75: champion

To guard against the opponent's possible second spirit beast, Xu Yan remained vigilant throughout the match, even proactively lowering the frequency of the Formless Bombardment.

However, to Xu Yan's surprise, until the Void-Fleeing Rat ran out of Spiritual Power, and the person and spirit beast were completely overwhelmed by Formless's attack, and the two returned to the Arena, Lin Heng neither summoned his second spirit beast nor used his Innate Talent.

Looking at Lin Heng, who stood on the other side of the Arena and calmly admitted his defeat, Xu Yan was full of doubts.

Why did the opponent not seem as strong as he appeared in the videos? How did his previous opponents manage to avoid causing any damage to him until they were defeated, and didn't even force him to use many skills?

Meanwhile, Lin Heng, who had been chased around by Xu Yan throughout the match, felt helpless. The battle he and the Void-Fleeing Rat fought was truly frustrating.

Just as the information Xu Yan had found suggested, the Space Element did not possess high-power moves before the Commander Rank. Its strengths primarily lay in mobility and hidden survival capabilities. The opponent's attacks couldn't hit them, and the opponent couldn't defend against their attacks; if they wanted to run, the opponent couldn't catch up. This guerrilla-style tactic was the early combat method for Space Element spirit beasts.

However, during this battle, Xu Yan seemed to have activated a Law of Causality, completely ignoring how many times Lin Heng and the Void-Fleeing Rat changed their minds during the process, and directly predicted the outcome: what time they would arrive at what location.

Even if he and the Void-Fleeing Rat rapidly changed their minds and positions the moment before acting, they still couldn't escape the result of being preemptively bombarded by Xu Yan.

Their greatest advantage was directly countered by the opponent. Since this Entrance Test was not a life-and-death duel, using desperate or forbidden methods was unsuitable, and the final reward wouldn't even be enough to recover from the after-effects.

Feeling helpless, Lin Heng could only grudgingly lose the Final Match. Ultimately, Xu Yan secured the first place in this Entrance Test.

Because this was the first major competition for the First-year freshmen, the Awards Ceremony was quite grand.

He shook hands with the kindly smiling Vice Principal and received the champion's Trophy and reward from him.

However, for some unknown reason, while shaking hands and listening to the encouraging words, even though the Vice Principal showed genuine goodwill and satisfaction, Xu Yan still sensed an emotion akin to “Killing Intent” in his smiling eyes.

However, this emotion did not seem to be directed at Xu Yan.

Instead, it seemed to be directed at the Runner-up Lin Heng and the Third-place winner Chen Yan, who stood on either side of Xu Yan.

After carefully recalling this person's identity, Xu Yan suddenly understood.

Nothing else, but besides holding the title of Vice Principal, this person also served concurrently as the Department Head of the Combat Department.

Unfortunately for the Combat Department, the Entrance Test, which had historically been their exclusive domain, had a champion this year who belonged to the Cultivation Department.

That's right. Before everyone had received university education and fully utilized their professional strengths, winning first place in the Entrance Test essentially meant being the strongest fighter among all the new students recruited by the Third Academy this year.

However, this year's strongest fighter was not a member of their Combat Department but belonged to the neighboring Cultivation Department.

Regarding this, neither he, the Department Head of the Combat Department, nor the Combat Department Teachers below him were satisfied. This was true even though the quality of this year's Combat Department First-year freshmen was considered the best in recent years.

Although his mood had slightly improved because he had decided to increase the intensity for the Combat Department's little brats, seeing the two Combat Department students standing on either side of Xu Yan, and the 'Cultivation Department' bracketed after Xu Yan's name—ranked number one among the freshmen on the large screen behind—still made him nearly lose control of his emotions.

Having understood all this, Xu Yan subtly cast a somewhat pitying glance at the two opponents beside him who had lost to him, and then happily returned to the Dormitory Area with his champion's reward.

He sought out Jing Xing for a discussion, and upon learning there was no bad blood among the four, he created a Small Group Chat, gathering Jing Xing, Mu Jin, Chen Yan, and Lin Heng—the four highest-quality “Potential Clients” currently in Xu Yan's hands—and moved the previously agreed-upon discussion time forward.

Originally, according to the agreement Xu Yan had with them, the discussion was supposed to take place two or three weeks after the Entrance Test ended, once they had fully digested the gains they had made during the battles.

However, based on today's experience and speculation, Xu Yan decisively changed his previous plan, moving the time to tomorrow and changing the private discussion into a small Exchange Meeting.

There was no helping it; Xu Yan was genuinely worried that if he didn't move the time forward, by the time of their original appointment, it was uncertain whether they would still be in the Academy or have the energy and spirit left to come for the discussion.

Although the four were somewhat confused by Xu Yan's action, they agreed, figuring they didn't have anything urgent to attend to.

Since the gathering was set for the next day, Xu Yan directly summoned the Butler assigned to him by the school, a male Black Cat Attendant, and informed it that he would be inviting four friends over for a small get-together tomorrow, asking it to help him prepare.

Afterward, he took out his Phone and entered the School Mall, ordering a batch of General Rank rare materials for the Fire, Wood, Earth, and Space Elements. The first three were fine, but the price of the Space Element materials was five times that of the other three, making Xu Yan, who had just received a large sum of academic credits, feel a pang of distress.

He left two piles of spirit food for Zhu Yan and Xiong Nian, enough for them to eat continuously for a week, and instructed them to cultivate on their own in the mountains. Afterward, he and Formless entered the Laboratory together and began processing the materials.

The next day, Xu Yan was woken up by the Black Cat Attendant, who informed him that there were still thirty minutes until the scheduled gathering time with Lin Heng and the other three.

It must be said that among the many benefits offered by the Third Academy, the Spirit Beast Butler was definitely one of Xu Yan's most satisfactory. In daily life, as long as the request isn't too outrageous, you only need to state your needs and pay academic credits; the Spirit Beast Butler will take care of the rest.