Chapter 161: I

"We never planned to get top three—we just came to gain experience!"

"Yeah, we just wanted to spar with others!"

"We've got so many young experts in Qixingcheng—making it to the semifinals is already great!"

"…"

Seeing Su Yang approach, they quickly greeted him:

"Big Brother Su, are you entering too?"

Without realizing it, Su Yang had risen to the "Big Brother" tier.

Even Wu Wu Yuqing, who was much older than him, had started calling him Big Brother Su…

This left Su Yang somewhat annoyed.

Was he that old?

He was still young, for heaven's sake!

"I'm entering!"

"Then when will you prepare your materials?"

"Wait a bit—it's not urgent!"

At this moment, Su Yang would never say someone had signed him up.

Back in his simple room, Su Yang fell asleep quickly.

Three days later, Huo Kun sought out Su Yang again.

Huo Kun spoke in his usual direct, military style: "The city lord said that if you're busy, he'll reserve a semifinal slot for you—you'll only need to spend one day participating in the semifinal and final… After all, you're representing Qixingcheng in the tournament; if you don't even show up, people in Qixingcheng will be dissatisfied, and ordinary folks will think we're rigging the competition!"

"Is that allowed?"

Su Yang felt his backdoor entry was getting a bit too brazen!

"If you don't want it, you can still fight your way from the beginning!"

"I'll take it! Of course I'll take it!"

After all, Su Yang was using his own merit to take this backdoor.

As long as his strength was solid, he didn't care what others said.

If needed, he'd just step onto the arena and fight a few good matches!

In the following days, Su Yang focused his main efforts on boosting the Earth Shock Bear's strength.

The Earth Shock Bear excelled in defense and power but hadn't yet mastered any particularly powerful skills—it could only fight beasts by brute force, making its efficiency much slower than the Storm Eagle or Hell Blood Vine.

Around ten days later, Su Yang successfully raised the Earth Shock Bear to Silver High-Grade.

When Su Yang returned to camp, he realized all the beast-tamers were staring at him with strange expressions.

Su Yang asked, puzzled: "Why are you all staring at me? Is my face dirty?"

Wu Wu Yuqing ventured cautiously: "Su Yang, didn't you forget something?"

"What?"

"Haven't you noticed some people are missing from here?"

Su Yang looked around—the group chatting by the bonfire was indeed smaller than usual.

"So what?"

"Su Yang, today's the preliminary round! You didn't forget that, did you?" Wu Wu Yuqing nearly screamed. "This determines whether you can represent Qixingcheng in the Huaxia Federation's Southwest Youth Genius Competition… How could you forget such an important day?"

Su Yang suddenly realized: "Oh, today's the day!"

"Exactly! Everyone else took leave to compete—this morning I saw you leave and thought you were going to enter!"

Su Yang waved his hand: "Don't worry—it's fine!"

"You don't want to go?"

"Of course I want to go!"

"Then how did you forget such an important day?"

The other beast-tamers of the First Squad also spoke up:

"Yeah, how could you forget this day?"

"Su Yang, why don't you go tell the squad leader?"

"…"

Seeing so many seniors caring about him, Su Yang felt a bit embarrassed.

He walked over to the bonfire and whispered: "Don't worry—I've been told by Captain Huo that I only need to show up for the semifinal on the final day, so it doesn't matter if I don't go today!"

"Damn!"

"Holy shit!"

"Directly entering the semifinals?"

"No one's ever done that!"

"I mean, how could you forget such an important day?!"

"You scared us for nothing—why didn't you say this earlier?"

Su Yang said sheepishly: "How could I possibly brag about something like this?"

"Still, directly entering the semifinals—no one's ever done that!"

"People who don't know will think there's a conspiracy!"

"Su Yang, do you have connections upstairs?"

"…"

One by one, the beast-tamers started asking other questions; unable to bear it, Su Yang went straight to the mess hall for food.

After staying in the camp for another seven days, Su Yang asked He Yuhua for a three-day holiday; He Yuhua knew he was going to participate in the preliminary selection and encouraged him with a few words.

When he returned home, Su Yang met his mother and sister.

The sister immediately asked: "Brother, did you sign up for the Seven Stars City Young Talent Selection? If you make the top three, you'll represent our Seven Stars City in the selection for the Huaxia Federation's Southwest Cities Young Talent Competition!"

Su Yang nodded: "I signed up!"

Su Xiaoxiao asked softly: "But why didn't I see you?"