‘ Oh, I know who she is! She is the useless princess! Why does she come here?’

‘ I don't know either. She didn't even reach the third grade of mortal stage. Why would it be her, who goes up for the last round? Did the Holy Dragon Empire made a mistake?’

‘ Yeah, maybe you are right. How could she possibly compare with the phoenix spirit manipulators? They can probably defeat her in the blink of an eye! Holy moly! She is just going to make this situation way uglier!’

‘Look! She doesn't even bring her war beast! That means she's trying to surrender from the start? Or maybe she doesn't even have a war beast of her own? That's just embarrassing!’

People began to murmuring among themselves.

Even the Emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire was surprised to see Ana coming up in the last round.

‘ Priest Dean, what happened? What's the reason behind this?’ the emperor looked at Priest Dean and asked with worry .

‘ Your Majesty, I shall explain everything later’ Priest Dean whispered .

‘ What is the piece of crap doing here? Did the whole Holy Dragon Empire ran out of other spirit manipulators?’ Edgar whispered furiously.

But when Lena saw Ana, she immediately had stars in her eyes. Ofcourse, she didn't know that Ana's presence in the contest was made possible by Marcia so she thought it was because Ana fought for herself. It made her feel really happy for Ana.

Erica questioned with a face full of doubt.

‘ the Emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire was tongue tied and embarrassed after hearing Erica.

‘ Priest Dean explained to save the Emperor further embarrassment.

‘ Erica said arrogantly.

Felicia reminded.

‘ the emperor confessed.

‘ Felicia said. She felt something strange about the Emperor's attitude.

As the people kept murmuring among themselves, Ana had reached the venue and calmly stood infront of her opponent.

The phoenix spirit manipulator who just defeated Bear was a man. ‘ the man talked arrogantly as he made gestures with his hands.

‘ Ana sneered at him.

‘ the phoenix spirit manipulator glared at Ana as he heard her.

‘ Ana said with scorn.

Her words ignited the fire of rage in her opponent 's chest.

The two star war beast beside the phoenix spirit manipulator rushed towards Ana. It moved at lighting speed as it flapped its claws fiercely.

Ana didn't move a single inch. She stood still and stayed motionless.

Everyone around them was getting anxious and nervous for Ana.

‘

The sarcastic voices echoed among the audiences.

‘ Lena was getting nervous as well.

‘ Erica sneered. She thought Ana had given up.

While everyone was puzzled by Ana's frozen state, an unexpected change happened. The moment Ana summoned her dragon spiritual power the dragon spirit mark around her left hand began to sparkle. What used to be a weak trace of her dragon spiritual power began to rise within a split second. It seemed that her spiritual power had increased to the third grade of the mortal stage.

Nobody could believe what they saw with thier eyes.

Mia who was standing in the rest area was dumbstruck in amazement.

‘ How could that even be possible? When did she reach the third grade of mortal stage? And why haven't I noticed it at all?’

The young candidates behind Mia, including Bear and Fiona were caught off guard as well. None of them knew how and when Ana reached the third grade of mortal stage.

Meanwhile, the emperor and the others nearly jumped out of thier skin when they saw what was happening especially Priest Dean whose jaw almost fell to the ground.

But they still thought what Ana did was all in vain. After all her opponent almost reached the fifth grade of mortal stage and had defeated Bear with ease. There was no way he would have trouble with Ana.

Ana knew well what the audiences was thinking. All of a sudden, the light around her arm dazzled brightly. Her strength had now increased to the fourth grade of mortal stage.

It all came out of the blue and none of the spectators expected any of it!

‘ Wow! That's truly surprisingly!’ Erica marveled with her wide eyes. She knew that the way she initially thought of Ana had changed.

Who could have possibly known that the useless princess could reach fourth grade of mortal stage in the blink of an eye? Nobody had expected it to happen at all.

The game seemed to be overturned.

The phoenix spirit manipulator was also stunned by Ana. As he still froze in shock. Ana flashed away and succeeded in dodging the war beast. In a split second, Ana disappeared from his vision.

‘ Hey!’ Ana patted her opponent's shoulder to show that she was already behind him.

But it was already too late before the phoenix spirit manipulator could react. Ana raised her finger and channeled her spiritual power to its tip as she pointed at her opponent's chest.

Bang!

He was thrown away in an instant as he fell to the ground with a loud bang. He struggled to try and stand up for a while but failed.

Silence filled the air. Nobody could believe that Ana just won against the phoenix spirit manipulator. What they found much more harder to believe was that the useless princess just knocked down a formidable opponent with ease and in such fashion.

Ana surprisingly won the fight by just one move. Everyone was left dumbfounded. They could not believe that it was possible. They all though she was just a loser who was not capable of having any skills.

However, Ana had been able to reach fourth grade of mortal stage and even defeated an opponent who won against Bear.

People found such a change hard to accept.

‘ Mia was also surprised at seeing the spiritual martial arts that Ana had just exhibited. She then soon remembered that she personally practiced with Ana for several days. She noticed that Ana had a knack for closely imitating her cultivation of the spiritual arts. However, she did not think anything of it at that time because she did not expect Ana to actually be able to learn her skill.

‘ Mia was suddenly enlightened.

‘ Mia angrily murmured to herself.

‘ Among the Shocked crowd, someone was staring daggers at Ana as the later stood on stage.

Lena smiled happily.

‘ Priest Dean was shocked as well. He now regretted taunting and belittling Ana infront of other trainees. Ana's splendid performance was like a slap to his face.

The Emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire and Felicia beside him were the only ones who seemed to be untroubled.

Felicia said, impressed.

The Emperor only gave out a laugh in response. He was also caught off guard and didn't know how to respond. Ana's excellent behaviour greatly delighted him.

While most of people were between a mix of shock and being impressed. Some were extremely annoyed at Ana's showing off. One of them was Edgar.

Edgar clenched his fists as he glared angrily.

To everyone's astonishment, the score was now six to four.

Ana's next opponent was at the fifth grade of mortal stage.

Although Ana releasing her power at the fourth grade of mortal stage and eventually defeating her opponent caught every one by surprise, but no one believed that she would be able to do it again. There was an enormous gap between the fourth grade and fifth grade of mortal stage. Her opponent had a strong two star war beast that looked like a huge rhinoceros. Ana was clearly at the major disadvantage because she didn't have her war beast with her.

Aside from that, everyone was thinking that Ana's power had reached it's limit at the fourth grade of mortal stage.

‘ Ana thought to herself and then immediately blew a whistle.

A beast swiftly rushed out of the stable and ran towards the fighting site without being noticed by anyone.

At the same time, Ana started to move as well. She got close to her opponent in a flash. Seeing that Ana did not have her war beast, her opponent commanded thier own two star war beast to attack Ana.

Just as the two star war beast was rushing towards Ana, a beast suddenly jumped out from the crowd, landing on the fighting stage. It blocked the two star war beast's attack and hit it back hard. The two star war beast rolled onto the ground and immediately passed out.

Everyone was once again left in shock by the scene they witnessed.

After the beast knocked out the two star war beast, it ran away and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, Ana was now close to her opponent. She then released a fifth level dragon spiritual power from her left arm. The crowd instantly fell dead silent.

The expression of everyone's faces had gone completely stiff. They were all wondering the same thing. How much hidden power did Ana have and how in the world was she hiding it?

In just a quater of an hour, Ana seemed to have reached the fifth grade of mortal stage, completely subverting every one's initial expectations on her.

She had proved that she was not a failure and a non achiever, but rather a skillfully talented spirit manipulator who could surprise every one.

After Ana rose her power up to fifth grade, she activated the illusion technique. She then launched an attack that was as fierce as a thunderstorm, which immediately suppressed her opponent.

However, her opponent's strength was not one to be underestimated. She still was able to withstand Ana's initial attack.

‘ Ana suddenly quipped.

Her opponent, not realising that Ana was playing tricks on her, automatically looked down at her clothes, worrying that she might have been indecent. She had been tricked.

‘ seeing that she was distracted, Ana immediately launched the illusionary palm towards her opponent.

‘ she shouted as she realised that she had been fooled. She then immediately released the phoenix spiritual power and formed a water shield to block Ana's attack.

The palm shadows ferociously collided with the water shield and caused a thick mist.

Ana then cried out another obscene remark,‘

her opponent shouted furious to the core. She struck her palms together. Water arrows materialized from the phoenix spiritual power and shot towards Ana. The moment her opponent made her move, she felt something wrong as she sensed something fall from her waist.

Every onlooker began cheering and breaking out in wild chatter as they saw her trousers fall, revealing her beautiful legs. This competition was certainly quiet memorable, and they were glad to have witnessed it.

She seemed to have realised this after hearing the obscene comments from the spectators.

She looked down and realised that her trousers had fallen to the ground.

She immediately lost her composer and screamed. She grabbed her pants and left the stage in a hurry, apparently forgetting that she was competing with Ana.

Ana had used the Deity finger that blasted her opponent's belt to pieces. She knew this was not a fair way to treat her opponent, yet it was the simplest way to win this game.

(A/n: every thing is fair in love and war said by someone. Idk who tho)

Ana, to everyone's shock, had defeated two phoenix spirit manipulators are regained the advantage to some degree with a score of six to five.

This brought some hope to the Holy Dragon Empire's team.

However, they were rather worried. After all, Ana's last two win had been out of pure luck according to them.

Ana's next opponent was also at fifth grade of mortal stage. No one believed that Ana could possibly win this round.

Just as they thought that Ana already reached her limit, she once again shocked everyone by bringing her power to the fifth grade of mortal stage .

After these shocking events, every one was growing accustomed to Ana 's powerful magic. They were expecting more and more.

She was a rising star of the Holy Dragon Empire.

‘ Lena had regained her calm composure after the initial bout of excitement. She was very proud of Ana deep down.

Something more important came to her mind, which was the thing she discussed with the Emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire after Ana was removed as the princess.

‘ Lena had forgotten the presence of Felicia, who immediately turned to the Emperor and asked wide eyed,‘

The Emperor looked a little unsettled, yet he maintained his composure.

‘

Priest Dean frowned.

‘ Erica proclaimed with some arrogance, speaking as if they had already won the competition.

‘ Felicia still hung on this and questioned them with a little hint of anger in her voice.

‘ the emperor paused for a second before he revealed the shocking truth.

His voice was low and bitter.

Priest Dean and Prince Edgar, as well as all the other officials who heard this, were extremely shocked.

The moment Amelia had been abolished as a princess, she was no longer a part of the royal family. Yet, the emperor admitted infront of Felicia. After all at this level anything the emperor said must be real. If not he would make it real himself.

Lena was the only one who remained calm among them. She was the only one who knew the true reason behind the emperor's change of decision.

Months ago, right after Amelia had fused with the Holy Dragon Bead, the emperor told Lena that if his daughter could somehow prove herself, he would make an exception and restore her position as a princess again.

‘ Felicia finally put two and two together.

The Emperor was silent in response. It had long been known that Edgar was to become the successor. But what Felicia said was absolutely right . The one who fuses with the Holy Dragon Bead is the one to be the actual successor.

Felicia 's words stirred up some out burst among the officials and royals family members. They were all concerned about what it could meant for them.

Even Edgar, who had always restraint, could no longer hold back. He stood up and was about to protest but Priest Dean stopped him and whispered something into his ear to calm him down.