No strange things are allowed to evolve!

"Moses."

"?" Jiang Shu was stunned for a moment. Although she didn't understand, she respected him and said, "Moshi Moshi, I'm listening."

“?” Sachima was completely bewildered, looking at Jiang Shu as if he were an idiot: “I meant his nickname is Moses.”

It took Jiang Shu a while to realize that Shaqima was referring to the biblical story of Moses parting the sea.

There was a long silence.

"Where is it close to, please?!"

Jiang Shuqi laughed:

"What kind of Water Margin nickname is that?"

"There are also nicknames that use real people, right? Like Little Li Guang or Hua Rong?" Shaqima answered seriously.

"..." Jiang Shu was speechless: "It's not a problem."

"However, unlike the nicknames in the Water Margin, the nicknames in the competition are not only named after the strengths and characteristics of the evolved individuals, but also include everyone's reflections on their defeats."

Sachima continued:

"After all, only the person ranked number one can win all the time. Everyone else has lost to some extent. So the most recognized nickname must also reflect the person's weakness to a considerable extent. Even if most people know about this weakness, they cannot overcome it."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu asked, puzzled, "What weakness does the nickname 'Moses' reflect? May I ask?"

"Moses' power came from his faith in God, and the same is true for this little Moses. His power is quite idealistic. If he believes he can break something, then as long as the difference between him and that thing is not too great, he really can break it."

Conversely, if he lacks self-confidence, he might end up losing even against an enemy weaker than himself. Simply put, if his inner strength is shaken, the sword he wields will no longer be as lethal.

After a pause, Sachima added:

"However, this is very difficult. His willpower is unexpectedly strong. To achieve this and break his fighting spirit, the process is roughly as follows: you defeat him when he is at full strength, and then he realizes that his abilities are limited and he can never defeat you. From then on, when facing you, he can only exert 60 or 70% of his fighting strength."

But if you can defeat him at his full strength, then even if he can only exert 60% or 70% of his fighting power in front of you later, there is actually no difference between the two.

Therefore, strictly speaking, this is actually a weakness that is not a weakness at all.

"If that's the explanation, the nickname is indeed quite fitting, but do we need to undermine his fighting spirit first..." Jiang Shu pondered for a moment, "What if I kidnapped his family beforehand?"

“Then he might unleash his full fighting power…” Shaqima knew Jiang Shu was joking, but she couldn’t help but complain, “And if you really dare to do that, even I will be in deep trouble. If my superiors find out that I’ve found such a person, they’ll skin me alive.”

"Hmm..." Jiang Shu thought about it and agreed, but had no choice but to abandon the plan.

"You wouldn't..." Sachima realized something: "You really thought that just now, right?"

"How could that be?" Jiang Shu waved his hand with a smile.

His smile made Shaqima's eyelids twitch.

Not daring to delve any further into the topic, Sachima hurriedly tried to change the subject, but just then, Jiang Shu remembered something.

"By the way, what's your nickname?"

Sachima paused for a moment, then said, "Let me tell you about Eighth instead. Eighth, this person..."

"Don't rush, I'm curious about your nickname."

"this..."

It was clear that Shaqima didn't want to reveal anything, but the more she did, the more curious Jiang Shu became.

Under Jiang Shu's persistent pleading, and considering that even if he didn't tell her, Jiang Shu could ask someone else, since it wasn't really a secret, and not telling her would make him seem petty.

Sachima could only manage a whisper, "You bastard."

Jiang Shu thought she had misheard and stared wide-eyed: "Huh?"

“Turtle Man,” Shaqima explained with a frustrated expression, “because although the ‘Immortal World Tree’ is indestructible, once it is damaged, it will cause a fatal backlash against me, just like a turtle shell. If it breaks, the turtle will die.”

While Moses is somewhat abstract, at least he has a certain sophistication, but the turtle man...

"Why not call it Xuanwu?" Jiang Shu asked, her face seemingly serious, but she was just putting on a brave face.

“There are too many people on the same track.” Sachima said unhappily, “After all, there are quite a few evolvers with similar abilities. In previous competitions, there must have been people who performed better than me, so awesome nicknames like Xuanwu have long been used up.”

"Luckily, no one was on the same track as me," Jiang Shu said thankfully. "Otherwise, I don't know what strange nickname I would have gotten."

Sachima said in a sinister and resentful tone, "But don't forget, you've attracted so much hatred. Who knows how much of your nickname will be subjective?"

"Isn't it only related to ability...?" Jiang Shu frowned. "It shouldn't be... right?"

“Are you sure they can see through your abilities?” Sachima shrugged. “To be honest, even I didn’t understand them. So I think if you had a title, it would probably be like the person in first place, which is more related to your inherent character.”

"What's her name?"

“She is even more of an empress than the Empress,” Shaqima said slowly. “That’s why she is called the Grand Empress Dowager.”

Chapter 311 There's a Second Challenge

Jiang Shu felt that the nickname exuded domineering power.

The Empress Dowager was not the emperor's mother, but his grandmother.

Of course, some people might say, what's wrong with the emperor's grandmother? How is she more noble than the empress? If she's so powerful, why can't she be the empress herself?

It just means they live a little longer.

This statement is actually very one-sided.

It's important to understand that becoming an Empress Dowager requires first emerging from the Emperor's harem and then maintaining a firm grip on power for the rest of one's life. This is definitely not something that can be achieved simply by living a longer life.

Throughout history, whether in actual power or ruling from behind the curtain, female emperors mostly rose to power from the emperor's harem through political struggles. There is no such thing as a female emperor founding a dynasty in history; such legends only exist in legends and fantasies.

Therefore, it can be said that becoming the Grand Empress Dowager meant defeating countless potential empresses.

Even disregarding reality and focusing solely on emotions, in this country where blood ties are paramount, describing a person's status and authority is remarkably straightforward.

Whether I am your father or your mother, in situations where no explanation is needed, it is assumed that I am of higher status than you. There is no need to consider whether you are an emperor or anything else, let alone whether I am your grandfather or your grandmother.

Therefore, such a nickname absolutely represents the number one's dominance in the final arena.

However, Jiang Shu was indeed somewhat surprised.

"The first place is actually a woman?"

"Didn't I say that?" Shaqima asked in surprise, "I used the character '她' with the 'woman' radical."

"Dude...do you think there are subtitles when I listen to you speak?"

"Just kidding." Sachima smiled. "I did forget to tell you, but whether she's a man or a woman doesn't really matter. As long as we can stop her, that's all that matters."

"Alright, then continue. Tell me more about the top ten in detail."

"Hmm, where were we?" Sachima thought for a moment, "Oh, this eighth one..."

......

On his way back to his room, Jiang Shu carefully reviewed the information provided by Shaqima.

Those who can occupy the top ten in the final arena are indeed all incredibly strong, and their methods are all extraordinary. No wonder the Hiroshima heat wave, which created a small-scale natural disaster with a volcanic eruption, couldn't even get in.

In contrast, Moses, who cut the Yellow River in half with a single stroke, seemed like an honest and simple man among them, because his abilities were so unassuming and unpretentious; he simply relied on his strength to stand at the eighth position.

The people ahead of us are a diverse bunch. Some can control gravity, some have near-instantaneous teleportation speed, some have unlimited health bars as long as there is water, and some can create bizarre and varied domain traps. In any case, none of them are easy opponents to deal with.

This made Jiang Shu feel nostalgic for the days before Level 6, when everyone had no superpowers and happily engaged in close-quarters combat.

However, it's not all bad news.

The good news is that since Jiang Shu became an evolved being, his skills have always been more than sufficient to handle various difficulties, so he hasn't spent many skill points.

After his match against Hiroshima Heatwave, he realized it was time for him to start honing some fancy skills as well.

Now that we have the information provided by Sachima, we can learn some skills that can be used to deal with those scenarios.

These people are all top performers in their respective fields. If Jiang Shu can figure out a way to counter them, it means that after leaving the competition, he will have the ability to deal with similar enemies on his own.

Just like solving math problems, once you successfully solve the ultimate problem that requires the application of a certain type of knowledge, you can understand everything.

Therefore, Jiang Shu felt that this was also a good opportunity.

What interests Jiang Shu more than the abilities of his opponents is their purpose in participating in the competition.

Of the original top ten, the tenth-ranked Shaqima, as well as the sixth and third-ranked, were all from the Bureau of Different Organizations.

The sixth person was relatively low-key, and since Sachima wasn't particularly familiar with him, she didn't offer much comment.

The third one is the opposite. He is very active and gets close to the second one, Sugar Knight. He seems to be trying to absorb Sugar Knight, but the effect is not good. Sugar Knight has not clearly stated his side. It is only because his goal is to win the preliminary round, which is not contrary to the purpose of the Bureau of Different Ranks, that he is temporarily in a friendship with him, but cannot regard him as a partner.

However, despite being highly anticipated and frequently challenging for first place, Sugar Knight always unfortunately lost.

The eighth, seventh, and fifth are people from other organizations, and the fourth is a member of the Holy Church. They don't seem to be anything special, and none of them are very important roles.

Of all the people, only Moses, who is ninth, does not have an organization, or rather, the organization he belongs to is of the same lineage. The entire sect consists of only him and his teacher. His teacher is the senior that Shaqima mentioned earlier, who is also one of the top ten strongest people in the current evolution world, the kind of person who can sit at the same table as the president and the director.

His goal was simple: to challenge the strong. Rankings were not important to him.

This seems to be because their style is the type that matures late, meaning they exert their strength in the late game. So, someone like him who starts to exert his strength in the mid-game, while not necessarily able to dominate his peers right now, is not worried about his future achievements at all. Plus, with such a teacher, he doesn't need to compete in tournaments to prove anything to him.

Therefore, unlike others, he wasn't after fame and fortune; he simply wanted to hone his skills in battle.

As for the first and everyone's target, the Empress Dowager, Shaqima didn't elaborate much.

It's not that he's unwilling to talk more.

Rather, he genuinely knew very little about it.

Although every battle in the final arena is available for viewing, Sachima watched many of her battle videos and even discussed them with her two companions.

But the result was just like her battles, which were completely incomprehensible to everyone.

She always defeated her opponent with a single move, and the process was almost exactly the same, as precise as a robot, relying on her one trick to succeed.

Even the Sugar Knight, who had the longest fighting time with her, couldn't do much more, and was always instantly killed in one move.

Jiang Shu found this very strange and immediately asked Sachima, "Since the Sugar Knight can't even last the second move each time, why does he still challenge her so often, feeling that he has a chance instead of giving up?"

Sachima says it's time.

Although the Empress Dowager's mechanics are unclear, it is certain that although she always starts with zero frames, she has an extremely long wind-up. During the time she is preparing for that move, she has no chance to retaliate. The stronger the opponent, the more times they can attack her and the more powerful their attacks will be.

The Sugar Knight was not only the first person to be able to hurt her during this period, but with his continuous training day and night, the injuries he could inflict on her became more and more serious. At the beginning, he could only scratch her, but now he can break her skin.

"It sounds like there's still a pretty big difference, and how do you know she doesn't have a second stage?"

"But... we have to climb mountains one by one. We can't just stop moving forward because there are even higher mountains behind us, can we?"

"What exactly are you burning?"

In short, the only one who can't figure out the mechanism right now is the Empress Dowager.

To make matters worse, her numbers also seem to be higher than expected.

Sugar Knight has consistently held second place since the rankings began this year, unlike other contestants whose rankings fluctuate due to inconsistent wins and losses. He is an absolute powerhouse who can crush all the evolved beings in the final arena.

But the damage it can cause to the other party is merely a scratch on the skin.

This made Jiang Shu feel a little pressured.

He judged that in addition to having a radar chart showing his own maxed-out stats, the other party might also have some skills or items that could further enhance their stats.

It's probably impossible to win by simply comparing numerical values.

Therefore, the only way to defeat her is to work on her mechanics.

Fortunately, Shaqima had a video of her match, which she said she had secretly recorded while watching the match before.

Although Sachima and his two companions had watched these videos countless times without gaining anything, and even the most authoritative analysts in the bureau couldn't come to any conclusions, he didn't think Jiang Shu could figure anything out.

But since Jiang Shu wanted it, he generously shared the resources.

In addition, Jiang Shu was also given some representative battle videos of the other top ten players.

Then the two parted ways, and Jiang Shu wanted to go back to her room as soon as possible to see if she could find anything there.

But when Jiang Shu arrived at the room door, he found that something was wrong.

It appears that someone touched my door while I was away!

He frowned and looked down, and found that it was indeed the case; the paper he had slipped under the door had been tampered with.

Damn it... who could it be... he thought to himself.

Jiang Shu has a habit.

That means that whenever I stay in a hotel, I will never bring my room key card, because if I remove the room key card, the power will be cut off in the room, and then I won't be able to turn on the air conditioning 24 hours a day.