https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-401-The-Conclusion-of-the-First-Round-The-Mysterious-Ye-Zhou-/12957277/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-403-Qian-Yi-s-First-Move-One-Sword-to-Split-the-Mountain-/12957282/
Chapter 402: A Gathering of Powerhouses! The Elimination Round Begins!
Chapter 402: A Gathering of Powerhouses! The Elimination Round Begins!
As the night slowly passed, the outside world was abuzz with discussion, reaching a fever pitch.
The first round of the final exam's first day had a terrifying and brutal elimination rate, making everyone realize just how cruel this assessment for young professional beastmasters truly was.
However, there was no doubt that the remaining forty-eight contestants were the cream of the crop among the best.
Among these top contenders, nine potential champions were singled out from the rest! These nine individuals had achieved a perfect ten-win streak in the previous round.
Compared to the others who barely managed seven wins, the advantage they displayed was indeed significant.
First and foremost was Su Ping, of course.
However, Su Ping had very few opportunities to showcase his skills.
In fact, the last two battles didn't even provide much reference value.
The only battle worth mentioning was his second encounter against Fang Xu.
The terrifying toxicity displayed by Xiao Qing caught everyone's attention, except for Qian Yi, who once again drew attention to her.
But not many were surprised.
The reason was simple. During the provincial exams, when Qian Yi didn't fully demonstrate the Hundred Sword Release, Xiao Qing ranked third on the list of top pets in the provincial exams.
She was only surpassed by Chen Zhan's Azure Dragon and Ye Zhou's Ice Cicada.
Xiao Qing was already an absolute top-tier pet, but later, Qian Yi's brilliance overshadowed her.
His brilliance was incomparable.
As a result, many people overlooked Xiao Qing.
But now, on the arena, when Zhou Tian's Five Elements Body was somewhat affected, Xiao Qing's terror was revealed once again.
So, during this night, the discussion about Su Ping wasn't as intense.
Instead, the focus shifted to the other eight contestants who achieved a perfect ten-win streak.
Ye Zhou, still mysterious and reserved, had a remarkable performance. Among his pets, the Earth Dragon from Imperial Capital Academy, owned by Situ Yan, and two other equally impressive pets, effortlessly defeated his Ringed Tiger, as if it were a mere plaything.
However, as the first from Capital City Academy, Ye Zhou had fought in very few battles, and the quality of those battles was not high.
The one who truly caught everyone's attention and sparked intense discussions was Qin Xiaoxue, also from Capital City Academy.
In this first round, as the third representative from Capital City Academy, Qin Xiaoxue's ranking wasn't particularly outstanding. So, during the random draw, she consecutively faced two first-place winners from the provincial exams.
One was from Minyue Province, a Wood Element beastmaster like Qin Xiaoxue, but primarily focused on the Poison Element.
Although there was no actual battle between Su Ping's Xiao Qing and Qin Xiaoxue's pet, it was clear that Qin Xiaoxue's pet was not as strong.
However, there was no doubt that facing Qin Xiaoxue was a challenging opponent.
The other first-place winner was even from the prestigious Mountain River Advanced Academy in the Central Plains, a beastmaster who had also achieved first place in the provincial exams.
This opponent was quite special and presented Qin Xiaoxue with her most difficult battle.
His three pets, the Prison Lion, Shadow Veil, and Shadow Mantis, all shared a common trait of being dark-type pets.
This was Qin Xiaoxue's first battle.
At the same time, it was also one of the most-watched battles in this first round!
Additionally, the battle between Dong Muchuan and Mu Hanchan from Ice Plateau Academy was also among the top-viewed battles.
However, compared to Dong Muchuan's battle, Qin Xiaoxue's battle against the first-place winner from Mountain River Academy was also their first battle.
So, it was even more intense.
Even the strange Flower Fairy, who had never acted before, made a slight move.
This battle had a drawback; the dark-type 'Shadow Veil' pet's effect obscured much of the battle's brilliance.
As a result, the specific details of the battle were not very clear.
All that was known was that the battle in the darkness was extremely intense.
Moreover, neither of them went all out.
After all, it was the first battle, and they needed to conserve their strength.
Nevertheless, the final result was Qin Xiaoxue's victory!
She consecutively defeated the first-place winners from Mountain River Academy and Minyue Province.
Qin Xiaoxue's ten-win streak, compared to most others, had a much higher quality!
This was also the reason why, that night, the all-around pet 'Tree Crown Wolf King' Wood Head, who was responsible for controlling the field and output, trended on the hot search.
It made the already popular pet type, the Forest Wolf, trend again.
Unfortunately, as the ultimate evolution of the Tree Crown Wolf King, a royal-level evolution, was clearly not affordable for an average Forest Wolf beastmaster.
Besides Qin Xiaoxue, Chen Zhan, as a young dragon of the Imperial-grade Dragon race, was already extremely powerful, not to mention the strength of his other two companion beasts and his cultivation. He had faced fewer battles and opponents than Ye Zhou.
Similar to Su Ping, he only fought three battles when his opponents gave up during the later stages.
Mu Hanchan from Ice Plateau Academy was also in a similar situation.
That Great Ice Elemental Sprite was simply too heaven-defying.
Under Absolute Zero, any companion beast that approached would be instantly killed.
Of course, Advanced Skills couldn't be frequently used, but she seemed to have a special recovery method, and the limitation of ten battles seemed insignificant to her.
Even against Dong Muchuan, there wasn't much suspense.
Additionally, Qin Feng from Xi Jing Province was relatively unique. Besides the Xi Jing Province's unique Necromancer Puppet, a ghost general-type companion beast with a racial limit, he had two other very special companion beasts because they were both Artifact-type companion beasts!
One was an Ancient Sword, likely an evolved form of the Rotten Sword, about which Su Ping didn't know much.
The other was even more abstract, a special 'Official Seal' type artifact companion beast.
Qin Feng's companion beast, named 'Yellow Earth Seal', was a unique seal with Earth as its primary element.
With a sword and a seal, he also had a large bodyguard by his side, making Qin Feng resemble an ancient imperial envoy.
His combat strength was extremely formidable.
Another participant, Pan Xiaoyu from South Sea Academy, specialized in Water. However, he didn't attract much attention among the group because his battle terrain resembled the Ten Thousand Mile River in the center of a lake.
His fighting style was quite despicable, relying on his innate talent for water element affinity and his companion beast to fully utilize the advantages of the terrain.
Many people despised him for this.
Among the remaining two participants, one was the top student from Tianfu Academy, and Su Ping had even seen his most impressive companion beast once.
One of them was the unique companion beast from Sichuan Province, a completely new evolved form that had even appeared once in the cultivation competition.
Kung Fu Panda!
However, this Kung Fu Panda of Tianfu Academy's Qu Zhen didn't use the Heaven Splitting Halberd as its weapon, unlike Qian Yi's during the cultivation competition.
Instead, it was somewhat similar to Shen Fu's Double Section Staff.
It wore tiger claws on its hands, carried an Azure Dragon Saber on its back, and had a double-section staff attached to its waist.
Although this Kung Fu Panda wasn't highly skilled in the Gold element, its physical strength was extremely powerful. While such attacks were restrained by Elementals and some Necromancers, they were indeed very violent!
As for the last participant who won all ten battles, he was the only one besides Su Ping who wasn't affiliated with the Eight Great Academies.
He was the top student from Qi Lu Province.
This person was named Shen Fu.
All three of his companion beasts were Mechanical Beasts.
Indeed, this guy was rumored to be the richest man in Qi Lu Province, and possibly the entire country, from the Shan He Group.
His main selling point was his wealth.
All three of his Mechanical Beasts were top-notch and fully equipped.
Of course, there were plenty of wealthy participants in this competition.
There were also many Mechanical Beasts.
However, only Shen Fu had made it this far.
Clearly, he wasn't just a rich guy who had bought his way to the top.
The cultivation of Mechanical Beasts mainly involved the mechanical body, blueprints, mechanical weapons, and material prosthetics.
There were also many areas for research.
To achieve this level, wealth was just one of the basic conditions; Shen Fu had undoubtedly put in a lot of effort.
The nine participants who won all ten battles were naturally the leading figures that couldn't be ignored.
However, besides Su Ping and the other eight, the others, like Dong Muchuan and the top student from Shan He Academy, couldn't be casually overlooked.
It was even uncertain if these nine were truly stronger than some of those who had lost.
Companion beast battles also depended on some control relationships.
Precisely because of this, the online forum had almost constant debates about who was stronger or weaker and who would win or lose.
Su Ping glanced at it briefly and then turned his attention back to Fei Fei:
"Fei Fei has grown another circle again."
The reason was simple; it had devoured six more mechanical cores.
Su Ping still had a lot of influence, and he wasn't short on money either.
The Golden Elemental Core, which had not yet completed its awakening, was indeed far more valuable than resources of the Monarch level.
However, it was not a big deal.
So, Su Ping prepared ten more.
In the end, the result was that Fatty could only consume six of them.
At the same time, its racial limit had finally increased to the Elite Tenth Rank.
After that, it was no longer possible to enhance it further through the host's consumption.
The flickering light of evolution on its body also increased in frequency.
It was evident that for Fatty to break through again, it truly needed to complete its evolution.
"It's good, but I feel a bit uncomfortable moving around, Master. Will I stay like this after evolving?" Fatty asked, its giant mechanical core, the size of a basketball, shifting slightly.
Su Ping scratched his head, "I'm not sure about that, but since you're a Spiritual type, such physical limitations are normal. As for the conditions for evolution, I have a rough idea."
Of course, the requirements for evolution were not as exaggerated or troublesome as one might imagine.
For example, cultivating powerful skills was not a prerequisite.
This was clearly something Fatty had in mind.
However, the requirements for evolution often had little to do with skill cultivation, especially when it came to skills other than racial skills that had not yet been mastered.
This was the case for Xiao Qing and Qian Yi.
Xiao Qing's extra body had to complete its evolution before it could be cultivated.
But for Qian Yi, whether it was the subsequent Elemental Heart, the Five Elements Body, or the Sword Dao Incarnation, they were all cultivated after evolution.
Therefore, Fatty's skill cultivation and evolution should not be closely related.
As for the missing trigger for evolution, Su Ping had some ideas, but he couldn't test them properly in Minyue Province.
After understanding Fatty's situation, these past few days, Fatty had been busy discussing the Dream Heart update with the Dream Heart team in Linzhou.
Compared to Xiao Qing and Qian Yi, Fatty was indeed less interested in combat. Its desire to improve was merely to remind Su Ping not to neglect it.
The night passed quickly.
The next day,
Capital Sports Arena.
The countless small arenas from before had transformed into four massive platforms!
"The second round of the Final Trial, the special nationwide Beastmaster Professional Assessment competition, is finally coming to its climax with the final ranking battles!"
The host, Liu Xun, spoke with enthusiasm as she addressed the live audience.
"Here, every victory and defeat will determine the fate of the losers, locking in their rankings in these battles!
Only by continuously winning and climbing higher can young Beastmasters stand at the pinnacle and become the representatives of Dragon Country's youth! In the elimination rounds, there will be up to four battles simultaneously! And today, we will witness the selection of twelve finalists! In other words, each of you will face up to two advancement battles today!
But don't worry! Because this time, after each battle, the Phoenix Saint will lead her elite healing Beastmaster team to ensure that your Companion Beasts' stamina, energy, and power are restored to their peak, ready to face new opponents!
So, many young students, in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, give it your all with your Companion Beasts!"
The female host's words ignited the passion of the forty-eight participants at this moment.
Under the spotlight, the entire Dragon Country seemed to be fixated on this arena.
"Good, let's begin the first random match. The matching rules are similar to yesterday's, but we'll also consider yesterday's battle rankings!"
Names flashed rapidly on the screen.
Soon, the first eight participants for the battle appeared before everyone's eyes!
"The first match is Qu Zhen from Tianfu Academy versus Lin Xiao from Fengtian Province!
Ling Xiaoxiao from Capital City Academy versus Situ Yan from Imperial Capital Academy!
Zou Tong from Shanhe Province versus Shen Fu from Qi Lu Province!
And finally, Su Ping from Jianghai Province versus Zhou Yuan from Minyue Province!"
Su Ping raised his eyebrows, hearing his name. However, he was slightly taken aback by the familiarity of his opponent's name. Then, under the gaze of the crowd, he stepped onto the fourth arena and saw the sad-looking chubby opponent from Minyue Province.
(End of Chapter)
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