Chapter 91 - 89: As If a Lifetime Had Passed, Final Ranking
Lin Ye staggered.
His vision went black. All strength drained from his body as he collapsed heavily to the ground.
The massive hole in his chest seemed to instantly devour all his life and warmth.
An icy numbness spread wildly up his spine.
His heart had been pierced—an absolutely fatal wound.
Any other normal Martial Artist, or even the Level 12 Lin Ye from before this competition began, would have already been a cold corpse, their consciousness sinking into eternal darkness.
But the stat boosts from his frantic leveling over the past three days...
The "Thickened Skin" passive skill, with its 5% damage reduction...
And the extra maximum Life Value Lin Ye had been accumulating for so long by devouring things with his Soul Furnace...
All this foreshadowing came into play at the most critical moment!
It all formed the final dam holding him back from an instant death!
Life Value: 1/2779!
Perhaps it was fate.
Perhaps it was coincidence.
Or perhaps, it was the sheer, burning will to not let his teammate’s sacrifice be in vain that forcibly held on to this last spark of life.
Lin Ye was left with that final, single point of Life Value.
This last, faint glimmer of life.
It was enough for him to perform one last, most primal action.
Lin Ye opened his mouth and took the crystal from the ground—the one that was already covered in cracks, its light dimmed to the extreme, also on its last legs with only a final breath remaining.
He put it directly into his mouth!
He didn’t use his gun. He didn’t use his fists.
He didn’t even use his intellect.
He used humanity’s most ancient weapon.
His teeth!
And bit down hard!!!
CRUNCH!
Lin Ye felt his jaw scream in protest. At least two or three of his molars had completely shattered from the insane bite.
And at that moment, his consciousness was finally, completely swallowed by endless darkness and chaos!
But—
In the final instant before his consciousness sank away, he clearly heard a crisp sound, like shattering glass.
CRACK...
SHATTER!!!
The core of the Crystal Spirit Race larva—a highly intelligent being from the Celestial Abyss that had pushed them to the brink.
It was completely crushed, shattered by Lin Ye’s final, beast-like bite!
[Ding! Urgent Mission: Supreme Evolution! Complete!]
[Calculating mission results...]
[Mission Reward: EXP +15000, Free Attribute Points +12!]
[You have obtained a new mechanic: Taotie!]
...
「Reality.」
Dongjiang City Center Stadium.
Inside the vast, empty viewing hall.
All the supervising teachers, staff, and even a few high-level executives from the Mingguang Group who had come to observe were watching the giant central screen with great interest.
On the screen was the final battle: Lin Ye and Zhang Yuqing versus the Crystal Spirit Race larva.
Wang Zhengguo and Chen Meng sat in the back row, their knuckles white from clenching their fists too hard.
Over an hour ago, from the moment Lin Ye first discovered the strange Crystal Spirit Race larva, the event’s central broadcast control had perceptively locked the main camera onto the two of them.
According to the hidden information released by the event organizers after the competition began, they had placed a total of four true Celestial Abyss Race members throughout the first round’s virtual ruin map.
Without exception, these four members of the Celestial Abyss Race were either severely wounded or on the verge of death, possessing less than one percent of their full strength.
But even so, their existence was a world of difference from the mutated beasts that acted purely on instinct.
These were hidden bosses.
They were extra credit and a litmus test prepared by the organizers for the truly top-tier geniuses.
And the one Lin Ye and Zhang Yuqing encountered was the hidden boss among hidden bosses!
According to humanity’s current classification of the Celestial Abyss Race’s danger levels, the Crystal Spirit Race was rated as high as Level 5!
This was a terrifying race that, if it successfully reached adulthood, would possess power comparable to a peak Divine Realm Martial Artist in human terms.
Even though this was just a larva.
Even though it had suffered irreversible, severe injuries.
Its power far surpassed the other three.
Therefore, when Lin Ye and Zhang Yuqing began to formulate their hunting plan—one that looked full of holes to any outsider—almost no one believed they could win.
Everyone thought these two youngsters were courting death.
But now, as the image on the screen froze...
...frozen on the moment the blood-soaked young man collapsed to the ground and used his last ounce of strength to open his mouth and shatter the purple core like a wild animal.
Everyone was deeply moved.
The battle had gone exactly as the young man had initially predicted.
It would take two people, burning through everything they had.
Even staking their very lives.
Trading a life for a life, just to grasp at that one ethereal sliver of a chance.
And he had succeeded!
[Target "Crystal Spirit Race Larva" core shattered. Life signs have completely vanished. Verdict: Killed!]
The cold system verdict appeared simultaneously in a corner of the screen.
The silence in the hall was broken as sparse applause began to ripple through the room.
After all, everyone present had their own contestants to root for.
Their applause was for Zhang Yuqing’s sacrifice.
And for Lin Ye’s clear-headedness and tenacity!
[Tenth Place: Lin Ye, Dongjiang First Middle School, Hunt Score: 766!]
[Twenty-Seventh Place: Zhang Yuqing, Dongjiang First Middle School, Hunt Score: 487!]
Lin Ye’s name, which had been in 21st place just ten-odd minutes ago, suddenly shot forward, breaking directly into the top ten!
As for Zhang Yuqing, it was as if she’d strapped herself to a rocket, soaring from 82nd place straight into the top thirty!
All because this Celestial Abyss Race larva awarded a terrifying 600 hunt points!
They had killed it together, so the points were split evenly—300 points each!
Chen Meng could no longer contain his excitement and clenched his fist tightly.
Wang Zhengguo’s tense expression finally relaxed. He let out a long breath, the admiration in his eyes practically overflowing.
’How exhilarating!’
While this battle lacked the kind of overwhelming crush delivered by someone with extreme power like Xue Wangshu...
...in terms of sheer spectacle, it was arguably the best of the entire event!
The two men exchanged a look and, without lingering, turned and strode quickly toward the Virtual Pod area where the contestants were.
They were going to greet the two heroes who had just set a new record for their school.
WHIRRR—
With the soft hum of machinery, the Virtual Pod’s hatch slowly opened.
The harsh lights and clamorous voices of the outside world flooded in like a tide.
Lin Ye felt a sharp pain all over his body. Every muscle, every inch of bone, was sending signals of fatigue and soreness to his brain.
The extreme spiritual fatigue left him without even a sliver of strength.
His consciousness hovered at the border between the virtual and the real, dazed for several seconds.
Only then did he slowly come to his senses.
The first things he saw were the high, magnificent dome of the stadium and the dazzling, star-like lights.
’It’s over.’
’I’m back in the real world.’
"Lin Ye, your and Zhang Yuqing’s performance far exceeded the principal’s and my expectations!"
A large, powerful hand supported Lin Ye’s back, steadily helping him sit up in the Life Support Pod.
It was Chen Meng.
His face was filled with undisguised excitement and admiration.
Lin Ye’s gaze was still a bit unfocused.
In the virtual world, he had endured three full days of high-intensity, life-or-death combat.
Everything had felt incredibly real.
But now that he was awake, his body’s biological clock had been forcibly recalibrated. The huge difference in the flow of time, combined with the feeling of surviving a deadly battle...
...all of it made Lin Ye’s mind feel disoriented, as if he had just woken from a long dream, like a lifetime had passed.