Time flew by amid intense, exhilarating training, and before long, the day of the Junior Crown Cup had arrived.
This time, Xingyun Liuge was facing Fujimasa March and Oguri Cap head-on once again. But unlike during the debut race, she was now the undisputed number one favorite.
Xingyun Liuge herself had no reaction to that at all. In her mind, popularity and making people mad were basically the same thing.
Either way, she was the one who would win.
She had originally assumed Fujimasa March might choose to avoid the matchup. After all, the girl had already experienced her terrifying pressure firsthand—yet she still chose to race?
Xingyun Liuge felt that kind of courage deserved praise, but she had no intention of going easy on anyone, so she merely gave the girl a simple nod.
Fujimasa March noticed Xingyun Liuge's gaze and fell silent.
In the past, she would have thrown down some sharp declaration and stated outright that she would defeat Xingyun Liuge.
But now, she still had not found a way to破解 the inexplicable pressure from the training race.
She could not bring herself to say such words anymore.
Trainer Shibasaki had advised her to avoid the race. His reasoning was simple enough:
There was no point facing an opponent she could not beat.
But Fujimasa March refused.
She knew perfectly well that she would not win this time, but she did not believe that meant she could never win in the future. She wanted to compete against Oguri Cap and Xingyun Liuge in real races, improve herself continuously, and search for a way to defeat Xingyun Liuge.
If she herself did not believe in her own chances, then she would never beat Xingyun Liuge for the rest of her life.
Oguri Cap's thinking was similar to Fujimasa March's, though not entirely the same.
After training with Xingyun Liuge, she felt that she had vaguely grasped something—but whenever she tried to think it through afterward, it slipped away, and she was left with nothing.
So she wanted to race Xingyun Liuge all out, to feel that strange sensation with both body and heart.
Of course, one thing never changed:
She wanted to win.
She wanted to defeat Xingyun Liuge head-on!
[1400m Junior Crown Cup, Dirt, Sunny, Good Track]
Because of Xingyun Liuge's sudden rise, even the announcer had been fired up. He called this race a grand gathering of gray horse girls.
"Today, the strongest gray horse girls in the Tokai region have all gathered here! What kind of thrilling race will they show us? Just thinking about it gets the blood pumping!"
Though the number of entrants was small, the size of the crowd was anything but. The entire venue was packed, and some people who could not get tickets were even perched on walls just to watch.
That was Xingyun Liuge's popularity now.
Her strength had already become so overwhelming that some horse girls were afraid of her and actively avoided racing her, and yet that did absolutely nothing to dampen the audience's expectations.
Even if one day only two girls were willing to race Xingyun Liuge, the stadium would probably still be packed to capacity.
The red light came on, and the horse girls all settled into their stances inside the gates. Some looked grim, some were completely focused, and some were staring blankly at Xingyun Liuge's profile. Every one of them was different.
"—!"
"The gates are open, and all the horse girls got off to beautiful starts! The one rushing into the lead is... Lane One, Minami Kaku, the fifth favorite! Close behind her is Lane Three, Fujimasa March, the third favorite, and then—"
"What?! The number one favorite, Xingyun Liuge, is actually in last place? What's going on here?! Did she botch the start? Or has she chosen a completely new running style? Let's keep watching!"
A real professional commentator would probably have given a confident judgment by now, but the person speaking was the announcer, so he chose to pretend he knew nothing.
There was no helping it. Since her debut, Xingyun Liuge had always chosen flashy frontrunning tactics, and she had even once finished a race with a full twenty-length gap over second place.
To suddenly change styles in the Junior Crown Cup?
Was that not a little too bold?
But because Xingyun Liuge's raw strength was so overwhelming, the announcer did not dare say too much, and neither did the commentator seated beside him.
This move was simply too strange.
Neither of them could make any sense of it.
Surely she had not just acted on a whim... right?
Oguri Cap had chosen a stalking strategy, and she almost instantly felt pressure building on her.
There was no helping it—Xingyun Liuge's presence was too strong. It was like having needles at her back, a sharp and constant pressure pressing in behind her.
The problem was, Xingyun Liuge had not even released that powerful aura she had used during the training race, had she?
Could someone really create this much pressure just by concentrating?
Was her rate of growth, and the sense of oppression she gave off, not a little too terrifying?
So strong... but still!
Oguri Cap was not the kind of horse girl who became flustered when faced with a powerful opponent.
No—she only grew more excited because of it, and then—
"!"
While she was still thinking, Oguri Cap suddenly felt a pressure that was just a little familiar.
The muscles all over her body tightened involuntarily!
There was no doubt about it.
It was the same fierce aura that had made both her and Fujimasa March lose speed in the training race!
But the race had only just started, hadn't it?
She was releasing it this early?
Then what was she supposed to do about the finishing stretch later?
Oguri Cap could not understand it.
Xingyun Liuge's thinking, on the other hand, was very simple:
Use it early, get it back early.
Oguri Cap was the strongest horse girl in this race besides herself, so of course this was the moment to hit her hard and drain her stamina!
A ghostly green light flowed through Xingyun Liuge's eyes.
It was the churning mist.
It was the despair that poisoned the world.
And it was also a heavy emotion that transcended time itself.
Its name was—
the Ruination.
Whoosh!
An invisible scythe glowing with eerie green light suddenly swept down!
If it had manifested physically, it would probably have sliced through the dirt track like a hot knife through butter, turning mud and sand into a towering tidal wave and stopping everyone in their tracks.
Fortunately, things did not become quite that catastrophic.
But the horse girls caught within the range of Flay truly suffered for it.
Clatter!
Invisible green chains wrapped around their ankles, then coiled sinuously up along the lines of their calves as though determined to bind them completely.
With a tyrannical force that seemed to pierce straight into the marrow, that heart-shaking pressure crashed down on them, nearly robbing them of the ability to move their legs at all.
Some gritted their teeth, trying to break free from the influence of that bizarre power.
Others had no idea what to do and could only cry out in despair that they were finished.
A savage, almost unavoidable assault on both body and mind—
that was the special power Xingyun Liuge was wielding now.
"What is happening?! The horse girls ahead of Xingyun Liuge are all suddenly losing speed! What on earth is going on?!"
The announcer shouted at the top of his lungs.
The commentator knew perfectly well that the announcer had deliberately tossed the topic to her, and she caught it at once.
"Certain powerful horse girls can interfere with their opponents through sheer force of presence, even causing them to temporarily lose their competitive spirit. Could it be that Xingyun Liuge has already mastered such a technique? She's too strong! She's unbelievably strong! She's just like..."
She deliberately dragged out the pause before finally declaring:
"...a demon king rampaging across the track!"
Join here to read ahead.
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Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter100)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 60
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 50
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 50
The Way the Umamusume Look at 31
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 26
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 26
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