Chapter 357: Quasi-God—Tide Lord (Three-in-One, Begging for Everything)

Knowing full well that this round of the competition was bound to be a defeat, Li Zhangsheng still chose to give it his all; this was not merely to preserve the face of Yuanling Academy, but even more so to strive to become a member of the Best Lineup.

According to the custom of previous years, once the Exchange Tournament concludes, the organizing committee will confer awards based on the performance of the participating students, such as Best Student Award, Best Lineup, Best Newcomer, Fastest Progress Student, and Best Team Leader, and every award will come with generous rewards.

Li Zhangsheng had never harbored hopes for the Best Student Award, because this award can only be born from the champion academy; it could be said that the Best Student Award was already in Dou Yuanhua's pocket. There was no helping it, as he was the only Fifth-rank student in this Exchange Tournament, and his battle record was sufficiently illustrious. Unless Yuanling Academy defeated the Royal Academy, Li Zhangsheng had not a shred of hope, but was that even possible?

Aside from the Best Student Award, the one with the second-highest value is the Best Lineup; this award is used to commend the five students with the best performance. As long as Li Zhangsheng maintains his excellent performance, he is very likely to obtain this award as a First Grade student.

The Best Newcomer Award is an award specifically for commending First Grade freshmen. After defeating the combination of Dou Miwan and Zhao Wencan, Li Zhangsheng became the undisputed number one among the freshmen, and this award could be said to be in his pocket.

As for the Fastest Progress Student Award, one can guess just from the name that only students in Second Grade and above can enter the selection criteria for this award; Li Zhangsheng cannot be selected.

As for the Best Team Leader Award, this award has historically been presented either to the team leader of the champion academy or to the team leader of the academy that has made the most progress this year.

After the outcome of the First Grade matches was decided, Li Zhangsheng and Zhao Shuyi returned to the rest area, and according to competition custom, the Second Grade participating team members from the Royal Academy and Yuanling Academy began to take the stage.

Li Zhangsheng watched this match quietly; he held no hope for those two Second Grade seniors, only hoping they would not be defeated too miserably.

This time, the Royal Academy sent out the powerful combination of Dou Yuansheng and Liu Cheng. Dou Yuansheng goes without saying; he is the only Fourth-rank student among the Second Grade students, and he is also the Ninth Prince of the Imperial Family born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The Imperial Family has never lacked resources, so even though he had not advanced long ago, his strength was not comparable to ordinary Fourth-rankers.

And as for Liu Cheng, he is a direct descendant of the King Family, the Liu Clan—yes, the very Liu Clan that possesses the Li Fire Parasol Tree. It is rumored that he once defeated a Fourth-rank Monster Tamer while being at a lower rank.

This refers to ordinary Fourth-rank Monster Tamers, as there is a not-insignificant gap between them and the Fourth-rank Elite Students of the various academies.

On the field, the battle was in full swing, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that the two Second Grade students from Yuanling Academy had completely fallen into a disadvantage, eventually leading to a rout.

In this match, Dou Yuansheng and Liu Cheng completely seized the initiative; no matter how the Second Grade students of Yuanling Academy coordinated, it was still of no use under the gap in strength.

However, they were, after all, participating students of Yuanling Academy, so their strength naturally would not be too poor. Through their efforts, the two Second Grade students of the Royal Academy also suffered some losses; Liu Cheng directly lost one Demon Pet, and Dou Yuansheng's first Demon Pet also sustained some injuries.

After the second match ended, the two Second Grade students of Yuanling Academy returned to the rest area dejected as usual. Starting from facing Yecheng Academy, they had embarked on a journey of frustration, being easily defeated by their opponents time and time again, and every time it was the First Grade juniors helping to clean up their mess—how could they not feel ashamed!

At this time, it was the turn of the Third Grade students.

At the same time, under the direction of the referee, Li Zhangsheng and Zhao Shuyi were guided to a brand-new field; they were about to face off against Dou Yuansheng and Liu Cheng.

Facing the First Grade combination from Yuanling Academy, Dou Yuansheng and Liu Cheng felt extremely wary in their hearts and did not dare to harbor any thoughts of contempt.

"Take your positions. The two sides of the competition are..."

The referee announced the rules as a matter of routine, then signaled for the four to summon their Demon Pets simultaneously.

The next moment, four six-pointed stars, either purple or red, began to emerge, and four Demon Pets of various forms appeared on the field.

With only one Demon Pet slot remaining, Li Zhangsheng naturally chose the strongest, Aixi, while Zhao Shuyi had the Three-Tailed Snow Fox; they were both Elite-level Demon Pets of Superior Quality.

On the other side, Dou Yuansheng summoned a Superior Quality Elite-level Earth Mammoth. It was 7 meters long, nearly 4 meters high, and weighed over ten tons. It was tall and sturdy with four toes on its feet. Its head was very large, and on its mouth grew a pair of curved tusks nearly 2 meters long. Its skin was very thick, possessing a fat layer over ten centimeters thick, and its body was densely covered with fine long hair.

The Earth Mammoth is an evolved form of the Mammoth, possessing the High-level Leader Species and Thick Fat traits. It has always been world-renowned for its high defense and thick blood, and it is Dou Yuansheng's Life-Bound Demon Pet.

On the other side, Liu Cheng summoned the Tide Lord; this was his Life-Bound Demon Pet and also a genuine Quasi-God.

【Sprite Name】: Tide Lord (Growth Stage, Quasi-God)

【Sprite Realm】: Elite Rank 6

【Sprite Species】: Low-Level Monarch

【Sprite Quality】: Superior Quality

【Sprite Bloodline】: None

【Sprite Attribute】: Water

【Sprite Status】: Healthy

【Sprite Weakness】: Earth

Among the many Quasi-God Sprites, the Tide Lord likes to spread chaos and evil everywhere, doing its utmost to oppose order and kindness. Its strength is not much different from the White Dragon, but compared to the White Dragon, whose brain is not very bright, the Tide Lord is clearly much more cunning.

At the first moment, Aixi's Storm trait activated, and a gale began to blow on the field. The fierce wind blew up the sand and dust on the field, visibility rapidly decreased, and at the same time, the Tide Lord and the Earth Mammoth were placed in the center of the eye of the storm, so their speed inevitably suffered an impact.

At the same time, Aixi's body surface was covered with light cyan Wind Element energy, as if draping a beautiful cyan wind cloak over it.

Roar~

Aixi let out a long howl toward the sky, and an invisible Pressure permeated from its body, enveloping the Tide Lord and the Earth Mammoth within it.

Under the influence of this intense Pressure, the fear in the hearts of the Tide Lord and the Earth Mammoth expanded to the extreme. Fear flickered in their eyes; even though they did not fall into a Cowering state, all their abilities declined by 10%, which also caused their combat power to take a small discount.

The moment the referee's flag fell, Liu Cheng commanded the Tide Lord to cast Deep Sea Wave. As long as one is hit by the Deep Sea Wave, not only will one suffer a certain amount of damage, but the opponent's speed will also be reduced; the key is that this is also an area-of-effect skill.

The Tide Lord opened its mouth full of fangs, and countless Water Attribute energy surged and gathered, rapidly turning into a peculiar light blue ripple, sweeping toward Aixi and the Three-Tailed Snow Fox.

Almost at the same time, under Dou Yuansheng's command, the Earth Mammoth stood up on its hind legs and smashed fiercely onto the ground, actually smashing two two-meter-square pits into the ground, wantonly destroying the surrounding field, wanting to restrict Aixi's performance.

With the Earth Mammoth's destruction speed, as long as it was given a minute or two, it could destroy the entire field.

From the very beginning, Dou Yuansheng and Liu Cheng had guessed the two's Demon Pets; this was something anyone with a discerning eye could guess. After all, Li Zhangsheng and Zhao Shuyi only had one Demon Pet slot left, so they would naturally choose the strongest Demon Pet.

In this way, it was easy to target them.

"Ice Breath!" At this moment, Zhao Shuyi's soft voice rang out.

Under her command, the Three-Tailed Snow Fox's three tails stood up high, and ice-blue brilliance condensed, turning into a beam of light. In the blink of an eye, it landed on the Deep Sea Wave, and under the extreme low temperature, it was the first to freeze the entire Deep Sea Wave.

Clatter~

Irregular ice chunks fell to the ground, instantly shattering into countless ice dregs.

At the same time, Aixi's figure disappeared abruptly, pouncing toward the Earth Mammoth with lightning speed.

In the process of pouncing, Aixi opened its mouth, revealing fangs like swords, looking as if it was about to bite the Earth Mammoth's neck.

As if they had agreed upon it, the Earth Mammoth ignored the pouncing Aixi and continued to focus on destroying the field.

Double-battle mode places more emphasis on cooperation between teammates!

Just as Aixi was about to succeed, the Tide Lord seemed to turn into a deep blue vortex—this was a short-range Blink-type skill—appearing behind Aixi in an instant, raising the huge Sharp Spikes in its hand to stab at Aixi's rear.

Wind Stealth!

Aixi listened to the sound to identify its position, felt the wind coming from behind, and inevitably sensed something was wrong. It saw a flash of cyan light on its body surface, as if it had turned into a Residual Shadow, causing the Tide Lord's attack to land on the Residual Shadow.

With the help of the powerful explosive force of Wind Stealth, Aixi instantly appeared on the other side of the Earth Mammoth.

The Earth Mammoth's build is extremely thick; if the Tide Lord wants to go around to pursue Aixi, it is afraid it will need a second or two.

This amount of time is enough for Aixi to complete an attack.

Steel Tail!

Seizing the fleeting opportunity, Aixi rotated its body, its tiger tail, which was a full two meters long, flashing with a metallic luster as it lashed fiercely against the unusually plump buttocks of the Earth Mammoth.

Slap~

Accompanied by a crisp sound, the Earth Mammoth's eyes suddenly bulged, filled with bloodshot veins and pain; it let out a shrill scream from its mouth and, like a golden mountain collapsing and a jade pillar toppling, fell to the ground in extreme agony, clutching its hind legs.

On its thick buttocks, there was now a deep whip mark, but the key was not the buttocks; when Aixi's tail swung, it had nearly crushed a testicle, and even if it hadn't been crushed, that kind of pain deep into the bone marrow was not something an ordinary creature could easily endure, so it was no wonder the Earth Mammoth was in such pain.

This Steel Tail could be said to have hit the vital point, and the effect was unexpectedly good; at the very least, the Earth Mammoth would need some time to ease its testicular pain.

Dou Yuansheng was caught off guard, but under these circumstances, he made the best response, immediately casting the Bloodthirsty Technique Secret Technique Imprint on the Earth Mammoth; the Earth Mammoth's eyes became bloodthirsty, which relieved a lot of its pain.

On the other side, Li Zhangsheng cast Mental Acceleration, Ox's Brute Force, and Owl's Insight on Aixi in one breath, causing Aixi's combat power to be further enhanced.

Beside Li Zhangsheng, Zhao Shuyi activated the Mental Lash Secret Technique Imprint, landing it on Liu Cheng's Tide Lord.

Mental Lash would not weaken the target's strength, but it would bring deep pressure to the target, affecting the target's actual performance.

Just like being hit by a blunt club, the Tide Lord only felt a pain in its skull, and its head began to feel dizzy.

Liu Cheng hurriedly countered the move, immediately activating the Mental Soothing Secret Technique Imprint; this Secret Technique could offset most negative buffs, including Mental Lash, and the Tide Lord immediately regained its clarity, rushing toward Aixi again, not giving it the chance to take advantage of the situation to finish off the Earth Mammoth.

Just as the Tide Lord was chasing Aixi, the fur of the Three-Tailed Snow Fox glowed with a rich ice-blue halo, its three fluffy tails fluttering wantonly, and countless icy auras were released, forming a biting Cold Ice Storm that swept toward the Tide Lord.

Wave Strike!

The Tide Lord hurriedly stopped its pursuit, spraying a surging torrent from its mouth that turned into a monstrous wave, colliding with the Cold Ice Storm in the blink of an eye.

In the blink of an eye, the torrent began to freeze.

Taking advantage of their stalemate, Aixi suddenly turned from the other side of the Earth Mammoth and appeared behind the Tide Lord, its sword-like fangs unstoppable, this time piercing the Tide Lord's thigh.

After completing this strike, Aixi immediately turned and ran; because it had been bitten by Aixi, the Tide Lord's attention was severely distracted and it could no longer maintain the waves, so the Cold Ice Storm took the opportunity to surge forward, instantly hitting the Tide Lord and freezing almost half of its body.

Not until this moment did the Earth Mammoth finally recover, standing up shakily from the ground while clutching its hind legs, staring at Aixi with bloodthirsty eyes and a hateful gaze.

This damn tigress had almost ruined its happy life and made it suffer pain that had never appeared in its life; this was absolutely unforgivable!

Landslide!

While Aixi and the Three-Tailed Snow Fox were tormenting the Tide Lord, the Earth Mammoth stood up on its hind legs; this time, its front elephant legs were wrapped in an unusually rich earthy-yellow mist, and it smashed them fiercely against the ground with maximum force.

The next moment, the earth shook and the mountains swayed, the surrounding ground vibrated violently, and the ground nearby even cracked, with an earthy-yellow shockwave spreading rapidly from the Earth Mammoth as the center.

Aixi, the Three-Tailed Snow Fox, and even the Tide Lord could not react in time and were knocked to the ground by the earthy-yellow shockwave; they fell to the ground in a sorry state, drifting with the tide in the violent earthquake, unable to even crawl up, showing expressions of pain.

The most painful was undoubtedly the Tide Lord, because it was a Water Attribute Demon Pet, which happened to be countered by the Earth Element Landslide, and coupled with the injuries it had just received, it was directly severely wounded.

"Are you crazy!"

Liu Cheng looked at Dou Yuansheng with resentment; this was his second Demon Pet slot, and if he lost the Tide Lord, Dou Yuansheng would have to fight alone.

Furthermore, Liu Cheng was the second-ranked student in the Second Grade of the Royal Academy and did not get along well with Dou Yuansheng to begin with, so the conflict that had originally been suppressed was reactivated.

As a result, Liu Cheng didn't care whether he would hurt Dou Yuansheng's Earth Mammoth, and while the Tide Lord could still continue to fight, he immediately ordered the Tide Lord to perform its most powerful move—Sea Collapse!

Splash~

The Demon Core inside the Tide Lord began to operate at overload, spraying countless water splashes from its mouth, which eventually turned into a wave more than ten meters high, sweeping forward like a bursting flood.

Under this monstrous wave capable of sweeping across most of the field, everything seemed to become tiny.

Dou Yuansheng glared fiercely at Liu Cheng and hurriedly ordered the Earth Mammoth to perform Earth Wall; a thick earth wall formed immediately, but compared to the wave, it still looked a bit tiny.

Iron Wall!

Limited by the size of the field, Aixi could not avoid such a large-scale offensive, but it did not stay in place; instead, it ran to the back of the Earth Mammoth at the fastest speed, gathered a large amount of golden energy, and instantly created an iron wall in front of it.

Ice Storm!

Not far away, the Three-Tailed Snow Fox's fluffy tails flashed with a rich ice-blue brilliance, and an unusually biting Ice Storm took shape, wanting to freeze the wave.

Under the extreme low temperature of the Ice Storm, the surface of the wave froze instantly, but unfortunately, the volume of the wave was too large and its fluidity was too strong, so countless cracks appeared on the frozen ice blocks instantly, and the wave continued to sweep down.

Rumble~

The next moment, the wave slammed fiercely into the Earth Wall; the Earth Wall trembled violently, suddenly showing a large number of cracks, and was then completely washed away by the wave, with the Earth Mammoth and the Three-Tailed Snow Fox drifting in the surging wave, sweeping toward Aixi.

However, after being blocked by the Ice Storm and the Earth Wall, the impact of the wave was weakened by more than half, and its height was only about three meters, just parallel to the Iron Wall.

Bang~

The moment the wave hit the Iron Wall, the Iron Wall only shook slightly and still stood firmly in place; until this moment, the wave completely collapsed, turning into a large amount of water flowing down from both ends of the Iron Wall, and for a time, the ground was covered with a large amount of water stains.

The moment it finished performing Sea Collapse, the Tide Lord seemed to fall into a stiff state; this was the sequela of performing Sea Collapse, and it would take two or three seconds to catch its breath.

Two or three seconds were short, but as long as they were grasped, it was enough to cause fatal damage to the Tide Lord.

However, due to the wave, Aixi and the Three-Tailed Snow Fox were thirty or forty meters away from the Tide Lord.

At this time, the Three-Tailed Snow Fox struggled to stand up from the ground, its expression somewhat listless; because its fur defense was not outstanding, it had suffered heavy damage from the successive offensives of Landslide and Sea Collapse.

Not far away, the Earth Mammoth was struggling to stand up from the ground, but just at this moment, Aixi, which had already put on a second layer of Wind Cloak, moved, and in the blink of an eye, it stepped on the muddy ground and appeared in front of the Earth Mammoth.

Trample!

The Earth Mammoth reacted quickly; its limbs, as thick as copper pillars, moved, wanting to stomp on Aixi.

However, its movements were still too slow; Aixi reacted in advance, and after taking a few steps back, it immediately switched from close combat to long-range attack, countless pale cyan light spots gathering and rapidly turning into a huge Wind Blade a zhang long, spinning rapidly as it cut toward the Earth Mammoth.

"Earth Shield!" Dou Yuansheng's voice rang out; as long as this wave of offensive was resisted, he believed the Tide Lord would be able to recover from its stiffness.

Even if he and Liu Cheng didn't get along, everyone understood the relationship of "when the lips are gone, the teeth are cold," especially under the eyes of everyone, it was impossible for Liu Cheng not to take action.

Unfortunately, just as the Earth Mammoth was preparing to perform Earth Shield to defend, the Three-Tailed Snow Fox did not care about the Tide Lord, which was still in a stiff state, but instead quickly rushed in front of the Earth Mammoth and gave its face a mouthful of Ice Breath.

The misty cold air hit instantly, causing the Earth Mammoth's elephant face to be covered with frost, which made it shiver violently; because it could not concentrate, the Earth Shield that was about to be completed dissipated with a bang.

In an instant, the huge Wind Blade cut fiercely into the Earth Mammoth's neck, breaking through the Earth Mammoth's thick skin and fat layer, cutting out a not-so-small gap, and countless blood sprayed out, dyeing the ground red.

Woo-woo~

The Earth Mammoth let out a mournful cry, its huge body falling heavily to the ground, causing the entire field to vibrate.

The Earth Mammoth's huge body twitched, it struggled symbolically a few times, its head tilted, and it directly lost its combat ability.

In addition, with the Earth Mammoth's injuries, if it could not be treated in time, there was even a risk of losing its life.

While Dou Yuansheng was recalling his Earth Mammoth, Aixi and the Three-Tailed Snow Fox immediately seized this hard-won opportunity to launch a fierce offensive against the Tide Lord.

Aixi opened its large mouth, and countless golden light particles gathered frantically, almost drowning its mouth; when it could no longer contain them, it spat out a Golden Light Beam as thick as a water bucket.

At the same time, the Three-Tailed Snow Fox condensed an Ice Seal Ball the size of a water vat and pushed it toward the Tide Lord.

During its advance, the Ice Seal Ball shot out a large number of two-foot-long Ice Spikes, completely covering the area around the Tide Lord and leaving it no room to dodge.

At this moment, the Tide Lord finally regained its mobility, but facing the joint attack from Aixi and the Three-Tailed Snow Fox, it was forced to release a thick, constantly flowing water curtain, wrapping itself up completely.

The Golden Light Beam landed on the water curtain first, causing layers of ripples; just as the two were deadlocked, the Ice Spikes shot from the Ice Seal Ball acted like the final straw that broke the camel's back, forcibly piercing the water curtain and revealing the panicked Tide Lord.

Boom—

Accompanied by a loud roaring sound, the Tide Lord's chest was struck directly by the Golden Light Beam, and countless Ice Spikes cut numerous wounds into its body.

The late-arriving Ice Seal Ball then exploded on the Tide Lord, adding even more wounds to it.

Bang—

Already heavily wounded, the Tide Lord could no longer hold on; it collapsed heavily to the ground, directly losing its ability to fight.

Suddenly, a Purple Hexagram appeared, and immediately after, the arena was abruptly shrouded in complete Darkness.

In the darkness, a massive figure accompanied by a strong, fishy Wind instantly knocked the caught-off-guard Three-Tailed Snow Fox flying; before the Three-Tailed Snow Fox could hit the ground, three black beams of light landed on its body in succession.

Boom—

The Three-Tailed Snow Fox landed on the ground, directly losing its ability to fight.

The entire process was too fast, and combined with the Darkness, Li Zhangsheng had no time to launch a rescue before the Three-Tailed Snow Fox was defeated.

With this, Zhao Shuyi and Liu Cheng were both eliminated, and the only things left to decide the outcome of the match were Aixi and Dou Yuansheng's Life-Bound Demon Pet.

Today's goal: Three, pigs, verified! Five thousand steps!

(End of this chapter)