Chapter 619: Advancing to the Sixth Rank (Second update, requesting everything)

Aixi landed steadily behind, but unexpectedly, it made no move to overtake.

There was no other reason: the path was too narrow, and with Dou Yuanbin intentionally on guard, overtaking was not only difficult but also carried the risk of being knocked off the mountain path.

Once knocked off the Fulin Mountain path, it would mean losing eligibility for the Finals.

However, Dou Yuanbin's heart was still raised, and he had to focus part of his attention on Li Zhangsheng.

Soon, a series of curves began to appear ahead, and the corners of Li Zhangsheng's mouth turned up, revealing a smile.

The moment he 'saw' Li Zhangsheng's smile, Dou Yuanbin's heart skipped a beat, and an ominous thought arose within him.

Due to the harsh weather, terrible visibility, rugged road, and continuous curves, the speed of the Azure Wind-Born Beast had to be reduced once again.

"Charge up!"

At Li Zhangsheng's signal, Aixi's speed surged, attempting to complete an overtake from the inside.

In an instant, the Azure Wind-Born Beast hurriedly moved toward the inside, blocking Aixi's path and trying its best not to give it a chance to overtake.

Yet, Aixi had long anticipated this; as the Azure Wind-Born Beast moved to the inside, it seized the opportunity to shift to the outside, instantly catching up from behind and pulling parallel with the Azure Wind-Born Beast.

"Not good, ram it!"

Dou Yuanbin's expression changed drastically, and the Azure Wind-Born Beast hurriedly rammed toward Aixi, wanting to knock Aixi off the mountain path.

Instant Flash!

Just at the moment the two were about to make contact, Aixi seemed to shift its form and shadow, instantly appearing more than ten meters away.

As a result, the Azure Wind-Born Beast rammed into empty air, looking as if it were about to fall off the mountain path.

The Azure Wind-Born Beast hurriedly halted its steps; as a Demon King level Demon Pet, its control over its own body reached an unimaginable level, and it successfully stopped its momentum just before rushing off the mountain path.

However, this also caused the Azure Wind-Born Beast's speed to drop significantly, and Ning Bizhen's Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast seized the opportunity to rush up.

Unexpectedly, the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast did not complete the overtake, but instead pulled parallel with the Azure Wind-Born Beast.

"Not good!"

Dou Yuanbin seemed to think of something and hurriedly had the Azure Wind-Born Beast use an explosive skill.

In an instant, the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast rammed toward the Azure Wind-Born Beast, repeating its previous action, wanting to knock it off the mountain path.

At the critical moment, a flash of green light appeared on the surface of the Azure Wind-Born Beast, as if it had turned into a Residual Shadow, completing an evasion in a hair-raising manner and once again surpassing the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast.

Dou Yuanbin had just wanted to heave a sigh of relief when his heart had to be raised again.

Because this was a continuous trap!

When overtaking the Azure Wind-Born Beast, Li Zhangsheng did not let Aixi pull away; instead, he let Aixi reduce its speed, waiting for an opportunity a few meters ahead.

Thus, the moment the Azure Wind-Born Beast surpassed the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast, it happened to step right into Li Zhangsheng's trap.

The moment the Azure Wind-Born Beast was about to be parallel with Aixi, Aixi rammed into it fiercely.

This time, the Azure Wind-Born Beast was helpless; having just used an explosive skill, its limbs were on the verge of their limit, and it was impossible to burst forth again.

"Emergency stop!"

Dou Yuanbin was no fool; he managed to think of a way in an instant.

The Azure Wind-Born Beast slammed on the brakes with its four limbs, managing to stop its steps and barely avoiding being hit by Aixi.

Dou Yuanbin subconsciously let out a sigh of relief, but suddenly, another massive black shadow struck.

It turned out that the moment the Azure Wind-Born Beast paused, the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast had caught up again.

This time, the Azure Wind-Born Beast was beyond saving; it was struck directly by the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast, and under the immense force, it was knocked straight off the mountain path, falling rapidly toward the depths below.

They were at an altitude of over two thousand meters; if it were an ordinary person, there would naturally be no way to deal with it, but Dou Yuanbin was not in that category, not to mention that the Azure Wind-Born Beast itself possessed the ability to hover briefly.

By the time the Azure Wind-Born Beast hovered in mid-air, an official staff member preparing for rescue arrived riding a large Flying Demon Pet.

The racing competition naturally had a rescue team to deal with various emergencies, including a large number of official personnel riding Flying Demon Pets.

If a contestant fell from a high altitude, they would step in to rescue them.

The staff member recognized Dou Yuanbin, and he had not expected that Dou Yuanbin would actually fall off the mountain path.

"Damn it!"

Dou Yuanbin let out a hateful roar, his handsome face twisted and abnormal; this frightened the staff member, who trembled all over, fearing he would become the target of the vent.

At this moment, the eliminated Dou Yuanbin had quite the thought of chasing after them to finish off this pair of lovebirds, but reason still made him dismiss this idea.

However, although Dou Yuanbin was confident he could defeat Li Zhangsheng, he felt he might not be able to beat Ning Bizhen, let alone take on two at once; wouldn't that just be asking for a beating!

Who would voluntarily stick their face out to let the other party slap it repeatedly? There was simply no such logic!

Under these circumstances, Dou Yuanbin was like the ape on the Empire State Building, raging in impotence.

The poor guy couldn't even get a consolation prize and had to endure such great anger; if this matter were to spread, it would even affect his reputation.

After joining forces to 'finish off' Dou Yuanbin, on the subsequent journey, Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen arrived at the finish line without any surprises or dangers, winning the champion and runner-up titles of the racing competition without any suspense.

"Well done, Aixi!"

Li Zhangsheng stroked Aixi's large head, then retracted Aixi, who could not hide its disappointment.

Although Aixi had won the championship, it was still very disappointed because the one who knocked Dou Yuanbin away was not it, but the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast.

Contrary to Aixi, the Green-Eyed Golden-Eyed Beast squinted its eyes happily, revealing a rather strange smile.

Not long after, other contestants arrived at the finish line one after another.

Some were happy, while others were disappointed.

Soon, the awards ceremony began.

At the commentator's signal, Li Zhangsheng and Ning Bizhen stepped onto the podium and then took the Academy Medal and the rewards.

On the tray lay a fire-red tail feather that was over ten meters long.

As a Top-tier Divine Beast, a Phoenix is a Demon Emperor level existence once it reaches adulthood, so its size goes without saying.

Ten meters long might seem exaggerated, but if it were a normal Phoenix tail feather, it would be estimated to be at least several tens of meters long, with some even reaching a hundred meters.

Therefore, this was a broken Phoenix tail feather, probably only a fraction of a normal tail feather.

Even so, Li Zhangsheng treated it as a precious treasure and solemnly stored it in his Space Ring.

Li Zhangsheng looked at Ning Bizhen and said, "All matters are concluded; it is time for us to return!"

Ning Bizhen did not object; following her husband's lead, she rode the Three-Legged Fire Crow back to Yuanling Academy with Li Zhangsheng.

By the time they returned to Number One Courtyard, the sky had completely darkened, filled with stars that cast a dim starlight.

Judging by the magnificent starry sky tonight, Li Zhangsheng could definitely reach the peak of the Fifth Rank and attempt to break through to the Sixth Rank.

Ning Bizhen did not leave; she prepared to assist Li Zhangsheng in his breakthrough to avoid a lack of Starlight Power at the critical moment.

In Li Zhangsheng's bedroom, the glass panels on the roof had been opened, and the twinkling starlight was vaguely visible.

To avoid too much commotion during the breakthrough, Li Zhangsheng took out the Imitation Demon Refining Pot, and a colorful energy barrier immediately expanded, encompassing the bedroom within it.

Sometimes being too high-profile is not good, especially since Li Zhangsheng was not yet 18 years old.

Apart from a few people, everyone else subconsciously assumed that Li Zhangsheng had only recently broken through to the Fifth Rank; if he were to break through to the Sixth Rank now, what would others think?

If Li Zhangsheng had an Emperor Rank or an Emperor as his backing, he naturally wouldn't care, but he didn't; his backing was Yuanling Academy, which didn't even have a King Rank.

All Li Zhangsheng could do was conceal it, delay the news of his advancement to the Sixth Rank, and use this time to strive to improve his own strength.

After preparations were complete, the two closed their eyes simultaneously and began to enter a state of cultivation.

To advance to a Sixth-tier Beastmaster, two conditions still needed to be met.

First, condensing the second full Silver Moon; Li Zhangsheng could be said to be only one step away.

Second, needing six Lord-level Demon Pets to assist in the advancement with their power!

Of course, even if the breakthrough conditions were met, there was still a probability of failure.

However, among Li Zhangsheng's official Demon Pets, apart from the Chi Dragon, all the others had reached the Lord level, not to mention their quality—this was simply an all-star lineup.

With such a luxurious lineup, the possibility of the breakthrough failing could only be described as negligible.

In the night sky, the numerous stars represented by the Four Symbols Constellations flickered slightly, merging into a pillar of starlight as thick as a water vat, instantly submerging Li Zhangsheng, who was sitting cross-legged on the Six-Rank Star Palace Lotus Platform, reflecting him in the silver starlight.

Among the Xuanwu Constellation, one of the stars appeared dim.

This time, Li Zhangsheng wanted to take advantage of the breakthrough to activate the last star of the Xuanwu Constellation.

Ning Bizhen also drew down a large amount of Starlight Power, gathering it on Li Zhangsheng.

Under the purification of the Six-Rank Star Palace Lotus Platform, this Starlight Power became quite docile, the violent factors contained within it were almost completely cleared away, and it did not cause Li Zhangsheng any pain.

In his vast Consciousness Sea, countless amounts of Starlight Power surged into the Soul Light Sphere, forming waves of Mental Power that rushed rapidly toward the second Silver Moon.

Under the stimulation of the Mental Power waves, the Silver Moon suddenly shone brightly and gradually became rounded.

Soon, more than twenty minutes passed.

The second moon was successfully completed, allowing Li Zhangsheng to meet all the conditions for advancing to the Sixth Rank.

The next moment, Li Zhangsheng controlled the Mental Power to surge into the nine mental channels, using his intent to issue commands to his nine Demon Pets.

In an instant, countless mist-like Origin Power flowed through the mental channels and into Li Zhangsheng's Consciousness Sea.

Under Li Zhangsheng's control, the colorful Origin Power gathered on the second full moon, making it multicolored and radiating an exotic beauty.

As time passed, this multicolored Origin Power gradually turned into dazzling silver moonlight, shining onto the Soul Light Sphere.

After devouring all the silver moonlight, the Soul Light Sphere acted as if it had consumed a potent tonic, began to tremble violently, its volume grew larger and larger, and its brightness rose by another level.

Once the changes in the Soul Light Sphere stopped, it then transformed into a large amount of Liquid Mental Power, sweeping toward the third layer of the starry sky.

(End of this chapter)