Chapter 97: 97: Master Stroke

After a while, the image projected to the large crowd cleared. A stunned silence overwhelmed the battle arena as they all watched Ryu slowly approach the corpse of the beast.

Ryu began to dissect the Fire Tiger. In reality, this was extremely difficult even now that its defenses had weakened. It took Ryu several hours to reach the Spiritual Root and meticulously displace the organ and the Blood Essence within it properly.

However, no one blamed him. The corpse of a Fourth Order beast was too precious. Plus, there hadn't ever been a time limit placed on a turn. As a result, Ryu could take all the time he needed. By the time he finished, the second day of competition had begun. Many Princes and audience members had directly taken time to rest. After all, not all of them had high enough cultivation to remain awake for extended periods of time.

When Ryu finally reappeared, the shock of his victory still hadn't worn off. Unfortunately for his competition, he had also been savvy enough to take advantage of the competition rules to rest as much as he needed within the Small Realm. One might wonder why Kwan hadn't done this to dodge Silas' schemes, but this had an obvious answer. Would Silas have let things go so easily had Kwan done that? Of course not. In all likelihood, he would shamelessly demand more.

There was another more complex reasoning to this as well. One had to remember that these trials weren't taking place in a vacuum. The small-scale teleportation arrays had been connected to the real territories of real beasts. How could there only be one beast in a Small Realm?

Beasts spent much of their time fighting for territory. What would happen if the overlord of an area suddenly died? Wouldn't new beasts rush in, seeking benefits?

The only reason Ryu could calmly digest his gains instead of having to fight new waves of beasts was precisely because of how powerful his opponent was. The Fire Tiger's territory was so large and expansive that beasts adjacent to it hadn't even heard the sounds of battle, let alone realizing it died.

This was exactly why Headmaster Leopold had never bothered to set a time limit despite knowing this loophole existed. The lack of a time limit was actually a potential pitfall left behind by Leopold as a trap. If you spent too long battling, trying to conserve strength, or were too poor in battle to finish quickly enough, you would attract far more trouble than you were capable of dealing with. Only when the opponent you faced was so outrageously powerful would these petty traps have no meaning. Of course, Ryu was able to see through this. He had realized from the beginning this trial's rules weren't so simple.

Seeing that Prince Kwan was looking around dumbly, Ryu shook his head. "Prince Kwan, it is still your turn."

Ryu's words like a pike breaking through a thing sheet of ice. An eruption of emotions and chaos swept through the arena. Just how had Ryu done it? They couldn't see very much from the flickering images at the end… Why had the Fire Tiger suddenly leapt in the air and howled in pain? Was that a bow Ryu was holding at the end? Just what kind of attack was that?!

"Oh!" Prince Kwan perked up. He realized that Ryu had helped him a lot. By taking his time, the Opes Warriors had long since regained their peak fighting strength. Plus, he loved seeing that helpless expression on Silas' face. That bastard was too cocky!

"I wonder if you'll allow me to give you some advice?" Ryu suddenly asked.

"Advice?" Kwan blinked in surprise. "Please advise, Brother Ryu."

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"You have two actions left. How about you use the first one to attack your brother's step?"

Prince Kwan's features darkened. Could it be that Ryu was only feigning niceties in order to take advantage of him? It wasn't just Kwan who thought this, even the spectating Princes thought so as well.

Ryu shook his head. "You misunderstand. I want you to attack your brother's step so that I can act as one of his helpers."

Ryu's slight smile and nonchalant words stunned the crowd. What did he just say? Of those spectating, only Headmaster Leopold's eyes flashed with a piercing light. How had he planned to keep these proceedings fair despite knowing that there was an imbalance of Princes from various Kingdoms? He had left behind many hidden rules and loopholes to be taken advantage of. This was one such rule!

Headmaster Leopold had said from the very beginning that a Prince was allowed helpers, but he never restricted where that help could come from. There was no rule against two Princes entering the same step at the same time!

"This…" Kwan looked away from Ryu to glance at his elder brother. Although this sounded like a great idea, there were many problems with this approach. Namely, if Ryu decided to betray his elder brother, it would result in disaster! By the time he entered, it would be too late for regret… However, who would have thought that his elder brother Kalmin would nod straight forwardly.

Taking a deep breath, Kwan calmed himself. Just why was Ryu doing this? He was already on his eighth step, since he could defeat a Lower Fourth Order beast, he wouldn't have trouble taking first place after Kwan concluded his turn. So, what was the purpose of this.

"I do have ulterior motives." Ryu suddenly said. "I'm not ashamed to say that the method I used to achieve victory isn't something I can replicate time and time again. In truth, defeating a Peak Third Order beast alone is probably my limit. Which means, I'll need some help on the final step.

"You'll use your attack on your brother and I'll help him step upon the sixth step. Then, when it's my turn once more, I'll help him step upon the seventh step by attacking him once more. If anyone attacks him, I'll become his helper, helping him continue to move forward. After all, Princes have unlimited entries."

Ryu's words were like a hidden landmine being triggered after decades hidden under an abandoned battlefield. That was right! From the very beginning, Headmaster Leopold had said that only warriors with unlimited entries were the Princes! It didn't matter that Kalmin had five more steps left to climb, Ryu could help him with each and every one of them!

The faces of Ryu's enemies darkened, but Headmaster Leopold's eyes only seemed to grow brighter and brighter.

'What a master stroke!' Leopold exclaimed in his heart. With a single move, Ryu not only showed signs of weakness that would make his enemies less wary of him, he also exploited rules to perfection and gained two strong allies for himself. This was exactly how Leopold wanted this game to be played!

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