Easy Victory

At that moment, the Stone Statue Giant Monster's thick flesh was exposed.

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

yet Dong Lin had shattered it with effortless ease.

The Stone Statue Giant Monster immediately became incomparably flustered. It could feel its innate monstrous strength and indestructible 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 on things it countered was actually this outrageously unreasonable.

I never expected this monster's stone armor not to be stone armor in the physical sense, but something condensed from demonic power. It just happened to be countered by me."

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

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

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

Next, he and the barely recovered Tao Yan killed the four Earth-Element Armored Beasts that were practically corpses already, then extracted and collected their inner cores.

The inner core of this Second Rank Stone Statue Giant Monster could not be overlooked either, but there seemed to be no other usable materials on its body.

The hard rocks covering it could be found everywhere within the rocky mountain gate, making them worthless.

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

After making sure the surroundings were safe, Dong Lin and Tao Yan each found a towering tree dozens of meters high to use as a temporary resting place.

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

Dong Lin's inner core from a Second Rank demon beast should be enough to secure a place in the top ten of this competition,

while the four Peak First Rank beast cores Tao Yan had obtained could ensure victory was in the bag.

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 expanded its range of desertification.

"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 the full ten days, they 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, as though she had yet to fully recover.

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

"Hey, you didn't attend the last promotion ceremony, so you don't know how terrifying that Personal Disciple Dong's Lightning Arts are."

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

"Then why don't we make a wager? I bet both of them have at least eighty points."

"Eighty points? That's equivalent to the inner cores of three Peak First Rank demon beasts. I don't think that's possible."

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

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

"Then I'll put down three hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones!"

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

As Dong Lin and Tao Yan returned to camp, the sharp-eyed disciples began discussing them and even hastily set up a betting pool.

After the steward verified that the beast cores submitted by the two were correct, Dong Lin and Tao Yan's points were entered into the records.

The Second Rank beast core accounted for the bulk of it, earning Dong Lin one hundred and six points,

and with several scattered First Rank Early Stage and Mid Stage beast cores added in, Dong Lin earned 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 single friendship point in total.

Low-level spirit beasts like these, which possessed little combat strength and were exceedingly easy to hunt, could not be scored normally.

Otherwise, there would be large-scale point farmers who specialized in slaughtering such harmless spirit beasts.

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

For this sect's hunting scores, Second Rank Early Stage and above were worth at least one hundred points,

Peak First Rank beasts were worth around twenty-five points, Late First Rank beasts around fifteen, Mid First Rank beasts about ten, and First Rank Early Stage beasts generally less than five.

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's 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 strong!"

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

"Fairy Tao is no simple figure either. Who could have imagined it? My Spirit Stones!!"

The disciples in the arena watched 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. Although none of them looked to be in good shape, they should not have suffered any serious harm.

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

With only a dozen or so Earth-Element Armored Beasts, it was still difficult for them to pose a threat.

"So, how was the harvest this time, Junior Brother Dong?"

Baili Tianming and Zhao Shuheng, who had long been prepared to participate in the second batch of hunts, had already arrived at the competition grounds.

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

"After surviving a great calamity, I got a little something out of it. But Senior Sister Tao is rather weak right now."

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

Dong Lin described the situation 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 a situation that was nine deaths and one life so easily. I really did underestimate you," Zhao Shuheng said with a sigh.

"Junior Brother Dong, not bad. You took down that Second Rank demon beast?"

"That demon beast was already severely crippled. I was merely 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 cast True Intent-level arcane immortal arts?" Baili Tianming praised.

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

This is hard currency among the upper echelon. The value of a life-saving trump card like this is far beyond the likes of us."

Baili Tianming said with a hearty laugh.

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

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

That 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 leaders of the outer disciples, they ranked even below Zhongli Hao.

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