For the Beast Points Tournament, the format changed from the first round's team battle into a solo competition—yet it was even more brutal.
To increase participation, the academy allowed students to plunder points from each other, with only one bottom line: no taking lives.
For example, if a student had already beaten a beast half to death, another could swoop in and deliver the final blow. In that case, the points would go to the one who struck the killing blow.
The moment this rule was announced, the crowd erupted in uproar. No one had expected the academy to so openly encourage internal conflict.
Xie Xingyan, however, accepted it calmly. She was no sheltered noble miss ignorant of the ways of the world. This kind of life-and-death struggle was what truly ignited the long-buried battle spirit and blood within her.
Some students were already thinking: this was their chance to exact revenge on those they disliked. Snatching the last hit from someone else? An excellent opportunity.
At the very least, Xie Xingyuan thought so. He knew his mental strength wasn't as great as that damned girl's, but when it came to solo combat, he had absolute confidence.
He believed that with his superior physique, he could surely reclaim the dignity that had been trampled on before.
Yes, Xie Xingyuan was determined to take his revenge. Otherwise, his previous humiliation would become nothing more than a laughingstock, and he'd never be able to salvage the face he had lost to that girl.
As soon as the match began, Xie Xingyan sensed someone trailing her. Extending her spiritual perception, she discovered an old acquaintance.
After a moment's thought, she deliberately led the tail into the territory of a troop of beastly monkeys.
With his mind fixated entirely on how to snatch points, Xie Xingyuan didn't even notice the route they were taking.
The monkey beasts were a vengeful species. To them, all humans who intruded into their territory were enemies.
Naturally, the sneaky Xie Xingyuan was targeted by their dense attacks just as much as she was.
Xie Xingyan, on the other hand, was extremely adept at evading their strikes. She didn't rush to kill beasts for points. Instead, she seized every chance to steal the final blow from the half-crippled monkeys that Xie Xingyuan had fought down.
Xie Xingyuan trembled with fury at her shameless behavior, but he couldn't stop fighting. The monkeys hit hard, and he was forced to battle while slowly retreating to break out of the encirclement.
When Xie Xingyan saw him trying to escape, she naturally had no intention of letting such a convenient laborer slip away.
From time to time, she would provoke the stronger monkeys with her laser sword, then kite them straight toward Xie Xingyuan.
"Brother, I brought you the beasts you wanted! Don't you love eating monkey meat the most?"
What the hell was this girl spouting?!
The enraged monkeys, hearing her taunts, attacked Xie Xingyuan even more ferociously.
After several rounds of this, Xie Xingyuan was forced into all-out combat with no reserves.
And every time he was on the verge of a kill, Xie Xingyan would land the perfect final strike, her lips curving as she offered insincere thanks:
"Thank you so much, Brother, for working so hard on my behalf. Since you've put in such effort, I won't refuse—otherwise, it might hurt your feelings!"
What utter nonsense! How could anyone believe he'd been doing this for her benefit?
When the battle drew to a close, Xie Xingyan deliberately left him three monkeys, then dashed away at top speed.
Xie Xingyuan's eyes were bloodshot with rage. His laser sword blurred with the speed of his swings. When the fight ended and he checked his wristband, it displayed a pitiful eight points.
That number mocked him for the stupidity of fighting only to let someone else reap the harvest. Out of more than fifty monkeys, with him doing most of the work, the points had been stolen by that damned girl.
Meanwhile, Xie Xingyan beamed at the fifty points already on her wristband.
Not bad at all—just an hour and a half in, and she had already completed half the task.
Watching the feed, Rui Anqi frowned deeply. He had never expected Xie Xingyuan to be this brainless, played like a fool by the younger sister whose talent was supposedly inferior.
In the subsequent beast hunts, Xie Xingyan found things unusually easy. Channeling her mental strength into her laser sword made slaying beasts smoother than before, and she could sustain her abilities for much longer.
But with real-time holographic surveillance in place, she made sure not to show her true limits. Instead, she acted like an ordinary student—pausing for rests, taking spirit recovery potions, and so on.
In the end, Xie Xingyan crushed the Beast Points Tournament, taking first place with an overwhelming lead—finishing a whole hour ahead of the second place.
As for Xie Xingyuan, after fighting desperately to complete the task, he only managed fourth. For someone as arrogant as him, learning that the person he disdained had taken first was unbearable.
With the assessments concluded, the instructors escorted all the students safely back to the Imperial Capital. The next step was simply to await the acceptance notices from various military academies.
With Xie Xingyan's consistent grades and her performance in this exam, admission into the First Imperial Military Academy was all but guaranteed.
For now, however, she was completely absorbed by the StarNet Juvenile Mecha Championship, a major holographic competition for underage students.
According to the rules, the top three would all be rewarded with personal mechas. And the prize for first place? The latest S-class mecha personally crafted by Master Mechanic Xu Yuan.
Such a mecha was priceless—practically unobtainable even with money. No wonder the tournament had become a sensation, drawing in ninety percent of the youth across the interstellar world, save only for backwater planets like the Garbage Star.
Naturally, Xie Xingyan signed up immediately. After the last two crises, she was more convinced than ever: having her own mecha was essential.
If she relied solely on selling medicine and academy scholarships, she might have to wait decades. The Zerg threat was far too dangerous for her to delay that long—and she couldn't afford to sell off items from her spatial dimension.
This tournament, then, was her best chance to legitimately acquire a mecha of her own.
Just as she finished sorting out her thoughts, a holo-call came in from Emil.
"Xingyan! Do you know about the Mecha Championship? Hurry and sign up! Saierya and I already did—the prizes are just too good to pass up…"
"Don't worry, Emil, I already registered. Let's do our best together!"
"Great! But honestly, Saierya and I are mostly joining for the experience. Our mental strength isn't nearly as high as yours. Since it's a holographic competition, you're the one with the best shot among us."
"That's not necessarily true. According to the official statistics, there are over fifty youths across the galaxy with S-grade mental strength."
The two chatted on for a while before ending the call.
And what she'd told her friend wasn't modesty—it was the truth. This competition would be fiercely contested.
If not for the recent crisis that had inadvertently strengthened her spiritual sea, even Xie Xingyan herself wouldn't have been too confident.