Divine Beast Creator
Chapter 981 - 982: Academy Assessment Begins

Chapter 981: Chapter 982: Academy Assessment Begins

"Strange, why can’t I get through?"

Qi Chen looked at his phone in bewilderment. Just before the examination was officially set to start, he had planned to call Feng Yuan to see if he had been delayed by something. But now, why wasn’t he answering his phone?

"He shouldn’t have any problem, and with the Divine Beasts with him, they surely wouldn’t let him miss the assessment. As for us, we’re not as relaxed as he is."

Dou Yanlan said with a smile. Because her number plate was ranked towards the end, she and Qi Chen couldn’t participate in the assessment together.

"Did everyone clearly understand the precautions? If anyone still doesn’t get it, I won’t repeat them again. Once again, the strengths of the soldiers assisting you in the assessment are not the same—I believe you have grasped this in the previous simulation assessments. I truly don’t hope anyone complains about this matter."

A middle-aged man in a military uniform announced from the podium, his eyes narrowing threateningly as he scanned the crowd below.

"If anyone does so, we won’t hesitate to disqualify them from the academy’s assessments!"

As for why the man had said this, Qi Chen somewhat understood. In fact, after the first simulation assessment, some had questioned this method of assessment that couldn’t eliminate external interruptions. They believed that the academy assessments, being so crucial, should adopt a more secure method, like the previous arena matches, instead of the current one which leaned heavily towards practical combat skills.

But, those people didn’t cause trouble for long; related news soon vanished from the internet. He had once asked Feng Yuan about it, who just scoffed,

"Those guys really are absurd. If it were the national entrance exam, sure, absolute fairness is necessary. But academy assessments? Should we also sue the Divine Beasts for not taking care of everyone and choosing Divine Pact Makers at will?"

"The Beast Taming Academy isn’t a place for fairness. No matter how hard you try, if you’re not lucky or lacking potential, the outcome will only bring despair."

Did he have that luck or potential? Qi Chen didn’t understand, but he knew he had to try. The path through the academy was the best way forward for commoner Beastmasters like them.

Like the previous simulation assessments, they were to choose their teammates on their own. However, this time, everyone was serious; even when some candidates tried to engage in small talk, the others remained silent. Seeing this, Qi Chen hesitated for a moment before directly selecting a few teammates he had fought alongside before.

Though they remained silent, they still subtly encouraged Qi Chen with small gestures. After all, they knew that his father and Feng Yuan were in the military, and despite only having vague information about Feng Yuan, it was clear he had made significant contributions.

As much as they wanted to inquire about Feng Yuan’s situation, according to the rules, they absolutely couldn’t communicate with the candidates, so all they could do was silently complete the current task at hand.

"Something seems off..."

As they entered the assessment arena and reached a vacant grassland, Qi Chen frowned slightly, sensing something amiss. In the sky above, an eagle eyed the candidates on the grassland intently, circling as if ready to strike at any moment. Below, except for Qi Chen, the other candidates seemed oblivious to this.

"Stop!"

Qi Chen whispered, his gaze sweeping around. A gust of wind blew, causing the dense wild grass to sway. Seeing the seemingly normal grassland around him, Qi Chen’s expression darkened. He conjured a Longbow in his hand and exchanged a glance with Ah Mu. Though confused, Ah Mu fiercely smashed his hammer onto the ground, and several Seistal Steles erupted from the earth.

The forest environment significantly enhanced the Wood Seistal Steles. Qi Chen could even feel the Seistal Steles repelling the surrounding active energy before being activated. The other candidates, noticing this, were stunned and glared at Qi Chen. They thought he was trying to eliminate his competition early, although the assessment rules allowed attacking other candidates to reduce the number of competitors. Wasn’t he afraid they would band together against him?

Qi Chen’s teammates were puzzled by his actions—they didn’t believe he would try to gain an advantage by eliminating other candidates, as it wouldn’t really matter in the long run, and it wasn’t in his character to do so.

"There might be someone hiding and ready to ambush. That guy sure dares..."

Qi Chen vigilantly scanned the surroundings and muttered. He hadn’t expected Feng Yuan to actually leak the questions; at least, others hadn’t considered the possibility of someone concealing themselves for an ambush. Although he hadn’t detected anything unusual, his many encounters with Feng Yuan in the arena using stealth and assassination techniques had honed his intuition.

Feng Yuan had clearly found out the assessment details in advance, but had he really dared to leak the questions? A teammate nearby was puzzled. An ambush? Could that be considered part of the assessment content? And they hadn’t noticed anyone hiding nearby. If there really were an ambush, that would be going too far, wouldn’t it?

Even they couldn’t detect the stealth attack, is it really suitable to use it to test those examinees?

"Exactly!"

Seeing a shadow flash by, Qi Chen was not surprised at all. As the shadow moved, the examinee’s teammate beside him got somewhat flustered. After all, they had never expected such content in the examination, and had the examinee not remained unharmed, they might have suspected an enemy infiltration aiming to cause disruption.

"What is this?! Why is there a counter-stealth attack examination?! This is not something they can handle!"

In the command center, the commander, who noticed this scene, shouted angrily. Although there were no points deducted or elimination penalties, such actions greatly affected the examinees’ psychological state. A man holding a file next to him glanced at the surveillance and said,

"That’s the content he decided on himself. Moreover, it hasn’t affected the normal scores of the examinees. I’m actually quite excited to see how many will manage to score extra points from him."

"It’s impossible! Look at his stealth methods and abilities, even those people would hardly be able to reach this level, do you think these students can handle this situation?"

"Is that so? I’m quite excited."

Putting down the file he was holding, the man intently stared at the surveillance screen, by then the shadow had already eliminated everyone except Qi Chen.

"This technique..."

Qi Chen felt somewhat exhausted unexpectedly, but if this was the case, to find him, he might only... Thinking of this, Qi Chen looked at Ah Mu, who seemed to have understood something, and made a special gesture with his hands in front. The Seistal Steles burst apart one after another as Qi Chen scanned his surroundings and warned,

"Use all your ultimate moves with high lethality! Spare nothing, not even the sky or the ground!"

Although they didn’t understand why, they still followed the instruction and let their Divine Beasts unleash their most powerful area-wide ultimate moves. In an instant, the entire meadow was filled with those moves, and a loud eagle cry resounded, a male eagle burning with azure blue flames dived from the sky.

"Indeed, it’s that guy!"

Qi Chen, looking as if he had expected this, said and then he lifted his longbow, quickly aiming at Xiao Ji. A dazzling emerald green beam flashed by, the azure blue flames on Xiao Ji extinguished instantly, and a sticky plant vine net appeared in Xiao Ji’s dive path, forcing him to rapidly gain altitude and abandon the attack.

"You, rascal!"

"Ha ha, I didn’t expect you to be in the first round of examination~"

Watching his dagger being blocked by the longbow, Feng Yuan laughed, and without waiting for Qi Chen to say anything, Feng Yuan stepped back and disappeared again. The surrounding teammates were shocked; they couldn’t comprehend how Feng Yuan had broken through their ultimate moves to infiltrate the area. Qi Chen, however, seemed to understand something as he pulled his longbow back and shot an arrow that shattered a mosquito, observing the swiftly dispersing black smoke, Qi Chen had to admit, that guy’s shadow swapping technique was almost too overwhelming to completely prevent him from infiltrating near the Barrier.

"Something seems off."

The commander frowned slightly; although Qi Chen had successfully blocked Feng Yuan’s first attack, he felt that something was amiss. Had he already guessed the opponent’s attack method?

"Being good friends, it’s not surprising they’ve practiced similar techniques beforehand, but still, his intuition is indeed impressive."

The man watched Qi Chen with interest, even though he didn’t know that Qi Chen had only been battling Feng Yuan for half a day, he could affirm that Qi Chen was talented, as others, even if specially trained, might not possess his intuition. Thinking this, the man pulled out a form from the table in front of the commander and wrote something.

"Do you think highly of him?"

The commander looked skeptically at the man as he continued writing,

"He is indeed talented, and that intuition of his is rare indeed."