Chapter 421: Parasitic Gu

Very quickly, the Young Qilin Cup reached the third round of the first stage.

Time really flies; in just a short while, the third round began.

The Chameleon, forced out of its protective camouflage state, was now tied up tightly and surrounded by black iron rings.

Damn it, I hid so deeply, yet I was still hit by the black ring; I feel quite unlucky.

At this moment, the Chameleon's heart was in despair; no wonder the Charging Wolf was howling like a ghost earlier—it was mourning its lost freedom!

Many Breeders had already guessed the Chameleon from the second round, and quite a few felt this competition was actually fairly simple; there was no need to memorize answers, as it mainly tested one's eye for detail and ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

For the third round, the host Wu Zhen released an Exotic Beast that looked like a Shadow.

The black Shadow fell like feathers, gathered on the ground, and then writhed into shape.

It was just that it was obscured by the Shadow, so its specific appearance had not yet been discovered.

From within the Shadow, this Exotic Beast emitted a cry like that of a crow.

"What kind of Exotic Beast is this? Why is it like a mass of Shadow? Will the host give a hint this time?"

"Shadow Crow? Dark Crow? Or some other Pet Beast?"

The crowd expressed that the difficulty was very high, and Ye Bai, watching from the side, smiled immediately after seeing the expressions of the contestants projected on the big screen.

"The third round is the one that truly filters out the contestants; there won't be any hints in this round, it just depends on whether everyone can discover the true face of this Pet Beast."

The third round is the one that can truly pick out the capable Breeders.

At the same time, Ye Bai would also use their answers to secretly find out who the Spirit Saint Child was and who the Necromancer was.

Originally, he should have been able to filter both of them out using the Truth Eye.

However, the Spirit Saint Child and the Necromancer were, after all, members of ancient factions.

If he were to rashly use the Truth Eye to examine the Spirit Saint Child and the Necromancer, it would inevitably alert the enemy; if they recognized the Truth Eye at that time, it would be a disaster.

Moreover, using the Truth Eye to filter the Spirit Saint Child and the Necromancer might consume too much ocular power, leading to a decline in his eyesight.

He did not want to suffer the pain of eye-gouging and declining ocular power like the Uchiha clan.

The Necromancer recognized at a glance that this was a Shadow Emperor Crow, a variant of the Shadow Crow, which could be called the royal family of the Shadow Crows.

This Shadow Emperor Crow would lurk in the shadows, secretly searching for prey.

Once prey entered its hunting range, it would directly extend its sharp beak to capture the prey.

Its sharp, slender beak was like a keen dagger; it would pierce directly through the prey's head to consume the prey's brains.

The Necromancer just wanted to write down the name "Shadow Emperor Crow," but he suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

The content he had already typed was directly deleted by the Necromancer.

"No, I shouldn't write it so perfectly."

"No, I can't write it like this; it will easily be discovered by the experts secretly protecting the Young Qilin Cup."

"But this round is clearly the decisive round."

"If I write too little, will I be eliminated?"

At this moment, the Necromancer was very, very conflicted.

Write it, and there is a risk of exposure; don't write it, and there is no guarantee of entering the next round.

Because he knew Ye Bai was the main Judge, and his attainments in research were on par with the Star Sage.

If he wrote it too well, it would instead easily expose his existence.

"Got it, I won't write the name Shadow Emperor Crow; I will mainly describe its characteristics and write down the skills I guessed."

"This way, I should be able to successfully enter the next round."

Pet Beast breeding was a piece of cake for the Necromancer, so the Necromancer was not worried about being eliminated in the second round.

The third round would take place in a Secret Realm controlled by the Zuoweihui.

The Necromancer had long since tampered with that Secret Realm.

As long as those people walked into the Secret Realm, they would be teleported to the Necromancer's lair.

The Blood Saint Child would activate the Blood Sacrifice Array to help him seize some talents.

And the Spirit Saint Child would help him select the most suitable talents and transplant them into the living dead the Necromancer had long prepared.

In this way, the Necromancer would also transition from death to life, taking the most critical step.

Of course, there was more than one smart person; the Spirit Saint Child thought the same way. He had investigated Ye Bai and naturally knew of Ye Bai's prowess; he was naturally also worried about being discovered by Ye Bai.

He knew that this was only one of his Soul Clones; if it were lost here, it would have a certain impact on the Spirit Saint Child's true body.

Therefore, the Spirit Saint Child also used "Spring and Autumn" writing techniques to describe this Shadow Emperor Crow.

Time passed second by second.

After the last grain of sand in the hourglass fell, the host ordered the keyboards to be locked, not allowing the contestants to continue.

"Now, I will announce the specific details regarding these three Pet Beasts."

"Please look at the big screen."

An image of the Charging Wolf then appeared on the big screen.

"This is a Charging Wolf, a very special Pet Beast; its horns, Zhua, and tail tip also look like drill bits."

"It is a wind-attribute Exotic Beast, extremely fast, and masters skills such as Storm Tooth, Storm Blade, Wind Rise, and High-speed Movement."

"This Exotic Beast fears the impact of electric currents; once hit by an electric current, it will fall into a state of paralysis."

"At the same time, its movements are very agile, and it can dodge creatures using High-speed Movement."

"The weaknesses of this Pet Beast are at the tip of its nose and its waist; hitting these places will cause the Charging Wolf to fall into a state of stiffness."

"It possesses very good flexibility and can be used as a mount; it can even walk on flat ground amidst a storm."

"I will conclude my explanation of the general description of the Charging Wolf here."

"The scoring standard is to give points for describing the Pet Beast's appearance, give points for describing its skills, and also give points for stating the Pet Beast's shortcomings."

"If the content everyone writes is outside the scope of the answer, but the content is novel and the logic is clear, points will still be awarded."

The host provided the grading criteria, and some contestants even pulled tightly at their own hair.

"Hey, hey, hey, the scope of what I wrote is a bit off; I don't know if there's a problem."

"Sigh, this exam is really too difficult; I truly didn't discover this guy's shortcomings."

"My god, is this Charging Wolf really this strong? It felt like it was being beaten to pieces by the items, but fortunately, the content I wrote basically matches."

After the answer for the first Pet Beast was announced, the expressions of the contestants were all different; some grinned, while others covered their eyes with their hands, yet the corners of their mouths curled up slightly.

"The second Pet Beast is the Color-Changing Lizard; this type of Color-Changing Lizard was captured in the Great Desert of the Beautiful Country."

"Its strength is quite strong; it possesses the characteristic of protective coloration, which allows it to turn invisible at any time. It is a tough character."

"Its tongue, which carries mucus, is thin and long, and it has an extremely strong restraint against Insect Type Pet Beasts."

"It is a Holy Attribute Pet Beast, possessing special functions, and has skills such as protective coloration, acid corrosion, and tongue-flicking."

"Its external scales are comparable to super-alloy metal. This Pet Beast is a tough character; once swallowed into its belly, one will be corroded into a pool of liquid by the strong acid in its stomach in less than a quarter of an hour."

"The Color-Changing Lizard is also afraid of lightning attacks, which will cause it to reveal its identity."

"As soon as it is attacked, the Color-Changing Lizard will reveal its form. The flesh of its mouth is very soft, and its defensive power is not as hard as its external scales."

"Once methods like small bombs are used to attack the Color-Changing Lizard, it can be blown into countless fragments."

Ye Bai knew the prowess of the Color-Changing Lizard; originally, it was a Pet Beast that the Beautiful Country specifically sold to the Yan Country.

It was just that this Pet Beast carried a tracker on its body, which was discovered by Yan Country scientists; after the tracker was removed, it was sent here for display.

"Very good, the answer for the second round's Pet Beast has already been given. If you got these free-point questions like the first and second ones wrong, then you are basically out of the second round of the competition."

As soon as the host said this, the faces of many contestants turned pale instantly; they all felt that they seemed unable to pass the first round.

"However, students, don't give up until the very end; perhaps hope lies in tomorrow?"

"We conduct experimental research, and it has never been successful in one go; it is only after countless repeated experiments that results can be obtained."

"What we see are the bright achievements of others, while ordinary people ignore the efforts of these people."

"One part effort, one part harvest; this is what I want to tell everyone."

Just at this moment, the image of the Shadow Emperor Crow appeared on the big screen.

"The third Pet Beast is the Shadow Emperor Crow."

"This type of Pet Beast is adept at traveling through shadows to attack prey; once tracked by its natural enemy, the Shadow Emperor Crow will turn into countless shadows and dissipate into the shadows."

After the host reported the data for the Shadow Emperor Crow, the answers were graded very quickly.

This time, a total of four hundred people participated in the Juvenile Cup competition, and the Zuoweihui screened out suitable contestants according to the order of their rankings.

Only two hundred people entered the second round, and this was the result of Ye Bai picking the best from the worst.

At this time, Ye Bai was in the backstage checking intelligence; when he saw one of the answer sheets, a sharp glint appeared in Ye Bai's eyes.

Found you, Necromancer.

Following this standard, he continued to flip through the answer sheets, and soon he also discovered the traces of the Spirit Saint Child.

He grinned.

"They are all contestants, so why would they answer the paper in such a pedantic way?"

"What era is this? The only possibility is that these were all written by the Necromancer and the Spirit Saint Child."

However, before Ye Bai could issue an order for the people of the Zuoweihui to keep a close eye on these two, Lin Lin flew out from Ye Bai's shadow.

"Lord Ye Bai, the Blue Phoenix has arrived and is already waiting in the reception hall. Shall you go to visit the Blue Phoenix now?"

Ye Bai nodded and gave a clear reply: "Yes, I will head over immediately."

Zhang Yuelu, also known as the Blue Phoenix, was currently closing her eyes and resting in the reception hall; it was only when Ye Bai pushed the door and entered that she opened those beautiful eyes.

"Kept you waiting, Blue Phoenix."

Ye Bai said extremely politely.

However, the Blue Phoenix did not pay attention to Ye Bai; her gaze was focused directly on one spot.

She could feel the aura of a Gu King faintly emanating from the Myriad-Change Butterfly floating in the air.

The Blue Phoenix narrowed her eyes immediately.

Good fellow, this guy wants to cultivate a Gu King; that is truly a good idea.

It is just that a Gu King is not configured like this.

It requires eating many, many heavenly treasures to possibly be cultivated.

Ye Bai also did not know that the blood-gu aura revealed by the Myriad-Change Butterfly had generated quite a bit of favor from the Blue Phoenix.

"Let's just leave it at that; I will speak the truth first,"

"I am quite supportive of your parasite cultivation plan, but I am also not confident that I can control the Black Flea Insect and the Shadow Mantis."

"So I have to stay here for a few more days to study how to cultivate parasites into Gu,"

A horsehair worm only the size of a thumb appeared on the palm of the Blue Phoenix.

This type of Gu insect is adept at drilling through the outer wall of a Pet Beast Egg, parasitizing inside the Pet Beast Egg, and transforming it into an insect Gu.

"The process of Gu insect transformation is very fast; as long as I urge the horsehair worm, they will drill into the Pet Beast Egg and parasitize it."

"When the Pet Beast Egg hatches, that is the moment it is completely controlled by the horsehair worm."

In order to give Ye Bai a demonstration, the Blue Phoenix specifically demonstrated it for Ye Bai once.

Seeing the Blue Phoenix open her palm, the black horsehair worm instantly drilled out from her palm and landed on the insect egg below.

The insect egg had already taken the shape of a Black Flea Insect.

The horsehair worm was seen drilling into it and acting tyrannically.

The Black Flea Insect in its newborn state had basically no combat power at all.

Its incubation time is relatively long, and its Juvenile Stage is also relatively long.

It was just that once the horsehair worm Parasite-d inside the black flea insect, it accelerated this evolutionary speed.

Before long, this black flea insect had already shed its Juvenile Stage.

However, at this very moment, the appearance of this Pet Beast became incomparably twisted.

The acid inside their bodies burst open with a bang.

A large amount of corrosive liquid emerged, and just as Ye Bai felt something was not quite right, an accident occurred.

"Good heavens, this guy's Parasite attempt failed; it's a ticking time bomb."

Ye Bai smiled.

"Lan Fenghuang, the competition is still ongoing, so I won't discuss the matter of the gu insects with you for the time being."

"Let's discuss the matter of the gu insects properly after I confirm the second round has begun."

Lan Fenghuang's eyes were fixed on the experimental display case, which was covered in dense clusters of insect eggs; it seemed that large-scale experiments could be conducted.

Lan Fenghuang waved her hands, and a large number of gu insects fell from her hands onto the ground.

Subsequently, these colorful gu insects surged toward the insect eggs in a mighty force.

Just at this moment, the second round had already begun.

"Hello everyone, the second round of the assessment is about to begin; I will focus on introducing the rules of the second round of the assessment to you all."

"The second round of the assessment is actually very simple: it will last for half a month, and you are to hatch the black flea insects and dark mantises, and conduct research on parasites."

"We hope to be able to ensure the diversity of species and that brand-new evolutionary paths will appear; this is our expectation for you contestants."

(End of this chapter)