Chapter 3931 — Indescribably Lucky

The tornado conjured by the Butterfly Queen might not boast full lethal force, but when it came to paralytic effect, there was simply no disputing it—everyone present had experienced it firsthand. Caught inside that whirl of numbing powder, even the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle, whose constitution and resistance far outstripped any human's, could not possibly escape that fate.

By the rules agreed upon beforehand, once one touched the ground, the match was lost. With its entire body paralyzed, the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle was now doomed beyond any doubt.

Yet Qiao Hongcai showed no intention of giving up. Instead, with perfect composure, he said, "That's not certain!"

"Stubborn to the last, like a dead duck with a stiff beak. This lady was going to let you off easy, but since you insist, there's no need for courtesy. Butterfly Queen—drain it dry!" Murong Zhen ordered with a cold smirk.

Everyone shuddered at her words, only then recalling that the Butterfly Queen, for all her beauty, was in truth a deeply unsettling and horrifying creature. Beyond the numbing powder on her wings, her mouth was the long slender proboscis of any ordinary butterfly—except hers was incomparably sharp, and rumor had it she could pierce clean through several inches of iron plate.

And unlike an ordinary butterfly, the Butterfly Queen was a true carnivorous spirit beast. Her favorite pastime was to drive that proboscis into her target's body and suck the blood dry, guts and all.

To everyone watching, Murong Zhen's command amounted to a death sentence for the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle; trapped in the Butterfly Queen's numbing powder, it would not even have the chance to struggle or flee.

At Murong Zhen's command, the blue tornado in midair abruptly burst apart. At the same moment, two figures came plummeting down, crossing past each other and plunging toward the ground.

Boom! A muffled impact, and a cloud of dust billowed up from the ground, hanging in the air and refusing to settle.

Only after a good while, as the dust slowly dispersed, did the crowd finally make out the scene—and in that instant, Murong Zhen included, every last one of them gaped as though they had seen a ghost.

The Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle, which everyone had taken for dead, had its talons clamped tight around its opponent's torso, those sharp claws smeared with blood—and the Butterfly Queen had been trampled bodily beneath its feet!

"Impossible! How could this lady's Butterfly Queen possibly lose?" Murong Zhen was struck dumb by the sight, and for a long moment she could not recover her senses.

Meanwhile, the referee brought down his gavel and declared, "Contest between C-1 and C-2: C-1's Butterfly Queen touched the ground first, therefore C-2's Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle wins!"

At this, not only Murong Zhen but everyone else present exchanged blank looks, utterly bewildered.

A moment ago the Butterfly Queen had held absolute dominance, and the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle was nothing but meat at her beak—so how had it suddenly come to this? No one could make sense of it!

"Hongcai, this Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle's temperament suits you perfectly. You've truly struck treasure this time," Wei Zhao said, clapping in genuine admiration.

Meng Jueming and the others could not make sense of it, but Wei Zhao had seen it clearly. The Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle's position just now had indeed hung by a thread, and it had truly been paralyzed.

Yet in the very instant of paralysis, the eagle had clamped its sharp talons into both of the Butterfly Queen's soft flanks. In her agony, she could not so much as dream of draining the bird's flesh and blood with her proboscis—she did not dare move at all, and was dragged bodily down and smashed into the ground. Only thus had this reversal come about.

In truth, had the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle not seized her, the Butterfly Queen would already have won, for the eagle was now so thoroughly paralyzed it could not move a muscle—a living target.

The key to this victory lay not in the eagle's raw strength, but in its fighting spirit—that resolve to press forward even unto death. In this alone, the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle's mettle truly matched Qiao Hongcai himself.

"Tch. A perfectly good advantage, and you stumble at the last step. Useless trash," Murong Zhen spat coldly. Then, without so much as another glance at the Butterfly Queen on the ground, she turned and walked away.

"That woman is truly cold-blooded. Just now she made such a show of adoring that Butterfly Queen, and now that it's lost, she immediately washes her hands of it. What a misfortune to be loved by the wrong person," Wei Zhao said, shaking his head in exasperation.

Xiao Che and the others all nodded. If one wanted a living example of a fickle, heartless nature, Murong Zhen was it. Thinking on it now, Meng Jueming and his lot were rather to be pitied. While Meng Jueming held power and influence, Murong Zhen would fawn over him in every way; but once his usefulness ran out, he would be left to weep. A woman like that not kicking a man when he was down would already count as boundless mercy.

Only when Qiao Hongcai stepped forward and carried the paralyzed Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle away did the Butterfly Queen, drenched in gore, finally regain her freedom. Following the scent Murong Zhen had left behind, she flapped her wings with difficulty, lurching high and low until she vanished from everyone's sight.

With the conclusion of this focal match between the Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle and the Butterfly Queen, the first round of the spirit-pet tournament was at last entirely finished.

Yet the referee allowed the spirit beasts no time at all to rest. The draw for the second round came hard on its heels—and this time, the opponent Wei Zhao drew was none other than Qiao Hongcai.

That result actually came as immense relief to Qiao Hongcai. "Thank goodness it's the leader I'm facing. If it were anyone else, I really wouldn't be content to just give up like this," he said, counting himself fortunate.

With no rest period, his Ghost-Eye Golden Eagle was now paralyzed from head to tail and could not move. To pit it against another spirit beast was simply out of the question; his only option was to concede.

There was no help for it—such were the rules laid down from above. Only through relentless back-to-back combat could a spirit beast's true limits be revealed. As for some getting a bye while others drew weak opponents, one could only say that nothing in this world was ever absolutely fair, and often enough luck itself was part of strength.

It was not only Meng Zhou; the other newcomers, too, were beginning to look at the referee with something odd in their eyes. Had this referee not been a fellow pavilion disciple appointed from above, they would have suspected he had been bought off by Wei Zhao—otherwise, how could Wei Zhao enjoy such dumb, outrageous luck?

Before doing a single thing, he had effortlessly pocketed twenty points. Wei Zhao's idle, untroubled air made the other newcomers burn with envy. If looks could kill, Wei Zhao would by now have been riddled with a thousand holes.