NOVEL NEXT chapter 229 - Willow Tree on Lake Island
A green light illuminated Liu Yu’s body. Every examiner and contestant, before entering Water Moon New City, would wear a Qingmu Jade. When they were severely injured, the Qingmu Jade would automatically activate, healing their injuries, but at the same time, this also meant that the examiner or contestant was eliminated.
Liu Yu stood up, his heart filled with unwillingness and regret. He hadn’t expected this Black Crow to be so strong. Even now, thinking about that utterly domineering strike sent a chill down his spine.
If he had known, he definitely would have avoided this person.
However, if a C-rank examiner was already this terrifying, could B-rank and A-rank examiners truly be challenged by their group of people?
Watching Black Crow disappear at the end of the street, Liu Yu stood silently in place for a long time. He knew that as the first contestant to be eliminated, his name was already nailed to this year’s pillar of shame. He, who was supposed to bring glory to Baoyue Star, had now become the biggest joke in the Qingmu Star Region.
Thinking of this, he felt all his strength drain from his body, and he almost couldn't hold the longsword in his hand.
“All eliminated contestants, please proceed immediately to the resting area.”
The city broadcast sounded again. Liu Yu sighed and bowed deeply towards the empty street, then left dejectedly.
At this moment, Liu Yu’s live stream chat exploded.
“You piece of trash, I trusted you so much, yet you were the first to be eliminated!”
“Damn it, you’re really an embarrassment to our Baoyue Star. I’ll never buy anything you endorse again!”
“You call yourself a three-star genius? I think even one star is overestimating you. You should have just found a corner to hide in. You even took the initiative to fight someone, truly no self-awareness.”
“No matter what, Liu Yu did make it into the top hundred geniuses, making the name of our Baoyue Star known to the outside world. He just had bad luck and chose the wrong opponent. Do you really have to tear him down like this?”
On Baoyue Star, businesses and brands began to quickly contact Liu Yu’s agent. Liu Yu’s failure had clearly affected their brand image, and they decided to immediately terminate their contracts.
Some brands even demanded that Liu Yu bear the high compensation fees stipulated in their gambling agreements.
The genius, once showered with praise and glory, had fallen.
And this was the pressure of the Genius Battle.
If you could win, you would naturally become the darling of the media, favored by capital, with countless riches and honors raining down on you like a storm.
But if you lost, and lost badly, all honors would immediately abandon you, and your name would be nailed to the pillar of shame, unable to recover for a long time.
“There are really a lot of cameras, huh~”
As his mental power extended outwards, countless camera devices clearly appeared in Qin Tian’s mind.
Cameras were installed in every corner of the streets; seemingly inconspicuous flies, ants, dragonflies, and birds flying overhead were all disguised camera instruments.
Even inside the buildings on both sides of the street, cameras were everywhere.
The entire city had almost no blind spots for surveillance.
Being under surveillance, Qin Tian felt a bit uncomfortable. Fortunately, he knew that the live broadcast was from the contestant’s perspective, so as long as he didn’t enter a contestant’s live broadcast channel, no one would know what he was doing.
His sense of smell, hearing, and heat perception spread out, covering most of the city within his sensory range. Streams of information were integrated by his brain, quickly forming a real-time dynamic hotspot map.
“Have contestants already formed alliances so quickly?”
Qin Tian looked towards the southeast. There, were three humanoid heat sources emitting heat, and one plant-shaped heat source, which seemed to be the fixed wild monster besides the examiners.
Like the examiners, spirit plant wild monsters also guarded items.
“Let’s go take a look. I’ll try to fish in °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° troubled waters.”
A slight curve appeared at the corner of Qin Tian’s mouth. He walked into the shadows of the street, the light distorted, and his figure instantly vanished.
In the southeast corner of the city was a forest park. In the center of the park was a lake island, where a hundred-meter-tall giant plant resembling a green willow stood majestically. Its gnarled trunk was covered with scale-like patterns similar to an ancient tree, and thousands of willow branches transformed into dark green long whips, dancing wildly in the air, forming a vortex of death, attacking the three figures beside it.
The white-clothed youth, Mo Qingyu, had a face as cold as frost. The black iron sword blade emitted a chilling gleam, and each swing cut out streaks of light in the void, severing the lashing willow branches into a sky full of emerald snow. He moved with mysterious footwork, his figure like a ghost weaving between the whip shadows. Wherever his sword pointed, wood chips flew.
The red-haired man, Andrew, had every hair on his body standing on end, his steel claws gleaming with a cold, eerie light under the moonlight. He let out a beast-like growl, and the fanaticism of battle flickered in his crimson pupils. He nimbly dodged and flipped, his steel claws cutting through the willow branches like scythes, and dark green sap splattered onto the ground, instantly corroding and emitting wisps of white smoke.
In the distance, the red magic robe fluttered. The female mage, Nangong Yue, waved her staff, and the ruby at the staff’s tip emitted a dazzling red light. Countless fireballs, trailing orange-red tails, roared out and exploded on the giant willow’s body.
The flame shield suspended around her body spewed out scorching tongues of flame, burning any occasional willow branches that broke through the defense into ash. A strong burnt smell, mixed with the aura of magical energy, permeated the air.
The three heroes battled the willow tree, their cooperation quite seamless. In fact, the three of them didn't know each other; they had simply discovered the wild monster on the lake island at the same time, so they decided to temporarily ally, first dealing with the willow tree and the item it guarded, and then the three of them would fight to determine the victor.
At this moment, the live streams of the three were extremely lively. Viewers from each planet cheered for their own genius, while also rushing into other geniuses’ live streams to engage in heated arguments with other netizens.
“What is Andrew doing? He’s just slacking off. Most of the pressure is being borne by our brother.”
“Women really are unreliable. A fire mage, yet her damage to the willow tree isn’t even half of our brother’s. Are you just putting on a fireworks show?!”
“Do you even have eyes? If our Xiao Yue hadn’t protected Mo Qingyu with her Fire Ring spell just now, he would have been tied up like a zongzi by the willow tree. But Andrew really is slacking off, it’s the same whether he’s there or not.”
“Damn it, if Andrew’s strong body wasn’t blocking in front, would Nangong Yue even have a chance to cast spells? Shameless Easterners!”
“Western barbarians, get out of the Qingmu Star Region!”
The live streams, which were supposed to be cheering for their respective contestants, quickly transformed into battlegrounds for multi-party verbal warfare. Three major planets, tens of billions of netizens, engaged in furious online debates, and the dense barrage of comments almost drowned out the entire live stream.
Of course, there were also many netizens who genuinely supported the contestants. They turned off the comments and focused on watching the contestants’ performances.
Just as everyone was staring at the battle between the three contestants and the willow tree, no one noticed that a subtle ripple suddenly appeared in the stirred lake water, as if something had slipped in.