The scythe-wielding man's gaze grew noticeably more cautious.
Only now did he realize that the man before him had been deliberately hiding his strength. A true master of deception, the kind who played the fool until it was time to strike.
The young woman was forced to reassess Rowan as well.
He could create a perfect clone.
Not a crude illusion, not a hollow decoy, but a duplicate so real that even she had failed to distinguish it from the original in that instant.
"You are not my targets," Rowan said calmly, standing atop the Flying Shuttle as he looked at the two of them. "Do you still want to fight me?"
The scythe-wielding man and the young woman exchanged a glance. Without a word, both of them chose to retreat.
Seeing that they knew when to stop, Rowan did not pursue the matter. He turned and accelerated straight toward the position of the first-ranked contestant.
After hesitating for a brief moment, the scythe-wielding man and the young woman exchanged another look and followed after him in tacit agreement.
They wanted to see what Rowan intended to do.
Did he truly possess the strength to challenge the one ranked first?
Even if Rowan failed and lost half his points, he would still easily enter the top thousand. The gap between the top twenty-seven and the rest was simply too vast. The points held by the contestant ranked one thousand and one barely amounted to a third of Rowan's current total.
Rowan rode the Flying Shuttle at full speed.
On the map, the first-ranked contestant's marker remained motionless.
Rowan was fully aware that as he moved, his own position was clearly visible to the other party. Yet the opponent did not flee. Instead, they remained in place, waiting.
That alone spoke volumes about their confidence.
Before long, Rowan arrived at the marked location.
It was an enormous waterfall.
The surrounding area had already been utterly devastated, clearly the result of countless brutal battles. Only the endlessly cascading waterfall remained intact. Everything else had been reduced to rubble and dust.
After a combatant died, their body would be digitized and vanish completely, leaving no corpse behind. Otherwise, this place would have been littered with the remains of the fallen.
Rowan hovered beside the waterfall.
It stretched nearly ten kilometers in width. The roaring torrent crashed down relentlessly, each impact sending water spraying several meters into the air.
Rowan knew his opponent was hiding here.
The coordinates only provided a general location. If the opponent possessed an exceptional concealment technique, they would be impossible to spot directly. At best, one could only search within the marked area, which spanned roughly a thousand meters.
That meant the first-ranked contestant was hidden somewhere within a thousand-meter radius of Rowan's current position.
Below the waterfall, there was nowhere obvious to hide.
Which left only one possibility.
The waterfall itself.
Without wasting words, Rowan stomped lightly.
The Flying Shuttle instantly split apart, separating into countless blade fragments. With a flick of his fingers, the blades shot forward like a storm of bullets, plunging straight into the cascading water and weaving rapidly through the torrent.
Several passes later, they still failed to strike anything.
"I've already come to challenge you," Rowan called out, his voice echoing through the entire canyon, cutting clearly through the thunder of the falling water. "Why hide and refuse to show yourself?"
Silence.
The opponent did not respond at all.
Rowan laughed softly.
Such blind confidence.
Did they really believe they could rely on hiding alone and drag this out until the end of the competition?
Rowan raised his hand.
A strange light flickered in his eyes.
The ground trembled violently.
A dazzling azure psychic force surged outward from his body. He reached out with an invisible hand and abruptly grasped a distant mountain.
That mountain spanned more than ten kilometers.
Under Rowan's overwhelming psychic force, the entire mass began to shake violently. Veins bulged on his forehead as he let out a low roar.
The mountain was uprooted.
It rose into the air, blotting out the sky as its colossal shadow swept across the land.
Guided by Rowan's will, the mountain was carried directly above the waterfall.
Then Rowan released his grip.
The mountain plummeted straight down into the river feeding the falls.
Its sheer bulk severed the flow completely.
Without the continuous supply of water, the waterfall visibly diminished. In moments, the torrent thinned, revealing the rock face behind it.
When Rowan finally saw what lay behind the waterfall, his brows lifted slightly.
The first-ranked contestant was curled into a compact shape, completely encased in a shell of shimmering, multicolored light.
It was beautiful in an eerie way, like an enormous egg coated in radiant hues.
"This is…" Rowan murmured, genuine surprise flashing across his face.
The young woman and the scythe-wielding man arrived nearby as well. When they saw the scene, both of them froze.
They had come with the intention of observing from the sidelines, hoping others would test the first-ranked contestant first so they could analyze their abilities and fighting style.
But neither of them had expected this.
The first-ranked contestant was literally hiding inside an egg.
The egg was not especially large, roughly two meters tall.
Rowan probed it with his psychic perception, only to find that his mental force was completely blocked. It had no effect whatsoever.
To test it further, Rowan sent three flying blades streaking toward the egg.
The blades struck the shell and were immediately repelled.
The hardness of the shell surprised even him.
"I have no intention of becoming your enemy," a deep male voice echoed from within the egg. "My points are already sufficient. Do not seek your own destruction."
Rowan's interest deepened.
This individual had never appeared among the top ten in the final rankings. That meant they lacked overwhelming offensive power.
Yet they could block psychic force entirely and possessed an absurdly durable defense.
That combination fascinated Rowan.
"If you refuse to come out," he said calmly, "then I will force you out."
He extended his hand. The Flying Shuttle reassembled in midair, forming the Swordfish Formation once more.
With a sweeping motion, the formation shot forward with unstoppable momentum.
This time, when it struck the egg, sparks erupted violently as the two forces ground against each other.
The egg could no longer hold its position. It was blasted straight into the rock wall behind the waterfall.
The ground bulged outward, then the egg was flung more than a thousand meters away. Cracks finally appeared across its surface.
Boom.
The earth exploded.
The Swordfish Formation rebounded and returned to Rowan.
The shattered ground collapsed inward, and countless beams of light erupted from below like luminous blades, tearing the terrain apart.
The egg slowly floated back into the air, its surface now riddled with fractures.
Then it shattered.
The broken shell pieces flowed backward, reshaping themselves into a pair of wings that fused onto the man's back.
The man's appearance was unsettling. He barely resembled a human at all. His features were harsh and alien, more like a demon from the depths, yet he bore radiant, wing-like structures reminiscent of an angel.
The contrast was deeply unsettling.
"A Shellborn," the scythe-wielding man blurted out, recognizing him at once.
"A Shellborn?" Rowan asked, glancing at him.
The scythe-wielding man nodded and explained patiently. "They are a rare species from a unique stellar civilization. They are born with a shell-like external armor. Over time, they strengthen it by absorbing powerful metals. Their shells can block psychic attacks entirely and possess terrifying defensive strength. Once separated, the edges are razor-sharp, even sharper than high-tier combat blades."
Rowan understood immediately.
Immune to psychic attacks. Absurdly strong defense.
With such advantages stacked together, this opponent was nearly impossible to defeat through conventional means.
"I suggest you withdraw," the young woman said, shaking her head. "I have no way to deal with him either."
Rowan, however, remained unmoved.
If this opponent had truly been invincible, they would have ranked within the top ten.
They had not.
"Swordfish Formation," Rowan said.
The blades surged forward again.
Golden light flashed.
The winged man's wings snapped open violently, unleashing a terrifying hurricane. His wind domain activated instantly.
The raging wind slammed into the Swordfish Formation and sent it flying.
The storm continued to spread outward. The scythe-wielding man and the young woman retreated rapidly.
Rowan alone remained unmoving.
The scattered blades instantly reformed into the Mountain Shield, blocking the storm in front of him. Metallic impacts rang out continuously as the shield trembled but held firm.
Rowan stomped the ground.
His body blurred as he surged forward.
"Flame Domain. Ninth Layer. Scorch the Heavens."
A violent explosion of fire erupted from within him.
A vast domain spread outward for over a kilometer. Purple flames raged, the temperature climbing to nearly nine hundred thousand degrees.
Earth and river alike were instantly vaporized. The ground melted into magma. The sky was dyed purple-red by the inferno.
"This is insane!" the scythe-wielding man shouted as he fled. His armor grew searing hot, forcing him to store his weapon and retreat at full speed.
The young woman barely escaped as well, flickering away like a phantom. Even so, a portion of her hair was burned away.
"My hair! My hair!" she screamed in anguish.
For her, that loss was unbearable.
She hastily activated her water domain to resist the heat. Even at the outskirts, the temperature still exceeded three hundred thousand degrees.
Only now did they truly understand how terrifying Rowan was.
He had never been weak.
He had simply been waiting.
Within the domain, the Shellborn warrior struggled against the inferno. Even with his wind domain, the heat was overwhelming.
He detonated his domain outward, forming a massive wind field over five hundred meters wide. The temperature around him dropped sharply, barely stabilizing.
"That was impressive," Rowan said, regarding him calmly. "You have earned my respect. State your name."
The winged man straightened, his expression solemn.
"I am Gravewind."
"Rowan," he replied evenly. "Use everything you have left. I am about to get serious."
Gravewind snorted softly but drew two combat blades from his storage space.
His wings flared.
In a blur of motion, he shot forward, tearing through the ninth layer of the flame domain in an instant. Wind-enhanced speed carried him directly to Rowan, blades coated in visible air edges.
The strike was terrifying.
Rowan transformed the Flying Shuttle into the Mountain Drill and raised it to block.
The clash of weapons shook the world.
Their domains collided and detonated.
A colossal explosion erupted, its shockwave spreading outward for hundreds of kilometers.
Forced by the sheer violence of the battle, the young woman and the scythe-wielding man retreated tens of kilometers away, watching from afar.
This was no longer a fight they could approach.
It was a clash between true monsters.