Liang Quan struck hard.
Very quickly, the first two teams of examinees were swiftly defeated by him. They ended the first round with zero points and headed to the second exam venue for the next two rounds.
When they left, their faces were filled with despair.
Because by convention, the first round of the exam was usually the easiest.
"This year's exam seems much harder than in previous years." Zhou Lu looked down at the arena and spoke quietly.
Li Yi was somewhat worried as well. "He's already this harsh with other examinees, and he has a grudge against us. Isn't this a hellish start?"
At the side, Xu Wuhu seemed completely unfazed by the failure of the first two teams. He simply continued warming up for the match.
"Don't let outside factors interfere with you." When the announcement called for them to enter the arena, Xu Wuhu stopped what he was doing and said to Li Yi and Zhou Lu, "As long as we give it everything we have, then no matter the outcome, we won't have any regrets!"
With that, Xu Wuhu shouted at his spirit pet, "Silver Armor! Possess me!"
As the Silver Armor Rat attached itself to him, Xu Wuhu, who looked as though he were wearing a silver bodysuit, vaulted straight over the spectator railing and jumped into the arena from several meters up.
"Holy shit! Wait! Is this how we're supposed to enter?" Li Yi stared blankly at the sight. Why was he just jumping down directly?
Damn it!
Li Yi gritted his teeth and said to Sticky Baby, "Cushion me when we get down there!"
Then, holding Sticky Baby in his arms, he jumped down without another word.
He fell fast. For one brief moment, Li Yi regretted it. He could practically see his head hitting the ground and shattering into Quadruple Fragmentation.
Fortunately, at the instant he landed, Sticky Baby spread itself out and turned into a huge cushioning water pad, steadily catching the falling Li Yi.
Li Yi let out a breath and sat up from Sticky Baby's body, only to see Xu Wuhu giving him a strange look. Then Xu Wuhu asked in confusion, "Why did you jump down?"
The moment he heard that, Li Yi's eyelids twitched wildly. "Weren't you the one who jumped first?!"
As he spoke, a ding sounded beside his ear.
Turning around, he saw Zhou Lu walking out of the elevator with Huohuo in his arms.
"I mean... why did you jump down when there was an elevator?" Zhou Lu looked speechlessly at Li Yi and Xu Wuhu. "Don't you know that's a point deduction?"
"Huh? That gets points deducted?" Xu Wuhu's eyes widened. "I thought showing off would earn more points."
"...Performing unnecessary dangerous actions results in point deductions." Zhou Lu was speechless. "Did neither of you read the exam guidelines?"
As he spoke, Zhou Lu set Huohuo down from his arms and looked toward Liang Quan, who sat in the stands watching them with great interest.
At last, the referee recovered from the shock of the two "jumping off a building" and blew the whistle to announce the start of the exam.
"Huohuo! Mad Growth!"
The instant the whistle sounded, Zhou Lu immediately gave the command.
Huohuo's roots swelled in an instant, crushing the ordinary flowerpot around it and blasting deep into the mud beneath it.
As Vine Step and Mad Growth spread, a patch of Dream Rain Flower grassland formed beneath the three of them in the blink of an eye.
Something seemed to be surging within the swamp, trying to swallow the three of them through the flowing mud.
Huohuo's roots tightly gripped the mud, giving the three of them stable footing.
"Interesting." Liang Quan revealed a pleased expression. "Looks like you came prepared. Then let me see exactly how you plan to deal with my Mud Monster!"
The moment Liang Quan finished speaking, a massive Mud Monster rose from the swamp.
"Sticky Baby!" The instant the Mud Monster tried to use the same old trick and "swallow" all of them, Li Yi called out Sticky Baby's name.
Sticky Baby immediately understood. It spread its body out and wrapped around the three of them like a sheet of cloth, forming a huge pink bubble.
"Proceed according to the plan!" Xu Wuhu nodded to Li Yi and Zhou Lu, then charged out of the bubble formed by Sticky Baby without hesitation.
By the time his words fell, his fist had already landed on the Mud Monster's body.
However, the Mud Monster's body was made of flowing mud. A physical fist striking it merely punched a hole through it.
If one could not find the Mud Monster's flowing core, then before ordinary physical attacks, the Mud Monster was practically immortal.
When Liang Quan saw Xu Wuhu actually intending to fight the Mud Monster in close combat with his bare body, the corners of his lips rose in mockery. "How foolish, trying to brawl with a Mud Monster."
Wait! Something was wrong!
Liang Quan had originally intended to properly "educate" Xu Yilong's younger brother in the tone of a teacher, but he suddenly sensed that something was off.
The Mud Monster's body had extremely strong adhesion. Anything that entered the range of its body would be stuck to and wrapped up, then absorbed into its body.
Yet Xu Wuhu had clearly blasted more than a dozen holes through the Mud Monster, but not a trace of mud had stained his body.
Was it Sticky Baby?
Liang Quan immediately understood. Sticky Baby's bubble around the three of them was not merely to protect them from a sneak attack by the Mud Monster. The instant Xu Wuhu rushed out of the bubble, it could also coat his body in Sticky Baby's slime.
With Sticky Baby's slime covering him, the Mud Monster had no way of sticking to Xu Wuhu.
But... how did you plan to win?
Just as Liang Quan was about to speak, he saw that the Mud Monster fighting Xu Wuhu was rapidly slowing down.
Dream Rain Flowers were swiftly growing across the Mud Monster's body. At the same time, huge numbers of Dream Rain Flowers were sprouting from the ground around it.
So while Xu Wuhu fought the Mud Monster, Huohuo had been tirelessly using Vine Step to plant its own offshoots.
Driven by Mad Growth, the offshoots' roots firmly gripped the mud.
The Mud Monster, whose body was mainly composed of mud, gradually lost its mobility in the process. And... its body was no longer completely immune to physical attacks!
The instant Huohuo's roots spread across the Mud Monster's entire body, its core would no longer be able to flow.
Then, as long as Xu Wuhu broke through the Mud Monster's core, he could severely injure it and send it back into its Beast Taming Card.
"A very good strategy." Even though he disliked the personalities of the Xu brothers, Liang Quan still had to marvel at the cleverness of this tactic. "It seems I underestimated plant-type spirit pets. I never expected a first-rank plant-type spirit pet to already be capable of this much."
"Unfortunately, the one standing before you is my Mud Monster!" Liang Quan's lips curled upward as he waved a hand and gave the order. "Mud Monster! Use Quadruple Fragmentation!"
The Mud Monster possessed traits similar to Sticky Baby, so naturally it could use Quadruple Fragmentation as well.
The instant Liang Quan gave the command, the Mud Monster before Xu Wuhu abruptly exploded. Mud that had yet to be seized by the offshoots splashed outward in every direction.
"Your plan is still not perfect enough..." Liang Quan folded his arms across his chest.
"This is the moment!" Zhou Lu suddenly shouted.
"What?!" Liang Quan's pupils shrank slightly. He saw a green vine carrying the pink Sticky Baby shoot over his shoulder at incredible speed, racing toward the red pearl in the center.
Their objective had never been to seize victory over the Mud Monster, but to snatch the pearl.
Without the Mud Monster's obstruction, the pearl was within arm's reach.
Please bookmark! Please keep reading!
Please! This is truly very important to me!
Before you continue