An Unexpected Turn — Rank One on the Prodigy Rankings

On the arena, the fierce battle continued for a time before Aimen's massive frame came back into view.

He extended his left hand toward a patch of space that looked completely empty — and the next moment, Lu Yuan's body materialized within his grasp.

Lu Yuan felt the space around him solidify and raised an eyebrow.

*So this is Aimen's spatial-binding Combat Technique.*

With Lu Yuan immobilized, Aimen blurred into motion and charged.

But by the time he drew close, Lu Yuan had already shaken the space around him and broken free.

Every Force Group across his body activated simultaneously, and his strength surged dramatically.

The next instant, he gripped his greatsword and cleaved toward Aimen.

The force behind the strike was even greater than before. Aimen's eyes widened, a flicker of shock crossing his face.

He roared. Golden arcs of light blazed along his greatsword as his power spiked sharply.

Greatsword met greatsword. Metal rang against metal.

Aimen was sent hurtling backward, spitting a mouthful of blood.

Lu Yuan planted a foot against the ground — the surface cracked and cratered beneath the impact — then vanished from where he stood and reappeared behind the airborne Aimen, greatsword sweeping down.

Aimen roared. His body suddenly swelled, doubling from five meters in height to ten, his aura surging with it.

Even while being blasted through the air, he twisted around. Pale light and golden arcs intertwined across his blade as he swung back at Lu Yuan.

Their greatswords collided again. Lu Yuan was pushed back several steps by the shockwave, while Aimen used the recoil to land.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Aimen blurred back into motion — roaring as he charged, radiating a savage, desperate energy.

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly. *Is this his full power?*

Eerie threads of crimson traced themselves across his white battle armor, and the next instant, he vanished.

That armor was the Emperor Grade Gene Armament Lu Yuan had earned as a reward during his Prodigy Rankings climb.

Naturally, he had evolved it further — from Emperor Grade to Sovereign Grade.

**Pale Blood Battle Armor (100%):** Fourth-rank Sovereign Grade Gene Armament.

Beyond the formidable buffs of a Sovereign Grade battle armor, the Pale Blood Battle Armor came with an attached Combat Technique of the same name. When activated, Pale Blood dramatically boosted both speed and strength.

As an Innate King Grade warrior who had engraved Emperor Grade genes from birth, Aimen was hardly slow — but even among prodigies of his tier, speed was not his strong suit.

From their exchange, Lu Yuan could tell that Aimen's strengths lay in raw power and physical constitution.

To compensate for the speed deficit, he had cleverly incorporated a spatial-binding Combat Technique.

*Lock your opponent down and they have nowhere to run. Simple enough.*

In that sense, Aimen was actually a remarkably well-rounded fighter.

But against Lu Yuan, who wielded spatial Combat Techniques himself, spatial binding was obviously useless. And in every other area, Aimen simply couldn't measure up.

Right now, the surge of power from Aimen's all-out assault barely registered to Lu Yuan as "decent" — not even enough to force him to show all his cards.

Under the effect of Pale Blood, Lu Yuan's speed climbed to a terrifying level.

In the span of a heartbeat, he sidestepped Aimen's headlong charge and reappeared at his flank. Threads of crimson light wound along his greatsword as he swung it toward Aimen's side.

Aimen sensed the attack — but when he moved to block, his body simply couldn't keep up.

**BOOM!!**

Lu Yuan's greatsword swept toward Aimen's massive neck.

Yet as the blade neared, Aimen's armor blazed with dense black radiance. A curtain of light materialized in front of him and intercepted the strike.

The sword crashed into the barrier. It shuddered and fractured, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface.

Aimen roared and swung his own blade at Lu Yuan.

Before it could connect, Lu Yuan had already vanished and reappeared on Aimen's other side.

Terrifying force surged. Lu Yuan brought his sword down against the light curtain once more.

**BOOM!!**

The thunderous impact rang out. The curtain shattered into fragments of black light — and in the same instant, Lu Yuan's greatsword swept clean through Aimen's neck.

*Shick.*

Blood sprayed. Aimen stared with dazed disbelief, his hand rising to clutch his throat.

He looked at Lu Yuan, who had made no move to press the attack. The corner of his mouth twitched. Something complex stirred behind his eyes, and he said, with difficulty:

"...You were right. I'm genuinely not your match."

His body, which had swelled to ten meters, rapidly shrank back to five — and then he slowly toppled forward.

The corpse dissolved into white light and faded from the arena.

Out in the plaza, most of the Gene Warriors who had been cheering for Aimen went silent. They stared at the white light in disbelief, shock plain on their faces.

Those who had been rooting for Lu Yuan, by contrast, were erupting in chants of his name.

Among the gathered prodigies, those watching Aimen vanish wore expressions caught between shock and quiet resignation.

They all understood: if Lu Yuan had defeated Aimen, then he was on a completely different level from the rest of them.

Within the Nightshade group, Anastasia narrowed her eyes. Her gaze, weighted with gravity, lingered on Lu Yuan as he stood in the arena.

The others around her had gone quiet, still processing what they'd seen.

After a moment, one of them spoke softly:

"Does it feel like this human wasn't even fighting at full strength? He looked... almost relaxed."

Nina's voice barely rose above a whisper.

"If that's really true... Your Highness Anastasia, are you his match?"

Anastasia kept her gaze on Lu Yuan. A faint furrow crossed her brow.

"His only real opponent is probably Yan Liang."

The Nightshade prodigies exchanged glances.

They all knew exactly how fearsome Yan Liang was.

Even prodigies like Anastasia and Aimen — who had engraved Emperor Grade genes — were completely outclassed by him. He wielded an absolute, dominating combat supremacy.

None of them had expected Anastasia to say something like that.

"Yan Liang has been a monster with Emperor Grade genes all the way back at Battle Master Rank. And you're saying this human can compare to him?"

"Your Highness, isn't that a bit much?"

Anastasia gave a faint smile and said nothing.

On the arena, Lu Yuan exhaled slowly, studying Aimen's fading form with faint surprise.

Aimen's strength had been a cut above what he'd expected.

After all, every one of his own genes was Sovereign Grade, and on top of that he was wearing several Fourth-rank Emperor Grade Gene Armaments. Even with all of that, it had taken real effort to finish Aimen off.

That said plenty about the man. As a top-three prodigy on the Rankings with every gene engraved at Emperor Grade, Aimen's prestige was well-earned.

As Lu Yuan finished his assessment, he too dissolved into white light and returned to his original position. The arena vanished with him.

His rank on the Prodigy Rankings rose from eighth — straight to third.

He was about to check his rewards when Aimen's voice rang down from above.

"Lu Yuan. Once we've both reached Battle King Rank, we fight again."

Lu Yuan looked up and met Aimen's steady gaze.

He smiled. "Deal."

Aimen stepped out onto compressed space, solid as stone beneath his feet, and returned to his warship — which sat immovable as bedrock.

Lu Yuan, meanwhile, received his reward notification.

From eighth to third — two Emperor Grade Gene Armaments, twenty Fourth-rank Origin Stones, two hundred Purple Heart Fruits, and ten Moon Spirit Fruits to enhance Mental Power.

No Transcendent Gene, unfortunately.

Even so, a climb of just five ranks had already produced rewards this generous.

The top ten, it had to be said, operated on an entirely different scale from the rest of the Rankings.

Since he had first started climbing, Lu Yuan had accumulated a total of one hundred and sixty Fourth-rank Origin Stones.

The most frequent reward after Origin Stones had been Purple Heart Fruits — over five hundred in total, not counting the one hundred and seventy he'd already sold to Amy and the others.

Beyond that, counting the two he had just received, he now held eight Emperor Grade Gene Armaments.

There were also five Fifth-rank Departure Crystals, usable at Battle King Rank. And among his Emperor Grade Transcendent Genes, alongside the previously obtained Heaven Thunder Body, there was now one called the Ice-Sealed Coffin — a Control-plus-Assault Type Transcendent Gene, and a fairly rare and valuable kind at that.

Then there were three Talismans each capable of unleashing a single Battle Sovereign-level strike: the Golden Light Sword of the Assault Type, the Heaven Dragon Force of the Enhancement Type, and the Hundred Hands Cage of the Control Type.

All told, the cumulative value of everything he had earned likely exceeded tens of millions of Sixth-tier Spirit Crystals — a figure that wasn't small change even by Lu Yuan's standards.

For a Battle Venerable, even a prodigy-tier one, it would have been astronomical.

No wonder so many Battle Venerables dreamed of cracking the Prodigy Rankings. The rewards were obscene.

On top of all that, climbing into the top ten had changed his perks.

His Auction House commission was now fully waived.

That had been his original reason for targeting the Rankings — mission accomplished.

But since he'd already pushed this far, he figured he might as well go all the way to first.

Lu Yuan intended to keep challenging.

After collecting the floating rewards from the air, he heard Yeye's voice beside him.

"Are you going to continue?"

The Gene Warriors around him were watching with eager anticipation, hoping to see him push further.

"Yeah."

Lu Yuan smiled and nodded.

He brought his Gene Battle Mark to the Rankings Stone Tablet — and, skipping right over second place, submitted a challenge directly to rank one: Yan Liang of the Ink-Wing Race.

Up on the red giant bird, Anastasia noticed that no challenge request had come her way. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and a quiet scoff escaped her.

One of the Nightshade women understood immediately.

"Your Highness... did Lu Yuan just skip over you?"

Anastasia gave a small nod.

Several of the others bristled with indignation.

"Hmph! The arrogance of this human! He doesn't even consider you worth his time, Your Highness!"

"Your Highness, why not challenge him yourself, like Aimen did?"

Nina said, exasperation sharpening her tone.

She may have thought Lu Yuan was a promising candidate as a partner, but that didn't mean she was willing to watch her princess be disrespected.

Anastasia glanced at Nina, considered the idea for a moment, then shook her head calmly.

"Leave it. I'm not certain I could win against him. If I can't be sure of victory, I'd rather wait until I've broken through to Battle King Rank and engraved stronger genes before picking that fight."

Xia Zhi's eyes went wide.

"Your Highness, you're planning to break through?"

"Mm. It's about time. And I suspect I'm not the only one — Yan Liang, Aimen, all of them are probably at the same threshold."

Relative to Lu Yuan, they had all spent longer sitting at the Battle Venerable stage.

The reason none of them had broken through yet came down to a single perk: fully waived Auction House commissions.

For anyone serious about building wealth, that was an extraordinarily valuable benefit.

With the right approach, it could translate into enormous earnings.

So they had been happy enough to linger.

But Lu Yuan's appearance had given Anastasia a sense of urgency she couldn't ignore.

She was confident the same held true for Aimen. As for Yan Liang — the coming battle would settle who stood where between the two of them, one way or another.

Back at the Stone Tablet, it wasn't long after Lu Yuan submitted his challenge before a response came back.

The message made Lu Yuan's eyes go wide.

Forfeit.

Yan Liang, ranked first on the Prodigy Rankings, had chosen to concede immediately.

It was the last thing Lu Yuan had expected.

"What's wrong, A-Yuan?"

Yeye tilted her head, studying his peculiar expression with puzzlement.

The others around him were equally curious — what could possibly have put that look on his face?

Before Lu Yuan could say a word, the Stone Tablet blazed with brilliant golden light.

Then his ranking shifted — climbing straight to first place.

And Yan Liang, previously ranked first, slid down to third.

Every onlooker went slack-jawed.

"What?! How is that possible?"

"They didn't even fight — and Lu Yuan is already at the top?! Did Yan Liang actually just forfeit?! Why would he do that?!"

"Ha... maybe Yan Liang knew he couldn't beat Lu Yuan and got cold feet?"

"If you had one functioning brain cell, you wouldn't say something that idiotic."

"Then what's the reason?!"

No one could figure it out.

Even Anastasia's eyes had gone slightly wide, a flicker of genuine shock crossing her face.

Nina let out a gasp. "Yan Liang forfeited — how did Lu Yuan get to first this fast?"

Aimen, who had stayed rather than leaving — hoping to catch the showdown between Lu Yuan and Yan Liang — sat with a darkened expression, brows drawn tight.

"Hmph! Yan Liang, what the hell are you doing?! Surrendering without a fight — it's a disgrace!"

Then, at that very moment, Yan Liang's name seemed to evaporate from the Rankings — as if it had simply been erased. He disappeared from the board entirely.

Every rank below his shifted forward by one position. And at the very bottom of the Prodigy Rankings, the slot that had been the hundredth — the last — went blank, waiting for whoever was destined to fill it.

The clamor died away into silence.

Then someone put it together.

"Yan Liang's name is gone from the Rankings. He must have been in the middle of breaking through."

"That's why he forfeited. You can't stop a breakthrough once it starts. Once it completes, he'd be Battle King Rank — no longer eligible for the Prodigy Rankings. Better to concede than waste the opportunity."

"I can't believe Yan Liang broke through to Battle King Rank already. That was fast!"

"A true elite genius. If that's the case... Anastasia and Aimen are probably right behind him, aren't they?"

"I just wonder when Lu Yuan will break through."

Without anyone making a conscious decision to do so, everyone was now speaking of Lu Yuan in the same breath as the former top three. His strength was no step below theirs.

As for Lu Yuan himself — the moment he'd seen the forfeit, understanding had settled over him.

Not that he was complaining. Reaching first place without throwing a single punch was a gift he was more than happy to receive.

Shortly after his ranking officially updated to number one, the will of the Land of Origin delivered the reward information directly into his mind.

Lu Yuan looked it over, and a gleam of pleasant surprise crossed his face.

The rewards were even richer than he'd hoped.

A Fifth-rank Spirit Fruit called the Wasteland Blood Spirit Fruit — like the Blood Spirit Fruit, it boosted physical attributes.

A Fifth-rank Spirit Fruit called the Starry Sky Essence — like the Moon Spirit Fruit, it enhanced Mental Power.

Beyond those, there was a Fifth-rank Sovereign Grade Gene Armament, one Emperor Grade Transcendent Gene, a full five hundred Purple Heart Fruits, and two Fifth-rank Departure Crystals.

These rewards alone were nearly on par with everything he had accumulated before them combined.