then fell off the stage along with it.

Wen Yuncheng raised a hand to brush off her wrinkled clothes, and smiled.