C36 The Show Has Begun!

Goldie exclaimed, "???"

"You mangy cur! I'm going all out against you!"

With a roar of fury, Goldie charged at Blazing Wind.

Despite the ferocity of the earlier battle, Goldie had been holding back.

The skirmish with Blazing Wind had given him a rough idea of his own capabilities.

Provoked by Hai Ming's taunts, Goldie resolved to finish the fight quickly and confront Hai Ming head-on.

But just then, a thunderous boom erupted, shaking the ground violently as a horde of fiend beasts stampeded their way.

"What's happening?"

Zhou Mu looked back to see a massive, scale-armored lizard locking eyes with him, its cold vertical pupils brimming with lethal intent.

It was an Earth Armored Dragon, a leader among beasts.

The lizard-type fiend beasts trailing it were clearly under its command.

A select few leader-quality fiend beasts and spirit animals possess unique abilities.

Some can intimidate, others dominate.

Gator's talent lay in intimidation, instilling fear in fiend beasts within a certain radius, sapping their will to fight.

This Earth Armored Dragon's skill was likely domination, bending lower-tier fiend beasts of its kind to its will.

Blazing Wind might be a Lord, but it was shackled by numerous modes, unable to leave and its Lordly presence suppressed to a whisper.

One would have to be within three meters to detect Blazing Wind's presence.

The Earth Armored Dragon, aware of this, had led the charge with its fiend beast army.

"In this school, only two people bear a grudge against me: Zhao Qianqian and the man whose chance at the Sanctuary for Spiritual Growth I took. Zhao Qianqian's spirit animal is a lordly one, unlikely to bother with riffraff like the Earth Armored Dragon. Thus, the sequence of events becomes clear."

Zhou Mu faced the Earth Armored Dragon with an impassive expression.

He had seen such displays before; compared to the Sinister Six, this was mere child's play.

He didn't need to lift a finger. At the mere release of his dragon's might, every fiend beast would prostrate themselves on the ground.

What good is it to control fiend beasts if they're not utterly mad? They'd still be overwhelmed by the dragon's presence.

Zhou Mu was on the right track with his thinking, but reality often defies expectations.

In the midst of Golden Child and Blazing Wind's fierce battle, a colossal creature burst from the earth, catapulting them both through the air.

Golden Child: "Damn!"

Blazing Wind: "Crystal!"

The behemoth, stretching nearly ten meters long, was encased in hard, bony armor, its tail lashing like a chain of iron whips.

Its protruding mouth bristled with sharp teeth, while lethal claws lay concealed beneath its bulk.

This was the Armored Dragon, a tyrant beast resembling a giant mantis.

Though the Iron Armored Dragon and the Earth Armored Dragon belonged to the same category of fiend beasts and bore the "Dragon" moniker, they bore no relation to true dragons.

Emerging from the ground, the Armored Dragon didn't strike at Blazing Wind or Golden Child; instead, it fixed its sights on Zhou Mu.

It was unmistakably targeting him.

"A new student ranking competition, and yet it's riddled with complications. The tree yearns for calm, but the wind will not cease. I'm not looking for trouble, but it seems to find me regardless," Zhou Mu sighed, his head throbbing with annoyance.

The rumbling grew louder, the quaking more severe; thousands of fiend beasts had closed in to within a hundred meters.

Zhou Mu cast a glance their way, his unperceivable dragon's might radiating outward, causing the front line of beasts to collapse to the ground.

The advance halted, the rear surged forward, and chaos ensued among the fiend beasts.

Even the leader-quality Earth Armored Dragon, along with all the others, tumbled over like scattered gourds.

Zhou Mu had no interest in dealing with this rabble. He summoned Gator and made a strategic withdrawal.

With his prowess, he could dispatch ordinary fiend beasts in a heartbeat, elite ones in no more than three moves, and he could hold his own against a leader, perhaps even managing a draw if fortune favored him. But facing a tyrant beast? Better to call it a night.

"Heh, getting cold feet?"

Zhou Mu had barely retreated ten meters when a chilling voice cut through the air. His adversary was a sight to behold, with his black clothes caked in dust and a rip across the right side of his hip. His hair was disheveled, blood trickled from his nostrils, and his speech whistled with the breath escaping through it. Clearly, he had been thrown off a fiend beast, no thanks to the dragon's aura Zhou Mu had unleashed, which had brought the creatures to their knees.

"I suffer from megalophobia."

Zhou Mu gave him a sidelong glance and quietly stepped back a few paces.

"Megalophobia?"

The man paused, seemingly slow to grasp the meaning.

"I'm terrified of colossal idiots like you, so I need to keep my distance. Idiocy is contagious, and I have no desire to end up like you."

Zhou Mu retreated a few more meters, casually adjusting his clothes.

"You're asking for it!"

The man's reaction was delayed, but when Zhou Mu's words sank in, his face contorted with rage, and his eyes blazed with murderous intent. He had come for Zhou Mu with a swift death in mind, and now, incensed by his taunts, he was seething.

"Attack! Take down that snake!"

With a furious cry, the man lunged at Zhou Mu. Simultaneously, the iron-armored dragon fixed its steely gaze on Gator. The fierce wind clashed with Goldie, the iron-armored dragon with Gator, and the man in black with Zhou Mu. The fight was imminent!

...

Outside the Illusion Mirror, the crowd of teachers and students was stunned.

"What's happening? Wasn't the iron-armored dragon ensnared by the mode? How did it escape, and who's controlling it?"

Fong Ju shot to his feet, his face etched with incredulity. While the Illusion Mirror was under the principal's control, other school leaders and teachers had free access. Tampering with it was hardly a challenge. With this in mind, Fong Ju whipped around to confront Liu Shibin.

"Hmph!"

Confronted with Fong Ju's murderous glare, Liu Shibin's lips curled into a sneer. He neither confirmed nor denied anything, but the truth was self-evident.

"To slip by my notice, undo the mode on the Armored Dragon, and even direct it into battle... it seems you've been quite busy over the years."

"Managing to elude my perception, unlocking the mode on the Armored Dragon, and even guiding it into battle—it seems you've been quite busy over the years," the principal remarked with a calm that belied the gravity of the events that had unfolded right under her watch.

She was well aware of Zhou Mu's capabilities. A third-rank Blazing Wind and Armored Dragon stood no chance against the young man.

And as for Liu Shibin's disciple, that was even less of a concern.

Zhou Mu had held his own against a prodigy like Zhao Qianqian. He was leagues beyond what Liu Shibin's disciple could hope to match.

"You don't seem the least bit concerned?" Liu Shibin's brow furrowed, sensing that the principal's reaction was off-kilter.

He replayed every detail in his mind but found no oversight. Therefore, he concluded that the principal was merely feigning nonchalance.

"The real show is just about to start!" he declared.

"Indeed, the main event is nearly upon us," the principal agreed, her voice heavy with implication.