Swallowing the Stars: Starting with the Battle of Geniuses

Chapter 116 Poisoning by an Insider VS. A Noble

"I know, of course I know. But it's a little different from the 'knowing' you're thinking of."

Milirat looked somewhat displeased for some reason, but still admitted, "I only gathered his information while investigating and getting to know you."

Hunzhen nodded, signaling Milila to continue.

"My only friend."

Millirat suddenly slammed her hand on the tea table: "Mr. Hunzhen, in your eyes, am I not your friend?"

Hunzhen now understood the source of Milirat's dissatisfaction.

He blinked and suddenly realized that the somewhat angry Milirat in front of him was not some princess second only to the emperor, but an ordinary, simple girl who was even younger and less experienced than himself.

Of course, such thoughts quickly passed by. Milirat had at least a level 10 combat power, and was bound to be an old woman a thousand times older than herself, who was in her "cosmic human cub" stage.

"We're friends, we're friends."

He quickly chuckled and reassured them, "Maybe it wasn't yesterday, but from today onwards, it definitely is."

To be honest, Hunzhen still didn't consider Milirat a true friend.

He is more inclined to believe that the other party's expressed dissatisfaction is not a true emotion, but merely an outward manifestation of an intention.

After all, unlike the aloof Star Luo, no matter how approachable Milirat may be, it doesn't change the fact that she wields immense power in this abyss world.

It's unrealistic to think of an emperor as a close friend just because he exchanges a few words with you.

The difference in their status and the amount of time they spent together were roughly equivalent to the lifespan of the inhabitants of the abyss.

In such a short time, apart from this brief exchange today, the two of them haven't had much contact, yet Milirat has opened her heart to him?

This is too strange. For a princess, such attentiveness is almost unbelievable.

A normal person would suspect that the other party has ulterior motives.

Even if Milila was naive, she couldn't possibly fail to see through the genuine perfunctory attitude.

But Hunzhen seemed completely unmoved, so she finally gave up and abandoned the idea of ​​"I won't continue explaining if you don't acknowledge me as a friend," and slowly began to speak.

"As mentioned earlier, the Abyss Royal Family was born from the Mara Fruit within the Mother Wall deep within the Abyss. If the Silver God is considered the Father God, then the Mother Wall is the Mother God in the eyes of us, the Abyss Royal Family. And the function of nurturing the royal family is unique to the Mother Wall. Regardless of bloodline, whether royal or third-rank noble, everyone is a child of the Mother Wall. In other words—"

Following Milirat's words, Hunzhen raised an eyebrow and said, "The Abyss Royal Family cannot give birth to another Abyss Royal Family."

"That's right."

Milirat nodded in agreement with Hunzhen's conjecture, saying, "Royal families cannot produce offspring. Those with a special and strong reproductive desire may mate with lower races to give birth to hybrids. These hybrids possess a stronger abyssal aptitude than ordinary lower races, but apart from that, they do not have royal characteristics, and their talents are not much higher than those of normal lower races."

—A filthy existence that has tarnished the glory of royal blood.

Recalling the words he overheard from the abyss nobles in the shallows of the abyss, Hunzhen blurted out, "Xingluo is a mixed-blood descendant of royal blood?"

Milirat was somewhat surprised that Hunzhen could guess this so directly, and nodded with an astonished expression: "I didn't expect you to make such a connection. That's right, only a very small minority of the royal family possess a strong desire for reproduction and mating, and a large proportion of this group only have the desire for mating but not for procreation. In addition, it is extremely difficult for the royal family and lower races to produce offspring, so true hybrids are extremely rare. Even when I investigated your social circle and followed the clues to this person, I was quite shocked that even royal blood has hybrid descendants..."

"Wait!" Millirat suddenly widened her eyes. "You're not asking this because you think he and I have some kind of 'relationship,' are you?!"

No answer was needed; Hunzhen's awkward smile already told Mililatte the answer.

Relationship? What relationship? Naturally, it's a mother-son relationship.

Otherwise, given Xingluo's personality, it would be too strange for him to pay attention to an abyssal nobleman with whom he has no connection, even if that person is of royal blood, when it is unrelated to scientific research.

The reason he casually brought up this question was simply out of curiosity and a desire to know if the other person was related to his friend.

But seeing Millie's pretty face flushed red, her eyes wide with anger and a hint of tears on her face, Hun Zhen surprisingly didn't say anything suggestive.

"I'm really angry!"

Millie Latte, who was inexplicably being treated as a single mother, wished that her legs would heal so she could jump out of her wheelchair and kick Hun Zhen to death on the spot.

The tea party, which should have ended perfectly, ended on a sour note.

This experience also made Hunzhen realize that even the gentlest, most virtuous, and well-mannered women have moments when they can't hold back.

happy.

The thought that they would have to meet again the next day for the publicity event made Hunzhen unable to help but grin again.

……

"Mr. Hunzhen, this is your breakfast for today."

Over the next few days, Milirat, who was in a bad mood, gave Hunzhen a cold shoulder every time they met, but the meals she sent with her servants were as plentiful and nutritious as ever, clearly the finest delicacies from the Abyss World.

"I'll find an opportunity to apologize to her in a few days," Hunzhen thought insincerely while eating her morning tea.

He didn't know why, but he found it incredibly enjoyable to make the ever-calm and elegant Millila furious, a kind of forbidden pleasure.

Even though he himself had no intention of opening up and communicating with the other person, he still felt a sense of closeness from the other person that he could trust and tease.

Also weird.

"It's all because of her innate allure," Hunzhen thought to himself.

After casually instructing the servant to leave, Hunzhen watched the servant's retreating figure, a faint, cold smile appearing on his face.

With his advanced knowledge and preconceived notions, he naturally noticed the servant's strangeness immediately.

The colorless and odorless slow-acting poison had already seeped into his daily meals.

The nobles with whom he had an irreconcilable conflict had not yet made a move, but his "compatriots," who were outwardly of the same inferior race, had spent a great deal of money to bribe the servants of the Royal Blood Manor to poison him.

But... so what?

Hunzhen brandished his knife and fork, and with a dazed expression, stuffed every last bit of the dessert in front of him into his mouth.

"belch."

"tasty."

"Such delicious food shouldn't be wasted, even if it's poisonous."

"Praise be to Your Highness."

……

Half a month has passed in the blink of an eye.

In the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth rounds of the knockout stage, Hunzhen easily broke through without encountering a worthy opponent. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that his opponents all chose to forfeit after learning that they would be facing him.

Only his opponent in the final round of the knockout stage, Tronaldo, the first nobleman he had encountered so far in the competition, stepped onto the stage.

A nobleman who might never see another in the arena in his lifetime is facing off against what is likely the number one genius of an inferior race since tens of thousands of eons ago, a rising new legend.

Such a grand finale naturally brought the cheers from the audience to their peak.

"Now for the pre-match Q&A session! Countdown: three minutes!"

After the contestants' introductions concluded, both sides entered the stage for the dialogue session, as announced by the host.

In everyone's eyes, even though he had already proven his strength, Hunzhen should still show some excitement when facing a noble and high-ranking noble.

But it was Tronaldo who spoke first during the match.

"Not only Her Highness the Princess, but even His Highness the Prince values ​​you highly."

Ronaldo stated the match with a grim expression.

Suddenly, a bolt of silver lightning crashed down onto the arena.

The latest novel is first published here!

His height suddenly increased from seven meters to seventy meters, much like Ultraman in a movie, whose size was tens of thousands of times larger than the real Ultraman.

At this moment in the match, Ronaldo was majestic and dignified, his entire body covered in silver armor, like a god of war from mythology.

A pair of fleshy wings that blot out the sky also have a metallic texture, and even grow razor-sharp feathers.

The terrifying aura even made viewers dozens of kilometers away feel breathless.

Hunzhen's expression was solemn. He knew that this was the true form of royalty that Milirat had spoken of.

Although Milirat had been acting up these past few days, he still shamelessly asked her for extra lessons, filling in many gaps in his knowledge.

After advancing from the cosmic level to the domain lord level, the Abyss royal family's body length will increase tenfold, and its volume and energy reserves will increase tens of thousands of times. At the same time, they will possess the ability of "mimicry," just like a hibernating bear, which can reduce its volume to the cosmic level at most, thus reducing energy consumption.

Logically speaking, even the third-rank noble with the worst bloodline in the Abyss royal family would almost certainly be able to break through to the Domain Lord level.

However, if the bloodline level is not broken through before the breakthrough, even if the life crystal core of the enemy royal family is absorbed later, it will be impossible to evolve to a higher bloodline level.

Third-class nobles, cosmic level, and mimicry body length less than three meters.

In other words, if they cannot evolve to the three-meter level before breaking through to the Domain Lord level, even if they break through to the Domain Lord level, they can only reach a level that is infinitely close to the thirty-meter level in their lifetime.

Conversely, once one reaches the three-meter level and becomes a second-class noble, they can continue to evolve after breaking through to the Domain Lord level, until they reach the limit of a second-class noble. The same applies to second-class nobles. As for first-class nobles evolving to the King Blood level, that is unheard of, which may be related to the fact that the higher one goes, the more difficult it is to "grow taller".

Second-class nobles mimic body lengths between three and six meters, while first-class nobles mimic body lengths between six and ten meters. Their life gene multiplier is directly proportional to their body length; six meters is six times their height, and nine meters is nine times their height!

In other words, a great noble can reach a height of 99.9 meters, almost like a skyscraper, and also has a life gene multiplier of nearly ten times, which is comparable to the peak races like the Golden Horned Beast!

However, 99.9 meters is only the theoretical limit. According to Milirat, those who can reach 90 meters are considered the most elite nobles.

While Tronaldo may not be quite at the level of a 90-meter champion, it is common for him to be able to take on thousands of opponents of the same level.

Despite being described as having level eight combat power, his immense physical advantages mean that, under special circumstances, he might have a chance to defeat level nine combat power.

The match, revealing its true colors, saw the ants-like figures below, drew a silver halberd, and declared: "But I will prove that you are not worth that much."

Hunzhen recalled the instant death of Nofigales, whom he had killed with a single fatal blow, and the giant of light, Tronaldo, standing before him. Thinking of the word "ants" that they often used, he couldn't help but sigh that this might not have been a deliberate contempt for inferior races, but simply an expression of the facts from their perspective.

"You are very confident."

The so-called special circumstances of counterattacking a level nine combatant also include this kind of arena battle with a limited combat range.

Given the level nine combat power he has already revealed to the two royal bloodlines, defeating or even killing the match's Ronaldo under these circumstances would indeed be quite difficult.

This is why the opponent remained confident even though he knew that his true combat strength was no less than his, and might even be superior.

Hunzhen nodded, acknowledging the other party's statement, and said, "You have reason to be confident, but... that doesn't change the fact that you will be defeated here."

"Arrogant!"

During the match, Tronaldo's furious roar shook the very air. He glared at Hunzhen and said, "I'll return your own arrogant words from that day to you—is this your last will and testament? As long as you die here, no matter how favored you were, your death only proves that you were nothing special."

The three-minute countdown has now ended.

boom!

In the match, Tronaldo swept the opponent's defense with a single, devastating strike.

The space shattered, and the raging spatial storm was so powerful that even ordinary ninth-tier domain lord-level beings could not move.

Hunzhen remained motionless, and suddenly a transparent bead appeared.

"Original Realm Style - Thousand Layers"

A thousand primordial spirit weapons, layered from small to large, enveloped Hunzhen and flew out under the halberd.

During the match, Ronaldo frowned. He naturally realized that under the defense of that strange telekinetic weapon, Hunzhen was completely unharmed and easily neutralized his attack.

Before he could continue his attack, Hunzhen had already launched a counterattack.

"Original Light Style".

Tens of thousands of beams of light burst forth, and then each beam split into 10081 beams, resulting in a simultaneous attack of hundreds of millions of beams.

During the match, Ronaldo's pupils constricted. Such a terrifying attack was undoubtedly from a level nine combatant!

A giant spatial shield formed by innate secret techniques rose up, attempting to block it.

However, hundreds of millions of beams of light suddenly deflected, ignoring the spatial shield's ability to converge attacks and defend, and directly blasted towards Ronaldo.

His expression changed drastically. He spread his fleshy wings, the sharp feathers vibrating as he blended into the space to dodge.

Hissing sounds.

More than 100,000 beams of light still struck its massive body head-on.

A series of charred holes appeared on its surface.

"Just one strike has drained nearly one percent of my energy!"

He quickly channeled his energy to repair the damage, his expression betraying his shock.

But as expected of a nobleman standing at the top of the social hierarchy, Tronaldo quickly regained his composure after a brief moment of shock.

"His strength is superior to mine, which was expected. If I capitalize on my advantages, there's still a chance I can defeat him!"

Just as he was thinking this, the tens of thousands of beams of light that had directly hit him suddenly contracted and condensed into a primordial spirit weapon.

With a thought, Hunzhen unleashed the fifth level of his Divine Weapon, the Dark Ring.

The black and white light spots inside the Divine Weapon suddenly collapsed, and a deep black ring surrounded the Divine Weapon, spinning and cutting at high speed.

With a soft "poof," large chunks of flesh and blood flew out from the giant's body.

(End of this chapter)