99: Beastmaster Battle

August 1st, New Era Calendar 552.

The Qingyang City Youth Beast Master Competition will also be held today.

However, unlike the Youth Beast Tamer Competition, the Youth Beast Master Competition will be held in the Illusion World.

Perhaps Beast Master battles carry a certain degree of danger, and this method of combat is adopted to protect the Beast Masters.

Or perhaps it's because there are too many Beast Masters participating; even with age and Rank restrictions, over ten thousand Beast Masters are still taking part in this competition.

Therefore, only in the Illusion World can suitable venues be created to host many battles simultaneously, saving an immeasurable amount of time in terms of efficiency.

Moreover, the intelligent system of the Illusion World can directly act as judges, ensuring ample fairness.

As Luo Yang's first match, Luo Chen naturally had to go and watch.

At 8 AM, Luo Chen's consciousness entered the Illusion World.

His landing spot was still the cramped Chenyang Pet Store; he summoned Little Furball and Little Dot simultaneously.

Both little ones had woken up yesterday; upon waking, Little Furball reached the Rank of Spirit Beast Eight-star, while Little Dot reached the State of Spirit Beast Nine-star.

Currently, while the combat power of the two little ones isn't considered top-tier within Qingyang City, they should have entered the Ranks of the first-class.

Luo Chen spoke to the glowing orb intelligent system beside him: "Search for the Qingyang City Youth Beast Master Competition."

"One related instance found, 673 live streams. 796 related news articles, 672 entries."

After a moment of thought, Luo Chen chose to enter the related instance.

No sooner had he entered this place called 'instance' than Luo Chen heard a burst of noisy sounds flood into his ears.

Luo Chen squinted his eyes; after a few seconds, his stiff body gradually got used to the noisy environment and slowly relaxed.

He turned his head left and right, observing his current surroundings.

His position seemed to be in the audience stands of a stadium-like venue, with about a meter of space between the audience seats to his left, right, front, and back.

This distance should be considered quite spacious.

Luo Chen now looked towards the center of the stadium, where a dense crowd of figures stood on the wide platform.

These should be the Beast Masters participating in today's competition.

However, there was another advantage within this Illusion World: Luo Chen could zoom in his perspective. Even though he was in the latter half of the stadium's audience seats,

He could still adjust his viewpoint to the center of the stadium, observing the scene inside up close.

Not long after, Feng Qingyang and his Bellflower assistant appeared at the venue.

The other two human judges were also familiar faces: City Guard Commander Zhang Qi and Law Enforcement Team Captain Cheng Chao.

However, Chang Heng and Luo Yuheng were not present as judges today, but perhaps this competition mode didn't even require judges.

The intelligence of the Illusion World alone was sufficient to determine the winner and loser of a match.

Feng Qingyang's figure appeared in the center of all the audience's screens; this must have been done using the instance creator's authority.

"Today's Beast Master Competition seems very lively, and I welcome all residents of Qingyang City to watch the valiant and heroic figures of Qingyang City's new generation of fine young men.

Without further ado, my assistant Qi Yu will announce today's competition rules and procedures."

After he finished speaking, Feng Qingyang's figure on the screen was replaced by Qi Yu, whose shoulder was adorned with a bellflower.

"Next, I will announce today's competition rules. We will be adopting a one-on-one elimination system.

Each Beast Master will be paired up for arena battles, and the winner will advance to the next round.

Today, each person will undergo three rounds of competition, eliminating a total of 11,571 contestants, leaving 1,653.

Please, every contestant, take every match seriously.

Additionally, for the sake of competition efficiency, all contestants' matches will begin simultaneously. Spectators can search for the number of their favorite contestant to watch their exciting performance.

The competition will now officially begin."

After Qi Yu finished speaking, the figures of the contestants, who had been standing quietly and awaiting arrangements in the arena, suddenly disappeared from the audience's perspective.

Then, a varied number of glowing orbs appeared in the arena. Luo Chen zoomed in his perspective and saw the contestants, transformed into tiny figures, appear inside them.

Luo Chen had to search for Luo Yang's contestant number, 7756. Then his perspective changed, and he found himself inside one of the small glowing orbs.

This was a slightly smaller stadium-like venue, with only a few spectators, and Luo Chen was one of them.

Calling it smaller was only relative; the battle platform Luo Yang stood on still measured two thousand square meters.

Moreover, the venue was a perfectly regular square. At this moment, Luo Yang stood on the left side of the battle platform. The opponent the system matched for him had not yet appeared.

Luo Chen waved towards the stage, testing if Luo Yang could spot him.

Coincidentally, Luo Yang was also observing his surroundings and happened to spot Luo Chen's figure. He excitedly waved back in Luo Chen's direction, signaling that he had seen him.

At this moment, a gender-neutral voice echoed through the competition venue.

"Opponent matched. Contestant 7756, please prepare."

Luo Yang quickly summoned Scarlet Flame. Man and beast stood two meters apart, vigilantly staring at the opponent about to appear.

Fluctuations appeared simultaneously on the battle platform and in the audience stands, as if the battle spaces of both contestants were merging.

Standing on the left side of the battle platform at this time was a small, chubby figure, about 1.3 meters tall. This contestant looked to be only eleven or twelve years old.

Luo Yang looked at the little chubby figure opposite him, his face filled with surprise. He truly hadn't expected his first opponent to be such a small child, seemingly still in middle or elementary school.

Upon seeing Luo Yang and Scarlet Flame appear opposite him, the little chubby figure quickly summoned his Beast.

The moment he saw the Beast, Luo Chen recognized what it was—a Frostwind Spirit Wolf, an evolved form of the Frost Wolf.

This Frostwind Spirit Wolf looked very well-cared for and was already at Spirit Beast Rank Two-star. Given the little chubby figure's age, his family must have considerable resources.

[race: Frostwind Spirit Wolf

Rank: Spirit Beast Two-star

Type: Ice-Type, Wind-type

State: Focused

Aptitude: Good

Skills: 1. Low Temperature Resistance (Yellow Rank): Frostwind Spirit Wolves prefer to live in colder environments and have stronger tolerance to low temperatures.

2. Frost Blade (Profound Rank): The Frostwind Spirit Wolf imbues its claws with frost power, causing low-temperature frostbite to targets it touches. If it breaks the skin, the frost power will invade the flesh and blood, affecting the circulation of blood throughout the body.

3. Frostwind Rapid Blade (Profound Rank): The Frostwind Spirit Wolf summons Wind Blades imbued with frost and snow energy, sweeping towards the target.

4. Ice and Snow Descent (Profound Rank): The Frostwind Spirit Wolf summons snowflakes to descend in a small area.

5. Tailwind (Yellow Rank): In this State, the Frostwind Spirit Wolf's speed increases by 20%.]

Perhaps the little chubby figure had been taught something by his family; the moment he summoned his Beast, he commanded the Frostwind Spirit Wolf to run towards Luo Yang's side.

He himself stood still, summoning his second Beast.

It was a plant-Type Beast; as soon as it appeared, it landed on the ground in front of him, then rooted and grew, its tightly closed petals slowly opening to reveal its beautiful posture.

[race: Healing Lily

Rank: Fierce Beast Seven-star

Type: Light-Type, Life-Type

State: Nervous

Aptitude: Excellent

Skills: 1. Healing Light (Profound Rank): The Healing Lily emits light with healing properties, capable of rapidly mending wounds.

2. Lily Shield (Profound Rank): The Healing Lily consumes its own life energy to summon a layer of Lily Shield on the target's body surface, capable of absorbing a portion of incoming damage and converting it into healing life energy.]

A healing support-Type Beast, and in Luo Chen's opinion, this Healing Lily, although a Fierce Beast, was much more valuable than that Frostwind Spirit Wolf.

He was somewhat puzzled as to why this little chubby figure's family could find him a Healing Lily to contract, yet it wasn't his first Beast.