The worse you are, the stronger you become: My summoned beast is a photographer.

On the eighty-ninth arena, the defender was a leopard-patterned orc.

Her figure was tall and lithe, her yellow and black striped fur clinging to her smooth muscle lines, a long tail swaying gently behind her. Her amber, vertical pupils held none of the werewolf's previous disdain, but rather a scrutinizing gaze. She wore light leather armor, two short daggers hanging at her waist, and beside her crouched a massive rhinoceros—its body covered in thick, gray-black hide, its single horn gleaming coldly in the lamplight, its nostrils flaring with heavy breaths, like a living tank.

She had watched the entire match between Ming Luochen and his team.

The werewolf's defeat was partly due to underestimating his opponent, but the lightning unleashed by the summoned beast was undeniably powerful. Even he himself wouldn't have the confidence to withstand such lightning.

The leopard-print orc stood up, cracked his knuckles, and whispered to the rhinoceros beside him, "Split up. You deal with the summoned beast, don't let him have a chance to unleash his lightning. I'll handle the centaur."

The rhinoceros let out a low growl and stomped its heavy hooves twice on the arena, as if in response.

She doesn't need to win spectacularly, just to win.

After confirming that both sides were ready, the referee raised his right hand and glanced around at both sides.

"start!"

Before the words were even finished, the rhinoceros, like a runaway heavy truck, charged straight at Ming Luochen, its hooves flying. The arena floor trembled slightly under its stomping, each hoofbeat like a heavy hammer blow to the heart.

Ming Luochen had already set up his camera before the competition started, pointing the lens at the leopard-printed orc and the rhinoceros, while silently counting down.

He dared not delay, and just as the rhinoceros charged, he shouted loudly—

"One, two, three, eggplant!"

An invisible wave emanated from the camera lens, freezing the movements of both the leopard-printed beastman and the rhinoceros, as if a pause button had been pressed. The rhinoceros's charging momentum seemed to stop, its massive body frozen on the arena.

one second.

enough.

With a thought, Ming Luochen unleashed three bolts of purple lightning, each as thick as a bucket, from the void, striking the leopard-patterned orc in a triangular formation. Arcs of electricity danced across her body, her fur stood on end, and she was paralyzed by the shock, unable to even utter a scream.

"Wife!" he called out.

At the same time, Ming Luochen's figure disappeared from the spot and appeared on Aura's back in the next second—the teleportation and position swap was completed in one go.

"Quickly, shovel her down."

Aura was already prepared. With a wave of her right hand, a pale purple light shield appeared on her forearm. Propelling herself forward with all four hooves, she charged towards the still-paralyzed leopard-print orc like a white lightning bolt. The light shield slid horizontally, precisely striking the orc's chest, and using the momentum of her charge, she propelled Aura off the edge of the arena.

The leopard-print orc fell backward off the arena, crashing heavily to the ground with a thud. Her limbs were still twitching slightly, and her vertical pupils were filled with disbelief—the whole process took less than five seconds, and she didn't even have a chance to make a move.

"Beautiful!" Ming Luochen exclaimed excitedly from Aura's back.

But he didn't let his guard down. The rhinoceros had recovered from the hardened control and, seeing its master being pushed off the ring, let out an angry roar, turned around, and charged at them again.

"One, two, three, eggplant!"

Ming Luochen pressed the shutter again, and the rhinoceros froze once more, as if time had stood still, frozen in place.

"One, two, three, eggplant!"

Another sound.

The rhinoceros had just taken a step when it was frozen in place again.

"One, two, three, eggplant!"

One more time.

The rhinoceros's charge was cut into slow-motion segments. It was only a few steps away from Ming Luochen, yet it couldn't get close. It angrily shook its head, its horn thrashing wildly in the air, but each time it was about to exert force, an invisible force pressed the pause button.

The audience's attention finally shifted from the sixteenth-place match.

"What is that?"

"What's that summoned beast shouting? 'One, two, three, cheese!'"

"Is this definitely an F-rank?"

Whispers coalesced into a buzzing sound, drawing all eyes in the arena to the eighty-ninth ring.

The leopard-print orc got up from the ground, shook his still numb arm, and looked at his summoned beast being repeatedly controlled by the short human on the arena, unable to even take a step forward. His face was as ugly as if he had swallowed a fly.

She knew she had lost.

They didn't lose to the centaurs, they lost to that strange summoned beast.

She gritted her teeth and shouted towards the ring, "Rhino, come back!"

Hearing its master's voice, the rhinoceros stopped charging, turned around, and jumped off the edge of the arena. It walked to the leopard-skinned orc, nuzzled her hand with its head, and let out a low, aggrieved whimper.

After confirming the status of both players, the referee raised his right hand: "The winner, challenger Aura, advances to 89th place!"

Ming Luochen jumped off Aura's back, shouting excitedly, and waved his camera twice in the air: "We won! We won! We won!"

Aura couldn't help but laugh out loud. She turned around, pulled him into a tight hug, and gave him a big kiss on the forehead: "Honey, you're amazing!"

"Was it because your husband was amazing?" Ming Luochen was dizzy from the kisses, his lips curving into a wide smile. "It was because we were so good at teamwork! That kick you gave me—no, that shield—the timing was perfect!"

"It's because you controlled it so well," Aura said earnestly, her eyes full of admiration. "That rhinoceros was such a big thing, but you made it unable to move an inch, like it was stuck."

"One, two, three, cheese! Invincible!" Ming Luochen raised his camera, pointed it at the sky, and pressed the shutter. With a click, he captured an empty shot.

Beside the arena, the leopard-print orc picked up her weapon from the ground and dusted herself off. She walked up to Aura, her vertical pupils no longer scrutinizing, but instead filled with a complex expression.

"Your summoned beasts are very powerful." She paused, "and you two coordinate very well."

Aura nodded slightly and replied politely, "You're very strong too."

The leopard-print orc gave a wry smile, said nothing more, and turned to leave with the rhinoceros. Her shadow stretched long in the setting sun, but her steps were lighter than when she arrived—losing to such an opponent didn't seem so shameful after all.

In the audience, the way the other contestants looked at Ming Luochen and Aura changed.

It is no longer contempt, no longer curiosity, but a kind of vigilance—a vigilance against the unknown.

They couldn't fathom the summoned beast's abilities. Was it magic? A skill? Or some kind of item? What did that "one, two, three, cheese" shout mean? Why did the opponent become immobilized after it shouted that?

No one dared to provoke this bad luck at this time.

"Wife, let's stop fighting." Ming Luochen took Aura's hand and walked off the stage. "If we hold on today, we'll qualify for the Martial Arts Grand Competition."

"Okay," Aura readily agreed.

She was also calculating in her mind. If they cooperated like today, with her pushing the opponent at close range and Ming Luochen controlling them remotely, they might actually achieve a good ranking in the martial arts competition. Not by brute force, but by tactics—a tactic that no other competitor had ever seen before.

Ming Luochen was so excited he could hardly sit still. If he could capture something even more amazing!

To capture the sight of molten lava erupting from the earth's crust at a volcano, with crimson rivers rushing across the land, turning everything in their path to ashes—if such a scene could be captured, the camera would not be releasing a bolt of lightning, but rather a natural disaster.

And tornadoes...

Just thinking about Ming Luochen makes my adrenaline surge.

Upgrade? That's a piece of cake.

He even suspected that his camera could destroy a secret place.

[It's a pity we couldn't capture the mushroom cloud and Tatyusha. What a shame.]

As dusk fell, the winter days were always particularly short. The sun had just sunk below the horizon when night, like a thick curtain, was quickly drawn in from the east.

The arena emptied out, and the defending champions gradually left. Although the final three days of the battle were perilous, the challengers would eventually give up after dark—no one wanted to be ambushed in poor lighting.

Ming Luochen and Aura sat on a bench in the rest area, waiting for the last match to end. Aura draped her coat over Ming Luochen, and he nestled in her arms like a cat wrapped in a blanket.

"Are you cold?" Aura looked down at him.

"I'm not cold." Ming Luochen buried his face in her chest. "You're warm."

Aura smiled and reached out to hug him tightly.

The two sat there, watching the stars in the sky above the arena light up one by one.

Meanwhile, the hotel was in an uproar.

Hollen sat on the sofa in the hall, his trunk pacing nervously. He glanced at the clock on the wall—6:30 in the evening.

"Why isn't he back yet?" he muttered to himself, stood up, walked to the hotel entrance, glanced at the street, and then turned back.

"Principal, please stop spinning me." Mr. Buck rubbed his temples. "It's making me dizzy."

"I'm just worried," Hollen frowned. "The capital is so big, and this is their first time here. What if they get lost?"

"Aura isn't a child," Mr. Buck said helplessly. "Besides, with Ming Luochen's brain, are you afraid he'll get lost?"

Hollen opened his mouth as if to say something, but then realized that Buck made sense, so he sat back down on the sofa, his trunk curling up twice more in frustration.

Anthony and Ellie sat in the corner, their summoned creatures—a chimpanzee and an octopus—each crouching at their feet, yawning listlessly.

"Could something really have happened to them?" Ellie asked softly, her fox ears involuntarily perking up.

"Probably not," Anthony said, but his fingers kept tapping the table with an irregular rhythm.

At 7 p.m., the hotel doors were finally pushed open.

Ming Luochen led Aura into the hall, still wearing Aura's coat. His hair was slightly disheveled by the night wind, but he was incredibly energetic. He had a smile on his lips and his eyes were sparkling, as if he had just done something remarkable.

"We're back! We're back!" Ellie was the first to stand up, her fox tail swaying unconsciously.

Hollen stood up and quickly went to meet them. He looked them up and down to make sure they weren't injured before letting out a sigh of relief: "Why are you so late? Where did you go? You didn't even send someone to let us know. We were worried sick."

Ming Luochen and Aura exchanged a glance, and the corners of their mouths couldn't help but turn up.

"Headmaster," Ming Luochen took out a piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it to Hollen, "we went to the arena."

Hollen took the parchment, unfolded it, and looked at it—

"National Little Knight Ranking Battle - 89th Place - Aura Raven Crest".

His elephant trunk froze.

"This is..." His voice changed.

"The martial arts preliminary rounds." Ming Luochen smiled, his eyes crinkling into crescents. "We played two matches and won. Now we're qualified to participate in the grand martial arts competition."

The hall fell silent for a moment.

Then--

"What?!" Mr. Buck was the first to stand up, his chair almost tipping over.

"Eighty-ninth place?!" Anthony's fork fell to the table with a clatter.

"You...aren't you in the humanities competition? Why are you fighting in the martial arts competition?" Ellie's fox tails exploded in disbelief.

Hollen held the certificate, his hands trembling. He looked at it over and over again, confirming that the seal was real, that the ranking was real, and that Ming Luochen wasn't joking with him.

"How...did you do that?" His voice carried a complex mix of emotions. They hadn't even started leveling up yet. Hollen was filled with shock, doubt, excitement, and a hint of inexplicable surprise.

"So... we fought." Ming Luochen shrugged, looking innocent. "They were too weak. I just shouted 'one, two, three, cheese' a few times, and they couldn't move. Then my wife pushed them, and they fell down."

"One, two, three, eggplant?" Hollen recalled Ming Luochen's innate skill.

"Well..." Ming Luochen thought for a moment, then waved his hand, finding it too troublesome to explain. "Never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway. We won, and we got the certificate. Principal, can we participate in the Wuhan University of Science and Technology competition now?"

Hollen took a deep breath and glanced at his name on the certificate again to make sure he didn't have presbyopia.

"Yes," his voice trembled. "You are qualified."

Aura stood beside Ming Luochen, smiling quietly. She didn't speak, but her eyes betrayed her—a bright and warm light shone in her amber eyes, a light that came from being recognized.

Ming Luochen gripped her hand tightly and whispered something in his heart that only she could hear:

"Honey, maybe we can even get first place in the martial arts exam."

Aura tilted her head to look at him, the corners of her mouth curving even wider.