Chapter 381 - 351: Scuffle

Chapter 381: Chapter 351: Scuffle

After entering Mo Yuan City, the Freshman Challenge didn’t start right away. According to the schedule, it was set to begin the next day.

So that evening, Li Qian went for a stroll through Mo Yuan City, focusing his attention primarily on shops that sold various Extraordinary Resources.

He had to admit, cities in a Dimension Plane were something else. While the variety of Extraordinary Resources wasn’t as great as in the Pet Beast Mall, the prices were significantly cheaper overall.

Of course, Mo Yuan City wasn’t without its downsides. The biggest problem was the inconsistent quality of the Extraordinary Resources.

Some Extraordinary Resources were of decent quality, while others were a complete ripoff. This was a stark contrast to the Pet Beast Mall, where no matter what you bought, the quality was always guaranteed to be decent.

Therefore, buying anything in a city within a Dimension Plane, especially Extraordinary Resources, was a real test of the buyer’s discerning eye.

Li Qian was quite confident in this regard, though that was partly because he mostly stuck to buying Extraordinary Resources he was already familiar with.

Li Qian did a quick inventory. He had already purchased a considerable amount of Extraordinary Resources, enough to evolve quite a few Powerful Pet Beasts.

The only one for which the conditions weren’t yet met was the Tidal Sea Spirit. After all, he didn’t currently own a Pet Beast capable of using the Life Dew Skill.

Of course, if he was dead set on evolving it, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Pet Beasts that had mastered the Life Dew Skill weren’t particularly rare, after all.

If nothing else, Sun Ruirui’s own Tidal Sea Spirit could help.

After meeting up with Sun Ruirui and the others, the group started wandering through the Western Market of Mo Yuan City.

"By the way, Ruirui, are you studying Nurturing at Zhonghai Beast Taming University?" Li Qian recalled that Sun Ruirui had shown a decent Talent for nurturing when the restrictions on her Apocalypse Talent were lifted.

Logically, Comrade Lao Sun should have guided her down the nurturing path, but things like that were never a hundred percent certain.

Li Qian had only asked casually. In his mind, even if it wasn’t a sure thing, there was at least a seventy to eighty percent chance of it.

However, the young lady’s next words were a slap in the face. "Nope! Brother Qian, I enrolled in a combat specialization at Zhonghai Beast Taming University."

Li Qian was a bit taken aback by Sun Ruirui’s answer. "A combat specialization?"

He shot her a questioning look.

Sun Ruirui explained, "What happened last time made me realize that strength is the best way to protect myself and the people I care about."

"And of course," she added, "Brother Qian’s Talent for nurturing is so incredible, I know I’ll never be short on high-potential Pet Beasts in the future."

Seeing the look of utter adoration on Sun Ruirui’s face as she gazed at Li Qian, Lu Tianjiao felt a pang of jealousy.

He suddenly spoke up, asking Mo Ziyu, "So, Ziyu, what about you? Why did you choose a combat specialization?"

Mo Ziyu glanced at him and said coolly, "So I can beat up people I don’t like."

Hearing this, Lu Tianjiao flinched and wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.

Li Qian almost burst out laughing when he saw this.

"So, is your Pet Beast lineup complete now?" Ignoring Lu Tianjiao’s antics, he asked her again, a bit more discreetly this time.

Li Qian remembered very clearly that after the restriction on her Apocalypse Talent was lifted, Sun Ruirui’s Spiritual Power had skyrocketed to the Dominator Level.

Logically, she should be able to form contracts with four Pet Beasts now, which was why Li Qian had asked.

"Not yet. My Third Uncle said my Spiritual Power shot up too quickly and needs to stabilize for a while," Sun Ruirui replied.

’She really liked this back-and-forth. She could feel Li Qian’s concern for her.’

After about three hours of wandering, the group returned to the hotels where their respective universities were staying.

The night passed uneventfully. The next day, the Freshman Challenge began right on schedule, starting with the main event.

The combat competition. This year’s Freshman Challenge was divided into three stages, the first of which was one-on-one matches.

Any freshman who participated would earn Points. As their ranking improved, their Points would continue to increase.

A freshman’s Points would stop increasing once they were defeated, and that would be their final score. The sum of all the freshmen’s scores from a given Beast Taming University would determine that university’s final total score.

The rules were very simple.

This stage of the competition was really a test of a university’s depth. An institution could only gain an advantage in this round if it had cultivated a sufficient number of outstanding students.

Otherwise, even if one student took first place, it wouldn’t guarantee an overall victory for their school.

Once the competition began, Li Qian became just another spectator. Mo Yuan City had four combat halls, and he went straight to Feiyu Combat Hall, where Lu Tianjiao was competing.

’Judging by what I saw the other day, I hope for his sake that guy doesn’t run into a freshman from Kansai Beast Taming University.’

’Otherwise, he’s bound to have a rough time,’ Li Qian thought. And then, the unexpected happened.

Sitting in the spectator section for Shazhou Beast Taming University, Li Qian watched Lu Tianjiao’s opponent take the stage, and the corner of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

His opponent was contestant number 25, who had drawn Lu Tianjiao in the very first round. And by an even greater coincidence, this guy was none other than a student from Kansai Beast Taming University.

After a moment of stunned silence, a faint smile played on Li Qian’s lips. He turned to Fatty An next to him and said, "Well now, this should be interesting."

"What’s so interesting?" Fatty An asked, confused, shooting Li Qian a questioning look.

Li Qian just smiled. "Just watch. Besides, it’s not a sure thing. I hope I’m wrong, actually."

Li Qian’s words only made Fatty An more curious.

He stared intently, wanting to see what would happen.

Soon, he saw it, and his eyes went wide in disbelief.

The randomly assigned rule for Lu Tianjiao’s match was one-on-one. He immediately summoned his Pet Beast, the Five-Colored Swan.

The Five-Colored Swan was a very Powerful Pet Beast. Its Racial Potential was no lower than a Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon’s, and Lu Tianjiao had trained its Level up to the Commander Level.

Although it was clearly a recent breakthrough to the Commander Level, its combat strength was already formidable. However, something unexpected happened: his opponent was also a Beast Master who had just reached the Commander Level.

His opponent’s Pet Beast, a Heart Fire Ape, had slightly less Potential than the Five-Colored Swan, but it was extremely good at head-on assaults. For a moment, it actually traded blows evenly with the Five-Colored Swan.

Logically, a battle like this shouldn’t have any surprises. But a surprise was exactly what happened, completely out of the blue.

The freshman from Kansai Beast Taming University directly broke the unwritten rules of engagement.

By convention, during a Pet Beast battle, the Beast Master would not personally enter the fray and risk injury. But the freshman from Kansai Beast Taming University shattered that convention.

Taking advantage of the moment when the Heart Fire Ape and the Five-Colored Swan were locked in a stalemate, he suddenly charged straight for Lu Tianjiao himself.

The move startled not only the audience, but Lu Tianjiao as well.

By the time he realized what was happening, his opponent was already right in front of him, too close to dodge.

Then, right in front of everyone, completely caught off guard and without a moment’s hesitation, the two of them started brawling.

It was a scene you’d normally only see in a catfight, and it was playing out right before their eyes.

The crowd instantly perked up. The collective thought was, ’If this is what we get to watch, I’m not sleepy anymore!’

After a moment of shock, they all started shouting, cheering for the student from their own university. Students from other schools simply reveled in the chaos.

"This is what you called interesting?" Fatty An was dumbstruck. He rubbed his eyes, finding it hard to believe this was the Freshman Challenge.

If you ignored the Pet Beasts, you could have told someone it was a back-alley brawl and they would have believed you.

"So, you’re telling me it’s not interesting?" Li Qian chuckled, watching the two of them wrestling on the arena floor.

"It is pretty interesting, I’ll give you that. But is Old Lu going to be okay if this keeps up?" Fatty An asked, his eyes also glued to the fight.

"Don’t worry, the supervising instructors from both universities are watching. Nothing bad will happen," Li Qian said with a wave of his hand. "Besides, with their physical conditioning, they could brawl for a day and a night without any real danger to their lives."

Hearing this, Fatty An nodded. "Okay, then I’m relieved." With that, he immediately started shouting along with the crowd, "FIGHT! BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF HIM! GET HIM!..."

Li Qian couldn’t help but facepalm at the sight.

Still, his eyes never left the arena.

"Won’t this set a bad precedent?" In a private suite in the combat hall, a young woman frowned as she watched the scene unfold.

"It’s fine. This kind of brawl will actually help them adapt to the rules of survival in the Dimension Planes later on," said Gao Tianle, the vice principal of Kansai Beast Taming University, unconcerned.

"Don’t tell me you put him up to this, you old coot," a dark-faced man said, looking at Gao Tianle with suspicion.

Gao Tianle gave a wry smile. "It’s just the Freshman Challenge. Winning or losing doesn’t make a huge difference. I have no need to resort to such tactics..."

"I think it’s great," a male instructor with gold-rimmed glasses chimed in. "Before, it was always the Pet Beasts fighting. It looked intense, but the actual stakes weren’t that high. This is a good change of pace."

"..."

The discussion in the suite was lively, but all the supervising instructors kept their eyes glued to the arena floor.

Down in the arena, the fight was at a complete deadlock. Finally, after nearly an hour of wrestling, Lu Tianjiao, who had slightly better physical conditioning, managed to beat his opponent into submission.

Of course, the fight had left him utterly exhausted. But the exhaustion was secondary. What left him speechless was the fact that his public image was now in tatters.

His face was so bruised and swollen he looked like a bobblehead doll. Even Li Qian, who prided himself on his self-control, couldn’t help but let out a PFFT of laughter at the sight.

"Damn, is that guy insane?" Lu Tianjiao couldn’t help but complain after returning backstage from his victory.

Li Qian had also gone backstage and overheard Lu Tianjiao’s complaint. He just smiled faintly. "Insane? I think it was perfectly normal."

"What do you mean?" A look of confusion appeared on Lu Tianjiao’s face.

"Don’t you remember yesterday, when we went to the area for Kansai Beast Taming University? Did you forget how you were trashing them...?" Li Qian reminded him with a smile.

"No way! Over a little thing like that?!" Lu Tianjiao’s voice suddenly jumped a few octaves.

"I forgot to mention," Li Qian continued, "I saw the guide who received us that day. It looks like he’s also a contestant in this Freshman Challenge..."

The color drained from Lu Tianjiao’s face, and he couldn’t help but curse, "FUCK..."