Next Came the Autumn Hunt
Niu Dingtian stood in the courtyard, and then faint black lines appeared under his skin. After that, his body seemed to have no bones, and his hands and feet could bend and stretch at will, greatly improving his flexibility.
Finally, Niu Dingtian's body suddenly disappeared from the spot, and then immediately crawled out from the original shadow. This was the so-called Shadow Softbody Transformation ability, which allowed him to temporarily hide in the shadow, but it was not without its flaws.
First, he cannot Integration with his own shadow before completing the third ability, Shadow Space. Second, he is, after all, a living person. Although he has the ability to enter the shadow due to the Shadow Softbody Transformation, he cannot stay there for long, otherwise he will be in danger of being assimilated by the shadow.
However, even just this ability is remarkable, granting temporary invincibility. Unless the opponent has the ability to directly attack the interior of the shadow, they cannot harm him.
At the same time, Niu Dingtian circulated his inner energy. After so long of cultivation, his inner energy had finally stabilized and reached a certain level. Furthermore, Niu Dingtian circulated his inner energy and slapped it against a tree not far away.
With his current profound energy, he could at most increase the strength of his hands and feet, but when he struck with this palm, the entire tree shook, and the leaves and branches seemed to have suffered something, falling down one after another.
Because of his cultivation of the Shaking Ox Force, his profound energy has acquired the attribute of vibration. Furthermore, the system indicates that if he wants to learn the Impact Fist, his modification requirements can be reduced by at least half, and its power will also increase by 20% to 30%.
This prompted Niu Dingtian to put the training of the Impact Fist on his agenda. However, although the requirements for the Impact Fist had been reduced considerably, it still required certain materials, which he could not ask his family for and had to find secretly.
Three days had passed, and the so-called important person should be arriving soon. Sure enough, not long after, a servant from the old master's mansion knocked on Niu Dingtian's door and quickly arrived at the old master's mansion. After being given a few words of advice to be careful, the old master led Niu Dingtian towards the outskirts of the city.
From afar, Niu Dingtian could see a large group of people in the suburbs, including the head of Ox Family Town, several other elders, and members of wealthy families in the town. Each of them was accompanied by one or two teenagers. As expected, Niu Han was also among the crowd.
The center of this group was clearly a woman standing near a small hill. She was dressed in a white dress with pink accents and looked to be in her early thirties. Her face was as beautiful as a peach blossom, giving her a unique charm. However, even the head of the Ox Family did not dare to look closely, for fear of offending her. Only some young men stood at a distance, glancing up a few times before quickly turning their heads away as if nothing had happened.
The elder led Niu Dingtian straight to the woman. After meeting the family head, the elder patted Niu Dingtian on the shoulder and said to the woman, "Mr. Qi, this Niu Dingtian is a young talent from our Ox Family Town. His awakened life soul is a newly discovered unknown life soul, temporarily assessed as Earth Grade."
"Dingtian, demonstrate for Mr. Qi." The elder then looked at Niu Dingtian seriously.
Niu Dingtian clearly understood that this was his chance to show off, so he quickly activated the rudimentary form of his ability. First, he activated the Shadow Space. As soon as he activated it, faint ripples appeared behind Niu Dingtian, and a huge space appeared behind him. Of course, the rudimentary form of the ability could only be demonstrated and had no actual effect.
He then activated the rudimentary form of the Shadow Armor, and a large amount of black substance instantly emerged from his body, enveloping Niu Dingtian. Niu Dingtian then Avatar into a giant about three meters tall.
Then, when he used the Shadow Softbody Transformation, it was no longer a rudimentary form of ability, but a real display of power. This brought a hint of surprise to the elder's eyes. The so-called Mr. Qi also nodded. A Grade Earth Soul, and it seems that his abilities are quite good. Moreover, his Xuan Power was very stable when he circulated it before. He is a good prospect.
"That's good. If they don't perform too badly during the autumn hunt, they'll all be accepted," Mr. Qi nodded affirmatively.
"Thank you, Mr. Qi," the old man said hastily. Niu Dingtian quickly echoed him, then greeted the patriarch before retreating. Niu Dingtian noticed that after him, several other people led their entourage to greet him, but most of them did not receive a positive response from Mr. Qi.
The elder led Niu Dingtian aside and said, "That Mr. Qi is a teacher from the Great Cloud Mountain Academy. He's here to recruit students today. After all, you have a low-grade life spirit, so passing the exam should be quite easy. Just make sure Qiu Shou's performance isn't unbelievably bad. Qiu Shou is just going through the motions with you."
"Understood." Niu Dingtian nodded, then expressed his gratitude to the old man. This old man was truly paving the way for Niu Dingtian. Perhaps his motives were not pure, but so what? How many people in the world would be kind to you without asking why?
Niu Dingtian started to warm up his body to prepare for the upcoming autumn hunt. Although it was just a formality, it would be embarrassing to do poorly. The so-called autumn hunt was a tradition in Ox Family Town and even most areas.
On the Heavenly Secrets Continent, there exists a creature that surpasses ordinary wild beasts, called the Xuan Beast. Needless to say, it is divided into five ranks: Heaven, Earth, Xuan, and Yellow. In the past, every winter when there was no food, the Xuan Beasts would gather together, forming a beast tide that would attack human cities.
To slow down the beast tides, the autumn hunt gradually came into being. As humans grew stronger, some small beast tides could no longer breach the town's defenses, but the tradition of the autumn hunt was preserved and gradually evolved into a place for the younger generation to display their martial prowess.
In the past, the Autumn Hunt was held later, and the participants were mostly young people who had just awakened their life souls. However, due to the enrollment of the Great Cloud Mountain Academy, the Autumn Hunt was brought forward, and the participants changed from people who had just awakened their life souls to people who had awakened their life souls in the past three years.
Niu Dingtian glanced around and saw that there were about forty people participating in this autumn hunt. According to the information given by the elders, the Great Cloud Mountain Academy would only admit a maximum of ten people this time, a ratio of four to one.
In fact, over the years, the number of people who have awakened their life souls in Ox Family Town is far more than forty. However, most of them are unaware of the enrollment of the Great Cloud Mountain Academy this time.
If admissions were based solely on the results of the Autumn Hunt, neither Niu Dingtian nor Niu Han would be selected. After all, there were people who had awakened their life souls in previous years who participated. They might be less talented than the two of them, but one to two years of cultivation would be enough for them to successfully develop their abilities and become strong enough to overwhelm the newly awakened ones.
Taking a deep breath, Niu Dingtian understood as the Azure Ox Horn sounded that the autumn hunt was about to begin. He touched his head, his excitement about participating in the hunt making him selectively ignore the hair that was falling out.