Hum—buzzing!
On the field Lu Jun stood with his hands behind his back; his eyes flickered with the light of curses, a terrifying, vast spiritual force spilling out. He cast the novice curse spell Mist of Fear · Dream Eater, and grinning, snarling curse faces descended across the distance onto the Japanese team.
Ah! A shrill, miserable scream erupted from one of the five Japanese contestants.
Everyone jumped back and looked — it was the team's psychic girl, Suneka, who had been carefully erecting a psychic barrier for her team.
At this moment Suneka's face was full of terror, a splitting headache, her vision blurred; she saw a pair of elevated, evil-god eyes staring at her like two whirlpools of blackness, hollow and hungry, as if they would suck her soul away.
"No way?! Six-stage mental power, high-grade perfected curse, and what is this cursed technique?"
The Japanese psychic tried desperately to ram her mind's starfield into action, but she still couldn't shake it.
She realized a few critical things; in the pre-match she had been forced to take a family-donated Thought Stone to barely break the barrier of the third level and finally scrape into the fourth — and this monster had probed up to the peak of the sixth stage.
The next second her consciousness completely sank into darkness. A figure floated up beside the girl; the referee carried her off for treatment.
"Japan's Toyoda Miyuki is eliminated!"
One move, one kill! What else is there to say? Besides Lu Jun's three major advantages, his novice curse magic here was no simple fear-cloud — it was at Level Five, comparable to an intermediate spell.
Japan's captain Shō Heguya was drenched in cold sweat; his mind shook with fear. Damn it — a high-stage mage erased by a novice spell in an instant?
He knew Lu Jun's curse system was strong, but he hadn't expected it to be this absurd: a soul-domain clash that could shatter a psychic mage with one blow. What could they possibly do now?
"Retreat, now!"
Shō Heguya barked urgently, but before he finished the words his head thundered. A sapphire pendant on his chest flared, trying to raise a psychic light shield, but before it could form it went "poof" and exploded into a luminous puff and vanished.
In that instant he felt the world spin and staggered to the ground, worse off than the psychic had been.
Two eliminations in a row. Poison-wind mage Yōsuke recovered his wits and, face twisted, roared, "Even if I die, I'll gnaw at your flesh!"
Poison Nest · Vengeful Poison Flies!
"This is the poisonous vermin I took from the Fukushima Radiant Sea — invincible against humans."
He laughed wildly, opening his hands to split the air; black holes opened in his palms and a sky-darkening tide of poisonous flies surged forth. This Japanese team member had walked the path of an insect-witch!
But in the next instant Yōsuke went black in front of his eyes and collapsed.
Luckily, the poisonous insects were relatively autonomous, like summons; once released they remained in the arena.
Lu Jun glanced coolly at the huge incoming cloud of venomous insects. He thought for a moment, traced his summoning diagram, then the moon-white star trails around him spun into an intricate constellation—Beast Tide Gate at high grade was released.
A summoning gate appeared and poured forth a tremendous host of toxic insects, a gray-white cloud — the Devourer Flying Ants.
When it came to swarms of poisonous bugs, the Amazon Empire had once been the worst; but Lu Jun had survived the fall of the Inca Empire and felt no fear.
High above, the two vivid-colored clouds of venomous insects rammed into each other and tore one another apart. The gray-white cloud rapidly infected and devoured the dark green cloud; in a blink Yōsuke's poison swarm was gone.
The two remaining Japanese players were pale with shock. In a handful of breaths, the three pillars of their combat power had collapsed.
But they reacted quickly: though each had cast their spells, none had any real defense against spiritual-domain techniques, and so they all successively fell unconscious from Lu Jun's soul-devouring curse magic.
Less than thirty seconds into the fight and the Japanese National Institute team had been eliminated.
The arena fell silent; the stands held tens of thousands in breathless stillness.
"Lu Jun — you're unbelievably strong."
Mochizuki Chika, from the Japanese Twin Guard Pavilion, stared at the brooding youth on screen. Her pupils opened and closed, a strange black light shining in them; the looming insect-clouds vibrated the void — unbeatable — and her pretty eyes clouded in rapture as she whispered.
The opening match's instant knockout of the Japanese team left the live comments blank for a few beats, but then the barrage of comments filled the screen.
Every Japanese viewer watching at home was triggered: "Baka, did the National Institute rig the match? They couldn't even withstand one glance — what a shameful humiliation, they should commit seppuku!"
"I'll be the kaishakunin myself!"
Of course, some Japanese viewers worship strength and burst into adolescent dramatics: "This is the Summoner of Hell, the one who slays Amaterasu — an Empire-breaking dragon!"
Thousands of miles away across the Nine Provinces, Tang Yue and Ding Yumian squeezed time from their busy schedules to watch. Seeing that scene, both were surprised and smiled faintly.
Tang Yue murmured, "This little man has finally grown into a towering, upright powerhouse."
Countless Chinese netizens in the comment stream shouted: "I was wrong — we kneel!"
"Hahaha, the Japanese ghosts got what they deserved. I call it karmic retribution!"
"People do wrong and heaven watches. Cause and effect, what goes around comes around! Waiting for Mount Fuji to erupt someday — flatten that island."
"Awesome — beat the Japanese once, and I get permanent immunity from roastings."
The roaring crowd outside was unknown to Lu Jun. He turned calmly and stepped down from the stage. The referee, stunned for a long while, finally regained his senses and announced—China's National Institute Team wins!
Meanwhile, the other national teams were all struck with fear. The prices of spiritual-concentration artifacts on the market skyrocketed tenfold.
At the post-match press conference, Lu Jun spoke with killing intent surging around him:
"Our goal is the championship—nothing less! If we fail, all the responsibility falls on me!"
Then he declared another classic line:
"That year, in the Top 32, the China team fought against the United States and was tragically eliminated. That year, our team's core member was banned, and we collapsed without even fighting. When I saw Zhan Kong sitting on the chair, crying in despair, that scene became engraved in my heart forever.
"At that moment, I swore—if I ever had the chance to become a National Institute representative, I would win every single battle! Now that I stand here as the captain of the new China team, I must ask myself—what if this is the only chance I'll ever have in this life?"
"To reforge the honor of the ancient Eastern nation, it is our unshakable duty!"
Once those words were spoken, the already fiery discussion over the instant annihilation of Japan's team erupted even more violently.
The public opinion that had long pressed down on Lu Jun and his teammates completely reversed. In a single battle, he ascended to godhood in the eyes of the nation—no one dared to mock them again.
"Look at his vision, then look at Nan Rongni and Mu Tingying. Who said reaching the semifinals is already a success?! The gap is massive, hahaha, laughable!"
"I have every reason to believe those two were the ones ostracizing their teammates—such petty hearts, such fragile egos!"
"How can anyone say those two women didn't affect the China team? —Negative influence, that's what it was!"
Inside the luxurious Venice hotel, Mu Tingying and Nan Rongni's faces were dark and ugly.
They both knew—they no longer had any chance to recover their reputations.
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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