Chapter 36 Chapter 36 "From now on, I will challenge...
Shen Zhien stood by the finish line, recording everyone's results.
When she saw Jiang Qing and Zhu Tianba were the first to cross the finish line, and their condition was obviously much better than those students behind them who were in a miserable state and even needed to be dragged by their spirit pets, a look of satisfaction appeared on her face, and she put a prominent check mark next to Jiang Qing's name in the record book.
Apart from the somewhat oddity of contracting a pig as a spirit beast, this student performed extremely well in the assessment.
Songyue mentioned that in the weekly exams two weeks ago, she and her piglet seemed to have killed more than a dozen large earth slimes alone.
This courage and determination make him a good talent to be cultivated!
It's just that this promising young student seems to be a little too introverted. She never takes the initiative to ask questions to her in class.
Shen Zhien glanced at the other students who were still struggling on the thorny path, and with an idea in mind, he put down the clipboard and walked steadily towards Jiang Qing, who had just removed the counterweight.
Her eyes swept across Jiang Qing's slightly heaving chest and the fine sweat oozing from his forehead, and finally fell on her subordinate Zhu Tianba, who was looking around with a relaxed expression.
She decided to take the initiative to nudge the other party.
"Jiang Qing." Shen Zhien's voice was not loud, but it clearly penetrated the slightly noisy panting coming from the next class near the finish line.
Jiang Qing was concentrating on eavesdropping on Zhu Tianba's inner thoughts when she was interrupted by a sudden voice. She subconsciously shuddered and turned around to see Shen Zhien standing behind her. She looked up at her, confused, and said respectfully, "Teacher Shen?"
"You're the first one to finish. You're doing pretty well." Shen Zhien's tone was devoid of emotion. "If you have any questions about beast taming in the future, feel free to come to me."
"Huh?" Jiang Qing was a little confused, but then she thought, perhaps this was some kind of teaching indicator from Shen Zhien. The teachers at the Fifth Beastmaster Academy all cared deeply about their students, so she nodded and said, "Okay, Teacher Shen."
Shen Zhien was very satisfied with Jiang Qing's attitude. She felt that the other party had listened to her.
She walked back to the finish line and began recording data.
After Jiang Qing, the next to arrive was Zhao Peng, who relied on the Iron-Armored Bull to hold on, and then the squad leader Zuo Ye. Both of them were breathing a little rapidly, and their scores were also among the excellent ones.
After the two men got ashore, they had almost no strength left and lay on the ground, gasping for breath for a long time.
It was half an hour later when everyone arrived at the finish line.
Jiang Qing fed the pigs for two hours out of boredom.
Zhu Tianba is a big eater, probably because he needs nutrition for growth, and now is the time when he is growing.
Zhu Tianba ate as long as she fed him.
Jiang Qing silently increased Zhu Tianba's daily food intake in his mind.
"Very good, the first item is over. Rest for ten minutes to replenish water and energy. In ten minutes, gather at the source force pressure resistance area!" Shen Zhien's voice sounded coldly, leaving no chance to breathe.
Jiang Qing looked at the area in the distance that was shrouded by a special force field, where the air seemed a little distorted. That was the pressure-resistant area.
Physical cross-country can rely on Zhu Tianba's "avoidance", but source power pressure resistance tests the strength, toughness and control of the beastmaster's own source power.
This is real hard work and there is no possibility of taking shortcuts.
Ten minutes passed in a flash.
All the students dragged their tired bodies and brought their own spirit pets into the area emitting invisible pressure.
As soon as she stepped in, Jiang Qing instantly felt as if she was in the deep sea. A huge sense of oppression surged from all directions, not only squeezing her body, but also madly impacting and tearing at her mental strength.
The air became thick and every breath became extremely difficult.
This feels very similar to the time when I faced Principal Ji Changsu.
The students mobilized their source power to resist, with lights of various colors lighting up their bodies, some gathering shields, and some trying to stabilize their own source power vortexes.
The spirit pets also felt the pressure, growling or whimpering, releasing their own strength to try to share or resist.
Jiang Qing took a deep breath, and with a thought, golden light instantly rose from her body, forming a mushroom-like light shield.
The powerful pressure was isolated by the light shield, and Jiang Qing suddenly felt his body lighten.
Shen Zhien, who was observing the students' performance outside the pressure field, once again set his sights on Jiang Qing.
While others had more or less diverse skills, Jiang Qing had nothing around her. She just stood there quietly, her eyes occasionally scanning the surroundings, observing the expressions of her classmates.
Jiang Qing has an invisible beast-taming talent skill, which is defensive.
Shen Zhien raised her eyebrows. She wanted to see what the final threshold of Jiang Qing's skill was.
Shen Zhien pressed the remote control in his hand and continued to increase the bet at the position where Jiang Qing was standing.
Time passes by every second.
Jiang Qing was fine at the beginning, but as time went on, she felt the pressure on her body increasing dramatically, getting bigger and bigger. Her golden light shield seemed to be squeezed by an invisible wall, and the shield surface was compressed and deformed.
The invisible pressure field seemed to have life, specifically targeting powerful defensive skills, constantly impacting and consuming the energy of the light shield.
Jiang Qing's forehead was instantly covered with cold sweat.
At this rate, she could only last a minute at most.
She tried to move, but her steps felt like they were filled with lead. The sluggishness of the golden shield's movement was magnified more than tenfold here. She was like a bug trapped in golden amber.
At this moment, she felt a weak but unusually steady force coming from her feet.
Looking down, Zhu Tianba was standing close to her calves, his body slightly bent, and his four short legs seemed to be rooted in the ground.
The faint platinum halo emanated from its body again, and it was more solid than when it rescued the snow rabbit before.
This halo was like a magic needle thrown into a raging ocean. Although it was weak, it brought with it an indescribable sense of "calmness" and "stability" and quietly blended into the ground beneath Jiang Qing's feet.
The invisible pressure that was madly attacking the golden light shield, trying to tear it apart, seemed to have its violent "tearing" property greatly weakened after coming into contact with the platinum halo that merged into the ground.
The pressure was still enormous, but it became relatively gentle and uniform, more like a pure pressure rather than a shock wave carrying destructive energy.
Seeing the ground beneath Zhu Tianba's feet sinking continuously, Jiang Qing instantly understood.
Zhu Tianba used some unknown means to transfer the pressure originally poured on her to himself, and greatly weakened the most destructive tearing part of the pressure field, so that the golden light shield only needed to bear a relatively pure pressure load.
Jiang Qing freed up one hand and gently placed it on Zhu Tianba's back.
Zhu Tianba, who had been concentrating all his strength to resist the pressure and looked like he was grinning, suddenly froze.
It looked up at Jiang Qing, confusion flashing in its eyes.
"Be good, this isn't a battlefield, you don't have to share my burden." Jiang Qing's gentle voice fell into Zhu Tianba's ears, "If you do this, they will only increase the pressure, over and over again, until they completely defeat you and me, with no end in sight."
She had just figured it out in an instant. Her golden light shield had surpassed the defensive skills of most people, but she could clearly feel that the pressure on her was greater than that of everyone present.
This can only be because someone secretly added weight to her behind the scenes.
In the surveillance footage in front of Shen Zhien, Jiang Qing suddenly raised his hand.
This was the signal set before the stress test. Raising the right hand meant that the body had reached its limit and that pressure needed to be stopped immediately and evacuated. At that time, Songyue and Dafei would also go in and take the person away.
When Jiang Qing raised her hand at this time, it meant that she had reached her limit.
Shen Zhien looked at the last number in his hand. The pressure value remained at 9987, and it was almost up to 10000.
She could feel that although the invisible golden barrier was fluctuating violently, it had not completely collapsed. Jiang Qing's mental strength seemed to still have a trace of resilience holding on.
She hesitated for a fraction of a second, her fingertips almost pressing the final plus button, but her duty as a teacher instantly overwhelmed her desire to explore.
Students' safety always comes first.
She decisively cut off the special pressure field exerted on Jiang Qing, and at the same time quickly ordered through the communicator: "Songyue, Area C, Position 12, Jiang Qing, has reached his limit, take him away."
Song Yue's figure quickly passed through the distorted pressure field and stopped precisely beside Jiang Qing.
The invisible pressure receded from Jiang Qing's body like a tide. Her knees subconsciously softened and Song Yue held her arm firmly.
The cold sweat on his forehead slid down his temples and dripped onto the training ground under his feet, leaving a small dark mark.
Jiang Qing doesn't like to push herself into a desperate situation. Within the target range, she has tried her best, and her trump card is a means of saving her life without exposing it to others.
Deep in her heart, there flows a survival wisdom that is completely different from the mainstream "limit breakthrough theory".
For her, "pushing oneself into a desperate situation" is not a medal of courage, but more like a brutal overdraft of life's inherent resilience.
The "trump card" that exists in the abyss of potential is the boundary mark between her and the world.
"Are you okay?" Songyue's voice was full of concern.
"It's okay, Teacher Songyue." Jiang Qing took a deep breath, forced himself to suppress the surging blood and the buzzing in his head, and stood up straight.
She subconsciously lowered her head to look for the white ball at her feet.
Zhu Tianba was lying at her feet, his little head drooping and his nostrils flaring rapidly. The steady strength like the earth just now disappeared without a trace, leaving only the dejection after exhaustion.
Jiang Qing's heart tightened, and she wanted to put it into the seal of the contract, but Zhu Tianba stubbornly nudged her hand with his nose, and struggled to stand up, his four short legs still trembling.
Jiang Qing became the first person to be "eliminated" from the pressure field.
The resentment accumulated from the previous game was released at this moment.
He is just a god of war with only one subject. The last battle might have been just because Jiang Qing and her pet happened to encounter the subjects they were good at.
With Jiang Qing being the last one in line, the other students no longer resisted.
In the ten minutes after her, students in the pressure-resistant area kept turning pale, their mental strength exhausted, the light on their bodies extinguished, and they were directly pressed to the ground by the invisible pressure. They raised their hands to signal, and teachers Songyue and Dafei quickly took them away from the pressure field.
The results of the stress test were not announced immediately until Zhao Peng was eliminated from the stress field with his last bit of strength. Then everyone's stress values were announced on the big screen.
Everyone was stunned when they saw Jiang Qing, who was eliminated first, far ahead with a high score of 9987 and ranked at the top.
She even left second place Zhao Peng behind by more than 2,000 points.
"9987? Are you kidding me? She was eliminated the fastest and still ranked first?"
"Is there something wrong with this ranking? How did she become number one?"
"I thought Jiang Qing was definitely at the bottom, that's why I raised my hand, but now I'm the last one??!! I'm devastated!"
Each gaze was like a physical probe, fixed on Jiang Qing who was feeding water to Zhu Tianba at the edge of the field.
Jiang Qing had just screwed the lid on the kettle.
Her movements were neither hurried nor slow, as if the ranking had nothing to do with her.
She half-knelt and pushed the small basin filled with water in front of Zhu Tianba.
The little fellow seemed to have consumed quite a bit of fluid as well. He nudged the bottom of the basin with his nose listlessly, then began to sip in small sips, letting out a subtle and contented hum in his throat.
Those shocked, questioning, and inquiring gazes were intertwined behind her, but Jiang Qing seemed unaware.
Zhao Peng's face was pale as if he had exhausted himself. He gasped and looked at Jiang Qing behind him. A familiar feeling of oppression lingered in his heart.
Jiang Qing seemed like the epitome of genius that he had never been able to catch up with no matter how hard he tried over the years.
His eyes were fixed on 9987, so much so that his own value of 7682 seemed nothing.
The desire to win surged in his heart again, and he got up and walked towards Jiang Qing.
"Jiang Qing, from now on, I will challenge you!" Zhao Peng pointed at Jiang Qing and said in a very childish way.
Jiang Qing: "Nervous!"
Zhao Peng was so angry at her attitude that he stamped his feet: "What do you mean? Are you not accepting my challenge? Are you afraid that I will surpass you one day?"
Jiang Qing picked up Zhu Tianba and silently took a step back, further away from Zhao Peng.
Zhao Peng, driven by the desire to win, was in an extremely excited state at the moment. He ignored Jiang Qing's attitude, recalled Tiejia, ran to the side and frantically raised the iron.
Jiang Qing: “…”
Squad leader Zuo Ye in the crowd also clicked his tongue and shook his head. He knew that even if he persisted to the limit, he could only get "6321". Jiang Qing's number 9987 was really too terrifying.
Neither Shen Zhien, Songyue, nor Dafei spoke out in support of other students' doubts, but precisely because of this, the ranking seemed more authoritative.
Truth needs no explanation.
The following training ground was divided into several simulated combat areas. The air was filled with the burnt smell of source force collision and the energy aftermath after the release of spirit pet skills.
Jiang Qing's name is still ranked first.
Being suppressed by a second-level ordinary beastmaster and a pig, everyone felt a little dissatisfied and vowed to get their "ground" back in the next few days of training.
"Assemble!" Shen Zhien's voice was not loud, but it was like an invisible ice blade that instantly cut through the noisy air.
All the noise stopped abruptly, and the students subconsciously straightened their backs and focused their eyes on Shen Zhien.
"The key to coordinated combat lies in the rapport between the beastmaster and the pet, their complementary skills, creating a one-plus-one greater-than-two effect." Shen Zhien's voice echoed through the loudspeaker. "Now, form teams of two, freely forming offensive and defensive confrontations. The goal is to force the opposing pet and beastmaster to retreat or lose their attack power."
As soon as the words fell, the training ground instantly became lively.
The students quickly looked for partners, and the neighing of various spirit pets and the shouts of their masters intertwined.
Zhao Peng locked onto Jiang Qing almost immediately: "Jiang Qing, let's team up! I want to challenge you!"
There was a strong fighting spirit burning in his eyes, and he was obviously also worried about the ranking.
"Nutrition!" Jiang Qing cursed inwardly. When he turned around to look for other people, he found that everyone had already formed a team.
In fact, Jiang Qing didn't know that this was because Zhao Peng had already made arrangements in advance.
Jiang Qing turned to Zhao Peng resignedly, finally understanding what Meng Yanlang meant when he called Zhao Peng a "little firecracker".
Zhao Peng thought that he had figured out all of Zhu Tianba's attack methods during his usual training. He was very confident in Tiejia and he would definitely defeat Jiang Qing this time!
In the center of the simulation venue, Jiang Qing and Zhao Peng stood ten meters apart.
The armored bull mooed and dug the ground with its thick front hooves. Its thick metal armor shone with a cold and hard luster under the simulated sunlight. Two streams of hot white air spurted out of its nostrils, and its fighting spirit was high.
In comparison, Zhu Tianba, who was placed on the ground by Jiang Qing, looked particularly small and... listless.
It hung its head, seemingly not very interested in the fight, and just wanted to find a place to lie down and take a nap.
"Armor, charge!" Zhao Peng didn't hesitate at all and directly launched his best attack.
"boom!"
The huge body of the Iron-Armored Bull instantly turned into a heavy torrent, and its limbs made a dull sound when they stepped on the ground. With the momentum to crush everything, it rushed towards Jiang Qing and Zhu Tianba.
The ground was shaking slightly under its hooves, and the swirling air made Jiang Qing's hair fly.
Jiang Qing's pupils shrank, and he almost instinctively activated the golden light shield to resist it.
She and Zhao Peng had trained together many times, but the goal each time was to improve Tiejia's reaction and dodging ability. Therefore, regardless of winning or losing, Tiejia Bull never showed any intention of attacking Zhu Tianba.
This was the first time for both of them to have such a fight.
"Zhu Tianba!" Jiang Qing's voice carried a hint of urgency and trust that she herself didn't even notice. She didn't step back, but took half a step forward, concentrating her mind highly, trying to establish a connection with the little thing under her feet.
The golden light shield shook violently under the violent charge of the armored bull, but it withstood it steadily.
The armored bull's heavy head was bearing the golden shield that only she could see, and its four hooves were digging the ground frantically.
Zhao Peng's face was filled with excitement, determined to win. "It's useless, Jiang Qing. Even if your shield can withstand 9987 pressure, it's useless. You can't withstand the continuous impact of the armor. You should quickly send Zhu Tianba out, just like we did in training."
The students watching had never seen the two fight, but they had the impression that although they had been classmates with Jiang Qing for so long, they had never seen her use Zhu Tianba in a serious battle. The seeds of doubt began to sprout in their hearts.
"See, it turns out that coordinated operations are not effective."
"The pig was so frightened that it didn't dare to move."
"Zhao Peng's armor's impact force is the strongest in our class. No matter how strong the protective shield is, it can't withstand this kind of continuous output. This is different from a simple stress test."
Jiang Qing ignored Zhao Peng's shouting and the discussions around him.
Her mental power was like an invisible silk thread, tightly wrapped around Zhu Tianba, and she could clearly sense Zhu Tianba's condition.
It was actually thinking, and was thinking about how to make Tiejia lose in a more miserable way.
Jiang Qing: “!!” It was obvious that it had been holding a grudge against this cow for a long time…
Zhu Tianba's resentment towards Tiejia stems from daily training. Tiejia is too stupid and always wastes a lot of his energy during training, repeatedly adjusting to adapt to his training mode.
Because of this, it had less time to spend with Jiang Qing.
And the last time I trained it, I stepped on its tail, causing it to feel pain for a long time!
"...Well, this time I'm going to make it fall hard, preferably on its face... Yes, that's it!"
"Kangkangkangkang."
Zhu Tianba let out a low laugh.
Finally, it found an opportunity to take revenge openly.
Jiang Qing withdrew her spiritual thread from Zhu Tianba's body, and the corner of her mouth twitched slightly. Zhu Tianba smiled like a little devil. Perhaps she knew the result without listening to her inner voice.
She prayed silently for Tiejia in her heart.
With a hint of helplessness and indulgence, Jiang Qing deliberately cooperated with Zhu Tianba, removed the golden light shield in front, and slid lightly to the side, cleverly removing the aftermath of the Iron-Armored Bull's impact.
The golden light shield suddenly disappeared, causing the armored bull, which had been exerting continuous force, to stagger forward.
Zhao Peng was also startled: "Iron Armor, hold on!"
At this moment when his center of gravity was unstable, Zhu Tianba, who had been lying on the ground as if asleep, suddenly opened his little eyes, and a cunning light flashed in his eyes.
It didn't even stand up, it just casually lifted one of its front hooves, and then...
“Bang—”
The small, bluish-black hoof stomped on the ground lightly but with incredible precision, with a steady strength that was completely inconsistent with its size.
There was no earth-shattering roar, only a muffled sound so low that it seemed to come from deep within the earth.
"Buzz—"
With Zhu Tianba's hoof as the center, a circle of platinum ripples visible to the naked eye and condensed to the extreme instantly spread out.
The ripples carry a strange sense of heaviness and solidity, as if instantly condensing and then releasing invisible gravity.
Ripples swept across the ground beneath the Ironclad Bull's feet.
The hard special training ground tiles were like being hit by an invisible giant hammer, instantly cracking and sinking.
A circular pit with a diameter of two meters and a depth of half a meter appeared without warning where the Armored Bull was standing.
"Moo?!" The armored bull was caught off guard, and its four hooves suddenly stepped on empty air, and its huge body lost balance in an instant.
The fighting spirit in its eyes was instantly replaced by astonishment and panic, and its heavy body fell forward uncontrollably.
"Iron armor!" Zhao Peng's face changed drastically and he screamed in surprise.
“Plop.”
Suddenly dust started flying.
The mighty and majestic iron-clad bull fell into the deep pit that suddenly appeared in an extremely embarrassing posture with its entire front half of the body.
Its two hind legs kicked in vain outside the pit, its thick neck was stuck on the edge of the pit, its huge head was pressed against the ground, and the strong breath from its nostrils blew the dust high into the air.
The heavy armor that it was so proud of now became a burden, making its struggle seem extremely clumsy.
"Moo moo!" The armored bull groaned in grievance and pain.
The whole place was dead silent.
Zhao Peng opened his mouth and his eyes were wide open, as if he was under a spell.
He looked at his armored body covered in dust and struggling in the pit, then looked at the pig Tianba at the edge of the pit who slowly put down his hoof, even sniffed the dust flying in the air with his little nose in disgust, and then sneezed, and was suddenly speechless.
He had just made a solemn and threatening statement, but in less than a few minutes, Tiejia was knocked down by the opponent.
"That doesn't count. It was obvious that Tiejia was not ready just now!" Zhao Peng still didn't want to believe that Tiejia was defeated like this.
"Not really?" Jiang Qing chuckled. "Then go talk to Teacher Shen and see if she counts."
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