Chapter 289: Chapter 281: Night Demon Duck

At the scene, the numerous university teachers and judges from the Imperial Palace all closed their eyes and held their breath. They used their Divine Sense to focus, summoning the gateway to the Hall of the Great Dao within their Seas of Consciousness.

Their bodies remained motionless, but their Spiritual Power had already passed through the gateway and into the Hall of the Great Dao, searching for the life-catalyzing Cultivation Technique Gu Ming had written.

A moment later, they returned from the Hall of the Great Dao, their faces deathly pale.

Just a few seconds of observation in the Hall of the Great Dao had depleted their Spiritual Power, making it impossible to look any longer.

"It’s Four-Colored! We just observed that the Cultivation Technique is already Four-Colored, not the Tri-Colored Holy Light we saw a moment ago."

As soon as this was said, the judges all looked at one another in stunned silence.

Some were merely shocked, while others looked absolutely ecstatic.

Clearly, more and more teachers were now looking upon Gu Ming with favor.

Those who had been clamoring to suppress Gu Ming and give him a mere A+ rating were now utterly speechless.

With the verification from the Hall of the Great Dao, his S Level rating was practically a sure thing, unless another candidate could create something that surpassed a Four-Colored Technique.

Furthermore, Gu Ming’s innovative Relay Cultivation was the first of its kind in the entire Cultivation Realm.

This groundbreaking idea immediately made everyone consider its potential applications:

This design could be applied to extremely high-end Cultivation Techniques that were notoriously difficult to practice, especially for Pet Beasts that lacked the corresponding Attribute Spiritual Root.

Inseparable Pet Beast partners could jointly practice a high-end, multi-Attribute Cultivation Technique, thereby meeting the requirements for Cultivating the Technique.

It could have marvelous effects in certain situations, but its potential uses were too numerous to detail here.

Gu Ming lowered his head to look over his original manuscript again. It now possessed a certain profoundness; even a casual glance felt completely different.

Although Gu Ming was the creator of this Cultivation Technique and saw it as his own work,

the truth was, he had created it based on fragmented descriptions of the technique from his system. His own understanding of the original was less than one percent of what a true genius might grasp in the future.

Therefore, reading it still felt fresh and new to him.

After reading it twice, he was struck with new inspiration and felt he could add another passage to elaborate on his understanding of the Cultivation Technique.

This time, however, he didn’t add anything more to the manuscript.

There were still ten hours left in the exam. It was time for him to take his Pet Beast and challenge the Night Demon Duck.

Only a handful of candidates remained on the field, still writing their Cultivation Techniques.

Most candidates had already gone to the combat portion of the exam. Looking up at the sky, one could occasionally see a Thousand-eyed Wind Bird carrying a defeated candidate away in its talons.

Time waits for no one. He had to get going.

"Honorable teachers, we still have to go fight the Night Demon Duck, so we won’t keep you company any longer. We hope you’ll excuse us."

Gu Ming spoke with a calm and respectful demeanor.

Several of the teachers, led by Elder Huo, smiled and waved him off, urging him to hurry along.

In truth, the teachers present already felt the combat portion was irrelevant. Gu Ming had already secured two S Level ratings and earned a spot in the international competition.

For him, the combat test was just for bonus points; the score wouldn’t affect his final result.

After all, for a Beastmaster who understood Cultivation Techniques and Arrays, a slightly lower combat score wouldn’t change anyone’s perception of their Talent Ability.

But Gu Ming didn’t know this, and as judges, they couldn’t just decide his final score on the spot and tell him to take it easy.

「A short time later.」

Gu Ming and Lu You arrived together at the Night Demon Duck’s battlefield.

Behind them, Teacher Zhang and Teacher Zhong moved to the side to watch from a distance.

They had watched as Gu Ming’s Cultivation Technique thesis ascended to the Four-Colored level, and they were incredibly excited.

He was their student, after all. When a student excelled, their teachers shared in the glory.

But this was the combat portion of the exam, and they couldn’t help. Providing some intelligence on the way here had been the absolute limit of their assistance. Now, Gu Ming and Lu You would have to rely on their own strength and teamwork to complete the battle.

Besides, fighting a Three-star Pet Beast with three Two-star Pet Beasts wasn’t an entirely hopeless endeavor.

It all depended on whether the Beastmasters themselves could spot the Night Demon Duck’s weaknesses.

Otherwise, if an unobservant Beastmaster got hot-headed and launched a mindless assault, they would easily get beaten black and blue.

Gu Ming stood atop a small hill, gazing into the distance. On the vast plain below, he saw a marsh.

A large, yellow-feathered duck was entrenched by the marsh. He watched it flap its wings, whipping up monstrous tornadoes that pulled black water from the marsh and hurled it at the surrounding Pet Beasts.

This was quite different from the boss Pet Beast he had imagined.

’The Night Demon Duck I imagined would be pitch-black, with points of starlight dotting its wings. When it attacked, it would invoke Nightfall, directly influencing the heavens. A truly wondrous and bizarre sight.’

In reality, the Night Demon Duck was just a cute, giant yellow duck. It had fluffy yellow feathers, a round head, a duck bill, and two enormous, adorable eyes.

The only thing was its height. He estimated it was five or six meters tall, about the height of a two-story building.

His own Pet Beast, standing upright, was only about a meter tall. The difference in size was staggering.

He then looked at the Pet Beast currently challenging the duck. It had astonishing strength. A small rock had taken a dozen or so seconds to swell into a massive body, resembling a giant golem.

The earth shook as it walked, and the water in the marsh rippled with every step—an awe-inspiring sight.

However, even this incredibly powerful-looking Two-star Pet Beast was no match for the Night Demon Duck.

Gu Ming watched as the tornado of black water crashed down upon the granite-like golem. Its stone skin SIZZLED and corroded, melting into a black, stony liquid as the Pet Beast let out a series of mournful cries.

This was a golem Pet Beast that had, at the very least, evolved to the Two-star level right there on the field.

Yet under the Night Demon Duck’s assault, it couldn’t even last half a round before being defeated.

Its Beastmaster’s heart ached, and they quickly called a Thousand-eyed Wind Bird to carry the golem Pet Beast off the field.

Gu Ming waited a while longer and saw a new team of candidates step forward to challenge the Night Demon Duck.

This team was composed mainly of Elves. The Grass Spirit at the center was full of vigor, its aura powerful. With every breath, it seemed to exude the very essence of nature, like a master of the forest.

The other two Elves looked equally extraordinary. Then it dawned on Gu Ming. His gaze shifted to a spot a dozen meters behind them, where three female students in Forest Valley High School uniforms stood.

The one in the lead was none other than Jiang Jinling. He watched as she commanded from a distance, instructing the Grass Spirit to quickly sow Grass Seeds.

The other two Elves worked together to spread the seeds, while also using a newly learned catalyst Cultivation Technique to rapidly catalyze them.

These weren’t just any wild seeds; they were the life-bound seeds from within the three Pet Beasts. With the extra catalysis, they grew at a frenzied pace, and within ten seconds, green vines were bursting from the ground.

Gu Ming saw several flowers bloom on the vines. One held a miniature sword, another a Jade Ruyi, and a third clasped a blocky, wooden mirror.

Before he knew it, these flowering vines and other special plants had discreetly formed a protective barrier around Jiang Jinling, creating a special Grass Element Array.

Gu Ming lightly patted Cyan Treasure, who was beside him, telling it to pay close attention. This was a great opportunity to watch another Grass Element Pet Beast in battle.

During the previous provincial exam, everyone had held back and hadn’t truly clashed.

Now, he could finally get a glimpse of her true strength.