23: Chapter 23: I've got you covered!

"It seems you two have plenty of energy!"

However, just as the two of them were about to clash, a cold voice suddenly rang out, instantly echoing across the entire playground.

Immediately afterward, a massive oppressive aura suddenly bore down on all the students present. Regardless of their class, right or wrong, everyone was treated the same.

Feeling this massive aura descend, the expressions of the students on the playground changed drastically as they looked in horror toward the direction the voice came from.

At the same time, a dark shadow flew swiftly from afar. In an instant, a shadow enveloped the spot where Zhang Daxian and Song Zhihao were standing.

At this point, neither Zhang Daxian nor Song Zhihao cared about confronting each other anymore. Instead, they immediately reined in their auras and looked up above their heads.

They saw a massive ferocious bird with a wingspan of over ten meters soaring through the air above. After circling above their heads, more than a dozen figures leaped down from the sky.

The person at the lead was a capable-looking middle-aged man with his hands behind his back.

That cold shout just now came precisely from him.

"Principal!"

When they clearly saw who had arrived, both Song Zhihao and Zhang Daxian shrank their necks back, their faces showing expressions of awe.

The other party was none other than Principal Han Xianming of Linjiang No. 1 High School, one of the five Gold-tier Beastmasters in Linjiang City.

Facing a figure like this, even the two helmsmen of the Zhang Group and Song Group would have to be respectful.

"A Gold-tier Beastmaster is truly powerful!"

Beside them, Chu Xiu felt the pressure emanating from Principal Han Xianming, and his heart stirred.

This was the first Gold-tier Beastmaster he had ever laid eyes on, and the sense of oppression the other party brought him was unprecedentedly powerful.

However, he felt no fear; instead, his gaze burned as he stared fixedly at the cyan ferocious bird above Principal Han Xianming's head, where rows of attributes appeared in his line of sight.

[Cyan-scaled Eagle]

[Attribute]: Wind Type

[Quality]: Excellent

[Level]: Gold 5-Star

[Status]: Perfect

[Talent Skills]: Whirlwind Slash, Gale Shield, Feather Kill, Storm Tornado

[Evolution Chain]: 2

[First Evolution Chain: Cyan-scaled Eagle - Golden-scaled Eagle (Perfect)]

[Second Evolution Chain: Cyan-scaled Eagle - Horned Scale Eagle - Heavenly Scale Eagle (Transcendent)]

[Description]: A wind-type vicious beast, the darling of the sky. It contains a trace of heavenly scale bloodline within its body, possessing extraordinary potential and is worth cultivating.

"A Gold 5-Star Cyan-scaled Eagle. If I can get this Cyan-scaled Eagle to bleed a few buckets of blood for me, then I can start preparing for Xiaodao's secondary evolution."

Looking at the attributes of the Cyan-scaled Eagle, Chu Xiu's eyes flashed with brilliant light.

Aside from cultivating to raise his own strength and the strength level of the Dark Blade Mantis over these past few days, he had also inquired about the evolution resources needed for the Dark Blade Mantis to evolve into the Blood-Blade Mad Mantis.

The 100 Silver Grade vicious beast hearts and blood essence stones required for its evolution could be purchased with money.

But he had found no leads whatsoever solely regarding the blood of a Gold-tier vicious beast.

The strongest combat power in Linjiang City was at the Gold-tier, and experts of this level would not easily make a move.

As for vicious beasts that had reached the Gold-tier, their intelligence was no worse than that of humans.

Knowing that there were five Gold-tier Beastmasters guarding Linjiang City, they would not rashly launch an attack on Linjiang City.

Therefore, it was almost impossible for Chu Xiu to purchase the blood of a Gold-tier vicious beast within Linjiang City.

Unless there was a major battle where a Gold-tier vicious beast delivered itself to the doorstep for the experts of Linjiang City to slay, he would have any hope of obtaining the blood of a Gold-tier vicious beast.

As for purchasing the blood of Gold-tier beasts from the hands of the Gold-tier Beastmasters in Linjiang City, Chu Xiu had never thought of taking this path.

Not only because Gold-tier Beastmasters simply did not care about his meager amount of money, but even if he could offer a sufficient price, the other party might not necessarily be able to produce the blood of the Gold-tier beast he needed.

Because for him to make the Dark Blade Mantis evolve into the Blood-Blade Mad Mantis, the amount of Gold-tier vicious beast blood required was a full 500 liters!

Even for that Cyan-scaled Eagle currently circling above the playground, if it were to bleed 500 liters all at once, it would suffer from excessive blood loss.

No Gold-tier Beastmaster would make such a deal with him.

Just as Chu Xiu was staring at the Cyan-scaled Eagle, the Cyan-scaled Eagle in the sky also sensed Chu Xiu's gaze. A pair of sharp eagle eyes looked downward and quickly locked onto Chu Xiu's figure.

Because among all the students on the playground at this moment, only Chu Xiu dared to look up at it, and his eyes were still so bright and spirited, without showing the slightest trace of fear just because it was a Gold-tier beast.

"What is going on? Why do I always have an uneasy feeling being stared at by this kid?"

At this time, looking at Chu Xiu's glowing eyes, the Cyan-scaled Eagle felt a chill run down its spine for no reason, and a trace of doubt suddenly arose in its heart.

"It's an illusion, it must be an illusion. A student like him at most feels admiration for my strength, how could he have any improper thoughts? I must have been too nervous these past few days."

Shaking its head, the Cyan-scaled Eagle discarded the unrealistic thoughts in its mind and moved its gaze away from Chu Xiu.

"Since the two of you have such abundant energy, let the head teachers of Class 1 and Class 2 increase the difficulty for you a bit in the upcoming actual combat."

"Qi Jinyu, Yang Cheng, since these two are from your classes, the two of you will supervise them and double their daily task quotas for the next few days!"

Meanwhile, on the rostrum at the front of the formation, Principal Han Xianming glanced indifferently at Zhang Daxian and Song Zhihao, and said coldly.

"Yes, Principal!"

Hearing Principal Han Xianming's words, Qi Jinyu and Yang Cheng, the head teachers of Class 1 and Class 2, did not dare to be negligent in the slightest and immediately responded.

"Alright, now that everyone has arrived, please board the explosion-proof buses according to your classes and leave the city with the team!"

"The head teachers of each class will announce the mission of this actual combat training to the students on the bus."

Seeing this, Principal Han Xianming did not continue giving a speech and announced that the actual combat training was officially underway.

As his voice fell, the head teachers of each class on the rostrum quickly arrived in front of their respective class formations and led their teams away.

Soon, the formations on the playground orderly walked toward the school gate in class order and boarded the explosion-proof buses that had long been parked at the school gate.

After everyone boarded the explosion-proof buses, the mighty procession led by Principal Han Xianming headed toward the city gate.

"Ahem."

"Students, this actual combat training will last for a week, and the location is Qingshan Town in the outskirts of Linjiang City."

"During this week, you need to hunt 10 grayish-white grade vicious beasts every day, or one Black Iron Tier vicious beast will do."

"During this period, the school will set up a safe zone in the center of Qingshan Town to provide you with supplies and security guarantees. However, the premise for entering the safe zone is that you need to complete your daily tasks."

"The daily task for the other students in our class is to hunt 10 grayish-white grade vicious beasts or 1 Black Iron Tier vicious beast, but classmate Zhang Daxian is an exception—your daily task quota is doubled!"

On the bus, head teacher Yang Cheng gave a light cough and then began to tell everyone the details of this actual combat training.

At the end, he specifically looked at Zhang Daxian sitting in the back row and spoke.

For a moment, everyone's gaze converged on Zhang Daxian.

"Hehe, isn't it just 2 Black Iron Tier vicious beasts? Piece of cake! I can handle it in minutes!"

Facing everyone's gaze, Zhang Daxian suddenly stood up, straightened his back, heavily patted his chest, and said with an arrogant look.

"The tasks the Principal set for this brat are still too few; they should be multiplied tenfold!"

Seeing Zhang Daxian's such smug appearance, Yang Cheng couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth, thinking with a head full of black lines.