Chapter 242 — Bai Xi and Lu Heng's Transformation

At this moment, every minute and every second felt endlessly long and breathtaking. Yet the stone pillar, after all, was designed to test people—its power was inexhaustible and had no upper limit. In an instant, Bai Xi's expression grew more and more serious, though she did not look as bedraggled as the contestants before her. With a "crack," the curtain of light around Bai Xi shattered outright, her erupted intimidation was crushed by the pillar's intimidation, and she herself gave a muffled groan, retreating a small step, her mind ringing with a roar!

Almost instantly, Bai Xi felt as if her body were about to fall apart, utterly weak, and her beast-transformation traits vanished at once. Yet her powerful will kept her from collapsing under the intimidation; she merely stood on the platform in a daze.

"About thirty-four seconds? Never mind." Bai Xi's eyes narrowed slightly.

Hum.

After judging that Bai Xi had lost her capacity to resist, the stone pillar's intimidation dissipated. Several seconds later, Bai Xi's breathing gradually evened out; she slowly opened her eyes and looked toward the high platform.

"Thirty-four seconds and thirty-six hundredths—very impressive."

"That's the third-highest score so far."

On the high platform, the two members in charge of recording the results spoke up with smiles and excitement on their faces.

"Thirty-four seconds?!"

At the announcement of that time, a ripple of dazed astonishment ran through the crowd below the stage.

The gap within the Monarch tier was in truth enormous—a mighty Monarch might possess ten times the strength of a weak one. Holding out for thirty-five seconds already marked one as mid-tier among Monarchs, and Bai Xi was barely into her twenties. In the eyes of the crowd, such strength was already formidable in the extreme.

After all, by the most generous reckoning, it had been less than a year since Bai Xi broke through to Master rank. At her age, it was entirely normal that the cultivation of her beasts fell short of those veteran Masters.

"Not bad." Bai Xi said softly on the stage, then descended with a smile. She was terribly weak now; stepping down amid the admiring gazes of the crowd, she returned to the side of Lu Heng, Shi Jin, and the others, where Shi Jin had already produced a prepared nourishing fruit and handed it to her.

"Here."

"Thanks." Taking the tonic from Shi Jin, Bai Xi wasted no courtesy and devoured it without regard for appearances. Moments later she was revived to full health, her complexion even faintly flushed—a clear sign of over-nourishment.

"Mmm..."

Bai Xi made an involuntary sound.

Her face bright red, she said, "Next time just give me a low-grade one..."

Shi Jin scratched his cheek. "Having to specially make low-grade ones is such a hassle..."

"Um..."

"It should be my turn next, right..." At this, Lu Heng said somewhat nervously.

Her nerves were not about her own performance, but about having her possession state seen by so many people—it would be social death.

After all, she was nowhere near as practiced at it as Bai Xi and Shi Jin.

"You've got this, Lu Yan!!!" Bai Xi said. "You're obviously even prettier than me after transforming, you know."

"Compared with the hair of the Nine-Tails and the White Tiger—both white, sure—but I like yours better!!"

[Nine-Tails, White Tiger: ???]

"So what exactly is it? You've been hiding it from me all day..." Shi Jin could not help saying from the side.

Also white hair?

Shi Jin could not think what undead it might be.

Could it be... a Snow Woman?

That did not seem right—that was a signature undead of the Seven Isles, rare here in Donghuang. Still, it was not entirely impossible...

"Number 109, Lu Heng." At that moment, a voice rang out from the high platform.

Shi Jin decided not to ask; he would see soon enough anyway.

Hearing her name called, Lu Heng drew a deep breath, put away her glasses-shaped codex into her spatial storage, and then walked step by step toward the stage.

Today Lu Heng wore a white shirt, still black shorts, her long legs clad in black silk. Her slow ascent to the stage drew even more attention and anticipation than Bai Xi's had.

"Dr. Lu... Dr. Lu has the telepathy talent, so she must be enhancing herself through some skill of her beast, right?"

"An enhancement-type skill, or a possession-type?"

Everyone was intensely curious—and below the stage, Shi Jin was intensely curious too.

Enhancement-type skills were things like the Iron-Eating Beast's Hardening.

Using masterful Hardening to wrap around the beast tamer—the Martial Arts Tournament permitted such tactics, so long as the Iron-Eating Beast did not personally take part in combat. Still, that relationship felt a little awkward at the Martial Arts Tournament: the Iron-Eating Beast applies a layer of Hardening to the tamer, the tamer goes off to fight, and the beast watches. The relationship between tamer and beast, viewed this way, seemed somewhat reversed.

"Begin."

Before long, Lu Heng had mounted the stage, and she too looked toward the rock pillar. At the same time, as in the previous round, the pillar again began releasing its intimidation from weak to strong.

To everyone's surprise, Lu Heng, like Bai Xi, did not activate her ability right away; instead she withstood the intimidation in her normal state.

One second... two seconds... ten seconds... nineteen seconds...

The crowd's expressions gradually began to twitch, and once twenty seconds had passed, not only were the onlookers goggle-eyed—even Shi Jin was slightly taken aback, never having expected that Lu Yan, with a telepathy talent, had trained her physique to such a degree.

As expected of a rich lady...

"Not bad at all." Shi Jin remarked.

"Lu Yan's beast space has already reached level six, so a strong physique is only natural." Bai Xi said.

At roughly the same twenty-five-second mark, Lu Heng drew a deep breath and finally half-closed her eyes, beginning to commune with her undead for possession.

The next moment, a white light like a swirling galaxy wreathed around her. Beneath that white radiance, her hair slowly shifted from tea-brown to silver-white...

"It's not a White Bone Demon, is it?" Shi Jin gave a sharp start.

"Get lost." Bai Xi said angrily. "Sorry to disappoint—it's not a signature undead of Donghuang."

Shi Jin kept watching, his expression growing more and more astonished—and not only him, but every beast tamer present wore a look of disbelief, for Lu Heng's transformation effects were simply dazzling. The white galaxy of light not only dyed her hair silver-white but, combining with the power of the wind element, coalesced into a white robe behind Lu Heng. In an instant, beneath the flashing brilliance, Lu Heng radiated an air of nobility and elegance, and her appearance grew considerably more beautiful.

As dense natural force of the wind element coiled around him, Lu Heng's ears also grew long and pointed, and Shi Ying's expression turned strange at once.

The next moment, Lu Heng opened his eyes. Pale violet pupils full of intellect and wisdom gazed at Shi Jin; her soft features combined maturity with liveliness, and with the breeze swirling about her, her whole body radiated the charm of nature—incomparably beautiful, like a goddess of nature.

She raised her hand lightly, without using any intimidation at all, and the wind pressure surged upward in reverse, instantly devouring the power radiating from the stone pillar and quietly contending with the pillar's aura.

"This is..." In that moment, looking at Lu Heng, who had become like a goddess, people's eyes went wide, men and women alike.

"So beautiful..."

"This is... possession?"

"But what kind of creature is that?"

Countless people were spellbound at once.