An Eight-star Dao Field was completely different from a Low-star Dao Field.

The interior was like a small world of its own. It wasn’t created by connecting to a world fragment, but by using a Super Space Array to expand the Dao Field’s Space. This made the competition grounds comparable in scale to an entire mountain range.

Cultivating inside, just walking across the entire field would take more than ten days.

The most peculiar feature was the sky above the Eight-star Dao Field. The sun and moon coexisted, making the mountainous landscape glow, and the auras of various Daoist Skills lingered in the air.

No matter what kind of Cultivation Technique one practiced, the Dao Field could precisely adjust the environment to create a dedicated cultivation atmosphere for any Pet Beast.

Furthermore, the Spiritual Qi concentration inside was extremely dense, enough to allow Six or Seven-star Pet Beasts to cultivate at full capacity.

However, the Eight-star Dao Field wasn’t open all the time. After all, the resources required just to maintain its operation were immense.

It was typically open for one week a month, with a limited number of slots available.

For this national competition, it was opened for a full seven days for the contestants. The Royal Family had stepped in and covered all the expenses.

Of course, words alone were not enough to convey the magnificence of the Eight-star Dao Field; one had to enter to truly experience it.

As Gu Ming stepped into the Dao Field, he saw a sun and a moon hanging in the sky, one on the left and one on the right.

The sky was split in two. The side with the sun was a vast, white day, while the side with the moon was a deep, dark night.

The two sides, one under the sun and one under the moon, presented entirely different terrains and climates. As Gu Ming walked between them, he felt an incredible sense of comfort wash over him, the division between yin and yang perfectly clear.

He couldn’t help but marvel. ’The venue for the national competition is already this incredible.’

’So what must the international stage be like?’

As contestants from the various provinces arrived one by one, Gu Ming heard about the test questions Teacher Zhang had mentioned. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

It turned out the national competition’s test questions had already been distributed to the supervising teachers from each province. There were three tasks in total:

A Cultivation Technique task, an Array task, and the most difficult of all, a combat task.

The assessment of knowledge related to rearing was included within the Cultivation Technique task.

This meant the competition was simultaneously testing the students’ mastery of knowledge across multiple fields.

Anyone who could complete all three tasks was almost guaranteed a spot in the international competition.

Teacher Zhang made some calculations based on the caliber of previous contestants, then explained the details of the three tasks.

"Task one: In your bag is a pouch of seeds. You need to use a Cultivation Technique to act as a Catalyst and accelerate their growth. The task is complete once they sprout and grow.

"The requirements are to create a catalytic Cultivation Technique from scratch, without using Grass Element Spiritual Qi. You also cannot use any existing Cultivation Techniques from the Hall of the Great Dao."

As soon as he finished speaking, a Flying Bird Pet Beast swooped in, carrying two pouches of seeds.

Gu Ming opened his and saw they were the Grass Seeds of the Black Ghost Wood. He did a quick count—there were about a hundred of them.

It was a pure Grass Attribute and a rare Aqueous Type seed. If carefully nurtured to maturity, there was a chance of obtaining a sentient Tree Pet.

However, its Evolution potential was only One-star, which was even worse than the Basic Type Pet Beasts from a neighborhood shop.

Despite the seed’s mediocre potential, its growth was extremely difficult because it was a naturally Aqueous Type.

To rear a Black Ghost Wood, a normal Beastmaster would need to use a catalytic Cultivation Technique to infuse it with a large amount of Grass Element Mana to stimulate growth. On top of that, they’d have to provide all sorts of nutrients. The combined cost of rearing one far exceeded the expense of a typical One-star Pet Beast. Its cost-to-benefit ratio was so low that almost no one in the industry was willing to raise them.

And because so few people raised them, their price had, paradoxically, become quite high.

If not for the demand from researchers within the industry, the Black Ghost Wood would have long gone extinct in the country.

’The national competition examiners must have chosen this to make things difficult for the students,’ Teacher Zhang thought, shaking his head. "Cyan Treasure has its Plant Life Light Wave, which would make catalyzing this simple.

"But the task forbids Pet Beasts from using Grass Element Spiritual Qi, which makes it much harder..."

Catalyzing seeds was the specialty of Grass Element Pet Beasts. Being forbidden from using Grass Spiritual Qi made the difficulty skyrocket, turning it into a genuine research problem. It also prevented every Grass Element Pet Beast present from playing to their strengths.

Even a Cultivation Technique like Plant Life Light Wave, which obviously required Life Power to serve as a Catalyst, was severely restricted.

After all, most of the Life Energy in Cyan Treasure’s body came from the Refinement of Grass Element Spiritual Qi. Without it, they would have to find a way to develop its Light Spiritual Root.

Meanwhile, Mouse Treasure, Ah Kun, and the other Pet Beasts stared with wide eyes, their expressions utterly bewildered as they seemingly waited for their master to come up with a solution.

At that moment, Gu Ming looked at Teacher Zhang.

The teacher coughed and continued, "Task two is the construction of an Array Eye Array."

Upon hearing the vague name, Gu Ming pressed, "What kind of Array is that? What are the requirements?"

Teacher Zhang explained,

"The examiners require the Array to use a maximum of twelve Pet Beasts to sustain the Mana consumption. The fewer Pet Beasts used, the better.

"It must maintain a temperature of nearly one thousand degrees, be shrinkable to about one square meter in size, and its base should ideally be curved for placement inside an Alchemy Furnace. It also needs to be controllable via a Beastmaster’s Divine Sense, with the number of Array Hubs limited to one hundred or fewer."

He then rattled off a dozen or so other parameters for the Array.

Most of them involved data for manipulation via Divine Sense, plus some energy conversion requirements. He stressed that it couldn’t be the type of Array that relied on High-star Pet Beasts to operate.

Gu Ming understood immediately. It was an Array designed for Alchemy.

The examiners probably wanted the Array to be inscribed into a Pill Furnace, allowing Pet Beasts on the outside to power a joint Fusion Refining process.

’But the problem is, I’ve never studied this type of Array before.’

’After all, I don’t even have a Pill Pet, so how would I ever have a chance to practice Alchemy?’

This kind of test question, an Array involving Alchemy, was an area where contestants from First-tier Cities who had private tutors had an advantage. Without the system’s help, it would be impossible for Gu Ming.

"The third task is to defeat the Night Demon Duck in the arena.

"It’s a Three-star Pet Beast. Teaming up is not allowed; your Pet Beasts must challenge it one-on-one.

"If a Beastmaster has two contracted Pet Beasts, they can challenge it with both of them at the same time.

"In any case, the Pet Beast’s age must be one year or younger. Any older and it cannot participate."

Gu Ming asked the teacher about the Night Demon Duck’s Power, but he just shook his head, saying he had no information.

"We’ll just have to wait for Teacher Zhong to investigate."

On the international stage, supervising teachers could provide limited assistance to the students.

They weren’t allowed to interfere directly, but providing a bit of guidance and advice was permitted. To align with the international format, the national competition adopted the same model, allowing teachers to act as semi-assistants.

Teacher Zhong nodded and immediately went to find the Night Demon Duck.

Gu Ming glanced at Lu You and said,

"Let’s not bother. We’ll start by researching the Array for the Alchemy Furnace.

"As for the problem with catalyzing the seeds, I’ll need some time to think about it."

Gu Ming’s choice surprised Lu You slightly. She hadn’t expected him to start directly with the Array design for the Alchemy Furnace instead of the Cultivation Technique problem.

Gu Ming chose to tackle the Array problem first because, in reality, the difference in difficulty between the two tasks was enormous.

The Cultivation Technique task seemed basic, but it required thinking beyond the framework of Grass Element Spiritual Qi and pioneering a completely new catalytic principle. It was a theoretical innovation, creating something from nothing.

The Array task, on the other hand, had complex parameters and high standards, requiring careful attention to details like high temperatures, dimensions, and Divine Sense-related designs. However, its core was about combining known Alchemy logic with Array structure. It was a technical challenge that could be solved by following an established path.

For Gu Ming, who had the system, brute-forcing a solution to fit the Array’s parameters was a far easier breakthrough than subverting the fundamental principles of a Cultivation Technique.

After all, the former was like assembling a puzzle, while the latter was like drawing the map from scratch.

And in the national competition to come, there would be plenty of geniuses present.

If he just took a look at the other contestants’ Array designs, he could surely glean a lot of groundbreaking inspiration.