Chapter 105: Chapter 96: Star Middle School (Extra)

After a period of waiting, two beams of white light appeared in succession outside the Inheritance Tower, and two students emerged, their faces filled with a mixture of solemnity and reluctance.

“The difficulty of the fourth challenge is simply too great,” a female student said with a heavy tone.

The short but stocky boy next to her also looked completely despondent. His Beast Taming had reached an Energy Level of twenty-nine, and he considered himself to be a rarity among his peers. Yet even so, he hadn’t managed to get through the fourth challenge.

Shaking his head, he said with conviction, “It’s impossible for anyone to get through the fourth challenge; that Lei Ting giant turtle is just too tough, really disgusting in an underwater environment.”

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than a series of exclamations arose nearby.

He turned his head to look, only to see the lights of the Fifth Layer of the Inheritance Tower suddenly illuminated.

Although it only lit up for a moment before going dark again, it still shocked everyone present.

With a flash of white light, a slender boy appeared outside the Inheritance Tower.

The youth stood tall and straight, his face chiseled with distinct angular features, and his skin was so pale it was almost translucent, exuding an imperceptible aloofness.

“I suspect the Guardian Beast Taming of the fifth challenge is at forty Energy Level. My Beast Taming can’t handle it,” the boy said with an indifferent voice.

Next to him, a not very tall but sturdy-looking boy asked curiously, “Buddy, how did you get past the fourth challenge?”

He was one of the two trapped in the fourth challenge, and he couldn’t believe that anyone could pass a challenge of such difficulty.

“Just beat it and passed,” replied the icy-faced boy with an answer.

The people around became speechless at this response, which sounded almost like he hadn’t said anything at all.

But they understood that, aside from defeating the Guardian Beast Taming, there really was no other way to pass the challenge.

After the challenge concluded, all the students received generous rewards, some were rare items from Exotic Regions, while others were Orbs containing Advanced Skills.

But for them, what mattered more was the opportunity for an aboveboard “trip.”

The teachers wanted to return, but none of the students were willing.

“Teacher, didn’t you say it was a good time for an exchange? Why don’t we interact with students here a bit? There are so many people around now, and I haven’t had a battle with students from other provinces yet,” one student suggested.

The other students chimed in one after another.

The teachers were at a loss for words, having never seen them so enthusiastic before.

After some consideration, the teachers exchanged a few words and decided to stay a bit longer.

After all, these were just first-year students, and there was no rush.

They might as well enjoy a “government-paid vacation.”

With an escort from the military, a group of teachers and students left the Nightmare Swamp Secret Realm.

Jincheng’s cuisine is nationally renowned, and in the following days, they allocated half of each day for exchange activities, while they spent the other half tasting the fare at various restaurants throughout Jincheng.

The teachers naturally didn’t let the students just play around; they took the opportunity to arrange some exchange activities as well.

The local education authorities and various universities also supported this, creating an unspoken consensus.

“Chen Xing, there will be an exchange with a student from another school this afternoon, along with a friendly match,” Kuang Shiyi said, approaching Chen Xing, “Prepare yourself.”

“From which school?” Chen Xing asked curiously.

He was surprised that they required him to meet guests.

There were certainly more capable senior schoolmates on the school team.

“Not from this province; it’s a school from another province,” Kuang Shiyi explained.

From another province?

After some thought, Chen Xing asked, “Are they participating in the Inheritance Tower from another province?”

Seeing how quickly Chen Xing guessed, Kuang Shiyi nodded, “Yeah, they’re mostly from top-tier high schools around the country. Normally, they would be your competitors in two years.”

At this point, Kuang Shiyi’s expression became a bit subtle because the principal had informed him that Chen Xing was going to take the college entrance exam ahead of schedule this year.

As the coach of the school team and the one in charge of arranging their training formations, he certainly needed to know such important news.

“If it doesn’t go according to the usual practice, if you take part in the college cup and the college entrance examination this year, your opponents won’t be them but rather enhanced versions of them who have had two more years of training.”

“Almost every year, a few ‘monsters’ emerge during the college cup,” Kuang Shiyi said somewhat sentimentally. “I was really looking forward to seeing you clash with these ‘monsters’ in the future in the college cup.”

Chen Xing inquired, “Monsters? How monstrous?”

“About the same as you,” Kuang Shiyi said. “For instance, you made it to the fourth challenge this time, but did you know that among these students from out of town, three made it to the fourth challenge? And they’re not even all that participated, some who weren’t interested simply didn’t enter.”

“Now you know how terrifying these monsters are,” Kuang Shiyi remarked with emotion. “Top-tier Beast Taming talent, coupled with powerful innate species and vast resources at their disposal. On the Exotic Region battlefields, they are able to contend with the geniuses from major powers of the Exotic Regions.”

Chen Xing roughly understood.

“You need to head to Jiuzhou University ahead of time because you can obtain more resources there. But for some individuals on a certain level, they don’t need that.”

“The resources of Jiuzhou University could be considered superfluous to them.

So, they are in no hurry to advance early and only need to grow step by step, slowly enjoying life.

Because when resources reach a certain level, unless they are extremely rare and non-replicable top opportunities, normal resources make no difference to certain levels.”

“I’ve said too much,” Kuang Shiyi stopped talking as he suddenly remembered some past experiences from his military days, which gave him a lot to think about.

“This afternoon, you’ll be challenged by a student from Xingchen High School.”

Xingchen High School? Chen Xing had heard of it before.

It was the winning team of the college cup two years ago.

If there were rankings for high schools, Xingchen High School would undoubtedly be among the top five elite high schools in the nation.

The reason for the top five placement is that the strengths of the top five high schools are almost indistinguishable.

Most of the time, the champion teams of the college cup come from these five schools.

Only occasionally, there is a dark horse from other schools.

“This student from Xingchen High School, it’s said that, like you, he was stopped at the fourth challenge,” Kuang Shiyi informed.

Chen Xing nodded in understanding, “Indeed, that challenge is no small matter.”

He was well aware of how difficult the thirty-five Energy Level Lei Ting giant turtle was to handle, and even now, he wasn’t confident he could defeat it.

Of course, his Taotie was growing rapidly, and perhaps in a month or two, things might be different…

While he was reflecting, Kuang Shiyi’s words broke the calm once more: “But this time, one more person successfully made it through the fourth challenge.”

Chen Xing suddenly looked up, a flash of surprise in his eyes, “Someone has passed the fourth stage?”

“That’s right, a student from Mingde Middle School,” Kuang Shiyi slowly revealed.

Chen Xing’s heart sank. Mingde Middle School was Chuzhou’s top private high school, on par with Starlight Middle School and both nationally renowned institutions.

“Interesting.”

…

In the afternoon, Chen Xing met the student from Starlight Middle School who wanted to challenge him, along with several other students from different schools who had come to watch the battle.

The student who wanted to challenge him looked rather mature for his age, short and stocky with thick eyebrows.

“Hi, my name is Yue Qianyuan.”

The stocky boy extended his right hand.

Chen Xing also extended his right hand and shook hands with Yue Qianyuan.

Instead of arrogance, Chen Xing didn’t sense much from Yue Qianyuan but felt that he was rather amiable.

“My teacher sent me here.” Yue Qianyuan pointed to his teacher behind him, “Let’s go, have a little spar first.”

“How about we grab a meal after our match? The skewers here are pretty tasty, just a little spicy. How about a half-and-half?” Yue Qianyuan invited Chen Xing.

“Sure,” Chen Xing nodded in agreement.

Arriving at the training field, Chen Xing looked towards Yue Qianyuan. Honestly, he was also curious about what level a genius beast tamer like Yue would be at.

Yue Qianyuan stretched out his right hand, summoning an array of light.

A giant blue octopus appeared on the field.

The octopus had tentacles three to four meters long, with blue rings on its body, each ring centered with a small black dot, looking from afar like dense eyes scattered across its flesh.

[Species]Blue Devil Octopus

[Attribute]Water, Poison

[Energy Level]29

[Energy Level Limit]39

[Skills]

Primary Skill: Rubber Elasticity (Mastered), Deadly Water Jet (Proficient), Meat Shield Ejection (Mastered)

Intermediate Skill: Venomous Charge (Mastered)

Innate Skill: Mimicry Camouflage (Proficient)

“Classmate Chen, be careful, my beast is a Blue Devil Octopus, a dual water and poison attribute creature,” Yue Qianyuan kindly warned.

Before coming, he had seen Chen Xing’s battle footage, and he had to admit that if placed in the same situation, his own beast might not perform any better than Taotie.

But in beast battles, it’s not the historical records that count, but the attributes, species, tactics, and on-the-spot performance of the beasts.

Like this time, the opposing Salty Bay Crocodile was essentially down one core skill, and his own beast was also a Water Element Beast. The aquatic field created by the Great Flood actually boosted his beast’s capabilities.

Back and forth, the advantages of his beast became more evident.

“Understood, it’s quite a hassle for the teacher to clean the field on weekends, so I won’t use the Great Flood,” Chen Xing said with a smile.

Yue Qianyuan was taken aback, finding Chen Xing’s tactics hard to grasp.

Then he saw the Salty Bay Crocodile dive into the water nearby and head straight for his beast, swimming through the water channels.

Yue Qianyuan pondered briefly and did not order his beast into the water.

His beast had the advantage on land, and any attack from the opponent would likely come ashore to hit its mark.

So he ordered the release of the Deadly Water Jet.

The Blue Devil Octopus’s tentacles flailed, conjuring three black water jets in front of it, clearly dirty and filled with deadly poison.

The three water jets were shot out in succession.

They hit the Salty Bay Crocodile in the water accurately.

But the assaults were futile; the Salty Bay Crocodile’s speed was unaffected.

Soon Taotie made its way to the surface closest to the Blue Devil Octopus, and in the next second, it burst out of the water with a menacing wave.

This leap soared directly from the water, covering a distance of six to seven meters, and upon landing, its strong body sprinted at a breakneck speed.

With a flick of its tail.

A whirlwind kicked up in the surrounding air as streams of water were drawn by an invisible force, rising from the waters, and forming a Great Vortex with a diameter of twenty meters nearby.

Thread by thread, the swift currents swirled, water elements in the air, along with streams from the water, constantly drawn up, creating a huge vortex around both beasts.

The Blue Devil Octopus received the retreat command, but the strong suction of the vortex slowed it down considerably, its tentacles involuntarily dancing in the direction of the pull.

Then Taotie rushed up, clamping its jaws over the octopus’s head, and slammed it hard onto the ground.

Bang!!!

Without even using Death Roll, just this one slam left the Blue Devil Octopus limp on the ground like a slug.

The robust bones of Taotie’s feet pressed down on it as it let out a low roar.

Yue Qianyuan stood there, dumbfounded.

Who am I, why am I here, is the battle over?

Seeing his student in such a state, the teacher from Starlight Middle School quickly came over to comfort him, lest the student’s “battle spirit collapsed.”

Chen Xing also felt a bit awkward; he hadn’t expected the battle to end so quickly.

Even out of respect, he hadn’t allowed Taotie to use Death Roll.

This… didn’t quite match up with what he had anticipated; just with one slam, one stomp, and the opposing beast was done for?

Of course, it could also be related to the increasingly terrifying physical strength of Taotie, which had now broken past the limits of normal development.

Seeing Yue Qianyuan wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, Chen Xing felt a bit guilty. It seemed there was little point in fighting with peers his own age; he would have to go easier next time.

With that thought, Chen Xing called out, “Classmate Yue, are you still up for hotpot later?”

Yue Qianyuan sniffled, staring fixedly at Chen Xing and said fiercely, “Yes!”