“What a strong and proud man,” Han Sen thought in admiration. Han Sen wasn’t suspicious of the man, so he moved to sit down himself. He cast The Story of Genes to recover the power he had lost.

Heart Connection was a skill that concentrated all of the power inside one’s body into a single precise point. That power would all be spent in a single use, and it would take a long time to recover.

Han Sen had used Heart Connection because he had a way to recover in a short period of time, if necessary. He wouldn’t have to wait too long before he could fight again.

However, if Shale was willing to wait for him, then Han Sen wouldn’t have to use his method of accelerated recovery.

Up until that moment, the three half-deifieds who escaped hadn’t realized that Han Sen’s power had been exhausted. They regretted how quickly they had been to flee. They should have immediately attacked Han Sen again.

The Very High masters of the three half-deified silkworms shook their heads in dismay.

The Very High selected a silkworm based on three things: talent, power, and personality. Their personality was difficult to fully judge, however. The truth of a person’s character was only revealed during real life and death moments. If the silkworm’s personality was shown to be poor or weak during the silkworm bouts, there was every chance that their Very High master might cast them away. That was the purpose of this battle royale.

Although Gru had lost, the Very High who had signed a contract with him was happy with his personality. Gru wasn’t going to be cast out. But the mantis-man and the other three were probably going to be discarded.

Of course, that was just how things looked at the moment. If the silkworms worked hard and showed that they really were resilient and determined people, there was a slim chance of them earning their masters’ love back. Only the dead mantis-man had no chance of that.

With Shale sitting nearby, no other silkworm would get close to Han Sen. He continued casting The Story of Genes to recover his power. He didn’t do anything else.

The Fox woman approached Shale and glanced at Han Sen, who was focusing on his geno arts. “Shale, why aren’t you doing anything?”

“I came to Outer Sky to practice, not to kill,” Shale said expressionlessly.

“Have you forgotten that you’re no longer deified? With the power he just demonstrated, if you allow him to recover, you might not win. Are you really willing to risk giving up the Apollo Set?” the woman said with a blink.

Shale didn’t respond, which prompted the woman to continue. “If you don’t want to do it, then I will.”

After that, the woman walked up to Han Sen. A strange light began to glow around her fingers.

“I told him I would protect him for ten hours. If you get any closer, I will consider you an enemy,” Shale said.

“You will regret this. This universe only progresses by the strong feeding on the weak. It is survival of the fittest. If you continue to act like this, you won’t be strong enough to lift the rest of your race,” the woman said.

“Maybe.” Shale didn’t bother arguing.

Seeing that Shale had no intention of arguing with her further, the woman rolled her eyes and laughed. “Shale, Shale, Shale. You ate the Demon Fruit and fell from your deified rank. You might not beat Han Sen, but you still sound so proud. I’m afraid that in this universe, not many people can be as proud as you.”

Her words could have been either insult or praise, but one thing was clear; she had pitched her voice loud enough for those watching the contest to hear.

Many of the Very High hadn’t known that Shale had eaten a Demon Fruit. They were shocked to hear this.

“Shale ate Demon Fruit?” Liyu Zhen and Li Xue Cheng looked ill.

The deified Shale was previously considered the strongest fighter taking part in the silkworm bouts, but if he had eaten a Demon Fruit and his rank had fallen, there was the very real chance of him not winning.

“No wonder Open Sky Elder was willing to wager his Open Sky jewelry. He must have known that Shale ate the Demon Fruit and received a downgrade,” Li Xue Cheng gnashed his teeth. He pointed at Shale and screamed, “You idiot! You dropped down to half-deified, and yet you are still behaving this proudly? Kill him while he is weak.”

Right now, Li Xue Cheng wanted to grab Shale’s hand and use it to strike Han Sen down.

Liyu Zhen’s face turned green, but then it turned white. Clearly, there were a lot of sour emotions running through his heart at that moment.

They almost coughed up blood because of how Shale was behaving. Exquisite and Li Keer, on the other hand, were delighted. Shale wasn’t deified anymore, and that increased Han Sen’s chances of winning. Therefore, things suddenly didn’t seem as hopeless anymore.

The audience might have been surprised by the news of Shale’s fallen rank, but for the silkworms in the valley, the revelation breathed new life into this contest.

In the foothills of the valley, a Very High man squinted. “Shale ate a Demon Fruit and became half-deified? I thought there was no hope of reaching first place. I guess now there is.”

In a heartbeat, the Very High man had teleported away and appeared on the other side of the valley. He popped into existence next to the three half-deified silkworms that had just been fighting Han Sen earlier.

“Mo Fang…” When the three of them saw the Very High man, they were given a shock. Alarmed, they gathered up all their power.

Out of the twelve silkworms, aside from Shale and Han Sen, Mo Fang could be regarded as the most famous. In fact, some silkworms were more afraid of Mo Fang than they were of Han Sen and Shale.

Although Mo Fang was only half-deified, he was one of the Very High. That fact alone made him unlike any other silkworm.

“Don’t worry, guys. I am here to cooperate with you three. I intend to bring you no harm,” Mo Fang said with a smile.

“Cooperate? You mean against Shale?” one of the Extreme King asked Mo Fang.

Mo Fang hadn’t joined them until after the woman mentioned that Shale’s rank had fallen. They could easily guess what he was going to do.

“Not bad. If Shale was still deified, I would have stood no chance. But now that he is just half-deified, why don’t we cooperate and kick him out of the match? Then, we can finish off the weakened Han Sen,” Mo Fang said.

“Fighting Shale won’t allow us to reach first place in the fight, though. You will be the one reaping the benefits. Where does that leave us? Why would we risk our necks for you?” the Aichi archer asked skeptically.

“Forgive me for speaking so bluntly, but with the power you guys have, you will likely be the weakest of everyone in this valley. Aside from the one who quit the match, you three will be fighting for last place. If you guys are willing to help me, once we are done, we can continue cooperating. We can knock the other silkworms out of the valley, so I can become first and you three can occupy the second, third, and fourth places,” Mo Fang said.

“Are you serious?” Pleased grins spread across the faces of the three half-deifieds. They had been cooperating from the beginning because they already knew their powers were weak.

“Since when would one of the Very High not live up to their word?” Mo Fang said proudly.

Two of the Extreme King half-deifieds looked at each other, then one of them turned back to Mo Fang.

“Okay, we’re in.”

If another silkworm had come there asking that they work together, they would have hesitated. However, Mo Fang was well-known. Although he was a silkworm, he was one of the Very High. And being on Very High land, cooperating with him would be the safest thing to do.

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