Chapter 2310: Chapter 2311: Ice Crystal Garden Challenge

The judges were shocked by Feng Yuan’s sudden whim. Mainly, they hadn’t really considered this situation because normal people wouldn’t do something like this.

At least, asking him now which Crystal Domain can produce an effect that ignores gravity, he might not be able to say.

After discussing with the others for a while, the judge regretfully said

"No, Crystal Domain belongs to external forces, or rather, it is not a conventional means of movement. Similarly, there are other Spirit Beasts’ ultimate moves that have been banned from the start."

"I see..."

Although he got an answer, Feng Yuan still didn’t want to give up. Besides being able to use Crystal Domain to fly in the air in a floating manner, Kong Qing actually has other flight means, too.

Of course, rather than flying, it’s more like roaming in the air through other ways.

Seeing Feng Yuan seemed unwilling to give up, the judge said with a bit of a headache

"Please conduct the challenge within the scope allowed by the rules and stop trying to find loopholes, okay?"

He had no doubt that Feng Yuan could find more loopholes, but they didn’t really want to patch them one by one.

"Hehe~ Okay."

Scratching his head, Feng Yuan gave up the idea of having Kong Qing find loopholes. After all, this was just a challenge with entertainment nature, and naturally, the rules weren’t very stringent. However, Feng Yuan and his team didn’t have many Spirit Beasts that could participate at present.

Big Cat... Forget it; at least Feng Yuan didn’t think Big Cat could fly the whole journey completely.

No problem for Xiao Ji though; it would be embarrassing if a Spirit Beast in eagle form couldn’t fly the entire course.

"Hmm, Xiao Ji, do you want to try? By the way, does your Cotton want to try it too?"

Feng Yuan asked while patting Xiao Ji’s head. Dou Yanlan thought for a moment and didn’t make a decision immediately. Whether Cotton can fly the entire course was uncertain, especially since the Nether Cross ultimate move couldn’t be maintained indefinitely.

Normally, they use Nether Cross to travel for a while and then activate it again. However, this flight posture competition doesn’t allow that.

Eventually, Feng Yuan had Big Cat and Xiao Ji participate together, while Dou Yanlan, after much consideration, decided to give up. The main reason was that Cotton’s Nether Cross couldn’t be sustained long enough.

"Next, do your best~"

Feng Yuan spoke some encouraging words to the slightly nervous Xiao Ji. He didn’t have the intention to participate with Xiao Ji. Although the challenge didn’t restrict Beastmasters from participating, and Feng Yuan indeed could fly, he found it too troublesome.

Nodding earnestly to Feng Yuan, Xiao Ji spread his wings while Big Cat didn’t seem too nervous. It clearly knew that getting a high score was almost impossible.

The flying challenge doesn’t require speed; rather, the completion time is generously wide, mainly to let Beastmasters better showcase their flying posture.

Xiao Ji had no problems; its flying speed was quite fast to begin with. The real challenge was the flying posture, as it didn’t have that kind of consciousness.

However, after seeing the competition process of other Beasts, Xiao Ji devised a plan. It covered itself with bluish flames, and its wing flapping frequency lowered to the utmost, leaving a long flaming trail as it flew through the checkpoints.

"I didn’t expect this guy to have decent powers of comprehension."

Seeing Xiao Ji’s somewhat graceful flying posture, Feng Yuan stroked his chin and said satisfied, although it might not be very good, Feng Yuan judged that the score shouldn’t be low.

In the end, the results were more or less as Feng Yuan predicted. Xiao Ji’s shape itself was difficult to make graceful. Usually more accustomed to practicality, compared to those elegant Spirit Beasts that lacked combat power, it indeed had a gap. This wasn’t something a flashy ultimate move effect could bridge.

Thankfully, Xiao Ji didn’t care much about this competition, so Feng Yuan didn’t need to comfort Xiao Ji.

On the other hand, with Big Cat, Feng Yuan had initially thought its score would be very low. After all, Big Cat’s dismal flying ability couldn’t be ignored, flying without crashing was already good enough; how could it be expected to be elegant?

Surprisingly, Big Cat’s score wasn’t too low. Of course, compared to Xiao Ji, it’s still weaker. Xiao Ji lacked the innate elegant aura of noble Spirit Beasts. However, compared to ordinary Spirit Beasts, Xiao Ji was still much stronger.

The judges and audiences responsible for scoring came out to explain, as not everyone agreed with Big Cat receiving such a high score.

Elegance is just one form of flying posture, and although Big Cat’s posture might be considered ugly, flying crookedly and looking awkward, but in the eyes of the judges and viewers who scored not too low, Big Cat was seen as not accepting foolishness and striving hard.

They even praised Big Cat, considering its hard work.

Only Feng Yuan and his group knew that Big Cat was indeed trying hard to avoid abruptly falling midway. As for training regularly for flight?

Sorry, there really wasn’t any. Especially after evolving, Big Cat rarely practiced flying skills, as it could achieve effects similar to Spatial Transmission using Data Domain.

Although that’s a manifestation of in-game teleportation, to some extent, there’s not much difference from a normal spatial move ultimate move. Perhaps, it’s just a bit shorter in distance.

Thus, flying ability isn’t really crucial for Big Cat. Even if it tried hard, the flying speed couldn’t improve. Its apparent effort was just Big Cat attempting to complete the entire course.

"Let’s go, check over there."

Seeing Big Cat complete the challenge, Feng Yuan didn’t stay there any further. As for rankings?

Since ranking is determined by score, it required registering Beastmaster’s information and phone number initially to check the ranking on the event page, or input one’s participant ID to see their ranking.

Only the top 100 are eligible for the finals. Feng Yuan glanced, and even Xiao Ji’s rank was beyond the top 300. Thus, there was no need to stay and wait.

The Ice Crystal Garden challenge is specifically for Spirit Beasts with object-shaping abilities. Besides routine ice object duels, it also allows plant, rock, and other material substance participants to duel.

The challenge content is simple, choose a judge you think matches your strength, and make your Beast use Elemental Condensates to duel against the judge’s Beast’s summoned Elemental Condensates like Ice Sculpture Puppet.

Since Elemental Condensates only have physical attack means, there’s only one victory standard, which is that one side’s Elemental Condensates get completely shattered in the duel counts as defeat.

Of course, the speed of victory directly affects scoring. However, the main scoring criterion is the judge’s strength; the stronger the power, the higher the base score, meaning that even instant wins against low difficulty judges are less rewarding than slowly defeating high difficulty ones.

"Hmm, Ah Mu can participate in this; for Xiao Ji, it’s a bit challenging. Fluffy Fire Wolfhound... seems not possible."

Elemental Condensates have restrictions; a Beast’s energy composition proportion cannot be too high. Fluffy Fire Wolfhound can summon Fire Wolf, but that almost represents its own power, which surely doesn’t meet the standard.

For Xiao Ji, the proportion fits, given Nether Spirit Summoning methods initially summon a large number of cannon fodder. Xiao Ji knows this move but hardly uses it.

Since what it summons is almost useless given Xiao Ji’s experienced battles.

The opponents are so strong that the remnants of combat might obliterate the summoned things.

But it doesn’t mean Xiao Ji’s Nether Spirit Summoning is weak. At least, Feng Yuan feels it would be fine to challenge opponents of equal strength.

The trouble is it’s a Death Series ultimate move. Whether the judges have corresponding means is uncertain.

Non-corresponding Elemental Condensates are still usable. However, the corrosion effect accompanying Nether Spirit Summoning might seem a bit like cheating.

Big Cat, Feng Yuan directly took no thought. Its summoning does meet proportions, though...

The summoning by Data Domain is quite special, at least judges’ Elemental Condensates definitely couldn’t use ultimate moves and skills within the game.

Whereas Big Cat’s summoned creatures can, even if close-hand combat ability except for warrior-like professions isn’t strong, it withholds skills...