In the Blazing Feather stance, the Ember Crow was incredibly fast.
Only a fleeting trail of flames could be seen.
The Muscle Master Dog landed on the ground with a roar.
Ultimate move: Roar.
But this time, the Master Dog's roar created visible soundwaves, spreading outward like ripples in water.
Su Hao's eardrums buzzed painfully, forcing him to activate a protective barrier to filter out some of the noise.
The Ember Crow was barely affected.
Three trails of flames flashed by.
Two deep wounds appeared on the Master Dog's body.
But one of the clones...
The Muscle Master Dog slammed down a punch, sending broken feathers scattering.
The Ember Crow flew off again, splitting off another feather clone, circling in the air, waiting for an opportunity.
Then,
Li Songting spoke, "Sense its aura!"
A glint of sharpness flashed in the Master Dog's eyes, as if it had seen through everything.
It stomped the ground again, sending countless fragments of stone flying, and launched itself like a cannonball toward the sky.
The Ember Crow was ready.
It dodged with a divine technique.
The fist pierced through the afterimage left by the Ember Crow's high-speed movement, but suddenly...
"Air Step!"
The Master Dog's massive paw stomped hard on the air, compressing it into a solid surface beneath its feet. Using this leverage, it rebounded midair, appearing in an instant before the Ember Crow's true body. Another simple, unadorned punch was thrown.
Boom!!!
The fist easily shattered the Blazing Feather coat, sending countless sparks flying. The fist, as big as a sandbag, drove straight through...
Piercing the entire body, exploding into a flurry of scattered broken feathers.
"Caw—"
The Ember Crow appeared a dozen meters away, looking at the feathers missing from its body, somewhat enraged.
Its true body soared high, while the two feather clones dove straight down.
Boom!
The Master Dog shattered one feather clone, but the clone, still in its pseudo-Blazing Feather stance, crashed into the Master Dog.
Waves of air pressure spread outward, flames splattering everywhere.
After a dozen seconds, the smoke cleared.
In the center of the arena, in a large crater, lay a charred Master Dog.
It had already reverted to its normal size.
Li Songting hoisted the incapacitated Master Dog onto his shoulder, turned to look at Su Hao.
"Ah Hao, as expected of you!
"I lost today—it must be because I haven't trained hard enough. Extra training, extra training! I'm off! I'll challenge you again!"
Li Songting, carrying the Master Dog, zipped away in an instant.
The Dream Butterfly glanced at Su Hao, then at the retreating figure of that passionate weirdo.
Suddenly, it thought...
Dumb Su Hao wasn't so bad to them after all.
"Old Liu, you want to fight?"
Su Hao looked at Liu Ren. "Since you're here, might as well do it together and save the cost of renting a battle arena."
Liu Ren's big pancake face shook like a wave.
"I think I'll wait until next... next next time."
He thought for a moment, then summoned his Lava Turtle and asked, "Old Su, do you think my turtle has any way to cheat like yours?"
"Old Li's Master Dog is way too insane. Is there a way to make my Lava Turtle as insane as that?"
"What do you think?"
He, Su Hao, wasn't some cheater—just an ordinary spirit breeder. How would he know how to cheat?
Was he the kind of person who cheated?!
"That muscle form really is insane.
"To be honest, it's way stronger than the Blazing Feather stance I developed."
"That strong?" Liu Ren's mouth fell open.
"After all, it's a unique secret technique from the Bu Champion. If it weren't such a perfect fit for Li Songting, anyone else would take a year or two just to learn it."
The Ember Crow's victory in that fight wasn't exactly easy.
In terms of raw strength, the Ember Crow was already above the Master Dog.
"But the Blazing Feather stance barely counts as a secret technique. There's still plenty of room for improvement. I plan to develop a higher-level stance."
Liu Ren: "???"
Su Hao coughed, then looked at Liu Ren's Lava Turtle, which was already at the elite level.
"Lava Turtles are already strong if you just follow the standard training path.
"Once it evolves into a Lava Dragon Turtle, with its two-story-tall body, abundant spirit energy, and formidable defense, it'll have few rivals among elite-level spirits."
He thought for a moment. "Secret techniques are hard to learn. If your Lava Turtle starts learning one now, it might slow down its development... First, teach it the advanced move 'Scorched Earth,' then stack defense like crazy...
"Once your Lava Turtle evolves successfully, you'll rank somewhere in the middle or upper-middle among the freshmen."
Liu Ren nodded.
"Before the final exam, I have to make sure it evolves so I can get good results in the assessment.
"That's a great chance to earn credits."
The two left.
Behind them was the pockmarked battle arena.
No big deal.
Whale Island University provided many battle arenas made of ordinary materials. Repairing them was a hassle, but that was intentional—to keep the battlefield from being too different from the outside environment.
Not long after Su Hao and the others left, a freshman from their year arrived with an earth-type spirit.
That was someone who had taken the "Arena Repair" task.
...
Friday, Su Hao followed his usual routine and went to chat with Senior Brother Wu... ahem, ask for advice.
He thought, "Even though I don't have many credits or much Dragon Kingdom currency, I still want to contract a new spirit."
What was college for?
For spirits, of course!
Before college, Su Hao had worked hard to contract a Water Scale Beast.
After starting college, with domestic open wild zones freely accessible, he couldn't make up his mind.
"I've been to the abandoned town on campus..."
Su Hao had wanted to contract a ghost-type spirit, but after wandering around, he didn't see any spirits—just got a few days of insomnia and nightmares.
"Ghost types? No fate.
"What I need most right now is a spirit that excels in frontal assaults."
He met with the Wu Champion and laid out his confusion.
"Spirits good at frontal assaults? There are plenty."
The Wu Champion brushed his still-thick hair. "Any attribute requirements?"
Su Hao shook his head.
He still hadn't decided on a champion domain.
But focusing on attributes didn't seem right.
So he just left it open.
The Wu Champion thought for a moment, then suddenly snapped his fingers. "There's actually a great place where you can contract high-quality second-generation, third-generation... Nth-generation spirits."
"Nth... generation?"
"If a spirit community has been around for hundreds of years or more, with no external threats, isn't it normal for them to have produced many generations?"
He paused. "It's not necessarily true that the more generations, the higher the potential. It still depends on the parent. If you can contract the offspring of a monarch-level spirit, then without a doubt..."
"Yeah, don't get your hopes too high. Such offspring are as rare as phoenix feathers. Even if they exist, their parents will set extremely harsh conditions or simply refuse to let you take them."
After all, even champions like them found it hard to contract a monarch-level spirit's offspring, let alone younger generations.
Su Hao just wanted the Wu Champion to give him advice.
Like which wild zone to go to, or what kind of spirit to contract.
But Senior Brother Wu seemed to have dangled a huge carrot in front of him.
Suddenly, his expectations were through the roof.
"Senior Brother Wu, that place you mentioned is...?"
"You'll have to wait half a month before you can go. You'll know then."
Su Hao: "???"
No, I want to know now (frustrated)!!