Chapter 577 — Archaeology Uncovers His Own Past-Life Body
The Beast-Taming Craftsman · Page 5 of 9
That alone would have been fine, but the key was that last season's ninety-ninth place was a genius of the Environmental Protection Association, master of purification abilities.
It had been matched against one of its own.
"Ning. (You are not allowed to lose.)" Susu spoke up.
It would not permit this fat duck to rank ahead of it and then be defeated by another purification creature.
"Quack!!" Duckie thumped its chest and swore it would not lose.
Shi Cen laughed and said, "An abyssal creature matched against the Environmental Protection Association's super genius—well now, I reckon after this fight, the other side is going to have psychological scars..."
If the other side had a personality like Susu's...
Imagine this: Susu runs into an abyssal creature she simply cannot beat, cannot purify—and then that very creature reveals a purifying power stronger than her own. How devastating that would be for Susu.
"Is Lin getting another bye?" asked Shi Li.
"No," Lin said, pulling himself from his thoughts. "Today I deliberately withdrew the Wind of Blessing around me. Then a pair of contestants wiped each other out, and the odd number of entrants became even—no more bye slot. So this round, I got matched with an opponent too."
"Ah, come on," said Shi Li. "Why would you withdraw the Wind of Blessing? I thought you'd cruise on byes all the way to the final."
Lin snorted. "That would be too much like cheating. Besides, I have no interest in first place—I just wanted to stretch my legs."
"Still, I think I used up too much luck earlier, and it's biting me back now. I've been matched against the Ming Gu contestant who won one hundred and one championships in a row, then spent the next ten thousand years as the eternal runner-up."
Shi Jin: "Huh?? That's some brutal luck backlash—from two byes to the one-hundred-and-one-time champion... I can't help feeling that unlucky Qilin who came to Blue Star got his bad fortune because you burned through so much Qilin qi there and the backlash bounced back onto him..."
Lin projected a virtual image from the warship, cheeks puffed out. "Don't talk nonsense."
"Just joking..." Shi Li said. "The backlash isn't that bad—you only drew last tournament's runner-up. At least you didn't draw Eleven and the others... Meeting them early, now that would be real bad luck."
Lin said, "To keep them from running into each other in the early rounds, I gave each of them a faint wind of fortune. I hope it works."
Eleven and the others bowed to Lin—and were also wary of him.
Lin was terrifying.
If Lin wanted to, he could apparently cheat outright—reverse the flow of the wind of fortune and make them all unlucky, so they knocked each other out round after round, while Lin himself rode byes all the way to the final...
At the thought, they felt Lin's ability was simply too broken—he could win without fighting at all, just by exploiting the rules of the Apotheosis War.
"Huh..." Shi Cen couldn't help but marvel. Eleven and the others had shown no reaction at all upon hearing Lin was matched against the one-hundred-and-one-time champion—as if Lin had drawn some nameless extra. That was a bit insulting, surely.
This Ming Gu was not much weaker than Kahn; several times he had even succeeded in striking off one of his opponent's Time Imprints.
"Master, I've summarized all the information I'm authorized to access," Lin said. "I'll share the memories with you through telepathy."
"Good." Shi Heng nodded. Having Lin around certainly saved him a lot of trouble.
...
Next, Shi Jin began studying the material Lin had given him.
For now, studying material was all he dared do.
Getting Shi Jin to open the amber—that he truly did not dare.
Still, seeing the body of his past life had indeed sparked a few ideas in Shi Cen.
If this really was him—if this really was his past-life self—was there any way to control it?