252: Chapter 252 Rapid Progress, Encounter with a Squad!

In the blink of an eye, another half-month had passed.

A full month had now gone by since the official start of the New Student Competition.

Currently,

of the original 402 Contestants, only a little over a hundred remained.

These hundred-plus individuals essentially formed about twenty to thirty small teams.

Most of them now firmly controlled a Golden Shelter.

Only a few teams were still holding onto purple shelters.

Looking across the entire planet now, not a trace of a white shelter could be found.

That's right.

The strength of the white shelters was insufficient to withstand the ferocious onslaught of the beast tides; they had all been destroyed.

Next, naturally, would be the purple shelters.

For those teams currently only holding onto purple shelters, if they couldn't seize a Golden Shelter before their shelter collapsed, it meant elimination.

Thinking of surviving the beast tide relying on their own strength?

No chance.

Several teams had already tried that before.

Among them, the longest any lasted was a mere half hour.

And actually, even securing a Golden Shelter only meant qualifying for the final round.

The competition rules were based on survival time—the longer you lasted, the higher your ranking—it wasn't a simple battle for shelter possession.

Therefore, after seizing a Golden Shelter, the Contestants had to eliminate the participants in other Golden Shelters to secure their advantage.

"Those still on the field now are basically the elite of the elite. I wonder who will ultimately make it to the end?!"

"Looking at it now, it still seems like it'll be a fight for first between Jiang Yunxu and Duan Xuan."

"Indeed. After a month of observation, their strength is clearly ahead of everyone else's. Barring any surprises, it's them."

"You have to admit, the Jiang family has truly produced a top-tier seedling. The situation of a talent gap in the clan seems to have been corrected by this Jiang Yunxu."

Watching the live feed, some high-ranking academy officials couldn't help but speak up, their words full of anticipation.

And the main subjects of their discussion were none other than Jiang Yunxu and Duan Xuan.

First, Jiang Yunxu. Over the past half-month, he had maintained his previous momentum, crushing everything in his path. He had even broken through during battle, reaching the ninth rank of the Star-Treading Level, advancing his strength another step!

Already sweeping all before him, Jiang Yunxu, with such progress, had become even more unstoppable.

In the eyes of nearly seventy to eighty percent of the viewers, Jiang Yunxu was undoubtedly destined to be this competition's champion.

As for Duan Xuan,

he, like Jiang Yunxu, had successfully broken through in battle over the past half-month, his strength advancing by leaps and bounds.

Judging by his aura, he seemed fully capable of matching Jiang Yunxu.

But then again,

with Fang Tong's support, Duan Xuan's visual impact wasn't as great, making it difficult to accurately gauge his true combat power.

The great battle between him and Jiang Yunxu was something many viewers in the live stream eagerly anticipated.

However, judging by their current positions, a meeting seemed unlikely in the short term.

Now, regarding Li Fan's side.

Coincidentally,

Li Fan and his team had also maintained their previous good fortune over the past half-month, living quite comfortably.

Although they hadn't gone without encountering another team, continuing to win purely by luck,

the encounter was only with a single team.

Moreover, that team was relatively weak. Peng Song, Luo Ling, Duan Ping, and the others managed to eliminate them before Li Fan even had a chance to intervene.

So, if you asked which Golden Shelter team on the field had it easiest, it was undoubtedly Li Fan's team.

During this half-month, Li Fan's control over his Mental Energy had also achieved rapid development.

From initially only being able to briefly cause a single Starry Sky Giant Beast to stall momentarily, he could now control one's movements for a full minute.

Furthermore, his constant manipulation of Mental Energy served as a form of training, which had also led to a certain increase in his Mental Energy value.

...

Unconsciously,

another three days passed in the blink of an eye.

In these three days, not a single purple shelter remained on the entire field.

The number of Contestants had also decreased from over a hundred to around seventy or eighty.

It could be said they had finally formally entered the final round.

"Ten minutes!"

On the shelter platform, Li Fan calculated the duration of his control over the Starry Sky Giant Beast this time, the joy in his eyes growing more intense.

His mastery over Mental Energy had clearly become much more adept.

Against creatures with higher strength, he might not be too confident yet, but against these Starry Sky Giant Beasts whose strength generally peaked at the seventh or eighth rank of the Star Shattering Rank, he was quite confident.

However, currently, his limit for control time was only ten minutes.

If he tried to control two giant beasts simultaneously, the time would likely be halved.

This duration was obviously insufficient to support his plan of controlling the beast tide to eliminate everyone.

"Let's continue."

Taking a deep breath, Li Fan once again entered a state of practice.

Watching Li Fan so engrossed in what seemed like daydreaming, Peng Song and the others were utterly bewildered.

Apart from being relatively normal at the very beginning of the competition,

Li Fan had spent almost all his remaining time staring blankly at the beast tides outside. They were completely in the dark about his actions.

However, out of respect for Li Fan's strength, they believed he must have his own reasons, so they dared not disturb or question him.

Soon,

as evening approached,

in the distance,

a new massive beast tide surged forth.

Judging by its scale, it numbered at least in the hundreds of millions.

Faced with such a tide, Peng Song and the others remained as steady as Mount Tai, utterly accustomed to it.

Over the past month, they had encountered far too many waves like this.

Protected by the Golden Shelter,

they faced absolutely no threat.

However,

as Duan Linger's voice rang out,

the expressions of Peng Song and the others, who had been quiet for a long time, suddenly changed.

"Look over there! It seems we're about to run into people!"

Looking up,

on the other side of the beast tide, there was indeed a rolling, surging Golden Shelter.

Judging by its trajectory,

they would soon meet, passing by each other.

And when they met, it was impossible for both sides to remain completely still.

At this critical juncture,

an encounter was bound to lead to a great battle!

Facing the approaching team,

no trace of worry could be seen on Peng Song and the others' faces; all that was visible was excitement and anticipation.

It couldn't be helped.

It had been a long time since they'd had a proper, serious fight!

"Finally, we've run into someone!" Peng Song drew his longsword, his aura subtly flaring, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit.

Luo Ling beside him also spoke up with a smile, eager for action.

"Indeed! If we don't run into some opponents soon, we're going to get rusty!"