213: Chapter 212 Longjiang City, National Youth Instructor Competition

Longjiang City.

When Lin Fan stepped out of the airport, the sight before him dazzled his eyes.

Skyscrapers rose from both sides of the street, their glass curtain walls reflecting blinding light under the sun.

The streets were more than twice as wide as those in Dongyun City, with traffic flowing between the buildings like grey-silver rivers.

Standing at the exit, he squinted as he looked around before raising his hand to hail a taxi.

"Breeder Association."

The taxi drove through most of Longjiang City and stopped in front of a building that was entirely silver-white.

Lin Fan got out of the car and looked up.

The golden badge of the Federal Breeder Association hung on the front of the association building.

The lobby was nearly five times larger than the one in Dongyun City; the floor was paved with mirror-like marble, and crystal chandeliers overhead illuminated the entire space.

Lin Fan stood in the center of the lobby, looking up at a massive mural on the domed ceiling.

It depicted a group of robed elders surrounding a stone table, upon which sat a glowing Armor Spirit egg—then, a familiar voice came from behind him.

"Lin Fan! Over here!"

He turned around.

Ye Qing stood at the lobby entrance, holding a document bag. She was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, and her hair was tied in a low ponytail.

She walked over and sized him up. "You actually came."

"You're here too?" Lin Fan asked.

Ye Qing waved the document bag in her hand.

"Registering. For the National Youth Breeder Competition. My dad said you might come and told me to find you so we could go together."

She walked to the front desk, took a registration form and a pen from the staff, and leaned over the counter to fill it out.

Lin Fan followed and also took a registration form from the front desk.

He scanned the requirements.

Under twenty-five years old, Intermediate Breeder qualification or higher, and must submit a Breeder qualification certificate issued within the last three months.

The threshold could be described as very high; anyone who could obtain an Intermediate Breeder qualification before the age of 25 was undoubtedly extremely talented in breeding.

Lin Fan took his qualification certificate out of his bag and handed it to the staff member along with the registration form.

The staff member checked it, looked up at him with considerable surprise, and then looked back down to enter the information into the computer.

After a moment, a contestant pass was printed and handed back along with the qualification certificate.

"Lin Fan, number 073. Please go to the auditorium on the third floor of the association at 8:00 AM on the 15th of this month to participate in the preliminary round."

Ye Qing also received her contestant pass, number 074.

"Your goal this time is the lunar ethereal crystal, right?" Ye Qing said suddenly.

Lin Fan turned to look at her.

Ye Qing continued on her own.

"That thing is a rarity; you basically can't buy it on the market. There's one among the prizes for this competition, so you'll have to work hard."

Xiao Zhuang's evolution Materials were still missing two items: the lunar ethereal crystal and the moon tide stone.

If he could get the lunar ethereal crystal from this competition, only the moon tide stone would be left.

"Not just that, if you place in this competition, there's also a score bonus for the college entrance exam."

Lin Fan raised an eyebrow; if it weren't for the lunar ethereal crystal and the bonus points, he wouldn't have traveled all this way.

"Let's go. I've already found a place to stay. Hang out with your big sis for these next few days."

Ye Qing waved her hand, and Lin Fan followed closely behind, playing along perfectly.

"Sister Qing is mighty! Sister Qing is mighty!"

...

The day of the preliminary round soon arrived.

Lin Fan and Ye Qing arrived at the association building half an hour early.

A long queue had already formed at the entrance of the practical exam room on the fourth floor; most of the contestants were older than Lin Fan.

Lin Fan scanned the crowd, his left eye glowing briefly—a habitual observation.

The spiritual power fluctuations from these people were not weak; many were even above his own.

As expected of a national competition.

Staff at the door verified contestant passes and ID cards before letting them in.

The exam room was a massive circular laboratory filled with workstations, each equipped with the same equipment and Materials.

Sealed spiritual plant samples, reagent bottles, and several low-level Armor Beasts kept in small psionic cages were neatly arranged on shelves against the walls.

Lin Fan found his workstation, number 073, in the middle-back row on the left.

Ye Qing was at number 074, to his right, separated by a narrow aisle.

The person presiding over the preliminary round was a woman in her forties wearing the association's deep blue uniform. She stood on a high platform in the center of the circular lab, her voice not loud but very piercing.

She introduced the rules of the preliminary round: practical operation, three exam questions, ninety-minute time limit.

The exam questions were announced on the spot, with scoring based on operational standardization, accuracy of results, and a comprehensive assessment of time taken. The top one hundred would advance to the semi-finals.

"Question one: Identification and optimization of spiritual plant quality. Each workstation has a damaged Qingling Flower. Please determine the cause of damage within fifteen minutes and use the provided nutrient solution and spiritual power adjustment device to restore its basic quality. Scoring criteria: diagnostic accuracy, restoration effect, and operational technique."

Lin Fan looked down at the Qingling Flower on his workstation.

The leaves were yellowing, the tips were curled, and the fluorescence was dim; it was clearly malnutrition caused by insufficient spiritual power supply.

But he didn't act immediately. His left eye glowed slightly as he scanned the leaf surface—he found several tiny eggs on the underside of the leaves. It wasn't malnutrition; it was root mites.

After the roots of a Qingling Flower are eaten by root mites, it cannot absorb nutrients. The surface symptoms are identical to malnutrition, but using nutrient solution would only make the root mites reproduce faster.

Lin Fan picked up a pair of tweezers, carefully removed the entire Qingling Flower from the petri dish, and gently shook its roots in a pale yellow medicinal solution.

A few seconds later, dozens of pinhead-sized white eggs fell off the roots and sank to the bottom of the solution.

He replaced the soil with a new pot of potting mix, replanted it, added a small amount of spiritual power adjustment fluid, and set the spiritual power concentration to medium.

Five minutes later, the leaves of the Qingling Flower began to turn green from the edges, the curled tips slowly straightened out, and the fluorescence shifted from dim to stable.

He pressed the completion button.

The fifteen minutes weren't up yet, and most people around him were still adding various reagents to the nutrient solution.

After everyone finished the question, the host's voice rang out again.

"Question two: Basic health diagnosis of Armor Beasts. Each workstation's psionic cage contains a low-level Armor Beast—a Rock Beetle larva. Please assess its health, identify any abnormalities, and provide a treatment plan. Time limit: twenty minutes."

Lin Fan looked at the Rock Beetle larva in the cage.

The carapace was dark in color, its movements were sluggish, and two of its six legs were slightly curled.

He reached in to take the Rock Beetle larva out of the cage, placed it on the observation table, and scanned its entire body with his left eye.

Pale green mucus was seeping from the gaps in the carapace; it wasn't body fluid, but mold.

Rock Beetle larvae are prone to carapace mold in environments with excessive humidity; symptoms include sluggishness, carapace discoloration, and fluid seepage from gaps.

The treatment was simple: use spiritual power to force the mold out of the carapace gaps and then adjust the humidity of the rearing environment.

Lin Fan placed his palm on the Rock Beetle's dorsal shell. Spiritual power seeped evenly from his palm, and under the pressure of the spiritual power, the pale green mold was squeezed out from the carapace gaps, gathering into a small clump of gelatinous substance.

He removed it with tweezers and wrote in the treatment plan section: "Reduce humidity to below 40%, apply anti-mold ointment to the carapace surface." Submitted.

He was again the first to finish, and many people looked at his clearly youthful face with expressions of surprise.

"Question three: Evolution material adaptation. There are three material samples on the workstation. Please determine which attribute of Armor Spirit each is suitable for and write down the reasons for adaptation. Time limit: thirty minutes."

Lin Fan picked up the first sample: a small piece of dark red Ore with fine pores on the surface and sharp edges.

His left eye scanned it—Fire attribute, Blazing Flame Stone, suitable for the evolution of fire-type Armor Spirits, capable of enhancing the explosive power of fire-type skills.

The second sample was a silver-white feather, soft with a faint halo around the edges. Wind attribute, Soaring Wind Feather, suitable for flying-type or wind-type Armor Spirits, capable of increasing flight speed.

The third sample was a small bottle of pale gold liquid, viscous with a faint sweet scent.

Light attribute, Holy Light Condensate, suitable for light-type Armor Spirits, capable of enhancing the effects of healing skills.

These three questions, ranging from spiritual plants to Armor Beasts to Materials, covered the three core skills of a Breeder.

Lin Fan finished the third question and pressed the submit button.

Ninety minutes passed, and the sounds of instruments in the exam room gradually quieted down.

Some people looked joyful, while others stared blankly at their workstations.

Ye Qing packed her things and walked over, her expression relatively relaxed.

The two walked out.

As they were walking through the corridor, Ye Qing suddenly stopped, nudged Lin Fan with her elbow, and tilted her chin forward.

"Lin Fan, look at that person; he looks a bit like you."