Chapter 655: Advancing to the Top Eight (Second update, requesting everything)

This is a red dragon, a full thirty-plus meters in length, with a pair of dragon wings that seem to blot out the sky and sun, leaving behind a massive shadow.

Utilizing the ten seconds of observation time, Li Zhangsheng obtained its data.

【Spirit Beast Name】: Red Dragon (Mature Stage, Top-tier Exotic Beast.)

【Spirit Beast Realm】: Lord 9th Rank

【Spirit Beast Race】: High-level Monarch

【Spirit Beast Quality】: Top-grade

【Spirit Beast Bloodline】: Ancestral Red Dragon (Rich)

【Spirit Beast Attribute】: Fire Element

【Spirit Beast Status】: Healthy

【Spirit Beast Weakness】: None (Attribute weakness eliminated by Mysterious Jade Ginseng)

This red dragon is also Qin Kun's trump card, and it took a massive cost to nurture it to its current state.

Among the Five-Colored Dragon and Metal Dragon, the red dragon is the most massive in size, making this red dragon even taller and sturdier than Li Zhangsheng's golden dragon and black dragon.

Just at this moment, Qin Kun buffed the red dragon with the Giantization Secret Technique, causing the red dragon's size to surge again, stopping only after it reached nearly fifty meters.

On the other side, Li Zhangsheng buffed Datou with the Swift as Wind Secret Technique, causing its speed to increase drastically.

Roar—

At the first opportunity, the red dragon let out a vigorous and majestic Dragon Roar, the sound like a thunderclap, and an invisible Dragon Might permeated the entire arena.

Under the influence of the Dragon Might, Datou was affected; even though it did not fall into a Cowering state, the 10% decrease in all abilities still caused its combat power to decline to a certain extent.

As the ten seconds of observation time passed, the two Flying Demon Pets began to act.

Chirp—

Accompanied by a loud cry, Datou spat out a cyan wind column as thick as a water vat.

Roar—

On the other side, the red dragon opened its dragon maw, countless fiery red light spots converged, and it spat out an exceptionally scorching Flame Dragon Breath.

In the blink of an eye, the cyan and red energy beams collided.

Boom—

Contrary to Qin Kun's expectations, his red dragon did not suppress the opponent; instead, it fell into a stalemate, merely fighting to a draw.

Although the red dragon was strong, Datou held the upper hand in both quality and race; if not for the greater power of the Dragon Breath skill and the influence of the Dragon Might trait, the red dragon might have been suppressed by Datou instead.

The two stalemated for a while, and eventually, the wind borrowed the fire's momentum, turning into a fire tornado that spun rapidly between the two.

The fire tornado raged on the Water Field, emitting the sound of water and fire being incompatible; for a time, countless water vapors rose and permeated the surroundings, and vision began to be affected.

Datou's eyes were sharp; although it could not see through illusions like a Bright Heavy-Pupil Bird, the water vapor did not affect its vision much, and it quickly located the red dragon.

Wind Ripple!

In the sky, Datou flapped its wings frantically, a cyan ripple was generated and quickly rushed toward the red dragon's location.

When the red dragon realized it, the Wind Ripple had already arrived between them; the red dragon hurriedly condensed an Explosive Fireball the size of a house, which collided with the Wind Ripple.

Boom—

The moment they made contact, the Explosive Fireball exploded with a bang, and the Wind Ripple became unstable, turning into countless tiny cyan light beams that scattered in all directions.

Due to the close distance, the red dragon was caught in the aftermath and struck by several cyan light beams.

Flame Charge!

The red dragon was very clear about its advantages; its massive dragon body shook, and surging flames appeared on its skin. Under the powerful propulsion of the flames, its explosive power surged significantly, as if it had turned into a red stream of light, crashing head-on toward Datou.

Wind Stealth!

The moment the red dragon made a move, Datou reacted; a flash of cyan light appeared on its skin, and it seemed to turn into a Residual Shadow, thereby avoiding the red dragon's collision and appearing above its head instead.

Suddenly, Datou shimmered with a rich light, instantly completing its form change, reverting to its Giant Whale Kun form, and slamming heavily onto the red dragon, intending to smash it into the water.

In terms of size, the Giant Whale Kun was even larger than the red dragon, and its weight was almost double.

Roar—

Seeing that it was about to be smashed into the water, the red dragon hurriedly released the Resist Fire Ring; the astonishing flames turned into a thick ring of fire that quickly expanded to the surroundings.

Under the eruption of the fire ring, the Giant Whale Kun's downward momentum was barely halted, and the fish scales on its body instantly turned charred black, suffering a certain amount of fire damage.

Taking advantage of this, the red dragon flapped its dragon wings and brushed past the Giant Whale Kun.

Just as the Giant Whale Kun fell into the water, the red dragon opened its mouth and spat out a scorching Dragon Breath, causing water vapor to rise again, which almost permeated more than half of the field.

The Water Field was hit successively by the fire tornado and the Flame Dragon Breath, causing the water level to drop by a segment, revealing Datou's huge fish fins, which were seven or eight meters tall and bore traces of intense burning; clearly, the previous Dragon Breath had successfully hit Datou.

At this time, the red dragon shook its whole body, and wild flames appeared around it; in the blink of an eye, a Flame Storm with a diameter of twenty or thirty meters finally took shape.

The Flame Storm rotated rapidly and swept toward Datou in the Water Field.

The red dragon's move was not only to attack Datou but also to evaporate the Water Field in the process; this way, Datou would lose its field advantage and could only revert to its Golden-Eyed Roc form to duel with it.

At the critical moment, under Datou's control, the Water Field became turbulent, like a fountain erupting; all the liquid in the entire field surged upward frantically, turning into a thick water column with a diameter of tens of meters, which collided with the Flame Storm in the blink of an eye.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—

The sound of water and fire being incompatible rang out; although the Flame Storm was strong, Datou had the field advantage, and the power of the water column was even greater, extinguishing the Flame Storm in one fell swoop and then, under the red dragon's terrified gaze, quickly submerging it.

Boom—splash—

The red dragon's massive dragon body slammed heavily onto the waterless Water Field, creating a large pit in the ground; immediately after, the kinetic energy of the erupting water column was exhausted, turning into countless water droplets that scattered down from the sky, as if a rainstorm had occurred.

Only, compared to before, the water level in the Water Field was less than three meters deep, with the rest completely evaporated by the fire.

Even so, it still caused secondary damage to the fire-attribute red dragon, making it feel extremely uncomfortable.

If it hadn't eaten the Mysterious Jade Ginseng to eliminate its attribute weakness, the red dragon might have directly lost its ability to fight.

However, although the red dragon had not yet lost its ability to fight, falling from the sky inevitably brought a feeling of dizziness.

Before the red dragon could react, Datou in its Giant Whale Kun form slapped the ground with its huge tail, jumped high, and slammed heavily toward the red dragon lying on the ground.

The red dragon stood up from the ground, feeling dizzy, and abruptly discovered that the shadow on the ground was growing larger and larger; it subconsciously looked up, and upon discovering it was the giant whale Kun in freefall, its massive Longyan were filled with terror.

Crack— Boom—

The red dragon wanted to dodge, but it had already missed the best opportunity to do so. It was directly smashed to the ground by the freefalling Datou.

Due to the intense pain, its huge Longyan bulged out violently, covered in bloodshot veins that symbolized agony.

During this process, some spectators seemed to feel the pain as if it were their own, subconsciously covering their mouths; the consequences of being hit by such a massive freefalling giant whale Kun could be imagined.

"The red dragon has lost its ability to battle. Given that contestant Qin Kun has lost all his Demon Pet slots, the winner of this Group Stage match is contestant Li Zhangsheng!"

After confirming the state of the red dragon, the referee made the announcement.

Li Zhangsheng did not feel much joy; after all, this was a victory that had been expected.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

However, Li Zhangsheng's supporters did not see it that way; they still believed Li Zhangsheng only had Fifth Rank standard and thought he had once again defeated an opponent by crossing ranks, so they could not help but cheer and jump for joy for Li Zhangsheng, the entire venue filled with their cheers and applause.

"Sigh, I lost!"

On the other side, Qin Kun let out a soft sigh; being defeated by the 'Fifth Rank' Li Zhangsheng by 'crossing ranks', his mood was naturally very poor.

Despite this, Qin Kun still took the initiative to come before Li Zhangsheng and said with a forced smile: "Congratulations, I think with your strength, you have a chance to advance to the Finals!"

"Thank you!"

Li Zhangsheng was taken aback; Qin Kun's performance after his defeat exceeded his expectations, but he still expressed his gratitude at the appropriate time.

"This is indeed a person worth befriending!"

Li Zhangsheng thought to himself, quickly returning to the lounge to wait, feeling bored.

The reason he left immediately was, firstly, to observe future opponents, and secondly, to prepare to go back with Ning Bizhen.

By 11:00 in the morning, the first round of the Group Stage had completely ended, and half of the participating contestants had been directly eliminated.

Among them, Miao Yinfeng and Shen Haofei had both successfully advanced.

Apart from Li Zhangsheng, the four Pseudo-King level experts on the surface naturally completed their advancement; of the seven Sixth-Rank Experts, only Qin Kun was unfortunately eliminated, while the rest all advanced to the second round, and the remaining 21 spots were composed of 16 Fifth Rank and 5 Fourth Rank contestants.

There were two Group Stage matches every day, which meant there was still one in the afternoon, which would determine the spots for the top 16.

By two o'clock in the afternoon, Li Zhangsheng began his second round of the Group Stage; this time his opponent was only a Fifth Rank, whom he solved easily and happily.

As for those related to Li Zhangsheng, they all advanced to the top 16 without exception.

The following morning, Li Zhangsheng participated in the third round of the Group Stage; this time his opponent was another Sixth-Rank Expert, but unfortunately, this Sixth-Rank's strength was not even as good as Qin Kun's, so he naturally could not avoid the fate of being defeated by Li Zhangsheng.

In this way, Li Zhangsheng successfully advanced to the top 8, and the next match to determine the spots for the Finals would be held in the afternoon; his opponent would naturally be the Third Prince Dou Yuanbin, who would not die if he did not court death.

In this round of the Group Stage, Miao Yinfeng's luck was not very good; his opponent was a Sixth-Rank Expert, and even though he gave it his all, he still could not avoid the fate of failure, missing out on a spot in the top 8.

Unlike Miao Yinfeng, Shen Haofei had never encountered a Sixth-Rank Expert or a Pseudo-King from beginning to end, luckily remaining until the end.

For them, luck was truly very important.

The top 16 and the top 8 might seem not much different, but the rewards were not on the same level at all.

(End of this chapter)