The walk back to the participant holding area was surprisingly lonely. Usually, the victors of the first round were swarmed by admirers, gamblers, and recruiters from noble houses. But as Su Ye led his team down the stone corridor, people didn't swarm; they parted like the Red Sea. They pressed themselves against the walls, holding their noses and looking at the Twilight Stable team with a mixture of awe and genuine biological revulsion.
Gao Ming, still wearing his swimming goggles, strutted with a newfound swagger that was completely unearned given that his contribution had been making a deer pass gas. He waved to a horrified noblewoman who immediately fainted. Princess Luo Bing walked with her head down, her face burning crimson under her hood, clearly replaying the moment she ordered her majestic Ice Phoenix to punch a man in the groin. Lin Fan was simply vibrating, the adrenaline of the match clashing with his natural anxiety, causing his bronze gauntlets to emit a low, humming noise.
"We are pariahs," Luo Bing whispered, clutching her sleeves. "My father is in the stands. He saw. He saw the Nutcracker Strike. I will be disowned. I will be sent to a nunnery."
"Nonsense," Su Ye said, taking a bite of a fresh pear he had swiped from a fruit basket intended for the winners. "You aren't pariahs. You're efficient. Did you see Zhao Feng? He was crying. Tears of defeat are the sweetest nectar a Tamer can drink."
He stopped at the door to their waiting room and turned to face them. "Listen to me. They call us dirty because they lost. If they had won, they would call their techniques 'dominant.' History is written by the victors, and right now, history smells like deer musk. Own it."
Before they could respond, the door to the waiting room burst open. It wasn't a fan. It was a furious squadron of referees, led by a vein-popping Master Mo and the Head Referee, Elder Lin.
"Disqualify them!" Master Mo shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at Su Ye. "Arrest them! Burn their robes! That was not a duel! That was a biological hazard event! My students are in the infirmary being treated for extreme nausea and blunt force trauma to sensitive areas!"
Elder Lin, a stickler for rules who looked like he sucked on lemons for recreation, glared at Su Ye over his spectacles. "Su Ye. The use of poisons is strictly prohibited in the Rookie Tournament. Explain yourself before I strip you of your rank."
Su Ye didn't flinch. He finished chewing his pear and swallowed loudly. "Elder Lin, define poison."
"Substances that cause biological harm through toxicity!" Elder Lin snapped.
"The Emerald Cloud Deer's mist is not toxic," Su Ye countered smoothly. "It is a natural pheromone. It causes fear, not damage. Is fear illegal in a beast fight?"
Elder Lin paused. "Well... no."
"And the sound?" Su Ye gestured to Lin Fan. "Is loud noise illegal? The Shadow Bat simply screeched. Is it my fault the Elite Class has weak constitutions and sensitive bowels?"
"And the... pecking?" Master Mo hissed, his face purple. "The cheap shots?"
"Targeting unarmored areas is standard military doctrine," Su Ye shrugged. "If your students leave their 'vital regions' unguarded, they are inviting the strike. I was merely teaching them a valuable lesson about armor coverage. You should thank me."
Master Mo looked ready to stroke out. He opened his mouth to scream, but Elder Lin held up a hand. The Head Referee looked pained, as if swallowing a bag of gravel, but he shook his head.
"He is... technically correct," Elder Lin sighed. "The rulebook prohibits weapons and lethal poisons. It does not prohibit bad smells, loud noises, or... aggressive pecking. The victory stands."
"But—!" Mo started.
"However," Elder Lin narrowed his eyes at Su Ye, "The Board has decided to adjust the bracket. Since your team is so... unconventional... we feel you require a sterner test. Your opponent for the second round has been changed."
Su Ye raised an eyebrow. "Changed? To whom?"
Master Mo's rage suddenly transformed into a dark, oily smirk. He smoothed his robes. "To the Liu Family Dragon Squad. Class B."
The color drained from Luo Bing's face. Even the normally oblivious Gao Ming stopped strutting.
The Liu Family was one of the Four Noble Houses of the Kingdom. They didn't tame wolves or tigers. They tamed Draconids—lesser descendants of dragons. Earth Drakes, Fire Lizards, Wyverns. Their beasts were massive, heavily armored, and possessed a terrifying "Dragon Fear" aura that made lesser animals cower in submission.
"Good luck, Su Ye," Master Mo whispered, leaning in close as he passed. "You can't stink out a lizard that has no nose. And you can't scare a beast that possesses Dragon Blood. You are going to be crushed underfoot."
As the officials left, the room descended into a heavy silence.
"We're dead," Lin Fan said, sitting heavily on a bench. "The Liu Family beasts have 'Scale Armor.' My bat's sonic waves will just bounce off. And Gao Ming's deer will be paralyzed by the Dragon Fear before it can even pump its gland."
"And my Phoenix is only a juvenile," Luo Bing added, her voice trembling. "Against an Earth Drake? It's a pebble hitting a mountain."
Su Ye tossed the pear core into a bin. He didn't look worried. He looked... amused.
He walked over to a small, dark crack in the corner of the room where a pair of long antennae were twitching. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a crumb of spicy biscuit, and dropped it into the shadow.
"Dragon Blood?" Su Ye muttered to himself, a strange glint in his eye. "Master Mo thinks he's clever sending lizards to fight us. But he forgot one thing."
He looked at his pocket, where a tiny, thumb-sized cockroach was currently cleaning its legs.
"We have the Emperor."
The sun was high overhead when the announcer's voice boomed across the arena for the second match. The crowd was even larger now. Word of the "Stink Team" had spread, and people loved a freak show.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! For the second round! We have the biological terrorists of the Twilight Stable... versus... The Lords of the Scale! The Liu Family Dragon Squad!"
The Northern Gate opened with a rumble.
Three massive beasts stomped out, shaking the very foundations of the arena.
In the lead was a Tier-4 Iron-Hide Earth Drake. It looked like a komodo dragon on steroids, twenty feet long, covered in grey, rock-like plates. Its claws gouged furrows in the stone floor.
Flanking it were two Tier-3 Flame-Spitting Lizards, their throats glowing with internal magma.
Riding atop the Earth Drake was Liu Yan, the heir to the Liu family. He wore armor made of actual wyvern scales and held a whip made of dragon tendon. He looked down at Su Ye's team with the absolute, unshakeable arrogance of someone who owns a dinosaur.
"Surrender," Liu Yan boomed, his voice magically amplified. "My beasts possess the Noble Blood of the Ancient Dragons. They do not fear your cheap tricks. Kneel, and I will spare you the humiliation of being eaten."
On the other side, Su Ye's team looked tiny. The Emerald Cloud Deer was trembling so hard its knees were knocking together. The Ice Phoenix was hiding behind Luo Bing's head. Even the brave Iron-Back Wolf (which Su Ye had brought out for this round) was whining, its tail tucked firmly between its legs.
This was the power of Dragon Fear. Even a trace amount of dragon blood in a beast emitted a spiritual pressure that terrified lower species.
"Master," Gao Ming whimpered, hiding behind Su Ye. "My deer is paralyzed! It won't squeeze! The fear is too strong!"
"My bat is catatonic," Lin Fan reported, his face pale. "It's refusing to fly."
"The Dragon Bloodline suppresses all avian beasts," Luo Bing said, gritting her teeth. "My Phoenix can't rise."
The crowd jeered. It was over before it began. The Twilight Stable was frozen in fear.
Master Mo, watching from the VIP box, toasted Elder Lin with a glass of wine. "See? Order is restored. A true bloodline crushes the tricks of the gutter."
Su Ye stepped forward. He walked to the center of the arena, alone. He looked up at the massive Earth Drake towering over him, drool leaking from its jaws.
"Hey, Lizard Boy," Su Ye called out.
Liu Yan frowned. "You speak to me, peasant?"
"No," Su Ye pointed at the Drake. "I'm talking to your pet. Nice scales. Shame about the pedigree."
"How dare you!" Liu Yan roared. "This is a descendant of the Stone Dragon! Its blood is pure!"
"Pure?" Su Ye laughed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Little Dragon—the cockroach. He placed the bug on the palm of his hand.
"You call those oversized geckos dragons?" Su Ye shouted, his voice carrying without magic. "They are mud-crawlers! They are knock-offs! They are unworthy to carry the name!"
Liu Yan stared at the cockroach. The crowd stared at the cockroach.
"Is he... holding a bug?" someone in the stands asked.
"He's finally snapped," Master Mo chuckled. "He's trying to fight a Drake with a roach."
Liu Yan raised his whip. "Enough! Earth Drake! Crush him!"
The massive Drake roared, raising a foot the size of a carriage to squash Su Ye flat.
Zzzzt.
Su Ye didn't move. He channeled his intent into the bug in his hand.
"AWAKEN!" Su Ye mentally screamed into the void.
Instantly, the world shifted. The stadium vanished for Su Ye. He was back in the dark, swirling void of the Void Dragon Emperor. But this time, the shadowy dragon spirit wasn't just complaining about food. It was furious.
"WHO DARES?!" The Cockroach-Dragon Ancestor shrieked, its voice vibrating with a frequency that transcended the physical realm. "I SMELL THEM! IMPOSTERS! DILUTED BLOOD! THEY CARRY THE STENCH OF THE MUD-NEWTS!"
The spectral Dragon Emperor expanded, filling Su Ye's vision. It was made of darkness and purple starlight, infinite and terrifying.
"THEY DARE USE MY NAME? THEY DARE PROJECT THEIR PATHETIC 'FEAR' ONTO ME? I AM THE TERROR OF THE CRACKS! I AM THE SHADOW THAT EATS THE SUN! SHOW THEM, BOY! SHOW THEM WHAT A TRUE DRAGON LOOKS LIKE!"
Su Ye opened his eyes.
To the human audience, nothing happened. The cockroach just wiggled its antennae.
But to the Beasts?
To the beasts, a nuclear bomb of spiritual pressure just detonated in the center of the arena.
The Void Dragon Bloodline was not a physical power; it was a soul-crushing authority. It was the difference between a candle and a supernova. Even though the cockroach was physically weak, its soul was that of a Primordial Emperor.
The Earth Drake's foot stopped in mid-air.
The massive lizard froze. Its pupils dilated until its eyes were entirely black. The scales on its neck rattled—not with aggression, but with uncontrollable terror.
It sensed it. It looked down at the tiny speck in Su Ye's hand. It didn't see a bug. It saw a towering, ancient god made of shadow, looking at it with absolute disgust.
Thump.
The Earth Drake put its foot down. Gently. Then, it slowly, trembling violently, lowered its massive body to the ground.
"What are you doing?" Liu Yan screamed, whipping the beast. "Attack! Crush him!"
The Drake ignored the whip. It ignored its master. It crawled forward on its belly, groveling in the dirt, until its snout was inches from Su Ye's hand. It let out a pathetic, high-pitched whine.
Behind it, the two Flame-Spitting Lizards had already fainted from sheer terror, foaming at the mouth.
The silence in the arena was absolute. Ten thousand people watched in disbelief as a Tier-4 Earth Drake, the tank of the beast world, prostrated itself before a stable boy holding a cockroach.
Su Ye looked at the terrified Drake. He could hear the Drake's own ancestor—a lesser Stone Dragon—screaming in his head: "APOLOGIZE! APOLOGIZE TO THE EMPEROR! DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT! WE ARE WORMS! WE ARE NOTHING!"
"Your beast seems to understand the hierarchy," Su Ye said calmly to the stunned Liu Yan. "It recognizes royalty."
"This... this is impossible!" Liu Yan stammered, his arrogance shattering. "You used a demon art! You drugged it!"
"I simply introduced them," Su Ye said. He held the cockroach closer to the Drake's nose.
The Cockroach wiggled its antennae aggressively.
Hiss.
The Earth Drake yelped. It scrambled backward, tripping over its own tail, desperate to get away from the terrifying bug. It spun around, threw Liu Yan off its back, and sprinted for the exit gate, smashing through the heavy wooden doors in its panic to escape.
Liu Yan landed hard in the dirt. He looked up to see his two other lizards also waking up and sprinting away, leaving a trail of urine behind them.
Su Ye stood alone in the center of the ring, petting the cockroach with his thumb.
"Good boy, Little Dragon," Su Ye whispered. "You showed them."
The Cockroach preened. "YES! BOW BEFORE THE VOID! NOW, WHERE IS MY BISCUIT?"
The referee, Elder Lin, walked into the arena. He looked at the broken gate. He looked at the sobbing Liu Yan. He looked at Su Ye and the bug.
Elder Lin took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He had been judging tournaments for forty years. He had seen tigers, griffins, and hydras. He had never seen a lizard army defeated by a pest.
"Winner..." Elder Lin sighed, sounding very tired. "The Twilight Stable."
The crowd erupted. But this time, it wasn't confusion. It was pandemonium. They didn't understand what happened, but they knew they had just witnessed a legend.
"THE ROACH KING! THE ROACH KING!" someone started chanting.
Su Ye grimaced. Great. First the Stink Team, now the Roach King. My reputation is doomed.
As he walked back to his stunned disciples, he saw Master Mo in the VIP box. Mo wasn't raging this time. He was sitting perfectly still, staring at Su Ye with a look of cold, calculating horror. He finally realized that Su Ye wasn't just lucky.
Su Ye was dangerous.
That evening, the celebration at the Twilight Stable was raucous. Uncle Chen had slaughtered a non-spirit pig (ironically) and was roasting it over a fire fueled by Gao Ming's failed talisman papers.
"To the Emperor!" Gao Ming shouted, raising a cup to the cockroach, which was sitting on a velvet pillow eating a premium spirit crumb.
"I still don't understand," Lin Fan muttered, analyzing the roach with a magnifying glass. "It has zero spiritual mass. How did it project Dragon Fear? It defies physics."
"Don't ask, just accept," Luo Bing said, feeding her Phoenix a chili pepper. She looked at Su Ye, who was sitting by the Tortoise pit, looking at the moon. "Master, what happens next? We are in the finals. Who is left?"
Su Ye took a sip of wine. "Only one team left. The Royal Academy Exchange Team."
The mood instantly dampened.
The Royal Academy was not part of the Beast Hall. It was the Emperor's personal school. Their students were trained for war, not tournaments. And their leader was Prince Zhao, the cousin of Luo Bing.
"Prince Zhao has a Tier-5 Golden Roc," Luo Bing whispered. "And... he knows about me. He knows I was sent here in disgrace. He will not hold back. He will try to kill the Phoenix to teach the family a lesson."
Su Ye looked at his disciples. They were high on victory, but they were exhausted. The "dirty tricks" worked on arrogant students, and the "Ancestor Fear" worked on bloodline beasts. But a Tier-5 Roc? That was a creature of pure aerial dominance. It wouldn't land long enough to be scared or smelled.
"We need an upgrade," Su Ye said, standing up. "Dirty tricks won't work on the Prince. We need raw power."
"But Master," Gao Ming said. "We don't have time to cultivate! The finals are in two days!"
"We don't need to cultivate," Su Ye grinned, and the firelight cast strange shadows on his face. "We need to Evolve."
He walked over to the corner where Zhu Zhu, the Void Pig, was sleeping. The pig had grown. It was now the size of a bulldog, and its skin was shimmering with a faint, metallic sheen from eating the Basilisk's scrap barrel.
"Zhu Zhu," Su Ye nudged the pig. "Wake up. It's time for the main course."
He turned to Uncle Chen. "Uncle Chen, do you remember the legend of the Hidden Armory beneath the Beast Hall?"
Uncle Chen dropped his skewer. "The Forbidden Vault? The one sealed by the First Sect Leader? Master, you can't be serious. It's guarded by lethal arrays! And nobody has the key!"
Su Ye pointed at Zhu Zhu. "I don't need a key. I have a pig that eats rune barriers for breakfast."
"We are going grave robbing," Su Ye announced. "Tonight. If we want to beat a Golden Roc, we need to find something in that vault that hasn't seen the light of day for a thousand years."
Luo Bing stood up, her eyes flashing with a mix of fear and excitement. "This is treason. If we are caught, we will be executed."
"We're already the Roach Kings and the Stink Squad," Su Ye shrugged, grabbing a shovel. "Might as well add 'Tomb Raiders' to the resume. Let's go."
As they disappeared into the darkness of the mountain path, heading toward the forbidden grounds, the Crimson Maw Basilisk watched them go. It burped a cloud of green smoke, chewed on a leftover tire, and went back to sleep. Even monsters knew better than to get involved in Su Ye's bad ideas.