Easy Victory

At this moment, the Stone Statue Giant Monster had exposed its thick flesh.

What the Stone Statue Giant Monster clan took pride in was the suit of stone armor that grew heavier and thicker as they matured,

yet it had now been effortlessly shattered by Dong Lin.

The Stone Statue Giant Monster immediately panicked. It felt its inborn immense strength and impregnable defense slowly being dismantled.

"So that's how it is," Dong Lin murmured. "This is the Heavenly Stellar Lightning Arts,

The damage the Heavenly Stellar Lightning Arts could inflict upon things it countered was actually this unreasonably absurd.

I never expected this monster's stone armor not to be stone armor in the physical sense, but something condensed from demonic power—something I happened to counter."

As Dong Lin thought, he accelerated toward the Stone Statue Giant Monster.

The Thunderclap Sword, paired with Dong Lin's nimble footwork, punched hole after hole through the Stone Statue Giant Monster's body.

As a lightning-wreathed sword severed the Stone Statue Giant Monster's head, the battle was officially declared over.

Next, together with the barely recovered Tao Yan, he slew the four Earth-Element Armored Beasts that were practically lying down waiting to die, then removed and collected their inner cores.

The inner core of this second-rank Stone Statue Giant Monster could not be overlooked either, but its body seemed to have no other usable parts.

The hard rocks covering its body could be found everywhere inside the rocky mountain gate, so they held little value.

The empty, cold underground space made Dong Lin feel uncomfortable all over. After briefly cleaning up the battlefield, he climbed out with Tao Yan.

After ensuring that the surrounding environment was safe, Dong Lin and Tao Yan each found a massive tree dozens of meters tall to serve as a temporary resting place.

Tao Yan had temporarily lost most of her combat power, while Dong Lin also intended to stop hunting. Their gains this time were already sufficient.

Dong Lin's second-rank demon beast inner core should be enough to earn him a place in the top ten of this competition,

while the four first-rank peak beast cores Tao Yan had obtained would ensure certain victory.

For the next few days, the two remained in the trees, concealing their auras. Before leaving on the final day, they went to take another look at that desert.

Rather than gradually shrinking after the deaths of those Earth-Element Armored Beasts, the desert had instead expanded its desertified area.

"What's going on here?"

Both Dong Lin and Tao Yan were puzzled, but this was no longer something they could concern themselves with.

After staying for the full ten days, the two headed to the exit and concluded this hunting competition.

Even after seven or eight days had passed, Tao Yan's face was still somewhat pale. She seemed not to have fully recovered.

"Look, it's the two who were promoted to personal disciples at the last ceremony."

"I wonder how these two did in the hunt."

"One is at the Late Qi Refining Stage, and the other at the Mid Qi Refining Stage. No matter how monstrous their talent is, it still needs time to bear fruit."

"Hey, you didn't attend the last promotion ceremony. You have no idea how terrifying that Personal Disciple Dong's Lightning Arts are."

"Yeah, yeah. Fairy Tao's Profound Yin Power is terrifying too."

"Why don't we place some bets? I guess both of them have at least eighty points."

"Eighty points? That's equivalent to the inner cores of three first-rank peak demon beasts. I don't think that's possible."

"I bet Fairy Tao has at least seventy points, and Personal Disciple Dong has sixty."

"I'm putting down two hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones!"

"Then I'm putting down three hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones!"

"I'm in too, I'm in too!"

As Dong Lin and Tao Yan returned to the camp, the sharp-eyed disciples began discussing them and even hastily opened betting pools.

After the steward verified that the beast cores the two submitted were correct, Dong Lin and Tao Yan's scores were recorded.

The second-rank beast core made up the bulk of it, granting Dong Lin one hundred and six points,

and with some scattered first-rank early- and mid-stage beast cores added in, Dong Lin obtained a total of one hundred and forty-three points this time.

Among them were the inner cores of five Swiftwind Rabbits, which counted for a total of one friendship point.

For low-rank spirit beasts like these, which possessed little combat power and were extremely easy to catch and kill, normal scoring was not allowed,

otherwise, there would be large-scale score-farming groups dedicated to slaughtering these harmless spirit beasts.

With the inner cores of those four first-rank peak Earth-Element Armored Beasts, Tao Yan's total score also reached an astonishing one hundred and twenty-four points.

For this sect's hunting score system, second-rank early-stage and above were worth one hundred points or more,

first-rank peak beasts were worth around twenty-five points, first-rank late-stage beasts around fifteen points, first-rank mid-stage beasts around ten points, and first-rank early-stage beasts generally less than five points.

The large screen in the distance displayed the rankings in real time. Dong Lin temporarily ranked third with one hundred and forty-three points, while Tao Yan ranked fourth.

"That first-place person is called Long Yuanxi. He is the sole disciple of Chou Renjian, the master of the Scripture Repository. They say he has the bearing of a Holy Son."

"Amazing, amazing. They say the master of the Scripture Repository is one of the sect's hidden top experts. He only took one disciple? No wonder he's so formidable!"

"Personal Disciple Dong is only at the Mid Qi Refining Stage, yet he can rank third. Isn't that far too outrageous? Could the results be rigged?"

"Fairy Tao is no simple figure either. Who could have expected this? My spirit stones!!"

The disciples in the arena looked at the large screen and discussed it among themselves.

During the tallying and verification, the two saw the three groups that had previously fought the Stone Statue Giant Monster. Though none of them looked to be in good shape, they should not have suffered any grave harm.

Although the Earth-Element Armored Beasts in the arena were fairly formidable, three Qi Refining Peak cultivators were holding the line,

so those dozen or so Earth-Element Armored Beasts alone found it difficult to pose much of a threat to them.

"So, how were the gains this time, Junior Brother Dong?"

Baili Tianming and Zhao Shuheng, who had long been ready to join the second batch of hunting, had already arrived at the competition grounds.

Baili Tianming patted Dong Lin on the shoulder and asked curiously.

"After surviving a great disaster, I managed to gain something. But Senior Sister Tao is somewhat weakened right now."

Baili Tianming turned to Tao Yan, whose face was slightly pale, and asked, "What happened to Junior Sister?"

Dong Lin described what had happened to the two of them, though he concealed the special effect his Heavenly Stellar Earth-Thunder had displayed at the end.

"You two actually resolved such a near-death situation so easily. It seems I underestimated you somewhat," Zhao Shuheng said with a sigh.

"Junior Brother Dong, not bad. You actually took down that second-rank demon beast?"

"That demon beast was already severely crippled. I was just lucky. Senior Sister Tao was the impressive one."

"Junior Sister's Profound Yin Physique is truly unreasonable. With a single high-value Spirit Crystal, she could forcibly unleash True Intent-level arcane immortal arts?" Baili Tianming praised.

"The Sixth Elder is generous too. A complete Spirit Crystal is worth a hundred High-Grade Spirit Stones,

that's hard currency among the upper echelon. The value of a life-saving trump card like this far exceeds anything people like us possess."

Baili Tianming said with a loud laugh.

After resting briefly, Dong Lin bid everyone farewell and left the arena.

Before leaving, he glanced at the rankings, which had basically finished being tallied.

Zhongli Hao had likely been injured while surrounded by the Earth-Element Armored Beasts, affecting his performance. He had only earned ninety-three points.

As for the other two leading outer sect disciples, they ranked even below Zhongli Hao.

They had probably all been thoroughly screwed over by that Stone Statue Giant Monster, only for Dong Lin to stumble into reaping the fisherman's profit.