There was nothing the opposing Princes could do. Directly after Kwan's turn, it would be Ryu's turn to go. There were no more opportunities to interfere. Although they could theoretically attack Prince Kalmin, the only individual who could do so was First Prince Amory. Since Amory was on his seventh step thanks to Atticus' help, he could use his three actions to finish this trial out. However, if he used one of his actions to attack Kalmin's step, he would be giving up his right to place second!
Since Kalmin could never do that, he would have to concede to allowing Ryu's plan to continue unhindered. In this way, Kwan, Kalmin and Ryu would have the smoothest turns of this entire trial, this was especially so for Kalmin who had seemingly accepted a pie that descended from the skies.
Following Ryu's instructions, Kwan directly attacked his brother's sixth step. As luck would have it, he faced a mere Middle Second Order beast. Directly afterward, Ryu leapt to Kalmin's aid. Since Ryu was so powerful, Kalmin had no need to waste the entries of his helpers. Not long afterward, he stood firmly upon his sixth step.
Afterward, Ryu made an odd request. Still, due to all the help he was giving them, Kwan didn't hesitate to attack Jedrek's seventh step. For Jedrek who was the wealthiest of them all, ignoring attacks was by far the easiest for him, it was for this reason no one had dared to attack him until now. Yet, Ryu had suddenly helped him climb to the seventh step.
With that, Kwan's turn ended, and it was now Ryu's, who currently stood on his eighth step due to the fact he had successfully ignore two attacks. Ryu's first action was to directly attack Kalmin's seventh step. Then, he proceeded to help Kalmin ignore his own levied attack. This second trial had suddenly become Ryu's personal playground.
Due to Ryu's help, Kalmin had once more been able to save an entry for his Qi Refinement experts even after stepping into the third tier of steps. And, since allowing his Qi Refinement experts to help Ryu wouldn't count against his own entries, he had no problem allowing Ryu to use them to climb his ninth, and finally the tenth step.
The audience was suffering a severe case of whiplash. Just a couple of turns ago, they had believed that Ryu had been cornered by Silas. Yet, in one sweep, he had not only defeated a Fourth Order beast, he had also made a mockery of the second trial.
After Ryu conquered and completed his tenth step, it was finally Amory's turn. The First Prince could only complete his trial begrudgingly. There was no worse feeling than understanding the plans of your enemies clearly, yet having no choice but to walk in lockstep with them.
Once Amory's turn concluded, Ryu continued to help Kalmin. Due to the fact the final tenth step was a Half-Step Fourth Order beast, Ryu was able to take his time in defeating it. Although it wasn't as powerful as the Fire Tiger, its territory was fairly large as well. As a result, Ryu's final use of the Opes Warriors left them feeling incredibly refreshed and relaxed. Coupling this with the fact that Amory took quite a bit of time to defeat his own Half-Step Fourth Order beast and they entered Kalmin's final steps 100% healthy.
As expected, with Ryu's help, Kalmin's final steps ended smoothly. He had once more firmly taken third place.
Cayden went next, but due to the fact he had wasted so much time helping Amory, he would still need one more round to finish. In the end, he feigned like he was also Jedrek's ally by attacking his steps. But, this move of his forced Amory to use every ounce of his will power to not face palm. Cayden's current "help" was absolutely useless after Ryu had Kwan attack Jedrek. No matter what, even without Cayden, Jedrek would be able to climb to the tenth step this round. Yet, this fool actually continued on with the original plan.
Now others understood why Ryu had Kwan attack Jedrek. It was precisely so that Cayden couldn't muddy the waters and fool others. But, even Ryu hadn't expected Cayden to be so stupid. The fact he did this was practically like waving a massive flag that read "I'm Amory's Ally!".
Unfortunately, one wouldn't be able to use Qi Line techniques until reaching the Qi Refinement Realm. So, Amory could only watch as his younger brother looked around in confusion as many made weird faces at him. Was this truly a Prince? He seemed more like a jester.
As expected, the second trial came to an end just another round later. Ryu finished first, Amory second, Kalmin third, Jedrek fourth, Silas and Atticus fifth, Cayden sixth, and finally Kwan was disqualified for being unable to complete the trial after using up the entries of his best warriors.
Headmaster Leopold took a deep breath, even he needed a moment to process everything. However, just when he believed he had everything in order, Ryu's cold voice sounded.
"I'd like to make one statement before you reveal the results, Headmaster Leopold."
"Oh? Please do." Leopold replied with interest.
"I believe that it should be noted that the ideas I implemented weren't all mine, they were actually that of Prince Kalmin. I've spent almost the past two years in Opes Kingdom territory, so we built a small friendship between each other. The only reason the words came from me and not him was precisely because it would only have worked after his enemies believed they had him under control." Ryu explained.
A slight look of surprise flashed across Leopold's features before he gave Ryu a knowing glance. It was impossible to tell what was true and what was false in the young Fourth Prince's explanation, but what was true was that Ryu's plan would only work so well in the perfect situation. Because he purposely only revealed the loophole in the rules after Silas completed his turn, there was no other opportunity to retaliate. In addition, it was precisely because he didn't help Kalmin when Cayden attacked his steps last that everyone believed Kalmin would have to deal with everything alone.
Simply put, it was because Kalmin "feigned weakness" that the plan worked so effectively. This kernel of truth made it difficult to outright reject Ryu's words. As for why Ryu bothered to say this, the reason was obvious. If Headmaster Leopold graded Kalmin as though he was just along for the ride, then he wouldn't score very well. Plus, there was another key point here. Since one couldn't use the Qi Line technique until reaching the Qi Refinement stage, Kalmin and Ryu had to have planned this beforehand, right?
In the end, Headmaster Leopold smiled. This little rascal was actually giving him the opportunity to vent more of his dissatisfaction against the three Sects who dared to ignore his face and his hopes for absolute fairness. Despite knowing that Ryu was likely lying through his teeth, Leopold became another unwitting pawn, an individual who clearly knew they were being manipulated, but had no choice but to follow along anyway.
Ryu was really playing them all, not even letting an old man like him go.
