The rest hall fell silent instantly.
Eliminated candidates who knew they had no hope of making the top hundred looked dejected. Those with a shot at the top hundred craned their necks, nervously waiting for the results to be announced.
Su Hao felt a bit tense too. He had a decent amount of points. But he’d heard that in the primitive zone, there were entry-level wild spirits.
He had no idea how many points defeating an entry-level spirit was worth. What if one was worth several hundred or even a thousand points?
"And what if Bing Ning or Lin Mingzheng had taken down several entry-level wild spirits?"
After all, wild spirits had poor foundations. Even if they managed to break through to entry-level, their combat power couldn’t compare to a spirit carefully nurtured by a spirit master.
With priceless rewards on the line, Su Hao couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Only Lin Mingzheng, surrounded by admirers, remained confident.
...
King Zhou said he would announce the results.
But in reality, he just picked up the remote, pressed the projector switch, and displayed a ranking list on the screen in the rest hall.
The top ten. And the top hundred.
Nothing beyond that.
The names of the top ten candidates were in huge font, visible from a distance.
Lin Mingzheng looked over with a confident smile.
The name hanging at the very top, as clear as an eye chart, was...
"As expected, it’s Su... Wait? Su Hao?"
His eyes widened as he stared repeatedly.
Only then did he spot the name "Lin Mingzheng" in the bottom-left corner of Su Hao’s name.
Second place.
"But how is that possible!"
If first place had been Bing Ning, he would have accepted it.
But who was Su Hao?
Lin Mingzheng, who couldn’t be bothered to learn about other candidates, had never even heard that name before.
"Fake, right?"
He wanted to question it.
But asking that would make him look petty.
He swept his gaze around, waiting for other candidates to raise doubts, only to find that they seemed to accept the ranking.
Lin Mingzheng was completely dumbfounded.
...
When Su Hao’s name echoed through the five schools,
King Zhou awarded honorary certificates to Su Hao and the other nine in the top ten.
Su Hao was a little disappointed.
Why not give out a solid gold trophy?
"The resource quota for the rewards will be given to you through your school in the form of a special membership card. This card can be used in place of Dragon Kingdom currency at affiliated stores under the Spirit Master Alliance or partner groups, such as the Green Shade Group, to purchase the training resources you need."
King Zhou paused before adding, "If you have an Alliance account, the funds can also be transferred directly to your account, making purchases on the Alliance marketplace more convenient."
Bing Ning quietly reported her account number.
Lin Mingzheng did the same.
Su Hao also gave his.
Instantly,
the other nine turned to look at him.
Their eyes filled with shock and doubt.
As everyone knew, only official spirit masters could register an identity with the Spirit Master Alliance. No one else—not even direct descendants of a King-level elder—could do so.
Regardless of Lin Mingzheng or the other seven, they all believed Su Hao’s first place came from racking up points by defeating other candidates.
His actual strength might be considered the best among those below entry-level.
Only Bing Ning knew that the silkworm’s power was no less than that of an entry-level spirit.
But it still hadn’t reached entry-level.
How did he have an account?
"Student Su Hao is a registered spirit nurturer," King Zhou said with a smile.
Lin Mingzheng was stunned for a moment.
His expression shifted from surprise to disbelief, then to shame and anger.
A peer specializing in spirit nurturing had actually crushed him in spirit combat?
Unforgivable!
"The reward—Attribute Heart or Attribute Essence—requires you to confirm the attribute yourselves. You’ll receive it tomorrow," King Zhou said.
Su Hao naturally chose the Wood element.
When it came to the precious Attribute Heart, there was no such thing as Fire being rarer or more valuable than Wood.
Either way, it was priceless.
For now, compared to the still-developing little fire crow, the silkworm needed the Attribute Heart more.
The little one was also his contracted initial spirit. By all logic, Su Hao chose Wood.
...
The next day.
Preparation Village.
After returning to the village and resting for a night, Su Hao met Bing Ning and Lin Mingzheng again.
Today, only the three of them were personally collecting the valuable rewards.
In a bright room,
King Zhou, several judges from the referee panel, and a few teachers from various schools were present.
The atmosphere was very serious.
It made Su Hao and the other two rookies nervous.
Before long, the door opened, and three spirit masters in black clothes walked in.
Beside them followed three spirits, each larger than a calf.
Earthquake Wolves.
Evolved forms of Earthwalk Wolves.
All were elite-level.
They escorted three sealed black boxes.
Such a display surprised even Su Hao.
It was King Zhou who broke the tense atmosphere in the room.
"Come, now it’s time to reveal the treasures."
He stepped forward and opened the three black boxes.
A burst of green, gold, and white light radiated from inside.
The green light was the brightest.
As the boxes opened, the light spread, forming a sphere nearly a meter in diameter.
Inside the sphere was a mouse-sized, emerald-green leaf.
This was the Attribute Heart!
The light spheres from the other two boxes were much smaller.
Inside the golden sphere was something like a metal fragment, about the size of an eraser.
Inside the white sphere was a piece of ice, similar in size to the metal fragment.
"I suggest you have your spirits absorb the Attribute Heart right now."
Su Hao understood.
Just from the setup, he could tell how precious the Attribute Heart was.
It was far beyond what a rookie spirit master should possess.
Carrying it around was like a child walking through a busy market with gold.
But absorbing it was different.
Once used, even if someone had ill intentions, they could only give up.
Su Hao patted the silkworm’s little head.
The silkworm immediately scurried to the box containing the leaf-shaped Attribute Heart, its big eyes full of longing.
"Just eat it directly," King Zhou said with a smile.
The silkworm turned to look at Su Hao.
Su Hao nodded. "Just swallow it in one bite."
"Gunu (◍•ᴗ•◍)"
The silkworm gulped it down in one go.
The Attribute Heart resonated with its spiritual power and immediately merged.
A faint green light emanated from the silkworm, and the patterns on its back grew brighter and brighter.
In Su Hao’s eyes,
it was a different sight.
The silkworm’s spiritual power value was visibly rising.
Previously, the silkworm’s spiritual power was 176, having completed two "mini-compressions." The third required reaching 200 points.
But Su Hao estimated the silkworm’s spiritual power limit was 180, thanks to his Su-style stimulation method.
Normally, a spirit raised with heavy resources would max out at 140 or 150.
Su Hao hadn’t planned to let the silkworm complete a third mini-compression.
It would slow things down too much.
But now,
as it absorbed the Attribute Heart, the silkworm’s spiritual power rose slowly but steadily.
It quickly surpassed 180, with no sign of slowing.
"The increase in spiritual power is just a side effect of the potential boost, with no drawbacks."
Time passed bit by bit.
Under the watchful eyes of the judges and teachers, the Wind-Up Doll and White Seal soon finished absorbing their secondary Attribute Hearts.
Only the silkworm still glowed with green light.
At that moment,
in Su Hao’s view, the silkworm’s spiritual power had already exceeded 200 points.
The rate of increase began to slow.
The little one was also compressing its spiritual power.
As long as the quantity was sufficient, compression was just a matter of technique.
It was well-practiced.
Under the gaze of a King-level spirit master, it completed its third mini-compression.
King Zhou only noticed that this silkworm’s absorption effect was remarkably pronounced, visibly growing stronger.
Then,
the green glow on the silkworm gradually faded.
But an indescribable aura began to rise.
King Zhou smiled. "Deep accumulation, a natural progression. It’s about to break through."