30: Return to the Beast Tide

Listening to Zhao Xuan's introduction and looking at the person and Spirit Beast on the arena platform being forced into a desperate situation by a General Rank Spirit Beast, Xu Yan's eyes showed a hint of confusion.

Although the assessment Spirit Beasts were slightly stronger, without the command of a Beast Tamer, and considering that candidates could still use their Innate Talent to boost their Spirit Beasts, plus the option to pass by simply surviving for ten minutes, this situation where only six out of more than fifty people passed shouldn't be happening.

Moreover, according to Zhao Xuan, this was only the first stage of the assessment.

Seeing Xu Yan's puzzled expression, Zhao Xuan explained: “These assessment Spirit Beasts aren't ordinary General Rank Spirit Beasts raised in the wild; they are specially selected from the Cultivation Gardens of various Academies. Their potential development and skill training are all handled by professional Cultivation Department students.

To put it harshly, the cultivation received by the Spirit Beasts of most people here probably isn't as good as that of the assessment Spirit Beasts. The rules state there are two ways to pass, but in reality, the vast majority can only choose the option of surviving for ten minutes.”

After hearing Zhao Xuan's explanation, Xu Yan suddenly understood. If these were Spirit Beasts meticulously cultivated in the Academies' Cultivation Gardens, this result wasn't surprising.

Sure enough, the early admission contracts from the Eight Great Academies were not that simple.

Of course, in this situation, being able to defeat the opponent would count as a bonus, allowing for a certain improvement when finalizing the contract.

Having figured this out, Xu Yan began scanning the candidates, wanting to see how Lu Ming was doing, if he had fought, and if he had passed the assessment.

Seeing Xu Yan's searching gaze, and guessing what he was thinking, Zhao Xuan spoke directly:

“Oh, right, that kid who greeted you earlier, Lu Ming, had good luck. He encountered a Wood Spirit whose attribute was countered by his Crimson Fire Fox. Relying on attribute counter, he successfully suppressed the Wood Spirit for ten minutes. If he hadn't run out of stamina at the end, he might have actually won.

Although luck played a part, that kid's performance was still very impressive. He can basically be considered stable for this assessment.

However, if it were your Shadow Light Spider, it might actually be able to defeat those General Rank Spirit Beasts. Among Soldier Rank beasts, that Shadow Light Spider is one of the most fundamentally sound and skilled Spirit Beasts I've ever seen.”

Hearing Zhao Xuan's words, Xu Yan's worry for his friend finally eased. After modestly deflecting Zhao Xuan's praise, he continued watching the battles of several more candidates.

Unsurprisingly, in the next few candidate battles, their Spirit Beasts were invariably brutalized by the General Rank Spirit Beasts before admitting defeat, signaling their failure in the assessment.

After watching a few more matches, Xu Yan started to feel bored.

Although there were a few bright spots, there were still too many flaws. Watching too much not only offered no learning value but could also pollute his database.

After greeting Zhao Xuan, Xu Yan turned and walked toward the exit.

Xu Yan's departure did not attract much attention.

After all, many people who had failed the assessment and were feeling frustrated had hurried away immediately after stepping off the platform.

Over the next three days, people continuously left the Training Ground and exited the Secret Realm, while others continuously entered the Secret Realm from the outside to participate in the assessment at the Training Ground.

As expected, Lu Ming successfully passed the assessment, and judging by his proud expression, he likely secured a good contract. As for Su Yao, who participated in the assessment with him, she did not pass and left the Secret Realm with regret.

Three days later.

After the General Rank combat forces withdrew, barely one in ten General Rank Beasts remained in the Beast Tide. The intensity of the Beast Tide also dropped significantly, returning to a level where Soldier Rank Spirit Beasts could fight normally, rather than being treated as cannon fodder who would be severely injured or instantly killed by stray combat aftershocks.

The moment he learned this news, Xu Yan took Zhu Yan and left the city.

The originally dense Beast Tide had thinned out considerably after three days of fighting, and the distance from the city gates had increased greatly. Xu Yan directly led Zhu Yan through the Beast Tide.

Spider Lances rose and fell, extracting large amounts of flesh and blood essence, which merged into Zhu Yan's Life Seed space, becoming nourishment for the Life Seed's growth.

During this time, Zhu Yan also directly encountered General Rank Strange Beasts.

If it were the previous Xu Yan, this kind of fighting would have been more focused on safety, having little interest in Cross-Rank Battles. Usually, when encountering such a situation, he would have Zhu Yan use Shadow Submergence to retreat and find a different opponent.

However, after experiencing the previous assessment and seeing the battles between his peers and those General Rank Spirit Beasts—even though Xu Yan only saw his peers being beaten by the Academies' carefully cultivated General Rank Spirit Beasts—it still gave Xu Yan the idea to test Zhu Yan's limits.

Since he had the idea and happened to run into one, he decided to give it a try.

The final result? He couldn't measure them.

Zhu Yan's strength was somewhat beyond Xu Yan's expectations.

He had originally thought that even with a host of Mastery Level skills, facing a General Rank Strange Beast would lead to a relatively difficult battle.

However, the final result was that the General Rank Strange Beast, whose intelligence wasn't particularly high, was like a toy in front of Zhu Yan. It followed Zhu Yan's will the entire time, going wherever Zhu Yan directed. The opponent's attacks never landed, while none of Zhu Yan's attacks missed.

Following several bursts of damage from Light Shadow Strike, Zhu Yan didn't even need to use tactics like Curse Poison to apply negative effects and chip away at the health bar. The opponent fell beneath Zhu Yan's Spider Lances, and Zhu Yan's stamina consumption was only considered normal.

Subsequently, under Xu Yan's deliberate search, they encountered several more General Rank Strange Beasts of different types. The results were not much different from before; in one battle, Zhu Yan even managed a one-versus-three, defeating three General Rank Strange Beasts without taking any damage.

Although these lower-intelligence General Rank Strange Beasts certainly couldn't compare to the General Rank Spirit Beasts meticulously cultivated by the various Academies, resolving the battles so easily, and even defeating multiple opponents simultaneously without difficulty, greatly boosted Xu Yan's confidence.

Based on the strength Zhu Yan currently displayed, if he had participated in the Combat Department assessment earlier, even if he couldn't defeat his opponent, surviving for ten minutes against them wouldn't have been a problem.