269: [Thirty-six transformations to dive into the abyss and shrink the earth]!

2. Subterranean Shrinking!

“Although I feel like even without this treasure, I could still achieve my strategic objective.”

Seeing the chaotic fight below, Jiang Yuan couldn't help but chuckle.

However, looking at the current situation, due to the presence of several powerful teams, the people in the field were gradually sobering up.

This won't do.

Jiang Yuan smiled, and a purple card in his hand began to glow.

Seventy-Two Transformations - Cloud Trace!

Use Star Power to release items or opponents.

Although Seventy-Two Transformations - Transport could also do this, compared to Cloud Trace, Transport was a bit slow.

He checked the time; it was less than ten seconds until two o'clock.

Looking down at the crowd again, they had all gradually calmed down by now.

“They are truly strong.”

Jiang Yuan looked at the empty spaces around the few teams and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

It was precisely because of these few teams' strong suppression of the other teams that the other teams gradually calmed down.

“That Beast Tamer Card Master feels much stronger than Tong Yuchang.”

Jiang Yuan stroked his chin as he looked at Huang Huanqing: “Whether it's her command or her beast taming ability, she's stronger than Tong Yuchang.”

“I just don't know which academy she's from.”

“Speaking of which, I wonder if there are any people from our Zhongyuan Academy.”

As Jiang Yuan spoke, he saw that the time had arrived. After two o'clock in the afternoon, he waved his right hand, and the package—or rather, a box—that had just been filled with five purple-quality cards, shot down towards the ground at an extremely fast speed.

“What is that?”

Among the gradually calming people, someone quickly noticed the box falling from the sky and instinctively voiced their question.

Even those present who weren't particularly sharp-eyed would instinctively look up when they saw others staring at the sky.

The box hadn't even landed yet, but the three or four hundred people still remaining on the field had all seen it.

“That must be the box containing powerful cards, right?”

Li Chengyi, hidden in the forest, also saw the falling box, his eyes slightly narrowed as he spoke.

“Most likely.”

Ye Jinhuan nodded, then jumped down from the big tree: “Let's go!”

“Let's go!”

As Li Chengyi nodded, his body also rushed out.

The other two opponents didn't hesitate either, following Li Chengyi out.

There weren't just people from their team in the forest; there were other hidden teams as well.

There were about a hundred scattered people in the forest, and dozens of heads were now visible in the waters of Chen Xing Lake.

In just a moment, the number of people appearing at Chen Xing Lake surged to about five hundred.

“Tsk, about two-thirds of the Students who haven't been eliminated in the second battleground are probably here.”

Guan Chutian said, glancing at the screen.

Sure enough, there were only over seven hundred people left in the second battleground.

As a result, only over two hundred people didn't come, and the rest were all at Chen Xing Lake.

“A treasure, that's an interesting concept.”

Compared to Guan Chutian, Miao Xinghuo, who was beside her, looked at the falling treasure on the screen with a thoughtful gaze.

If the treasure setting were also added to the upcoming Four School Joint Examination, would the elimination speed be even faster?

However, this wasn't something he could decide alone; he still needed to discuss it with the Old Principal when he returned, as he was only a Vice Principal.

But the next Four School Joint Examination will be held at our school, so it should be fine, right?

According to the rules, the host of the Four School Joint Examination can add some rules that do not affect fairness.

The treasure merely attracts Students; what about the actual battle? They still need to fight it themselves, so it shouldn't be considered unfair, right?

Miao Xinghuo thought of this and looked up again.

The treasure in the air hadn't landed yet, but the people below had already started a new round of fighting.

This time, neither Wei Qiyou and Bai Fusi of Bei Mang Academy, nor Huang Huanqing and her team from Martial Arts Academy, could suppress them.

They were even caught in a bitter struggle.

“First, take out these top-ranked ones, otherwise, we won't get any of this treasure!”

Someone's voice rang out on the battlefield, and many Students immediately pointed their spears at Wei Qiyou and Huang Huanqing's teams.

There was no other way; they had been too high-profile just now.

According to the rules, this kind of mass attack also counts as a form of malicious teaming.

However, a judgment is needed, as this is malicious teaming that occurred halfway through the battle.

If the judgment passes, then a powerful alien race will appear on the field.

Looking at the number of people, if the malicious teaming is judged to pass, then calculating based on one level of strength increase per person.

The strength of the alien race that ultimately appears from this simultaneous siege of about a hundred people will reach a terrifying Twelfth Realm!

But of course, this is impossible.

The highest strength that can appear in the second battleground is only at the Quail Head strength of the Seventh Realm.

Two major realms higher can already achieve complete suppression.

And whether it was Huang Huanqing's team, Wei Qiyou and Bai Fusi, or even Shi Zhuan's team, the top-ranked team from Da Xia Academy who had not been very high-profile just now, all encountered a siege of at least fifty people or more.

The rest were fighting due to personal grudges.

Facing a siege of fifty or more people, even if they were the top-ranked Students in their respective academy rankings, they couldn't resist.

Two fists are no match for four hands, let alone two fists against a hundred hands.

Putting everything else aside, one skill per person would be enough to take them out.

They could only run!

Wei Qiyou and Bai Fusi exchanged glances, and without hesitation, before the crowd could fully surround them, they pulled out a purple-quality card.

Seventy-Two Transformations - False Form!

After Seventy-Two Transformations - False Form was upgraded to purple quality, its range also increased significantly.

In just an instant, the two of them were outside the encirclement, then turned and ran without hesitation.

Earth Walking Technique could be temporarily reserved, as their speed, appearing on the periphery, already gave them a chance to escape.

Apart from the Linglong Pagoda, which was basically useless now, the only thing they had left from their life-saving three-piece set was one Earth Walking Technique card.

It was also the only one, so naturally, they couldn't use it here now.

The two of them ran fast, but Huang Huanqing's team wasn't as fortunate.

Her team had more people, and by the time they decided to run, the crowd had already closed in.

Ultimately, Huang Huanqing's team only managed to escape after losing two people and a Three-striped Magic Wolf.

Shi Zhuan's side naturally wasn't doing well either. Compared to Huang Huanqing, his team had more people; even after all this, they still had seven people left.

However, after this battle, his team would only have three left.

“Fortunately, we didn't try to be too prominent just now.”

Li Chengyi's mouth twitched slightly at this sight, then he quickly hid himself in the crowd, appearing unremarkable.

“Indeed.”

Ye Jinhuan also nodded with some relief, thinking that the danger she had sensed earlier was indeed correct.

As the two spoke, the treasure box successfully landed on the ground.

It landed right in front of someone.

Wang Xiaoguang's heart filled with joy. It landed right in front of him, how could this be?

Without hesitation, he reached out and opened the box in front of him.

The next second, one white and four purple quality cards appeared before him.

However, before he could even reach for them, a dozen attacks instantly engulfed him.

Wang Xiaoguang, eliminated!

“What? There's even a white quality card in this treasure?”

Someone who had just launched an attack asked, puzzled.

However, no one replied to him.

After seeing this white quality card, some people had a plan in mind.

This was Zhongyuan Academy, and the life-saving three-piece set, which had recently become popular in major universities and was scarce in quantity, seemed to have originated from this academy.

The life-saving three-piece set just happened to have a white quality card.

So, what the cards inside this box were became obvious.

However, besides the life-saving three-piece set, what were the effects of the other two cards?

Were the effects of the other two purple quality cards what could largely ensure entry into the top two hundred?

The crowd didn't know, but they fought even harder.

They constantly rushed towards the box, constantly enduring various attacks.

Jiang Yuan watched this scene from the sky, a happy smile appearing in his eyes.

The goal was achieved!

Although he didn't know how many people were left on the battlefield, not many people around this lake would likely make it out alive.

Jiang Yuan smiled happily, flapping his small wings against Zhao Gongming below him.

“Depart, to the safe zone!”

The poison circle would probably finish shrinking completely in about an hour. The edge of this round's safe zone was at this lake, with more than half of the lake within the safe zone.

However, the next round would most likely not include this lake.

Jiang Yuan had also roughly figured out the refresh pattern of the safe zone; it seemed to always appear in the upper right corner of the map.

Now, he just needed to fly towards the upper right corner of the map.

As for who obtained those treasures?

That had nothing to do with him.

Jiang Yuan smiled, flying happily forward on Zhao Gongming's back.

This treasure event would at least give him a day of safety, he thought.

And after this day, his trump card would be usable.

Seventy-Two Transformations - Summoning Immortals still had twenty-one hours of cooldown time remaining.

With a trump card, he wouldn't have to hide so cautiously anymore; he could be much bolder.

Jiang Yuan hummed a little tune happily, but the Students at Chen Xing Lake were fighting so fiercely their brains were almost falling out.

In just a moment, there was no grass left around Chen Xing Lake.

The ground, affected by various skills, had turned from grassland into bare earth, with holes of varying sizes.

After this period of fighting, the casualty rate among the Students around Chen Xing Lake was much higher than Jiang Yuan had imagined.

From over five hundred people at the beginning, there were now just over a hundred left.

And even so, the numbers were still continuously decreasing.

“Hiss!”

Yu Chengtian couldn't help but gasp as he watched the brutal battle on the screen.

“Is this elimination efficiency really that exaggerated?”

Looking at the eliminated Students in the square, and seeing that they still wanted to continue an unfinished battle in the square, Yu Chengtian also puzzledly rubbed his bald head.

“Aren't they afraid that those few cards are useless?”

“Of course not, our Old Principal's reputation is at stake.” Jin Lingyu said, glancing at the battle in the square that had been stopped before it even began.

“I have to say, this Jiang Yuan is truly a talent. This incident he orchestrated directly reduced the number of people in the second battleground by more than half.”

Miao Xinghuo also nodded in strong agreement, his heart even more determined that he wanted to add this rule to the next Four School Joint Examination held at their school.

“That's certainly possible, he knows how to leverage the situation, the Old Principal's reputation, huh.”

Guan Chutian turned her head, glanced at the smiling Old Principal, then turned back to ask the others: “However, judging them not to be in a team state, wouldn't that be unfair?”

“Of course not.”

Jin Lingyu shook his head slightly: “This is a mass attack for profit during a battle. You can't possibly prevent them from eliminating more powerful Students first, can you?”

“After all, this is also one of the pleasures of the Four School Joint Examination, isn't it?”

Just as the crowd was ganging up on the top-ranked teams of these academies, the Vice Principal had already started a discussion and vote.

The final result was that, except for Guan Chutian, the other three people judged this not to be a team action.

“Alright.”

In the end, Guan Chutian could only helplessly give up.

The main reason was that Shi Zhuan of her academy had suffered too much damage in this “illegal teaming.”

Of the seven people in their team, besides Shi Zhuan, who was ranked first, the other six were all Students ranked in the top twenty of their academy's rankings.

But now, only the first-ranked Shi Zhuan and a seventeenth and a nineteenth-ranked Student remained.

They instantly went from a team aiming for the championship to a team just trying to qualify.

This contrast...

Guan Chutian shook her head helplessly, but this was precisely the charm of the Four School Joint Examination; no one knew what would happen next.

Didn't Wang Boqing, ranked second in the Martial Arts Academy, get eliminated shortly after the Four School Joint Examination began?

But fortunately, they did not choose to give up.

Guan Chutian looked at the screen. The recently defeated Huang Huanqing's team, Wei Qiyou and Bai Fusi, and Shi Zhuan's team from her own academy, were all hidden in the surroundings.

Originally, if they waited for an opportune moment, they would all appear in the field simultaneously to continue contending for that treasure.

“I just don't know what cards are placed in that treasure.”

“Of course, it's Subterranean Shrinking, one of the Thirty-Six Transformations, which is even more effective than Earth Walking Technique!”

Jiang Yuan said proudly to Nezha beside him.

“Subterranean Shrinking is faster and covers a greater distance than Earth Walking Technique, but compared to Earth Walking Technique, its cooldown time is longer.”

“It's not that its cooldown time is longer. We already used Subterranean Shrinking back in Ruined City.”

“It's just that our strength is a bit lacking. Even using Subterranean Shrinking once or twice wouldn't allow us to leave the city, and factoring in the cooldown time, it's actually not faster than Earth Walking Technique.”

Jiang Yuan's mouth curved slightly into a Shiba Inu-like smile: “Of course, what I gave them were one-time use cards, so the cooldown time doesn't matter.”

“But even so, it's quite generous!”

As Jiang Yuan spoke, he suddenly saw a young man sitting on a round disc fly past him.

“What a handsome bird.”

The young man exclaimed, and just as he was about to turn his head, his pupils suddenly contracted.

“Bird?”

“No, there are no other creatures besides humans in this Four School Joint Examination!”