It was not just Winning Colors who was startled. The other horse girls were equally taken aback.
Of course they all knew the name Risen Star. She was one of Secretariat's juniors, a famous figure whether in the regional circuit or in Central.
If they had merely seen her on the track, they would not have been surprised. After all, she was aiming for an undefeated Triple Crown. If she hadn't stepped onto the road toward the classic Triple Crown, that would have been strange.
Everyone knew that girl ran beneath the halo of genius, burdened with the expectations of fans who had already crowned her "the second Secretariat."
But this was only a training race. And when they entered the gates, not one of them had seen Risen Star.
So where had she come from?
Had they all been so focused that they had overlooked her existence? No. No matter how one thought about it, that was impossible. Absolutely impossible.
No matter how much attention the horse girls paid to Xingyun Liuge, there was no way they would fail to notice who had been at the start. Otherwise, how were they supposed to win races?
On that point, Xingyun Liuge could actually have explained things to them very simply:
The far outside. The far, far outside.
Risen Star had not been standing in any of the twenty gates. Instead, she had quietly slipped around to the outside of the gate area altogether, becoming the twenty-first horse girl in the training race.
To hide her presence, she had even deliberately yielded a length at the start.
In this training race, she had chosen a deep-closing strategy, thoroughly shocking the horse girls of her generation. Of course, the few runners who had started near the back had known she was there—but they were all on excellent terms with her. With a single glance, they had reached a mutual understanding, and thus the illusion had been flawlessly maintained.
In a sense, it was a provocation.
She was proving to Xingyun Liuge that she, too, could run from behind. It was a dazzling display of "assassin's technique," a silent declaration:
Xingyun Liuge—if you think American dirt is as easy to conquer as British turf, then you are sorely mistaken. I will be the one to end your ambitions.
And to prove it more completely, more forcefully, Risen Star decisively unfolded her domain.
The instant her horseshoe struck the ground, golden light rippled across the murky surface.
That glow was made up of countless tiny golden particles, minuscule as fireflies in flight. Yet in the blink of an eye, they gathered into something majestic—like a golden storm reaching from earth to sky, or a river of light suspended above the land, answering the stars overhead.
There came a faint hum.
Across the "mud swamp," a golden road of light suddenly unfurled, brushing past Xingyun Liuge and stretching all the way to the finish line.
Even if this was only a training race, Risen Star had no intention of being satisfied with merely catching up to Xingyun Liuge. Since she had already brought out her domain, then of course she meant to win.
She would use an undefeated Triple Crown to prove one thing:
She was not "the second Secretariat." No one would ever become "the second Secretariat."
She was herself.
"Prepare yourself!"
A nearly feral grin burst across the girl's face, and the astonishing leg power inherited from Secretariat showed its true might.
The seven-length gap vanished in the blink of an eye.
If there had been commentators calling this training race, they would probably have been screaming themselves hoarse by now, shouting both girls' names in turn and waiting breathlessly for them to draw even before battling it out for supremacy.
Seeing the shining road appear at her side, Xingyun Liuge was momentarily stunned—then a smile of genuine interest spread across her face.
This was what racing was supposed to be like.
Wasn't it?
She rather wanted to step onto that road herself and test it out, but she could tell at a glance that a domain's outward form might look like a manifestation of spiritual force, while in reality it was not quite that simple.
If she stepped onto it directly, all that would happen was that she would stumble forward and go off-balance.
Domains were highly subjective powers. They could only do two things: strengthen oneself or interfere with others. Though the golden road looked as though anyone could dash across it, in truth it had been made exclusively for Risen Star. No one else could use it—not even Secretariat herself.
In the blink of an eye, Risen Star drew level with Xingyun Liuge. She threw her a proud, audacious smile.
"Hiding your strength and holding back isn't any fun at all, Xingyun Liuge. You think so too, don't you? So…"
She paused on purpose, then broke into an even more arrogant grin.
"If this is all you've got, then victory is mine!"
The smile was so outrageous that it almost conjured up a stereotypical line from a Japanese drama:
Xingyun Liuge, you don't really want to watch victory fall into my hands, do you?
To that, Xingyun Liuge had only one thought:
That is the strangest request I've ever heard.
She pressed her index and middle fingers together and brushed them lightly past her forehead.
"Then as you wish."
Before the words had even fully fallen, a plain, unadorned pulse of blue-violet energy burst from her fingertips and struck Risen Star head-on.
Siphon Power: Marks one opponent, reducing her speed by 20% for one second while increasing Xingyun Liuge's movement speed by 30% for two seconds.
"Ghk!"
Risen Star let out a strangled cry.
In that instant, she felt her bioelectric current with perfect clarity—or rather, her bioelectric current asserted its own existence, loudly proclaiming:
Warning. Warning.
The currents inside Risen Star's body descended into disorder. Her golden path collapsed at once.
She could no longer sustain that astonishing closing burst. Her stride turned horribly awkward, and she almost lost all momentum.
"Nggh!"
Clenching her teeth so hard her handsome features nearly twisted, Risen Star roared:
"A mere domain… submit to me!"
The shattered golden road actually showed signs of stabilizing, of gathering itself back together.
But only signs.
A domain was indeed a highly subjective power—but precisely because it was so subjective, controlling it was difficult in the extreme.
In the space of a single second, the golden road beneath Risen Star's feet went through a whole cycle:
collapse → forced reconstruction → collapse again.
And in the next instant, Risen Star crashed down into the mud, losing all speed completely.
No—not just losing speed.
Carried forward by her momentum, her body pitched ahead, and it was obvious she was about to slam face-first into the ground.
She had been running at full speed. If she fell like that, she might well die on the spot.
Seeing the sudden disaster unfold, the horse girls behind her had no time to help. They could only watch helplessly as Risen Star fell.
Even Risen Star herself had shut her eyes instinctively.
Then—
Smack!
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 126)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter130)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter89)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter157)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 133
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 125
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 84
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 143
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 115
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 99
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 75
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 75
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 52
Uma Musume: I Want All 51
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
A Guide to Aid in the Underwor 26
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
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