SHEN JI YUN gripped the railing of the royal box tighter. His gaze focused on the rink. The moment Luo Yan was stabbed on the shoulder, he stood up from his seat and rushed to the railing like a bullet. He probably moved even faster than Uncle Tian.

But could you blame him? He's been in a state of constant worry since the start of this match. Of course, it's not because he didn't trust Luo Yan. He knew that he was a strong player, proven time and time again whenever the two of them did a task together. But even if his brain understood that, his heart still couldn't help but worry.

He barely managed to stop himself from jumping directly to the ring and kicking that Djinn when he saw his rabbit being stabbed. If he wasn't thinking properly, he might have really just done that.

Then, when he saw Luo Yan pulling his opponent into the shadow, a sour feeling suddenly filled his heart. His rabbit hadn't even pulled him there and yet that Djinn had managed to go there before him? How could he not feel sour? 

Realizing how his thoughts were going off the rail again, he forcefully shook his head. Seriously, what's his problem? He's probably the only person who would feel jealous over such a thing. What was he, a four-year-old child or something? He shouldn't be thinking of these things when they still didn't know Luo Yan's current status was.

"Eclipse, can you contact Yan Yan?"

When Shen Ji Yun heard Luo Ren asked that, he immediately turned to Eclipse. Why didn't he think of asking Eclipse that sooner? By now, they all knew that Eclipse could still communicate telepathically with Luo Yan even in his humanoid form. He quickly looked back at the boy, waiting for the other's answer.

"Eclipse can't connect to Mashter," Eclipse said, shaking his head. "The shadow world is like a separate space. Eclipse and Mashter's telepathic communication won't work. But don't worry, Mashter will definitely be fine!"

As if to confirm that, there was a ripple on the shadows on the rink and then a figure jumped out from it. His long white hair was swaying with the wind. He slowly opened his closed eyes, showing blue irises dusted with gold. He probably knew that his face was being shown to the virtual screen above. So, he lifted his head and smiled.

Just like what he thought, his beautiful smiling face appeared on the screen. Causing the crowd to go wild and cheer.

Shen Ji Yun finally let out a sigh of relief seeing this. And then, he proceeded on admiring his rabbit's beauty from afar.

Luo Yan cracked his neck from left to right. Ah, finally that was over. It was a good thing that his [Shadow Walk] skill had leveled up before the start of the Rookie Carnival. With its higher level came some perks as well. And that included being able to pull another entity into it. 

The prerequisite was pretty simple - just splash them with a good amount of his blood. Inside the shadow, aside from his abilities, that of others would be negated. That's why Razor turned back to his normal avatar once he entered the shadow. 

Of course, he couldn't retain other entities inside for a long period of time. The limit was five seconds at most. That's why he needed to defeat Razor in that time window. Thankfully, he succeeded.

In truth, Luo Yan actually had no plans to use [Shadow Walk] in this match. But his opponent turned out to be quite formidable. If he didn't use [Shadow Walk], he would lose.

Now, both Malekith and Dragnar knew about his ability to travel through shadows. He could no longer use it to take the two by surprise. Oh well. What's done was done. Besides, it's not like he was solely relying on the element of surprise to win against his opponent.

Luo Yan looked up, waiting for the Duke of Hearts to announced his win. Just as he thought of that, the duke flew down from the pavilion and stopped in front of him.

"This lord was just about to show everyone what happened when you pulled the Djinn into the shadow. And you really just had to appear without even giving me a chance to," the duke said, looking at him like he did something illegal. "This lord didn't even see how you won!"

"Sorry?" Luo Yan responded, feeling like he needed to.

The duke only snorted. "Forget it. Just by looking at you, this lord knew that you're not the considerate kind of guy."

Luo Yan raised one of his brows at that. He wanted to retort but chose not to. Who knew if this temperamental duke would punish him for it?

The Duke of Heart flew away from him and faced the crowd. "The winner of fourth match – Noctis!"

Once again, a loud cheer erupted from the crowd. It almost felt like everyone was chanting and shouting 'Noctis'. Of course, as the recipient of their cheer, Luo Yan had to reciprocate. He waved at the audience area, causing the cheer to become even louder.

"You're enjoying yourself, aren't you?" the duke suddenly interjected.

Luo Yan only smiled as an answer.

The duke snorted again before clapping. And then, the three other winners of this round appeared on the rink. 

Luo Jin immediately rushed to his brother's side. "Yan, you— ahm, congrats on winning."

Luo Yan stared at Luo Jin's expression which was part excited and part worried. He smiled amusedly. "Thank you, Ah Jin."

"With the end of the fourth match comes the end of the quarterfinal round," the duke said loudly to the audience. "After two-hour break, the semi-finals will commence." Then, he circled around the four others on the rink. "And now, this lord presents to you lot the four remaining participants of this Carnival!"

The face of each of them appeared on the virtual screens floating above. 

And once again, the crowd cheered.

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