Chapter 28
Jiang City is the largest city in J Province and a transportation hub for many railways and waterways. The city is full of tall buildings and a constant flow of traffic. Xia Muqing looked through the car window and felt a sense of freshness as if she had entered a big city.
This provincial competition was also a major event in Jiang City. A direct bus was set up outside the station. Xia Muqing also saw many banners hung high in conspicuous places such as railings and car bodies, with slogans such as "Warm Welcome, Let's Go to Victory Together" and "Strive for the First Place, Move Forward Courageously".
The atmosphere was extremely warm.
By the time the vehicles arrived at the competition venue, the atmosphere had reached its peak. Xu Ling looked out the window at the banners fluttering in all directions and subconsciously grasped Xia Muqing's arm.
"It's over, Mu Qing," she whispered, "My legs are weak."
Xia Muqing patted her hands and said, "Don't be afraid. Repeat 'I am strong' ten times in your mind. Then you can put your hands on your hips and call the other teams trash as usual."
Xu Ling chuckled at what she said and muttered, "Nonsense, I'm not that rude."
However, with this interruption, her tension was obviously relieved a lot.
Before entering, everyone put their mysterious beasts into the beast taming space.
Although the mysterious beasts of each team will basically be revealed after the first game, confidentiality must still be maintained before that.
It can be said that the competition has officially begun from the moment you step into the venue.
Following the guidance of the volunteers, everyone went to the auditorium and waited for a while. As the teams from various cities gradually arrived, the organizers began to explain the rules of the competition.
"The competition is mainly divided into two parts. The first part is an individual battle, in a 2v2 format. Each person must field two mysterious beasts at the same time, playing at least one game and a maximum of three games. Each victory earns 2 points for the team."
"The second part is a team battle, using an elimination system. Each team of five will take turns competing, and each player can only field one profound beast. The battle will be a 1v1 battle, and the competition will continue until all players on either team are defeated. At the end, points will be awarded based on the team's ranking."
After hearing the rules, Xu Ling excitedly clenched Xia Muqing's hand.
"You're right!" She was surprised and delighted. "First 2v2, then 1v1. I can definitely use the coordination skills in the individual battle first, and then let Mingyueying evolve before the team competition begins!"
Xia Muqing smiled and high-fived her: "Yeah, you're lucky."
Xu Ling then began to think about battle tactics. How would Mingyueying first show weakness to the enemy, how would Yejingzhi launch a covert attack... After a long chat, she looked at Xia Muqing curiously and said, "By the way, how are you going to fight later?"
Xia Muqing touched her chin: "...hit with your feet?"
Xu Ling: “???”
…
Actually, this competition system is very beneficial to Xu Ling, but it gives Xia Muqing a headache.
It's not for anything else, but because the individual competition is 2v2, which clearly requires two mysterious beasts to be on the field at the same time to cooperate.
But, how can the hurricane dog and the koi fish cooperate with each other?
Just last night, they had a big fight because the Swift Dog soaked the Dragon Pill in water every day. The Koi Fish always felt that the Dragon Pill had shrunk, so it went to the Swift Dog angrily to ask for an explanation.
Of course the Gale Dog refused to acknowledge it. In its opinion, the Dragon Pill had not changed at all. The little Koi was just too stingy and refused to lend it the Dragon Pill to make tea.
The two little guys were arguing so loudly that the neighbors were almost in trouble. Xia Muqing spent half an hour trying to mediate the quarrel. Now, in the beast control space, the two mysterious beasts were also huddled in their own corners, ignoring each other.
Xia Muqing thought about it over and over again, but couldn't come up with any reliable cooperation plan.
"There's nothing I can do," she sighed, "I can only use force to overcome cleverness."
That is what I just said, hit with your feet.
As I was thinking, there was another noise not far away.
Xia Muqing's thoughts were interrupted when Lu Wenzhen pulled the others over and said, "Xia, the organizer wants each team to give a name. What should we call ourselves?"
Xia Muqing: “……?”
Let her come and get it?
Xia Muqing was quite confident in her naming skills, and as soon as Lu Wenshen said this, the two mysterious beasts in the beast-controlling space raised their heads with complicated expressions.
But Lu Wenzhen said, "You are the captain, you come."
Xia Muqing hesitated for a moment and said cautiously, "The S City Six?"
Others: “…”
There was silence around him, and even the smile on Lu Wenzhen's face froze.
Xia Muqing covered her cheek with one hand and waved the other vigorously: "Forget it, let's go see how others get it."
You don’t know until you see it. With this look, Xia Muqing finally opened the door to a new world.
Other cities are really good at playing tricks!
Things like "Emperor's Glory Team", "Holy Grail War Team", "Buddha's Fury Lotus Team"...these are the result of playing too many anime games.
There are also "Farmer's Three Punch Team", "Kekekuo Band", "Red Braised Kangshoufu Team"... They look like they have received advertising fees.
The most outrageous ones include the "Leek and Egg Team", the "Food to the Point of Picking Feet Team", the "Competition Blind Date Team", and the "Let's Cook Together Team"...
Xia Muqing and the others were dazzled by what they saw and didn't know how to take it.
In the end, it was Xu Ling who came up with an idea.
"How about we call our team 'High Energy Ahead'?"
…
Before the competition started, several people got together and exchanged ideas about the competition.
"For the first part of the individual competition, everyone should compete according to their abilities," Lu Wenzhen said. "Opponents for the individual competition are determined by drawing lots. If you draw a strong opponent right from the start and feel exhausted after the battle, you can consider withdrawing immediately and don't be greedy for the points later."
"Although there are no points deducted for a loss, points are added for the opponent. The value of 2 points is still quite high."
Xia Muqing: "You can also consider the tactic of admitting defeat first and saving your strength for the next two games, but it depends on the situation on the field."
Jiang Li: "Everyone, you can play slowly. Let's drag out the first game a little longer and wait for Peng Li to gather information on the field. After we understand the average level of the other teams, we can decide whether to play in the subsequent games."
When Peng Li heard his name, he looked up and answered.
He looked a little depressed, his brows were furrowed, and his face was listless.
In the individual competition, each team could only field five players, so there was no chance for him to come on as a substitute. He could only take notes from the sidelines and help gather information about other teams.
Twenty minutes later, the game officially began.
The five people drew lots in turn to determine their opponents for the first round.
Xia Muqing checked the duel table on the screen, found her corresponding battle platform, and discovered that her opponent had already arrived there one step ahead of her.
He was a boy in a gray T-shirt, looking a little nervous. But when he saw his opponent, Xia Muqing, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Fortunately, it's a woman."
Xia Muqing: “……?”
What do you mean? Do you think girls are easy to bully?
Originally, Xia Muqing thought that a simple victory would be enough, but now she feels that she needs to show the other party some strength.
Oh, I almost forgot, this isn't a subject-based exam, but a points-based competition. Weakening the opponent as much as possible, preventing them from scoring in the last two rounds, is also indirectly boosting your own team's ranking.
The referee blew the whistle: "Get set... go!"
The boy immediately released two mysterious beasts, a bone zombie and a short-tailed cat.
The bone zombie is a very rare mysterious beast, and it has very regional characteristics. Xia Muqing couldn't help but take a few more glances at it.
At the same time, her movements were not slow at all: "Xiaofeng, Xiaojin!"
The Gale Dog and the Koi Fish landed instantly.
The boy immediately relaxed when he saw Xia Muqing's profound beast, a small smile on his face. "So you raise a hurricane dog and a koi fish? Classmate, how does your city select contestants? How can such common profound beasts be brought out for competition?"
"It hasn't evolved yet. Isn't this just giving points to the opponent?"
Xia Muqing shrugged.
Compared to Fengluo Beast, Xiaofeng prefers to use its unevolved form, and it follows a different evolutionary route. It does not have the iconic red stripes on its body like the Berserker, so it is normal to be misunderstood.
"Hasn't your profound beast evolved yet?" Xia Muqing said casually, "We're both equally matched, so let's not laugh at each other."
"Xiaofeng, use the wind roll!"
The Swifthound was about to evolve, but after hearing her words, its movements suddenly froze, and it turned around in surprise with its round eyes wide open.
"Ouch?"
Are you kidding me? It has already mastered the advanced skill 'Strong Wind Blow', why is it still playing 'Wind Roll'?
Wouldn’t it be nice to blow away the two weaklings on the opposite side with just one breath?
"Tactics, tactics are the key," Xia Muqing muttered softly, "We still have a team competition tomorrow. We need to conserve our strength as much as possible while still being able to win. We shouldn't reveal all our trump cards right away."
"Delay a little longer and consume the opponent's physical strength—Xiaofeng, Xiaojin, the time has come to test your acting skills!"
After receiving the order, the Swift Dog whimpered obediently.
The little koi also pouted and flicked its tail.
They knew that they had no tacit understanding and were too lazy to cooperate with each other, so they simply found a hostile mystical beast each and started fighting in an orderly manner.
The Bone Zombie unleashed flying spikes and bone powder, sending clouds of poisonous powder drifting across the field. The little Swift Dog pretended to be struggling, brewing for several seconds before spitting out a massive green ball of wind.
The wind ball expanded rapidly, dispersing all the flying bone powder. The boy was a little surprised when he saw this: "Wow, your wind ball is quite powerful, you are doing well."
"It seems that I can be a little more serious now."
Xia Muqing: "..."
The Swift Dog tried his best to hold back his strength until his cheeks flushed red: "..."
On the other side, the little koi was also having a hard time holding it in.
Although it has not evolved yet and is not as powerful as the Gale Hound, it has good qualifications. It has been sleeping with the Dragon Pill every day during this period, and its strength has improved by leaps and bounds. Even the Gale Hound said that it has a lot of dragon scent on it, and it is absolutely invincible at the same level.
It's so easy to beat the opponent's unevolved short-tailed cat.
But it was impossible. Xia Muqing asked them to hide their strength, so the koi fish had no choice but to pretend to be chased by a bobcat*, running around the stage spitting bubbles and flapping their tails.
The boy opposite was slightly pleased with himself. "Your hurricane dog is okay, but your koi fish is really no match. Besides, it's a perfect match for my bobcat, and cats are the natural enemies of fish!"
The koi fish that was walking around the field swung its tail and blew out a mouthful of bubbles in disdain: "Gulp!"
What a joke! It didn't even use one-third of its strength!
Xia Muqing didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
In fact, her energy was not completely focused on this game. After seeing the boy's mysterious beast, she knew that the opponent's level was very average, not as good as Liu Pan who challenged her before.
While Xia Muqing was casually commanding the Gale Dog and the Koi Fish, she was secretly glancing at the other battle platforms around her out of the corner of her eye.
After looking around, she found a few students in the crowd who were obviously conserving their strength.
One was a girl on the stage to her left, chewing bubble gum as she directed two steel-toothed rabbits to hop around the court, teasing the opposing team. The opposing Sawtooth Rat, also a mysterious beast renowned for its speed, couldn't even reach the steel-toothed rabbits, spinning in frustration.
This was the first time Xia Muqing had seen someone contract two identical profound beasts. Furthermore, the energy fluctuations around them were very similar, suggesting they were likely contracted simultaneously. She made a mental note, raising her guard.
——These two rabbits must have cooperative skills.
Another person who hides his strength is the boy on the second platform to her right. He is wearing a low-key navy blue vest and his mysterious beast is a mud crow.
He fought very seriously. The Thread-Mud Crow looked ordinary, but Xia Muqing was able to identify the faint dark red lines on the Thread-Mud Crow's body with his full understanding of the mysterious beasts.
That is the characteristic of first-order evolution.
The Line Crow is a rare beast, extremely difficult to cultivate, and the materials required to evolve it are complex and difficult to gather. However, once it evolves, its power is absolutely transformed.
Apart from these two, the other students' abilities varied widely. However, the venue was spacious, and with so many matches going on at once, Xia Muqing could only see the few around her.
I wonder how many geniuses are hidden among the others?
Thinking of this, Xia Muqing suddenly felt a little excited.
She suddenly realized that she was strong-willed at heart. The feeling of competing with the province's geniuses on the same stage made her blood boil.
"Hey, what are you looking at? Didn't you see that your mysterious beast is about to lose?"
The dissatisfied voice of the boy in the T-shirt called Xia Muqing's attention back. She glanced at the situation on the field speechlessly - Bone Zombie and Bobcat were already showing signs of fatigue, and the Gale Dog and Koi Fish also looked extremely tired, as if they were about to fall to the ground and foam at the mouth.
Of course, the former is really exhausted, and the latter is so exhausted that he wants to vomit.
"It's almost time to delay," Xia Muqing muttered, "Xiaofeng, Xiaojin, prepare for the next move."
It's time to end the show.
Coincidentally, the boy in the T-shirt opposite had the same idea: "My bones are stiff, I can't delay any longer, use the flying cup!"
The bobcat hissed, its fur standing on end, and mysterious energy flowed from its fingertips, quickly drawing an "x"-shaped claw mark in the air.
The claw marks were approaching the Gale Dog and the Koi Fish. At the same time, Bone Zombie's entire body shook, and a large number of flying cups buzzing like mosquitoes emanated from it. Following the direction of the claw marks, they converged on the two mysterious beasts from all directions, trying to completely envelop them!
“Ouch!”
The Swift Dog held its head high and chest puffed out, its hair flying, and a flash of green light flashed across its forehead.
The little koi slapped its tail suddenly.
Pray and start!
The bone zombie and the short-tailed cat lost consciousness instantly, and the flying cups in the sky lost control and dissipated in an instant, turning into flying bone powder that fell to the ground.
Before the boy could react, the azure whirlwind of the Gale Dog had already approached him - this whirlwind was more powerful than any previous one, with a devastating force that swept up the two dazed beasts in the blink of an eye!
The boy quickly shouted: "I give up!"
Across from her, Xia Muqing smiled happily.
"Thank you for letting me."
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